The Region - News from June 11, 1987

After 14 weeks of testimony, jurors in San Diego Superior Court began deliberations in the second trial of Sagon Penn, who is charged with shooting two police officers and a civilian. Penn, 25, is charged with manslaughter, attempted murder, attempted manslaughter and two counts of assault with a deadly weapon in a March 31, 1985, altercation with two white officers who had pulled him over for an alleged traffic violation. The defense maintains that Penn, who is black, acted in self-defense during a racially motivated struggle in which he grabbed an officer’s gun. Police Agent Thomas Riggs was killed and Police Agent Donovan Jacobs and civilian Sarah Pina-Ruiz were wounded. The jury in Penn’s first trial could not decide an attempted murder charge involving civilian Pina-Ruiz, who was shot as she sat in the back of Riggs’ patrol car.