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Summary of What happened to Eric James Andrews on Feb. 28th 2006 (short version)

by Holly Fallon
In short, this is what happened to my boy Eric, my only son. On February 28, 2006, I called 911 after talking on the phone to my son's girlfriend. She told me that he was cutting himself because she wanted him to leave. She wanted to break up with him. So, I trusted that the law enforcement officers would go and save my son from hurting himself. After I called 911, I drove to the apartment where my son was and was horrified to see some officers WITH THEIR GUNS DRAWN as they ran up the stairs to my son in the apartment. He was alone. I tried to get the officers to listen to me to let me talk to my son, over and over again. NO ONE even acknowledged me except the officer at the bottom of the stairs who yelled at me to get back. Seconds later, I heard yelling by an officer, and then two shots. My son died two hours later at a nearby hospital. The sheriff's dept. of Riverside County held a press conference before we even got home from the hospital. The news conference stated that "the officer feared for his life", and that Eric had "advanced towards him with a knife".

My thought and opinion is quite different from that press conference and so is all who knew my son. He was a kind and very thoughtful teen. He didn't hurt anyone but himself, and gave the knife he cut himself with to his girlfriend when she left the apartment. She never felt threatened. She was afraid that he would hurt himself, as I was. my boy could have been helped in SO many other ways and did NOT have to die at all that day. (Articles from news, below)

"I will forever regret making that phone call for "help", to 911." Holly Fallon

THE STORY BELOW SHOULD MAKE YOU ANGRY!

Eric's Mom's version regarding what happened to Eric

(She was there!)

Feb. 28, 2006

It was 1:00 PM and I decided to call Jessica's cell phone because I wanted to get an update and check and see how Eric was doing. I was worried about him because he had left home the night before in the rain, without a jacket, and walked to Jessica's apartment while being sick. I knew that the night before, he wasn't feeling well and had cold-like symptoms and a slight fever. He didn't feel good. I was also wanting to see how he and Jessica were getting along since Eric hadn't come home last night.

So, at 1:00 pm I called Jessica. When she answered, she said, “Hello.” When she learned that it was me calling, she began to cry and mumbled something through her crying that I couldn't understand. I told her that I couldn't understand her. I also told her to take a breath and to try to calm down so that I could understand what she was saying. She then told me that Eric was “cutting himself with a knife, and was bleeding. Jessica also stated that “He's stabbing his side with the knife, call the police”. “He's trying to kill himself.” (Later, I found out that he had no wound on his side, and that he was barely cutting his skin. The coroner's report had no indication of any side injuries or ANY cuts on his wrist! The "cut" was no more than a scratch.)

On hearing what Jessica had said, I panicked! I immediately called 911. An operator named “Barbara” handled the call. I told the 911 operator that Jessica had said to me that Eric was trying to kill himself. Those were Jessica's words. I also told her that Jessica said that he was cutting himself with a knife and that she said that Eric was trying to kill himself. (Something I later, VERY much regretted telling 911!)

The night before, he had arrived at Jessica's apartment in the rain. She had let him in. She had other friends over as well. There was then a party, which Eric was included in. Jessica told me that they had “made up” after “breaking up”. Eric also spent last night with her in her bed. She said, “He was so happy.”

In the morning when Jessica woke up, she told me that Eric was putting his things away in drawers and cupboards and had cleaned up the entire apartment before she woke up. He was very happy. When she noticed that he intended on staying there, she said that she told him to go back home and to get a job. She also said that she could not support them both and that he needed to “Go home and get a job first.”

At this point, Eric got really depressed and upset when she told him to leave. (Note: At this point, Jessica had broken up with him so many times, and gotten back together with him that I couldn't even count. She seemed to change her mind on the subject a lot, confusing and sending mixed messages to Eric. On this day, she was just 17 years old and Eric had just turned 18.) This is when Jessica said that Eric started to cut himself with a kitchen knife. She said that she tried to stop him, but couldn't. She said that she continued to try to get the kitchen knife away from Eric until the officers got there.

