By Jane Prendergast
The Cincinnati Enquirer

The fatal police shooting Sunday in Northside bears striking similarities to the killing nearly two years ago of Timothy Thomas.

With Mayor Charlie Luken at his side, Lt. Col. Richard Janke provided details of the incident at an early Sunday news conference. (Michael E. Keating photo) | ZOOM |

Fleeing, unarmed suspects. Officers running after them in the dark. Confrontations in alleys.

Thomas' death - and the information void that angered his grieving mother - sparked protests, riots and, ultimately, sweeping changes in police procedures.

On Sunday, city officials showed they do not intend to repeat some of their mistakes. Within hours of the 4:10 a.m. shooting of Andre Sherrer:

Partners in the collaborative agreement - the deal signed last year by the city, the Cincinnati Black United Front and the ACLU to heal a federal racial profiling lawsuit - were briefed.

Dan Baker, interim leader of the Citizen Complaint Authority, the new civilian-review panel that will investigate police handling of critical incidents, toured the crime scene while evidence experts still were mapping it. So did the new city solicitor, J. Rita McNeil.

Cincinnati Police Internal Affairs Capt. Dan Gerard tours the scene with Dan Baker, interim leader of the Citizen Complaint Authority. (Michael E. Keating photo) | ZOOM |

Police officials visited Sherrer's mother and sister to tell them he was dead and explain what happened. Later, Mayor Charlie Luken called the family.

Police prepared a presentation about the incident, giving preliminary details about what happened, showing pictures of the welts Officer Michael Schulte got when Sherrer took his nightstick and beat him about the head with it.

Luken expressed support for Schulte in specific and all the department's 1,035 officers in general, saying the killing showed how dangerous their jobs can be. After the Thomas killing, officers were angry with the mayor for months because of comments he made they called unfair.

Keith Fangman, vice president of the Fraternal Order of Police, gave Luken "two thumbs up" Sunday for the support.

"It's a new day,'' Greg Baker, executive manager of police relations, said as he walked around the Northside neighborhood after the shooting.

Members of the Black United Front including the Rev. Damon Lynch III, Juleana Frierson andIris Rowley inspect the shooting site. (Michael E. Keating photo) | ZOOM |

The swift reaction was all designed, City Manager Valerie Lemmie said, to show two things: "transparency" and expediency.

"The most important factor is transparency,'' said Lemmie, who began working in Cincinnati after the Thomas killing and national spotlight on race relations. "People need to know we intend to give information as soon as we can and that we intend to handle these investigations in as timely a fashion as possible."

Many citizens felt exactly the opposite after the April 2001 police shooting of Thomas. He was killed in an Over-the-Rhine alley by former Officer Stephen Roach, who was chasing Thomas because he was wanted on warrants, most of them for traffic cases.

Thomas' mother, Angela Leisure, went to City Hall two days later to ask what happened. She left unsatisfied, and the four days of protests and riots started that night.

Sunday night, Leisure was glad to hear the victim's mother got a personal visit from Lt. Col. Richard Janke.

"I would actually thank them for that," she said. "The worst thing they can do is leave the family sitting at home, not knowing. That's a little step, but it's an important one."

Dan Baker said people need to know the Citizens Complaint Authority still will maintain its independence from the department, even though he went to the scene Sunday in Northside. The new group's work starts after homicide finishes its work.

"But we're there to get the general feel of the scene and to understand the proximity of different locations in the event," Baker said. "Our job is to get as familiar with the situation as we can."

That was McNeil's goal too, she said.

Lemmie was most happy about the initial reactions she got when she phoned members of the collaborative and others to tell them a man had been shot to death by police in Northside. It was the first killing of a suspect by Cincinnati police in more than 13 months.

"The first question everyone asked me was, `How's the officer doing?' " she said.

E-mail jprendergast@enquirer.com

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