Deadly Force

The fatal shooting by a police officer of 14-year-old Simmont Donta Thomas is a tragedy.It is a tragedy for his family.It is a tragedy for Officer Edward T. Gorwell II, 24, a two-year member of the Baltimore police force, who fired the shot into the teen-ager's back as the youth fled from a stolen car early last Saturday in Gwynns Falls Park.And it is tragic for a city that would just like to close its eyes and then open them to find the ills of homicide and drugs and wasted youth gone. Lamentably, no one has come up with any more tangible antidote that can work fast enough.

The arrest of George Zimmerman on charges of second-degree murder in the killing of unarmed Florida teenager Trayvon Martin does not mean that justice has been done. But it does provide the opportunity for justice - for a full presentation of the facts before a judge and impartial jury. It was the denial of that opportunity by local officials in Sanford, Fla., who chose not to arrest Mr. Zimmerman immediately after the shooting six weeks ago, that had so inflamed the nation. It led to inevitable questions about whether race was a factor in how the case was handled - Trayvon was black, and Mr. Zimmerman is white and Hispanic - and to outrage at the notion that a young man could be killed without anyone being forced to publicly account for it. Now the Sanford community and the entire nation can get answers about what happened that day, and that is what our criminal justice system is supposed to do. Angela B. Corey, a special prosecutor brought in from Jacksonville to handle the case, said Wednesday evening that her decision to bring charges was not based on public pressure but on the evidence she had gathered.

HERE'S A fundamental truth about police work in America: In this country, only a law enforcement officer has the authority to use deadly force against fellow citizens in time of peace. As a well-armed society, we find it necessary to arm our law officers as a consequence and to accept that they will have to use those weapons as an act of personal deliberation. This is an extraordinary right. But on foot patrol, in a radio car, on drug raids or during car stops, there can be no body politic to deliberate such matters.

Wearing hoodies, members of Maryland Legislative Black Caucus this afternoon called upon the U.S. Department of Justice to examine a Florida law that has become controversial in the wake of the death of Trayvon Martin. "We believe justice has not been served," said Sen. Catherine Pugh, a Baltimore Democrat who leads the Black Caucus. "We want people in the city, state and country to realize we have to be more culturally sensitive. " "You should not make assumptions because of what someone is wearing ... or the color of their skin," Pugh said.

The use of deadly force by Baltimore police is narrowly defined in a terse, single-sentence regulation that spells out when city officers can draw their guns and shoot.Essentially, the directive limits the use of deadly force to situations in which the life of an officer or another person is in danger or when a forcible felony is under way.But out on the street -- when officers confront suspects in circumstances beyond their control -- the rules are sometimes blurred by the anger, fear and pressure of a stressful situation.

WASHINGTON -- The Supreme Court ruled yesterday that police may use deadly force to stop a speeding motorist who ignores warnings and poses a danger to the public. In an 8-1 decision, the justices threw out a lawsuit brought by a Georgia teenager who sped away from police and led them on a high-speed chase down narrow, two-lane roads. The youth was paralyzed when a police cruiser rammed into the back of his car and sent it careening off the road. In a first for the court, the justices said they had decided the case based on watching a police videotape of the incident.

I have spent 20 years in police work, and it has become readily apparent to me that police departments rely too heavily on the use of deadly force.This reliance begins at the police academy where recruits are taught to fire at faceless targets, which do not talk, sweat or bleed. Recruits are often rewarded for their marksmanship by being given a firearm, a plaque or a medal of commendation.Throughout their careers, officers receive more in-service training and qualification time with firearms than they do with communication skills and nonlethal use of weapons.

IT'S UP TO State's Attorney Patricia C. Jessamy to seek indictment of a policeman captured on videotape as he shot a knife-wielding man outside Lexington Market. The numerous opportunities for the public to view the tape purchased by a local TV station have, as expected, elicited various opinions as to whether Officer Charles M. Smothers needed to fire his gun. Killed Saturday was James Quarles, 22, a "quiet guy" facing a drug charge who had been selling socks outside the market.Whether or not a grand jury gets the case, it again raises serious questions about the use of deadly force by Baltimore police.

