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. - --- MAP posted-by: Larry Seguin