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Politics : Politics for Pros- moderated -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Lane3 who wrote (148274)	11/22/2005 11:41:08 AM
From: Lane3	Respond to of 793682

Parents of paralyzed teenager ask $25 million Boy on stolen earthmover shot by police By Kim Smith ARIZONA DAILY STAR Tucson, Arizona \| Published: 11.22.2005 advertisement The parents of a 14-year-old boy paralyzed when he was shot by Tucson police officers while driving a stolen 40-ton earthmover have filed a $25 million claim against the city. The claim, filed Nov. 15 by Duncan Dresner's parents, alleges police officers Brian Knight and Brandon Angulo behaved negligently when they shot the boy on the city's West Side June 2. The claim also accuses the city, the Police Department and/or the officers of negligent hiring, training and supervision, intentional infliction of emotional distress and assault and battery. A claim is a precursor to a lawsuit. The city has 60 days to respond, after which a lawsuit can be filed. "We will evaluate it accordingly," said City Attorney Mike Rankin. "Beyond that, I'm not going to comment on the merits of the claim." According to authorities, Dresner stole the earthmover from a construction site near East River Road and North Dodge Boulevard and drove it 12 miles across the city while running red lights and ignoring police commands. Police reports say officers stood in front of the earthmover with their guns drawn as the construction vehicle reversed direction in the 800 block of North Camino de Oeste, near West Speedway, and started moving toward a group of police officers who had been following Dresner. The officers fired at Dresner, severing his spinal cord near his sternum, rendering him a paraplegic. While no one is denying that the boy made a "boneheaded" mistake when he stole the earthmover, the officers knew he was scared and crying, said attorney Dev Sethi, who represents the boy's parents, Margo Dresner and Aaron Pfau. The officers also knew he had no key, Sethi said. If they'd only shown some patience and tried harder to talk to the boy, they could have directed him out into the desert where the earthmover could have been stalled, Sethi said. "They knew he hadn't hurt anyone and if that had been his intention - to go on a kill spree with this machine - it would have been an easy thing to do," Sethi said. It's unclear how the earthmover got into reverse, but it is clear that Dresner couldn't have possibly seen the police cars behind him, Sethi said. "He was trying as hard as he could not to hurt anyone," Sethi said. The earthmover's maximum speed in reverse is only 5 miles per hour and the officers simply overreacted, Sethi said. In fact, after the boy was shot, an officer was able to jump on the earthmover and stop it well before it got close to any police cars, Sethi said. Sethi said the Pima County Attorney's Office's having charged Dresner with 14 counts of a variety of crimes, the most serious being seven felony counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and one felony count of theft, is frustrating. "They are the tail wagging the dog," Sethi said. Also on Monday, Dresner's defense attorney, Greg Kuykendall, filed a motion asking the Arizona Court of Appeals to overturn a recent Juvenile Court judge's decision. Judge Jane Eikleberry ruled on Nov. 9 that the police officers involved in the case are the victims of the boy's actions, protecting them under the Victims' Bill of Rights from having to talk to Kuy-kendall. ? Contact Kim Smith at 573-4241 or kimsmith@azstarnet.com.