Posted on 03/11/2004 5:37:54 AM PST by GrandEagle
(MOBILE, Ala.) Mar. 10 - A man is dead after Mobile police open fire in a crowded shopping center parking lot.
It started around 9:30 Wednesday morning in front of the Big K-Mart on Schillinger Road near Airport Boulevard.
Police say they were called because a man was driving erratically in the parking lot. When police arrived, 40-year-old Wayne Stewart was changing a tire. Officers say Stewart was bleeding and appeared very upset.
When they attempted to calm him down, police say Stewart pulled out a carpet-cutter and lunged towards them. It was then that two officers shot Stewart as many as eight times. Police say Stewart was upset about his recent break-up with his common-law wife.
But now, that woman is demanding justice: saying a small man with a box-cutter posed no threat to the officers.
“I want to know why this little man is dead,” Diane Stewart, who had been with Wayne Stewart for three and a half years, said. “Why they had to shoot him 1, 2 or even 8 times, I want to know."
Wednesday morning, Stewart pulled out a utility knife while he was being questioned by Mobile patrol officers outside the K-Mart on Schillinger Road.
Police say he appeared intoxicated. His common-law wife says he was taking valium, emotionally distraught after they separated five weeks ago.
When officers ordered him to stand down, police say he refused and lunged toward them. “The officers had their weapons drawn,” said Mobile Police Chief Sam Cochran. “At this point, they did fire shots, which turned out to be deadly shots.” Eight bullet casings were found at the scene, along with the box cutter.
Stewart’s common-law wife says she wants to know why officers used deadly force on her 118-pound husband, instead of a less lethal weapon.
Mobile's police chief says all officers are trained to use other, less lethal weapons, such as pepper spray and batons. Officers are also trained to use Tazer guns, but the force has only about 200 Tazer guns for a 500-plus man department. It's not certain whether the officers who shot Stewart Wednesday morning were equipped with Tazers. Chief Cochran says, “We want to determine if there were other methods that could have been used, utilized in the situation to alleviate the threat, other than the deadly force used."
For Stewart's family, answers can't come soon enough. ”It doesn't matter what problems we had, he didn’t deserve this,” a distraught Diane Stewart cries.
The two officers involved in the shooting have been placed on administrative leave. In the meantime, the police department's criminal investigation unit and internal affairs will conduct parallel investigations.
A key question to be answered before the two officers return to active duty is whether the use of lethal force in the department store's public parking lot was appropriate.
While the names of the officers have not been released, we do know one has been on the force for 11 months, the other less than two years.
CAN, against an unsuspecting victim who is unarmed, unprepared, and untrained. Police are properly trained to manage ANY situation, including distraught fools with 1" blades... and that training does NOT include "shoot to kill".
After seeing guys go through everything that happens after a shooting, I sure don't want to be involved in one. Goes through the Grand Jury, big investigation, time off, then living with it afterward. Not to mention the family of the person you shot.
Initially the father of the deceased said the police did what they had to do. I guess grief got the better part of him and now he's suing. The cop that did the shooting is one of the nicest guys on the dept., very laid back. He really has suffered after the shooting, though he was cleared and the shooting was legitimate.
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