Denver Post

Residents demand justice in death of 'innocent kid'
By Kirk Mitchell and Sean Kelly
Denver Post Staff Writers

Friday, October 17, 2003 - People vented their frustration Thursday outside Ned's Food Market, a popular convenience store a block from the Park Hill home where a police officer fatally shot a developmentally disabled teen.

"That's messed up," said Travis Johnson, 17, after learning that District Attorney Bill Ritter will not file criminal charges against officer James Turney in the July 5 shooting death of 15-year-old Paul Childs. "He was an innocent kid."

Sitting with three other older men, a man identified only as "Tex" called out: "They kill our black kids and don't file charges."

Across Holly Street inside a busy car repair garage, Victor Pate predicted that Ritter's lack of action would have consequences.

"It sends a message that another officer can go out and do it again," Pate said. "You can go out and do anything, and nothing is done downtown."

Many residents of the Park Hill neighborhood expressed anger but also ambivalence.

"It's something you have to live with," mechanic William King said Thursday. "We want to speak out, but it does no good."

Several community leaders vowed action or called for broader community involvement.

"It goes beyond the black community," said the Rev. Acen Phillips, pastor at Mount Gilead Baptist Church and a member of the Greater Metro Denver Ministerial Alliance. "This type of killing affects everybody."

Phillips encouraged a peaceful response. "We don't want to see our community blow up," he said.

The Rev. Reginald Holmes, president of the ministerial alliance and pastor at New Covenant Christian Church, said it is unfair to ask ministers to keep the peace in a community where there is shooting after shooting.

He condemned the DA's decision and accused Ritter of approaching the case too "legally and clinically."

DEMANDS

Members of the Greater Metro Denver Ministerial Alliance on Thursday renewed their call for the city to meet five demands: Officer James Turney should be taken off his patrol shift and never again work the streets. All Denver police officers, 911 operators and dispatchers should undergo new training to deal with the mentally disabled. The use-of-force policy should be changed to explicitly state that less-lethal force is the primary option for officers. The federal government should intervene and investigate alleged civil-rights abuses by police, and an independent review of all police functions should take place. The city should create a stronger citizen review board "with some teeth in it" that can make powerful recommendations to the district attorney.

"We're still talking about a child here who was killed," Holmes said.

Civil rights activist Alvertis Simmons called for a citywide boycott on Monday in which people would stay home from work and pray and teach their children about civil disobedience.

At 4:30 p.m. Monday, a march beginning at city hall will go to Denver police headquarters and demand Turney's badge, Simmons said.

"We demand that officer Turney be fired today, not through a civil service process and not through a court action," he said.

He said a new organization called the "All People's Party" - patterned after the Black Panthers - will be formed to spearhead community activism.

"Instead of guns, our weapons will be camcorders and cameras," Simmons said. They will capture police brutality on film, he said.

But some Park Hill residents were skeptical that Denver's black community would rise to the occasion. They decried a lack of leadership, saying that if something similar happened in Miami or Los Angeles, leaders there would have already reacted.

"If this was L.A., it would have turned into a riot. We're a little bit slow," said Leonard Malone, 53, while he was getting a haircut at The Shop at Steve's. "We don't have a lot of leaders. We'll just let it blow over."

Several residents said Childs was a lovable nuisance who would wander the streets and make new friends on his scooter. Police were called so often when he was lost that officers knew where he lived.

In a shopping center across the street from Ned's Food Market, Leah Gilmer, 66, a child-care worker at "Little Saints" day care, teared up.

"To think a mother could call the police for help and end up with the biggest nightmare of her life," Gilmer said. Turney "should at least face a jury."