Pubdate: Wed, 07 Jan 2004
Source: Gleaner, The (Henderson, KY)
Copyright: 2004 The E.W. Scripps Co
Contact:  http://www.thegleaner.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1634
Note: Requires 'Letter to editor' in the subject line of e-mail
Author: Dylan T. Lovan, Associated Press
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/topics/Michael+Newby

STATE ATTORNEY GETS SHOOTING REPORT

LOUISVILLE (AP) -- A preliminary report on the death of a black teenager 
shot in the back by a police officer during a drug bust has been passed 
along to prosecutors, Louisville's police chief said Tuesday.

Meanwhile, the officer involved in the shooting has declined to talk to 
police investigators by invoking the Fifth Amendment, police said.

Chief Robert White said McKenzie G. Mattingly, an undercover Metro police 
officer, shot Michael Newby in the back Saturday night in western 
Louisville after they struggled for Mattingly's service handgun.

White declined to comment on the details of the preliminary report, but 
said the full investigation by police should be finished in four to five weeks.

Prosecutors said the report is brief and doesn't include statements from 
witnesses, autopsy reports and other details. Those elements will be 
contained the in the full report, which will be reviewed by prosecutors 
when it is completed, said Jeff Derouen, a spokesman for the Commonwealth's 
Attorney's office.

"We review (the full report), apply the law to it and see if there's more 
information we need, and then determine where to go from there," Derouen 
said. He said that includes deciding whether the case should be reviewed by 
a grand jury.

The shooting has roused civil rights leaders, who are angered over the 
second shooting of a black man by a white police officer in just over a year.

White said Newby, 19, was carrying a .45-caliber handgun and a powdered 
substance, either cocaine or crack cocaine, was found on him after the 
shooting. Newby died early Sunday at University Hospital.

White, who came to Louisville a year ago, tried Tuesday to calm an angered 
black community upset over Newby's death. "I certainly understand the 
issues, the concerns and the questions that the community has," White said. 
"... I would ask (the community) to just be patient long enough to see what 
the facts will bring."

The call for patience incensed some civil rights leaders who have been 
active in protests of Louisville police in the past. Newby was the seventh 
black man to be shot and killed by Louisville police in the past five years.

"We have too many of our young black men dying unnecessarily by a police 
department that is corrupt to the core," said the Rev. James Tennyson, a 
local pastor and activist.

The Justice Resource Center, headed by the Rev. Louis Coleman, met with 
Newby's family on Monday and recommended that they file a criminal 
complaint with the FBI. Coleman said he also encouraged the family to sue 
the city. It was not known Tuesday whether the family would heed Coleman's 
advice.

"It's up to them. We've encouraged them to fight this as hard as they can," 
Coleman said. The Justice Resource Center, along with local churches and 
other activist groups, has scheduled a protest at police headquarters for 
Thursday.

Helen Swain, Newby's aunt, who has been speaking for the family, said by 
phone Tuesday that she "doesn't want to talk anymore." Swain said she's 
frustrated with the case, though she didn't go into detail. She said no one 
else in the family would speak with a reporter.

A retired Louisville police officer who joined in protesting the department 
with other activists Tuesday said Mattingly shouldn't be allowed to keep 
quiet while officials investigate the case.

"This police officer has no right not to cooperate in this investigation," 
said Shelby Lanier, a former Louisville police detective.

White said Mattingly is "entitled to exercise his right, which he did under 
the advice of his attorney, to plead the Fifth" Amendment, which protects 
citizens against self-incrimination.

"At some point I'm confident the officer is going to give his account of 
what occurred" White said Tuesday.

Mattingly was placed on paid administrative leave while the shooting is 
investigated.

Aside from the Louisville police investigation, the mayor's Police 
Accountability Commission will also investigate the shooting.

Metro Mayor Jerry Abramson appointed the commission last year, after the 
December 2002 fatal shooting of a black, handcuffed man by a white police 
officer. The shooting sparked days of protests by civil-rights activists.

Both officers were cleared by police investigators of wrongdoing in the 
shooting, and a grand jury declined to indict them.

White said Mattingly was trying to buy drugs about 11:45 p.m. EST Saturday 
outside a strip mall when the deal between him and Newby "went bad.

"There was a tussle for the (officer's) service weapon, a shot was fired, 
the subject fled and in the course of that, the subject was shot three 
times in the back," White said.

Newby died from three bullet wounds, officials said.
- ---
MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom