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 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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