Monday, December 20, 1999
Shooting cars: a dangerous tactic
Many forces ban practice that can create out-of-control vehicle
BY PERRY BROTHERS
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Cincinnati police officer Brian Brazile fires a replica of his service weapon during a training exercise that simulates a suspect shooting from a moving car.
(Glenn Hartong photo)
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When police shoot at cars, it can lead to disaster.
It led to critical injuries in 1998 for a 5-year-old boy. He was hit in a chain-reaction car crash started by a man police were chasing for shoplifting a bottle of Advil from Kroger's in Walnut Hills.
When the driver was shot, his car became an unguided missile.
“Many, many police departments tell police officers, "We simply don't shoot at moving vehicles, period'” said Carl B. Klockars, a policing expert who has worked with numerous departments on deadly force policies and practices.
Cincinnati police shot at moving vehicles nine times since 1994. None of the suspects used a weapon other than the car, according to The Cincinnati Enquirer's analysis of every shot fired by a Cincinnati officer in the last six years.
Each time, the division considered the car or truck a deadly weapon.
In October, that changed. Officers were ordered not to shoot unless the driver or passenger uses a gun or weapon other than the vehicle.
The Fraternal Order of Police criticized the restriction, saying it endangers both officers and civilians. The Sentinels, Cincinnati's black officers' association, said it ought to at least have a “last resort” clause that would allow officers to fire after first trying to get out of the way.
But Ted Schoch, training director for the Cincinnati Police Academy, says the change is meant to stop officers from putting themselves in harm's way.
Mr. Klockars said many departments forbid shooting at cars because bullets won't stop a car. “That officer is far better advised to use his time to get out of the way,” he said.
Cincinnati Police Lt. Col. Richard Janke argued that saying “never” would be too restrictive. Several years ago a man drove past a crowd in a parking lot and opened fire, he said. The driver turned the car around and fired into the crowd a second time. He was about to make a third pass when an officer shot at him, scaring him off.
“We have to allow our guys to shoot at that car,” Lt. Col. Janke said. “We need to have the possibility to return fire at him.”
The Bush family -- Donald Jr., Donald III and Kimberly -- deal with huge medical bills and Donald III's injuries after he was hurt, as a bystander, during a police chase.
(Saed Hindash photo)
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Worst case
On Nov. 6, 1998, another officer's shots changed forever the life of 5-year-old Donald Bush III.
Donald climbed out of the family's van and was waiting on the sidewalk for his mother, Kimberly Bush, to park.
Just as Donald shut his door, Mrs. Bush heard an engine rev and saw a Nissan Sentra barreling toward the van. She jumped from the driver's seat to go get Donald but the Nissan hit the van before she reached him.
She watched as the impact slammed her van toward Donald. The hunk of steel twisted around a parking meter and pinned Donald's ankle against the curb. Her son's head slammed onto the concrete.
“I was just thinking, "My baby, my baby!' If it wasn't for that parking meter, he'd be gone,” the 28-year-old mother said through her tears.
A year later, 6-year-old Donald's days are marked by medications and his months by doctor's appointments. He spent several weeks in intensive care with bleeding and swelling in his brain.
The Bush family is uninsured. To pay for the medicines — which cost as much as $100 a week — Donald Bush Jr. works extra hours as a cook at Metrios Family Restaurant in College Hill.
About $20,000 worth of bills for CAT scans and hospital stays have piled up. The Kroger Co. sent gifts while the boy was hospitalized. The city never contacted the family. The Bushes didn't know who to contact at the city.
The family hired a lawyer, but Mr. Bush said the lawyer switched firms without contacting them. For nearly a year, the frustrated family has been trying to just make it day to day.
“It just burns me up,” the 30-year-old father said. “We didn't do anything. We feel like we're the ones who went in the store, robbed Kroger's and did all this different stuff.”
Donald Bush Jr. said his son has changed. He used to be an outgoing boy with a big smile and bright brown eyes.
“He was a man in a little boy's body,” Mr. Bush smiled. “If you ask anybody, he was a little preacher man.”
Now, Donald III is quiet and plagued by nightmares. His quick wit seems dulled, his father said.
