As we mourn the shooting death of Riverside Police Officer Ryan P. Bonaminio, we are grateful an arrest has been made by police and FBI agents. The suspect, 44-year-old Earl Ellis Green of Rubidoux, was arrested at 8 p.m. on Tuesday at a Riverside Target store. He was booked for murder and a parole violation. He is being held at a Riverside detention center without bail and could face charges making him eligible for the death penalty.
Green’s apprehension is welcome news, but we are nevertheless very troubled by the strong possibility that a properly functioning state parole system might have prevented the tragic killing of a police officer. This has been our worst fear since state budget cuts prompted a dangerous relaxation of parole guidelines.
Green has a long criminal history spanning almost three decades that includes convictions for domestic violence, battery of a police officer, drug dealing and vehicle theft. In 2007, Green was found guilty of felony vandalism and sentenced to three years in state prison, but served fewer than 20 months. He was released as a low level, non-violent parolee with the next-to-lowest level of supervision. Hardly a non-violent person, even Green’s own family had recently sought a restraining order against him, according to a KNX report.
These facts raise two important questions for the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) that warrant complete and honest answers.
In a separate case that also calls into question the adequacy of current parole supervision, retired parole agent Caroline Aguirre, blogging for RonKayeLA.com, says that on the date and time of the Halloween murder of five-year-old Aaron Shannon Jr., “…one of his accused killers, Leonard Hall, was on Active Parole Supervision for Possession of Controlled Substance and Disregard for Safety.” Like Earl Ellis Green, Hall, too, “…was being supervised at next to the lowest level of parole.” Aguirre also adds that, “Hall, 21, had a special condition of parole that forbid [sic] him to associate with known [gang] members like Marcus Denson, 18, his alleged accomplice in the murder of this innocent child.”
According to the Ron Kaye blog, a march and rally will be held in El Sereno from 1974 N. Marianna Ave. to the 1800 block of Landsdowne Ave. at 1:30 p.m. this Saturday to demand an investigation of the Division of Adult Parole Operations and that those responsible for the breakdown in parole supervision be held accountable. Attorney Robin Sax, a former county prosecutor and expert on rape and child molestation issues, will be the featured speaker.