Baltimore Councilman Martin E. "Mike" Curran didn't see the gunman sneak up behind him.Mr. Curran and a television reporter, role-playing as police officers, were at the back door of a low-rise apartment building. A print journalist, acting as the primary officer, was entering the front door of the building where heroin transactions were being made.The participants in a unique crash course offered by the Baltimore Police Department on deadly force and weapons wouldn't learn until later that the simulation was modeled after a real-life incident in which Officer Gerald Martin was killed and another officer seriously wounded in an Oct. 10, 1989, ambush in a building in the 1500 block of Pennsylvania Ave.While Mr. Curran and the reporter staked out the back door, their team leader walked slowly into a darkened hallway.

BALTIMORE CITY police shot and killed a woman Monday. They said it was unavoidable.Blanche H. Baker, 50, attacked officers with a knife. Pepper spray didn't stop her, so they fired their guns. Officers are trained to aim at an assailant's upper torso, because it provides a bigger target. They hit Ms. Baker at least twice; she died at Sinai Hospital.Ms. Baker, according to police who talked to relatives, was mentally ill. She had a record of run-ins with police, including a 1995 arrest for second-degree assault with a deadly weapon.

Nearly a month after an unarmed black teenager was shot to death by a neighborhood watch captain, police in Sanford, Fla., have yet to make an arrest. Seventeen-year-old Trayvon Martin was returning from a convenience store near the house of his father's fiancee in a gated community Feb. 26 when watch leader George Zimmerman spotted him and called police to report a "suspicious" person. Moments later, Mr. Zimmerman confronted the teen - ignoring the dispatcher's advice not to follow the youngster - and shot him in the chest, apparently as Mr. Martin pleaded for his life.

I agree with the judge's decision to hold Baltimore Police Officer Gahiji A. Tshamba without bail in the first degree murder of Tyrone Brown ("Officer 'did what he had to,' lawyer says," June 15). First of all, Mr. Tshamba was an off-duty cop who could have gone about this situation differently. Secondly, you have witnesses who were with Mr. Brown and two independent witnesses who stated that Mr. Brown obeyed Officer Tshamba's wishes when he drew his weapon. Mr. Brown's hands were in the air when Officer Tshamba began to fire 13 rounds, 12 of which struck Mr. Brown.

The Baltimore police officer under investigation for killing a fellow bar patron Saturday was involved in an off-duty shooting in 2005 in which investigators determined he was driving with a 0.12 percent blood-alcohol level before firing his weapon, according to documents obtained by The Baltimore Sun. In that incident, Officer Gahiji A. Tshamba told investigators that he was behind the wheel of his Nissan 350Z in the 5900 block of Pulaski Highway...

In March 2001, two brothers frustrated over repeated break-ins at their concrete plant in Glyndon armed themselves with shotguns and spent the night in the darkened building. When three intruders broke in, the brothers opened fire, killing one and wounding two others in the back. Dominic "Tony" Geckle and Matthew Geckle told Baltimore County police that they thought the flashlights the men were carrying were guns. The case raised questions about whether the brothers had exercised justifiable self-defense or had crossed the line into vigilante justice by lying in wait for their prey.

WASHINGTON -- The Supreme Court ruled yesterday that police may use deadly force to stop a speeding motorist who ignores warnings and poses a danger to the public. In an 8-1 decision, the justices threw out a lawsuit brought by a Georgia teenager who sped away from police and led them on a high-speed chase down narrow, two-lane roads. The youth was paralyzed when a police cruiser rammed into the back of his car and sent it careening off the road. In a first for the court, the justices said they had decided the case based on watching a police videotape of the incident.

The weekend killing of a 14-year-old boy by a Baltimore police officer is reviving a controversial issue for the department: When is the right time to use deadly force to stop aggressive suspects? As investigators probe the fatal shooting of Kevin Cooper inside his home Saturday morning, his family's lawyer challenges the officer's account, saying that the boy's behavior did not warrant such a violent reaction. But experts who train officers cautioned that these kinds of volatile domestic situations require split-second decisions by officers worried about the safety of bystanders as well as their own. Options like blinding Mace, disabling batons and Taser stun guns can be employed effectively to force many suspects into compliance.

In the past year, 15 states have enacted laws that expand the right of self-defense, allowing crime victims to use deadly force in situations that might formerly have subjected them to prosecution for murder. Supporters call them "stand your ground" laws. Opponents call them "shoot first" laws. Thanks to this sort of law, a prostitute in Port Richey, Fla., who killed her 72-year-old client with his own gun rather than flee, was not charged last month. Similarly, the police in Clearwater, Fla., did not arrest a man who shot a neighbor in early June after a shouting match over putting out garbage, though the authorities say they are still reviewing the evidence.