Friday, June 04, 1999
Slain man's family awaits answers
Reports of police shooting remain incomplete after 3 months
BY EARNEST WINSTON
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Michael Carpenter
|
It's been almost three months since the shooting but investigators remain tight-lipped about reviews by the Cincinnati Police and the Hamilton County's prosecutor's office into the death of Michael Carpenter.
Even with the days passing, the parents of Mr. Carpenter say they haven't been able to resolve their grief. They say they will only be able to finish mourning when they know more details of the March 19 shooting. Details, they hope, will be in those two reports.
“All of this waiting, waiting and waiting - it's nonsense,” Mr. Carpenter's mother, Elsie Carpenter, said this week.
Yet to be completed are the police division's internal investigation, which examines procedures and police conduct, and the prosecutor's office criminal review. Last month, a report by the city's Office of Municipal Investigations (OMI) found one of two officers involved should be disciplined for the unjustified shooting death.
City Safety Director Kent Ryan said before the internal investigation wraps up, the re sults of OMI's and the prosecutor's office reviews will need to be considered.
“That information is needed for our report,” Mr. Ryan said.
Trying to predict when the police division's internal investigation will end, Rodney Prince, assistant city safety director, said “would be a guess ... We can't really say.”
Hamilton County Prosecutor Michael Allen said he could not comment on the review, except to say it is ongoing. Similarly, Mr. Ryan and Mr. Prince declined to discuss what work is left in the internal investigation.
That's not the news Mrs. Carpenter wants to hear.
“They don't know what it's doing to our family, and it seems like they don't care,” she said. When both reviews are finished, Mrs. Carpenter said her family will be able to “really grieve like we need to.”
Mrs. Carpenter agrees with Mr. Ryan and Mr. Prince that the two reviews should be thorough and not rushed. But she asks: “... how long does it take you to be accurate? They should take us into consideration, how we feel ... how we just want it to be over with.”
Keith Fangman, president of the Fraternal Order of Police Queen City Lodge, said extreme caution should be taken in completing the two reviews. “It would not be prudent to rush through an investigation. We want to make sure it's a thorough investigation just like anyone else, because without a thorough investigation there could always be someone who could try and question the credibility of the investigation because it was labeled a rush job and that's not good.”
The Carpenters' attorney, Kenneth Lawson, said the investigations don't concern him because they have “absolutely nothing” to do with the family's federal civil-rights lawsuit. The suit seeks unspecified damages plus funeral and burial expenses.
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