Posted: Monday, 08 June 2009 11:29AM
Why Did Brenda Williams Die?
Steve Corbett Reporting
Monday, June 08, 2009
Eleven days have passed since Scranton police shot and killed Brenda Williams. The 52-year-old Air Force veteran suffered from mental illness, according to those who loved her and spoke at her funeral last week about her life and death.
Yet, eleven days have passed since city police offered even the hint of an explanation about what happened to cause officers to decide to pull the trigger on this troubled African-American woman.
The cops are white men.
Race matters in this case.
So does gender.
And so does police protocol about when to shoot and when not to shoot. Even with the law on their side, sometimes cops should not shoot even if they can. Sometimes there’s another way.
But we still don’t know what happened.
Williams’ family still does not know what happened.
Other cops don’t even know what happened.
While Pennsylvania State Police conduct their investigation, many experts realize that race relations in a city waiting for answers can turn ugly. Many experts agree that police need to put the case to rest with honesty as soon as they can.
But eleven days have passed and we still don’t even have official confirmation that Williams’ wielded a knife, the way she “reportedly” wielded a knife in the newspaper accounts of her death.
If she had a knife, we don’t know where or how she obtained that knife.
We don’t know how long police interacted with her in her apartment before she died.
We don’t know if police called mental health officials.
We don’t know the names of the officers involved.
We don’t know how many shots police fired or how many times they hit her.
We don’t know how many officers fired.
We don’t know if police knew Williams suffered from mental illness.
We don’t know if Scranton police are trained to defuse a tense situation involving what experts call EDPs, emotionally disturbed persons. We also don’t know if Scranton police have any formal arrangement with mental health officials who could be called to the scene of an EDP incident.
We don’t know why local mental health advocates have remained silent in the aftermath of Williams’ death.
We still don’t know what we didn’t know when I wrote about this tragedy last week.
We don’t know when PSP investigators will hand over their report to Lackawanna County District Attorney Andy Jarbola. We don’t even know how many PSP investigators are working the case.
We don’t know what Jarbola will do with the report.
I don’t know far more than I do know.
But what I am sure of is that Williams’ family members might want to start seriously looking to get themselves a couple of good civil rights lawyers. Because even if police decide that they were within the law in gunning down Williams, a federal civil rights lawsuit might be the best way to get all the answers the family deserves.
Subpoena everybody involved and put them under oath as witnesses. Question them under threat of perjury. Pack the courtroom with reporters from across America and put the case on display so police departments across the nation can learn from Scranton police policy – or the lack thereof.
Williams’ family has the right to know what happened – right down to the pickiest detail.
The people have a right to know as well.
We sympathize with everybody involved but we need reassurance that Williams’ death will serve as a lesson for sad situations like this that will no doubt happen in the future.
Nobody’s blaming anybody here.
But blame is also a consequence and police must face the reality of their actions – especially when those actions kill somebody.
Scranton government has operated behind closed doors for too many years.
Open those doors. Let the sun shine.
See the light of a better tomorrow when we are hopefully better prepared to protect and serve the community that depends so much on the life and death decisions made by our community leaders.
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Corbett
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