BY TANYA BRICKING
The Cincinnati Enquirer
The shooting death
of Lorenzo Collins
CLICK HERE to see a diagram that reconstructs the pursuit and shooting of Lorenzo Collins on Feb. 23, based on police records and eyewitness accounts.
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The police gunfire that killed Lorenzo Collins opened a wound in the community that continues to fester.
Mr. Collins, 25, an African-American with a history of psychiatric problems, was wearing pajamas and brandishing a brick when he was shot Feb. 23. He had escaped from a mental ward at University Hospital minutes before.
Groups including the NAACP and the Baptist Ministers' Conference have demanded an independent investigation. Their leaders say the police cannot be trusted to investigate themselves. The Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth, chairman of the conference's direct action committee, has called the shooting a blatant act of brutality.
Others, such as the Fraternal Order of Police, argue that the officers were justified in protecting themselves from a threatening suspect. FOP President Pete Ridder said protesters should wait until the police and prosecutor's office have finished their investigation before making judgments.
Within the next week, the Hamilton County prosecutor's office is expected to determine whether the shooting was justified. But Cincinnati City Council did not wait for the prosecutor's decision. It voted 7-1 on May 7 to ask the U.S. attorney's office to investigate.
"It is very clear that regardless of the decision of the prosecutor the community would still be divided," Mayor Roxanne Qualls said after the vote.
What happened to Lorenzo Collins was captured on six minutes of taped Cincinnati Police radio transmissions. Using those tapes, interviews and police records, The Enquirer has reconstructed events leading up to the shooting.
Twenty-four hours before the shooting, Mr. Collins was sitting in a Springdale police station, accused of stealing $801.79 worth of clothing and shoes from Value City Department Store on Kemper Road.
Because of the way he behaved during questioning, police took Mr. Collins, who had a history of mental problems, to University Hospital for a psychiatric evaluation.
Shortly after 3:50 p.m. Feb 23, hospital authorities called Cincinnati Police to report Mr. Collins had escaped. Radio tapes indicate officers chasing Mr. Collins did not know he was a mental patient or why he was wanted by Springdale police.
Through sometimes-frantic radio transmissions and the chaotic chase, police heard only that they were chasing a wanted man who was running around in a flannel shirt and pajama bottoms and screaming that he didn't want to go to jail.
A few blocks south of the hospital, Mr. Collins came to Highland Commons apartments at 235 Stetson St. in Corryville. The apartment complex is a secure one - no doors face the street, and tenants must enter through a locked courtyard.
"It was strange that day because the gate was open," said Robert Crosby, a tenant who left that morning to visit his mother.
Mr. Collins slipped in and stopped a tenant going to his car, Mr. Crosby said he learned later through conversations with police and other tenants.
"He approached the guy and told him he had to hide out," but the resident refused, Mr. Crosby said. .
Early in the police chase, an officer radioed: "I've got him cornered at 235 Stetson." He called for more police cars, but he lost Mr. Collins.
Bruce Greer was taking out his trash at that Stetson Street address moments later when he saw Mr. Collins running through the parking lot and into the bushes.
"He had on hospital clothes and the little green hospital booties," Mr. Greer, 40, a custodian and nursing assistant who was off that day, recalled last week.
Mr. Collins climbed over air conditioners and jumped the apartment fence as Mr. Greer dumped his garbage. Mr. Greer, who continued to watch from the elevated parking lot, said he had a bird's-eye view of police catching up with Mr. Collins and cornering him in a fenced yard at 237 E. Rochelle St. Somewhere along the way, Mr. Collins picked up a brick.
From her second-floor window at Bellevue Avenue and Rochelle Street, Elanora Washington caught a glimpse of Mr. Collins with a running lead on police. Officers seemed to come from every direction to catch up, she said.
"There was so many people and so many police," she said. "I ain't never seen that many police in my life. Lord, I was scared. That's why I never came outside. I'm 87 years old."
The urgent voice of a police officer came over the radio describing the scene: "Subject has a brick in his hand!" The dispatcher didn't hear him, so he yelled again and continued screaming at Mr. Collins: "Drop the brick now! Drop it! Drop the brick! Put it down!"
