The basis for the flier
Johnson: Another stain on already tarnished department
http://www.insidedenver.com/drmn/news_columnists/article/0,1299,DRMN_86_3034877,00.html
July 14, 2004
I do not hate cops.
Let us get that out of the way right now.
What I hate, to reiterate, is the way some cops kill people who do not deserve getting killed.
Frank Lobato did not deserve getting killed by Denver police officer Ranjan Ford Jr. The officer, it can be - and likely will be - argued, had no business being in a position to kill Frank Lobato.
Yet here we have it, one more really bad stain on the Denver Police Department, a group of, no doubt, well-meaning individuals that seemingly cannot stay out of its own way.
Did Frank Lobato deserve to be killed? You tell me.
It is in the wee hours of Sunday. The 63-year-old invalid is lying in his bed, watching television. In another room of the home in the 1200 block of West 10th Avenue, a relative, Cathy Sandoval, was allegedly being beaten by her husband of two months, Vincent Martinez.
Perhaps, had he been of sounder body, Frank Lobato could have put an end to that, thereby preserving his own life.
It wouldn't be until Sunday afternoon that Cathy Sandoval's mother, Yvonne Sandoval, came by the house and beat on the door until it finally swung open.
Her daughter ran out, saying, "Let's go; we have to get out of here." Vincent stayed. Mother and daughter retreated to a nearby McDonald's restaurant, where they called police.
When officers came looking for Vincent Martinez at the apartment, even kids in the neighborhood knew he climbed out a back window and fled. It isn't clear whether officers knew, but they must not have.
What appears certain is they were given by Cathy Sandoval a description of Vincent, which matched not at all that of Frank, a recently homeless man reunited in the past few days with his family.
Vincent was a 200-plus-pound behemoth. Frank, who could barely talk and used two crutches to get around, couldn't get out of bed without help, according to the family.
When police learned there were two outstanding arrest warrants for Martinez, officers, including Ranjan Ford Jr., summoned a Denver Fire Department rig and its ladder to gain access to the house.
Frank Lobato was still lying in bed, sipping on a can of soda, when officer Ranjan Ford Jr. came though the window. And the officer, apparently startled by the can of soda, shot Lobato, who had had absolutely nothing to do with the alleged domestic violence.
It is as tragic a police killing as I can remember in my eight years in this town. At least teenager Paul Childs had a knife in his hands when he was shot to death last year.
On my telephone this morning are multiple calls from a variety of people asking a simple question: Why?
But what they want to know is why would anyone allegedly in the middle of a domestic dispute - even a beating - ever call the Denver Police Department?
Only a fool calls if they don't want someone killed, the callers insisted.
"C'mon," a cop I have convinced finally to trust me said, when I repeated what some half-dozen people or more relayed to me. "Look at the number of domestics we go out on in an average year, an average day."
He is a cop who believes I hate the men in his line of work. He would talk to me only if I did not use his name.
He asked me to wait until the investigation is completed before I blast the department.
"Look, no man who wears this uniform goes out in the morning wanting to kill an invalid. It just doesn't happen. I don't know the guy who did the shooting, and I admit it does look bad. But wait."
Wait for what? The officer had no search warrant. The victim had informed 911 she was at McDonald's, not inside the house. Why did the officer believe he HAD to get a ladder and force his way inside, precipitating the very bad shooting?
"Maybe he felt he needed to get inside, for whatever reason. It is probably a decision he did not make, but one a supervisor made. Before you crucify this guy, understand that it is early. Other things can come out."
What that might be, I cannot fathom.
As our conversation ticks on, the officer cannot, either.
"Look, mistakes are made. People who don't want to call an officer now, they need to put their trust and faith that the cop will do the right thing.
"Will a firefighter allow your house to burn down? Will a plumber keep it from flooding. Ultimately, you have to put your faith in that."
I intone the name of Paul Childs. Gregory Smith. Young teens gunned down.
"You have to have trust," the officer said. "It just has to be. It is really the way it is. We are a department of what - 1,400 guys? None are going to be perfect all the time. That's the reality."
This officer found comfort in the fact that the police chief and the district attorney came out within hours with the full truth of what happened.
"We all have bad dreams about exactly this type of stuff," the officer said of Sunday's shooting. "Oh, man. You wake up sweating. It can change your life overnight; everything you know can change so quick."
This provides no comfort, certainly, to Frank Lobato, nor to those he leaves behind.
If you have forgotten already, here is what will happen:
The city attorney will go into negotiations with the family of the dead man. A settlement will be reached, involving many dollars.
The mayor will vow still more changes. The city will grow even more divided.
And someone, God bless 'em, will pick up the phone again. They will call for Denver police.
Bill Johnson's column appears Wednesday, Friday and Saturday. Call him at 303-892-2763 or e-mail him at
[email protected].
