Cincinnati Police Chief Teresa Theetge spoke in a virtual public meeting Friday about the police shooting of an 18-year-old earlier this month. She answered questions from the public but provided very little new information.
An unnamed CPD officer shot and killed Ryan Hinton in East Price Hill May 1; Hinton was one of four people who ran from a vehicle that had been reported stolen. The officer who fired says he feared for his life because Hinton pointed a gun at him. A loaded gun was recovered from the scene. You can see the full city press conference from the day after the shooting on CitiCable.
"I am committed to transparency," Theetge said Friday. "I am committed to a thorough investigation. I'm committed to working with [the Citizen Complaint Authority] — I think that is extremely significant to the community."
You can watch the full discussion, hosted virtually by the Cincinnati Black United Front, on Facebook.
Here are some questions Theetge addressed:
Why isn't the Bureau of Criminal Investigations conducting an investigation of the shooting?
"A lot of law enforcement agencies in the U.S., especially in the state of Ohio, have gone to using BCI, which is a state investigative body for things such as this. We have not done that. We never have done that," Theetge said.
Theetge says outsourcing the investigation to BCI would prohibit CPD from being as transparent as she'd like to be.
"I think we've proven that we can investigate ourselves, not just on critical incidents, but on all kinds of topics," she added.
There are currently three parallel investigations into the incident:
- CPD's internal investigation section
- Hamilton County Prosecutor's Office
- Citizen Complaint Authority
Theetge says the incident also will go to the Firearms Discharge Board.
"That is more of a board that looks at us as an organization as a whole, to determine, do we need more training on something? Do we need better tactical skills based on an incident? Do we need different tools at our disposal based on an incident?" Theetge said. "So when the investigation is over, our efforts for continuous improvement do not stop."
Who is the officer who shot and killed Hinton? Is he back on the job?
Theetge says she cannot name the officer because of Marsy's Law, an Ohio law that's meant to protect the identity of crime victims.
"The officer is the victim of a crime — he said he had a gun pointed at him, that's an aggravated menacing. Like it or not, he gets the same protections under Marsy's Law as any other citizen does," Theetge said. "So actually, it's not that I choose not to release their name, I cannot release their name because of Marsy's Law."
The Columbus Dispatch currently is suing Columbus officials over their use of Marsy's Law to shield on-duty officers' names. The Ohio Supreme Court case could determine whether or not police departments around the state can use Marsy's Law in this way, affording protections meant for crime victims to on-duty police officers.
Theetge did confirm the officer was working undercover at the time of the shooting. She would not directly answer whether he is back on duty, but explained CPD policy stipulates the officer be put on administrative leave for five days and must be cleared by a police psychologist before returning to work.
"I'm not planning on making any policy changes to not put the officer back to work if, in my eyes, it appears as though their actions were warranted based on their training and experience," Theetge said.
How many times did the officer fire? How many times was Hinton hit?
Theetge says the officer fired five times, based on how many rounds were left in the gun. She says the Coroner's Office reported Hinton was struck twice, but had no other information to share.
Separately, Hamilton County Coroner Lakshmi Sammarco canceled a news conference scheduled for Friday to discuss the autopsy. In an email, Sammarco referred to a subpoena from a grand jury as the reason she's not releasing the autopsy yet.
Hamilton County Prosecutor Connie Pillich said in a statement a subpoena is common practice.
Is Theetge considering any policy changes based on the shooting?
In short, no. CPD has policies in place about when officers can engage in a vehicle pursuit, but there is no policy in place regarding foot pursuit.
"We have got to leave some things to officer discretion, based on their training, their experience, some parameters that we put in place," Theetge said. "Such as, for a foot pursuit, they need to call out on the radio where they are, what they're wanted for, description of the person they're chasing, things like that. So no, I do not have any plans at this moment to revise that."
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