"Is everything OK there?" the dispatcher asked.
"Negative!" the officer replied. He asked for a Taser, an electric stun gun that only supervisors carry in their cars.
Within seconds, at least three officers - including Cincinnati Police Spc. Douglas Depodesta and University of Cincinnati Officer John Engel - were face to face with Mr. Collins.
"They had him surrounded," Mr. Greer said. "He was turning and looking like he had no place to go. He was trapped."
However, police said the officers who had Mr. Collins at gunpoint believed he had an escape route, over a fence in the yard.
Annette Delaney watched from outside her car on Donahue Street, about 70 feet from the fenced yard. The 40-year-old Sands Montessori teacher was on her way to a chess tournament at the University of Cincinnati but was caught in the traffic of the police chase and parked her car to see what was going on.
Ms. Delaney could not see Mr. Collins' face or the brick in his hand, but she said she saw officers spray the man with chemical irritant. Then, she saw eight police officers with their guns drawn on Mr. Collins, she said. At least seven other officers were on the scene. Neighbors gathered by the dozens on porches and in the middle of the street.
"There seemed to be this strange dance between the person they were after and the cops," Ms. Delaney said. "He was sort of waving his arms. He'd take a few steps forward and a couple steps back. It was in a fearful manner."
As sirens blared and police shouted, the crowd joined in the chaos. "Don't shoot him!" Ms. Delaney recalls hearing. "Don't shoot!"
Three or four officers were within 8 feet of Mr. Collins while he stood holding the brick, said Brad Fischer, 21, a University of Cincinnati sophomore. The criminal justice major followed the sirens to the scene and watched from the corner of the block on Rochelle Street.
Mr. Greer, who had a closer view, said he saw five officers, who appeared to be surrounding Mr. Collins, drawing guns within a 15-foot range. Mr. Collins, he said, did not lunge forward.
"He was looking like he had no place to go," Mr. Greer said. "He was spinning around like somebody trapped, not somebody threatening. It was almost like having a dog and five people around it watching it whimper."
In the apartment building east of the standoff, Veronica Moon stuck her head out the window to get a look.
A tree blocked her view of Mr. Collins. But she heard his last words before he was shot: "Y'all gonna have to kill me."
"It was like an army of cops yelling at him to drop the brick," said Ms. Moon, 18. "He kept saying they'd have to kill him. He said 'Kill me' in a low voice. I heard him say that twice. Then I heard the gunshots ring off."
Officers Depodesta and Engel fired the shots. Boom. Boom. Boom. Boom. Four shots sounded, and three bullets struck Mr. Collins.
At 3:59 p.m. an officer radioed the dispatcher: "Shots fired. We need an emergency vehicle at this time."
Officers radioed for a supervisor. "We need crime scene tape. Have someone respond," an officer said.
As two supervisors were on their way, an officer on the scene came on the air: "We've had an officer who was charged by the arrested here. He attempted to throw a brick at him."
Adam Weintraub contributed to this report.
TRAINING, POLICIES AND POLICE ACTION
Previous stories
WHY DID THE COPS KILL LORENZO? Peter Bronson column, May 25, 1997
BORGMAN CARTOON May 25, 1997
PUSH FOR POLICE REVIEW FEARED May 9, 1997
FBI TO REVIEW COLLINS CASE May 8, 1997
MARCHERS VOW SEASON OF DISRUPTIONS May 5, 1997
PROSECUTORS GET REPORT ON FATAL SHOOTING April 29, 1997
SHOOTING PROTESTERS ALLEGE POLICE BRUTALITY April 17, 1997
DEMONSTRATORS CITE SHOOTING OF MENTAL PATIENT March 24, 1997
BAPTIST MINISTERS PROTEST AGAINST POLICE March 20, 1997
LAWSUIT SEEKS $5 MILLION March 13, 1997
PUNISH POLICE, MARCHERS URGE March 5, 1997
FATAL SHOOTING CONCERNS COMMUNITY March 2, 1997
PROBE: POLICE FIRED FOUR SHOTS AT MAN WITH BRICK Feb. 25, 1997
MAN SHOT BY POLICE AFTER CHASE Feb. 24, 1997
