Lodi police shooting featured on TV show

Seven years after Lodi police officers shot an armed man who had shot one of their own, the incident will be replayed Sunday on TV.

Scott Bratton

The shooting of Jacob Albert Torres gripped the community, especially since a news chopper happened to capture the whole incident from the sky. Years later, officers Scott Bratton and Brian Freeman are still recounting the story, and a number of departments use it as an example while training new officers.

Police in Texas actually recommended the incident to truTV (formerly CourtTV) producers, Bratton said. The network was putting together a new show about first-person accounts of shootings, called "Crisis Point."

Brian Freeman

Show executives flew Bratton and Freeman to Hollywood and put them up in a hotel on Jan. 21.

The next three days were spent working on the episode. First they were interviewed, and bits of those interviews were used to tell the story, along with the original footage and a dramatization, with the officers in their real uniforms.

Torres, who is paralyzed and serving a 49-year prison term, started the crime spree by stealing a Galt police officer's gun, carjacking a van and heading south, with his girlfriend in tow.

Torres, then 26, got to Lodi and began shooting at police, striking Lodi Officer David Griffin in the leg.

"He'd already shot a police officer, pointed a gun at us throughout the pursuit, so I'm starting to realize that this probably isn't going to end well," Bratton says in a clip from Sunday night's episode, which can be seen on the show's Web site.

Torres reached a field off Ham Lane near Tokay Street, where his van got stuck in mud from recent rain. He emerged from the van, brandishing a gun and holding his girlfriend close to his chest.

"I know that I can't let him get away, but I don't want to hit her," Freeman says on the clip.

Then the girlfriend moved, leaving a gap between her back and Torres' chest. Freeman fired once, a shot that knocked Torres to the ground. But then Torres sat up and began firing a shotgun toward officers. When he switched to a handgun, the officers made a run for it, seeking shelter while trying to get closer to him.

Bratton, still not sure how it's possible, said he could literally see the bullets coming out of Torres' gun, heading toward him.

After seven years, Bratton still gets emotional almost every time he tells the story, whether it's to a room of police officers, as happened in April 2007, in front of cameras for a nationwide TV show or to a reporter standing in the police department lobby in January.

"I remember thinking at the time, 'I have four kids — three girls and a boy,'" Bratton said in January, shortly after the filming. "I love them all, but I remember thinking that my son was the youngest and really needs his dad."

The short clip on the Web site doesn't give all the details, but ultimately Bratton, Freeman and Lt. Steven Price fired at Torres. He was still alive when they took him into custody, and he was soon on his way to a hospital.

Ultimately, Torres was paralyzed from the waist down. A year after the shooting, he was sentenced to more than 49 years in state prison, and will be eligible for parole around the age of 70.

Griffin, who was shot in the leg, recovered and is now a corporal and member of the department's SWAT team. Bratton was recently promoted to corporal, meaning that he now trains new Lodi officers.

Bratton and Freeman received praise from a number of police departments, for their handling of the situation, and they are still asked to tell their story. They previously filmed a reenactment for California's Commission on Peace Officer Standards and Training, a state agency that sets police standards.

As for the most recent filming, they spent part of the time on a set where "CSI" and "Reno 911!" are filmed, Freeman said. Some of the show features grainy black-and-white footage, as if from a surveillance camera, but that was all Hollywood.

Freeman's still waiting to see the actual show, but there's one catch: He doesn't get that channel, and both he and Bratton will be on patrol when it airs Sunday night.

Contact reporter Layla Bohm at layla@lodinews.com.