Omaha police must both protect the public and follow the rules that govern officers’ use of their weapons, Acting Omaha Police Chief Alex Hayes said today after a weekend in which two officers fired at suspects in less than 48 hours.
Investigators still are gathering details about a shooting involving two off-duty officers that occurred early Sunday outside Cheaters bar at 39th and Farnam Streets.
A witness said one of the two officers providing security at the bar yelled for the driver of an SUV to stop after someone threw a bottle into a crowd outside the bar. The officer then fired four or five times as the vehicle sped away, the witness said. One man in the car was shot.
Officer Calvin Harper was the officer who discharged his firearm, police said this morning. He has been placed on paid administrative leave while the matter is investigated.
Officer Randy Szemplenski was the second officer working off-duty. He was briefly placed on paid administrative leave and has returned to his normal assignment.
In an e-mail, Hayes provided the Police Department’s use-of-force policy, which contains this section:
“Shot(s) will not be fired at or from a moving vehicle except as the ultimate measure of self-defense, or defense of another. Firing of weapons at a moving vehicle will only be done in extreme, close-range circumstances when all other means of stopping the vehicle containing a dangerous felon have been attempted and have failed.”
Hayes said the Friday afternoon shooting is the more clear-cut of the two: The officer, Josiah Warren, was returning fire after a 15-year-old boy shot at him as the boy ran from a traffic stop near 84th and G Streets. Officers recovered a firearm from the boy, Hayes said, and investigators believe he had fired twice at Warren.
Warren has been placed on paid administrative leave. Officer Justin Knapp, who initiated the traffic stop, also was briefly placed on paid administrative leave but returned to active duty Sunday, police said.
The Police Department investigates any time an officer discharges a weapon in the line of duty, Hayes said. When an officer fires his weapon in defense of his life or someone else’s life, he said, “we have a much more in-depth process, and that includes our homicide unit, which goes out and does a criminal investigation of the incident.”
The investigating officers then brief Douglas County Attorney Don Kleine on what they have found and provide Kleine’s office with all the reports, Hayes said. Kleine’s office then reviews the case to determine if there was a violation of the law, he said.
In addition, Hayes said, the department’s internal affairs unit conducts an investigation “to make sure all our rules and procedures are followed.” Depending on the result of the internal investigation, he said, the officer could be disciplined, including being fired.
“When we’re talking about using a firearm, that’s about as serious a matter as there is,” Hayes said.
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