Criminal cases over three fatal police shootings in Oklahoma being dismissed

Prosecutors are dismissing the manslaughter case against the five Oklahoma City police officers who opened fire on a 15-year-old robbery suspect even though he had dropped his gun.

Also being dismissed are two other criminal cases involving fatal police shootings.

"Under Oklahoma law, the shootings were justified," Oklahoma County's new district attorney, Vicki Behenna, said at a news conference Friday announcing the decisions. "I have to follow the law."

In a news release, she acknowledged "how highly charged the topic of law enforcement use-of-force is in the current environment."

"It is critical to ... make a decision based on facts, not emotion," she said in the release.

She told reporters that she will use the state's multicounty grand jury to investigate any future fatal officer-involved shootings.

"I think that's what most metropolitan areas do," she said.

All seven officers — six from Oklahoma City and one from The Village — have been on paid administrative leave. Their cases are being dismissed "with prejudice," meaning they can't be refiled.

Behenna made the decisions after hiring a use-of-force expert from California and after an extensive internal review by her office.

"There were seven of us with 160 years of experience as trial lawyers," she said. "We spent hundreds of hours in reviewing the facts in each of these three cases. ... This is not just a quick, spur-of-the moment decision."

The three cases were filed by then-District Attorney David Prater, a former Norman police officer who retired in January after 16 years as the county's top prosecutor.

The most high-profile of the cases involved the fatal shooting of the teenage robbery suspect, Stavian Rodriguez.

He was hit by gunfire 13 times after he dropped his gun outside Okie Gas Express, 7917 S Western Ave., on Nov. 23, 2020, an investigation found.

The shooting led to protests, a federal civil rights lawsuit against the city and changes in police tactics. A security camera recorded the shooting. It shows the teenager was shot as he reached toward a back pocket while police yelled at him to get down.

In the back pocket was a cellphone. No other weapon was found.

Charged in 2021 with first-degree manslaughter were five Oklahoma City police officers, Bethany Sears, 32, Jared Barton, 36, Corey Adams, 30, Jonathan Skuta, 36, and Brad Pemberton, 33.

The new DA met Friday morning with the teenager's mother about the decision.

Afterward, the mother, Cameo Holland, called for laws to be changed.

"No police officer should feel threatened by a child, armed or not," Holland said. "If a trained adult police officer feels threatened by a child, they need to find a new line of work.

"All the officers had to do to escape the consequences of killing my child was claim that they felt threatened. How did they feel threatened when there were 30 of them, each with multiple weapons? The answer is they didn't feel threatened. They felt entitled."

Case being dismissed against OKC police officer who shot Bennie Edwards in the back

The second dismissal involves the fatal shooting of a mentally ill Black man on Dec. 11, 2020.

Sgt. Clifford Holman, now 38, was charged in 2021 with first-degree manslaugher after he shot Bennie Edwards in the back.

Videos show Edwards, 60, was armed with a knife but was fleeing. Police had confronted him outside an Oklahoma City pawn shop and beauty shop after getting a report he was bothering customers.

The videos show Holman fired three times after Edwards ran at one officer then fled down a parking lot.

The first shot missed, an investigation determined. The second hit Edward's leg, and the third hit him in the back. That fatal shot came 28 seconds after Holman arrived to assist other officers.

That shooting also sparked protests and a federal civil rights lawsuit against the city. Behenna said she met Friday with Edwards' family and with community leaders from the northeast side of Oklahoma City.

The third dismissal involves a fatal shooting inside a home in The Village on July 25, 2020.

Chance Avery, a corporal with The Village Police Department, was facing trial on a second-degree murder charge.

He shot Christopher Poor three times after the man came in the home with an aluminum baseball bat. The police corporal was at the home at the request of Poor's wife, who was picking up personal belongings after a fight.

Poor, 49, was drunk, an investigation found. His estate filed a civil rights lawsuit last year against The Village. Behenna said she spoke with Poor's widow Thursday night.

Avery, now 37, was originally charged in 2020 with first-degree manslaughter. The charge was later revised to second-degree murder or in the alternative first-degree manslaughter.

"This is a tremendous day," said defense attorney Gary James, who represented two of the officers.

"These officers were charged over decisions they had to make in milliseconds. They all performed under the law when faced with those decisions," James said.

"We must not forget that those decisions were all in response to actions of others."

The criminal cases played a role in last year's district attorney race.

Behenna, a Democrat, picked up some support because her Republican opponent, Kevin Calvey, had pledged to dismiss all "wrongful charges" against law enforcement on his first day in office.

"I will support our police, not persecute them," Calvey said at a debate last October.

In response, Behenna had said, "Quite honestly, Mr. Calvey’s statements are pandering to law enforcement, in order to get their vote."

Prater on Friday said he stood by his decisions to prosecute the officers.

"There's been no communication with Mrs. Behenna or her team regarding this filing decision since she took office," Prater also said.

The expert, Clarence Robert Chapman, spent 28 years at the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department before becoming chief of police at the University of California, Los Angeles. He spent 10 years at UCLA.

He has consulted on over 1,000 cases and given testimony in court or by deposition in over 500, according to his curriculum vitae.

In the fatal shooting of the robbery suspect, he concluded "Stavian 'created a sufficiency of fear' in the minds of the officers," according to the news release.

Oklahoma City Police Chief Wade Gourley thanked Behenna's office and said "our focus now shifts towards healing and learning."

"We started down this path two and a half years ago by taking a critical look at ourselves and with the guidance of experts we have implemented significant changes within our department," he said.

"One of our key initiatives involved establishing a reality-based training unit, which has equipped every member of our police department with better de-escalation strategies and best-in-class tactics," Gourley said.

"Additionally, we have provided officers with more less-lethal equipment and increased the number of officers and dispatchers with crisis intervention training. We are committed to continual improvement to ensure the people of Oklahoma City receive the professional and compassionate service everyone deserves."

This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: New DA dropping criminal cases over fatal police shootings in Oklahoma