Officer James Hartley Pagliotti
(April 26, 1959 -- June 22, 1987)

On the evening of June 22, 1987, Officer James Pagliotti from the LAPD's Metro Division and several other LAPD plainclothes officers were searching for a burglary suspect in the Sylmar neighborhood of Los Angeles, just west of the 210 Freeway, in the northeast San Fernando Valley. The officers had been searching the area for about 10 hours.

Residents of the low-income Astoria Gardens neighborhood had been reporting for more than a year to the LAPD that robbers and drug dealers had been active in their neighborhood, particularly in a 12-building complex where drug dealers had been peddling cocaine, robbing tenants, and breaking into apartments and cars. The neighborhood was described as Sylmar's primary drug-dealing area.

Residents were upset and angry, and were pleading for assistance from the LAPD. The department responded, increasing patrols in the area, including more undercover patrols, and made more than 30 drug-related arrests in the area in the first six months of 1987.

During their search of Astoria Gardens, LAPD Officer Randy Garcia, 31, observed a drug transaction at the intersection of Astoria Street and Bromont Avenue. Garcia was alone in his vehicle, and he noticed that at least one of the suspects was armed with a handgun, so he radioed for assistance.

Pagliotti, wearing shorts and a print shirt and driving a rented white Toyota, was the first to arrive at the scene. He and Garcia got out of their vehicles and approached the two suspects -- one was 17, and the other was 19. Garcia and Pagliotti had their guns drawn, and announced that they were police officers.

The 17-year-old immediately fired three shots at Pagliotti with a semi-automatic pistol, hitting him in the chest. Pagliotti returned fire with his 9-mm semi-automatic pistol, hitting the shooter in the chest. As the 19-year-old ran toward him, Garcia also fired, hitting the suspect in the right shoulder.

The two suspects were both from South-Central Los Angeles, both admitted gang members, and they had traveled in a rental car to Sylmar to sell crack cocaine because, the 19-year-old later told police, the market was better and the drug prices were higher in the San Fernando Valley than in South-Central.

James Hartley Pagliotti was born April 26, 1959, in Santa Barbara, Calif., the third son of Joseph Ludwig Pagliotti and Alice Jane Beary Pagliotti, who were married on Aug. 20, 1955. His father worked as a chemist. Their first son, David, was born on Dec. 13, 1956, and died the following day. Daniel Pagliotti was born on May 4, 1958, in Santa Barbara, Calif.

The couple's third son, James Pagliotti attended Dos Pueblos High School in Goleta, east of Santa Barbara, where he played on the high school's football team, and graduated in 1977. He graduated from Cal State Fresno in 1981, with a bachelor's degree in criminology.

After spending two years as a reserve deputy sheriff in Fresno County, Pagliotti joined the LAPD in April 1982. He worked first as a patrolman in the 77th Street and Hollywood divisions, before he was assigned to the Metro Division in September 1986. Based in downtown L.A., the elite Metro Division conducted specialized patrol, undercover and other assignments and investigations.

At the time of the shooting, Pagliotti lived in West Covina, and was engaged to be married in less than four months, on Oct. 3, 1987, to Vicky Houghton.

After shooting Pagliotti, the wounded 17-year-old ran from the scene, but was apprehended nearby, hiding behind a house on Astoria Street. A .38-caliber pistol was found next to him. The injured 19-year-old, who was unarmed, was arrested without incident.

Pagliotti and the 17-year-old shooter were both taken to Holy Cross Hospital in Mission Hills, where Pagliotti, who was not wearing a bulletproof vest, was pronounced dead. The shooter underwent surgery for his injuries, and survived.

"The whole LAPD will weep for him, and the whole city should weep for him," LAPD Chief Daryl Gates said of Pagliotti. Gates called the shooter "a no-good, son-of-a-bitch narcotics peddler. … Two suspects were shot. They're still alive. That’s the way things go these days. They should have died."

Nearly 2,000 police officers from throughout Southern California, family members and friends attended Pagliotti's memorial service at the Scottish Rite Masonic Temple on Wilshire Boulevard. After the service, Pagliotti's body was taken to Goleta, where he was buried in the Goleta Cemetery.

In addition to the charges related to Pagliotti's death, the 19-year-old, who was on parole from the California Youth Authority for a previous narcotics charge, was charged with assault related to an incident prior to the shooting of Pagliotti. He was also charged with one count of murder, assault with a force likely to cause great bodily harm, conspiracy to sell drugs, and selling cocaine

The 19-year-old accepted a plea deal in which he admitted to the charges of assault and selling cocaine, and the murder charges against him were dropped. Prosecutors believed that since the 19-year-old was unarmed and did not fire the shot that killed Pagliotti, it would have been difficult to link him to the officer's murder.

He was sentenced to eight years and four months in prison but, since he had already been held for four years in the county jail, he was paroled after an additional year in custody.

Meanwhile, the 17-year-old who shot Pagliotti claimed the shooting was in self-defense. Shortly before the shooting, the teen had beaten up a customer who had returned to complain about the quality of drugs he had purchased. The shooter said he thought Pagliotti was that unhappy drug customer, although the 19-year-old told police that Pagliotti and Garcia clearly and immediately identified themselves as police officers.

The shooter, who was tried as an adult, was found guilty by a San Fernando Superior Court jury of second-degree murder, selling cocaine, and assaulting two men in incidents unrelated to the shooting of Pagliotti. He was sentenced to the maximum term of nearly 28 years to life in prison.

San Fernando Superior Court Judge Howard J. Schwab said he would recommend to prison authorities that the shooter "never be returned to society."

Pagliotti's killer has repeatedly been denied in his petitions for parole. At his latest parole hearing, in October 2024, he was again denied, and he will be ineligible to apply for parole for the next three years.

Officer Pagliotti was awarded the LAPD's Purple Heart and the Medal of Valor, the department's highest honor, on Sept. 1, 1987.

Every year, LAPD's Metro Division presents the Kesterson-Pagliotti Award to a Metro officer who displayed courage, bravery and valor under extreme duress. The award is named after Officer Pagliotti, and Officer Walter Kesterson, who was shot to death on Feb. 4, 1946, and was the first Metro Division officer to be killed in the line of duty.

Officer Pagliotti's memorial sign is located at Polk Street and Ralston Avenue, about a mile and a half southwest of the scene of the shooting.

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