Expert: use of deadly force unnecessary
While a Florida-based police instructor believes that it was within reason for municipal police officers to give chase to a fleeing truck driven by Kermith Sonnier Jr., he said that the use of deadly force was unnecessary. W. Ken Katsaris was hired by lawyers for Sonnier’s father, Kermith Sr., to offer his opinions in a civil case filed against the officers involved in Sonnier’s May 5, 2004, shooting death.
Katsaris wrote that the use of deadly force was “excessive, unreasonable, and in violation of both Redstone police policies, as well as the policies of Brownsville police.”
Former Redstone Township police Capt. H. Dennis Field and former Brownsville Officer Autumn Fike should have removed themselves from a dangerous position as Sonnier’s truck approached on a narrow quad path, Katsaris wrote.
Field, Katsaris wrote, did that, and shot Sonnier “from a position of safety beside the truck.”
The 37-year-old Denbeau Heights man was fatally shot after a pursuit that started in the village of Century in Brownsville Township. Testimony at an inquest last year indicated that Sonnier tried to run down Field, Fike, Josh Mrosko and Mark Costello on a narrow dirt trail. The officers were on foot and Sonnier was in a full-size truck on a quad trail, testimony has indicated.
Fike and Field, both veteran officers, fired shots at the truck, according to testimony. One shot hit Sonnier in his left upper back, and he died of blood loss when major veins in his upper chest were hit.
A panel of coroner’s jurors who heard testimony during an inquest cleared all four officers of responsibility, but Sonnier’s father filed a lawsuit against all of them in January 2005.
Fike reportedly saw Sonnier in the area the day before and asked him to leave. When she saw him the next day, prior testimony indicated she tried to initiate a traffic stop, but Sonnier drove off.
He reportedly fled through Brownsville and eventually returned to the dirt roads of Century.
Police pursued him on foot, and testimony has indicated that Sonnier drove down a dead-end, turned around and headed back toward the officers.
While the lawsuit claimed that Sonnier tried to avoid the officers, a state police investigation concluded that there was nowhere for Fike and Field to go as Sonnier headed toward them. Fike was either thrown by Sonnier’s truck or by a tree branch and the truck continued to head toward Field.
Katsaris’ report found that when police used roadblocks that involved their police cars, they caused the damage to the vehicles.
“These contacts did not appear to be deliberate ramming by Sonnier as opposed to inadvertent contact while fleeing,” Katsaris wrote.
Using the cars as roadblocks violates the policies of both Redstone Township and Brownsville Borough police, he stated. Field was employed by the former agency, Fike by the latter. Police did not properly weigh the need to stop Sonnier and the “risk of the tactics,” Katsaris wrote.
A second expert report, authored by firearms expert David E. Balash of Canton, Mich., indicated that he was “perplexed by the selections of when to shoot” by Field. Balash indicated that Field did not initially fire when Sonnier hit a patrol car or when the truck first came at him and Mrosko, but waited until the third encounter with the truck on the dirt trail.
Balash found that Field fired and hit Sonnier as the truck moved past him, “therefore, (it) cannot be considered a life-threatening event at the point in time he chose to shoot,” the report read.
The report also found that state police investigators erred when they did not take the officers’ uniforms or document an injury to Fike’s leg, Balash stated.
Balash, according to the filing, has been a firearms examiner with the Michigan State Police for more than 20 years, and a police officer for more than 25 years.
A third expert hired by Sonnier Sr.’s attorneys, Dr. Werner U. Spitz of St. Clair Shores, Mich., indicated that Sonnier suffered after he was shot and could have been saved if he received more prompt medical attention, according to a medical expert.
Spitz determined that Sonnier was “dragged out of his vehicle and placed face down on the ground.” There was no testimony to that effect at the inquest, but the lawsuit contends that police took the wounded man from his truck and beat him.
“With timely medical intervention at a trauma hospital, Mr. Sonnier was salvageable. Delay in providing medical assistance obviously played a significant role in Mr. Sonnier’s death,” Spitz indicated in an expert report.
The doctor concluded that Sonnier suffered “conscious physical pain and the fear of impending doom while he lay bleeding after being shot, as his life gradually slipped away.”
Medical personnel were called around 4:51 p.m. and arrived seven minutes later, according to the filing. Sonnier arrived at the former Brownsville General Hospital between 30 and 45 minutes later and was pronounced dead at 5:44 p.m., the filing stated.
In formulating an opinion, Spitz reviewed several things, including: transcripts of inquest testimony, the lawsuit, police reports, depositions from the officers involved and autopsy and police photographs.
Inquest testimony from forensic pathologist Dr. Cyril H. Wecht indicated that Sonnier had “a small chance of survival” had he been “on the operating table with a thoracic surgeon in a skilled facility within maybe an hour.”
Sonnier had a small amount of cocaine in his system, and his father acknowledged in the past that his son had a drug problem.
Expert reports for the officers are due at the end of the month.