Post by WaTcHeR on Jun 2, 2006 14:15:17 GMT -5
Officer Alfonzo C. Glover
06.02.2006 - Hours after being charged with first-degree intentional homicide in the shooting of an unarmed man in 2005, Milwaukee Police Officer Alfonzo C. Glover, 35, took his own life Tuesday, authorities said.
Glover was off duty when he shot and killed Wilbert Javier Prado, a 25-year-old illegal Mexican immigrant, in an alley near S. 9th St. and W. Ohio Ave. shortly after midnight on March 6, 2005. According to testimony during an inquest into the shooting, Glover fired at least 19 shots at Prado, who had been drinking. Eight of them hit Prado, mostly from behind.
Milwaukee County District Attorney E. Michael McCann filed the homicide charge and six perjury charges Tuesday morning, just more than a year after an inquest jury decided Glover was justified in killing Prado. Glover turned himself in to police around 10 a.m. Tuesday and appeared in court shortly after noon. Defense attorney Steve Kohn posted Glover's $25,000 cash bail around 1 p.m., according to Milwaukee County sheriff's office spokeswoman Kim Brooks. By 4:45 p.m., Milwaukee Police Chief Nannette Hegerty confirmed that Glover had killed himself inside his home on the south side.
"It's a tragic day for the Milwaukee Police Department and the City of Milwaukee," Hegerty said at the scene. "Our thoughts and prayers go out to him and his family."
Across the street, the mother of Prado's two young children, Veronica Gonsalez, wept after being notified of the suicide. She said she felt that Glover had cheated justice.
"I am raising my two kids by myself, and he couldn't take it like a man," Gonsalez said.
McCann said the decision to charge Glover was "fact-driven." Nonetheless, he said he was saddened by the news of Glover's suicide.
"You call 'em as you see 'em and try to do what's right, but it's a tragedy," McCann said. "Death is a tragedy. That's all you can call it."
Glover's mother, Joyce Glover, said she hadn't had any indications that her son might take his own life, and she did not blame McCann for her son's suicide. She declined to comment further.
Glover had known charges were possible or even likely since at least May 15, when he was suspended by the department. In court Tuesday, Kohn had said his client "plans to answer to these charges. He wishes to exonerate himself as he was exonerated before."
Four troubling points
Earlier in the day, McCann said false testimony Glover gave during the inquest likely influenced the jury's decision to clear him. McCann said he continued to investigate after the inquest because some of the testimony during the proceeding had troubled him.
McCann said four points gave him pause:
• Glover testified that Prado pointed a gun at him, yet Glover did not mention a gun to the first three people he encountered after the shooting, and no gun was found.
• Glover fired 19 times, an unusually high number of shots for such a situation. He also reloaded his weapon.
• Officer Steven Svensson, among the first on the scene after the shooting, testified that he distinctly remembered asking Glover whether Prado had a weapon. According to Svensson's testimony, Glover said: "I thought . . . ," then paused and said, "I don't know."
• Frank Garcia testified that he heard five to seven shots in the alley behind his home, then silence, then another five to seven shots. After that, Garcia heard someone scream "No!" The scream was followed by two more shots.
Investigators from the district attorney's office did a re-enactment, McCann said. Later, he said, his office hired Madison engineering consultants Skogen Engineering Group to reconstruct the events at a cost of $15,000.
Engineer Robert Wozniak's research directly contradicted another piece of Glover's testimony. According to Glover's account, Prado's van had been following him for several blocks. Glover said he pulled over to confront the van's driver. As Glover ran toward the van, it hit him, Glover said. After that, Glover testified, Prado stopped his van, looked back at Glover and pointed what Glover thought was a gun. Then the van started moving again and struck a parked car, Glover testified. According to the criminal complaint, Wozniak's research shows that the van was moving 22 to 27 mph when it struck the car. It could not have reached that speed if it had stopped where Glover said it did, the complaint says.
Two other experts who analyzed the scene and bullet paths indicated that Glover fired at the van as it was moving past him.
"Therefore, the defendant's claim that he began to shoot after Wilbert Prado stopped in the intersection and pointed a weapon at him is not true," the complaint says.
Glover, who joined the department in 2001, was in his personal car, was not in uniform and did not have his badge. A witness said he identified himself as a police officer, but Prado did not speak English and might not have understood him. After the shooting, Hegerty changed department policy to require off-duty officers who carry their guns to also carry their badges.
Rare charge in police shooting
Tuesday marked the first time McCann had charged a Milwaukee police officer with first-degree intentional homicide in his nearly 38-year career.
Continuing to investigate after the inquest was another unusual step for the district attorney. Inquest juries almost always clear officers involved in fatal shootings.
McCann has second-guessed only one other inquest jury's recommendation against charges in a fatal police shooting. In that case, an officer came forward 20 years after the fact and admitted that his partner had planted a knife on the victim, Daniel Bell. Thomas Grady, who had been on duty when he fired shots and planted the knife in 1958, pleaded guilty in 1978 to homicide by reckless conduct and to perjury for lying during the inquest that cleared him.
McCann has been widely criticized for failing to charge other officers involved in fatal shootings over the past few years. His decision to charge Glover came after his failure to win a conviction of three off-duty Milwaukee police officers in the beating of Frank Jude Jr. outside a house party in Bay View in October 2004. As federal authorities review possible civil rights charges in the Jude case, newly formed community groups have staged protests to decry police brutality and demand justice.
John Balcerzak, president of the Milwaukee Police Association, said he was "troubled with the fact that the district attorney proceeded with an inquest into the (Prado) incident before he was prepared."
Balcerzak said he hopes the charges were not the result of McCann "answering to the political pressures of the community."