Pubdate: Wed, 07 Jan 2004
Source: Courier-Journal, The (KY)
Copyright: 2004 The Courier-Journal
Contact:  http://www.courier-journal.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/97
Author: Laura Bauer, The Courier-Journal
Note: Staff writer Joe Follick and the Associated Press contributed to this 
story.
Note: MAP archives articles exactly as published, except that our editors 
may redact the names and addresses of accused persons who have not been 
convicted of a crime, if those named are not otherwise public figures or 
officials.
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/people/Michael+Newby

SHOOTING REPORT SUBMITTED

Police Send Outline of Investigation to Prosecutor; FBI Also Investigating

The Rev. Alvin Herring of New Covenant Community African Methodist 
Episcopal Church said the black community is sick of "governmental 
indifference."

Metro Police Chief Robert White, left, said Officer McKenzie G. Mattingly 
"can't exercise his Fifth Amendment rights with us" during the department's 
administrative review of the shooting.

Louisville Metro Police Chief Robert White said yesterday that he has sent 
a preliminary report of Saturday's fatal shooting involving an officer to 
the Jefferson commonwealth's attorney's office, but it will be at least a 
month before the criminal investigation is complete.

In another development, the FBI said yesterday that it is investigating the 
death of 19-year-old Michael Newby, who was shot three times in the back by 
an undercover police officer during an alleged attempted drug buy.

David Beyer, an FBI spokesman in Louisville, said the investigation 
involving Officer McKenzie G. Mattingly was initiated early this week.

Beyer said he couldn't predict how long the FBI's investigation would take. 
Once it is finished, a copy will be provided to the U.S. attorney's office 
in Louisville, and it also will be reviewed by the Civil Rights Division of 
the Justice Department in Washington.

The FBI's report would have no bearing on the local prosecutor's case, 
Beyer said.

"We're looking at the facts of the case to determine whether the man's 
civil rights were violated," he said.

Local authorities don't expect to be talking with Mattingly until the 
criminal investigation is complete.

Mattingly, on the advice of his attorneys, is not talking with members of 
the police Public Integrity Unit conducting the criminal investigation, 
according to Mary Sharp, a Fraternal Order of Police attorney.

But White noted yesterday that Mattingly will have to talk to officials 
during the department's administrative review, in which the Professional 
Standards unit will determine if any department policies or procedures were 
violated.

"He can't exercise his Fifth Amendment rights with us," White said. 
"Administratively he has a responsibility to us. ... I'm going to order him 
to speak to me."

Though the administrative review often is conducted parallel to the 
criminal investigation, White said officials don't want anything to 
interfere with the work of the Public Integrity Unit. According to law, 
nothing an officer says in an administrative review can be used against him 
or her in a criminal investigation.

Sharp, who is representing Mattingly in the administrative review, said the 
officer "acknowledges all of his responsibilities to the department and 
community and will absolutely recite the facts of that night at the 
appropriate time."

Without Mattingly's account of what happened in a grocery-store parking lot 
in the 4600 block of West Market Street late Saturday when Newby was shot, 
investigators are relying on what witnesses saw and heard.

Police officials have said that Mattingly, a flex platoon officer with 
David District, was working as an undercover officer attempting to buy 
drugs from Newby.

White said the two struggled over Mattingly's weapon and the gun 
discharged. The chief said Newby then ran off, and Mattingly fired his 
weapon four times at the fleeing suspect. Three of those bullets hit Newby 
in the back, and he died just after midnight at University Hospital.

Officials confirmed yesterday that drugs found on Newby were a form of 
cocaine. Helene Kramer, a metro police spokeswoman, said the drugs are 
being tested to determine the amount. Newby also had a .45-caliber handgun 
in his waistband, police said.

When asked yesterday whether the gun was loaded, Kramer said "that's part 
of the investigation." She said it also isn't known if Mattingly knew Newby 
was armed.

Saturday Drug Arrests

Police have said that Mattingly and four or five of his David District flex 
platoon colleagues had been conducting a drug investigation when 
information led them into the Sixth District, where Newby was shot.

Authorities won't release details regarding the alleged drug buy attempt.

But court records provide additional information about the flex platoon's 
drug investigation and arrests Saturday night of three other men.

[names and addresses deleted] were arrested on charges of first-degree 
trafficking in a controlled substance. Records show that [names deleted] 
were arrested at 5:15 p.m. Saturday along Dixie Highway after allegedly 
selling $100 worth of crack cocaine to an undercover officer.

