Posted on 06/12/2002 5:34:53 PM PDT by ValerieUSA
The dead woman's family congregated Tuesday around her angry and tearful mother where yellow police tape rounded the corner of Rosewood Avenue and Poquito Street.
"They killed my baby," Brenda Elendu screamed to anyone who would listen. "They could have shot her in the leg. She was a mental patient. They didn't have to kill that child."
Across the intersection and down the block, Austin police told reporters that Elendu's daughter, Sophia King, gave officers no choice but to draw their guns when they saw her wielding a knife as she stood over a person who was on the ground.
"She was getting ready to stab a housing authority (employee)," police Lt. Robert Collins said. "She lunged. The officer fired one shot."
Reporters asked why not spray her with Mace or use a nightstick.
"There wasn't time for that," Collins said.
The bullet struck King in the heart, according to a preliminary finding by the medical examiner's office. King, 23, who was not wearing any clothing at the time of the shooting, died at 9 a.m. in the courtyard of the public housing complex where she had lived for seven months.
Police are trained to react with deadly force if a person is trying to kill an officer or someone else, Collins said.
A Travis County grand jury will determine whether 16-year veteran officer John Coffey's decision to shoot was the right one. Coffey, a former instructor at the police academy who specialized in teaching officers how to defend themselves and others, has been placed on administrative leave, pending an investigation, which is standard procedure when officers use deadly force. The findings of that investigation, which will be closely observed by the city's police monitor, will be presented to a grand jury.
Assistant Chief Rudy Landeros, who supervises officers in the area, said he could not recall Coffey being involved in a previous shooting. Information from internal affairs records was not available Tuesday.
Jim Hargrove, the Austin Housing Authority's executive director, said King had lived in public housing since 1997. Police and her family said she was suffering from mental illness, and court officials said she had been in a state mental facility.
After her first public housing apartment burned down because of an accidental cooking fire in November, Hargrove said, King was moved to Rosewood Avenue.
Tuesday was the second time police had been called to King's apartment in two days, and the housing agency had begun the process of evicting her for consistently playing "loud music and conducting herself in an inappropriate manner," Hargrove said.
On Monday, officers checked in on her after the housing manager said neighbors complained of loud music and King's erratic behavior over the weekend, which included throwing trash out her door. The officers found everything to be OK, Hargrove said.
At least one of the two officers who first responded to 911 calls Tuesday knew of her mental disorder, Collins said.
Neither Coffey nor the other officer was part of the department's mental health unit, and police said they didn't have time to call for backup. However, Assistant Chief Rick Coy said every cadet receives at least six hours of training to deal with people with mental illness. In this case, he said, that would not have made a difference.
"The woman was standing right over the housing authority person with a knife," he said. "The officer's use of force was to prevent serious injury and had nothing to do with mental illness."
Tuesday's incident started when King began tossing personal belongings such as dishes, clothes and furniture into the courtyard and began screaming at a housing manager, who was responding to neighbors' complaints, Hargrove said.
Emergency dispatch received two 911 calls. The first, at 8:35 a.m., was a hang-up, which police think was placed from King's apartment, Collins said. They then received a call from a neighbor, complaining about the commotion.
When police arrived, King slammed the front door of her apartment and refused to come out. Coffey went around to the courtyard.
Shortly before 9 a.m., police said, King came out of her back door holding an 8- to 10-inch butcher knife and began running toward the housing employee, who stumbled and fell while attempting to flee.
Police said Coffey told King to drop the weapon several times. When she stood over the fallen employee and raised the butcher knife, police said, Coffey fired.
King leaves behind two children, ages 4 and 6, who went to live with their grandmother about a year ago. Child Protective Services took the children later Tuesday.
"We have some concerns about where the children were," CPS spokesman Aaron Reed said. "We want to make sure wherever they end up next, they will be safe and cared for."
But what happened to their mother will be difficult to explain, said King's aunt, Virgie Clement.
"They know their mother's emotionally unstable," she said. "but they won't understand."
Thanks, deport, for the update article. It proves beyond a doubt that Sophia's neighbors are idiots.
In post #7 ValerieUSA guessed Sophia might be 5'10", weighing 300 pounds. Your update article's picture seems to confirm this. At least it shows anorexia was not the mental illness from which she suffered.
To Officer Coffey; good shot. (And I hope you give up your membership in the NAACP after their reaction.)
What an idiot.
Mental patient or not, going around trying to stab people with knives, is grounds for a deadly response.
but, it's got a beat and you can dance to it.
Two comments:
1. Anyone want to bet me that her kids will be brought up on stories of "racist cops done killed yo' Mama"?
2. Why hasn't anyone bothered to interview her landlord (the guy on the ground)? I bet his story would be a little different from the idiot neighbors', something along the lines of "Thank you, Officer Friendly."
Your kidding right? The MMM seriously considers anyone under 25 a "youth"? I know they have skewed numbers in the past. But they really have moved to that extreme?
In Miami, cops often kill mental cases holding knives even when there is no immediate threat, ie there is no citizen about to be stabbed and the cops could simply back away or use non-lethal means.
Shooting soembody in that situation is simply cold blooded murder, it's happened here about 4 times over the past 2 years, with no charges brought against the killer cops.
I understand that the average cop really can't shoot worth a darn. It might have been a bank shot off the nearest innocent bystander.
Thursday June 13, 01:17 PM
A home unit? Is that Australia's version of public housing?
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