Before the traffic stop exercise, we were treated to some gruesome crime scene photos courtesy of Robbery/Homicide Detective Maury Sumlin, who briefed us on how to investigate a murder. The case he presented involved several suspects and multiple victims.
It was December 1991, a rainy, windy night when three suspects walked into the 7/11 on Santa Monica Boulevard and held up the clerk. What the robbers didn’t know was that the manger of the convenience store was hiding in a back office, talking with dispatch. After a few minutes, the suspects noticed that the office door was closed. They kicked in the door and the manager swung around in his char and fired two shots, missing both times. The suspects opened fire, killing him. A third suspect then shot the clerk and ran out of the store with a bag full of cash.
An officer who arrived at the scene was hiding off to the side with a shotgun. The suspect with the money didn’t get far.As soon as he ran into the parking lot the officer took him out, blasting him dead center, causing the suspect to collapse. His two accomplices rushed out right after and fired in the direction of the officer before running through an alley.
The two were eventually apprehended, one taking a bullet to the buttocks. Two female accomplices in a getaway car were also arrested. All were teens, some as young as 15. They had robbed several locations prior to the 7/11, including the Sizzler in Culver City. One was wearing a bullet-proof vest.
Sumlin went through each step of the crime, pointing out how the two female suspects walked into the store first to scope things out.He spoke of a witness who walked out of the store with a case of beer, failing to pay for it because the store was in the process of being robbed. Once outside the store, he ran into the cop with the shotgun. The cop asked the guy with the beer if anything was going on inside the store. The man lied and walked off. That man’s car ended up being the one hit by the suspects’ bullets as they fled. Talk about karma.
The most important thing to do when arriving at a crime scene is to create a perimeter, Sumlin said. That could include a very small area or one that encompasses several blocks. It is the detective’s job to account for every bullet fired and recover other weapons used. They must gather evidence, which could include bullet casings, money, video footage and credit cards. With DNA becoming more important in convictions, detectives must be aware of where they can find samples.
“Everything we touch, we leave a piece of ourselves,” Sumlin said.
The hardest part of the job is not solving the crimes, it’s dealing with those cases you can’t solve. Sumlin said as a detective he gets to know the victim’s family well and can sympathize with them. It’s hard when he can’t provide them with some justice.
“You do take things personally, especially when you see how some of these people are victimized,” Sumlin said. “When it involves children it is especially difficult. It’s hard not to take it personal.”
Sumlin almost broke down in tears when he arrived at the Santa Monica Farmers’ Market in 2003 after George Russell Weller plowed through a crowd, killing 10 and injuring dozens more. One of those killed was an infant, hitting Sumlin hard.
“I literally had to slap myself in the face,” to gain composure, Sumlin said. “You have to hold it in and do your job. But you do have to release it.”
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on March 29, 2008. Read the original PDF.