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Seconds after he was shot, the 15-year-old boy curled into the fetal position. But, Omaha police say, his actions moments before were anything but childlike.
Friday, the teen ran from officers who had stopped a car he was in and got into a gunfight with at least one officer, ending with a bullet wound in the boy's chest.
Paramedics rushed him to the Nebraska Medical Center in critical condition. He was stabilized there Friday night and was expected to live. The officer who shot him was placed on administrative leave — standard procedure in such events.
Police did not divulge the boy's name, nor that of the officer.
According to police and witnesses, this is what happened:
About 4:20 p.m., Omaha police pulled over a white Chevrolet sedan in the southbound lanes of 84th Street, just north of F Street, in front of Kia of Omaha. An officer suspected its license plates were expired.
A boy in the car bolted. He sprinted south along 84th, with police behind him, past the Jiffy Lube and into the area of the parking lot of the Great Western Bank, where he exchanged gunfire with police, said Lt. Darci Tierney, a police spokeswoman.
Inside Carquest Auto Parts, just west of 84th, Bill Evans, 58, a delivery driver, heard something like five gunshots.
He looked outside to see a young man on the ground, curled up in a small parking area across the street, in front of Nebraska Motorcycle Parts. Officers stood over him, guns drawn, as if they were “making sure he wasn't going to get up and start firing a gun.”
Evans approached. An officer said the youth had shot at police first.
An officer told Mike Kurgan, 55, another Carquest delivery driver, that they had tried to stop the youth for drugs. Two other people in the vehicle were cited on suspicion of marijuana possession.
“I didn't think he was shot,” Kurgan said of the teen. “He was moving around.”
The boy was taken away in an ambulance. Police sealed off the west side of 84th between F and G Streets, including Jiffy Lube and the bank.
About that time, Sean McEvoy, 31, of Omaha, was driving by. In front of the Kia dealership, he saw two men face-down on the ground, with at least one officer over them with his gun drawn.
Police later announced two others arrested in the incident. Richard T. Holmes, 22, and Charles M. Thompson, 20, were jailed on suspicion of possessing marijuana with intent to deliver. Thompson also was cited on suspicion of not having proof of insurance and no valid registration.
Investigators were on the scene for at least three hours, with both the homicide and internal affairs units conducting investigations.
What, if anything, they found was not immediately divulged.
In officer-involved shootings, officers typically undergo what is called a critical incident debriefing, which helps them understand their emotions and reassures them that their feelings are normal responses to an abnormal situation.
Investigators also must wait to interview the officer about the incident until the officer's or union's lawyer can be present.
“Police officers train for situations just like this, but you can never fully prepare for the reality of when they happen,” said Aaron Hanson, president of the Omaha Police Union. “You revert to your training … but at the end of the day you're also human.”
Police asked anyone with information on the shooting and what led to it to call the homicide unit at 444-5656 or Crime Stoppers at 444-STOP (7867); text “OPD” to 274637 (CRIMES); or submit a tip on-line at OmahaCrimeStoppers.net.
World-Herald staff writers Jason Kuiper, John Keenan and Aaron Sanderford contributed to this report.
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