Questions raised after differences in school's punishment for teen and boy

HOUSTON (KTRK) -- A high school student shot a pellet gun at school and hit a student but remained on campus, and now we're hearing about a 10-year-old boy who was taken to juvenile detention. Because of these two incidents, families have some questions for Cy-Fair ISD when it comes to how it disciplines its students.

The 10-year-old boy's family says he was taken into custody Wednesday at Emmott Elementary School. They're asking whether the school district is equally applying its own zero-tolerance discipline policy.

Anna Patterson says she watched in disbelief Wednesday as her 10-year-old great-grandson was hauled away from Emmott Elementary to juvenile detention.

"I was really hurt," she said. "I couldn't believe that they were going to, you know, take him down. I was really hurt."

Cy-Fair ISD says Darrin Banks caused chaos inside his classroom. They accuse him of vandalizing school property. A district spokesperson also says, "Assaulting a public servant is against the law."

However she couldn't say if the teacher was hurt. Still, compare this incident to that which we reported at Cy Creek High School just a day ago. A student there was neither detained nor expelled, even though he allegedly shot another student on campus in the face with a pellet gun. The district tells us a pellet gun is not on a list of prohibited weapons in the student handbook.

Patterson doesn't see equal application of discipline in these cases.

"I would have thought that they would've been arrested," she said.

Patterson admits Banks has been suspended repeatedly from school. The school district meantime says there are "some inaccuracies in the information" Patterson is claiming. Privacy laws however prohibit Cy-Fair ISD from specifying what those might be.

Patterson says her great-grandson has ADHD and takes medication for it. The 10-year-old Banks remained in custody Thursday night at the juvenile justice center downtown. Privacy laws keep officials from telling us what charges, if any, he actually faces. A court hearing is set for Friday morning.

(Copyright ©2012 KTRK-TV/DT. All Rights Reserved.) Get more Local »

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Questions still surround fatal shooting of double amputee

HOUSTON (KTRK) -- There are still a lot of questions surrounding the shooting death of Brian Claunch.

One of the biggest is how did a man with one arm and one leg, in a wheelchair, manage to corner a Houston police officer? And why did another officer reach for his gun, rather than his Taser?

We are getting a better picture of what two HPD officers were dealing with when they arrived at the Healing Hands assisted home care about 2am Saturday. An instructor who trains aspiring officers also walks us through the levels of force officers are taught to use.

Eyewitness News got a first view of the room where two HPD officers confronted a double amputee in a wheelchair, threatening to kill them with a shiny object. It turned out to be a silver ballpoint pen.

After allegedly lunging at one officer with the pen, a second officer, M. Marin, shot the wheelchair-bound man in the head.

At the foot of the bed is where Claunch, 45, was pronounced dead. He was mentally ill.

Mike Emanuel is an instructor for University of Houston's Basic Peace Officer Course. Officers are taught, he says, to use one of three levels of force depending on the threat. The first is a physical take down.

"Whether I go into soft contact, which is joint manipulation control, medium contact would be your pepper spray, your asp, your Taser and then lethal force would be a firearm," Emanuel.

HPD can't yet say if the officers knew Claunch was armed with a pen since they were dispatched after a 911 call. HPD does confirm both officers were equipped with a Taser and tasked with disarming a double amputee in a wheelchair.

"When you have two officers on one suspect, it does make it easier on both officers to subdue a suspect without lethal force?" we asked Emanuel.

"Absolutely," he said. "The more officers the better."

One thing Emanuel makes clear, it's always a live situation, where there can be little time to react.

"These are all judgment decisions that officers make in a quarter of a second and it's very hard to second guess this," Emanuel said.

HPD Chief Charles McClelland has asked the local FBI office to monitor and investigate this incident along with HPD's Internal Affairs Division.

(Copyright ©2012 KTRK-TV/DT. All Rights Reserved.) Get more Local »

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Questions surround officer-involved shooting of amputee

HOUSTON (KTRK) -- A mentally ill double amputee was shot and killed by a Houston police officer this weekend after he refused to drop a pen.

Officer M. Marin pulled the trigger, authorities said. He claims he did not have a choice, but some are questioning how Houston Police Department officers are trained.

