DEFENSE QUESTIONS OFFICER : TUFFREE'S ATTORNEYS CHALLENGE POLICE TACTICS, SHOOTING STORY.

Byline: Michael Coit Daily News Staff Writer

Daniel Tuffree's attorneys on Wednesday challenged the way Simi Valley police responded to a call to check on Tuffree's well-being in August, questioning the account of the only officer who witnessed the slaying of Officer Michael Clark.

Michael Pierce testified in the Ventura Superior Court jury trial that Tuffree shot Clark as the officer spoke to him through an open kitchen window.

Tuffree's public defenders contend the officers, with guns drawn, provoked the fatal gunfight by confronting a man under personal stress who wanted to be left alone.

On Wednesday, Deputy Public Defender Howard Asher attempted to show contradictions between Pierce's testimony and the account he gave to police detectives in an interview tape-recorded within an hour after the shooting on Aug. 4, 1995.

Pierce, who now works as a police officer in Tempe, Ariz., acknowledged that he told the detectives that Clark, standing in a side yard, was ``screaming'' to Tuffree when the officer identified himself and said he needed to talk with Tuffree.

Pierce testified that Clark, under the direction of Sgt. Anthony Anzilotti, got Tuffree to identify himself. Pierce said Clark then urged Tuffree to come outside to talk.

Clark urged Tuffree to come to the door or window so the officers could talk with him. Tuffree said Clark already was talking with him, Pierce testified.

When asked about Clark's tone at that time, Pierce testified that Clark used a ``command voice'' and told Tuffree to show his hands.

On the recorded interview, played in court, Pierce told the detectives ``Clark got real agitated.''

Pierce testified that Clark screamed, ``He's got a gun.'' As Pierce backed away to take cover, he recalled hearing a single gunshot followed by three gunshots in rapid succession.

Clark suffered two wounds and fell near a wall of the home, where he lay until a special weapons team drove an armored truck into the yard and pulled him away about 20 minutes later. He died at Simi Valley Hospital.

Tuffree, also wounded during the gunfight with the three officers, stands indicted on a charge of murdering Clark, which could bring the death penalty. Tuffree also was indicted for attempting to murder Pierce.

Prosecutors say that the former schoolteacher was an angry man who didn't like the Simi Valley police after a previous confrontation with officers. At that time officers confiscated and later returned the same .40-caliber semiautomatic handgun Tuffree used to shoot Clark.

Tuffree's public defenders have described Clark's killing as the tragic end to a chaotic sequence of events triggered by Tuffree's unsuccessful efforts to refill his Valium prescription a week before it expired. They say that Tuffree did not intentionally kill Clark, contending there was no medical emergency and the officers should have left him alone.

The police became involved when a mental health clinic worker requested a check on Tuffree. The mental health worker had been contacted by a caseworker for Tuffree's insurance company who could not reach Tuffree by telephone.