Pubdate: Fri, 16 Jan 2004
Source: Lexington Herald-Leader (KY)
Copyright: 2004 Lexington Herald-Leader
Contact:  http://www.kentucky.com/mld/heraldleader/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/240
Author: Bill Estep And Lee Mueller
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/pot.htm (Cannabis)

MAN SHOT BY KSP HAD NO WEAPON

Uncle Says He Heard Slain Man Had Reached For Phone

JENKINS - The man shot and killed by Kentucky State Police in an
undercover drug deal Wednesday was not carrying a weapon, police said
yesterday.

A relative said he was told police shot 62-year-old James E. Alexander
of Roanoke, Va., when he reached under his jacket to get a cell phone.

State police Sgt. Bobby Day, a 12-year veteran, shot and killed
Alexander about 12:30 p.m. at a house in Jenkins during a drug
investigation, said Trooper Tim Kilburn, spokes-man for the Hazard
state police post.

State police would not say why Day shot Alexander, but Sgt. Phil
Crumpton said police had information that Alexander carried a weapon
while selling drugs.

State police were in Jenkins for a significant marijuana "buy-bust" --
a transaction in which undercover officers buy drugs from a suspect
and then arrest the person right away. Day, who is assigned to the
state police special operations branch based in Lexington, was there
to back up an officer from the state police drug enforcement unit that
covers the eastern half of the state.

The potential for danger is one reason members of the special response
team take part in undercover drug buys, Kilburn said.

Crumpton said state police are investigating the shooting but their
preliminary finding is that Alexander was not carrying a weapon when
he was shot.

Asked what Alexander did that the officers saw as a threat, Crumpton
said investigators were still sorting out details and would release
that information at the appropriate time.

However, Alexander's uncle, James L. Alexander, 78, of Lebanon, Va.,
said he was told the officer shot his nephew when he reached under his
jacket to get a cell phone. He would not reveal who told him that, but
said it was not a police officer.

"They thought he was reaching to get a gun, and they killed him," the
elder Alexander said.

He said his nephew did not carry a gun.

"If it happened like I've heard it did, I don't think it was fair for
them to do him like they done him," James L. Alexander said.

Alexander said his nephew was disabled and was a veteran who served in
Vietnam.

Day shot Alexander twice in the chest with an automatic rifle, said
Robbie Campbell, a deputy coroner in Letcher County.

Maj. Mike Sapp, who oversees the special response team, said officers
are carefully screened and undergo psychological and other tests
before they can get into the unit.

"He's a quality individual," Sapp said of Day.

Following standard policy, Day has been placed on paid administrative
leave while two state police lieutenants from outside the Hazard post
area investigate the shooting, Kilburn said.

State police plan to turn over the results of the investigation to
Letcher Commonwealth's Attorney Edison Banks for a decision on whether
to present the findings to a grand jury.

The shooting occurred in the kitchen of a yellow frame house on a
steep hillside in Jenkins, a tidy, one-time company coal town founded
in 1911. The sign on the house said it belonged to Henry Cooper, but
neighbors said Cooper had died and a man he had raised named Charles
"Buckwheat" Wallace lived in the house.

No one was at the house yesterday, and Wallace could not be
reached.

Court records show Wallace, 35, was arrested on felony charges of
selling marijuana in 1991 and cultivating six pot plants in 1998, and
a misdemeanor charge of possessing marijuana in 1992. He received
probation on the two felonies.

Police would not say why the drug deal was taking place at Wallace's
house.

Police and court records in Roanoke available by telephone and
computer listed an assault charge, gambling charges, a drunken-driving
charge and an emergency protective order against James E. Alexander.

The Virginia Department of Corrections said it had no record of his
being imprisoned, but his uncle said Alexander had served several
years in federal prison on a drug charge about 15 years ago.
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MAP posted-by: Larry Seguin