October 21, 2003

Some of what people are saying about the latest police shooting death in Denver makes no sense at all. For example, a neighbor of Luis Manuel Rodelas-Acuna, the man who was killed, insists he "was not a violent person." But as a matter of fact we know he was a violent person. Even more to the point, we know he was violent toward police. A jury convicted him of assaulting an officer in a fracas occurring Christmas Day 1999.

In that incident, Rodelas-Acuna threw a stone at one officer's head (which the officer blocked with his hand) before he and his mother, who pleaded guilty to criminal trespass, ended up in a brawl with officers. Police also arrested Rodelas-Acuna's father, who had seized a shovel, and they used pepper spray to pacify other belligerent people who poured out of the house.

"It is apparent that the defendant has issues concerning authority figures," a probation officer wrote in Rodelas-Acuna's pre-sentence report. "He also requires counseling for anger management and alcohol abuse."

Just because Rodelas-Acuna attacked a police officer once doesn't mean he necessarily did so again last weekend just before he was shot and killed, but it certainly gives the lie to any notion he was incapable of such a suicidal act. Three different people - Rodelas-Acuna's wife, father and a neighbor - called 911 before the officer arrived on the scene, and dispatchers were told he had been violent. The man who needed anger management before his sentencing in 2001 was still apparently in need of it before his final confrontation with police.

Rodelas-Acuna's death is the eighth this year at the hands of Denver cops - a tally large enough that City Council President Elbra Wedgeworth wants an independent analysis of the lot. "Whether the shootings were justified or not justified should be determined by an independent review," Wedgeworth said.

We'd probably agree if we thought there were evidence that authorities were whitewashing indefensible shootings, but we don't. These eight shootings are not shrouded in mystery. Three of the people killed, including two of three since the controversial shooting of Paul Childs in July, pointed a gun at police or actually tried to shoot an officer. A fourth pointed a laser-sighted crossbow at police. Of the remaining four, three were armed with knives and one - Rodelas-Acuna - allegedly with a pickax. These last cases are naturally more ambiguous, and two have provoked understandable concern: the Childs shooting and another in which police kicked down a door behind which a drunken, disturbed man with a knife had locked himself; the man responded by charging police.

We understand why some people would second-guess police in one or both of those cases, but what more would we learn from an independent review that we don't already know?

According to Chief Gerry Whitman, Denver police killed two people in all of last year, five in 2001, and just one person in 2000. During this period, it so happens, the emphasis on using non-lethal force has steadily increased. So it's possible - even likely - this year's spike in deaths is an unlucky aberration and the number will recede next year.

Rodelas-Acuna's relatives now say he wasn't wielding a pickax when he was killed - apparently meaning police planted it. At the very least city officials ought to wait until they learn exactly what everyone present the night of the incident said before even so much as implying that Rodelas-Acuna's shooting fits the profile of a trigger-happy cop.

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