Police Cleared in Fatal Shooting of Teenager
DENVER — Denver’s District Attorney has decided that police officers should not be charged for the fatal shooting of teenager Jessica Hernandez.
Hernandez was killed in an alleyway near the intersection of 25th and Niagara on the early morning of January 26. Investigators said she was driving a stolen car toward two officers, who opened fire.
The other teenage passengers in the same car were not hurt.
Officer Gabriel Jordan and Officer Daniel Greene were “legally justified” in their use of force, DA Mitch Morrissey found.
“Some in the community were quick to call this shooting ‘excessive force.’ Others felt it was a justified shooting. These initial reactions were made before the investigation was completed and without knowledge of all of the facts. Now, if people study and evaluate the facts of this case, and consider my ethical obligations as a prosecutor in bringing criminal charges, they may understand why criminal charges are not appropriate,” Morrissey wrote in his public letter to Police Chief Robert White.
Morrissey’s 44-page decision explains that the Honda Civic Hernandez was driving was stolen between 5:30 and 7:30 p.m. Hernandez drove that car to several locations over the course of several hours, with four teenage friends as passengers.
The teens provided the DA with inconsistent stories about how precisely where they went that night, but they eventually fell asleep in the car in the alley where the fatal shooting later occurred.
Officer Jordan was the first to arrive and confirm the Honda matched the stolen vehicle report. At approximately 7 a.m. he noted that the teenagers in the car were starting to wake up and called for backup to respond with their lights and sirens.
Officer Greene arrived at 7:01 and within one minute reported that shots had been fired.
In that minute, Jordan approached in his SUV, got out and yelled for everyone to get out of the car.
“The Honda then backed up slowly towards Officer Greene’s police car and either made contact with Officer Greene’s bumper or stopped right before it,” Morrissey wrote, based on the officers’ descriptions. “At that point, the Honda then changed directions and moved forward slowly northbound, in the direction of Officer Jordan, and stopped.”
It reversed again, turning onto an angle and hitting a crash container and a wooden fence. The Honda stopped briefly and Jordan tried to approach before the car moved again.
“Officer Jordan estimated that he was approximately 10 feet from the Honda when he heard the engine revving loudly and ‘before I know it, the car’s driving right at me at a high rate of speed and drives right at me.'”
Jordan described opening fire with only his right hand on the gun. He used his left hand to push himself away from the car.
Greene said he heard the shots, believed Jordan was in danger of being hit by the oncoming car and opened fire as well.
An ambulance was requested seconds later, Morrissey reports.
Hernandez’s death sparked reviews of the Denver Police Department’s policies for shooting at suspects in moving vehicles. Her family also called for a Department of Justice investigation.
Denver Police Department policy allows officers to open fire when there is no other “reasonable” way to defend themselves or others.
The rules acknowledge that shooting at a moving car may have little effect on stopping the vehicle and could cause other, unforeseen dangers.
“Disabling the driver may result in an uncontrolled vehicle, and the likelihood of injury to occupants of the vehicle (who may not be involved in the crime) may be increased,” the rule states.
It also dictates that an officer should try to “move out of the way rather than discharging a firearm.”
But when it comes down to it, the current policy for shooting at a moving car asks officers to answer the same fundamental question: Is this the only reasonable alternative course of action to prevent death or serious physical injury to themselves or a bystander?
This story originally featured on 7NEWS Denver, an ABC Affiliate
