The Associated Press
MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) -- The Memphis Police Department has fired a third officer for using excessive force on a mentally unstable man who died during an arrest.
Officer Kurtis Schilk, 32, a five-year veteran of the force, was fired Jan. 2.
The termination comes more than eight months after Denvey Buckley, 43, died of a heart attack while scuffling with police, who had been called to the man’s home April 19 because he drank bleach and cut his wrists and throat in a suicide attempt.
Chemical spray and batons were used to subdue him.
Shelby County Medical Examiner O.C. Smith ruled that the overweight Buckley had heart disease and died of natural causes. But Smith also found several welts on Buckley’s back caused by batons, and a large gash on the back of his head.
Schilk and two other fired officers, Phillip Penny, 26, and Robert Tebbetts, 30, have appealed their terminations to the Memphis Civil Service Commission.
Memphis Police Association attorney Ted Namsom said the officers were performing their jobs properly, and are being punished because the incident was sensational.
If the Civil Service Commission finds the officers were unjustly fired, they could get their jobs back, officials said.