Even though his parents have explained that the officer was not driving the car, Donald III is afraid of men in uniform.
After the Enquirer interview, the family contacted the city solicitor's office to file a complaint for expenses. It's being reviewed.
Everything escalated
The tragedy began with a shoplifting. A security guard followed Timothy Blair out of the Kroger on East McMillan Avenue, believing he had stolen a bottle of Advil. The guard alerted Officer Daniel Carder in the parking lot and the two approached Mr. Blair. As he jumped in his car and swung the door shut, he hit the guard in the knee.
Officer Carder punched through the window and tried to pull Mr. Blair out of the car. The car started to move and the officer was dragged along. He said he tried Mace before he fired twice at Mr. Blair's chest.
Mr. Blair slumped over, seriously wounded, and his foot hit the gas. Officer Carder broke free before the car lurched into the van. It was the first time the officer has used deadly force in his police career.
The shooting would have been prohibited under the city's new policy.
The police division exonerated Officer Carder, but he was cited for several errors, including shattering the car window and trying to pull the man out. Disciplinary action is pending.
Several times during police interviews, Officer Carder said he didn't want another use-of-force incident on his record. He has had eight complaints of excessive use of force filed against him since 1994. Only one other officer of the 44 who shot at someone during the review period has as many complaints.
None of the complaints against Officer Carder were sustained by police investigators. However, they remain on his record.
Police say the individual complaints are not a true measure of an officer's conduct, but even unfounded complaints are tracked to spot patterns.
Capt. Gary Glazier, commander of the Internal Investigations Section, would not discuss Officer Carder's record. In general, he said, “If we receive a complaint on an officer we might go back to his other complaints to see if the allegation is similar.”
Police who work in high crime areas, as Officer Carder has for most of his seven-year career, often receive more complaints from those they arrest.
Officer Carder, during an Enquirer interview, said he blames the shooting on Mr. Blair.
But that day — which left Mr. Blair in a wheelchair and Donald Bush III permanently injured — changed the way the officer thinks about his job.
“Believe me, if I had known that it would have gone this way, I may have handled it differently. But I can't what-if it over and over,” Officer Carder said. “It gives you cause to think about the confrontations we get into. You know, the good guys and the bad guys. It's made me see the gray areas a little more.
“It doesn't make me hesitant to get into anything, but it makes me take my time. It was a very traumatic event.”
Enormous risk
Such confrontations aren't worth it, said Geoffrey Alpert, an expert in deadly force and a University of South Carolina criminal justice professor.
The Supreme Court, he said, allows the use of deadly force only for self-defense, the defense of others or when letting the suspect get away would create an enormous risk of death or injury to another.
“You can't use deadly force to apprehend a fleeing shoplifter,” Mr. Alpert said.
In 1985, with Tennessee vs. Garner, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that police could no longer use deadly force to stop fleeing criminals — felonious or otherwise — unless there was an immediate threat to life.
“It's pretty clear that it's not a justified shooting,” Mr. Alpert said. “The big issue here is accountability. If they don't discipline Officer Carder, then basically they are saying "It's OK to shoot fleeing shoplifters.'”
Chief Thomas H. Streicher Jr., who implemented the new moving vehicle policy, declined to answer most specific questions about the Blair shooting. He bristled when pressed for his opinion.
“Well, you call it a shoplifting incident,” he said, “but you forget that the shoplifting incident was elevated to robbery when he used force to escape and then that was elevated to a felonious assault ... when he dragged the officer with the car. So you characterize the minor offense and you choose to ignore that the minor offense was elevated to a robbery.
“The fact that when the officer tried to extract him (Mr. Blair) from the car, he became entangled and the man dragged him and there's bona fide medical proof that the officer was injured. That's when use of force became necessary.”
Fraternal Order of Police President Keith Fangman fiercely defended Officer Carder's actions and criticized the new moving-vehicle policy.
“Would it have been better if Officer Carder had not fired his weapon and instead had been dragged to his death?” Officer Fangman asked. “I'm not going to second-guess his decision. This isn't some Hollywood TV show where you don't like the script and you can call "Cut.' Sometimes things don't go as planned and that's when, through no fault of your own, you may find yourself in a position to use deadly force.”
