DEA AGENT INVOLVED IN SHOOTING REMAINS UNDER INVESTIGATION

One of the detectives who killed two men at the Jack in the Box restaurant
remains under investigation nearly two years after the shooting: Agent
Keith Kierzkowski of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.

The agency's Office of Professional Responsibility is investigating a
wrongful death claim filed by the mother of Ronald Beasley. He was the
passenger in the car of drug suspect Earl Murray. Both men died, although
neither of the two detectives admits firing intentionally at Beasley.

If the claim is sustained, Kierzkowski could, in theory, face punishment up
to and including dismissal. But that seems unlikely given the statement of
DEA Administrator Asa Hutchinson that a decision by a grand jury not to
indict the undercover detective "exonerates" him.

The lawyer for Beasley's mother says he will sue if the DEA rejects the
administrative claim. The case is one of 10 shootings by agents since
October 2000 now under investigation by the DEA.

Since the shooting, the DEA transferred Kierzkowski to another state. In
St. Louis, his specialty was site safety coordinator for a crew of
detectives that investigated methamphetamine labs.

The second shooter, Dellwood Police Detective Robert Piekutowski, remains
attached to the St. Louis County police drug unit. He faces no disciplinary
actions, according to county Police Chief Ron Battelle, who says both
detectives have been investigated enough and repeatedly cleared.

"They were faced with the use of deadly force," Battelle says, "and they
had an obligation to defend themselves."

Both detectives were relatively young at the time of the shooting on June
12, 2000. Piekutowski is 28 now, and Kierzkowski is 31. Grand jurors asked
whether the men were experienced enough for the dangerous work they do.
Their supervisors respond that both detectives were well-trained.

Battelle, Joe Corcoran, the head of the DEA's local office, and St. Louis
County Prosecuting Attorney Robert P. McCulloch all say the detectives did
nothing wrong.

"If Earl Murray had surrendered, none of this would have happened,"
Battelle said.

In retrospect, McCulloch said, police could have done some things better: A
marked police car could have been used to pull over Murray in a traffic
stop after he left the drug sale; the police were too quick to declare the
shooting justified; the DEA could have done a better job of blocking in
Murray's car.

Those things aside, McCulloch said, the shooting was entirely the fault of
the driver, who ignored police commands to stop.

Such comments rankle African-American leaders here, who say that the deaths
of two unarmed black men were dismissed too easily, especially when one was
not even a target of the officers' shots.

James Buford and the Rev. B.T. Rice were not among the civil rights leaders
who threatened a blockade of Highway 40 (Interstate 64) over the grand
jury's decision and then picketed McCulloch's office. But behind the
scenes, they were interested.

Buford is the president of the Urban League, and he asked and got the
Justice Department to investigate the shooting. Rice is the head of the
Black Round Table, a group of 50 community leaders.

Last month, Buford and Rice appointed a group of lawyers to investigate and
try to get the case reopened.

Buford says blacks in the region remain suspicious because the case was
shrouded so long in secrecy; even the names of the officers who fired the
shots were withheld for nearly 16 months.

"If you want me to swallow this thing," he said, "give me all the
information I need to digest it."

Until then, Buford added, "We don't want this thing to die."

Rice says police should be held accountable for shooting Beasley, who had
the misfortune to be riding with Murray.

"The passenger, at least, was murdered," Rice says.

Donald Wolff is the lead attorney working on the case for the black
leaders, and he says he's seen manslaughter convictions won with less
evidence than McCulloch had with the two detectives in the Jack in the Box
case.

Wolff and the civil rights leaders did not hear the tape recordings of
grand jury proceedings and were unaware of the Post-Dispatch findings about
them.

Black leaders are waiting for families of the dead men to file civil suits.
Buford says the courtroom is the only place where many blacks believe
they'll find justice.

During the civil rights era, blacks distrusted local police, prosecutors
and even the FBI, Buford said. "Courts were our salvation. ... If we could
just get this into a court of law, with all of the facts laid out, even if
the courts ruled against us." Buford paused. "Here two black men are killed
and there doesn't seem to be any effort to get this into court."

He's also frustrated at the perception that "black people are whining and
at worst condoning people who sell drugs and shoot at the police. We aren't
condoning the selling of drugs. Even though they were people we're not
particularly enamored of, we just want due justice."

Asked to describe McCulloch's relationship with blacks in the area, Buford
said, "He doesn't have one.

"He's never attempted to talk to me. ... He's made no overtures to meet
with us. He doesn't have a relationship with the African-American
community." Buford recalled that McCulloch had called the two dead men "bums."

"He's never made an attempt to soothe things ... or quiet things or show
leadership," Buford added.

Said McCulloch: "I don't know that the African-American community at large
distrusts me. ... I ... meet with pretty much anybody who wants to meet."