DATE: Thursday, August 28, 1997             TAG: 9708280535

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B2   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY MAC DANIEL, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: CHESAPEAKE                        LENGTH:  108 lines

COUNCIL TAKES A ROLE IN SHOOTING INQUIRY POLICE OFFICER'S SHOOTING OF KNIFE-WIELDING WOMAN COMES UNDER CITY HALL SCRUTINY.

A city council's involvement in a police investigation is a rare event in South Hampton Roads.

Such is not the case in Chesapeake, where the council has been involved in two police internal investigations within the past year.

The latest involves oversight of an investigation into a shooting Friday. And as in cases before, a number of factors are playing a role in the council's scrutiny of an often private and secretive process.

On Tuesday, Mayor William E. Ward demanded that the council be kept abreast of the Chesapeake Police Department's investigation into an officer's shooting of a knife-wielding woman in the Fernwood Shores subdivision.

Witnesses to the shooting said officers used excessive force when they shot the woman, 26-year-old Carlett Karim, after she had cut two officers with a knife.

Council oversight of internal police investigations does not occur often. In Virginia Beach, where seven police shootings have occurred in 18 months, the council has not sought such power.

Mark DelDuca, public safety attorney for the Virginia Beach city attorney's office, said council oversight can be sticky because such investigations must remain private under state law.

The headache comes when trying to deal with two independent clients - the council and the parties involved, he said.

``I think there can be some problems there,'' he said. ``You have specific legal parameters and you have to operate under police jurisdictions. And then you have other members, maybe City Council, saying they'd like to look at certain documents that maybe are in fact privileged documents.

``You're going to have some very interesting discussions between the two parties,'' he said. ``And I sure as heck don't want to referee that.''

This is the second time in the last year that the Chesapeake City Council has gotten involved in an internal investigation within the Police Department.

In 1996, the council sought oversight into the internal investigation of a series of all-terrain vehicle thefts in Chesapeake that resulted in the arrests of the sons of several prominent city officials.

Five officers, including the police chief's administrative chief, were disciplined in the matter amid allegations of a cover-up.

State police investigators turned down the council's request to investigate, saying the matter was more administrative than criminal. The investigation ended after Chief Judge Russell I. Townsend refused to convene a grand jury.

Ward on Tuesday insisted that last week's shooting would be looked at carefully. This is what happened Friday:

Police were called to the 500 block of Fernwood Farms Road by neighbors who saw Karim walking the street in her bloodied underclothes while carrying a bowling pin and a small steak knife. She had apparently used the items to break a window and tear out a screen in her home.

After refusing to drop the knife, police reports said, Karim cut the two responding officers on their arms. Officers V.L. Blake, 21, and C.F. Esslinger, 45, were later treated at the scene.

After being cut, police reports said, Esslinger and Blake continued to follow Karim down Fernwood Farms Road. A third officer, Patrolman L.K. Goldsmith, arrived and also ordered Karim to drop the knife, reports said.

The report says Karim threatened to kill an officer after several more minutes of negotiations. Then, ``The suspect started advancing toward (Goldsmith) and after making a threatening gesture and getting within 3-5 feet of him, was shot twice.''

The report did not say which officer shot Karim. As is routine, the officer was placed on administrative leave pending the outcome of an internal investigation.

Dave Hughes, a spokesman for the Police Department, could only say the matter is still under investigation.

Gene A. Moore, president of the Fernwood Shores Civic League, brought the issue to the council on Tuesday. He said the Police Department's offense report differed substantially from the accounts of eyewitnesses, some of whom pleaded with police not to shoot knowing Karim was mentally disturbed.

Moore said witnesses questioned whether Karim threatened the life of anyone during the standoff. He also questioned why police did not act more cautiously after picking up Karim earlier that same day for mental problems. ``The two incidents should have been coordinated,'' he said.

Moore said he had a tough time gaining access to the report from police. He also said two investigating officers for the Chesapeake Police Department visited Karim in the hospital Monday and had her sign papers after asking her sister to leave the room.

In all, Moore asked that pending charges of malicious wounding and attempted malicious wounding be dropped against Karim. He also requested that copies of the papers Karim signed Monday be turned over to her family and that disturbance charges be dropped against a neighbor who witnessed the shooting.

Ward directed acting City Manager Clarence V. Cuffee to ``have the police chief thoroughly investigate this.

``There will be no coverup,'' said Ward, adding that ``all the facts will be revealed and shared with this council.''

Ward asked that police officials meet with the Fernwood Shores Civic League and that Moore supply Cuffee with a list of eyewitnesses to the shooting.

C.C. Hawkins, president of the Camelot Civic League, said the shooting was racially motivated. Calling it ``a 1997 lynching,'' Hawkins said, ``If that had been a white lady, they wouldn't have killed her.'' Karim, who is black, was injured in the shooting, not killed.

Ward attempted to tone down the rhetoric.

``I would much rather elevate this beyond race and look at this in some other way,'' he said. ``Maybe, I don't know, poor training, rushed action, what have you.''

Ward is intimately familiar with the neighborhood as well as the speakers. He had lived along Shore Side Drive for some 23 years and grew up with Karim and her family. After asking for council oversight of the shooting investigation, he asked Karim's grandmother, Wyoma Gaskins, to approach the dais and speak. KEYWORDS: INVESTIGATION CHESAPEAKE POLICE CHESAPEAKE CITY

COUNCIL

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