Estimation General Clearance

Focus Group on Officer-Involved
Shooting Data Collection
Engagement Questions
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Introductions (name, rank or title, agency)
Can you give me an example from your agency or your experience that sticks out in your mind of
when an officer used his or her service weapon in the line of duty?

Focus Group on Definition
Exploration Questions
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For this question, I would like for you to take a few moments to write down your response to
the upcoming question. We will then share our responses individually. After each person has
provided his thoughts, we can discuss everyone’s responses…. When you think of the term,
“officer-involved shooting,” what types of events come to mind?
[Probe on areas of overlap]
o [Summarize and paraphrase] It appears that most often, xxxx, is considered a part of the
concept of officer-involved shootings…
o Why are these scenarios most often thought of?
o Does anyone feel differently about this?
[Probe on areas of disagreement]
o Is there something we haven’t thought of that should be on this list?
o Why should these additional situations be added? Why not?
[Scenario of officer-involved shooting—mistaken identity (“Blue-on-Blue”)]
o Let me read a brief scenario to you and then we can discuss your reaction to the
information.
o Does this scenario meet the criteria of an officer-involved shooting?
o Why or why not?
[Scenario of officer-involved shooting—shooting a dog or other animal]
o Let me read a brief scenario to you and then we can discuss your reaction to the
information.
o Does this scenario meet the criteria of an officer-involved shooting?
o Why or why not?
[Scenario of officer-involved shooting—mistaken weapon]
o Let me read a brief scenario to you and then we can discuss your reaction to the
information.
o Does this scenario meet the criteria of an officer-involved shooting?
o Why or why not?

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[Scenario of officer-involved shooting—unintentional shooting]
o Let me read a brief scenario to you and then we can discuss your reaction to the
information.
o Does this scenario meet the criteria of an officer-involved shooting?
o Why or why not?
[Scenario of officer-involved shooting—accidental shooting]
o Let me read a brief scenario to you and then we can discuss your reaction to the
information.
o Does this scenario meet the criteria of an officer-involved shooting?
o Why or why not?
[Scenario of officer-involved shooting—mistaken identity]
o Let me read a brief scenario to you and then we can discuss your reaction to the
information.
o Does this scenario meet the criteria of an officer-involved shooting?
o Why or why not?
[Scenario of officer-involved shooting—off duty]
o Let me read a brief scenario to you and then we can discuss your reaction to the
information.
o Does this scenario meet the criteria of an officer-involved shooting?
o Why or why not?
[Working definition]
o Finally, I will read one definition that has been offered as a starting point for discussion
[read definition used by David Klinger]
o Given everything that we’ve discussed, does this definition still work?

Exit Question
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Is there anything else you would like to say on the question of the definition of officer-involved
shootings before we wrap up this portion?

Focus Group on Scope and Content
Exploration Questions
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Now, can you tell me about the first time you had to address the use of a firearm by an officer
under your command?
o What key pieces of information did you need to know?
o How has this changed through your career?
Did this event result in a need to communicate with the community?
Did you do this through meetings or press conferences? Something else?
What key pieces of information did you use in that context?
Was there information that you did not have, but wished that you did?
Does anyone feel differently about this?

Exit Question

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Is there anything else you would like to say on the content and scope of this collection before
we wrap up this portion?
Given some of the discussions that we’ve had on definition and information, what would be the
best way to collect this data? Extend a current collection, such as NIBRS? Or, set up a separate
path to provide the information to the UCR Program?

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Is there anything else you would like to say on the whole day’s discussion before we wrap up?

“Blue-on-Blue”
Cop hurt in battle with Boston bombers likely victim of blue-on-blue
Whatever wounded cop is still embedded in his leg, leaving investigators unable to confirm which
gunfired the bullet
By Philip Marcelo
Associated Press
BOSTON — It's "highly likely" that a police officer who was critically injured in a dramatic gunbattle with
the Boston Marathon bombers was struck by another officer, a district attorney said Tuesday.
Middlesex District Attorney Marian Ryan, whose office has been investigating the gunfight between
officers and Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, said whatever wounded Massachusetts Bay
Transportation Authority Officer Richard Donohue is still embedded in his leg, leaving investigators
unable to confirm which gun fired the bullet.
"We don't know what struck Officer Donohue because it has not been removed," she said at a news
conference. "It is likely that it came from the gun of one of the officers attempting to stop Dzhokhar
Tsarnaev, yes."
But Ryan said the shooting was justified because it was in "self-defense" of officers and people living in
the dense residential neighborhoods where the gunfight took place on April 19, 2013.
The bullet that struck Donohue severed a major artery, and he lost most of his blood and suffered nerve
damage. He returned to work last month.
Donohue said in a statement released by MBTA police that Ryan's report "does not take away from the
heroic actions of those officers who ultimately prevented further acts of terror on the citizens of the
United States."
He said, "I harbor no regrets and am forever grateful to the police officers, firefighters, and medical
professionals who saved my life on April 19th, 2013."
Ryan's report follows one conducted by the Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency.
That report found that some officers involved in the shooting showed a lack of "weapons discipline,"
resulting in dangerous crossfire. But it stopped short of saying Donohue was shot by fellow officers.
The gunfight took place in the Boston suburb of Watertown four days after bombs exploded at the
marathon finish line. The attack killed three people and injured over 260 others.
One of the bombers, Tamerlan Tsarnaev, was killed amid the gunbattle. His younger brother, Dzhokhar,
was eventually captured. He was sentenced last month to death.
Reported on 6/4/2015. Downloaded on 6/11/2015 from www.policeone.com

