Officer who shot teen suspended for other 'alleged law violation'

By Karen Abbott, Rocky Mountain News
July 9, 2003

Black ministers called Tuesday for a federal civil rights probe of the Denver Police Department and demanded that an officer who shot a mentally disabled teen to death be banned forever from patrol.

Their demands joined those of state and federal lawmakers, who also began insisting on an investigation and changes in police policies.

On Tuesday, Denver police announced that they had suspended officer James Turney with pay, three days after he shot to death 15-year-old Paul Childs at the boy's family home in northeast Denver.

His suspension was the result of an additional investigation into a different "alleged law violation" - unrelated to the shooting Saturday, said Detective John White. He had already been placed on administrative leave immediately after the shooting.

The new internal investigation began Monday.

In criticizing the Childs shooting, members of the Greater Metro Denver Ministerial Alliance used the harshest terms to describe Turney, who was one of two officers who shot and killed a hearing-impaired black teen last year in the same neighborhood.

"He would be more at home in the white sheets of the Ku Klux Klan," said the Rev. James D. Peters Jr., pastor of New Hope Baptist Church where the alliance called a news conference Tuesday morning. Peters is the group's vice president for community affairs.

Efforts to get comment from a police department lawyer or Police Chief Gerry Whitman were unsuccessful.

Mayor-elect John Hickenlooper declined to talk in detail about the case, saying he didn't have all the facts. "My heart goes out to the family," he said.

U.S. Rep. Diana DeGette, D-Colo., said Tuesday that the number of shootings by Denver police is "disturbingly high."

"A thorough and open investigation is critical," she said through a spokesman.

DeGette also called for a review of the department's "use of force" rules and community relations policies.

In Washington, D.C., Jorge Martinez, spokesman for the U.S. Justice Department's civil rights division, said he could not disclose whether a Denver investigation is planned.

Three state legislators from Denver wrote to the family of the slain teen, promising a complete probe and "the necessary steps to ensure a different future."

The letter was from Reps. Terrance Carroll and Rosemary Marshall, and Sen. Peter Groff, all Democrats.

The alliance also demanded new limits on the use of lethal force by Denver cops.

"It is the height of arrogance and a total disregard for all human life for the department on the one hand to call this a tragedy, and in the next breath to say that the officer was within his rights to kill this child," said alliance president the Rev. Reginald Holmes, pastor of New Covenant Christian Church.

But the ministers said they don't expect Denver District Attorney Bill Ritter to charge the officer in the teen's death.

"It seems almost impossible for district attorneys and prosecutors to bring justice to a bad, lawbreaking police officer when they must work so closely with each other," Peters said.

"We have read the regulations and know that probably the officials in our city cannot or will not be able to prosecute this vagabond child-killer because he was at the right number of feet from the victim that the law allows."

Ritter, who met privately with the ministers moments before their news conference, said it's too soon to decide whether Turney will be charged.

"I will not make any decision until I've seen the entire investigation and had time to think about that," Ritter said.

If Turney isn't charged, Ritter said, the entire investigative file will be made public - his usual practice in such cases.

Ritter said Colorado law allows a peace officer to use deadly physical force when that individual officer has a "reasonable" belief that someone is about to use deadly force against the officer or someone else.

"So the focus is on the reasonableness of the officer's belief," Ritter said.

An ordinary citizen also is allowed to use deadly force in such circumstances, but is required to show afterward that a lesser degree of force would have been inadequate, he said.

Peace officers don't have to make such a showing.

A 2001 investigation by the Rocky Mountain News found that, in the previous decade, 126 Denver police officers had shot 91 people, 35 of whom died.

Some 38 percent involved white officers shooting minorities.

Two officers were charged. Both were acquitted. Five others were disciplined with suspensions or other actions.

Turney, who joined the Denver police force in 1998, shot a hearing-impaired black teen to death last year. Turney was not charged with any crime in that incident.

"He is a disgrace to the uniform of a police officer," Peters said.

"We don't want his kind in our community. We don't want his kind in our city. And we definitely don't want his kind on our police force."

The ministers also demanded sensitivity training for all Denver police officers, 911 operators and dispatchers in dealing with mentally challenged and mentally ill people.

Holmes said the group believes a 911 operator who took the telephone call for help from Paul Childs' 16-year-old sister, and police dispatchers, "created this situation in many ways by escalating it."

Recordings of the 911 call show that Ashley Childs was calm when she spoke with the operator, but that dispatchers and officers were told the situation was more serious than it was, Holmes said.

"There was language there that was given to the police officers that did not match what was actually going on in the home," Holmes said.

Ashley Childs told the 911 operator that her brother was trying to stab their mother with a 6-inch kitchen knife.

The new board should be able to set police policies and procedures and recommend to prosecutors "all possible punitive measures" for officers guilty of wrongdoing, he said.

The ministers asked residents to work peacefully to change the system.

"We urge our community not to fight back with violent responses to the actions of this one dreary officer," Peters said. "That is what some people want.

"Let us be too intelligent, too God-fearing and too moral to stoop to the low levels of physical violence and corroding hatred.

"We will cry if we must, march if we decide to, but we will not fight him and those who think like him with carnal weapons.

"But we will fight."

abbottk@RockyMountainNews.com or (303) 892-5188 News staff reporter Lynn Bartels contributed to this report.

Copyright 2003, Rocky Mountain News. All Rights Reserved.