BY ADAM WEINTRAUB
and TANYA BRICKING
The Cincinnati Enquirer

Lorenzo Collins

The police officers who shot and fatally wounded the brick-waving Lorenzo Collins didn't commit a crime, Hamilton County Prosecutor Joseph Deters said Wednesday, but the case is far from over.

Mr. Deters said the evidence was convincing that Cincinnati Police Officer Douglas Depodesta and University of Cincinnati Officer John Engel acted in a reasonable way when they shot Mr. Collins, because they perceived a potentially deadly threat in a situation that was ''tense, uncertain and evolving.''

But, he said, ''Lorenzo Collins may have been incapable of acting in a reasonable fashion because of his mental defect.'' Despite the training that Cincinnati Police receive in dealing with mentally ill men and women, they didn't learn of Mr. Collins' long history of mental problems until after the shooting.

''If they don't know it's a mental case, (the training) isn't worth a damn,'' Mr. Deters said. ''And they didn't know .Ç.Ç. It's not fair to the family of Lorenzo Collins and it's not fair to the officers in the street.''

That's just one of the ''troubling'' issues in a case that remains under investigation by the city and the U.S. Department of Justice. While his office has cleared them of criminal wrongdoing, ''this does not mean these officers are out of the woods,'' Mr. Deters said.

The public response to the decision, including sharp words from neighbors, advocacy groups and some city council members, suggests he's right.

Among the issues still on the table, Mr. Deters said, are:

• Did police follow their own policy and procedures in chasing, cornering and confronting Mr. Collins after his escape from a locked ward at University Hospital?

• Are those policies and procedures appropriate, or should they be changed?

• Cincinnati officers never knew about Mr. Collins' history of mental problems. Would a new countywide emergency radio system - twice rejected by voters - have provided the information that might have changed the way they approached the year-old Avondale man?

• How can the city and area hospitals improve security to prevent violent, mentally disturbed patients from escaping, putting themselves, police and the community at risk?

The last point took on added weight with the release Wednesday of information that Mr. Collins had escaped from University Hospital twice before the day he was shot, once while being held at the direction of Cincinnati Police for an attack on a family member.

Mr. Collins' final escape was Feb. 23. Springdale officers had taken him to the hospital because he took off his clothes after his Feb. 22 arrest on a felony theft charge. He walked out of the locked eighth-floor ward at University Hospital the next afternoon.

He was shot three times - twice by Officer Depodesta and once by Officer Engel - after a long foot chase and a standoff in a Corryville yard where Mr. Collins charged at the police with a brick, investigators have said. Eight officers had drawn their weapons and aimed at Mr. Collins at the time he was shot.

Mr. Deters said his office conducted a narrowly focused review and determined that the officers ''did not commit murder or manslaughter.''

The prosecutor's review did not address civil rights or administrative procedure issues.

Police Chief Michael Snowden said he expects the administrative review to be complete within 30 days. FBI spokesman Ed Boldt said all the reports weighed by Mr. Deters will be forwarded to the Justice Department's civil rights office.

Critics of police actions in the case called Mr. Deters' ruling a whitewash, a disappointment or about what was expected.

Local NAACP President Dr. Milton Hinton, who called for a federal review of the shooting, said he doesn't understand the law, but he understands right and wrong.

''In terms of morality, in terms of ethics, it's my opinion that the killing of Mr. Collins is still wrong,'' he said. ''The law has both a letter and a spirit, and the spirit of the law says that the killing was wrong.''

But the Rev. Damon Lynch Jr., president of the Baptist Ministers Conference, said no decision by the prosecutor's office would have eased the tension between the community and police.

''We expected nothing but what we got,'' he said. ''Every time something happens like this, the city is never at fault.''

On Corryville's streets, Mr. Deters' decision found little support.

''If that's the kind of protection (police) afford, I don't want it,'' said Corryville Community Council President T. Clyde Nowlin, who was arrested the day of the shooting after approaching a witness in a police car. ''If anybody else would have shot an unarmed guy, they'd be in jail. It's like a big fraternity investigating themselves.''

''It's just sad,'' said Donna Fox, 27, who went to high school with Mr. Collins and lives near the shooting site. ''That brick didn't have any bullets in it.''

Questions troubled some politicians, too.

''Personally, I just can't believe that based upon all the facts that we know that there couldn't have been another way to deal with the situation,'' said Councilman Todd Portune. Mr. Portune, who introduced a successful council motion to seek federal review of the shooting, said Mr. Deters' findings ''suggest that we need to take a good hard look at training, process and procedures.''

''His decision was expected,'' said Vice Mayor Tyrone Yates, chairman of the city's law committee. Now, he said, the community must address an issue that Mr. Yates has decided for himself: ''There is no authorization to use deadly force against a citizen armed with a brick when there are 15 armed officers present.''

''Training polices will be reviewed; there's no question about that,'' he said. He said he has confidence in City Manager John Shirey and Safety Director Kent Ryan ''to conduct the appropriate review in such a way that these situations don't occur again.''

Chief Snowden said the absence of a radio system that would allow UC officers to talk directly to city officers played a part in the confusion. Voters have twice rejected a tax levy for such a radio system.

''UC knew what they had and we didn't,'' Chief Snowden said. ''We didn't know it was a (mentally ill suspect) and we didn't know what he was wanted for.''

The most troubling aspect was in the way the city and University Hospital handled the case of a man with a history of violence, hallucinations and active psychosis, said Mr. Deters, who is on the University of Cincinnati board of trustees.
''This case, in my mind, is much more about how this city and its hospitals deal with violent, psychotic persons,'' he said.

''There's no question it could have been handled without the loss of life,'' Mr. Deters said. ''Something as simple as the information that Lorenzo Collins was mentally ill might have prevented the loss of life.''

Kenneth Lawson, who represents the Collins family in a $10 million wrongful death lawsuit against the city, said he had little reaction to the officers being cleared.

''My only question is when was the last time a police officer who shot a citizen has ever been charged with a crime?''

The Rev. Donald Fairbanks, pastor to the Collins family at New St. Paul Baptist Church, said a rally is planned for 7 p.m. Monday at Greater New Hope Missionary Baptist Church, 3655 Harvey Ave. in Avondale.

''Cincinnati has not changed,'' he said. ''I do think this is a racist decision. We will still be protesting and marching for change in our city.''

Annette Delaney, 40, a Sands Montessori School teacher who saw the shooting, said she will be forever changed by it.

''I cry from time to time because I think about what it must be like for his parents and his brothers and sisters,'' she said. ''I also cry for the police officers.

''In the black community, we want to cry so loud when an officer shoots one of our own people,'' she said. ''Why don't we cry that loud when we shoot each other?''

Laura Goldberg contributed to this report.

POLICE RELEASE SUMMARY OF THEIR INVESTIGATION
DIAGRAM OF THE SHOOTING SCENE May 29, 1997

Previous stories

NINE MINUTES OF CONFUSION: THE SHOOTING OF LORENZO COLLINS May 27, 1997
DIAGRAM RECONSTRUCTING THE EVENTS May 27, 1997
TRAINING, POLICIES AND POLICE ACTION May 27, 1997
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