Animal Shooting
PIT BULL DEAD, WOMAN HURT AFTER OFFICER-INVOLVED SHOOTING IN WEST HOUSTON
HOUSTON (KTRK) --An argument between two women led to an officer-involved shooting early this
morning at a gas station in west Houston.
Houston police say the women were arguing in two different vehicles at a Valero on Gessner Road near
Hammerly Boulevard around 3am when an officer came to break things up.
However, when the officer moved in to end the argument, a pit bull belonging to one of the women
came at the officer, police say, and the officer fired at the dog, striking and killing the dog. One of the
bullets from the officer's gun, police say, struck the woman in the leg.
We're hearing the officer was not hurt, and the person who was shot is injured, but alive.
Stay with Eyewitness News for more on this story as it becomes available.
Reported on 4/17/2015. Downloaded on 6/11/2015 from abc13.com

Mistaken Weapon
Officer involved in fatal Hector Morejon shooting involved in prior shooting
The Long Beach police officer who fatally wounded an unarmed 19-year-old during a trespassing call
April 23 was identified Tuesday as a 25-year veteran who was involved in a previous officer-involved
shooting.
The Long Beach Police Department released Officer Jeffrey A. Meyer’s name in response to a public
records request. Police declined to release copies of arrest and investigative reports that also were
requested by the Press-Telegram.
Meyer fired the shots that killed Hector Morejon after police responded to a report of trespassing and
vandalism at a vacant apartment unit in the 1100 block of Hoffman Avenue, which is in the Cambodia
Town area of Long Beach.
Sgt. Megan Zabel, a spokeswoman for the Police Department, confirmed Tuesday that Meyer was
involved in two prior incidents in which force was used: an officer-involved shooting in March 2002 and
the use of a Taser to subdue a man who had stabbed a woman in the neck. He has also received two
awards for heroics on the force.
Meyer, who has been taken off field work while the investigation continues, would not be available for
comment, Zabel said.
Police said Meyer fired his weapon when he saw Morejon turn around and extend his arm outward as if
pointing a firearm. No gun was found at the scene, police said a day after the shooting. Morejon died
later at a hospital.
Four others were arrested on suspicion of trespassing, one of whom police said was in violation of a
gang injunction.
Sonia Mercado, an attorney for Morejon’s family, called the release of Meyer’s name a good first step
but said the family remains concerned that the autopsy report remains under seal.
“They really want a transparent investigation,” Mercado said. “The officer needs to be held
accountable.”
The family plans a peaceful demonstration at 1:30 p.m. today at 300 E. Ocean Blvd., Mercado said.
The Los Angeles County coroner has placed a security hold on the results of Morejon’s autopsy, which
allows investigators time to gather evidence and speak to witnesses without rumors being spread, police
have said.
Police released Meyer’s name following a 2014 California Supreme Court ruling that found police
departments do not have a blanket right to conceal the names of officers involved in shootings. The
court case stemmed from the death of Douglas Zerby, who was shot by Long Beach police in 2010 while
holding a pistol-grip water hose nozzle.