When Jessica told me that she had also told him some really mean things too, I thought that she was exaggerating the extent of the emergency, but I didn't know for sure and needed to get to my son, NOW. From all of my experience with Eric and Jessica as a couple, and being Eric's mother, It was clear to me that Eric was doing this for attention so that he wouldn't have to leave Jessica. He was doing it to get her to change her mind and let her stay. This way, she would be forced to take care of him. This was how Eric thought, she knew it and I knew it.

So, back to the 911 call. The call was made at 1:03 pm. I called and spoke to "Barbara", as indicated earlier in this text. I asked her to get someone over to Jessica's apartment to check on Eric and make sure that he was okay, and to help Eric stop hurting himself. (All I had to go on was the information that I got from Jessica.) I went through a series of questions by the 911 operator that took almost 4 minutes! (The 911 call in recorded) After the call, I hung up and rushed directly over to Jessica's apartment.

It was only 2 miles for me to get to Jessica's. The entire time, I was thinking, “It's okay. The police will help him. Don't worry, just get over there!”

As I pulled up to Jessica's apartment, what I saw scared me and shocked me in complete confusion! I saw officers, with their guns drawn, running towards the enclosed stairway to Jessica's apartment! I jumped out of the car and ran as fast as I could to beat them to the door in my extreme rush of panic from what I was seeing. I didn't get there before they did, but I got there just in time to fall into the line of officers that ran up the stairs. (3 – 5 officers. I wasn't counting just then.) I couldn't understand what I was seeing. It made no sense to me that there would be officers running with guns drawn too “help” anyone.

I first tried to tell the officer at the bottom of the stairwell that I am Eric's mom, and to please stop and let me help. Let me talk to him. The officer yelled, “Get back!” I think that he didn't even know that I was there until I spoke. I felt an extreme rush of adrenaline to reach my son at that moment. Frustrated by the officer's order for me to get back, I remained at the bottom of the stairwell and continued to yell out to the officers for them to let me help and let me talk to my son. No one even acknowledged me. I paced back and forth in front of the stairwell entrance, yelling for someone to let me help. I also yelled up to Eric to let him know that I was there. The officer yelled a second time, “Get back! Go stand somewhere else!” I said that I was his mother and that I could help. I begged, profusely and repeatedly for them to let me talk to my son! (My voice is not on the 911 recording, so I don't think that Eric even heard me.) I just could not understand why the officers were behaving so hostile in this sort of call for “help”. I was ignored.

I yelled up to the apartment for Eric to do what they say, since they refused to let me up there. I noticed that the shades were drawn closed, as well as the windows also being closed.

I thought, “Did they get their dispatch calls mixed up?” “Why do they have guns drawn on a kid who needs help?!” I became extremely frightened for Eric's safety as soon as I pulled up to that apartment and saw the scene. I turned to the many officer's outside of the apartment in the car ports and yelled for someone to let me help. I called them for HELP, not this!

While I was still trying to get someone to listen to me, I heard a voice from the apartment say, “Drop the knife! Drop the knife!” Next I heard TWO GUNSHOTS. There was the first shot, a slight pause, then the second. I immediately fell to my knees on the ground because I knew that they must have shot m son at that point. I couldn't breathe at first. (I wondered why my call to 911 for help caused these officers to race upstairs to my son and shoot him when I told them that he just need help to calm down! Not shoot him!

I wasn't aware of where, or if he had been hit, how bad, nothing. It was now about 1:13pm. From the time I could get myself back up off of the ground, I tried very hard to get any officer's attention. One officer that told me to go stand by his car to be questioned, then walked away. I had no idea who this was, or where his car was. So then I continued to pursue getting SOMEONE to tell me what had happened and why. I could not get anyone to tell my why they shot my boy, if they hit him, how bad it was, etc. Most of all, I asked why he was even shot, when I had called them to help Eric, not shoot him! NO ONE in uniform answered my pleas for help that day in that apartment complex, even though there were SO many officers on the scene at the time.

