• We are now running on a new, and hopefully much-improved, server. In addition we are also on new forum software. Any move entails a lot of technical details and I suspect we will encounter a few issues as the new server goes live. Please be patient with us. It will be worth it! :) Please help by posting all issues here.
  • The forum will be down for about an hour this weekend for maintenance. I apologize for the inconvenience.
  • If you are having trouble seeing the forum then you may need to clear your browser's DNS cache. Click here for instructions on how to do that
  • Please review the Forum Rules frequently as we are constantly trying to improve the forum for our members and visitors.

Prince George County officer calls shooting ‘clear case of self-defense’

HankT

State Researcher
Joined
Feb 20, 2007
Messages
6,215
Location
Invisible Mode
imported post

I dunno, I'm dubious of Washington's story. I recall he got into some other gun-related trouble.



Local


P.G. County officer calls shooting ‘clear case of self-defense’
Daniel Fowler, The Examiner
2007-08-02


WASHINGTON -
A Prince George’s County police officer indicted on a second-degree murder charge said Wednesday that he was “being beaten” at the time he fired his gun and labeled his actions a “clear case of self-defense.”

“Two men were beating me,” Cpl. Keith Washington said Wednesday, after turning himself in and posting $150,000 bail at the Department of Corrections in Upper Marlboro.

“One is 6-5, 270 pounds at the time. The other one is about 6-2, 250,” Washington said. “I weigh 155 pounds.”

Brandon Clark, 22, of Oxon Hill, and Robert White, 36, of Washington, were delivering furniture to Washington’s home in Accokeek on Jan. 24 when Washington shot the men during an altercation. Clark died in early February.

Washington, 46, said he discharged his weapon “in fear of my life and my family’s life,” but that he didn’t have time to identify himself as a police officer. “They were on top of me, beating me,” Washington said.

A former top homeland security official for Prince George’s County, Washington said the charges filed against him by Prince George’s State’s Attorney Glenn Ivey aren’t justified.

“I hate to cast dispersion on Mr. Ivey,” Washington said, “But this is clearly without merit or warrant.”

Washington’s attorney, Michael Worthy, said: “Any public official in a case like this is going to benefit from the successful prosecution of a police officer.”

Worthy called for Ivey and anyone else in his office who is running for an elected position to recuse themselves from the case.

Ivey’s spokesman, Ramon Korionoff, responded: “We will not step aside.”

“It’s an insult to the grand jury to infer that these indictments are politically motivated,” Korionoff added.

According to Worthy, the shooting occurred after Washington caught one of the deliverymen in an area of the house where he wasn’t authorized to be and then ordered both men out of the house. When Washington told them to leave, Worthy said, they attacked him.

Washington faces 65 years in prison for the second-degree murder charge and a number of other counts stemming from the encounter. He has been suspended without pay from the police department.


http://www.examiner.com/a-859294~P_G__County_officer_calls_shooting__clear_case_of_self_defense_.html
 
Top