The Long Beach Police Officers Association opposed the court’s decision, saying officers’ safety could be
at risk. Steve James, president of the association, declined to comment Tuesday on the release of
Meyer’s name.
Zabel said Tuesday that Meyer received a Meritorious Service Award in 1998 and 1999.
He was awarded the first commendation for his response to a suicidal woman who had cut her wrists,
Zabel said. After throwing glass objects at the officers and threatening them with a knife, she broke a
second-story window and threatened to jump out if the officers approached her, the spokeswoman
said.
Meyer and the other officers at the scene came up with a plan to rush the woman, and they safely
detained her and got her medical attention, Zabel said.
Meyer was honored in 1999 for saving a choking child while responding to an unrelated call, Zabel said.
A 16-year-old boy approached him holding a limp 2-year-old girl whose eyes had rolled back into her
head.
The officer performed CPR but was unable to clear the obstruction from the child’s airway, according to
Zabel. Meyer then performed the Heimlich maneuver, clearing the child’s airway.
Details about the 2002 officer-involved shooting Meyer was involved in were not available late Tuesday,
Zabel said.
In the other case involving his use of force, court records show Meyer used a Taser several times during
the arrest of Felix Bejarano on June 20, 2011. Bejarano was convicted of attempted murder, mayhem
and resisting arrest.
The incident began with a fight between Bejarano and another man, according to records from the
California Appeals Court. A woman tried to intervene and Bejarano assaulted her, stabbing her in the
neck with a broken bottle.
Meyer was the first officer to arrive at the scene of the 2011 case, according to the documents. He
deployed his Taser several times to try to subdue Bejarano, but the device did not have any noticeable
effect, court records show.
“Meyer ‘did a drive stun’ with his Taser into defendant’s right calf four times, ordering him to stop
resisting and bring his other hand out,” according to the documents. “This had no effect.”
Eventually it took six officers to subdue the man, according to the documents.
Reported on 5/12/2015. Downloaded on 6/16/2015 from www.presstelegram.com

Unintentional Shooting
Video has been released of the moment a reserve police officer in Tulsa, Oklahoma, shot and killed a
man by mistake.
The reserve officer, Bob Bates, a 73-year-old insurance executive, told police he had thought he was
firing his Taser stun gun at Eric Courtney Harris, 44, a convicted felon who a police report on the incident
said was being arrested after having sold a gun to an undercover officer.
The video, which came from a police officer’s body camera, was released by police on Friday. It shows
Harris running down a suburban street, away from his pursuers. The officer catches up with him and
Harris is brought to the ground. A shot is heard and Harris gasps in pain.
A voice, presumably that of Bates, says: “I shot him. I’m sorry.”
A gun is dropped on the road and then picked up.
Harris cries out, repeatedly, “He shot me!” and says: “Oh my God, I’m losing my breath.”
As officers continue to subdue Harris, one officer is heard to say: “Fuck your breath.”
Medical help was called to the scene, but Harris died in hospital.
Later, Bates told the Tulsa World: “It was me,” and added: “My attorney has advised me not to
comment. As much as I would like to, I can’t.”
Harris’s death is one of a number involving black men at the hands of white police officers to have
occurred across the US in recent months. Last year, protests broke out after the officers who killed
Michael Brown, 18, in Ferguson, Missouri and 43-year-old Eric Garner in New York City were not
indicted.
Last week, an officer in North Charleston, South Carolina shot and killed Walter Scott, a 50-year-old man
who ran away from a routine traffic stop. The shooting was captured on camera by a bystander with an
iPhone.
Scott’s funeral took place on Saturday; the officer, Michael Slager, has been fired from the force and
charged with murder.
The intensity of the protests over such deaths – which gave rise to the Black Lives Matter movement and
the use of Garner’s last words, “I can’t breathe”, as a campaign slogan –has stoked intense national
debate about the policing of African American communities and the state of civil rights in the US.
Like the death of Walter Scott, Garner’s death was captured on video by a bystander.
Bates was assigned to the violent crimes task force of the Tulsa County sheriff’s office. Reserve deputies
“have [the] full powers and authority” of a deputy while on duty, Major Shannon Clark told the Tulsa
World, saying their use in such cases was not unusual.

Accidental Shooting
A rookie New York City police officer is expected to surrender Wednesday to face criminal charges in the
November shooting death of an unarmed man, according to a city official and a lawyer involved in the
case.
A grand jury in Brooklyn returned an indictment today against Officer Peter Liang, who was 18 months
out of the police academy when he shot and killed Akai Gurley in a dimly lit stairwell of a Brooklyn public
housing project.
Police have said Liang fired by accident.
Family of Man Killed by Police in Stairway Plans to Sue NYC
At the time of the shooting, Police Commissioner Bill Bratton called Gurley “a total innocent.” “He just
happened to be in that hallway as the officers were entering,” Bratton said at a news conference after
the shooting. “He was not engaged in any criminal activity of any type.”
Liang was patrolling the stairwell of Pink Houses in East New York the morning of November 20 with his
gun drawn. Police have said the gun may have jostled as he opened a door. The single bullet that killed
Gurley had ricocheted off the wall.
Scott Rynecki, the attorney for Gurley’s domestic partner Kimberly Ballinger, said he was advised that
Liang will surrender Wednesday and appear in court when charges would be unsealed. “This is the first
step for the family in their fight for justice in the wrongful death and shooting of Akai Gurley,” Rynecki
said.
Asked about the case, the office of Mayor Bill de Blasio said in a statement: "It has been reported that a
Brooklyn grand jury has acted in this case. No matter the specific charges, this case is an unspeakable
tragedy for the Gurley family. We urge everyone to respect the judicial process as it unfolds."
Meanwhile, Brooklyn boro pres Eric Adams said: “It is my continued hope that the death of Akai Gurley
will give life to much-needed reforms that will make the community and law enforcement alike safer.”
The shooting happened as emotions roiled across the country about police shootings of unarmed men.
Gurley was killed around the time a grand jury in Staten Island cleared the NYPD officer primarily
involved in the chokehold death of Eric Garner.
“This officer deserves the same due process afforded to anyone involved in the accidental death of
another,” PBA president Patrick J. Lynch said. "The fact the he was assigned to patrol one most
dangerous housing projects in New York City must be considered among the circumstances of this tragic
accident.”
Reported on 02/10/2015. Downloaded on 6/12/2015 from abcnews.go.com