Then someone finally told me to go stand by the mailboxes with Jessica and wait to be questioned. (Questioned?!?! What was going on here?) No one with a badge would talk to me on that. Not one of them.

It was later that I learned that Jessica had just exited the apartment WITH THE KNIFE that Eric had, just seconds before I arrived on the scene. We each voiced our extreme concern for Eric and the opinion that Eric would never hurt anyone else but himself.

Very frustrated, upset, and angrily scared, I went to the mailboxes where Jessica was standing, next to her apartment. I tried to talk to Jessica, but she was crying and mumbling. I couldn't understand most of what she said. She was hysterical. I did understand her when she told me that she was trying to get the knife from Eric, which she did do.

I continued to try to question everyone about what had transpired. Again, no one would listen to me. It was almost as if I were invisible to them! That was when I saw a newspaper photographer and went after him. I yelled at him for him to stop taking pictures, that he had no right, etc. It was then that FINALLY, an officer with blonde hair grabbed my arm and pulled me around to face her so that she could tell me that he was just doing his job, but would not tell me what was going on. She and I argued over this and why she wouldn't let me go. I didn't even realize that she was slowly turning away from me, manipulating me to turn as well in order to talk to her. That was because they had brought Eric out on a stretcher as we spoke and she was obviously trying to make me NOT see Eric. But Eric groaned as they rolled him past me and I whipped my head around to see them taking him and putting him into the ambulance. I started to run to be with my boy on the way to the hospital and the officer grabbed my arm and stopped me. She said that I wasn't allowed to ride in the ambulance to the hospital, but she wouldn't tell me why. By the time I was able to get free to run to get to the ambulance, they were already leaving. I cried, and was so angry at them all for keeping me from my son! (I never saw my son alive again.)

At this point, the deputies told me to go wait on the sidewalk for questioning. It was then that I called Les. I tried to find out which hospital that the ambulance took Eric to, but there seemed to be some definite confusion and they didn't tell me right away. I also called Eric Mueller to come and take me to the hospital. Eric Mueller got to the apartments from his work and told the officers that he was taking me to see my son and that if they wanted to question me, they could do so at the hospital because that is where he told them that I was going to be. I was grateful for that.

We immediately drove to the hospital in Eric Mueller's car. It seemed to take forever. Once we got there, they would not let me past the admissions desk, where I had to sign some papers. Only then was I allowed to go to the ER waiting room. Once I was in the waiting room, I expected someone from the hospital to come right in and talk to us about Eric. asked repeatedly for information. That did not happen. Instead, they sent a hospital advocate to talk to us, who knew nothing! She never even told us that Eric had been taken to the ER for critical surgery! (Which I learned of much later on.) At this point, we knew NOTHING about my son's condition, nothing at all. We sent the advocate many times, to go find out anything at all about how Eric was doing, and she always returned with NO information at all. (No one from Inland Valley Medical Center, Wildomar, CA, (where we were), ever came to tell us anything until much later.)

By this time, Les had arrived, and then the detectives wanted to ask me questions. They asked me if Eric did drugs, if he ran on the streets, had a history of trouble, etc. I was taken aback by their questions because I knew Eric was a good kid who lived at home and was still in High School! I immediately felt like I was being attacked and said to them that all they were doing was trying to dig up dirt on my son for their report. I think that they then labeled me as a “hostile witness”. I was really angry with the way that the officers handled this whole situation. They still refused to tell me anything at all about Eric. Then all of the law enforcement guys hung out in the hospital hallway like vultures, whispering and joking among themselves while watching us closely.

Somewhere around the 1 1⁄2 hour mark after Eric was shot, we overheard one of the officers say, “They're just trying to keep him alive.” I thought, WHAT?! How badly had Eric been injured by those two bullets?! I asked myself why would they not have told us if it is a serious injury?! Immediately, we started demanding information. The advocate at the hospital continued to return to us with absolutely no information about Eric's condition. We still only knew that he had been shot. Nothing more. No details. Nothing.

