Recent Appellate Court's Decision Is Just the Latest to Go Against Anaheim Cops

In the classic 1983 film A Christmas Story, adults repeatedly caution a boy named Ralphie he will shoot his eye out with the Daisy Red Ryder BB gun he covets. And once he received the toy, he somehow manages to hurt himself, though without permanent injury. But in Anaheim, an after-dark incident involving the same make of toy gun carried much deadlier real-world consequences. On the night of Jan. 7, 2012, Bernie Villegas and Tristan Rosal turned the visitor parking lot of an Anaheim apartment complex into their own personal firing range. Villegas, a 36-year-old father of two, had given a Red Ryder BB gun to his son, but he wanted to have a little fun with it himself. At 10:49 a.m., when he and Rosal began blasting pellets at a propped-up plastic Pine-Sol bottle, a concerned neighbor phoned the local police with the description of a known drug dealer toting a shotgun.

Read more on my latest OC Weekly News Feature out on newsstands now:

http://www.ocweekly.com/news/recent-appellate-courts-decision-is-just-the-latest