Original Article Questions surface in shooting by Mesa cop By Nick Martin, Tribune April 30, 2006 Uncle Deon, known for his Kool-Aid Man smile, put his hands behind his back that morning and told officers: Go ahead and cuff me. Im going to jail. He was not smiling. The Mesa officers told 35-year-old James Deon Lennox to get on his knees. But, for whatever reason, he refused. Lennoxs neighbors watched from outside their doorways as the massive man and officers responding to a domestic argument call squared off in the apartment complex courtyard. To those neighbors, Lennox was a friend, a man they saw daily. To the officers, a stranger. That rift would widen in the coming moments and hours. Before darkness turned to daylight on March 31, Lennox would receive a bullet in his head and another in his chest, both from an officers gun, as Lennox picked up a plastic lawn chair and turned toward the officers. That itself shocked neighbors enough. But it was the police explanation of the shooting, given later that day, that sent neighbors into a frenzy. The explanation was grim and sparse on details: Lennox beat an officer over the head repeatedly with a hard, plastic chair. When he reached for another plastic chair and came after officer David Kohler again, Kohler felt his life was in danger. So he squeezed his guns trigger twice. Neighbors used some words that cant be printed here to later describe how they felt about that explanation. But the message was clear: They wanted a chance to tell their version of how Lennox, or JD as they knew him, was sent to his grave. Now, one month after his death, the Tribune has compiled new details from Mesa police and interviews with those neighbors. The picture may, if nothing else, begin to answer the question Lennoxs survivors have asked time and again: Why did this happen? Gary Hecht cant show you the green plastic lawn chair Lennox was holding when he was shot. Nor can he show the white chairs he owns of the same style that were scattered about the west Mesa shooting scene. All were taken as evidence by police. What the 41-year-old apartment maintenance worker can do, however, is describe the chairs, the events that led to the shooting and the turmoil that has come from it. He, his wife Mary, 44, and his nextdoor neighbor, Matt Arnold, 28, watched the shooting unfold in front of their apartments. You dont shoot somebody over a $4 chair, Hecht said during a recent interview. Them same chairs are the ones that usually you sit on and then break the leg off of or you fall backward on or whatever. . . . They were junk. Just cheap chairs. But officer Kohler, a 16-year veteran, didnt think so at the time, according to a police spokesman. That spokesman said Thursday that Kohler told investigators he didnt know what kind of chair Lennox was picking up when he shot him. According to officer Kohler, he believed that was a metal chair and (Lennox) was getting ready to throw it at him, Mesa police spokesman Sgt. Chuck Trapani said. Kohler believed Lennox was going to kill or severely hurt him, Trapani said. Today, Kohler remains on paid leave because of the decision he made next. He also is being investigated by his own department. Both are standard procedures after a police shooting. Policy dictates that an officer must, before shooting a suspect, believe his or someone elses life is in danger or that severe injury is imminent. That means its key that Kohler thought the chair was made of metal a material more likely to cause injury. Police were first called because Lennox and his girlfriend had been yelling at each other in the parking lot. None of the officers had stun guns, Trapani said. The witnesses say one officer shouted Taze him! But Trapani said the officer had been mistaken. As the investigation has progressed, the department has acknowledged some uncertainty about whether Lennox hit Kohler repeatedly with a white plastic chair before he picked up the green one. The Hechts and Arnold have said Kohler was hit once when Lennox whirled the first plastic chair behind him. Officer Kohler couldnt really determine (how many times he was hit with the chair) . . . he thought maybe multiple times, Trapani said. But well never know. Thats just his recount of it. Kohler spent several hours in the hospital for injuries he received during the fight. Mesa police investigators are now working to determine exactly what happened. They interviewed witnesses, including the Hechts and Arnold, examined physical evidence, such as bullets taken from Lennoxs body, and are trying to ascertain whether Kohler was justified. Its the first of a three-stage investigation. After they finish, they will pass all the evidence to the Maricopa County Attorneys Office, which will decide whether to charge Kohler with a crime. If no charges are filed, the attorneys office will send the case back to Mesa police, which will have a board of sergeants examine whether Kohler broke department policy by shooting Lennox. The whole process could take up to a year. Lennoxs neighbors nearly deified him after his