After two grueling hours in the waiting room, friends and family continued to stream in. We could not, still, get any information on Eric.

At 3:13 pm, two hours and thirteen minutes after hearing nothing at all regarding Eric's condition, a detective approached me while I was sitting in a chair in the E.R. waiting room. (Det. Robert L. Joseph) I thought that I was finally going to get some information about what had happened. Instead, he leaned in towards me and quickly said, “What can I say? He didn't make it.” Then just as quickly as he had said those words, he dropped one of his cards for me and whisked his way out the door. My breath was sucked completely away from me and I couldn't breathe. I tried to stand up and fell down in disbelief. Eric Mueller caught me. I was just in such shock and kept thinking, “This must be wrong!”. So wrong. I yelled, “No!”, and cried. My son could not be gone as the detective had implied. I felt sick, and dropped to my knees and cried. (By this time, all of the law enforcement personnel had walked out of the E.R. to go to a press conference to lie about what had happened.

I was clearly in shock and disbelief. HOW could the very first bit of information about my son be that he “didn't make it”?! How dare they choose to tell me in such a harsh manner!

I was so confused, angry, in a fog (shock). (I still have no idea why we weren't told anything before that.) I was wondering why a doctor hadn't told us, or hospital staff. What the hell kind of system was this when the situation is a call for help and the shoot and kill the kid that they were called to help?! Is this how the officers “control the situation”, by not allowing information to get to the tortured family members?! How cruel!

After the detective left, the other officers left with him to go do the press conference for television. Les went outside after them and said, “Which one of you cowboys killed my kid?!” A bald-headed tall officer commented, “Why, what are you going to do about it?” The officer then made hand gestures to Eric's father, Les, to come and bring it on, as to egg him on to fight with him. Les's wife, Chrissie, pulled Les back inside. Les was furious, rightly so. After that, the officers were gone.

This was when the surgeon, and two other doctors, came into the E.R. to tell us about Eric's passing. He saw us all hysterical and crying. He looked confused. Apparently, he didn't know that the detectives were in such a hurry to get out of there to do their press conference (We later learned.) that they had already told us that Eric did not survive. The surgeon didn't realize that we had already been told. He saw us and then left the waiting room when he figured out what had transpired. It was over. My son had been killed and I would never hold him in my arms again, or hear his laughter. I would never see him graduate high school, (or any school), watch him get married, and have children. None of that would ever happen and so very much more. He was gone,... forever. My son, ... was dead.

It turned out that Chrissie heard the news on the way home in the car, that Eric's shooting was being broadcast on all of the major news outlets. In that broadcast, the officers stated that they “Feared for their life and the lives of the other officers”. It was broadcast on news networks and was also on the radio. I refused to watch any of them. I couldn't.

NONE of it made any sense to me, or any of us regarding what had transpired. From that point on, I saw everything in a dream-like state. I saw bright colors as very dull and faded. I stared ahead a lot, for no reason other than the fact that I was trying to make sense of it all. I couldn't eat or sleep. I gagged when I tried to drink anything. I also was shaking, literally quivering uncontrollably for weeks afterward. My memory became so horrible. I broke into tears at any sight, smell, thought of my boy, Eric. It is a living hell that I would not wish on the worst human being.

IMPORTANT NOTES:

ERIC HAD HIS PHONE with him at Jessica's apartment that day. It was with him always and it was NEVER FOUND after the shooting. It was a silver and blue LG cell phone. They said that Eric had a knife, but no knife was near him at the scene.

Also, Jessica was taken to the Southwest Sheriff's station and interrogated on camera. She wasn't told that Eric had passed from his gunshot wounds until two hours AFTER he had already died.

I was told later that one of the officers in the stairwell DID INDEED have O.C. spray, (similar to pepper spray) but did not even consider using it, since they already had their guns drawn before they reached the apartment. They had told me that RCSD did not use sprays. They lied.

When the RCSD said that they called for Eric to exit the apartment, Jessica said that she and Eric could not hear anything. The windows of the upstairs apartment and the door were closed.

