The Office of the Independent Monitor in Denver says it plans to evaluate police methods when it comes to dealing with shootings involving moving vehicles. This comes after Denver police officers shot to death a 16-year-old girl who allegedly hit an officer with a stolen car.
The evaluation will compare the Denver police department's policies, training, and practices surrounding shooting at moving vehicles with national standards and best practices of other police departments in the country, says the civilian oversight agency. At least three other officer-involved shootings with a moving vehicle have occurred in Denver in the last seven months.
This announcement was made as around 20 or so Denver residents gathered in front of District Attorney Mitch Morrissey's office to angrily protest yet another death at the hands of the police. A 16-year-old girl identified by her friends as Jessica Hernandez was pronounced dead at a local hospital due to gunshot wounds incurred from two Denver police officers.
Little is known about the incident early Monday morning that took the life of Hernandez. Denver police chief Robert White told reporters on Monday that the shooting took place in an alley in Park Hill, one of Denver's older, middle-class residential neighborhoods, where an officer responded to a call about ongoing suspicious activity and discovered a silver Honda parked inside the alley with five teens sitting inside, with Hernandez presumably in the driver's seat. Upon checking the vehicle's license plate and confirming that it was stolen, the officer called for backup.
White said the two officers approached the vehicle on foot when the driver stepped on the accelerator and hit one of the officers in the leg, prompting the officers to shoot. Bobbie Diaz, who says she was in the neighborhood when the shooting happened, said she heard four gunshots before hearing a male voice say: "Freeze! Get out of the car! Get down!"
"She seemed like she was not responding, not moving," Diaz, who is the mother of one of the teens inside the car, says of Hernandez when the police pulled her out. "They just yanked her out and handcuffed her. I'm just trying to process everything. I'm just heartbroken for the girl's family. How could something like this happen again?"
The police officer whose leg was injured has been taken to the local hospital for treatment after possibly suffering a broken leg. Both officers are placed on administrative leave while the case is being investigated.
On Monday, chief deputy district attorneys Doug Jackson and Lamar Sims spoke with the protesters amid the din of shouts and curses, promising a thorough investigation of Denver's most recent shooting.
"You can decide whether we made the right decision or not," Jackson said.
