Shots in the dark
When guns are raised, questions arise
Monday’s shooting death by police of an Aurora homeowner who was defending his family against an intruder raises questions about how law enforcement responds to armed, lawabiding citizens and how those citizens are trained to communicate with police in chaotic situations.
The shooting death of 73-year-old Richard “Gary” Black struck a national nerve.
The decorated Vietnam veteran and grandfather of four was killed by police after he used his 9mm handgun to kill a naked stranger who kicked in his front door and attacked his 11-year-old grandson.
Black had a concealed carry permit, which means he had firearms training, although no license or permit is required to keep a gun in your home.
“With the high prevalence of firearms in this country, there has to be a little bit more work done to figure it out,” said Qusair Mohamedbhai, a Denver civil rights attorney who represents the Black family. “You are possessing something that is legal, that is part of the fabric of our society. It conflicts with how officers are trained to respond when they see firearms because they are presumed dangerous at all times.”
Hundreds of thousands of people in Colorado own guns, and many of those people have permits to carry concealed weapons.
In 2017, the Colorado Bureau of Investigation approved background checks for 360,468 firearm purchases. As of this June 30, another 174,166 background checks had been approved in the state.
A background check is a likely indicator of the number of firearms purchased, although someone could back away from a sale. And those numbers don’t include people who bought guns in private exchanges.
“With the high prevalence of firearms in this country, there has to be a little bit more work done to figure it out.” Qusair Mohamedbhai, Denver civil rights attorney
Police don’t always know who is going to have a gun, and which of those people carrying guns intend to do them harm.
On the night of the shooting at 10609 E. Montview Blvd., at least one neighbor grabbed his gun when he heard shots outside, but he told The Denver Post he quickly put it away when he saw police cars swarming the area. He decided it would not be wise for police to see him with a gun amid the already volatile situation.
When problems arise
Monday’s shooting was not the first time legal gun possession has caused problems for Colorado law enforcement.
In November, when an armed shooter killed three people inside a Westminster Walmart, police had trouble identifying the bad guy because so many people in the store drew weapons.
Police had to watch hours of video surveillance footage to figure out who and how many shooters were in the store before they could release information on the suspect, who had fled among panicked shoppers.
Police never considered those other gun owners as threats, though.
While some information about Monday’s shooting has been released, full investigative reports on what happened will take months to complete. And, the public may never get to view the officers’ body camera footage. Black’s family has said it does not want footage to be released because they don’t want the final, violent moments of his life to be his public legacy.
Still, there will be lessons to be learned for other police officers and for gun owners.
“It’s easy to be a Monday morning quarterback, but when all the facts come out it will be interesting,” said Dan Montgomery, a retired Westminster police chief who now works as a consultant.
When evaluating police encounters, he said, there are five factors to consider: Training, supervision, tactics, good judgment and emotional control.
“Those five factors have to be in order. If bad policing occurs, it’s because of failures of one or more those factors,” Montgomery said. “When good policing happens, those five factors are in sync.”
Police train to make quick observations and decisions when responding to calls. The Denver Police Department, for example, has a 300-degree video dome where officers learn to respond to all sorts of crises, including domestic fights and mass shootings. Sometimes, those training scenarios force them to determine who is a “good guy” and who is not.
Already, communication that Monday morning between people at the scene, 911 operators and dispatchers, and police already is under scrutiny.
Operators who answer 911 calls always ask if anyone is armed or if weapons are in the home, Montgomery said. Information from operators is relayed to dispatchers, who are communicating with police.
“That’s a critical thing cops need to know,” he said.
The 911 call from Jeanette Black, who dialed for help as her husband and son fought off the intruder, has not been released. Police have released a 911 call from the intruder’s mother, and she told the operator that her son was not armed but was on drugs when he kicked in the neighbors’ front door.
Aurora Police Chief Nick Metz said much of the audio from Jeanette Black’s 911 call and from officers’ body cameras is unintelligible because of background noise. He promised to hire independent forensic audio experts to reconstruct the dialogue.
The Black family’s attorneys have said that Jeanette Black told 911 and police at the scene that her husband was white and wearing a bath robe.
Metz said he did not hear those words when he listened, but that he did hear her say to officers on scene, “He has a gun.” No further identification on who Jeanette Black meant by “he” was given at the time, the chief said.
No doubt, people will debate whether the Aurora officer was too quick to shoot, said Montgomery, who added that he would want to analyze the timing to understand whether the police could have waited a few more seconds to better understand the situation.
“Before you go in, know what the hell you’re getting into,” he said. “Would it have been better under the circumstances to wait just a little longer and be better armed with knowledge?”
On Thursday, Metz defended his officers’ actions, saying a child was being harmed and they already had heard gunshots inside the house as they advanced toward the front door.
The chaotic night
The scene unfolded quickly. Officers were there for 33 seconds when they heard the shots from inside the house. Seconds later, they saw Black walk from behind a wall holding a gun and a flashlight, Metz said.
In total, two minutes and 12 seconds passed between the moment officers arrived and when they finally reached the boy in the bathroom, the chief said.
Of the officer who fired the fatal shots, Metz said, “He ran into an incredibly dangerous situation when others were running out.”
As for gun owners, they need to know that law enforcement will always view someone with a gun as dangerous, said Dudley Brown, executive director of the Rocky Mountain Gun Owners Association and a certified firearms instructor.
“You need to be very careful when law enforcement shows up,” Brown said. “There’s only one class of people law enforcement will not shoot when they show up and see someone is armed, and that’s another law enforcement officer.”
Brown withheld speculation on the officers’ actions that led to Black’s death. But he said gun owners need to be prepared for the adrenaline spike during a shooting and rehearse in their minds how they will respond in a crisis.
“It all happens in the blink of an eye with adrenaline,” Brown said. “If you haven’t thought it through, you won’t be ready for it.”
Just before Black was shot, officers at least five times within 13 seconds ordered Black to drop his weapon, Metz said. Black did not. And when he raised a flashlight toward officers, one cop fired four shots, dropping Black to the ground.
Metz said he could not speculate as to why Black did not drop his gun.
Several factors could have been at play.
First, officers failed to identify themselves as police.
“We don’t believe the word police was used,” Metz said during a Thursday afternoon news conference.
Second, chaos reigned at the scene.
Black had just defended his family from a violent, naked man who had burst through the front door in the middle of the night. Multiple people had followed Dajon Harper, the 26year-old intruder, inside in an attempt to stop him.
At one point, there had been upward of 10 people in the house and almost everyone was screaming, yelling and crying, according to Metz and 911 calls released by police.
“Imagine yourself in your own home,” Metz said. “It’s 1:30 in the morning and not only do you have one person breaking your door down, you now have multiple people coming in after him and you don’t know what’s going on.”
On top of that, Black’s family told police that he had significant hearing loss from his Army service. It is likely that his ears were ringing after he shot Harper.
And, Black had been hit over the head with a vase while trying to physically stop the attack in the bathroom, family attorneys said.
Lights were on inside the house, but it was dark outside. People would have been able to see Black and others in the house, but it would have been more difficult for someone on the inside to see out.
It’s possible Black didn’t hear the orders, and it also is possible that he was unable to distinguish between the police and all the other strangers who had followed Harper into the home.
Mohamedbhai, the Black family attorney, has watched the body camera footage. He said Black never raised his gun toward cops or postured aggressively.
“He was killed because he had a firearm in his hands pointed down,” Mohamedbhai said.
Noelle Phillips: 303-954-1661, nphillips@denverpost.com or @Noelle_phillips