Each incident report lists Mattingly as a witness. On the report detailing 
[name deleted]'s arrest, one of the detectives wrote: "Detective Mattingly 
spoke to this subject via cellphone."

Later Saturday night the flex platoon went into the Sixth District to 
conduct "a controlled narcotics buy," arrest records show.

Kramer said the flex platoon was, at the time, "strategically placed in two 
locations," although she didn't elaborate.

A police report said that at 11:44 p.m. an undercover officer gave Shabazz 
$100 for crack cocaine at Longworth and Market streets. The report said 
Shabazz ran away from an undercover officer and was arrested at 11:50 p.m. 
after dropping "two baggies of crack cocaine."

Police have said Mattingly shot Newby at about 11:45 p.m. in the parking 
lot of H&S Groceries, which is near the corner of Longworth and Market.

Investigation's Path

White said in an interview yesterday that members of the Public Integrity 
Unit continue to talk to witnesses and collect evidence. The task is to put 
all the pieces together, he said.

"People saw and people heard," he said. "There are eyewitnesses who saw 
parts of it. ... There are a lot of unanswered questions and unresolved 
issues with this incident."

The one-page preliminary report provided to the commonwealth's attorney 
Monday offers a "brief sketch outlining where the investigation appears to 
be going," said Jeff Derouen, communications director for the 
commonwealth's attorney's office.

Derouen said the commonwealth's attorney's office doesn't typically request 
a preliminary report but did in this case so attorneys could be prepared 
when the final report comes in.

"It gives us groundwork so we know where we need to be looking and asking 
questions so we're not taken by surprise," Derouen said.

Derouen said the commonwealth's attorney's office did not request a 
preliminary report in December 2002 when a Louisville police officer shot 
and killed James Taylor, who was handcuffed but holding a box-cutter knife.

Newby was the seventh African-American man to be fatally shot by officers 
in the metro Louisville area in the past five years. In each case, the 
officer was white. No officer has been charged or disciplined in the shootings.

In the days since Newby was killed, civil-rights groups have urged White to 
stop what they describe as a trend.

Some people said they have given up hope that an officer will be held 
accountable after a shooting.

"This ain't nothing new to us," said Carmen Pope, 31, who was working at 
Eddie's Liquor, near the shooting scene, Saturday night before the 
shooting. "This happens every year, and nothing's going to happen to the 
police officer. When is it going to end?"

White said yesterday that he believes that the department has, within the 
past year, begun to regain credibility in parts of the community, including 
among African Americans. He urged everyone to continue working together.

"We need to allow the judicial system to investigate this, and we need to 
reserve our perceptions and conclusions until we have an end result," the 
chief said. "I'm going to do what's legal, moral and right and am not going 
to be pressured by any particular group, the FOP or the media. I have a 
responsibility to this community to do the right thing, and that's what I'm 
going to do."

Community Outrage

But a group of African-American ministers yesterday said police are 
committing "terrorism" against the black community. They announced a series 
of meetings and protests.

"Our community is sick," said the Rev. Alvin Herring of New Covenant 
Community African Methodist Episcopal Church in Jeffersontown. "It is sick 
with police violence and governmental indifference or ineffectiveness."

Before the news that the FBI was investigating, the Rev. George Moore, 
pastor of Quinn Chapel AME, said that the ministers also would ask the 
federal government to investigate.

"We have lost faith in the police department and city government," Moore said.

The ministers from several denominations said they have coordinated a 
series of events that will use Newby's death to push for changes in the 
police department.

The Rev. Louis Coleman, director of the Justice Resource Center, said his 
group will be joined by others, including University of Louisville 
students, in protesting and praying outside police headquarters at 5 p.m. 
tomorrow. Kramer said officers will monitor the protest.

Newby's funeral is scheduled for 1 p.m. tomorrow at Oak Grove Missionary 
Baptist Church.

Members of the African Methodist Episcopal Ministerial Alliance will play 
host to a community forum at Quinn Chapel AME at 11 a.m. Saturday, and 
other gatherings are planned.

The Rev. James Tennyson, a Justice Resource Center member, blamed 
"Klansman-like" police officers for inflaming the black community "just 
this far from erupting."

While the AME ministers said repeatedly that White and Metro Mayor Jerry 
Abramson were not the target of their anger, Coleman brushed aside the 
mayor's pleas to wait for an investigation, saying if that many people had 
been "killed in his neighborhood, he wouldn't be out there saying, 'Let's 
wait and see.'"
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