California law states that if someone steps towards an officer within 21 feet in a threatening manner (or just steps towards them at all), then they have the right to shoot. They call it, "The 21 Foot Rule".

When I tried to get information regarding the conversation with "Barbara" at 911, then told me that no one works there by that name!

Finally, Deputy Larry J. Alves shot and killed Eric and is now comfortably retired in Idaho with having had absolutely NO punishment or discipline!

SO very many questions were, (and still are), unanswered! To this day, the RCSD refuses to speak to us about what happened.

(Now, the sheriff's dept.s version:)

(The following is a newspaper article in The Press-Enterprise newspaper regarding Eric's killing)

Man shot, killed by Temecula police officer

"By: JOHN HALL - Staff Writer | Posted: Wednesday, March 1, 2006 12:00 am

Medics rush a man shot by police at the Temecula Garden Apartments to a waiting ambulance Tuesday. The man was later pronounced dead.

DAVID CARLSON Staff Photographer

TEMECULA -- A man was shot and killed by a Temecula police officer inside an apartment Tuesday in what authorities say could have been a case of "suicide by cop."

Eric James Andrews, 18, of Temecula, died at 3:13 p.m. at Inland Valley Medical Center in Wildomar, according to the Riverside County coroner's office.

The shooting happened at about 1:15 p.m. after Temecula police were called to the Temecula Gardens apartments at 29425 Rancho California Road 15 minutes earlier regarding a possible attempted suicide, said Riverside County sheriff's Sgt. Earl Quinata. Temecula contracts its police service from the Sheriff's Department.

"Officers were at the bottom of a stairwell shouting verbal commands for whoever was inside the apartment to come out," Quinata said.

A woman came out from an upstairs apartment, carrying a knife, the sergeant said. Officers ordered her to drop the weapon, which she did, he said.

"It's unclear why she had a knife when she came out," Quinata said, adding that she did not brandish it in a threatening manner.

The woman, who police have not identified, was detained in a patrol car, and officers found that there was still a man inside the apartment.

"So they then gave more commands for the man to come out, but he didn't," Quinata said.

Officers went upstairs, found the apartment door open and saw the man inside. They again ordered him to come out with his hands up, but he instead pulled a knife from his pocket, Quinata said.

"At that point, they gave several verbal commands for him to drop the knife, but he advanced toward the officers with the knife pointed at them," the sergeant said.

Quinata said one officer fired his weapon at the man, hitting Andrews at least two times in the upper body. Officers radioed that shots had been fired, a suspect was down, and requested medical personnel.

Paramedics arrived, and as they treated Andrews, the woman who had also been in the apartment stood nearby crying and was being consoled by friends.

"It appears that this was her apartment, not his, and that he was there as the two were dealing with some type of relationship issue," Quinata said.

Andrews was taken by ambulance to Inland Valley Medical Center in Wildomar, where he was pronounced dead shortly before 4 p.m., Quinata said.

The name of the officer, per department policy, has not been released. He is a 10-year veteran of the Sheriff's Department, officials said. The officer has been placed on paid administrative leave pending an internal investigation, also department policy, Quinata said.

Dozens of officers and Sheriff's Department officials descended on the apartment complex after the shooting. Detectives with the sheriff's Central Homicide Bureau, as well as its Administrative Investigations Unit arrived to investigate. The district attorney's office also is involved in the investigation.

The incident is believed to be the first officer-involved shooting in Temecula in nearly a decade.

On June 4, 1998, Officer Dave Smith was called to the Sycamore Terrace Apartments on Margarita Road where he was confronted by George Holstein, 24, of Fallbrook. Holstein used a .25-caliber handgun to fired at the officer, hitting him three times. Smith, however was able to return fire, killing the assailant.

On May 9, 1993, Mother's Day, Temecula police Officer Kent Hintergardt was killed in the line of duty near where Smith's shooting happened. Hintergardt was called to Sycamore Terrace on a domestic violence call and stopped to talk to a possible suspect in the parking lot.

