Paper: Houston Chronicle

Date: Sat 04/28/2007

Grieving family seeking answers in son's shooting / Relatives call for a meeting with HPD chief after an officer is no-billed in his Jan. 7 death

By ROSANNA RUIZ Staff

A day after a grand jury declined to indict the police officer who fatally shot their mentally ill relative, a Houston family on Friday called for a meeting with Police Chief Harold Hurtt.

The parents and sisters of Omar Esparza want to ask about police procedures and training, their attorney said. They want to know, specifically, why police did not negotiate longer with Esparza before entering the house where he had barricaded himself.

"They are still struggling with this," said the attorney, Carlos Leon. "This decision (to not indict the officer) brings back everything, and they go through (the shooting) all over again like it happened yesterday."

A Harris County grand jury Thursday cleared Rodney D. Chaison Jr., a five-year police veteran, of any wrongdoing in the Jan. 7 fatal shooting of Esparza, 21. Chaison shot the Lamar High School graduate when he refused to comply with the officers' demands and charged at them with a hammer, police said.

The fatal confrontation occurred after police had been on the scene for two hours, attempting to calm Esparza.

The dead man's parents, sisters and other relatives clung to framed photos while Leon told reporters outside their east Houston home that they are disappointed by the grand jury's inaction.

The Houston Police Department issued a statement Friday about the case: "The evidence in this case showed the officers were acting in good faith in an attempt to bring a dangerous situation under control."

The e-mailed statement included photographs of the hammer, a knife sharpener, a small battery wrapped in a belt and a broken door knob from inside the house.

The statement states that, in the face-to-face meeting, Esparza "threatened to hit the officers in the head with the hammer and door lock. ... In an attempt to get control of the situation, a plan was devised to enter the residence with the intention of using the minimum force necessary to gain control of the situation."

But Esparza refused to comply with the officers' demands. Officers shot him with a bean bag, then fired and missed with a Taser, before fatally shooting him after he moved in a "threatening manner."

The message in this case, Leon said, seems to be that Houston residents should "think long and hard" before they call police about a mentally ill family member.

The Esparza family will likely file a civil lawsuit against the city, Leon added.

 

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