Denver Post

Rethink rules on deadly force

Tuesday, July 08, 2003 - In a scenario that's way too familiar, Denver police once again have some explaining to do about a fatal shooting. This time, the victim was a 15-year-old developmentally disabled youth gunned down inside the doorway of his Park Hill home.

It is, indeed, too soon to reach many conclusions about what transpired and led to the death of Paul Childs, who allegedly was holding a knife when he was shot. But it is not too soon to ask some fundamental questions about how the Denver Police Department handles such situations.

DPD policy says that it's OK to shoot somebody if they are armed with a knife and are within 21 feet of an officer. Fine. But why would officers get closer than 21 feet to a person armed with a knife? That apparently was the case in the Childs shooting: The officer who shot the youth was reportedly within 4 to 6 feet of the victim.

There's no question that some people in this world are extremely dangerous, but we can't help wonder why four police officers couldn't subdue or disable Childs without killing him.

"We're not dealing with officers shooting to wound," said Assistant District Attorney Chuck Lepley. "They're trying to neutralize and control the situation as quickly as possible. The training is not to shoot knives or guns out of someone's hand or wing someone."

That is too glib an answer: Nobody expects cops to perform Hollywood- style tricks with their sidearms. But we do expect them to use some judgment. "Shoot the perp" can't be the answer to every situation.

The guidelines the Denver cops follow on the use of deadly force are quite broad. Deadly force should be a last resort for police - just as it is for ordinary citizens. A police officer may use deadly force in self-defense or to protect the life of another.

(In scores of shootings over the past 26 years, only two Denver cops have faced criminal charges.)

In the most recent incident, officers said they were unable to use a Taser - an electronic stun gun - to subdue the youth, who refused two orders to drop the knife.

In the wake of widely publicized cases such as the September 1999 killing of Mexican immigrant Ismael Mena in a botched no-knock raid, Denver police added more non-lethal equipment to their arsenal, but the department uses deadly force more than Las Vegas, Phoenix, Philadelphia or Chicago.

There has to be a better way of "neutralizing" a mentally challenged teen well short of killing him.

In the aftermath of Saturday's tragedy, some leaders of Denver's black community questioned whether Paul Childs would have been shot if he had been white. Sadly, the answer is probably "yes."

We recall that Jeffery Truax, who was shot to death by off-duty cop Ken Chavez in 1996, was white. So was Anne Barnett, the 60-year-old grandmother killed in 1992 after two officers went to her apartment building to protect her from an abusive son. Denver cops clearly can be equal-opportunity shooters.

What the Denver police need to do is to learn how to disarm or disable suspects without killing them every time. We realize there are situations where officers have no choice, but we also expect them to use more judgment and show more patience and humanity than Robocop.