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

DATE: TUESDAY, September 19, 1995                   TAG: 9509200002
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: A-1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: KATHY LOAN STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG                                LENGTH: Medium

FORUM ON SHOOTING DEATH OF MAN TURNS FREEWHEELING

More than 200 people demanded answers Monday night to their questions about the fatal shooting of a New River Valley man by Blacksburg police last month.

But a "listening forum" sponsored by the Montgomery County Human Relations Council yielded no answers, but did give concerned people a chance to speak out.

More than a dozen people took that opportunity - sometimes more than once - during the 90-minute session at Blacksburg High School auditorium.

Maurice Taylor, 22, died Aug. 9 after being shot 12 times after three Blacksburg police officers approached him in the Revco drug store on South Main Street.

The officers were trying to serve papers on Taylor for failing to appear in court on charges he had violated his probation for a 1992 robbery conviction.

Two of the three officers opened fire after Taylor pulled what was later discovered to be a C02-powered BB-pistol on them. The officers thought it was a large-caliber handgun.

BB pistols, which use compressed carbon dioxide gas to propel projectiles, can be dangerous, even fatal, at close range.

Officer Michael Mickey was struggling with Taylor, trying to wrestle the gun away. When Taylor pointed the pistol at the two officers in front of him, they moved to their left, drew their weapons and fired.

Mickey was behind Taylor and was shot in the left thigh by one of the other officers.

Joe Hardy, a cousin of Taylor's, spoke several times at Monday's meeting. Each time, he was adamant that Taylor's family deserved answers they were not getting.

Hardy said the family wants the names of the officers involved, access to the police reports and information about the autopsy. He said the family also wants the names of Revco employees who were at the store when the shooting happened. He also wants to see any surveillance camera tapes the store might have that show the shooting.

"For 36 days, this Police Department has not provided this family with [the] information. ... Our constitutional rights have been violated. We need answers," Hardy said.

Rodney Pulliam, president of the Black Graduate Student Association at Virginia Tech, said it is becoming too commonplace for communities to be be meeting over the death of black males.

"We have to ensure that justice is not delayed," Pulliam said. "One way to allay fear is to provide information."

Others at the meeting questioned whether the officers used excessive force, and expressed concerns about the treatment blacks receive by authorities and in general.

More than one speaker referred to Mark Fuhrman, the retired Los Angeles police officer whose racist remarks have loomed large in the O.J. Simpson trial. Others noted the absence of the mayor and any police department representatives at the meeting.

But Town Manager Ron Secrist was in the rear of the auditorium listening to the remarks. And Lewis Barnett, a councilman and the town's representative to the council, also was there.

Chief Bill Brown, a member of the Human Relations Council, was at a public hearing for the Virginia Tech Police Department's effort to gain national accreditation.

That session ended just as the listening session started a couple of miles away.

Reached at Tech, Brown said he had no plans to attend the listening session unless there was a problem that required police attention.

He would not comment on the case or identify the officers involved, saying the matter had been referred to state police.

Once the state police conclude their investigation, a report will be sent to the commonwealth's attorney's office for review.

"We're still waiting on the results from the [state forensics] lab," Roger Rector, special agent in charge of the state police's Salem Division Bureau of Criminal Investigations, said Monday.

The lab will report on ballistics and whether Taylor had drugs or alcohol in his system.

Brad Smith and other speakers said they want more than the police version or the reports they get from the media.

"If these are the facts ... if this is all we're going to get, then we don't have nothing," said Smith, holding up a Roanoke Times story on the shooting.

The Human Relations Council organized Monday's forum in response to community concerns. The council was proposed in 1991 by the county's Minority Opportunity Task Force.

Keywords:
FATALITY