Chris Schneider © News A tearful Helen Childs listens as her lawyer, Timothy Rastello, speaks with the media Thursday outside her home on Thrill Place. Her son, Paul, 15, was shot and killed July 5 by Denver police officer James Turney. The teen had threatened his mother and sister with a knife, which he refused to drop when police arrived.

Shooting of black teen a 'terrible tragedy' but not a crime, DA says

By Sue Lindsay, Rocky Mountain News
October 17, 2003

Denver District Attorney Bill Ritter on Thursday called the police shooting of 15-year-old Paul Childs a "terrible tragedy" but said he won't file criminal charges against the officer who killed him.

Denver officer James Turney shot Childs, who was developmentally disabled, July 5. Childs, who had threatened his mother and sister with a knife, was shot as he started to come out of his house and refused to drop the knife.

The shooting of the black youth at his Northeast Park Hill home by a white officer outraged the community, prompting demands for Turney's prosecution and changes in laws governing police use of deadly force.

It was the second fatal shooting for Turney in 18 months. In January 2002 he shot and killed Gregory Smith, 18, a deaf teen who was holding a knife. Turney was also cleared in that case.

Thursday's decision sparked fresh anger from black community leaders and a promise from Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper to review police training and procedures as well as civilian oversight of the department.

"Whenever a tragedy like this occurs, it is important for all of us - the institutions of government and our citizens - to review whether our training policies and procedures and civilian oversight adequately protect the public's safety as well as the safety of our officers."

Ritter said he didn't think he could prove Turney guilty of criminal conduct, although the shooting "is a terrible tragedy and there is a great deal of pain and loss on the part of Paul Childs' family and the community."

In his 29-page decision letter, Ritter said that his office "could not prove beyond a reasonable doubt that it was unreasonable for Officer Turney to perceive that Childs was an imminent deadly threat to him or the other officers at the instant he fired."

If Childs had complied with repeated pleas from family and warnings from police to drop the knife, Ritter said, the incident likely would have concluded peacefully.

The officers faced a chaotic situation in which they had to make split-second decisions, Ritter said.

"Because they perceived an immediate and direct threat to life, they were stripped of the luxury of time, distance, cover and more deliberate planning," he said.

Reached later in the day, Police Chief Gerry Whitman agreed.

"You are dealing in inches and seconds all of the time, so you have to continuously evolve.

(Officers) need to be able to place themselves between the victims and armed suspect and they need the best training and equipment, but it might still come down to a deadly force situation."

Ritter said his office file containing all of the interviews and other information on which he based the decision not to charge Turney is open for inspection by the public.

"This is what we do to elevate public trust in these decisions," Ritter said. The district attorney also said he welcomes investigations by the Justice Department or other entities.Two Denver City Council members asked for a U.S. Justice Department review in a July letter to the U.S. attorney's office.

U.S. Attorney John Suthers said the Department of Justice would wait until the Denver district attorney's office concluded its investigation before determining whether an additional review was needed.

Ritter has investigated 70 police shootings as district attorney and said that his office did not file criminal charges in any of them.

Ritter also said no criminal charges will be filed in Denver stemming from threats that Turney made to his former mother-in-law in Iowa the day before Childs was shot. Turney faces a misdemeanor harassment charge in Iowa.

Ritter said "we could not determine that it impacted his state of mind."

Retreat not required

The knife held by Childs was a deadly weapon, which Turney perceived as an imminent threat, Ritter said.Officers who responded to the Childs home in the 5500 block of Thrill Place in northeast Denver knew that a person had threatened to stab his mother and sister, Ritter said. They also knew he was angry and was still armed - with a 13-inch kitchen knife with an 8-inch blade.

Childs was standing in the doorway of the house with the knife pointing up. He refused to put it down despite the repeated pleas from his family and warnings by police - who had their firearms drawn, Ritter said.

