Thread: AR: Officers cleared in death of man

http://www.nwanews.com/adg/News/178949/

Officers cleared in death of manBY JAKE BLEED

Posted on Monday, January 15, 2007

The events that led Little Rock police to shoot and kill Jaime Alvarez on a Sunday morning in September started when a veteran patrol officer noticed that the immigrant from Mexico wasn’t wearing shoes.

When the officer asked why the otherwise well-dressed young man was barefoot at 8 a. m., Alvarez backed away and produced a large knife and what appeared to be a meat cleaver, starting a standoff that ended in his death. An investigation into the shooting later found officers shot Alvarez 10 times after he threw the cleaver at an officer.

A criminal investigation, the results of which police released last week, cleared the officers of any wrongdoing. However, a member of Alvarez’s family said Alvarez was unlikely to have understood police orders to put down his weapons and that officers should have done more to subdue him. She questioned whether his death was justifiable.

In all, eight officers fired 34 rounds. None of the officers could later recall exactly how many shots they fired, according to the report. One officer who told investigators he fired two or three times was later found to have shot 10 bullets at Alvarez.

It was the first time since 2003 that Little Rock police shot and killed a man in the line of duty. Since Alvarez’s death Sept. 3, another man, De-Andre Glenn, has been shot to death by city police.

In the Alvarez episode, Sgt. Lonnie Myles was wounded in the hand by the cleaver after a “less than lethal” weapon that was supposed to subdue Alvarez — a Taser — failed.

The cleaver severed four tendons on the back of Myles’ left hand and broke two bones. The sergeant is now on limited duty with his hand in a brace. He said he isn’t sure if he’ll ever regain full use of the hand.

The 23-year-old Alvarez fell in front of a Hispanic church, the Centro Cristiano Hispano Asamblea de Dios, at 36 th and Walker streets. Bullets fired by the police pierced one of the church’s doors and broke one of its windows.

Small bundles of plastic flowers and a white wooden cross sit outside the church as a memorial to Alvarez. The window shot out by police has been patched with masking tape. The church’s door still shows a bullet hole.

“He had a lot of opportunities to receive God in his heart,” said Mauricio Guerra, a member of the church. “And this is what happens.”

Alvarez was later found to have methamphetamine, cocaine, marijuana and alcohol in his system.

Police repeatedly told Alvarez in English to drop the weapons, commands he may not have understood. One of Alvarez’s sisters said he was in the country illegally and probably didn’t trust police.

Carmen Flores said she last talked to her little brother on Aug. 24, his birthday.

Speaking through an interpreter from her home in Los Angeles on Friday, she said Alvarez had followed friends to Arkansas three years ago, where they could earn more working on construction sites than in California.

She said Alvarez couldn’t speak English, and that he worked only with other Spanish-speaking people. She said she doubts he understood the officers’ commands.

Alvarez had a history of mental problems, Flores also said. He was nervous, had problems sleeping and eating. She said friends of Alvarez’s had told her that he suffered from nightmares.

He was, she said in Spanish, “melancolico.”

His three sisters in California worried about him, worried that he wasn’t eating enough to survive while working long days on construction sites, Flores said. She said they knew he was having problems, and that he never sought a doctor’s help.

She said he was homesick for Mexico, and that he had planned to return to Guadalajara this month.

Flores said she wonders why nine officers couldn’t control Alvarez and said she would like to know why they didn’t try a second time to use the Taser. She also asks whether the officers were right to kill Alvarez or whether they shot him in cold blood — “sangre fria.”

Little Rock Police Chief Stuart Thomas said the shooting was an unpredictably dangerous situation that police are trained to handle but many never face.

“It’s not normally what you think you’d be doing on a Sunday morning,” Thomas said.

According to the police reports, officer Stephanie Berthia was on patrol that morning with a rookie officer, Byron Harper. Berthia has been with the department for more than 11 years and has since been promoted to sergeant. Thomas said that promotion had nothing to do with her involvement in Alvarez’s death.

At the time, Berthia was training Harper, who had started as a patrolman three weeks before.

She said the pair were driving north on Walker Street when they saw Alvarez standing on the corner at 36 th Street. He was “dressed fairly nice,” Berthia told investigators, “as if he were waiting for church.”

He wore sunglasses, carried Rosary beads, and wore a buttoned-up white shirt and slacks, Berthia said.

But then she noticed he wasn’t wearing shoes or socks, Berthia said.

Harper would later tell investigators that Alvarez looked “puzzled, like something was wrong with him.”

Berthia rolled down her window as the police cruiser approached Alvarez and asked, “What’s going on ?” and “Where are your socks ?” according to the report.

Alvarez said “nothing” in response to both questions, then began to back away. When Berthia got out of the cruiser, Alvarez pulled a knife from behind his back, then dropped it on the ground, Berthia said.

