Dwight Turner Killed In 2000, Family represented by Fieger
5/30/02
The city of Detroit has reached a settlement with the family of a man fatally shot by a police officer.
The City Council approved a $2 million settlement. Dwight Turner, 49, was shot on his front porch on Robson Street, near Grand River, in September 2000.
Neighbors called police after hearing Turner trying to shoot a dog that was threatening his Rottweiler's puppies. Police said that Turner then pointed the gun at police. That is reportedly when Officer Wayne Little shot Turner.
September 15, 2000
A family is suing the Detroit Police Department for using deadly force to gun down Dwight Turner on his front porch last week.
Attorney Geoffrey Fieger has turned this latest police shooting into a federal case, by filing a $750 million lawsuit against the city of Detroit, the chief of police, and the officer who pulled the trigger.
"It's a crime," Sheila Pettus, Turner's sister, said. "I think it's horrible. You have to know my brother to know that he wouldn't have done anything that he was told not to do. They asked him put his hands up. He did that. Then they asked him to put the gun down. He does that."
Turner's family said he was a police reservist who was simply trying to scare off a vicious dog.
The officer who shot and killed him, Wayne Little, had already been involved in several shootings, and had told employees at his part-time job he was looking forward to the next one, Fieger said.
"Officer Little is a baggage handler at Masaba Airlines," Fieger said. "Co-workers have remarked within the last few months, Officer Little stated to them "Two down, one to go. All I have to do is shoot one more person, and the city of Detroit will reward me with a desk job.'"
Turner's brother attended a police department town hall meeting Thursday night where dozens of Detroiters expressed their concern about the growing number of police shootings.
"I want to see that this crime does never, ever happen again, because it's not right," Rainell Brown, Turner's sister, said. "We know it's not right. You got a innocent man that's dead. You got two more or three innocent men that's dead. What's going on?"
Fieger said the case is going to federal court for two reasons. He believes the shooting violated Turner's civil rights. He also said he believes the family will get a fair trial in federal court.
2nd autopy says that police shooting victim was three feet higher than the police officer who shot him.
An independent medical examiner's report raised new
questions Tuesday night about the death of a Detroit
man shot by police on his front porch.
Attorney Geoffrey Fieger said Dwight Turner was standing about three feet higher than the police officer who shot him. He said the only way the bullet could have taken that fatal path was if he was bending forward as to put his gun down.
"Little is lying. Little is a murderer," said Turner's attorney Geoffrey Fieger, armed with an independent autopsy report.
Fieger said there is no doubt that Dwight Turner was shot and killed by officer Wayne Little while Turner stooped to lay down his gun.
"The autopsy puts the lie to Chief Napoleon and this claim that Mr. Turner aimed a gun at anyone," said Fieger.
The medical examiner's report shows a one inch distance.
The autopsy from the Wayne County Medical Examiner's office noted the downward trajectory of the bullet's path, measuring the distance between the entrance wound and where the bullet finally lodged as being approximately an inch.
A separate and independent report measured the distance as being four and a half inches.
"There is no way the bullet could go down that much. It doesn't matter. The enemy is minimizing the downward trajectory," said Fieger. "At the point of entry, we are well above the policeman. The policeman is shooting up. How is the bullet going down? There's no question the victim was kneeling down, putting down the weapon, and was shot through the bushes on the porch."
Mr. Fieger is representing the Turner family and plans to file suit. Police Chief Benny Napoleon and the medical examiner were not available for comment. The attorney representing Officer Little did respond by saying he had not seen the second autopsy report and declined to comment.
Fieger said he will tell juries that police training is woefully inadequate and that unqualified officers are hired.
"There's no reason Detroit can't be a great city with a great police force," he said. "But there's an acceptance of killing by police officers, and it has to stop."
The department policy, Fieger believes, at least tacitly condones the reckless use of deadly force.
Investigation begins, and Geoff retained by family
September 9, 2000
A vacationing autoworker, who had been trying to shoot a marauding stray dog, was killed on his front porch by Detroit police early Friday morning.
Family members and coworkers said Dwight Turner's death was another case of a citizen dying at the hands of too-quick-to-shoot cops, but Police Chief Benny Napoleon said those allegations are "absolutely untrue."
Napoleon said officers were defending themselves against an armed man who refused orders to drop his gun, and who instead aimed the weapon at them. But family members, friends, and witnesses said Turner had no reason to, and did not point the gun at police.
Lawyer Geoffrey Fieger was hired by the Turner family by noon, and he held a news conference at his Southfield law offices later in the afternoon.
Detroit, said Fieger, has become the "police murder capital of the world." He called Turner's death yet another unjustified shooting.
Fieger said Turner was a law-abiding home owner who earned more than $70,000 last year, had two teenage sons and no reason to want to commit suicide by pointing a handgun at police.
"He wasn't shot in the commission of a felony or a misdemeanor," Fieger said. "He had done nothing wrong. He was standing legally on his porch possessing a legal handgun.
"He had a license for this gun," Fieger said. "The police are allowed to come up to your porch and tell you 'put the gun down.' But they're not allowed to shoot you in the process of putting the gun down."
Victoria Jenkins said she was inside her house across the street from Turner's home when she heard repeated shouts of, "Put the gun down," followed by three or four gunshots.
Jenkins, 23, said the shots came right after the shouted commands: "They didn't give him a chance."
Mayoral spokesman Greg Bowens said the case would become Fieger's 13th lawsuit against the City of Detroit.
In May, a Free Press investigation found that Detroit has the highest rate of fatal police shootings of any major American city -- a rate critics say is fueled by the department's failure to hold cops accountable for questionable shootings. The investigation also found that police investigations of the shootings were often rushed and superficial.
The Associated Press - 9/12/00
DETROIT (AP) -- An autopsy performed on a man who was fatally shot by a Detroit police officer has some involved in the case making allegations.
Wayne County Medical Examiner Sawait Kanluen said that Friday's autopsy showed the bullet that killed Dwight Turner traveled through his body at a downward angle.
Early Friday morning, Officer Wayne Little shot Turner, 49, who had been shooting at a stray dog. Police said Turner refused to drop his gun.
Police were responding to a complaint about a man shooting in a northwest Detroit neighborhood.
Kanluen said the bullet entered Turner's chest and traveled downward, exiting at a lower point in his back.
Although Kanluen said he couldn't make any conclusions until all tests are complete, the Turner family lawer, Geoffrey Fieger, said the bullet's path is significant.
Fieger said Turner was standing on his front porch -- about 3 feet above the officer -- when he was shot, and Fieger said witnesses told him that Turner was bending over to put down his pistol when he was shot.
"You can draw your own conclusions," Fieger told the Detroit Free Press.
Kevin Simowski, head of the Wayne County Prosecutor's Office homicide unit, told the Free Press that he had not gotten any autopsy results or police reports and, therefore, couldn't comment.
Little's lawyer, John Goldpaugh, scoffed at Fieger's witness claims.
"If there are these wonderful witnesses, have they said why Turner didn't just drop his gun and put his hands up?" Goldpaugh said.
Detroit Assistant Police Chief Marvin Winkler also told the Free Press that he couldn't comment on the autopsy.
Detroit Police Chief Benny Napoleon has said Turner posed a threat to the officers. He said there was also a threat to neighborhood residents, who could have been wounded while Turner was shooting at the dog.
Turner's shooting, along with last week's fatal police shooting of Errol Shaw Sr., 39, who could not hear or speak, have led the Board of Police Commissioners to call a public meeting on ways to improve police-community relations. The meeting will be 7:30 p.m. Thursday at Christ the King Church.