Negotiators not used in slaying
Video of officers’ assault on bathroom ordered held by Tenn. prosecutor
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. – Knoxville police say they can’t explain – for now, at least – why the agency didn’t call in its Crisis Negotiation Unit to peacefully disarm an Austin-East High School student who was holed up in a school bathroom with a gun.
Instead, police entered the bathroom, a confrontation that left 17-year-old Anthony J. Thompson Jr. shot to death and a police officer wounded by gunfire.
“Those are questions that delve into the circumstances that led to the shooting on Monday,” Knoxville police spokesman Scott Erland said.
“With those circumstances being under active investigation by the (Tennessee Bureau of Investigation), it would be inappropriate for the Knoxville Police Department to comment on that matter at this early stage.”
The Knoxville Police Department has a team of officers who receive special training in crisis negotiations.
According to the city’s website, there are 14 members of the Crisis Negotiation Unit. The members take turns serving as the on-call crisis negotiator, so every shift is covered.
“All officers on this team are trained with 80 hours of basic and advanced negotiations instruction by the FBI or equivalent,” the unit’s website says. “The team also trains eight hours per month . ... The team works closely with mental health professionals, veteran’s assistance groups and other social service agencies to stay current on training and available options for assistance to persons in crisis.”
Erland could not immediately provide data on how often the unit has been activated in the past year.
The TBI said its agents cannot address why Knoxville police did not summon a negotiator, referring questions Wednesday to Knox County District Attorney General Charme Allen.
Allen’s office didn’t respond.
Knox County Schools spokeswoman Carly Harrington also said she did not know why the four officers on the scene, including school resource officer Adam Willson, didn’t first seek to negotiate with Thompson.
“It is my understanding that if a determination were to be made that a police negotiator was warranted, it would have been made at the request of KPD,” Harrington told Knox News.
There have been two official accounts of Monday’s shooting and both painted the teenager as the aggressor and suggested the shooting was justified – well before an official probe is finished.
In a news conference less than four hours after the 3:15 p.m. shooting Monday, TBI Director David Rausch, a former Knoxville police chief, provided an account contradicted by the TBI on Wednesday. In the first statement Monday, Rausch said Thompson “reportedly fired shots” at officers as they entered the restroom, striking Willson in the upper leg. The officers, Rausch said, returned fire, killing Thompson.
By Wednesday afternoon, that account had been flipped on its head: the TBI revealed that Thompson had not, in fact, shot Willson. Instead, Willson was hit by friendly fire – either his own or from one of the three other officers involved. Knoxville police said Thursday morning for the first time that four officers were involved: Willson, Lt. Stanley Cash and officers Brian Baldwin and Jonathon Clabough. All four have been put on paid leave, a standard procedure while a shooting by police is investigated.
Willson underwent surgery at the University of Tennessee Medical Center and is recovering. Thompson was pronounced dead at the scene.
The TBI’s account Wednesday raised as many questions as it answered about which bullets from which guns ended up where. In this new account, the TBI insisted Thompson was armed and holed up in the bathroom when police arrived but offered no explanation for why a negotiator wasn’t summoned.
The TBI now says Thompson “struggled” with officers as they rushed into the bathroom, and his gun “was fired” in the struggle. But the agency doesn’t identify who fired the gun, and won’t say who fatally shot Thompson.
The agency has given no indication whether anyone was inside the bathroom with Thompson when officers arrived. The TBI has not revealed where the gun they say was in Thompson’s possession was located after the shooting or who found it. The agency has not revealed who owned the gun or how it wound up on school grounds. It’s also not clear why Thompson came to be in the bathroom with a gun in the first place.
Knoxville police have refused to release bodycam footage of the shooting, citing orders from Allen. Mayor Indya Kincannon on Wednesday made an appeal to Allen to allow redacted footage to be released. Allen refused, and said Thursday she will not release anything related to the investigation, including video, until the case is concluded.
Assistant District Attorney General Sean McDermott said Thursday that Allen had a specific request for investigators: “Gen. Allen asked me to tell you that she has requested that TBI expedite the investigation and any examinations to make this a top priority.”
Anthony is the fifth teenager fatally shot in Knoxville this year. All five were current or recent Austin-East students. His shooting was the only one of the five that occurred on school grounds.