DENVER — Police Chief Robert White Thursday addressed the death of Jessica Hernandez and the Denver Police Department’s policy on officers shooting into moving vehicles.
He didn’t go over every detail of what happened Monday morning that led to two officers shooting and killing the 17-year-old girl who was in a stolen car. They say their lives were threatened when she tried to run them over.
“Our officers are directed that we do not shoot into moving vehicles unless their life or someone else’s life is immediate danger,” he said.
A girl who says she was in the car when the shooting happens disputes the claim Hernandez drove at officers. “They just started shooting it all happened like under a minute they didn’t give her a warning to get out or nothing.”
Despite what others in the car say, the chief said they were warned before officers opened fire.
White has ordered an examination of all incidents where Denver officers fired into moving vehicles over the last ten years. “Despite the fact that I think we have a very restrictive policy we still had four incidents in the last year.”
Those officer involved shootings have left two people dead.
“Almost every police department, leading police departments around the country are saying ‘police officers, you cannot shoot at moving vehicles,'” ACLU Legal Director Mark Silverstein said.
The Department of Justice is also making the same recommendation.
But the chief would not speculate about why the officers felt so threatened Monday morning. “Out of respect for the investigation, out of respect for the officers and out of respect for Jessica’s family I don’t want to sit here and make any guesses.”
The ACLU said Denver has not been transparent enough in other similar cases.
There are now three separate investigations into this most recent police shooting along with separate evaluations of Denver’s shooting into a moving vehicle policy.
“If it means that we have to correct something that we are doing to mitigate those things from occurring in the future, my commitment is to certainly to do that or anything else that we need to do,” White said.
The chief hopes to begin giving some definitive answers within one month.
The District Attorney’s Office said that a month after it completes its investigation and sends results to the public safety director, the file will be open for public review.
Only once in the last 23 years has a Denver officer been charged in a fatal shooting. That officer was found not guilty in that case.