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Police Defend Firing 20 Bullets at Unarmed Teen

Jen Chung

Published Nov 14, 2007

Modified Mar 7, 2008

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Jen Chung

Published Nov 14, 2007

Modified Mar 7, 2008

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A Brooklyn family and the police have differing views on the fatal police shooting of 18-year-old Khiel Coppin on Monday night. Coppin's mother Denise Owens had called 911 because Coppin was acting irrationally. The police released the 911 call, where Owens speaks with a 911 operator and Coppin is yelling in the background; you can read the transcript here and listen here, but here's an excerpt:

Background male voice: "Take that, (expletive). I've got a gun."
911 operator: "Who is that?"
Female caller: "That's supposed to be my son!"
Background male voice: "I've got a (expletive) gun!"
911 operator: "That's your son?"
Female caller: "Got no respect. You know ... I can't deal with this tonight."
Background male voice: "I gotta gun."
911 operator: "He, he say he gotta gun?"
Female caller: "Um, huh ... You, you heard him. I didn't say. You heard it outta his mouth."
911 operator: "He um ... didn't injure you, right?"
Female caller: "But he kept on tonight with this situation here. I'm not sleeping here with this behavior."

Police officers who responded to the scene believe he had a gun, claiming that Coppin said he had a gun as well. Coppin, who had been carrying knives earlier, allegedly refused to show his hands, which were under a sweatshirt, so the police fired 20 times, hitting him 10 times. It turned out Coppin, who died at the hospital, was only holding a hairbrush.

Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said, "As we know the facts now, this shooting appears to be within department guidelines, as officers fired at someone they reasonably believed to be about to use deadly force against them." He also added, "This was a terrible tragedy for Khiel's family, no question about it. Our condolences go out to his mother and to his family." The police still implied it was a "suicide by cop" pointed to a note found on Coppin, reading, "Those closest 2 death iz closer 2 happiness."

However, a lawyer for Coppin's family, Paul Wooten, said that Denise Owens told the 911 operator (on another call) that her son was not armed, "We know from his mother that when police officers arrived at her front door that she told those officers that he did not have a gun." Wooten also criticized the police commissioner's assessment of the shooting, "Nobody but Houdini himself could have decided that in 24 hours."

Coppin had a history of crime and mental illness. In 2005, he robbed four women at gunpoint; one of his victims, who was walking on the street when he jumped her from behind, told the Daily News, "He jumped on me so hard my friend that was on the phone with me called the cops because she thought I got hit by a car." Coppin was on antipsychotic and antidepressant drugs, but frequently stopped taking them.

Earlier on Monday, his mother asked a crisis team at Interfaith Hospital to help her, but when they came, Coppin had left. Denise Owens told the Daily News' Errol Lewis that she thinks her son would be alive if the psych team had stayed an extra five minutes when Coppin returned. And Coppin's brother Joel told Louis, "The fact that the cops are putting their spin on it is unfortunate. They're putting words in the mouth of my mother, our family. It's almost like they're saying his mother sentenced him to death is how we feel."

The shooting is being investigated by the police department as well the Brooklyn District Attorney's office. Protesters marched outside the 79th Precinct in Brooklyn yesterday, demanding justice. One, Calvin Hunt, said, "Our boys are dying in the streets, its no time for calm. You can't think you can just come and gun us down. We'll be here every day."

The NY Times and Daily News have graphics showing the shooting and events. And this fatal police shooting comes almost a year after Sean Bell, an unarmed man, was killed by police gunfire on the eve of his wedding. Other emotionally disturbed people fatally shot by the police include Gidone Bush back in 1999 (he was holding a claw hammer when he was shot at 12 times and hit three 3 times by four police officers) and Anatoly Dmitriev late last year (he was threatening the police with an ax).

Top photograph of a sign held at a candlelight vigil for Coppin by Gary He/AP; photograph of Coppin's passport photo (the passport expired 2006; it's unclear when the photo was taken)

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Jen Chung

Jen Chung is a former WNYC and Gothamist editor.

Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations

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