Mr. Alpert disagrees. The officer put himself in danger when he reached into the moving vehicle, Mr. Alpert said.
“You know, at the final frame, the officer may be in fear of his life and therefore the shooting may be justified,” Mr. Alpert said. “Many times, all the officer had to do was back up, was get out of the way, was not put himself in a position to use deadly force as self-defense.”
Approach critical
St. Petersburg, Fla., a city besieged with riots after an officer shot and killed a motorist in 1996, now forbids officers from reaching into a vehicle or standing in front of or behind it.
Before he shot, St. Petersburg officer Jim Knight stood in front of the car he stopped for speeding. The driver inched the car forward, hitting the officer's legs.
Major Luke Williams, commander of St. Petersburg's internal affairs unit, said the department suspended Officer Knight for 60 days for putting himself in danger. The discipline was overturned by a Civil Service arbitrator who ruled Officer Knight had not violated policy by standing in front of the car.
So, the department added the following clause to its policy in 1998:
“Officers approaching vehicle should do so from a safe direction and provide themselves an opportunity to move to an area of safety if necessary. When approaching a vehicle, officers shall use appropriate safety measures and shall not place themselves in harm's way by standing or moving in front of a vehicle, standing directly behind, or reaching inside an operating vehicle.”
Before that, St. Petersburg relied on a training video showing it was ineffective to shoot at a moving vehicle, said 14-year veteran Major Williams.
“You would think you wouldn't have to tell a person not to stand in front of a car that's coming at you. Unfortunately, that had to be spelled out,” said Major Williams. The number of shots fired in that city has dropped, with no increase in the number of injuries to officers.
Mr. Schoch, Cincinnati's training director, said police need to learn from each other. He supports the change in the motor vehicle policy.
“I can put myself in a situation where a car is going to run me down if I get near it or whatever, and maybe justify a shooting,” he said.
“But should you have been there to begin with is the issue. Was it good police work? Did you endanger yourself? Did you endanger anybody else?”
A retired Cincinnati assistant police chief, Mr. Schoch took the helm of the police academy earlier this year after serving as acting chief between former Chief Michael Snowden's retirement and Chief Streicher's appointment.
He is developing a handbook that details safe approaches. He's also incorporating more scenario training in the academy's curriculum. And, he said, he's encouraging common sense.
Let them get away
The problem may have more to do with the police mindset than police tactics, suggests Lawrence Travis, University of Cincinnati criminal justice professor and policing expert.
“I think it's a more generic problem for police, not just in Cincinnati, but everywhere. In several of these cases, the suspects got away. We tend to look at a suspect getting away as a failure of an officer,” Mr. Travis said. “In some cases, it may be OK to say, "OK, he got away this time.' But that's alien to police culture.”
Safety was the reason for curbing high-speed chases.
After hundreds of fatal accidents nationwide, most departments — including Cincinnati — restricted high-speed police chases.
“We realized that we are putting citizens in danger,” Mr. Travis said, often over what began as a minor crime.
Did Officer Carder consider letting Mr. Blair get away?
“I was working an off-duty security detail — an extension of police duties,” he said.
“My job is to apprehend shoplifters.”
Today's stories:
Shooting cars a dangerous tactic
Missed shots
Sunday's stories:
Deadly force, weak controls
Shots fired: The cases
A mistaken shot in the dark
Toughest decision takes a split-second
No one knows national figures on police shootings
About this series
Agencies with review power
Experts who reviewed shootings
Shooting cars a dangerous tactic
Missed shots
Are teen drivers getting better?
High air fares getting attention
Toyota sets expansion at Princeton truck plant
1,000 help prelate mark anniversary
Senior center needs $23,000
Donors come through for Tristate's needy
Fireworks to usher in 2000 with bang
City floats water ideas
Handling grief at holidays
Meeting to clear air on Lemon annexation
Old homes a specialty
Tobacco farmers worried
Head Start to weigh report on contract
Lebanon might cut city jobs
No arrest in shooting of two men
Towns hope to share Butler Co. growth
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