[HPN] Police under scrutiny after killing of homeless unnamed man

[William Tinker]

2-10-2000
President Clinton:
Advocates for Homeless:
Come on now how can anyone say that the police were justfied in shooting
this man!
What are we advocates and the politicians going to do about this type of
ethnic cleansing?
Because it appears to me that is what is happening by these so called
protectors of your rights!
Makes me want to call 911 even more and wave a finger or olive branch.. Gees
what are we going to do people allow this crap to go on or stand and be
counted?
"A Brother In Peace And In Strife"
                 Bill Tinker


San Diego to Review Policy After Shooting by Police

 Inquiry: The mayor's announcement is made after months of complaints and
 demands from activists.


 SAN DIEGO--In the wake of a fatal police shooting of a man waving a
 tree branch, Mayor Susan Golding announced Wednesday that the City Council
 will publicly review the Police Department's policy on the use of deadly
 force.

 A coalition of African American and Latino activists, backed by former
 Mayor Maureen O'Connor, called months ago for the council to hold such a
 session to allow community members to express their concern and, in some
 cases, their outrage over police conduct in a number of cases. That demand
 came after the fatal July police shooting of former pro football player
 Demetrius Dubose in the Mission Beach neighborhood.

 Golding said she had decided even before Tuesday's shooting of a man
 described by police as mentally disturbed to put the issue on the council
 agenda for Feb. 22.

 She added that she wants to wait until hearing the police chief and
 others at the session before deciding whether the policy or training should
 be changed. "We may come to the conclusion that it's a good policy," she
 said.

 Golding's announcement came just hours after two City Council members
 held a news conference to express their annoyance with her for not
complying
 with earlier requests for a public review of the shooting policy, which
 calls for deadly force only when officers have a reasonable belief that
they
 or others face imminent threat of death or serious bodily injury.

 "This to me should be sufficient to get her attention," Councilman
 George Stevens said of the latest shooting.

 Stevens said he is concerned that police continue firing when a suspect
 is down and no longer a threat. "How many shots are enough?" he asked.

 Roman Catholic Msgr. Joseph Carroll, who runs the city's largest
 shelter for the homeless, said Tuesday's shooting in the Midway commercial
 district was caused by police officers' irrational fear of the homeless and
 the mentally ill.

 "There is a sense of fear here that I think police overreacted to,"
 said Carroll, who joined Stevens and Councilman Byron Wear, both of whom
are
 campaigning for mayor. "That person had some rights. . . . We've got to
 learn to reach out to these people rather than be afraid of them."

 Golding, in a telephone interview, dismissed Carroll's assertion as
 "pure speculation."

 "The last thing I want to do is speculate on a matter like this,"
 Golding said. "Father Carroll wasn't there; I wasn't there."

> The shooting occurred after police responded to a call from two people
 who complained that a man, without provocation, had hit them on the head
 with a stick.

 Five officers responded and ordered the man to drop the stick, later
 described as a three-foot tree branch. Police say that the man, who was
 outside a McDonald's restaurant, became combative and "suddenly charged at
 them."

 Three officers fired from a distance of eight to 15 feet. The man,
 about 35 years old, was pronounced dead at the UC San Diego Medical Center.
 The man carried no identification and had not yet been identified by
 authorities Wednesday afternoon.

 "It was very clear this individual was of an assaultive nature," said
 Lt. Ray Sigwalt of the homicide unit, who added that police had had an
 encounter with him two weeks earlier.

 Witnesses told reporters that the man became agitated when a police dog
 rushed toward him. In the melee, the dog was struck in the paw by a bullet
 fired by one of the officers.

 The dog, a German shepherd named Hasso, was rushed to a veterinary
 hospital for emergency surgery. Two San Diego television stations showed
the
 dog undergoing surgery while worried police officers hovered near the
 operating table.

 The issue of the dog seemed to fan the controversy. A day after the
 shooting, the corner where it took place was festooned with flower
memorials
 and small protest signs, including one reading, "Police murdered a human
 being but all they care about is their dog."

 In the Dubose case last July, the former Tampa Bay Buccaneer linebacker
 was shot after a confrontation with officers in which he tussled with them
 and took away their martial arts weapons. The case, after other
high-profile
 police shootings of black suspects across the nation, drew criticism from
 the Urban League and other civil rights groups.

 San Diego police have shot and killed three people this year. Five were
 killed last year and three in 1998.Only one San Diego officer has ever been
 charged criminally in an on-duty shooting.