Probes into police search open
City cops are accused of drawing weapons at a school while looking for a suspect
Denver’s top public safety official and its police watchdog say they are opening investigations into a police search at Rise Up Community School during which police officers are accused of drawing weapons on a staff member as they looked for a student who ended up not being on campus.
“I have heard the concerns from the community and Independent Monitor regarding the incident that occurred at Rise Up Community School and an administration investigation was opened this morning to review the incident,” Troy Riggs, the executive director for the city’s Department of Safety, said in a prepared statement.
Nick Mitchell, Denver’s independent monitor, also said his office will participate in the investigation.
“We have heard the concerns in the community and will be actively monitoring the (Denver Police Department’s) investigation into this incident to ensure that it is conducted thoroughly and fairly,” Mitchell wrote in a statement.
On Thursday night, a large contingent of Rise Up parents, students and teachers showed up at the Denver Public Schools board meeting to complain about how police handled the situation. They were accompanied by members of Padres & Jóvenes Unidos, a community organization that works for racial justice in the education system.
DPS Superintendent Tom Boasberg apologized to Rise Up students, parents and staff members at Thursday night’s meeting.
“What happened to you should not have happened,” Boasberg said. The district is launching its own investigation.
Students and parents Thursday night wanted to know who authorized the Denver police to enter and search Rise Up building. “Denver police made a lot of people feel helpless,” Rise Up student Mary Jimenez told the school board. “We deserve some answers.”
Rise Up principal Lucas Ketzer, who was scheduled to speak at the school board meeting, on Wednesday said multiple officers on April 24 drew their firearms on a staff member who was checking a back door to look for students as police surrounded the downtown Denver school and conducted a classroom-by-classroom search for a pupil who was wanted in connection with a shooting in Lakewood.
The Police Department denied that officers pointed their guns at anyone while inside the school.
On Wednesday, the Police Department, DPS, Ketzer and some
of his students offered their versions of events, and there were conflicting accounts about the incident.
Officers pushed a science teacher away from her classroom door after she told officers they could not search her room without a warrant, Ketzer said.
Officers also compared students to a photo of a juvenile wanted for attempted firstdegree murder, pulled students out of their chairs, removed their hats and asked them for their IDs as they searched, he said.
Denver police said they received information that the suspect — a student wanted on a charge of attempted firstdegree murder — was in the school and posed a possible threat to students and staff.
Officers set up outside the school to make sure that the suspect did not leave, and they coordinated with the principal to gain access before searching. Because a staff member confirmed the suspect was in attendance and posed an immediate threat, a warrant was not needed to conduct a search, police said.
The incident has caused an uproar among Latino, black and American Indian activists who believe it is one more example of how young minorities suffer from discrimination within the judicial and education systems. They have described it as “police overreach.”
But law enforcement and school officials also view the incident through the prism of school safety and of mass shootings this year at schools in Florida and Kentucky.