State Glance
Family of black teen killed by Tempe officer plans protests
TEMPE — The parents of an unarmed black teen who was fatally shot in the back by a Tempe police lieutenant last year ridiculed the decision by prosecutors to not charge the officer and vowed to carry out protests over the case.
Maricopa County Attorney Bill Montgomery on Wednesday announced there would be no charges against Lt. Edward Ouimette, a longtime department veteran who fatally shot 19-year-old Dalvin Hollins on July 27, 2016.
The shooting took place in a parking lot behind a senior living facility after Hollins allegedly robbed a pharmacy of 11 bottles of codeine cough syrup, telling the employees he was armed and would kill them.
Montgomery said state laws allow people who reasonably believe their life is in danger to use lethal force.
Police never found a weapon. Hollins died of a gunshot wound to the back.
His family is suing the Tempe Police Department, saying there’s no proof Hollins pointed anything at the officer and that the shooting wasn’t justified. They’re planning to protest in Tempe on Friday.
Sarah Coleman, the boy’s mother, said her son was a loving person who was probably just scared of police when he ran away. She questioned whether the lieutenant would have shot her son if he’d been white.
Hollins’s family says he suffered from mental disabilities and had been on social security disability most of his life.
“I can’t understand how an officer can’t recognize a scared kid from a hardened criminal,” stepfather Frederick Franklin said.
Montgomery said that although there were no witnesses or video to corroborate the officer’s account, the law protects him because he was defending his life in what he perceived was a moment of danger.
“The suspect made a gesture with an item consistent with the perception that a gun was being pointed at an officer,” Montgomery said.
Border Patrol agent may have caused wildfire
GREEN VALLEY — An off-duty Tucson Sector Border Patrol agent is being investigated for possibly starting a wildfire in southern Arizona while target shooting last weekend.
Border Patrol officials announced Thursday evening that the agent “was involved in recreational shooting and immediately reported the fire after it (had) begun.”
They didn’t identity the agent and referred all questions about the investigation to the state fire agency.
The wildfire has burned 63 square miles (163.2 sq. kilometers) of grass, brush and trees in southern Arizona and is only about 7 percent contained.
The fire started Sunday about 10 miles (16.1 kilometers) southeast of Green Valley and then burned its way eastward through the Santa Rita Mountains.