“Suicide by Cop” Lawsuit Filed Albuquerque
Journal Saturday, May 29, 2010
A wrongful death lawsuit has been
filed on behalf of the family of an Iraq war veteran who was fatally shot by a
police officer outside a Northeast Albuquerque convenience store.
The suit, filed Friday, names the
city of Albuquerque and seeks unspecified compensatory damages and costs.
Albuquerque public safety spokesman T.J. Wilham said the department would
reserve comment until city attorneys had a chance to review the lawsuit.
On Jan 13, APD Det. Bret
Lampiris-Tremba shot 25-year-old Kenneth Ellis during a standoff outside the
store at Eubank and Constitution NE. Ellis had been an infantryman with the US
Army, said his mother, Annelle Wharton.
Authorities called the incident “suicide by cop” at the time.
The lawsuit, filed by the Kennedy Law Firm and the Law Office of Frances Crockett, alleges in two separate counts that
the city of Albuquerque was responsible for: “wrongful death due to batter and
negligent batter” and “negligent training, supervision and retention.”
Veteran’s sister
challenges law enforcement’s PTSD policies
Jonelle Ellis and her brother,
Kenneth Ellis III, who was killed a year ago by Albuquerque police
Jonelle Ellis hasn’t done much public speaking. She's never been
involved in politics. But for the last six months or so, she's helped create a
bill and convinced legislators in Santa Fe to carry it.
Kenneth Ellis III
served in the Army. His father says members of his unit called him
Cowboy. Ellis' brother, a 25-year-old Iraq War veteran, was shot and killed a
year ago on Jan. 13, 2010, by Albuquerque police. Kenneth Ellis III stepped out
of his car with a gun to his head in front of the 7-Eleven at Constitution and
Eubank.
She'd talked to her baby brother just a few days earlier. He wanted to
go to the movies. "He was telling me about his son and his life," she says. "He
was very positive. It's hard to listen to them say 'suicide by cop.' ”
Jonelle, a Veterans Affairs nurse, says her brother suffered from
post-traumatic stress disorder and couldn't sleep because of hideous nightmares.
"He was active in trying to survive mentally what he had gone through in Iraq."
He was doing all the right things to get better, she adds.
The Kenneth Ellis III Act seeks to beef up crisis intervention training
for law enforcement officers and emphasizes how they handle people with mental
impairments. The training would be mandatory statewide for 911 personnel and
police—cadets and longtime officers alike. 2010 saw a spike in the number of
officer-involved shootings in Albuquerque; 14 people were shot, and nine of them
died. If it’s passed, the legislation will go into effect on July 1.
Frances Crockett is a civil rights lawyer who, along with attorneys
Shannon and Joe Kennedy, filed a wrongful death lawsuit for the Ellises in late
May. Crockett drafted the legislation after researching other programs around
the country. She spoke with the officers who teach Houston's crisis curriculum,
and they said the additional education made a big difference in how the police
force responds to calls. “Its been a tremendous benefit, because it provides
officers with a better understanding about mental illness,” says Frank Webb, a
senior officer with Houston’s training program. “It teaches them the tactics and
techniques for safely handling someone in a state of crisis.”
"He was telling me about his son and his life. He was
very positive. It's hard to listen to them say 'suicide by cop.' ” Jonelle Ellis
The training in Albuquerque is "bare bones," Crockett says, so the
measure aims to add on to what's already in place. Albuquerque Police Chief Ray
Schultz says the department already does more crisis education than what’s
called for in the bill. Crockett says the training the bill requires would be
more focused.
Albuquerque cadets typically spend 30 of 900 training hours on crisis
intervention and de-escalation, according to Lt. Ray Torres, director of
training at the police academy. A few months ago, Torres said APD was
anticipating that a measure such as this would come out of the 2011 session
[Newscity, " Is There a
Silver Bullet?," Oct. 7-13, 2010]. When he spoke with the
Alibi in October, he said
125 of the department's nearly 1,100 officers were certified in crisis
intervention. As things stand, New Mexico doesn't have mandatory crisis
preparation for law enforcement.
After Crockett and the Kennedys did the research and wrote up the
legislation, Jonelle began drumming up support. "I've never worked on anything
like this," she says. "It is definitely eye-opening. It's going to show that
when things aren't right, it doesn't take an entire group to make a difference.
It just takes one person to speak up."
First, she talked with her colleagues at the VA. Eventually, she
testified in front of the Legislature's Military and Veterans Affairs'
Committee. She suggested that additional education would improve the situation
for vets suffering from PTSD. She gained the committee's support, and Rep.
Edward C. Sandoval will carry the act into the session that begins Tuesday, Jan.
18. As of press time, the measure hadn't yet been filed.
Sandoval, who's represented an Albuquerque district since 1983, says he
expects the bill to generate good discussion. "I think it's got a shot," he
says. "It's the right thing to do at this point." Though it might require some
funding and times are tight, if it's a small amount, he says, the act should
survive. "Hopefully, we can make our case."
It shouldn't cost much since it's supplementing officer education
that's already in place, Crockett says. "We don't think it's going to be a big
strain."
Crockett says she'd be surprised if the police department put up a
fight over the Ellis Act. "I don't see how they can disagree with us on this,"
she says. "For citizens to be as outraged as they are, for APD to be getting
this much bad publicity, there is a problem."
Jonelle Ellis makes a point of saying that this isn't an anti-police
bill. "They're good people," she says. "It's not that there's bad cops and good
cops, it's just that we've got to train people. Education is power. And if they
don't have the education, they're going to make mistakes." She adds that she
hopes the measure will make a difference, maybe even for APD officers. "A lot of
our police department is coming back from Iraq, or served in the National Guard,
and they suffer from PTSD also. Maybe they'll seek out treatment they thought
they didn't need."
Crockett and Ellis agree that this act doesn't solve everything, but
both say "it's a good start."
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