Cop involved in fatal shooting makes statement
19th March 2012 · 0 Comments
Coalition seeks meeting with AG Eric Holder about shootings
Despite efforts from the family of Wendell Allen, community leaders and the leadership of the New Orleans Police Department to make sense of what happened during the March 7 fatal shooting of the 20-year-old man inside his Gentilly home, the cop who fired the fatal bullet refused to provide details about the incident until late last week.
At the advice of his legal counsel, Officer Joshua Colclough waited until Thursday to tell his side of the story.
Allen’s shooting was the second fatal police shooting in the NOPD’s 3rd District in less than a week. Justin Sipp, 20, was killed by New Orleans cops after he was stopped on his way to work at about 5:30 a.m. on Thursday, March 1. His brother was shot in the leg by police during the early-morning incident.
Members of the community continued to demand answers last week, pointing out Tuesday that Officer Colclough had not yet been interviewed by the NOPD’s investigators.
“Officer Colclough will give a statement when appropriate,” Colclough’s attorney, Claude Kelly, told the local daily paper Tuesday. “An honest investigation of the incident will find Officer Colclough justified. And I trust that will happen.”
Officer Colclough came forward Thursday to give NOPD investigators a statement regarding the shooting. NOPD Superintendent Ronal Serpas said the department would not release the officer’s statement to the public because it has not completed its investigation of the shooting.
A day after the Allen incident, Serpas told reporters that he did not know why Officer Colclough fired upon Wendell Allen, who the police chief confirmed was not armed when he was shot on a second-flood staircase in his home in the 2600 block of Prentiss Avenue.
“The grave matter that we are gathered here for is to really save our community,” Danatus King, president of the New Orleans branch of the NAACP, said Tuesday.
Tracie Washington, director of the Louisiana Justice Institute, said Tuesday that the group has requested a number of public documents from the New Orleans Police Department related to the Wendell Allen shooting, including department policy regarding officer statements.
“We are prepared to take action — and that’s litigation and community organizing,” Washington told FOX8 News. “The litigation will come if we are not in receipt of the information we’ve requested by due public records request, by no later than close of business tomorrow.”
The LJI is seeking a list of the names of all NOPD officers involved in the Allen shooting, NOPD rules regarding the use of force by officers and departmental protocol regarding a waiting period before NOPD investigators can question an officer involved in a shooting.
Two days before Colclough, 28, spoke with investigators, a NOPD spokesman told FOX8 News that the department had requested an interview with Officer Colclough through his attorney but had not yet been allowed to question the officer who has reportedly been on the force for four years.
“It is critical that this department and this community understand what happened that night on Prentiss Avenue. A complete and thorough criminal investigation is a vital part of that process of understanding, and we cannot take any action which could possibly put a criminal investigation in jeopardy,” NOPD Superintendent Ronal Serpas said Tuesday in a statement.
“If the officer were forced to give a statement to police, that statement could not be used against him in a criminal case, if it became necessary to do so. We will continue to work to get a voluntary statement from Officer Colclough, but a thorough investigation will be completed with or without it.”
Community groups asked Orleans Parish District Attorney Leon Cannizzaro to convene a Grand Jury to look into the Allen shooting and asked the Mayor’s Office for an update on the ongoing consent degree negotiations between the City of New Orleans and the Justice Department.
D.A. Cannizzaro told FOX8 News last week that his office will look closely at the case once the NOPD has included its investigation. The Mayor’s Office confirmed that the Landrieu administration is still involved in negotiations with the Justice Department and said the city attorney would release public records according to state law.
W.C. Johnson, a founding member of Community United for Change (CUC) and host of local cable-access show “OurStory,” told The Louisiana Weekly that CUC has been in constant contact with DOJ officials for more than a year and has spearheaded efforts to give residents a forum in which to share their grievances with the NOPD with DOJ officials.
“From the start, CUC stated to the DOJ that…we are willing to assist the DOJ, but a day may come that CUC will have to employ direction against the DOJ,” Johnson told The Louisiana Weekly. “With that said, I can address frustrations CUC has encountered with the DOJ. Among CUC’s consistent petitions, we continually demand federal investigations on Ronal Serpas, Mitch Landrieu, Ed Quatrevaux, and Leon Cannizzaro. We consistently demand a Federal Receivership of the New Orleans Police Department (NOPD). And from the first meeting with DOJ, CUC has demanded the removal of Jim Letten, U.S. Attorney from the Eastern District of Louisiana. The DOJ did not want to confuse issues related to the major investigation. I believe this was a mistake on DOJ’s part and as hindsight is 20/20 we now know that Jim Letten has been the root of all problems concerning the Black community. Interestingly enough, the white community is now experiencing Jim Letten’s incompetency.
“CUC has never been hesitant about standing up and speaking out for the Black community of New Orleans,” Johnson added. “It is unfortunate but that has been a major problem in New Orleans, Black folks and Black organizations not standing up and speaking out. Black folks need to know they are free. Freedom carries with it many responsibilities, most of which Blacks folks are not aware of and some are not concerned with.”
