Screen Actors Guild calls for full probe of actor's death

LOS ANGELES (AP) - The Screen Actors Guild has called on police and prosecutors to ''ensure a full and fair investigation'' into the deadly police shooting of an actor authorities said brandished a fake gun at a Halloween costume party.

In a Nov. 3 letter addressed to Police Chief Bernard Parks and outgoing District Attorney Gil Garcetti, the actors union expressed ''concern over the circumstances surrounding the reported shooting and killing of SAG member Anthony Dwain Lee.''

Lee, 39, was shot Oct. 28 by an officer responding to complaints about a noisy party at a mansion in the exclusive Benedict Canyon section of the Hollywood Hills.

Parks has said the shooting fell within police policy. He said Officer Tarriel Hopper, 27, feared for his life when he saw Lee point a rubber replica of a .357-caliber handgun in his direction after he shined a flashlight through a window into a room where Lee and other guests were standing.

The actor was struck by bullets fired through the closed window.

The shooting of Lee, who had small roles on TV shows such as ''NYPD Blue'' and ''ER'' and in the 1997 Jim Carrey movie ''Liar Liar,'' was discussed at SAG's national board plenary meeting Oct. 29, said SAG spokesman Greg Krizman.

''Our board resolved to appeal to you both to ensure a full and fair investigation into this matter is carried out,'' the union said in its letter.

A police spokesman said he did not know whether Parks had received the letter. A district attorney's spokeswoman said she, too, did not know whether Garcetti had received the letter, but added that the office was fully investigating the matter.