Denver Post

Wedgeworth asks for Childs probe
By Jim Kirksey
Denver Post Staff Writer

Thursday, July 24, 2003 - Denver's new city council president promised Wednesday to press for changes to help prevent future incidents like the one that ended with the death of a 15-year-old mentally disabled youth at the hands of the police earlier this month.

Elbra Wedgeworth, elected council president Monday, told a crowd of more than 50 people at a community town hall meeting in northeast Denver that she has written a letter to U.S. Attorney John Suthers asking for an independent investigation into the July 5 shooting of Paul Childs.

Suthers spokesman Jeff Dorschner told the Associated Press that the request would be referred to the Justice Department's civil rights division in Washington.

Childs was shot and killed after his sister called police to the home when Paul grabbed a knife with an 8-inch blade from the kitchen. The 16-year-old sister, Ashley, called police because "my brother has a knife, and he's trying to stab my mother with it," according to a transcript of the 911 call.

The shooting has increased tensions between the community and the police.

The incident is being investigated by the Denver police, and the officer who fired the shots has been suspended while he is investigated for alleged threats he made to his former mother-in-law in a separate incident.

Wedgeworth also said she has plans to:

Have the shooting policy of the Denver police reviewed.

Push for funding for a counseling service run by the Greater Denver Ministerial Alliance to support families in the community like Paul Childs' family.

Try to put some teeth in the Denver Public Safety Review Commission, which hears citizen complaints and reviews police discipline, but has no authority.

Wedgeworth said that when she appoints a council public-safety committee, "One of the first things I'm going to ask this committee to do is to look into this."

She said she wants the new police chief, when he's appointed, to visit the northeast Denver community, and she wants District Attorney Bill Ritter to do the same.

New City Councilman-at-large Doug Linkhart said, "We've got to look at this policy (that prescribes when police can shoot). It doesn't make sense."

The meeting was to talk about Childs' death and what the community can do to prevent similar deaths.

Alvertis Simmons, community activist and organizer of the meeting, set the tone for the meeting by saying, "A lot of people are angry. A lot of people are scared. A lot of people are upset. What are we going to do about it?"

Simmons told the gathering he has gotten calls from around the country "about how we did not tear this city up.

"We did not let this become another Benton Harbor," he said, referring to the Michigan town where two nights of riots broke out last month after a black motorcyclist died in a police chase.