By Woody Baird, The Associated Press
MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) - Three Arkansas police officers were charged with reckless homicide Thursday in the death of a woman shot after the car she was riding in was chased into Memphis.
Officers say they fired their weapons into the car when the driver tried to run over them.
Both the driver, Donald Rickard, 38, and his lone passenger, Kelly Anne Allen, 44, were killed.
No charges were filed in Rickard’s death.
Police from West Memphis, Ark., chased the car into Memphis on July 18 after it sped away from a traffic stop. Authorities say the license plate on the car was not the proper one for the vehicle.
After a chase of about 10 miles, the car was pulled over just across the Mississippi River in Memphis. Officers said they fired into the car when it started up again in their direction.
Authorities would not say how many shots were fired into the car before it crashed into a brick wall and the side of a house.
A coroner’s report said Rickard and Allen suffered gunshots and injuries from the crash that would have killed them.
Indicted by a Shelby County grand jury on one count each of reckless homicide were Sgt. Vance Plumoff, 33, and officers John B. Gardner, 26, and Tony Galtelli, 24.
West Memphis Police Chief Bob Paudert said the officers will be assigned to desk jobs to await trial. They surrendered for arrest in Memphis and were released on $1,000 bond each.
“We are just awaiting the trial to see what the facts are,” Paudert said. “I can’t judge what these officers did was right or wrong.”
If convicted, the officers face two to four years in prison.
District Attorney General Bill Gibbons said the officers were charged under Tennessee laws governing the use of deadly force.
In general, such force is allowed only to protect an innocent person from imminent death or serious physical injury.
Even when deadly force is warranted, “the justification defense is not available for recklessly killing an innocent person by the use of such force,” the law states.
Gibbons declined details of the investigation into the incident or to say if other Arkansas police officers were on the scene. No Memphis officers were involved.
Gibbons said no charges were filed in Rickard’s death because prosecutors do not believe they could prove the officers were wrong in shooting him.
“We simply could not refute the defense of the justifiable use of deadly force relating to the shooting of the driver,” he said. “On the other hand, the shooting of the passenger is a totally different matter.”
West Memphis police say the car chase was allowed by their department rules. Memphis police do not allow such a chase for a suspected stolen car.