A group of New Orleans ministers, civil rights organizations and community leaders told reporters on the steps of City Hall Thursday that they are seeking a meeting with Attorney General Eric Holder to discuss the shootings of Justin Sipp and Wendell Allen. Joined by members of the New Orleans branch of the NAACP, the ministers said Thursday that they sent Holder a letter requesting the meeting. They said they want to make sure the shootings are thoroughly investigated.
The Rev. Willie Gable, of the Inter-denominational Ministerial Alliance and Ministers United for Progress, said the coalition is seeking an audience with AG Holder “so that he might share with us their involvement from the Justice Department in this process and the monitoring that they are doing, so that we might be able to convey this to the community, so that the community’s concerns might be allayed.”
“Our concern is heightened by the many unanswered questions that surround both shootings. The lack of answers has increased the community’s mistrust and lack of confidence in the New Orleans Police Department,” Ministers United for Progress said in a statement Thursday.
“…Because of the past history of police misconduct and cover-up in our city, and because of the recent shootings and perceived lack of transparency in the investigations of those shootings, the community’s trust and confidence in the police force is at an all-time low and unrest is growing. Our city is at a critical turning point that could lead to disastrous consequences if proper steps are not taken. One proper step that must be taken in order to avoid those disastrous consequences is to immediately disclose all information about the shootings that can be disclosed without jeopardizing the investigations or jeopardizing potential criminal prosecutions,” the statement continued.
“We will remain vigilant in our efforts to ensure that this does not end up in a whitewash, or a cover-up,” said the Rev. Dr. C.S. Gordon, of the La. Missionary Baptist State Convention and Ministers United for Progress.
“Our gathering is not anti-mayor, it is not anti-police, it is not anti any particular racial, ethnic, or political group, rather it is pro-justice, and pro-fairness,” Gordon added.
Danatus King, president of the New Orleans branch of the NAACP, commended Ministers United for Progress for voicing the group’s concerns about the two recent shootings and vowed to continue to fight for justice for the families of the two men who lost their lives and the community as a whole.
“It is very important that Mayor Landrieu and Superintendent Serpas know that the New Orleans NAACP and many in our community are very displeased about the way the city administration and police department have responded to the fatal shootings of Justin Sipp and Wendell Allen,” King said. “In response to those shootings, the administration and police department have made statements and taken actions reminiscent of the Danziger shootings. Those statements and actions include classifying one of the shootings as ‘a good shoot’ before the investigation was completed; making statements and emphasizing information that demonize the victims of both fatal shootings; delaying the release of information that Mr. Allen was unarmed when he was shot; failing to suspend without pay the officer that shot Mr. Allen and refusing to give a statement. Those actions by Mayor Landrieu and Superintendent Serpas have increased the public’s distrust of the police force and the city administration. It is past time for those types of actions and that type of response to end.
“Mayor Landrieu and Superintendent Serpas, suspend today, without pay, all officers involved in the Justin Sipp and Wendell Allen shootings that refuse to give statement,” King added.
Former congressional candidate and New Orleans businessman Ramessu Merriamen Aha said the two recent shootings and local elected officials and administrators’ inability to get a handle on the situation underscore the lack of leadership coming from City Hall and the NOPD.
“There is definitely a crisis of leadership at the NOPD, at City Hall and at the Louisiana Governor’s Mansion,” he told The Louisiana Weekly. “True leadership is not about being in charge or how many people follow you, a la social media. It’s about teaching and allowing people to lead themselves by disseminating critical and pertinent information where self-determination can be achieved.”
Although the mayor and police chief rejected the suggestion by state Rep. Austin Badon that the Louisiana National Guard could be used to help the NOPD get a handle on violent crime, New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu said last week that the city will get help from several dozen federal law enforcement officers .
“I applaud and thank the mayor on this great step in putting more law enforcement on our streets,” state Rep. Austin Badon said Tuesday. “I reiterate my call to utilize the Louisiana National Guard as a short-term solution until the violence is under control and new recruits are able to plug the 13 percent gap in our police force.
“But, whether it’s through additional NOPD, state or federal resources, the bottom line is I join the mayor’s call to increase manpower to combat this unacceptable level of violent crime,” Badon added. “New Orleanians need their public officials to bring all available resources to bear. This is a win for our city.”
Ramessu Merriamen Aha called the mayor’s overture to federal law enforcement officers after rejecting help from the National Guard a stunt for “national publicity.
“It seems that the mayor is ego-driven to such an extent that crime czar and deputy mayor positions were created which are obviously wasteful,” he added. “The mayor should instead be citizen-driven such that more monies are placed in the average worker salary in New Orleans where they are now grossly underpaid with respect to other metropolitan cities. More employment and money in the community is inversely proportional to the crime element.”
Ramessu Merriamen Aha added that it will be difficult for the NOPD to gain the trust and respect of residents as long as the department refuses to hold rogue cops accountable or thoroughly investigate incidents where it appears that cops used excessive force against residents. “It will be difficult, as it should be,” he told The Louisiana Weekly. “There is a history of impropriety with respect to the NOPD as it relates to the Black community in particular. The homicides become justifiable and the operations criminal. What we are witnessing is the local manifestation of a larger problem that sanctions and benefits from the dehumanization of people globally.”
This article was originally published in the March 19, 2012 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper
