By Brittny Mejia
Los Angeles Times
LOS ANGELES — More than three years after a firefighter was shot and killed by a co-worker at a remote station in Agua Dulce, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors agreed Tuesday to pay his family $7.2 million.
Tory Carlon was fatally shot while on duty at L.A. County Fire Station 81 on June 1, 2021. The following year, Carlon’s widow, Heidi, and the couple’s three children filed a wrongful-death lawsuit against L.A. County, alleging fire officials had known about the shooter’s “dangerous conduct” for years.
The gunman, Jonathan Tatone, also shot and injured Fire Capt. Arnoldo Sandoval, before later killing himself. Last year, the board agreed to pay Sandoval nearly $2.6 million.
Thomas Johnston, the Carlon family’s attorney, released a statement thanking the Board of Supervisors, particularly Supervisor Janice Hahn, “for their efforts in helping bring some closure to this case.”
Johnston described Carlon as a “devoted husband to Heidi, a loving father to their children, and a Firefighter’s Firefighter.”
“His loss is a wound that will never fully heal, not for his family, not for his brothers and sisters in the fire service, and not for the community he selflessly served. Tory embodied sacrifice, a man who gave everything without hesitation.”
Johnston added that, although the family is grateful to have the matter resolved, “nothing can bring him back.”
In a letter to the board, Dawyn R. Harrison, county counsel, said the settlement was recommended “due to the risks and uncertainties of litigation, and resolution at this time would avoid further litigation costs.”
The L.A. County Fire Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
“Nothing can help ease the pain or fill the void left by Tory,” L.A. County Supervisor Kathryn Barger, whose district includes Station 81, said in a statement. “I will continue honoring both his memory and brave services to our Los Angeles County Fire Department.”
Carlon worked as a fire engineer — a firefighter specialist who drives and maintains the engine and pumps water to firefighters — at Station 81, a sleepy station in Agua Dulce, about 50 miles north of Los Angeles.
On June 1, 2021, Tatone, who was off duty, drove to the station and fatally shot 44-year-old Carlon. Fellow firefighters heard Tatone say: “Payback’s a b—, motherf—!”
When Sandoval stepped outside to investigate the noise, Tatone shot him, too. After Tatone fled the station, he set his Acton house on fire and fatally shot himself.
The Station 81 shooting stemmed from a workplace dispute.
Carlon and Tatone worked different shifts. But when one relieved the other, they were expected to provide a shift “pass down,” detailing what their workday had entailed. Tatone complained that Carlon didn’t finish work that needed to get done on the engines, leaving him to complete the jobs.
In 2019, Carlon began documenting increasingly tense interactions with Tatone on his department calendar and in a notebook. At one point he wrote that Tatone told him he didn’t like or respect him and that “things aren’t going to work between us.” He said Tatone told him the next step would be “fists flying.”
Carlon voiced his concerns to L.A. County Fire Department captains and chiefs, his wife, Heidi, previously told The Times, “but nobody did anything.”
A station captain later told investigators that Carlon had voiced concerns about Tatone, including that his harasser would one day shoot and kill him.
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