Posted on 06/21/2002 9:11:59 AM PDT by Sir Gawain
Officer: I shot in self-defense
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The family of a paraplegic in a wheelchair who was shot four times in the back and killed by a North Miami Beach police officer filed suit Monday on the first anniversary of the fatal shooting.
The survivors of Alphaeus ''Duke'' Dailey said they filed the federal civil-rights and wrongful-death lawsuit because the Miami-Dade state attorney's office cleared police officer Dennis Fogelgren of wrongdoing in the Father's Day 2001 shooting. Fogelgren said he fired in self-defense.
''All we want to do is put the facts on the table,'' said Leon Thomas, Dailey's uncle. ``We can't bring him back, but we want to know why they shot him.''
Police were responding to a report of three shots fired into the air in the vicinity of Northeast 15th Court near 152nd Terrace about 9:30 p.m. on June 17, 2001.
Police say Dailey, 30, a twice-convicted felon with a lengthy arrest record, fired those shots.
Fogelgren was the first officer on the scene. He said he saw Dailey fleeing east on 152nd Terrace in the wheelchair he had used since a June 1994 drive-by shooting.
The officer said Dailey, who was paralyzed from the waist down, reached over his shoulder and pointed a 9mm pistol at him.
Fogelgren fired eight shots from his .40-caliber, laser-sighted pistol, striking Dailey four times in the back from 15 to 20 feet away.
In the lawsuit filed Monday, attorneys H.T. Smith and Jack McLuskey said Dailey was unarmed and his hands were raised in a clear sign of surrender at the time of the shooting.
Family members and black community activists have suggested that the 9mm police found 20 feet from Dailey's body might have been planted or moved from another location.
No fingerprints were found on the weapon or the bullets, Smith said.
After a nine-month investigation, a team of three prosecutors with the Miami-Dade state attorney's office concluded that the shooting was justified because Fogelgren acted in self-defense.
Several witnesses told The Herald that Dailey was unarmed and his hands were up when he was shot, but they were not considered credible by the prosecutors who cleared Fogelgren.
''The family have waited patiently for the system to work,'' Smith said. ``Unfortunately, the system has failed them miserably.''
The lawsuit was filed by Dailey's mother, Lessie Mae Richardson, on behalf of herself and Dailey's four children ranging in ages from 11 to 14.
Fogelgren, 25, is a second-generation police officer who has been with the department four years.
He was the subject of four prior complaints, but was cleared in each case.
The lawsuit accuses city officials and North Miami Police Chief William Berger of fostering a departmentwide attitude in which meaningful complaints from residents are routinely disregarded.
Fogelgren is accused of wrongfully causing Dailey's death.
Without any legitimate accountability or oversight, officers resorted to ''street justice,'' the lawsuit alleges.
North Miami Beach Police say Fogelgren properly followed procedure, said department spokesman Sgt. Warren Hardison.
''We vigorously stand behind this officer,'' Hardison said.
North Miami Beach City Attorney Howard Lenard could not be reached for comment.
If I pop a CD in a player, and I don't like the music, it doesn't mean the CD or the player is broken.
Very nice of the family to drag the Feds in with the ubiquitous "civil rights" charges. It's not like they have anything else to do right now.
Nice shooting. </sarcasm>
Seriously though, guns are just as dangerous when fired from a wheelchair. Can someone explain though why no prints were on the gun? The clip? The casings? Any video from the police vehicle?
Thanks to quite a few disturbed LEO's out there, pretty soon having those tiny cameras installed on an officers gun might not be a bad idea.
Geeze - with him being that poor of a shot, by-standers were lucky to not have become victims, too !! !!
Geeze - with him being that poor of a shot, by-standers were lucky to not have become victims, too !! !!
Maybe the wheelchair was equipped with the popular “serpentine” option.
Here’s something from an earlier article on dirtbag Dailey :
MIAMI HERALD June 21, 1994 by Ricardo Monseratt
An unusual shooting occurred yesterday involving a man well known to local police. Alphaeus “Duke” Dailey, 22, has a long history of violence. Daily was cruising 34th Avenue at about 2:00 PM when he spotted a gang rival, Judas “BocaGrande” Acosta. Dailey is the only member of the “Westside” gang to rigidly control his turf by wheelchair.
Acosta saw Dailey and started to run West on 34th Avenue, but Dailey was able to use the handicapped “curb cutouts” and wheelchair crossings to cut him off. Dailey is an expert at firing “on the wheel” and dropped Acosta with two shots from a sawed off 12 gauge shotgun...
When finally corralled in a handicapped parking zone, Dailey demanded some Twinkies, a lawyer, and a recent copy of the ADA regulations...”
LOL...especially with a laser sight.
Either you forgot your /sarcasm alert
or
Your full of $hit.
This is very questionable.
Why no prints on weapon?
How did the weapon get 20 FEET from victim?
Why were WITNESSES not deemed "credible" by police.
This cop already had FOUR prior complaints against him "cleared".
Miami is trying to CYA cuz they know he screwed up.
Either you forgot your /sarcasm alert
or
Your full of $hit.
This is very questionable.
Why no prints on weapon?
How did the weapon get 20 FEET from victim?
Why were WITNESSES not deemed "credible" by police.
This cop already had FOUR prior complaints against him "cleared".
Miami is trying to CYA cuz they know he screwed up.
If the cops were going to plant a gun then why plant it 20 feet away?
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