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Denver Post
Fatal shots echo for cops who fired
Wednesday, July 16, 2003 - Three years after he fatally shot a man who charged at him holding a pipe and hunting knife, Denver police Sgt. Mike Mosco still thinks about it every day. Sometimes twice.
Homicide Detective Steve Shott figures he is alive today only because he twice chose to shoot. Division Chief Steve Cooper walks with bullet fragments in his leg and a lingering sense of sorrow from a shooting nearly 27 years ago. All say they wish they never had to shoot. "I would have been perfectly happy going through my entire career never having to use deadly force," Mosco said. The July 5 shooting death of 15-year-old Paul Childs has outraged Denver's black community and civil libertarians who have long criticized the department for its readiness to use deadly force. Yet for officers involved in fatal shootings, Childs' killing rekindles painful memories of their own life-or-death decisions - split-second calls that change lives forever. "Taking a life is always pretty powerful whether it's clean or not clean," said psychologist John Nicoletti, who counsels officers involved in shootings. Even "clean" shoots - ones cleared by the district attorney - can be devastating for an officer, Nicoletti said. The DA found no wrongdoing in the shootings by Mosco, Shott and Cooper and one by Detective John Wyckoff. An officer's life becomes a "before-and-after" situation, and the trauma can last forever, Nicoletti said. Many relive that exact moment whenever a familiar sight, sound or smell brings it rushing back to the forefront of their minds. "Nobody ever forgets it," he said. "You just don't want it to be the primary thing you focus on for the rest of your life." Nicoletti said no officers he has encountered were happy about a shooting. "If they are, they shouldn't be in law enforcement," he said. Most officers are reluctant to talk about the time they pulled the trigger. The officers who spoke with The Denver Post said they still hate what they had to do. "It is the worst thing that ever happened to me," Cooper said. "It was just survival. You want to go home again," Shott said. "He made me do something I didn't want to do," Wyckoff said. Mosco, a Denver officer since 1988, is now president of the police union. Among his other duties with the Police Protective Association, he helps officers after shootings. He seethes at suggestions that officers should be more willing to place themselves at risk to avoid hurting an armed suspect. "No police officer in the world gets paid to be killed," Mosco said. Mosco and another officer shot and killed a man in April 2000 after they sprayed him with pepper spray and backed up across the lawn while telling him to drop the knife and pipe. "He kept coming and coming. I was in total disbelief," Mosco said. Mosco was not charged with a crime, and over the past 27 years, only two officers in Denver have faced charges for shooting a suspect. Both were acquitted. Mosco was later promoted to sergeant but was sued in federal court, a civil action dismissed only recently. The shooting changed his life. He said he pays more attention to his family, especially his 8-year-old son, who has never been told about the shooting. "Not only my life has changed and those close to me, their lives have changed, and the lives of the family of the person who's shot. Their lives are forever changed as well," Mosco said. Detective Shott has been involved in two shootings. In 1974, a sniper in City Park opened fire and shot his partner. And 15 years ago, a burglary suspect fleeing with a VCR pulled a gun on him. He fired both times, killing the suspects. "I don't think about it as much as I used to. Time heals," Shott said. "I did think about it when I was working the streets." Shott credits his training for saving his life. "If it's a life-or-death situation, you react as you've been trained. It's a reflex," Shott said. "You look at them. They were were really clean shootings." Cooper shot after being shot in August 1976. As a patrolman, he and other officers tracked down a suspect in the fatal shooting of a man during an argument over a game of pool. The officers entered the apartment and soon were met with a hail of gunfire. "His intention was to shoot his way out," Cooper said. One officer was hit. Then the suspect turned his attention to Cooper, who had never fired his gun in the line of duty before that moment. "He shot me and I shot him. He hit me twice in the left leg," Cooper said. "I fired three times, and he was hit once in the chest and twice in the head." The man died. Cooper's femur was shattered. A bullet went through his knee. He had to relearn how to walk. And in that time he felt one main emotion, the same one he feels now: anger. "But I'm not angry because he shot me. I'm angry because he made me shoot him," Cooper said. "I didn't want to kill somebody. He made me do that, and I am still so angry with him for it. I didn't want to take anybody's life." Cooper said the shooting has made him more careful and determined to help other officers avoid pulling the trigger. "When I hear policemen talk, I can always tell the ones who've been in shootings and ones who haven't," Cooper said. "The ones who haven't really don't understand, and thank God they don't." Detective Wyckoff has investigated more than 100 police shootings as a homicide detective and himself killed an armed man. One night in 1986, Wyckoff was pursuing a suspect who was hiding in a hay field. Wyckoff approached him, and the man said he was scared and begged the detective not to shoot. "All of a sudden I was blinded by the blast of the gun," Wyckoff said. The man shot at him but missed. Wyckoff fired back and killed him. Even now, Wyckoff said he is amazed at the criticism an officer can take. "We have this unique job. Everyone else knows how to do it better than we do," Wyckoff said. After investigating so many shootings and living with his own, Wyckoff said a police shooting is the last thing anyone ever wants. "In police shootings, there are no winners," Wyckoff said. "Everybody's a loser on both sides." |