Family of Teen Killed by Deputies to Get $300,000

The family of a 17-year-old boy shot and killed by Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies four years ago will receive $300,000 under a settlement approved by the Board of Supervisors on Tuesday.

Kevin Joice of Lancaster was shot 10 times by deputies--including five times in the back--after he led authorities on a long foot chase that ended in a darkened alley.

A pistol was found near the boy’s body, though the gun did not have identifiable fingerprints, according to a report prepared by the county counsel’s office.

An investigation conducted by the Sheriff’s Department ruled that the deputies did not violate department policy, and the district attorney’s office also declined to file charges.

However, the county counsel’s office recommended the $300,000 settlement because it feared that a jury might award the family as much as $1 million if jurors concluded the deputies used excessive force, according to county documents.

The incident occurred Aug. 18, 1993 at approximately 8 p.m. after deputies received radio calls reporting a man with a gun near Beech Street in Lancaster.

According to the county counsel’s report, the deputies were flagged down by citizens who pointed out three youths--one of whom, they said, had a gun.

When the deputies ordered the youths to halt, two of the three complied, but Joice ran, the report said.

“As they ran down the alley,” the report said, “the sheriff’s deputy believed that Kevin Joice’s right hand was in the area of his waistband, possibly holding or concealing the weapon that was the subject of the . . . radio call.”

The account continues: “After a lengthy foot pursuit, Kevin Joice stumbled, fell onto his stomach, and suddenly rolled to his left. At that point, the sheriff’s deputy believed Kevin Joice had a gun and was going to shoot him. The sheriff’s deputy fired his service weapon at Kevin Joice as did another sheriff’s deputy who was following the pursuit in his patrol car.”

The handgun that deputies believe Joice was carrying was found at the scene, but had not been fired and contained no identifiable fingerprints, the report said.

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Additionally, the county counsel’s report said, there were conflicting witness accounts of whether Joice posed a danger to the deputies prior to the shooting.

The deputies, who were not identified, were cleared by the Sheriff’s Department’s internal affairs force review team, the homicide bureau and the district attorney’s office.

Joice’s family filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the county in 1994.

The father of a young daughter, Joice had two additional children born to him by different women after he died.

Joice, according to county documents, planned to marry the mother of two of the three children and join the U.S. military after he earned his high school diploma at Antelope Valley Adult School.

Neither the Joice family nor their attorney, Milton Grimes, returned calls for comment.