Berthia said she told Alvarez to leave the knife on the ground, but he picked it up anyway. He then pulled a second knife. She described the weapons as “a butcher knife” and “a cleaver.”

Both Berthia and Harper drew their weapons. Alvarez backed away toward the church, and put one knife to his throat and pointed the other at his heart, according to the report.

Other officers began arriving and formed a semicircle around Alvarez. In all, eight officers arrived at the church. Some were veteran officers with years of service with the department.

One other officer, Wade Neihouse, had, like Harper, been in uniform only three weeks.

Berthia said she asked Alvarez about his mother, and that he told her she was in Guadalupe, Mexico.

She said he told her that officers were coming to take him to jail, but she couldn’t completely understand what he was saying, according to the report.

Harper said Alvarez told him, “Stop, I don’t trust you” and “the police lie,” according to the file.

She asked him repeatedly to put the knives down, telling him, “Why don’t you put the knife down and talk to me and tell me what’s wrong,” according to the report.

Myles, the area’s supervisor, said he’d heard Berthia’s call for other officers over the radio while he was at the police station. He said he grabbed a Taser before leaving.

Although trained to use a Taser, he later told investigators that he had never used the device before.

When he arrived, several officers were yelling at Alvarez to drop his knives, Myles said. He said he ordered the other officers to be quiet,then approached Alvarez and tried to talk to him.

Alvarez appeared to be mumbling to himself. He nodded in response to some of Myles ’ questions but did not drop the knives.

When Myles approached, Alvarez removed the knife from his throat and pointed it at the sergeant, according to the report. On several occasions, he acted as if he were about to throw a knife at officers, according to the report.

Myles then yelled “Taser” twice and fired the weapon at Alvarez.

The plan, said police spokesman Lt. Terry Hastings, was for the Taser to incapacitate Alvarez long enough for officers to disarm him and place him in handcuffs.

Officers are not sure whether the device failed mechanically, or whether Alvarez simply withstood its effects.

All of the officers said Alvarez did not appear to have been affected.

Seconds after being hit by the Taser, Alvarez drew back his right hand and threw the meat cleaver at Myles. One officer, Jamal Lovelace, would later tell investigators that Alvarez threw the knife “like a trained magician.”

The eight officers fired in response. Bullets struck Alvarez in the left side of his chest, his legs and his chin. One round shattered his belt buckle, according to an autopsy report. Another severed his spinal column.

Investigators took each officer’s gun after the shooting. From counting the number of bullets remaining in each weapon, they were able to determine how many shots were fired.

Thomas said officers who face a potentially deadly situation aren’t concerned with how many bullets they have fired. They’re trained instead to stop the threat.

“As long as the threat exists, the officer is supposed to respond to stop the threat,” Thomas said.

Lovelace said he went to handcuff Alvarez but was waved off by other officers. There was no need, according to the report.

According to the report, Alvarez’s throw was aimed at Myles’ head.The sergeant raised his left hand to ward off the blow. He said he didn’t realize he’d been cut until after the firing ended, when other officers noticed the blood.

The confrontation and ensuing investigation occurred as members of the church showed up for Sunday services. Guerra, a member of the church, said he saw the shooting.

He described Alvarez as acting angry.

He said Alvarez had attended the church twice before in the past, but then stopped showing up for services.

Thomas said investigators weren’t certain whether Alvarez could fully understand the officers’ commands. None of the officers spoke to Alvarez in Spanish, according to the report.

But Thomas said Alvarez still should have known enough to drop the knives.

“If you’ve got a knife and you’ve got a uniformed police officer with a gun shouting at you, what do you think he’s saying ?” the chief said.

The department is considering changing its policies on Tasers after the device failed to subdue Alvarez, Thomas said.

“We tried to use less than lethal force,” Thomas said, referring to the Taser. “And that attempt ended up with one of my officers pretty seriously injured.”

Thankfully the officers were cleared.

Thank God!

An investigation into the shooting later found officers shot Alvarez 10 times after he threw the cleaver at an officer.

A criminal investigation, the results of which police released last week, cleared the officers of any wrongdoing. However, a member of Alvarez’s family said Alvarez was unlikely to have understood police orders to put down his weapons and that officers should have done more to subdue him.

I would surmise that Alvarez was not only a criminal in the sense that he was in this country illegally but also suffered from criminal STUPIDITY. I don't care what country I might find myself in, If I am approached by a man in uniform, with a BIG GUN and a steenking badge on his chest, I think I would have the sense NOT to pull out a freakin meat cleaver. Studies have shown that bullets actually CAN travel faster than a thrown meat cleaver. I guess Alvarez didn't read that study. OR, perhaps some insensitive brute didn't publish it in spanish for Alvarez.