The Associated Press
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) - Rather than sue over the fatal shooting of their mentally ill son by police, Jim and Karol Dougherty wanted to talk - to officials who could help ensure that other families did not suffer the same tragedy.
Their efforts in memory of Aaron Dougherty, who was 26 when officers shot him at the family’s home in November 2002, have yielded commitments to train police in handling mentally ill suspects.
“In no way was this a pleasant experience,” Jim Dougherty said at a news conference Friday with Karl Zobrist, president of the city’s Board of Police Commissioners. “But it was incredible. ... Our son’s spirit lives on.”
Under a settlement, the family will receive $250,000 in compensation from the department’s self-insurance fund.
Two charities - the Trauma Support Network and the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill of Greater Kansas City - each will receive $5,000 a year for the next 10 years, donated in Aaron Dougherty’s memory.
The police department also told the family that 20 percent of all officers will receive crisis intervention training, special skills for officers to use when handling suspects with mental illness.
And each year the family will select an officer to receive a crisis intervention training excellence award, which will be presented in memory of their son.
The police also promised to assign a duty officer to grieving family members at the scene of a police shooting to look out for their needs.
A grand jury last year declined to indict the officers who went to the Dougherty home on Nov. 11, 2002, after receiving a 911 call about shots being fired. Police later said they believed Aaron Dougherty made the call himself.
Karol Dougherty has said she met police at the door, told them her son was depressed and that there were no guns in the house. The two officers who shot the son reported that they fired after he moved toward them with a knife in each hand and refused to drop the weapons.
Jim Dougherty, who saw the shooting, has said his son did not move toward the officers and that they should have backed out the door if they believed he was a threat. Police have said the officers could not leave because they feared Aaron Dougherty might kill his father.
The Doughertys began meeting with Zobrist about six months after their son’s death. At the first meeting, Zobrist told them that he had driven by their home on Thanksgiving 2002.
“He told us, ‘I looked at your house and could not imagine what kind of Thanksgiving your family would be having after the death of your child,”’ Jim Dougherty said Friday.
Zobrist’s empathy touched the Doughertys, who learned during a half-dozen meetings about police procedures and the physical effect on officers of extreme stress. The family was invited to share memories of their son, including the depression that began in his teens.
Karol Dougherty, who is a Kansas City librarian, said Friday she wants very much to meet the officers who shot her son and to forgive them.
“I know they’re hurting, too,” she said. Forgiving “is the way you heal. If you hold it in you, you get bitter.”