Teen's mother testifies she pleaded with cop before he opened fire

By Sarah Langbein, Rocky Mountain News
October 23, 2004

Helen Childs and Denver police officer James Turney sat feet apart Friday, facing each other, but they never made eye contact.

As Childs testified about the day Turney shot and killed her 15-year-old, developmentally disabled son, Paul, she stared into space or glanced down at her lap.

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She wore a long-sleeved white shirt with her son's picture printed on the front. Paul Childs' brown eyes were fixed straight ahead, toward the officer.

Friday was the fourth day in Turney's civil service appeal of his 10-month suspension for shooting Childs and allegedly threatening his ex-mother-in-law.

Childs was awarded a $1.3 million settlement in a lawsuit against the city, while the police department began retraining its officers and overhauling its use-of-force policy.

Childs' eyes welled up with tears as Assistant City Attorney Karla Pierce questioned her about Saturday, July 5, 2003, the day of Paul Childs' death.

"Saturday he was just kinda distant," she said of her son. "He just wasn't Paul."

"Had you ever seen him like that before?" Pierce asked her.

"No," Childs replied.

That morning and the night before, Paul had not taken his medication for seizures and attention deficit disorder, she said.

On Friday, July 4, Paul had ripped apart his room because his mother wouldn't let him leave the house. In the two weeks prior, he had run away many times, landing in the hospital at the end of June when he had a seizure on a public bus.

On July 2, Paul had run away, ending up in Lafayette, she said. Almost every time, Childs or one of her family members called police to help find him.

Paul was "shut down" on July 5, Childs said, and he wouldn't speak to her. While she sat on the couch, Paul sat next to her on the arm of the sofa.

"I put my head on his shoulder, and I told him I loved him," Childs testified.

Then Paul put his hand over her mouth.

"I said, 'What are you going to do, kill me?' " she said in a joking manner.

Paul got up and walked to the kitchen. He came back with a knife, and her family and visitors began to laugh, she said.

"I told him he needed to put the knife down," she said.

Childs testified that Paul followed her around the house, still gripping the knife.

"Ms. Childs, did you ever think he might stab you?" Pierce asked her.

"No," she said.

Childs testified that she wasn't scared, even though her daughter, Ashley, called 911, saying Paul was going to stab her.

She said she tried to put "fear in his heart" by telling him the police would come with their guns drawn, but she never thought they would hurt him.

"I said, 'Come on, Paul. Here are your friends,' " Childs said, referring to Paul's love for police officers. "This is what you want."

She said Turney pulled her by the arm from the house and the other occupants followed. She said she tried to tell Turney about her son's disability, but he responded, "I don't need to hear that."

As Paul came out from behind the door and faced Turney, the officer took aim at him. Turney testified earlier that he ordered Paul to drop the knife, but Paul didn't and instead moved closer.

"I was yelling, 'Please don't shoot my baby, please don't shoot my baby,' " she said. "When I heard the first shot, I saw Paul jerk. . . . I heard three shots. Pow, pow, pow."

Reports later said that Turney fired four shots.

As Paul lay bleeding in the entryway of their home on Thrill Place, officers moved Childs across the street and then took her to the police department, she said.

In an interview there, Childs said she was thinking to herself that Paul was walking around with a knife and the police were going to shoot him. On Friday, she said she didn't remember making that statement.

She said she didn't think officers would shoot her son.

Hours after the shooting, Childs finally saw Paul. He was at Denver Health Medical Center. He was dead.

Turney concluded his testimony Friday, repeating much of what he said the previous day. The appeal hearing will continue Monday.

Copyright 2004, Rocky Mountain News. All Rights Reserved.