Neighbors across the street were getting ready to go to bed when they saw several police cars arrive at the Healing Hands group home on Polk near downtown Houston.

Police say they were responding to a disturbance at Healing Hands, where several men with mental illnesses live with a caretaker.

Brian Claunch was the man at the center of the call for help. The caretaker said the wheelchair-bound double amputee was aggressive because he wanted soda and cigarettes.

When Marin and his partner went inside the home, HPD says Claunch cornered one officer with his wheelchair, disobeyed commands and was waving a shiny object.

Police say the officer feared for his life and his partner's, so he shot Claunch -- a response some are questioning.

Police now say the object Claunch was holding was a ballpoint pen.

Questions about why the officer didn't use a Taser will be part of the investigation, HPD spokesperson Kese Smith said.

Smith added that all cadets are required to take crisis intervention training, but it's unclear if Marin entered the academy before or after that was put into place.

The caretaker at the group home did not want to talk Sunday night. It was back to the dark, quiet neighborhood many are used to.

We learned that Marin shot and killed another suspect back in October 2009. Police say the suspect lunged at him with a knife.

Marin has been with the force for five years. As is standard in all officer-involved shootings, he was immediately placed on three-day administrative leave.

This shooting, like all officer-involved shootings, will be investigated by the homicide division, the internal affairs division and the Harris County District Attorney's Office.

(Copyright ©2012 KTRK-TV/DT. All Rights Reserved.) Get more Local »

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Questions remain unanswered in girl's rape at grocery store

HOUSTON (KTRK) -- Houston police are investigating the sexual assault of a 12-year-old girl.

The girl claims a stranger grabbed her and raped her while she was shopping at a southwest Houston grocery store.

The attack happened more than a month ago, and the girl's family wants to know why no arrest has been made.

The Houston Police Department didn't want us to report this story, telling us they are at a critical time in their investigation and that publicity could hurt that. But the victim's grandmother hopes a story on Eyewitness News might lead to an arrest.

The victim's grandmother, who asked us not to reveal her identity, says she sent her granddaughter to Food Town on Wilcrest and Briar Forest to buy rice on March 24. It was at that grocery store inside one of the bathrooms where her granddaughter claims she was raped.

"You can't help but think, 'If I had drove to the store myself, it wouldn't have happened,'" the grandmother said.

The girl told her grandmother a man approached her outside the store and then followed her inside when she refused to grant his request for a hug. The woman says the man then followed the girl from aisle to aisle. He reportedly attacked when the girl went to get a drink of water near the bathrooms.

"That's when he came up behind her, grabbed her wrists, pulled her into the ladies room and put her in the stall and told her to take her pants down," the grandmother said.

The grandmother says the girl never said anything about the man having a weapon, but she said she was frozen with fear and that the man raped her in the stall, only stopping when someone else entered the bathroom.

"He told her to be quiet and he stood on the seat so you couldn't see his feet," the grandmother said.

The 12-year-old told her grandmother that, once the others inside the bathroom left, the man told her to go outside the stall and make sure they were gone. She said that's when she ran -- when she was away from her attacker and able to summon the courage.

She reported the attack to police that day.

The grandmother said the store manager showed her surveillance video from inside the store of the man stalking the girl. Police never released that video or any suspect description.

Neither Food Town nor HPD would share that video. They wouldn't say why other than that there is an ongoing investigation.

Food Town said it is cooperating with police.

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Questions surround investigation involving Patti LaBelle

HOUSTON (KTRK) -- We're learning new information about a shocking confrontation between a West Point cadet and famed singer Patti LaBelle's entourage at a Houston airport, as questions linger over how police handled the situation.

A man was punched and pushed to the ground, then taken to the hospital bleeding. In the end, no charges were filed, and at least one officer got a picture with LaBelle. We've learned police are now reviewing how officers handled themselves that night.

Sources close to the investigation say that right now there is not an official internal affairs investigation. Rather, supervisors over the airport division of Houston police are looking carefully at everything that went on that night. They're looking at the video, which, apparently a lot of other people may not have done until recently.

The surveillance video showing West Point Cadet Richard King, wearing a yellow shirt, being beaten up by Patti LaBelle's bodyguards has sparked a lot of questions as to why no criminal charges were ever filed in the case.

