The last time we checked in with David Perdue, he was holding one of the bullets a Torrance police officer fired at him in those tense SoCal days in early February when rogue ex-LAPD cop Christopher Jordan Dorner was on the loose. As Perdue demonstrated, police were so freaked out by the threat posed by now late, former La Palma resident Dorner–who'd been blamed for killing a cop and an Irvine couple tied to a cop (before supposedly slaying a sheriff's detective)–that they were literally shooting at anything that moved. Well, as you might have expected when you first heard about the Perdue saga, the mess is going to have to be resolved in court.
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Thankfully, Redondo Beach resident Perdue was not injured when–shortly after and a short distance away from where two newspaper ladies were fired upon by LAPD cops–Torrance police stopped the 38-year-old's black pickup, questioned him, checked the surfboards he was towing in the back and then, as he drove away, broadsided him and opened fire.
As we remarked at the time, at least Perdue's Honda Ridgeline more closely resembled Dorner's pickup, not that it's much consolation when police are blasting away at your (innocent) ass. After all, Perdue is thin and white, while Dorner was African-American and the dimensions of a large kitchen appliance.
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At the time we featured Perdue, he was contemplating a lawsuit. Saying now he could not reach a settlement with the City of Torrance, he has filed suit in federal court in Los Angeles.
The married, father of two claims he suffered a concussion when his airbag deployed and post-traumatic stress disorder when he realized he'd essentially become the target of police target practice. Unable to work, Perdue lost his job and health benefits as a baggage handler for United Airlines. According to his complaint, “He now moves slowly and unsteadily. His speech is altered. He has problems with his memory. He has nightmares.”
OC Weekly Christopher Dorner archives
There are apparently no such problems for the cops who fired at him, as they have returned to work pending the completion of an internal investigation, according to Torrance Police.
That department's spokesman, Sgt. Robert Watt, issued a statement saying that it is the goal of his city “that dialogue between city representatives and Mr. Perdue's attorneys resumes in the near future.'' Watt states Torrance “understands the public concern and the severity of the unfortunate incident that occurred involving Mr. Perdue and officers with the Torrance Police Department on the morning of Feb. 7, 2013, and we are hopeful that a resolution can be reached soon.”
So, we'll just have to wait and see what Perdue's nightmare is worth. Those newspaper ladies received about $40,000 toward a new truck and $4.2 million in a settlement with the City of Los Angeles.
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OC Weekly Editor-in-Chief Matt Coker has been engaging, enraging and entertaining readers of newspapers, magazines and websites for decades. He spent the first 13 years of his career in journalism at daily newspapers before “graduating” to OC Weekly in 1995 as the alternative newsweekly’s first calendar editor.