What Hintergardt didn't know was that the man, later identified as Mark Kamaka, 37, of Simi Valley, had just strangled to death his estranged girlfriend, 22-year-old Allison Jacobs, in her apartment. Hintergardt was shot in the face by Kamaka, who then fled in his car with his 12-year-old son. Kamaka dropped off his son near a freeway call box on Interstate 15 before heading to Canyon Lake where he committed suicide by shooting himself.

Hintergardt was the first Temecula police officer, and the only one so far, to die on duty.

Contact staff writer John Hall at (951) 676-4315, Ext. 2628, or jhall@californian.com."

"Police tactics questioned"

Family of teen killed by Temecula officer demands investigation of shooting

01:03 AM PST on Friday, March 3, 2006

By JOHN WELSH and ROCKY SALMON / The Press-Enterprise

RIVERSIDE - The mother of an 18-year-old pleaded with authorities to let her help them moments before an officer shot and killed her son, she said Thursday.

But Temecula police said events unraveled too quickly Tuesday afternoon, forcing Officer Lawrence Alves to shoot Eric James Andrews. Alves fired when Andrews refused to drop a knife and moved toward the officer outside a Temecula apartment, police said.

Holly Fallon, Andrews' mother, made the statement Thursday in Riverside as family members criticized tactics leading to the death. The teen's stepmother, Christine "Chrissie" Andrews, read a prepared statement as Fallon stood to the right on a sidewalk.

"It's tragic that they killed my kid," the teen's father, Les Andrews, 41, said. "It didn't have to be like that."

Officers were called to the Temecula Gardens Apartments off Rancho California Road about 1 p.m. Tuesday on the report of an attempted suicide, police said.

Officers ordered Andrews and his ex-girlfriend, Jessica Gerke, 18, who lived at the apartment, to come outside. Gerke walked out of the doorway and dropped a knife, police said. Andrews stayed inside and at least one officer went to the doorway to talk.

Police said Andrews pulled a knife from his pocket and ignored repeated orders to drop it. He then moved toward Alves, who fired in fear for his safety, Temecula police Capt. Mitch Alm said.

Andrews died hours later at an area hospital.

On Thursday afternoon, Fallon, 41, said she was at the complex and wanted to bring her son safely out of the apartment.

"I repeatedly begged for information and I begged to help," she said.

Family members said Temecula police could have handled the situation differently.

"We're demanding a full investigation in this tragic matter," Chrissie Andrews said.

In most cases, officers have a set of tactics starting with verbal commands, Temecula Police said.

"Unfortunately in this case it appears the individual presented an extreme danger to both himself and the officer," Alm said. "It happened too quickly. There was no opportunity to take any other type of action."

Alm said his patrol officers do not carry beanbag guns or tazers and said even if they did it wouldn't have mattered.

"If someone is approaching you with a knife, it's a very serious situation," he added.

On Thursday, some of Eric Andrews' friends and family remembered him for his love of cars and computers.

Andrews had gone to Arlington High School in Riverside, but was transitioning to Temescal Canyon High School.

Andrews had asthma but participated in soccer and Little League as a youngster.

Andrews also enjoyed Tae Kwon Do. Andrews was not involved in high school athletics, but especially enjoyed hanging out with friends, they said.

Alex Walden-Aguilar last saw Andrews a week ago when he stayed over for two nights.

He knew Andrews was depressed over the breakup with Gerke.

He was shocked to hear about the death.

"Eric isn't the type of guy to threaten anyone with a knife," he said. "I haven't even seen him angry before."

On Feb. 16, Andrews left a last message on Gerke's site on MySpace, a social Internet network used by teens to socialize, post pictures and express feelings.

"You don't know what you got till its gone, id have to say that is the single most powerful statement I can comprehend at the moment."

Staff writer Tammy McCoy contributed to this story.

Reach Rocky Salmon at (951) 375-3739 or rsalmon@PE.com.

Online at: http://www.pe.com/localnews/southwest/stories/PE_News_Local_S_sshot03.1da7050d.html