(This update refers to the Round Valley Shootings article by me dated 5-
16-95)
COVELO, CA-- More than a month after he was shot to death on the Round
Valley Indian Reservation by Mendocino County Sheriffs Deputies Dennis
Miller and Bob Davis, no one from the family of Leonard "Acorn" Peters,
or their lawyer, has had access to the autopsy report. They have been
told it is secret information due to an ongoing investigation. However
Sheriff's Captain Berle Murray says the report says that Leonard was hit
by only a single bullet. The official story is that the deputies shot
Peters in self-defense the night of April 14, after he refused orders to
put down a gun and leveled it at them.
A number of witnesses who saw the body, both at the shooting scene
and after the autopsy, said it was riddled with bullets. His widow said
there were a dozen buckshot holes in the back of his head in addition to
a fist-sized exit wound from a bullet to the front of the head, and
multiple bullet wounds to the front of his torso. It is a shocking
contradiction to hear that the official position is that he was hit by a
single bullet. Soon after the shootings, a sheriff's spokesperson told
the press that Leonard was killed in a "hail of bullets," and that is
more consistent with what those who saw the body said. Witnesses who
came on the shooting scene within minutes say they saw no gun near the
body of Peters.
Deputy Miller's statement told how, at one point, he took cover to
the left of the road down the embankment while armed with a fully-
automatic M-16. People at the scene a few days after the shootings said
the position of Deputy Davis' body as clearly indicated by blood stains
on the cut bank to the right of the road was 15 feet further down the
road than Leonard Peter's body, NOT consistent with his being shot in
the head from ambush while bending over Peters. Anderson Valley
Advertiser reporter Mark Heimann, who studied the shooting scene,
believes that Deputy Davis was hiding in the brush to the right of the
road, just uphill from where his body ended up. He was carrying a
shotgun. The position of Davis' and Peters' bodies were along a line
which included a spot on the embankment just across from where the squad
car was parked, a likely position of Deputy Miller while he was armed
with and firing a fully automatic weapon. Peters' body was in the
middle, between the two deputies.
POSSIBLE SCENARIO
This is consistent with the following scenario: the two deputies
were waiting in the moonlit darkness, deployed in ambush, one on each
side of the road, expecting to confront an armed and dangerous murder
suspect. Leonard Peters, who was night blind, came walking up the road,
probably carrying a walking stick since he couldn't see after dark. The
deputies saw him in silhouette (according to Miller's statement),
mistook Leonard Peters for his brother Arylis (the murder suspect),
mistook the walking stick for a gun, and opened fire. Davis fired with
his buckshot-loaded shotgun, hitting Peters in the back of the head, and
Miller fired with the M-16 in fully automatic mode (many witnesses heard
multiple bursts of fully automatic fire) hitting Peters from the front
with multiple bullets to the torso, and one to the face. One of the
bullets from the M-16 struck Davis in the head killing him, and he
tumbled from his position in the brush above the road to the spot where
his body was found.
If this scenario is what really happened, then it was Deputy Miller
who killed Deputy Davis as the result of terrible mistakes by the
deputies. Native Americans in the valley quoted one deputy as saying the
next day that they had made a mistake up on Little Valley Road the
previous night. Certainly they made a mistake shooting the innocent
Leonard Peters while believing they were shooting his brother Arylis. A
deputy shooting his partner by accident would be a huge mistake. It's
human nature to try to cover up one's mistakes, and a common way is to
blame someone else. Bear Lincoln may be an innocent man, running for his
life, the only witness to what really happened, if he was there at all.
No one saw Bear Lincoln, the official suspect in the killing of
Deputy Davis, at the scene of the shooting. The sheriff says
investigators found Bear's hat and a trail of blood leading to a group
of houses where his family lives. The sheriff believes the suspect was
wounded. If Bear is in hiding, it doesn't mean he is guilty. The life
experience of Native Americans in Round Valley doesn't lead them to
expect justice or fair treatment at the hands of the Sheriff's
department or the courts. Their experience is far different from that of
the white Willits businessman who spoke to the county supervisors May 2,
saying he never had any trouble with the police, and "if you ain't got
nothing to hide, you ain't got nothing to fear." Bear Lincoln probably
expects he would be shot on sight by Mendocino County Sheriff's
deputies, especially if there are no witnesses around. As many Native
Americans are saying now, if you're an Indian in Round Valley, you're
guilty until proven innocent.
INDEPENDENT INVESTIGATION NEEDED
A truly independent investigation is needed. Sonoma County
Sheriff's Detective Roy Gourley, in charge of the current investigation,
is a former Mendocino County deputy. As Peters' widow said to the county
supervisors, "The whole thing stinks of a cover-up, and of police
absolutely out of control, and of gross racism."
ILLEGAL SEARCHES CONTINUE
A 62-year old Native American woman from the Cahto Rancheria near
Laytonville gave a sworn videotaped statement this past Tuesday, May 16,
that deputies pushed past her and searched her house with guns drawn and
without a warrant the previous evening after they first asked consent to
search and she explicitly denied permission. After finding nothing the
deputies left, and one said to her "We'll be back." she said that, true
to their word, they returned the next morning and repeated the search
without permission and without a warrant. She also testified that the
previous evening the deputies had done the same thing to her neighbor
and "tore up her house." Similar statements attesting to unlawful
searches, intimidation and harassment by Mendocino Sheriff's deputies
against Native Americans are accumulating. A civil rights attorney will
be talking with Round Valley citizens today about filing a civil rights
lawsuit against the county.
AMERICA'S MOST WANTED
The major media coverage has been entirely one-sided. "America's
Most Wanted" TV show has just filmed a "re-enactment" of the shootings
based entirely on the sheriff's version. They didn't contact the
families of Leonard Peters or Bear Lincoln. They didn't even film in the
actual locations, doing it all behind locked gates in and near Willits,
an hour's drive away. The Native American community fears the result of
the TV show will be vigilantism against them. The planned air date for
the segment is May 27 on the Fox network.
ACTION ALERT:
The Round Valley Community Support Coalition issued an action alert
for supporters to call or fax America's Most Wanted to protest the one-
sided, bogus "re-enactment," which could endanger the lives of innocent
Native Americans. The phone number of AMW is (202) 895-3100, or fax
(202) 895-3280. The coalition also said people could contact sponsors of
the program to express their concerns about biased portrayal of Native
Americans.
The Round Valley Community Support Coalition can be reached at
(707) 468-1660, or fax (707) 462-2370, write c/o M.E.C., 106 W. Standley
St., Ukiah, CA 95482