Riverside Officers’ Firings Over Killing Splits Opinion

RIVERSIDE — The decision to fire four Riverside police officers who shot and killed Tyisha Miller after they found her sitting unresponsively in her car reverberated Saturday through the city’s parks and malls, at church bake sales and at corner gathering places.

Few among more than a score of people interviewed Saturday seemed completely satisfied with the police chief’s move to dismiss the officers who killed the 19-year-old woman.

“They got off way too easy,” said Denise Spencer, one of many parishioners pitching in at a craft and bake sake in the parking lot of Mt. Vernon Missionary Baptist Church. “There was no reason for them to shoot that girl.”

Across town at the tree-shaded Main Street pedestrian mall, where shoppers and diners mingled alongside downtown’s landmark Mission Inn, Murrel Crump also criticized the planned firings--but from a completely different perspective.

“That’s way too harsh,” said Crump, 77, a retired entrepreneur. “They acted too fast, but police officers who don’t act fast end up dead some of the time.’

Such varying points of view illustrate the fissures the case has caused in Riverside, a city of 254,000 about 60 miles east of Los Angeles. Frequent demonstrations and heavy news coverage have helped shape strong opinions.

The district attorney has declined to bring charges, calling the officers’ actions poor judgment but not warranting criminal prosecution. The four white lawmen fired 24 shots at the black woman in December, striking her 12 times.

The officers had responded to a 911 medical distress call and found Miller passed out in the driver’s seat of a locked car. The officers decided to break a car window to grab the gun and said they saw her move for the weapon after the window shattered. All four officers then fired at her.

On Friday, Police Chief Jerry Carroll told the officers they will be fired, a decision the city’s police union said was politically motivated and may lead to a job action.

In some cases, African American residents echoed a frustration that has sparked demonstrations by blacks, who insisted that Miller would not have been shot if she were white. In other instances--for both blacks and others interviewed--race did not seem to be the defining element.

Patrick Edwards, a retired food service employee who is black, called the officers “scapegoats” offered up by a city administration eager to put an embarrassing episode to rest. But Edwards also said the lawmen used “poor judgment” and should be put on trial to determine the truth.

Robert Bundschuh, a 24-year-old homeless man who is white, said firing the officers was not nearly harsh enough. He called for changes in a police culture that, he said, has escalated racial divisions and inevitably led to such tragic incidents.

“What if this were a white girl? Would the police have acted the same way?” Bundschuh asked after receiving a free meal provided by a church group at Fairmount Park, where he lives. “Instead of this becoming a racial issue, we should all be united against what the police did.”

Others nodded in agreement. Several recounted their own run-ins with police and expressed equal concern over the well-publicized case of Margaret Laverne Mitchell, the 54-year-old homeless woman shot to death by a Los Angeles police officer last month after he said she lunged toward him with a screwdriver.

Suspicion about the Riverside Police Department’s motivation in opting to dismiss the officers seemed prevalent among those interviewed. Virtually all criticized the lack of supervision of the officers at the scene.

“They just want to justify their handling of the case by firing the cops,” said Pat Hampton, a former civilian employee of the Los Angeles Police Department who was preparing a birthday picnic for her two grandchildren.

One person who did view the officers’ termination as sufficient was Cathy Romine of nearby Moreno Valley, who was having an outdoor lunch in downtown Riverside. In her view, a trial of the officers would be “a waste” of public funds. “And we might end up with a riot,” Romine added.

Strongly disagreeing was Mike Maier, a special education teacher and 25-year Riverside resident who was taking a break from a bicycle jaunt through the city.

“It’s hard to say that even one bullet needed to be fired,” said Maier, who favors a criminal trial.

At the church benefit, participants expressed a clear sentiment: Improved training is needed to ensure that police don’t view African American and Latino residents as the enemy.

“We all support the police, but they must be held accountable and stop covering up for one another,” said Veronica Black. “The black public, the entire public, will accept the police if they are fair.”