Anaheim Councilwoman Lucille Kring wrote on a message board last Friday that when police shot and killed a man who opened fire on officers and wounded a dog, the killing “saved us a trial,” which is “always a good outcome.”
Kring posted her remarks on the message board of a central Anaheim neighborhood known as the Colony. Echoing many others who have commented on the killing, Kring, who is running for mayor, expressed a well of sympathy for the police dog, Bruno.
Kring later apologized for her remarks.
The man killed by officers was 21-year-old Robert Moreno Jr., a known gang member who had shot at a probation officer. His death was part of the “good news,” as one colonist put it.
At least one person responded that killing human beings, while at times necessary, is not something to be celebrated.
“I am very disturbed to see a shooting discussed seriously (as opposed to some of the joking remarks posted earlier) as a good outcome, rather than as a tragedy to be avoided if possible,” Colony resident Judy Weedman wrote.
This is the same email group that Councilwoman Gail Eastman wrote to when she called a riot that engulfed the downtown, sparked by back-to-back police shootings of young Latino men, “a win with no shots fired” because the violence prevented the City Council from considering ballot measures that she opposed.
Kring didn’t return a phone call for comment, but according to OC Weekly, which reported Saturday on Kring’s comment, Kring retracted her remark and apologized.
“This morning I made a careless and insensitive statement in an on-line newsgroup that does not reflect my values,” Kring wrote in a follow-up, the OC Weekly reported. “The loss of a human life is always a tragedy. He was someone’s son, maybe an uncle, brother, father. I apologize unreservedly for my statement and I hope you will forgive me.”
Please contact Adam Elmahrek directly at aelmahrek@voiceofoc.org and follow him on Twitter: twitter.com/adamelmahrek