Officer Involved
50 years after police killing, would aftermath change?
By R.E. Graswich
December 2024
Fifty years ago, at 12:30 a.m. on Dec. 31, 1974, a Sacramento Police homicide lieutenant named Robbie Waters left the bar at Neptune’s Table restaurant on South Land Park Drive and killed Terry Lee Miranda with a bullet between the eyes.
There were mitigating circumstances. Moments before Waters pulled the trigger on his service revolver, Miranda pointed a shotgun at the detective and said, “We want your money.”
Miranda and his crime partner, Christopher Thomas Garland, were young criminals, Miranda 22, Garland 21. Neither expected to meet a plain-clothes policeman in the suburban mall parking lot.
They realized their mistake when Waters said, “I’m a cop. Drop the shotgun.”
A silent moment passed. Then Garland yelled, “He’s a cop. Kill him.”
Waters shot first. Miranda, mortally wounded and stumbling back, discharged one shotgun round into the winter night.
A final burst of gunpowder ended the violence. Garland, in a getaway car, punched the gas and sped toward South Land Park.
Waters aimed at the vehicle. He blasted out the back window and hit Garland as he gripped the steering wheel. Garland was arrested six hours later after he visited a hospital to treat his severed thumb.
Waters eventually left the police to become a politician. He ran for county sheriff and won, opened a hardware store and picture frame shop in Pocket, and served four terms on City Council, where he packed a derringer. He died in 2020 from coronavirus, age 84.
Robbie Waters was my friend. We discussed the Neptune’s Table incident many times, often at Giovanni’s Old World New York Pizzeria, a few hundred feet from the robbery site.
Waters described how time froze when he squared off with Miranda. “It was no more than a second or two, but it seemed like an eternity.”
We discussed how disturbed he was by the aftermath. The robbers had connections to a prison gang. Authorities believed the gang sought vengeance. Waters had police protection to keep his family safe.
Today I’m intrigued by something else. I wonder how the shooting would land now—same facts, but a new era of policies, politics and accountability.
Would Waters’ exit from a bar at 12:30 a.m. influence the investigation? Would an off-duty cop face consequences for shooting into a moving vehicle after an armed robbery attempt?
Robbie told me his colleagues handled the case with professionalism. He admitted drinking that night—maybe six or seven vodka tonics.
But then and now, alcohol consumption doesn’t disqualify someone from defending themselves against armed robbers. Waters legally carried his concealed weapon.
At his sentencing, Garland claimed Waters was “obviously drunk” when he shot Miranda as Miranda backed away. Waters gave no blood samples. Four civilian witnesses and six police officers testified he showed no signs of drunkenness.
Police colleagues investigated their lieutenant’s actions, but not without oversight. The district attorney sent investigators. Waters told me the California Highway Patrol was involved. He admitted modern rules would discourage shooting into an escaping vehicle.
Fifty years ago, Waters was a hero. Chief Deputy District Attorney Geoffrey Burroughs wrote the detective showed “an example of police professionalism at its best.”
Burroughs noted, “Had Lt. Waters made a mistake or lost control of the situation, it is fair to assume he would have lost his life.”
Of that, Robbie had no doubt. “They were going to kill me,” he told me.
I asked Sacramento Police how they would investigate the shooting today. The department didn’t offer an opinion.
I turned to veteran city police officers. They were babies or not born in December 1974, but they knew about the shooting.
They told me the investigation would require deeper involvement by outside agencies and inquiries into Waters’ blood-alcohol level. Shooting at the car was problematic. But the conclusion was the same. A shotgun cancels your options.
After the shooting, Neptune’s Table blundered onward. It became a disco, Scottish pub and sushi joint. The building was demolished about a decade ago.
Robbie Waters avoided that end of the mall. He liked Giovanni’s.
R.E. Graswich can be reached at regraswich@icloud.com. Follow us on Facebook and Instagram: @insidesacramento.