His family said Childs' eyes were glazed over and he was acting like a "zombie," Ritter said. Officer Randall Krouse said Childs seemed to be "in another world" and ignored police commands.

Turney, who was within four to six feet of the boy, shot Childs four times in the chest and abdomen as the boy began to move toward him, Ritter said.

In a taped interview for the investigation, Turney said Childs moved toward him in "staggered steps."

"As he got closer I started to look at the center of his mass of his body," Turney said. "It was clear to me that at any given moment he could've lunged at me with the knife . . . I fired two to three times center mass. And I fired until he went down to the ground."

Turney said he shot because he believed Childs was going to stab him. "He was gonna come out and he was gonna stab me and I was in fear for my life and the other officers that were nearby."

Asked why he didn't retreat, Turney said, "We're not required to retreat. And I was at somewhat of an elevated position and if I would've retreated and went back I could've fallen on my back, which means the suspect could've jumped out and stabbed me at that point or cut me."

Turney said he had come into contact with Childs about six weeks before the shooting as a possible suspect in a bicycle theft.

He said Childs' mother had told him that her son had assaulted and hit her. Turney said Childs' mother also told him that the youth had "some mental problems."

He said he didn't recognize Childs when he first arrived at the house on the day of the shooting, but did shortly thereafter.

"It was probably about the time he started to advance . . . when he went around the corner and I saw the knife. I looked up in his eyes and he was staring at me . . . " Turney said. "It clicked in my head that I know him from somewhere."

'Difficult shot with a Taser'

Officer Todd Geddes said in his interview that he initially approached Childs with his Taser drawn, but then holstered it and drew his gun.

"I thought, you know, if he puts the knife down we'll go from there, you know, we'll deal with that," Geddes said. "Once I saw the knife, I mean I tunnel-visioned on him. Based on the angle that I had on him there . . . it would have been a difficult shot with a Taser, anyway."Geddes said that he didn't have a clear Taser shot at Childs because of where Turney was standing.

Geddes said that all of the officers at the scene were yelling at Childs to drop the knife. "I thought for sure, based on where Turney was, that if he advanced out the door, this is gonna escalate to deadly force," he said.

Geddes said he thought Childs was within four feet of Turney when Turney shot him. "It was really close," he said. Geddes said he didn't personally feel threatened, but that he "definitely feared for Officer Turney at this point."

Krouse said he'd drawn his Taser but did not use it because the situation quickly deteriorated once Childs came out the door with the knife.

Ritter concluded that "time and position prevented (Geddes) from attempting to Tase Childs."

Noting that police have used Tasers to disable other assailants, Ritter said, "There should be no expectation that a Taser will be used in confrontations with assailants armed with firearms and edged weapons."

Turney said the officers didn't have time to discuss a plan for handling the incident.

"When we arrived, dispatcher notified us that he (Childs) was trying to stab his mother, so we didn't have time," Turney said.

The officers were focused on the threat Childs posed, and Colorado law is clear that Turney was not required to retreat from the danger that Childs posed to himself and others, Ritter said.

"Absent a safe opportunity and decision by the officer to retreat, or Childs dropped the knife, or not continuing to close distance, a decision to shoot was predictable. During the few tense seconds that Childs and the officers were on a collision course, neither side took an off- ramp in time to avert this tragedy."

Ritter said it is impossible to know what was in Childs' mind in the moments just before he was shot.

"He may or may not have actually been intending to attack Officer Turney," Ritter said. "He may have just been very frightened or confused. His mental disability or failure to properly medicate may have played a role."

Ritter said criminal law isn't the forum for resolving issues surrounding Childs' death.

"The criminal law is not designed to assess and determine the level of professionalism associated with an incident of use of force," Ritter said.

"Nor is the criminal law capable of making the sometimes subtle distinctions between appropriate and desirable police decisions and undesirable conduct and outcomes."

lindsays@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-892-5181 News staff writer Brian D. Crecente contributed to this report.

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