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DA says police shooting was justified

The four police officers who went to Brenda Williams' apartment the evening of May 28 were ready to wrap up, awaiting only the completion of a citation charging the North Scranton woman with disorderly conduct before calling it a night.

Then Ms. Williams emerged from her kitchen holding a knife with a wooden handle and an 8-inch blade, and suddenly everything changed.

Within seconds, as the 52-year-old woman ignored commands to drop the weapon as she moved toward one of the officers, three of them fired, fatally wounding Ms. Williams in what Lackawanna County District Attorney Andy Jarbola ruled Monday was a justifiable response to the threat she presented.

"In light of the facts that were presented to me by the state police, it is my opinion the officers involved - their actions - were justified and that no criminal charges will filed be against them," Mr. Jarbola said at a news conference at which he released the findings of the investigation.

If the long-awaited disclosure took some of the mystery out of what happened inside Ms. Williams' second-floor apartment at 1501 N. Lincoln Ave., it is not likely to end the questions about how the Police Department handled what started out as a harassment call involving a mentally ill woman.

Attorney William Mikita Jr., who represented the Williams family, said he disagrees with Mr. Jarbola's conclusion that the shooting was justified.

"We've got one officer making the determination that she's not a threat to herself and minutes later, she's dead," Mr. Mikita said. "How does something like that happen? Did they lose control of the scene?"

Referring occasionally to a diagram of Ms. Williams' apartment and photos from the scene posted on a wall at his Spruce Street office, Mr. Jarbola spent nearly an hour outlining the circumstances that led to the shooting and how he reached his determination.

For the first time, the four officers who were at Ms. Williams' apartment - and who have been on administrative duty since the incident - were identified.

Cpl. Robert Stanek, who was the supervisor at the scene, is a 16-year police veteran, Mr. Jarbola said. Officer James Smith, who had had previous contact with Ms. Williams, has been with the department for 11 years. The other two, Officers Jason Knoch and Eric Jordan, have been on the force for just over a year.

The district attorney also revealed Ms. Williams was shot five times, including two lethal wounds to her abdomen and another potentially fatal wound that severed the femoral artery in her right leg. She had a sixth wound from falling on the knife.

According to Mr. Jarbola, Officers Smith and Jordan were the first to respond, going to Ms. Williams' apartment shortly after 10 p.m. after a neighbor complained Ms. Williams had been harassing her and her fiance.

Officer Smith had responded to a similar call two days earlier, on May 26, when he learned Ms. Williams had been diagnosed as a paranoid schizophrenic who had possibly stopped taking her prescribed medication, Mr. Jarbola said.

When a nude Ms. Williams retreated back into her apartment after answering the door, the officers entered and found the woman underneath the covers in her bedroom. She appeared agitated and annoyed, yelling and cursing at the officers.

Around 10:40 p.m., Officer Smith contacted the Communications Center and requested an ambulance for a possible involuntary commitment of Ms. Williams under Section 302 of the state's mental health law. The law permits the involuntary commitment of individuals who are deemed a threat to themselves or others.

Around the same time, Officer Smith requested Cpl. Stanek be notified of the situation. Emergency medical technicians arrived at 10:45 p.m., and Cpl. Stanek and Officer Knoch came about 15 minutes later, around 11, Mr. Jarbola said.

At that time, the EMTs told state police, Ms. Williams "was pacing around the apartment nude, She was agitated, screaming and cursing at everyone," he said.

After a discussion with the other officers in the apartment's living room, and with no evidence Ms. Williams posed a danger to herself or others, Cpl. Stanek made the decision there would be no 302 commitment and instructed Officer Knoch to write up a citation for disorderly conduct instead. The EMTs were also released.

"They were basically waiting for the citation to be written, and they were going to leave," Mr. Jarbola said.

That's when Ms. Williams emerged from her bedroom and went to her kitchen at the other end of the apartment, he said. The officers heard her rummaging through the kitchen, and one suggested she may be getting a knife.

Mr. Jarbola said Ms. Williams, who was 5 feet, 7 inches tall and weighed about 194 pounds, then returned from the kitchen through the dining room, holding a knife in front of her as she walked into the living room. The officers drew their weapons and ordered her to drop the knife, but she refused and headed directly toward Officer Smith, who moved backward through her bedroom door.

She was 2 to 5 feet from Officer Smith when the officers fired - Officer Smith from just inside the bedroom, and Officer Knoch and Sgt. Stanek from another doorway to her right, Mr. Jarbola said.

It is still unclear who fired first, but Officers Smith and Knoch each fired twice and Cpl. Stanek once, he said. Officer Jordan, who could not see Ms. Williams from where he was standing, did not discharge his weapon.

The time that elapsed between Ms. Williams going to the kitchen and the officers opening fire was less than 30 seconds and probably "more like 10 to 15 seconds," Mr. Jarbola said.

The district attorney said law enforcement officials are allowed to use deadly force under Pennsylvania law "when there is an imminent threat of death of serious bodily injury to themselves or others" - a condition he said was met when Ms. Williams advanced on Officer Smith with the knife.

Mr. Jarbola said he could not speak to the issue of whether the officers were complacent in allowing Ms. Williams to go to her kitchen unsupervised.

"She's not under arrest. It's in her own home," he said. "The officers - I don't know - they could have assumed she was going to the bathroom."

Police Chief David Elliott, who received a copy of the state police report late Monday afternoon, called the four officers "good cops" who have never had any type of disciplinary issues in the time he has been chief.

With the completion of the state police investigation and Mr. Jarbola's review, the department will now conduct its own internal review "to make sure we followed the correct procedures and whether there is anything we could have done differently," he said.

In the meantime, three of the four officers have seen psychologists and have been cleared to return to duty, he said. The fourth had an appointment Monday.

"These officers just took someone's life. Mentally, it can take a toll on you," he said.

Mr. Mikita, the attorney who represents Ms. Williams' family, did not rule out the possibility that the family will file a civil suit, but he said they will need to review all the evidence before making that decision.
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