[HPN] all they care about is their dog

[Coalition on Homelessness, SF]

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http://www.latimes.com:80/news/state/20000210/t000013226.html

Thursday, February 10, 2000

San Diego to Review Policy After Shooting by Police Inquiry:
The mayor's announcement is made after months of complaints and demands
from activists.

By TONY PERRY, Times Staff Writer


     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.


END FORWARD

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