Pubdate: Fri, 10 May 2002
Source: Mobile Register (AL)
Copyright: 2002 Mobile Register.
Contact:  http://www.al.com/mobileregister/today/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/269
Author: Jeb Schrenk, Staff Reporter

QUESTIONS SURROUND SHOOTING

Investigators' Report Raises Doubts About Whether Officers Who Fired Into 
Vehicle Actually Felt Their Lives Were In Danger

Of the two Prichard officers who shot into a car last year in the Alabama 
Village community, one of them reported fearing for his life, though 
evidence does not appear to support his contention, according to a report 
by Prichard investigators.

Prichard Police Chief Sammie Brown has said both officers, Eric Pettway and 
Aaron Tucker, felt their lives were in danger. Brown has said they followed 
proper procedure when firing at the vehicle, wounding three of the four 
occupants.

Police did not report finding any weapons at the scene.

Thursday evening, Brown stood by his decision and said that both officers 
told him at the scene of the Dec. 11 shooting that they felt their lives 
were in danger, which Brown said was a judgment call.

"I have to believe what that officer says," Brown said. "He was there, and 
we weren't."

The investigator's report, released Thursday by the district attorney's 
office, states, in part, "Evidence found does not appear to support Officer 
Tucker's belief that his life was in fact (in) danger.

"Pettway stated that at no time did he feel his life was in danger and only 
fired at the vehicle tires."

The district attorney's office released the summary report but none of the 
supporting documents. The prosecutor's office is conducting a separate 
investigation, and the case will go to a grand jury, prosecutors said. Both 
officers are on paid leave.

When asked why Pettway would tell Brown his life was in danger and then 
later tell investigators that he didn't believe his life was in danger, 
Brown said, "I don't have an answer for that."

The report states 26 shell casings were found at the scene on Madison Avenue.

The shooting prompted what is believed to be a retaliatory attack the next 
day, when gunfire intended for police killed 6-year-old Kearis Bonham, 
police have said. Two officers were injured in that attack.

In the Village shooting, Brown has said the officers pulled behind the car. 
One of the officers reported firing shots as the car backed up toward him 
and his partner; the second officer reported shooting at the wheels, Brown 
said.

According to the report, Pettway said he and Tucker stopped the car because 
the occupants were not wearing seatbelts, and he smelled marijuana as the 
car passed them. It states the officers got out of their car and were 
standing in the "door jam area" when the car they had stopped began to move 
back toward them, ramming into the patrol car.

Pettway said he began shooting at the tires, and Tucker said he began 
firing at the sides of the vehicle.

"Forensic evidence found at the scene does not appear to support the 
officers' statements as to where they were when they started shooting," the 
report concludes. "Shell casings were found at various locations at the 
scene which is not consistent with the officers' statement(s) as to firing 
from the door jam."

Brown said marijuana was found in the car after the shooting but, as of 
this week, no charges had been filed against the driver or passengers -- 
Kenta Todd, then 23, Clifford Williams, then 19, Freddrick Hatcher, then 
20, and Thomas Thomas , then 20, according to Prichard police. The 
investigators' report lists Thomas' name as Thomas Thomm.

Williams was critically wounded and was at the University of South Alabama 
Hospital for more than a week. Todd, shot in the chest, and Hatcher, shot 
in the back, were treated and released the day of the shooting. Thomas, who 
police said fled from the scene, apparently was not injured.

It is unclear what Police Department shooting procedures were being 
followed at the time of the shooting.

Police initially denied a Mobile Register request for a copy of the policy 
on deadly force that was in effect at the time of the shooting. Last week, 
however, the city sent the newspaper a copy of the rules police said were 
in effect. But those guidelines differ from the ones Brown sent the 
district attor ney's office April 11, which were released Thursday by that 
office.

When questioned Thursday about the two sets of guidelines, Brown said he 
didn't realize that the department had two different policies dealing with 
the use of deadly force. He said he did not know that the district 
attorney's office and the newspaper had not received the same policy.

The documents Brown released were the ones his staff forwarded to him, so 
there apparently were two different policies in effect at the time of the 
shooting, he said.

The policy received by the district attorney's office states that officers 
"shall exercise extreme caution when firing into a moving vehicle, 
especially when the officer is also in a moving vehicle."

The policy sent to the Register states, "Officers shall not fire their 
weapons at or from moving vehicles, unless deadly physical force other than 
the vehicle is being used or about to be used against the officer or 
another person."

Brown has said the policies had been adopted before he became chief in 
2000. "Both of these came out of the existing manual when I got here," 
Brown said. "Which gives more credence to why they should be rewritten. 
This would be confusing to anybody."

Brown said that while the policy that the city provided to the Register 
generally restricted officers from firing into vehicles, another section of 
the guidelines allows a police officer to use deadly force to protect 
himself or another person from imminent death or serious physical injury.

He said because of that, the department amended the policy. The new 
wording, provided by the department, states: "Officers shall not fire their 
weapons from moving vehicles, unless deadly physical force, the vehicle is 
being used or about to be used against the officer or another person as a 
weapon."

When it was brought to Brown's attention that the wording does not make 
sense, he said it should read, "Officers shall not fire their weapons from 
moving vehicles, unless deadly physical force or another vehicle is being 
used or about to be used against the officer or another person as the weapon."

The chief said he would make the change.
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