Crime & Safety

Redondo Beach Resident Paid $20,000 For Truck Damaged in Dorner Manhunt

The truck was riddled with bullets during the hunt for Christopher Dorner in February.

A baggage handler at LAX has been paid $20,000 for his pickup truck, which had been riddled by bullets by Torrance police during the manhunt for murderous ex-policeman Christopher Dorner, his attorney said today.

But David Perdue's federal court lawsuit for his injuries remains on track, said his lawyer, Robert Sheahan.

"David was driving a black Honda Ridgeline pickup truck and police were looking for Dorner in a silver Nissan Titan," Sheehan said in a statement. "The two pickup trucks looked nothing alike."

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Perdue is a 160-pound white man, and Dorner was 270 pounds and black, Sheahan said.

Perdue was heading to the ocean for some pre-work surfing when Torrance police stopped him, twice, to check his ID. His third encounter with Torrance officers on Feb. 7 ended in police ramming his truck and opening fire, injuring his spine and head.

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Police eventually said they had mistakenly thought he was Dorner, who was on a self-avowed mission to kill police in revenge for his dismissal from the LAPD force.

Dorner had already killed an LAPD captain's grown daughter, and her fiance, in his retaliation campaign. Police across California were on high alert as the watched for him and his truck.

Two women delivering newspapers who were also mistakenly shot in a separate mistake have been paid $4.2 million by the City of Los Angeles.

Sheahan said the $20,000 will go for daily living expenses for Perdue, his wife and children, who lost their breadwinner and are in "considerable economic hardship due to the incident," according to the lawyer.

"You have no idea how difficult it has been for us," Lizette Perdue said in the statement released by the lawyer. "My husband is in constant pain and he cannot work.

"I do not know why Torrance is treating us like this," she said. "Dave didn't do anything to them."

No comment was available today from Torrance.    

-City News Service


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