THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, March 23, 1995 TAG: 9503230551
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY MARC DAVIS, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: Medium: 61 lines
The police officer who shot a bystander in front of his home last June testified Wednesday that the gun went off by accident as he dropped his flashlight and tripped.
Officer Miles L. Warren testified that he did not aim at the bystander, Ronald L. Duck, and did not hold up the weapon with two hands, as Duck and two neighbors testified Tuesday. Warren said he did not feel his 9mm gun fire and did not see the muzzle flash, even though the time was 10 p.m.
Immediately after the shooting, according to a statement Warren gave that night, Warren told Duck, ``I didn't mean to shoot you. It was an accident.''
But during cross-examination Wednesday, Duck's attorney noted inconsistencies in Warren's prior statements and tried to prove the improbability of Warren's version of events.
The testimony came on the second day of a civil trial in Norfolk's federal court. Duck, a 38-year-old unemployed custodian, is suing Warren for $1 million for negligence and violating his civil rights.
Duck was shot through the shoulder and spent four days in a hospital. Warren was suspended for one week, then reinstated. A police review board concluded the June 2 shooting was an accident.
The shooting took place in front of Duck's home on Grandy Avenue, near Princess Anne Road and Ballentine Boulevard. Duck was talking to a next-door neighbor at the time, did not have a weapon and did not make any menacing moves, both sides agree.
Warren was investigating a shooting at a nearby nightclub. He stopped in front of Duck's home to investigate a car that had pulled into a driveway next door. Warren mistakenly thought the car was driven by a suspect in the nightclub shooting.
Duck testified Tuesday that Warren got out of his patrol car, walked to his front lawn, raised his gun with both hands and fired, without saying a word.
On Tuesday, two neighbors testified that they saw the officer raise the gun with both hands, as if aiming, and the shooting was not an accident. On Wednesday, however, police investigators testified that both witnesses told different stories the night of the shooting. One said she didn't see the shooting. The other said it was an accident.
Also on Wednesday, Warren testified that he was on the far side of his patrol car, not on Duck's lawn, when his gun went off. The car was between him and Duck.
In cross-examination, Duck's lawyer, Jeremiah A. Denton III, tried to discredit Warren. To show the improbability of Warren's version, Denton struck a weird pose - head down, but gun-hand way up - to show jurors how Warren must have been standing as he picked up his flashlight and the gun went off.
``Wouldn't it be a physical impossibility to hit Mr. Duck unless you fired over on top of the car?'' Denton asked.
``That would be correct,'' Warren replied. The officer has repeatedly said someone else may have shot Duck. In court, however, there has been no evidence of another shot fired.
The trial will conclude today. A verdict is expected this afternoon.
KEYWORDS: TRIAL SHOOTING by CNB