KTRK Legal Analyst Joel Androphy said, "He didn't have any type of weapons, he's waiting at the luggage area -- it's shocking to see what happened there. What's even more shocking that police didn't do anything about it."

Now that the video has been made public, HPD says it is conducting an internal review. Police sources tell us they are evaluating why the initial report listed King as the suspect, and why, after he was carted off in an ambulance with blood everywhere, that Houston police officers were seen taking photos with LaBelle.

"If they're taking a picture with Patti LaBelle, who is a witness to this case, along with her three bodyguards, that is improper behavior," Androphy said.

What happened outside the airport terminal will have a lifetime of implications for this young man. On Friday West Point told Eyewitness News that King will be leaving the academy without graduating. His only option is to go through a mentorship program where he will have to spend at least a year serving as an enlisted member of the military, before he can reapply for admission

"It was vicious. It was brutal," said King's attorney John Raley. "It was one of the worst things I've ever seen."

LaBelle's representatives are aware of the lawsuit, but so far they have issued no comments. Houston police won't say whether their officers even looked at the video before making the report -- a report that may have derailed a young military career.

Androphy said, "It's hard to believe the officers picked up the phone to call West Point. There's no reason to do that at the time."

It's uncertain who actually notified West Point. The lawyers say it was someone within the Houston Police Department. HPD says they don't believe that is the case.

It does, however, appear that the initial officer who made the report ever looked at the video, and that is something that is being scrutinized.

(Copyright ©2011 KTRK-TV/DT. All Rights Reserved.)
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Tough questions for the Port of Houston president

HOUSTON (KTRK) -- There's growing trouble for the top brass at the Port of Houston and an email we've found is part of the reason why.

There's growing pressure and tough new questions for the Port president and a controversial private boat tour that's making real waves. The SS Sam Houston gives free tours to the public, a chance to slowly snake your way down the Houston Ship Channel. But we've been exposing those special tours on the Port of Houston's boat, including a three-hour tour for the Port president's friend in April of last year -- a tour that took security away from guarding our Port to guarding partygoers. "I was on that trip," Houston Port Authority President and CEO Alec Dreyer said. "Was there alcohol on that boat?" we asked. "Yes, I believe there was," he replied. And when we asked the Port for its schedule of special cruises, this was the government document we were given: it says that April trip was requested by government regulators, the FERC commissioners. One problem -- that wasn't true. "You and I both know the FERC Commissioners did not request that trip," we told Dreyer. We asked because we knew this is what the document said before it was changed. The trip was requested by Alec Dreyer. Emails even called it "Alec's trip." "I don't maintain those documents, but I do know the facts," Dreyer said. Here's a fact Mr. Dreyer. Someone at the Port changed the document months after the trip was taken. "Who changed it?" we asked Dreyer "I have no idea who changed it," he said. But someone changed it. "I want to know who phsyically changed it and whether or not you had any role in ordering it," 13 Undercover said. Then the words that could now come back to haunt Mr. Dreyer: "I was absolutely not involved in ordering any change to any schedule with respect to any special cruises on the MV Sam Houston; I was not involved in that." Tonight, we have an email that casts doubts about that: On October 12: "Alec also brought to our attention that the 'requestor' should be FERC commissioners on the spreadsheet. Please make the change." -- a change Alec Dreyer admitted to us was false. "You and I both know the FERC Commissioners did not request that trip," we told Dreyer. "Yeah, and I'll readily agree with you," he said. This latest revelation likely won't help the Port's growing PR problem with the very taxpayers who kicked in $53 million last year. "Do you think the Port has lost public confidence?" we asked Precinct 3 Commissioner Steve Radack. "Definitely so," he replied. And now the Harris County judge is joining the mayor in demanding Port chairman Jim Edmonds give up his consulting job with a Port vendor or resign from the Port. "He has to deal with that, there's no question," Harris County Judge Ed Emmett said. "Deal with it in what way?" we asked Emmett. "One or the other," he replied. "And you've communicated to him?" "Yes." "And what's been his reaction?" "I'll leave him to make his own announcement." Dreyer's lawyer said his client never saw that email before, did not change any documents or instruct anyone else to do so, calling the entire affair a misunderstanding. (Copyright ©2011 KTRK-TV/DT. All Rights Reserved.)
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