Oklahoma police have said they do not intend to investigate Harris’s death any further, unless requested
to do so by the sheriff’s office.
Reported on 04/12/2015. Downloaded on 6/11/2015 on www.theguardian.com

Mistaken Identity
Women Shot By Police in Case of Mistaken Identity in Ex-LAPD Officer's Manhunt
Two women and an unidentified driver were involved in two separate shootings, all three apparently
mistaken for ex-officer Christopher Dorner
By Samantha Tata and Jason Kandel
Two women delivering newspapers in Torrance were wounded and another person was shot at on
Thursday by police in cases of mistaken identity in a search for a fired LAPD officer wanted in a deadly
revenge rampage in which he allegedly targeted law enforcement and their families.
The three victims were driving in dark-colored pickup trucks that matched the description of former
Officer Christopher Dorner’s, police said.
Police were posted on protective duty outside the home of one of those officers Thursday morning
when they became suspicious of a driver moving through the neighborhood, according to Los Angeles
Police Department Chief Charlie Beck.
Driving a blue pickup truck with its lights off, the newspaper carriers slowly approached the officer’s
house before dawn in the 19500 block of Redbeam Avenue.
Police fired at the truck, thinking it was Dorner's. The truck was riddled with more than 15 bullet holes in
the back windshield and tailgate.
One woman was struck in the hand and is expected to recover; the other was shot in the back and her
condition was unknown late Thursday. Both were taken to the hospital.
Two blocks away from where that shooting occurred, Torrance police shot at another driver travelling in
a pickup truck 25 minutes later.
While responding to the first officer-involved shooting, a Torrance police cruiser collided with a truck
that resembled Doran’s. The incident occurred near Beryl Street and Flagler Lane in Redondo Beach, on
the border with Torrance.
"Shortly thereafter, shots were fired," said Sgt. Chris Roosen, with Torrance Police Department. "The
officers believed that the person involved was Christopher Dorner."
Bullets flew through the windshield, missing the driver.
Neither shooting involved Dorner, 33, who remains at large, police said.
Roosen said police believed Dorner was headed to an officer’s home close to where the shootings
happened.
A neighbor said she’d seen at least eight squad cars staked out near the officer’shome. Another said he
was rattled but understood the officers’ actions.

"It’s scary," said resident Dan Lankford, "but ... if you have a high-ranking officer that is in the
neighborhood and a vehicle that matches that description and the killings that are going on, I could see
how it’d be easy to jump to a conclusion."
The manhunt for Dorner – whose 11,000-word online manifesto names several of his former colleagues
as targets – had Southern California law enforcement on edge.
Dorner is accused of killing three people – including a police officer – and wounding two others.
Reported on 02/07/2013. Downloaded on 6/11/2015 from www.nbclosangeles.com

Off-duty
Off-duty Philly cop getting takeout stops robbery; 1 suspect dead
Detective stopped a pizza shop robbery in a close-quarters shootout
PHILADELPHIA — Philadelphia police say an off-duty detective picking up takeout food ended up
stopping a pizza shop robbery in a close-quarters shootout that left one of the suspects dead.
Chief Inspector Scott Small says two men entered Rising Sun Pizza just before 11:30 p.m. Thursday. They
put a gun to the head of the off-duty detective, took $20 out of his hands and forced him to the floor. As
the two announced they were robbing the shop, the detective identified himself and pulled his weapon.
Small says that's when one of the suspects fired at least two shots from point-blank range; the detective
returned fire. The two suspects then fled. One collapsed dead in the parking lot; the other escaped.
Reported on 6/5/2015. Downloaded on 6/11/2015 from www.policeone.com

Working Definition of
Officer-Involved Shooting
• Police-involved shootings at human targets
• No accidental or unintentional firing of
weapon
• Based on the work of David A. Klinger,
University of Missouri-St. Louis