
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, December 22, 1994                   TAG: 9412220115
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-6   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Medium

HOMELESS MAN DIES OF WOUNDS

Marcelino Corniel, the knife-wielding homeless man shot by police in front of the White House, died Wednesday night after undergoing two lengthy operations and remaining in critical condition for 36 hours.

Corniel, 33, died about 9 p.m. from cardiac arrest in the intensive care unit at George Washington University Hospital, less than four blocks from the shooting scene, said Rich James, a hospital spokesman.

Corniel was shot once in the abdomen and once in his right leg by a uniformed U.S. Park Police officer about 9 a.m. Tuesday after he ran across Pennsylvania Avenue to the White House sidewalk with a hunting knife taped to his arm.

President Clinton, who was working in the Oval Office at the time of the incident, was never in danger. The president went ahead with an early morning jog Wednesday, but he followed a route less public than usual.

Earlier Wednesday, the U.S. attorney's office had filed a single charge accusing Corniel of assaulting a federal officer.

U.S. Park Police have declined to name the officer who shot Corniel, but said he has been assigned to administrative duties while officials review the shootings. A spokesman said the police communications department ``got a few threats against his life.''

A semicircle of at least four officers was facing Corniel as he stood on the Pennsylvania Avenue sidewalk. Shots rang out suddenly and he fell to the ground.

Officials defended the shooting as a justified use of force because the man did not follow orders to give up his weapon.

``I feel this was just a normal police reaction to a man with a knife,'' said Park Police spokesman Maj. Robert Hines. ``We have had numerous people call questioning what we did,'' he said on ABC's ``Good Morning America.'' ``If the officer had not fired when he did, the man could have turned and ran.''

Other homeless people who lived with Corniel in Lafayette Park directly across Pennsylvania Avenue from the White House said that he was angered by the way police try to drive the homeless from the park.

Keywords:
FATALITY

by CNB