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The first two days of the trial of Cincinnati Police Officer Stephen Roach shed light on dark alleys and a fatal gunshot that left Cincinnati angry and confused.
Roach is charged with negligent homicide and obstructing official business as a result of the shooting of Timothy Thomas, an unarmed 19-year-old African American. The shooting led to cries of police brutality and several days of civil unrest in April.
But Roach’s trial drew only a few protesters outside the courthouse Sept. 17 and 18. Maybe it was the terrorist attacks in New York and Washington, maybe it was the fact that people could stay home and see the trial on Court TV; but the crowds weren’t there.
The testimony gave a clearer picture of what happened April 7 in the alleys of Over-the-Rhine.
Entering an alley near Republic Street, Roach didn’t know that, as several witnesses described, Thomas was wearing baggy sweat pants that he kept pulling up as he ran from police. Nor did Thomas know police would be waiting for him as he ran through a dark alley.
According to police testimony, suspects often try to evade police in Over-the-Rhine.
“It’s not uncommon,” Officer Robert Jones III said.
In the courtroom, radio broadcasts were replayed, detailing police communications as officers chased Thomas near the alley in the vicinity of 13th and Republic streets. An eerie computer-generated voice announced the time every few seconds. Although the events that led to Thomas’ death only lasted a few minutes, the computer voice seemed to go on forever, as Thomas’ mother Angela Leisure wept in the courtroom and Roach rubbed his face.
Officer Thaddeus Steele, working special duty at the BarrelHouse Brewing Company that evening, pursued Thomas at one point, when he saw Thomas seemed to be having problems running in the clothing he was wearing. Steele saw him reaching for his waistline.
“I think it was his pants was falling and he was catching them,” Steele said.
This is important because Roach allegedly claimed he thought Thomas was reaching for a weapon in his waistband. But because Thomas had no weapon, it’s possible he was killed for simply trying to pull up his pants.
According to Steele, who has worked for nine years in District One, where the shooting occurred, someone runs from police in that district “every night.”
However frightened Roach might have been at the time he shot Thomas, a couple playing with their dog in an adjacent parking lot came within a few feet of Thomas and were not afraid. Gary Smith, who was in the lot with his Doberman pinscher, warned Thomas not to jump a fence into the parking lot, because the dog would perceive the intruder as a threat.
Smith’s fiancée, Niki Chang, ran alongside the dog and Thomas for a bit, where she saw Thomas pulling up his pants as he went through the lot. She says that she was not afraid.
“I’m from Over-the-Rhine,” Chang said. “People don’t scare me.”
As Thomas jumped the fence out of the lot, Chang testified, a woman screamed at him that he was running into a dead end. That statement turned out to be as ironic as it was true. Thomas jumped outside the fenced lot, paused, then disappeared into the darkness. Within a few moments, he was shot in the chest by Roach.
The defense claims Roach’s shot was an instinctive reaction to save his own life, and the emotional trauma of the shooting affected his ability to recall the events.
Officer Christopher Schroder, running to catch up as Roach sped through the alley, testified he never saw Thomas until he was on the ground.
“As we were going down the alleyway, I heard Officer Roach yell something … and then I heard a single shot,” Schroder said. “The next thing I was remember was we were standing over Mr. Thomas.”
Hearing questions at the scene about what happened, Schroder listened to Roach’s reply.
“I heard Officer Roach say, ‘It just went off,’ ” Schroder said. “I asked, ‘Steve are you okay?’ I asked him several times. He did not respond to me. He just kept pacing back and forth.”
Officer Robert Kidd testified he heard someone give a verbal command in the alley, although he was not in the alley at the time. He said he heard a shot fired no more than two seconds later.
Schroder said the shooting was traumatic for him, and he consulted with a police psychiatrist about stress. Schroder said he had trouble remembering the events, something he said investigators found disturbing. The investigators told him he was using selective memory, Schroder said.
“I felt that my integrity was being questioned,” he said. “My word is really all that I have and by giving it, it’s the best I can do. it’s the best I can remember under the circumstances.”
Sgt. Rudy Gruenke testified about policies on use of force by officers.
“It permits the use of deadly force in circumstances when there’s a perceived threat on your life or the lives of others,” he said.
Gruenke was the officer who sat with Roach as he waited to speak to investigators about the shooting. They could talk about whatever they chose, as long as it didn’t have to do with the shooting, he said.
For a time, all Roach could talk about was feeling as if he were going to get sick, Gruenke said.
Whether Roach was following police procedures — or negligently killed Thomas — is up to Hamilton County Municipal Judge Ralph Winkler to decide. If convicted, Roach faces a maximum sentence of nine months in jail. ©
This article appears in Sep 19-25, 2001.
