Maybe we should elect Tom Streicher prosecutor. He certainly knows how to make a case.

        By the time Cincinnati's police chief finished his PowerPoint presentation of the police internal investigation report Tuesday afternoon there weren't many in the room who thought Stephen Roach should still be wearing a badge.

        Step-by-painful-step, the chief took us down the alley off Republic Street where Officer Roach met up with Timothy Thomas. Like a high school history teacher who wants to make sure his students touch all the points in the timeline, he took us through the investigators' interviews.

        The running figures, the shout, the gunshot, the body — in that order — all in three seconds. Then it was over. And then the lies began.

        Officer Roach first told investigators that he stopped when he saw Mr. Thomas, that he shouted for the suspect to show his hands and that Mr. Thomas seemed to reach deeper into his pants and then pull out what might have been a weapon. Officer Roach said he feared he was about to be shot so he drew his own weapon and fired.

        As we all know now, Timothy Thomas was an unarmed 19-year-old, running away from a fistful of outstanding warrants for such heinous offenses as failure to appear in court and not wearing a seat belt.

        What we also know now is that things didn't happen in that alley the way Officer Roach initially said they did. He never stopped running. He already had his gun out with his finger on the trigger. When he was suddenly confronted by the young man they both were startled. “And uh, unfortunately my, my finger pulled the trigger when I, I jerked. Jerked with my gun hand.”

        That quote was from Officer Roach's second interview with homicide investigators, three days after the shooting. It was after he decided to clean up his story when confronted with a videotape of what had actually happened. The tape, taken from the front of a police car coming down Republic was enhanced by investigators. It shows Officer Roach dash into the alley, with two other officers close behind. Almost instantly there is the sound of the fatal shot.

        It's easy to understand why an officer would make up the story that Mr. Roach did. Acting to save one's own life is one of two reasons a police officer is allowed to use deadly force. Acting to save someone else's life is the second.

        Chief Streicher said investigators thought Officer Roach was lying even before they were able to enhance the tape. That's because the two officers who were running down the alley behind him said the first thing they heard him say after the shooting was that his gun “just went off.”

        When Chief Streicher stopped the video at the sound of the shot and then pointed to the running men in the picture, and then pointed to the part of the transcript where Officer Roach said he stopped and watched the suspect draw a non-existent gun, it was easy to see the blatant lie.

        It was so easy that you wonder why the judge missed it during Officer Roach's trial for negligent homicide and obstruction of justice. In finding the officer not guilty on Sept. 27, Hamilton County Municipal Judge Ralph E. Winkler said Mr. Roach's prevarications didn't really impede the investigation.

        That was really a stretch. While Officer Roach was sticking to his made-up story and the police investigators were trying to enhance the grainy video that proved it was a lie, the city was getting ready to explode. On the day investigators confronted Officer Roach in the second interview, the chief was being pilloried in a Law Committee meeting by members of the public (and some council members) who wanted to know why the cops weren't releasing more details about the shooting. They weren't releasing more details because they were trying to make a case against the man who shot Timothy Thomas.

        The odd thing about all of this is that so many people think it is new. But the report released Tuesday is based on interviews done by the homicide squad last April. All of its revelations were used in the trial against Mr. Roach in September.

        A member of the city council out in Evendale, where Mr. Roach now patrols the streets, said he wants to reconsider that ill-thought hiring based on the “new” report.

        Chief Streicher said he has been swamped with calls about the report since Tuesday. “I'd say at least half the people I talk to want to know why this information wasn't included in the court case,” he said.

        It was. Every bit of it.
       

        Contact David Wells at 768-8310; fax: 768-8610; e-mail: dwells@enquirer.com. Cincinnati.Com keyword: Wells.

Floods don't rise to occasion
3 issues threaten profiling suit deal
Lawyers view church records
Pope's comment welcome locally
Tug-of-war for Hyundai facility
Village officials face obstruction charges
Haitian pleads family hardship
Metro outlines its terminal upgrades
State won't yield city right-of-way
Tristate A.M. Report
UK fans set for sweet victory
Workers to turn in or justify use of cars
BRONSON: No deal
HOWARD: Some Good News
SMITH AMOS: Chief Streicher
WELLS: The Roach report
Ohio House passes concealed weapons bill
School funding talks collapse
Garbage tax OK'd by panel
Ky. senator prepares legal battle
Slot machine proposal waiting on Senate for start