Wednesday, September 01, 1999
Discipline urged against officer
Two shots fired into parked van
The Cincinnati Enquirer
The Cincinnati Office of Municipal Investigations (OMI) has recommended disciplinary action against a police officer who fired two shots into the rear of a parked van.
In the early morning hours of Feb. 28, Ciro Alfonzo was asleep inside his van parked behind Kevin's Market on Kings Run Drive. Mr. Alfonzo told investigators that he and his wife had quarreled, and he had permission from the property owner to sleep there.
Police officers opened the van door at about 2 a.m., according to the report by OMI. The overhead light was not working.
When he heard the door open, Mr. Alfonzo told investigators, he thought someone was breaking into the van and shouted, “Hey! Hey!”
Spc. Cecelia Charron said she thought she saw Mr. Alfonzo lunge for the gun of her partner, Officer Darian Bookman. OMI said she fired two shots that missed Mr. Alfonzo.
Officer Bookman told investigators that he did not believe Mr. Alfonzo was reaching for his gun.
The Cincinnati Police Division had previously completed its own investigation and had determined that Spc. Charron should be disciplined, said Lt. Col. Rick Biehl. He said that the division's recommendation is making its way through City Hall and that Spec. Charron remains on street duty.
Keith Fangman, president of the Fraternal Order of Police, said Spc. Charron had reason to believe she and her partner were in danger. Officer Cliff George was killed with his own gun in 1987 when a suspect took it away. In 1995, Officer Jim Zieverink was shot in the leg when a suspect wrestled another officer's gun away.
“(Spc. Charron) thought her partner's gun, had it been taken away, could have been used against her partner or herself,” Officer Fangman said.
Ms. Charron's lawyer, Kenneth Lawson, could not be reached.
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