Photograph by Jacqueline Ramseyer

Officer Greg Taylor, left, and Officer Hernandez take measurements at the scene where an alleged bank robber drove his car over a divider on De Anza Boulevard and attempted to flee on foot. The suspect was in front of Armadillo Willy's restaurant and was subsequently pronounced dead at a local hospital.

Deputy kills alleged bank robber after hot pursuit

Controversy still surrounds officer's course of action

By KEVIN FAYLE

A string of violent robberies and a pursuit on the streets of Cupertino ended with the death of a San Jose man on May 16. A sheriff's deputy involved in the pursuit shot the suspect three times in front of the Armadillo Willy's restaurant at De Anza Boulevard and Stevens Creek Boulevard. The suspect received treatment on the scene before emergency technicians transferred him to Valley Medical Center, where doctors pronounced him dead at 4:05 p.m.

The bullets struck the man in the left ankle, the right wrist, and the upper left region of his back.

The man, identified as Archie Burl Doty Jr., 39, allegedly stole a car from a woman waiting to pick her son up from Hester Elementary School in San Jose, then drove the car to a California Federal Bank branch at 1551 Saratoga Avenue. A man robbed that bank at gunpoint just 14 minutes after the armed suspect carjacked the mother.

Deputies alleged Doty then drove to the Downey Savings and Loan at 10381 S. De Anza Blvd. in Cupertino and held up the bank in a fashion similar to the Calfed robbery around 3:25 p.m.

Witnesses of both robberies described the bank robber as a black man of medium build, and told deputies that they had seen him produce a handgun to threaten the tellers.

A unit from the Sheriff's office noticed the car, a gray four-door Chevrolet, around McClellan Road and Stelling Road shortly after the second robbery and entered into a chase. Doty allegedly led the pursuing officers all around the city of Cupertino, down Stevens Creek Boulevard to Highway 85, then on Interstate 280 back to De Anza Boulevard.

The car chase ended when Doty allegedly tried to cut across the southbound lanes of De Anza Boulevard from the alley behind the Mervyns's on Steven's Creek. The car became stuck on the center divider, and Doty fled the vehicle, running eastbound across the northbound lanes of De Anza, towards the Armadillo Willy's restaurant.

Deputy Frederick Zanker, a 26-year veteran of the Sheriff's office, arrived first on the scene. Zanker, in his statement to the investigators, said he told Doty repeatedly to stop, show his hands and lie down.

According to the preliminary reports of the sheriff's office, Doty stumbled and fell to the ground. Zanker says he again told Doty to show his hands, but that the suspect did not comply with his order. The deputy said he observed Doty make a quick movement towards his waistband while attempting to rise to his feet. Zanker said he feared for his safety, the safety of other deputies, and that of the people on the crowded street, and fired three shots at Doty as he rose and turned towards the officer.

The bullets brought Doty down, and officers moved in and handcuffed him.

The deputies did not discover a weapon in Doty's waistband, but speculate that he could have reached for a black cellphone that rested there. Officers also discovered that Doty wore black makeup over his exposed skin, and was in fact white.

A replica semi-automatic handgun sat on the passenger seat of the car Doty drove, which the sheriff's office says matches descriptions of the weapon used in each robbery. Officers also found material connecting Doty with the bank heists. "Money was recovered, and there is evidence that links him to both bank robberies," said Sergeant Mark Eastus, public information officer for the sheriff's office.

Dr. Gregory Schmunk, chief medical officer for the Santa Clara County Coroner's Office, maintains the fatal bullet entered Doty's body in the area of his upper left back and exited his body near his right armpit. The wound he said, lends support to Zanker's account of the shooting, as it could have occurred as Doty turned to face the officer. "If that is in fact the case, that would be consistent, yes," he said.

Schmunk said early eyewitness reports that Doty received three bullet-wounds in the back "were definitely not right."

The coroner's office contacted Doty's mother, who lives out of state, but Schmunk says that he did not have any relatives in the immediate area.

Eyewitness accounts of the incident vary, though some people around the scene of the shooting claim that the events did not occur as the sheriff's office has reported. One witness, Sean Thieme, said he saw Zanker arrive on the scene, and says the officer drew his gun, stepped forward. Thieme said the next thing he heard was the three shots.

James Labonte, who saw the incident from across the street at the Starbucks, also said he heard no warning from Zanker, but knows Zanker and described him as "a good cop." Still, he said that, from what he witnessed, he doesn't feel the shooting needed to occur.

"It was wrong, it was wrong," he said, about an hour after it happened.

According to Labonte, Doty fell, then rose to his feet and made a gesture that Labonte took to show frustration and resignation. He says immediately after that, Zanker fired the fatal rounds.

Another eyewitness, Alissa Hutton, said Doty appeared to stumble as he exited the vehicle, and that the officers were in immediate close pursuit. Hutton said Doty never fully gained his footing, but she turned away when Zanker drew his sidearm, and she did not actually witness the shooting itself.

Eastus said the sheriff's office's "preliminary investigations indicate that this is a justified shooting." The homicide unit of the sheriff's department will conduct further investigations into the incident, then turn their findings over to the District Attorney's Office for review.

David Davies of the District Attorney's office says the office usually presents cases involving a fatality at the hands of a law enforcement officer to a grand jury, as part of the county's interagency protocol. "This case is one that would clearly be presented to the grand jury," he said. The district attorney presents all aspects of the case to the grand jury, which consists of 19 county residents. Davies said the process can take anywhere from three to six months from the time the office receives the case.

The Sheriff's Office placed Deputy Zanker on administrative leave pending the outcome of the investigation, a routine move in situations like this one, according to Eastus.

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