QUESTIONS SURROUND SHOOTING

Investigators' Report Raises Doubts About Whether Officers Who Fired Into
Vehicle Actually Felt Their Lives Were In Danger

Of the two Prichard officers who shot into a car last year in the Alabama
Village community, one of them reported fearing for his life, though
evidence does not appear to support his contention, according to a report
by Prichard investigators.

Prichard Police Chief Sammie Brown has said both officers, Eric Pettway and
Aaron Tucker, felt their lives were in danger. Brown has said they followed
proper procedure when firing at the vehicle, wounding three of the four
occupants.

Police did not report finding any weapons at the scene.

Thursday evening, Brown stood by his decision and said that both officers
told him at the scene of the Dec. 11 shooting that they felt their lives
were in danger, which Brown said was a judgment call.

"I have to believe what that officer says," Brown said. "He was there, and
we weren't."

The investigator's report, released Thursday by the district attorney's
office, states, in part, "Evidence found does not appear to support Officer
Tucker's belief that his life was in fact (in) danger.

"Pettway stated that at no time did he feel his life was in danger and only
fired at the vehicle tires."

The district attorney's office released the summary report but none of the
supporting documents. The prosecutor's office is conducting a separate
investigation, and the case will go to a grand jury, prosecutors said. Both
officers are on paid leave.

When asked why Pettway would tell Brown his life was in danger and then
later tell investigators that he didn't believe his life was in danger,
Brown said, "I don't have an answer for that."

The report states 26 shell casings were found at the scene on Madison Avenue.

The shooting prompted what is believed to be a retaliatory attack the next
day, when gunfire intended for police killed 6-year-old Kearis Bonham,
police have said. Two officers were injured in that attack.

In the Village shooting, Brown has said the officers pulled behind the car.
One of the officers reported firing shots as the car backed up toward him
and his partner; the second officer reported shooting at the wheels, Brown
said.

According to the report, Pettway said he and Tucker stopped the car because
the occupants were not wearing seatbelts, and he smelled marijuana as the
car passed them. It states the officers got out of their car and were
standing in the "door jam area" when the car they had stopped began to move
back toward them, ramming into the patrol car.

Pettway said he began shooting at the tires, and Tucker said he began
firing at the sides of the vehicle.

"Forensic evidence found at the scene does not appear to support the
officers' statements as to where they were when they started shooting," the
report concludes. "Shell casings were found at various locations at the
scene which is not consistent with the officers' statement(s) as to firing
from the door jam."

Brown said marijuana was found in the car after the shooting but, as of
this week, no charges had been filed against the driver or passengers --
Kenta Todd, then 23, Clifford Williams, then 19, Freddrick Hatcher, then
20, and Thomas Thomas , then 20, according to Prichard police. The
investigators' report lists Thomas' name as Thomas Thomm.

Williams was critically wounded and was at the University of South Alabama
Hospital for more than a week. Todd, shot in the chest, and Hatcher, shot
in the back, were treated and released the day of the shooting. Thomas, who
police said fled from the scene, apparently was not injured.

It is unclear what Police Department shooting procedures were being
followed at the time of the shooting.

Police initially denied a Mobile Register request for a copy of the policy
on deadly force that was in effect at the time of the shooting. Last week,
however, the city sent the newspaper a copy of the rules police said were
in effect. But those guidelines differ from the ones Brown sent the
district attor ney's office April 11, which were released Thursday by that
office.

When questioned Thursday about the two sets of guidelines, Brown said he
didn't realize that the department had two different policies dealing with
the use of deadly force. He said he did not know that the district
attorney's office and the newspaper had not received the same policy.

The documents Brown released were the ones his staff forwarded to him, so
there apparently were two different policies in effect at the time of the
shooting, he said.

The policy received by the district attorney's office states that officers
"shall exercise extreme caution when firing into a moving vehicle,
especially when the officer is also in a moving vehicle."

The policy sent to the Register states, "Officers shall not fire their
weapons at or from moving vehicles, unless deadly physical force other than
the vehicle is being used or about to be used against the officer or
another person."

Brown has said the policies had been adopted before he became chief in
2000. "Both of these came out of the existing manual when I got here,"
Brown said. "Which gives more credence to why they should be rewritten.
This would be confusing to anybody."

Brown said that while the policy that the city provided to the Register
generally restricted officers from firing into vehicles, another section of
the guidelines allows a police officer to use deadly force to protect
himself or another person from imminent death or serious physical injury.

He said because of that, the department amended the policy. The new
wording, provided by the department, states: "Officers shall not fire their
weapons from moving vehicles, unless deadly physical force, the vehicle is
being used or about to be used against the officer or another person as a
weapon."

When it was brought to Brown's attention that the wording does not make
sense, he said it should read, "Officers shall not fire their weapons from
moving vehicles, unless deadly physical force or another vehicle is being
used or about to be used against the officer or another person as the weapon."

The chief said he would make the change.