On January 12, 2010 I was traveling down PCH in Laguna Beach about 8 in the morning to go get a cup of coffee. I had my iPhone and was listening to some music so I couldn't hear what was going on but all of a sudden traffic came to a halt. From my viewpoint I could see a few cars pulled over to the side of the road and people were standing around their cars. It was kind of foggy that morning so I just assumed there was some kind of minor fender-bender, I really wasn't paying much attention. I didn't see any cars that looked too damaged. After a couple of minutes I see a bunch of people look across the highway and then everybody starting hitting the ground. I pulled out my headphones and I immediately heard several rounds of gunfire and people were yelling for everyone to get down.
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| Moments after the shooting |
After about 30 seconds the gunfire stopped so I decided to see what was going on. I remember thinking to myself, "How the fuck does a car accident turn into a shooting?" As I looked across PCH I could see 3 officers with their guns drawn still surrounding a car that was very damaged from what looked like a really bad accident. Then the cops started shooting into the car again. Maybe another 8 rounds. I don't know. As soon as the shooting stopped I crossed the street, not even really paying attention to the fact I was walking right into a crime scene. The cops taped off the street but I was still standing about 15 feet from the car as the fire department attempted to pull the man out of his car. After about 10 minutes they finally got the man out of his car and onto a stretcher. People surrounding the scene were yelling things like "Die motherfucker!."
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| Trying to get their stories straight? |
Remarkably, the cops let me and some other bystanders stay were we were standing for another hour. The car was riddled with bullets. I could count at least 10 bullet holes just in the door and the back of the car. The car itself was severely damaged from the previous wreck. As you can see from the pictures I took that right after the shooting, the car is pretty much disabled. According to witness accounts, the man was driving 100mph down PCH in the wrong lane of traffic and caused a major accident involving several vehicles. When bystanders and fire fighters tried to help the man he somehow was able to start his car and attempted to flee the scene. That's when officers that just arrived on scene started shooting. As you can see from my pictures, there was nowhere for him to go. His car was totaled. He was blocked in on a small side street.
What concerns me most about this shooting was all the bystanders that were standing on the sidewalk when this went down. Amazingly, nobody was hit by stray bullets. Now that I know that the man was unarmed even makes this shooting more unjustified. In the end all three officers were cleared. As far as I know, a lawsuit by the man's family is pending. Colby Koenig was just 25 years old. He died later that evening. Nobody will ever know why he did what he did. By all accounts he was a good kid. He didn't have a criminal record.
I'm not justifying what Colby did to cause this accident. The reasons he tried to flee are unclear. Sometimes people do strange things after a major accident. I'm sure he suffered severe head trauma by the looks of the damage to the car. Maybe he was trying to get away from the cops. I never have said what he did wasn't wrong. He endangered a lot of lives that day. But did he deserve to be shot like that? I don't think he did. This kid had a family and friends. Whatever was going on with him, he could have got some help. He will never have that chance now.
For weeks after the shooting I had constant nightmares. I would get panic attacks. Only if you witnessed something like this would you understand. I was also very scared of the police. I was standing in line in a Subway about a month later and a cop walked in and I started sweating and shaking. I felt nauseous. Even months later, on the 4th of July, I got pulled over because my headlight was out and I was scared out of my mind. This incident caused me to move away from Laguna Beach. I knew I had to get away. I ended up moving here to Boston. I loved Laguna. It's one of the most beautiful places in the world. It's a laid-back little hippy town on the ocean. But I will never forget that day.
I don't live in Seattle anymore. But I was born and raised there. Most of my family still lives there. I take interest in the news and what's going on in the area. I read the local news daily. Hardly a week goes by that I don't read about an officer-involved shooting in the area or about some cop that beat someone up. It's sickening. People do crazy things everywhere but I have never heard of so many people getting killed by cops.
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| PCH and St Anne |
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| Crews work to get man out of car |
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| Man being taken away on a stretcher clinging to life |
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| Car riddled with bullets |
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| Where I was standing |
