By Gil Jose Duran
January 16, 2001, Tuesday
Copyright 2001 Knight Ridder/Tribune News Service Knight Ridder/Tribune News Service
San Jose Mercury News
January 16, 2001, Tuesday
(SAN JOSE, Calif.) -- Despite an advisory that an officer was pursuing an auto theft suspect in the area and a fellow officer’s last-second attempt to keep them from shooting one of their own, two rookie Oakland police officers did not recognize officer William Wilkins before shooting him to death, according to a police investigation.
But Oakland Police Lt. Paul Berlin said the preliminary inquiry into the shooting indicates the two officers who shot Wilkins had followed procedure. During a Monday news conference, Berlin characterized the moments before Thursday night’s shooting as “chaotic” and acknowledged that communication failures may have paved the way for tragedy.
At the time they fired their .40-caliber Glock handguns, Berlin said the two officers -- Timothy Scarrott, 23, and Andrew Koponen, 29 -- thought they had happened upon a street fight that was about to turn deadly.
“Their belief was that it was totally unrelated to the pursuit of the auto theft suspect,” said Berlin. “When they exited their car and began to approach the scene they realized that a person was holding a handgun on a person on the ground. In defense of the person on the ground’s life, they fired their weapons.”
Another officer on the scene, identified by Berlin as Torrey Nash, recognized Wilkins and reportedly told the two officers that the man with the gun was a police officer. But in the heat of the moment, they did not hear him, according to Berlin and Mike Rains, the attorney for Koponen and Scarrott.
Though officers are trained to identify themselves immediately, Berlin said Wilkins did not identify himself.
Rains said Koponen and Scarrott told police they ordered the armed man to drop his weapon, but Wilkins didn’t respond. Wilkins looked at the officers for a second and then looked away, perhaps thinking they had recognized his face, according to Berlin. They hadn’t.
Koponen and Scarrott fired a total of 11 shots between them. Multiple bullets struck Wilkins, 29, an undercover officer wearing plain clothes for a narcotics operation and carrying a chrome-plated gun instead of the usual black-metal Glock that is the standard issue firearm used by Oakland police officers.
Wilkins had captured auto theft suspect Demetrius Phillips, 18, after a foot chase and a brief scuffle in a driveway at 91st and B streets in south Oakland. The seven-year veteran was staking out a house in east Oakland when a car that had been reported stolen sped by his position.
Wilkins used his radio to report that he was in pursuit of the suspects. Fellow officers might not have known it was Wilkins in plain clothes and a goatee, said Berlin, but they did know there was another officer in the area.
Realizing too late that they’d shot Wilkins, the officers performed CPR and tried to keep him alive, but he died at Highland Hospital two hours later.
Koponen had been with the Oakland department for a year and five months, while Scarrott had been on duty for just over a year. Both officers are distraught and are receiving counseling, and Berlin said a preliminary investigation by the department shows they followed procedure.
“We feel that all three of the officers did their jobs,” said Berlin. “The two officers acted in defense of an individual’s life. They acted to eliminate that threat, and unfortunately it just happened to be the circumstance that officer Wilkins was targeted.”
The two officers will return to duty when they feel ready, said Berlin. The Alameda County District Attorney’s office is also conducting an investigation into the incident.
Berlin said Monday that prosecutors are no longer considering filing homicide charges against Phillips, the suspect in the auto theft who Wilkins was arresting when he was killed. Phillips has a $50,000 warrant for his arrest for theft in Contra Costa County, said Berlin, and will probably be transferred to face charges there.