Phoenix Sees Increase In Police Officers Using Deadly Force In 2018

By Bret Jaspers
Published: Friday, June 8, 2018 - 5:05am
Updated: Friday, June 8, 2018 - 5:41pm

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Viri Hernandez (right) and the Center for Neighborhood Leadership
Bret Jaspers/KJZZ
Viri Hernandez (right) and the Center for Neighborhood Leadership held a vigil the day after Rabi Brown, a 34-year-old man who was armed, was shot and killed by police on a bus that was about to leave the Metrocenter Mall on Phoenix's west side.

As the sun began its heavy descent last Wednesday, activists gathered at a bus station at Metrocenter Mall on Phoenix’s west side. White posters laid on the ground bore names written in marker, a rose atop each one.

“We’re here because yesterday, they killed another person,” said Viri Hernandez, director of the Center for Neighborhood Leadership. “And we’re here to make sure that people know that this happened. This happened here. And that we’re not going to let it just happen and forget.”

The vigil was for Rabi Brown, a 34-year-old Native American man and restaurant worker. He was killed the day before, on May 29.

A Phoenix police officer and a sergeant had gone to the bus stop after getting a call about a man with a gun. According to the Phoenix Police Department, the officers boarded a bus. Brown was at the back. Police told him not to touch his gun, but he did anyway, taking a handgun out of his pocket. Both officers fired at him, ending Brown's life. Neither officer was injured.

Phoenix has already seen more instances than last year of police officers shooting at somebody. The count is now at 23. It’s a troubling number no matter what your role is — activist, officer, or neighbor.

Brown is one of 10 people killed by police in Phoenix this year, according to a Washington Post database — more than New York City, Chicago or Los Angeles.

Hernandez decried the swiftness of the Brown incident.

“For us, this is an example of how it is not only a one-time incident. It is not only in the shootings that are happening. But it is in the protocol. It is in how they act,” she said. “And we’ve had many conversations with officers and when we’ve asked what’s happening, it directly, strictly, always goes to defense mode. There’s not a conversation that wants to be had.”

Hernandez said a culture of violence permeates the police department, pointing to last year’s sudden use of tear gas at a protest during President Donald Trump’s visit. Hernandez’s group has been calling on Phoenix City Council, to no avail, to provide money for counseling for those traumatized in incidents like the one at Metrocenter.

In an interview, police Sgt. Mercedes Fortune said the department is very concerned about the number of officer-involved shootings.

“It begs the question of why is this happening? Why so many this year and what’s going on? And so those are the questions that we want to find answers to,” she said. “And [those answers] don’t come easy.”

Phoenix is on pace to have more than 50 officer-involved shootings this year. In 2017, there were 21 and 2016 saw 25. In Maricopa County as a whole, county prosecutors have been called out to almost the same number of shootings by police as they were in all of 2017.

Fortune said every incident of an officer-involved shooting in Phoenix this year has involved a suspect armed with either a gun or a knife.

“So it’s not that we’re not taking things slowly,” she said, but that “officers are having to make decisions with a person that’s already armed.”

Ken Crane, president of the Phoenix Law Enforcement Association (PLEA), put his message to the public in blunt terms.

“When the police show up, comply, follow the commands, don’t point guns at us and don’t pull knives on us and it’s probably going to end really well that day for everybody,” he said. “And I know that sounds a little bit like a snippy, crass answer, but I’m speaking for the men and women out there, the boots on the ground that do this stuff every day. They’re as fed up with it as you guys are. But you know what? We got families. We got wives, husbands, kids.”

This is an emotional, life and death issue for all parties involved. The question of whether we’re seeing a trend, however, is hard to answer.  

“There’s just natural variation in the use of force, where it can go up 40, 50, 60 percent from year to year and then dip right back down the next year,” said Bill Terrill, a criminology professor at Arizona State University.

He said in total, research shows the best predictor of why the police would use deadly force is the resistance level of the suspect, i.e. whether he or she is armed and challenging police.

Terrill also said concerns about “cultures of violence” are legitimate, on both sides of the ledger. If an officer takes an us-versus-them approach, it can lead to more force.

“Culture matters. If officers believe in that traditional culture, they’re more likely to use higher levels of force,” he said. “But we also know within the community, areas that have higher levels of violence are more likely to challenge the police and there be subjected to violence from the police.”

Violence from the police is something no one wants. There is agreement on that.

vigil signs.JPG
Bret Jaspers/KJZZ
Signs were laid at the vigil, adorned with roses and held in place by water bottles.