Reap the whirlwind Violence, race, justice, and the true story of Sagon Penn

On the early Sunday evening of March 31, 1985, in southeast San Diego, two white cops and a civilian police "ride-along" stopped a pickup truck carrying seven young Black men on a quiet street, wrongly suspecting that one or more were gang members. A request to inspect the license of the truck's driver, Sagon Penn, escalated into the cops beating Penn with fists and nightsticks before Penn seized the pistol of one of the patrolmen, shooting all three men and killing one of the officers. What looked like a slam-dunk case for the prosecution instead, in the hands of Penn's brilliant defense attorney, Milton Silverman, turned into the acquittal of Penn on all charges. In meticulous yet utterly spellbinding detail, Houlahan lays out all aspects of the case, from the backstories of the principal figures to the tragic shootings that evening and in particular, the intriguing courtroom battle between prosecution and defense. Houlahan does not explicitly tie those events to policing and race relations in 2024, but he makes clear the timeless peril of erroneous assumptions.

A traffic stop in 1985 San Diego ends with a white cop dead and a young Black man on trial in this riveting account from bestseller Houlahan (Norco '80). In March of that year, two white police officers pulled over a pickup truck carrying seven young Black men they suspected of gang affiliation (who in fact had been attempting to go to the park). The driver, Sagon Penn, an accomplished martial artist, became flustered by officer Donovan Jacobs's demands to see his license. Jacobs quickly escalated to attacking Penn with his baton, but Penn, with his taekwondo training, easily fended off Jacobs and his partner Thomas Riggs. A crowd gathered and Penn was subdued, but, prompted by onlookers' warnings that his life was in danger and the officers' slur-filled threats, Penn grabbed Jacobs's gun. He shot Jacobs, Riggs (who died from his wound), and a woman on a ride-along in Riggs's car. At the 1986 trial, Penn's lawyer argued that his actions were justifiable self-defense, and he was only found guilty of assault. In a colorful narrative populated with well-drawn characters, Houlahan explains how the case laid bare the city's long-simmering tensions over policing and how the verdict served to turn down the heat, opening meaningful dialogue between police and the Black community. The result is a propulsive legal thriller with deep insight into Southern California policing history. (July)

A largely forgotten incident of racist policing and its tragic consequences form the heart of this fast-paced narrative. In March 1985 in San Diego, writes Houlahan, author of Norco '80, a belligerent police officer decided that a pickup truck containing young Black men needed to be rousted on suspicion of gang activity. Although the driver was "a soft-spoken and idealistic young man who believed his Buddhist chants could bring about the oneness of humanity," in an act of self-defense while being beaten, he wrested a gun from one officer, killed a cop, and wounded a second one and a civilian ride-along. Sagon Penn soon surrendered himself to the police. Put on trial, he was proven to be justified, thanks in part to testimony from a witness who'd called 911 to "report some police brutality right in front of my house." He was acquitted of several charges, but others were retained for a second trial that dragged the process out for more than two years, exposing a pattern of police violence and racism--and, in the end, forcing reforms. Even though acquitted a second time, Penn was broken by the criminal proceedings. Of all the meaningful statements from dozens of people that Houlahan interviewed, the most memorable comes from Penn himself, who said, "Sagon Penn was killed that night too….He no longer exists." A tragedy from whatever point of view, Penn's story foreshadows many others, from Rodney King to George Floyd and beyond. "Never before in American History had a young Black man admitted to killing a police officer and been found not guilty by a jury for having acted in self-defense," noted Penn's lawyer. Nonetheless, he said, "there is nothing to celebrate. This story began as a tragedy, and it ends as a tragedy." An assumption-shaking true-crime narrative that transports readers onto the street and into the courtroom. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.