Friday, December 24, 1999
City says some police shootings reviewed
Report disputes Enquirer findings
BY PERRY BROTHERS
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Cincinnati's city manager released a report Thursday disputing the findings of a Cincinnati Enquirer investigation that showed a city watchdog agency failed to conduct legally required investigations in nine police shootings.
The report from City Manager John Shirey said the director of the Office of Municipal Investigations conducted a review this week after the three-day series began Sunday. The city manager's report said that it began investigations on all nine cases, but it either did not write a report or summarized the cases years after the shootings.
The Enquirer's examination found that OMI — which by law must investigate each time an officer deliberately shoots at someone, hit or miss
— failed to do so in nine of 32 police shooting cases since 1994.
During its investigation, the newspaper studied each Cincinnati police internal investigations file of shots fired. Several cases had OMI reports in the police files; many did not. To ascertain that OMI had investigated these cases, the Enquirer asked Ernest McAdams, OMI's director, to search the agency's records.
The report issued by the city manager Thursday said the Enquirer sent OMI a list of 75 cases.
The Enquirer sent Mr. McAdams two lists of cases, first a list of 76 cases in July and then a follow-up list in November of eight recent cases. The Enquirer called OMI on a case-by-case basis after the second list was sent to verify that the office had been notified of any shots fired by police.
Based on information provided by Mr. McAdams during the newspaper's investigation, The Enquirer determined that OMI had not completed investigations for nine cases of police shooting at citizens since 1994.
In four of the nine cases, Mr. McAdams, who took command of OMI in July 1997, reviewed the case backlog of OMI and wrote summaries of the incidents. These listed the cases as closed “due to the passage of time.” Other than the summaries, the Enquirer found no record of OMI investigation on these cases.
Mr. Shirey referred questions about the report to Mr. McAdams, who was unavailable late Thursday.
In three cases, the city manager's report says Mr. McAdams could not determine if OMI responded to the scene, but knew it hadn't written a report. In a fourth case, Mr. McAdams found that OMI had responded to the scene and didn't write a report. The city manager's report said Mr. McAdams wrote a summary of each incident in June 1998.
During its investigation, The Enquirer reviewed Mr. McAdams' summaries of these cases, which included only details of the police investigation, and were closed “due to the passage of time.”
Because of this finding, the fact that the summaries were written as many as four years after the incident and included no mention of an OMI investigator responding to the scene, the Enquirer counted the following four cases among the nine that had not been investigated:
• Anthony Mays, 1996: The suicidal man was hit with shotgun pellets when police tried to shoot his tires to prevent escape. The city's report Thursday said it could not determine whether OMI had responded to the scene.
• Thomas Adams, 1995: A car theft suspect, Mr. Adams was shot by an officer after he tried to drive away while another officer was trying to pull him from a stolen van, police said. The city's report Thursday said it could not determine if OMI had responded to the scene.
• Gregory Sears, 1995: A domestic violence suspect, he was shot when he threatened officers with a knife and a screwdriver. The city could not determine if OMI responded to the scene.
• Nicdarrylondo Crew, 1994: An armed robbery suspect, he was shot by an officer. The city manager's report says OMI responded to the scene.
Here are the details for the other five cases, including the name of the person police fired at, the city's response to the case in Thursday's report and what the Enquirer investigation showed:
• Home intruder, 1998: Officer Robert “Blaine” Jorg fired five shots at an intruder in his home. The suspect was never caught.
The city manager's report Thursday says OMI responded to the scene but did not write a report or a summary of the case.
In July, Mr. McAdams told the Enquirer that his office had no record of this case because it had not been notified of the shots fired by police communications. Police communications said its records showed it had called an OMI investigator. This is the only one of the nine cases that happened after Mr. McAdams was named OMI director.
• Ralph Schellhammer, 1996: A man threatening officers with a sword was shot. The city manager's report says OMI responded and began an investigation but did not write a report or a summary of the case.
In July, Mr. McAdams told the Enquirer that OMI was notified of the case but did not write a report.
• Kyron Thomas and Vincent Barnes, 1995: Two civilians were wounded — one accidentally — during a struggle with police. The city manager's report says OMI began an investigation and “at that time decided to take no action.”
In July, Mr. McAdams told the Enquirer that OMI began working on this case but never wrote a report.
• Anthony Jackson, 1994: An aggravated-burglary suspect was shot in the leg during a struggle with police. The city manager's report says OMI responded to the scene and began an investigation but did not write a report or a summary of the case.
In July, Mr. McAdams told the Enquirer that he had no OMI records for this case.
• Kathleen Jones, 1994: An officer fired at but missed Ms. Jones, a woman threatening the officer with a butcher knife. The city manager's report says OMI responded to the scene, began an investigation and wrote a summary.
In July, Mr. McAdams told the Enquirer that he had no OMI records for this case.
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