Riverton deadly police shooting of man with butter knife ruled justified

Law enforcement officers are pictured at the scene of an officer-involved shooting in Riverton on Monday, Oct. 22, 2018. Jason Robert Whittle, 26, was killed after he reportedly held a butter knife to his mother’s throat. | Steve Griffin

Parents say victim was mentally ill and insist he never would have hurt his mother

RIVERTON — A Unified police officer who shot and killed a Riverton man who held a butter knife to his mother’s throat last year will not face criminal charges, the Salt Lake County District Attorney’s Office said Friday.

Jason Robert Whittle, 26, became the fifth Utahn killed by police in a span of less than two weeks when he was fatally shot by officer Darrell Broadhead on Oct. 22, 2018. An investigation by the district attorney’s office concluded that Broadhead was legally justified in using deadly force — despite Whittle’s parents’ insistence that their son would not have hurt his mother that day, and despite Broadhead’s lack of cooperation in the investigation.

Whittle’s mother, Anne Esposito, called police to her home in Riverton that day and told dispatchers that her son was mentally ill, high on methamphetamine and “out of control,” according to a letter from District Attorney Sim Gill outlining the investigation findings.

Whittle had previously been diagnosed with bipolar and schizophrenia, the letter said. His father, Robert Whittle, told the Deseret News after the shooting that his son had been battling substance abuse and was living on the streets at the time.

Esposito later told investigators that Whittle had come to her home at 11779 S. Stone Ridge Court that morning. He “was not speaking coherently and was acting paranoid,” according to Gill’s letter. Whittle’s mother said he slipped a butter knife up his sleeve and encouraged her to call 911. Esposito later told investigators that she felt like her son was “‘making things worse’ because he wanted her to call the police,” according to Gill’s letter.

Whittle could be heard in the background of the 911 call saying, “I will be violent with the officers,” and “I will kill them with knives,” according to the investigation findings. But Whittle’s mother told the dispatcher she didn’t believe her son would harm her.

Police sent to the home were told that Whittle was mentally ill, high on meth and had a knife. The dispatcher also told officers that Whittle had threatened to “kill anyone who come(s) in the back door,” the investigation findings state.

When police arrived at the home, the 911 dispatcher told Esposito that the officers wanted her to walk outside for her own safety, according to the letter. When Whittle saw police, he grabbed his mother and held the knife to her throat while standing behind her, Gill wrote.

He reportedly did not comply with police orders to put down the knife, instead yelling, “I can hurt her,” and “I’m going to kill her.” Broadhead, who was one of the officers on scene, fired one shot at Whittle’s head from about 15 feet away, killing him immediately, according to the investigation findings.

Whittle’s mother later told investigators that when she saw the officers draw their weapons, she told the officers not to shoot, saying: “Don’t do this. He is just mentally ill.” Another witness also told investigators that she heard Esposito yell: “Don’t shoot, he’s fine, he’s not gonna hurt me, don’t shoot.”

At the time of the shooting, Robert Whittle said that his son would never have hurt his mother.

“They didn’t have to shoot him,” he said. “He had a frickin’ butter knife. She was yelling at them, ‘Don’t do anything, he’s not going to hurt me.’”

Broadhead declined to answer any questions about the incident or even provide a statement to investigators, according to the district attorney’s office, so investigators do not know whether the officer heard Esposito yelling at the officers not to shoot. Another responding officer told investigators that he heard Esposito screaming, but could not remember what she said.

“Without officer Broadhead’s explanation of his use of deadly force against Mr. Whittle, we don’t know his reason for his decision to fire his weapon,” Gill wrote.

But whether Broadhead heard Whittle’s mother was essentially irrelevant, he concluded.

Whittle’s mother “may have been objectively correct in her assertion that Mr. Whittle would not hurt her,” Gill wrote. “Then again, Ms. Esposito, perhaps without knowing it, may have been objectively wrong on this occasion, Mr. Whittle may have hurt her. And although Ms. Esposito said she told the officers Mr. Whittle wasn’t violent, in that moment he was indeed violent, inasmuch as he was apparently holding a knife to Ms. Esposito’s throat while holding her body with his other hand.”

The other officer told investigators that he and Broadhead decided to use guns rather than Tasers after hearing that Whittle had a knife and had threatened to kill officers. That officer “said he believed that there was no other option but for officer Broadhead to fire his weapon, fearing for Ms. Esposito’s life,” according to the letter.

“While we don’t know what officer Broadhead saw, heard or believed at the time he used deadly force, we know what he could have seen or heard or believed, based on the facts we presently know,” Gill wrote.

“From these facts, an inference that officer Broadhead used deadly force because he believed deadly force was necessary to prevent death or serious bodily injury is a reasonable inference and one that supports the legal defense of justification.”

from Deseret News https://ift.tt/2lLOxJj