Inclusion Daily Express -- Officer Who Shot Paul Childs: "I Feel Like I Did Everything Appropriately" (Oct. 22, 2004)

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Officer Who Shot Paul Childs: "I Did Everything Appropriately"
By Dave Reynolds, Inclusion Daily Express
October 22, 2004

DENVER, COLORADO--The mother of Paul Childs III testified this week that she did not understand why a Denver Police officer shot her 15-year-old son to death last year.

The officer, James Turney, testified that he was just following his training.

Their testimony came during a Civil Service Commission hearing to determine whether Turney's 10-month suspension without pay over the teen's fatal shooting should be reduced.

Helen Childs told the disciplinary appeals hearing Friday that her son, who had developmental disabilities, was "kinda distant" in the days leading up to his death on July 5, 2003. Paul had experienced a seizure while on a public bus two weeks earlier, and had ran away from home on July 2. He tore apart his room on July 4 when she told him he could not leave.

"He just wasn't Paul," she said, adding that he did not take his medication to control his seizures and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder on July 4 or 5.

Mrs. Childs said that on July 5, Paul would not speak to her, but at one point he sat down next to her.

"I put my head on his shoulder, and I told him I loved him," Helen testified Thursday. He then put his hand over her mouth.

"I said, 'What are you going to do, kill me?'" she joked.

Family members and visitors began to laugh when Paul went to the kitchen and came out with a knife.

"I told him he needed to put the knife down," she said.

Paul followed her around the house clutching the knife. Helen said she was not afraid that he would hurt her or others in the house, but decided to have her daughter, Ashley, call 911 because the police had been friendly to Paul in the past and had successfully calmed him down.

"I said, 'Come on, Paul. Here are your friends,'" she said, referring to the police. "This is what you want."

Several officers arrived at the home within minutes and ordered the occupants to get out of the home.

Mrs. Childs testified that she opened the front security door and tried to tell officers that her son had a mental disability. Turney pulled her out of the doorway by the elbow, replying, "I don't need to hear that," she said

"I was yelling, 'Please don't shoot my baby, please don't shoot my baby,'" she told the hearing officer.

Officer Turney then fired four shots into her son's body.

Turney also took the stand for the first time since the incident.

He said Paul looked familiar as he came to the door that day. Later, he recalled that he had given the boy a ride home just a few weeks earlier.

Turney testified that, as he approached the house, he directed Mrs. Childs, who was holding the metal security door open, to leave the house. Mrs. Childs, her daughter, and their guests left. Another officer told Turney that Paul was still standing behind the inner door. Turney stood outside, holding the security door open with his foot and ordered Paul to come out. The teen shuffled around the door, "making a wide arc", clutching the knife upward in his hand at chest level, Turney testified.

"He started to walk towards me," Turney said. "He took short but deliberate steps. Choppy steps."

Turney said he told Paul several times to drop the knife. When he failed to do so, and was within 3 to 4 1/2 feet from Turney, the officer shot him four times "at center mass".

"He had gotten to the point where I felt he could have reached out and stabbed me," the officer said.

Assistant City Attorney Karla Pierce asked Turney why he didn't simply close the security door and back away.

"It's not a matter of not being able, but with everything happening so quickly, I didn't feel it was appropriate at the time," Turney replied.

"I feel like I did everything appropriately and the way I was supposed to do in the way that I was trained."

"Did you consider anything other than standing your ground and firing?" Pierce asked.

"No," Turney said, "I did not."

According to police dispatch tapes, just 32 seconds elapsed between the time Turney ran to the front door and when he called for an ambulance.

City Manager of Safety Al LaCabe suspended Turney in April, after deciding that the officer violated the police department's "use-of-force" policy. LaCabe said that Turney rushed into the situation too fast, and forced a confrontation with Paul Childs. In addition to the suspension, LaCabe ordered that Turney not be allowed to patrol the streets when he returns to the force, but instead would have a desk job.

The hearing, which began Tuesday, is expected to last through this coming Friday.

Child's death was the second fatal shooting by Turney since he joined the department in 1998. On January 30, 2002, he shot and killed 18-year-old Gregory Smith Jr., in the home of Smith's mother. Turney shot the partially-deaf Smith after the teen failed to follow orders to drop a pocket knife.

Turney was cleared of criminal wrongdoing in both cases.

In July of this year, the city paid Childs' mother and sister $1.325 million to settle a lawsuit Mrs. Childs had planned to file against the city.

His death was met with outrage by his family and community leaders. Mayor John Hickenlooper responded by appointing an independent panel which looked into the Denver Police Department's use-of-force policy, the oversight of situations where lethal force is used, and how officers interact with suspects that have disabilities.

On November 2, Denver voters will address Referred Question 1A, which is supported by the mayor. The measure would change the city charter so that investigators of police officers would not be subjected to civil service hiring rules, but would instead serve at the mayor's will. It would also give investigators access to certain documents and statements which they do not currently have access to.

Related:
"Childs' mom takes the stand" (Denver Post)
http://www.denverpost.com/Stories/0,1413,36~4330~2486348,00.html
"Turney left time, space only to kill" by Jim Spencer (Denver Post)
http://www.denverpost.com/Stories/0,1413,36~27772~2484033,00.html
"Turney testifies on teen's shooting" (Rocky Mountain News)
http://www.inclusiondaily.com/news/04/red/1022d.htm
"The Death of Paul Childs III" (Inclusion Daily Express Archives)
http://www.inclusiondaily.com/news/crime/childs.htm

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