death. Lets put it this way: If God wanted to try to create the perfect man with the perfect attitude well mannered he did a good job with JD, said Arnold, a 28-year-old hardware salesman. That night kind of contradicts it . . . but he was loved by a lot of people. Mesa police records contradict it, too. Between 1997 and 2003, police were in contact with Lennox nine times for fights, traffic stops and assault. He was detained several of those times but never for felonies. Gary and Mary Hecht and Arnold are unapologetic about how they talk about the shooting. They feel it was unjustified. Sometimes they raise their voices. Sometimes the Hechts spit curses. At the same time, each has officers in his or her family: Gary Hechts father (Marys father-in-law) was an officer in another state. And Arnolds fiance is closely related to two officers in separate Arizona agencies. None of the three witnesses has criminal records. All say, before this shooting, they had no reason to talk badly about Mesa police. During extensive interviews with the Tribune, the witnesses described where they, the officers and Lennox all stood during the buildup to gunfire. Their accounts, along with what police now say, raise key questions for the witnesses: Were their lives endangered because Kohler fired at Lennox, who was standing in front of them? Why, if Kohlers life was in danger, did none of the other three officers at the scene draw their weapons? Was Kohlers judgment skewed because Lennox had punched him repeatedly during an earlier skirmish? Investigators say Kohlers skin and clothes were damp in spots with pepper spray after his altercation with Lennox. If this guy (Kohler) is dazed, confused and staggering around . . . he shouldnt have been firing in our direction he shouldnt have even pulled his gun, Gary Hecht said. Trapani said officers are trained to know what the backdrop is when they shoot and to avoid hitting bystanders. But if needed, Trapani said, the officer is trained to shoot and take care of whatever the aftermath is even if that means bystander injuries. What Kohlers state of mind was, no one except Kohler knows. For now, he and the other officers have declined to be interviewed by the Tribune. Trapani said the shooting has been traumatic for Kohler, as it always is for officers. Kohler spoke with a department-hired counselor soon after the incident standard for a shooting. But Trapani said he also imagines this shooting was extra tough for Kohler because it is his second. In October 2000, Kohler shot and killed a suspected Bulgarian drug dealer outside the mans Phoenix home. Kohler was an undercover detective at the time and was involved in a sting operation. He was later found to have acted properly because the Bulgarian pulled a metal baton, which Kohler thought was the barrel of a gun, and came at him. Six days after Lennox was killed, family and friends gathered to remember him in a brightly colored back room of a large Mexican restaurant in Tempe where he worked. Tears flowed at the gathering. Answers, however, did not. Lennoxs four children were among the myriad loved ones at the dinner. So were his father, mother, stepfather and older sister. They each wanted to know what happened. What was the real story behind the shooting? With police typically not finishing investigative reports until months after a shooting, Lennoxs family felt for the sake of getting answers they needed to launch their own inquiry. So they hired a lawyer and a private investigator. Depending on what the investigator finds and whether it conflicts with the police reports the family may file a claim with the city, said Lennoxs sister, Malissia Clinton. But for Clinton, 37, a lawyer in Manhattan Beach, Calif., its important to avoid reaching conclusions too early. I would not want the attention of an attorney to be viewed as hostility, Clinton said recently in a phone call. I expect the police department to do the right thing. Were not declaring war. Until the police department completes its investigation, Clinton and the rest of her family can only wait and grieve. It just depends on how the police department plays it, Lennoxs sister said. If there is a lot of silence and not a lot of forthcoming . . . then we will have to regroup and figure out how to address that. Use of force What city policy says: Deadly force may be used when the officer reasonably believes that it is necessary to defend oneself or another from what the officer reasonably believes is the infliction or threatened infliction of serious physical injury or death (Mesa Police Field Manual). Protecting bystanders: Whenever a firearm is discharged, (the officer should) exercise reasonable caution for the protection of the lives of innocent persons (Mesa Police Field Manual). What the courts say: Allowances must be made for the fact that officers are often forced to make split-second judgments in circumstances that are tense, uncertain and rapidly evolving (U.S. Supreme Court, Graham v. Connor, 1989). Contact Nick Martin by email, or phone (480) 898-6380