Feds Probe Use Of Deadly Force By Police In Prince George's County, MD

Jet, July 23, 2001

The citizens of Prince George's County, MD, are still in dismay after a decade of struggle with the powers that be over the claims of injustice served by county authorities.

In November of last year, the U.S. Justice Department began an investigation of the Prince George's County Police Department after a 15-month period in which officers shot 12 people, killing five of them.

It was the death of an unarmed Howard University student that prompted the U.S. Justice Department to conduct the ongoing probe.

Last September Prince C. Jones Jr., a 25-year-old fitness trainer, of Hyattsville, MD, was fatally shot by Carlton B. Jones, a Prince George's undercover detective. Jones Jr. was killed after being shot in the back six times by the detective who followed him from Prince George's County through Washington, D.C., and finally into Fairfax County, VA.

The officer who was cleared of criminal charges in October, mistakenly thought Jones Jr. was a suspect in another case.

As a result of the ruling the family of Jones Jr. filed a $145 million civil rights lawsuit.

The federal probe is examining the agency's use of deadly force as well as alleged patterns of racial discrimination, brutality and abuses by the canine squad. If federal investigations find a pattern of misconduct, they can require the department to reform.

Between 1990 and 2000, Prince George's County officers killed the most people per officer of the 50 largest forces in the nation, the Washington Post reports. The county had a rate of 3.37 fatal shootings for every 1,000 officers, compared with nearby Washington's rate of 2.15.

The suburban Washington county has been transformed during the past 20 years, shifting from a rural, White county to one of the most affluent, predominantly Black areas in the nation.

After 18-year-old Gary Hopkins was fatally shot on November 27, 1999, prosecutors pursued a case against officer Brian C. Catlett. The officer said Hopkins tried to grab his partner's gun; Catlett then shot Hopkins. The officer was cleared of manslaughter charges in February.

None of the officers involved in the shootings was fired or demoted, The Post reported.

"There are some elements in the department who have gotten away with lawless behavior, and they have to be identified and rooted out," said Edythe Fleming Hall, president of the Prince George's NAACP.

Hall believes George's Police Chief John S. Farrell must take steps to assure the public he will not tolerate abuses.

"He needs to take a stand," she said. "I'm looking for police officers that have been disciplined for misconduct. I'm looking for supervisors to start paying the price for the illegal conduct of their officers. The community deserves a full accounting on how this is being accomplished."