FAYETTEVILLE — Two Fayetteville police officers have been cleared by the Washington County prosecutor after inadvertently shooting a homicide victim in the head last month.
According to the review, one of the bullets was "originally on a non-lethal path (to the victim) but was deflected by a metal spring in thesofa and then by the wooden sofa frame, causing it to strike the victim's head."
The findings came from an external investigation conducted by the Washington County Sheriff's Office and released by the Washington County prosecutor's office on Tuesday. The report was not released until Washington County Prosecutor John Threet completed his final review. The Sheriff's Office turned the report over to Threet last week.
"The purpose of my review is to seeif there were any criminal actions on part of the police," he said. "My conclusion is that I think they chose the only option they had."
In his review, Threet concluded that Cpl. Chris Scherrey and Officer Ken Willyard were justified in using physical force when one of them accidentally shot 26-year-old Jill Ulmer in the head on June 26. The officers' use of force was directed at 41-year-old Ricky Anderson, who was allegedly stabbing Ulmer at the time of their arrival. Ulmer was less than 12weeks pregnant with Anderson's baby when she died in her Fayetteville apartment, according to the state medical examiner.
Anderson, who sustained no injuries in the incident, was taken into custody and transported to the Washington County Detention Center, where he was being held without bond Tuesday.
He pleaded not guilty to acapital murder charge during his arraignment Monday. Threet said Monday he has not decided if he will pursue the death penalty. If convicted, the only other option is life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Anderson is currently slated to appear in Washington County Circuit Court on Sept. 25.
The review
"The officers responded to this call in a professional manner and maintained control under very extreme conditions as they attempted to stop the stabbing of Jill Ulmer," the report states. "Less-lethal force was first used in an effort to stop the assault, and then officers used deadly force. Jill Ulmer being struck in the head by a police projectile was an unfortunate event in this incident, but the officers were using appropriate and reasonable force at the time and the deflection of the bullet could not have been predicted with the conditions they were facing."
Preliminary findings issued by the State Medical Examiner's Office indicate that Ulmer's death was caused by the 25-30 stab wounds found all over her body and a .40-caliber bullet wound to the head. While the gunshot wound was fatal, so was a knife wound that severed a major artery in Ulmer's abdomen. State medical examiner reports reveal that Ulmer would have died within minutes, even if she hadn't been shot by police.
"It's just an unfortunate situation for everyone involved," Fayetteville Police Chief Greg Tabor said. "I believe the officers followed their training and did what they had to do to stop the attack."
The Fayetteville Police Department's policy states that an officer may use deadly force to protect himself or others if he has "reasonable belief of immediate threat of death or serious physical injury."
An internal Police Department investigation revealed that both officers did not attempt to use deadly force until they realized Anderson was armed with a knife and repeatedly stabbing Ulmer. The report confirmed that both officers had no other options in their attempts to stop Anderson's assault.
The findings further revealed that the bullet firedby police "tumbled in" before striking Ulmer, confirming that it struck something else prior to hitting the victim.
A trajectory analysis showed that both officers fired their bullets over or through the top part of the couch.
Attempts by the Arkansas Crime Lab to determine which officer's bullet struck Ulmer were inconclusive.
Tabor said he wasn't surprised by the findings of the external investigation, which was completed by Washington County Crime Scene Investigator Chuck Rexford and Maj. Rick Hoyt.
"It's pretty much what I expected," he said.
Arkansas law states that "a person is justified in using deadly physical force on another person if the person reasonably believes that the other person is: committing or about to commit a felony involving force or violence; using or about to use unlawful deadly physical force; or imminently endangering the person's life or imminently about to victimize the person from the continuation of a pattern of domestic abuse."
Only a portion of the external review was released Tuesday, pending Anderson's trial.
"The rest of it is intertwined with the investigation and the details with the crime itself," Threet said. "I'm not allowed to go into those with a pending trial."
The incident
Scherrey and Willyard responded to the Rasberry Place Apartments, 2182 Leverett Ave., Apt. 15, at about 10:30 p.m. June 26 after receiving a 911 call from Ulmer, who stated that Anderson was standing in her parking lot - a violation of his protection order.
Upon their arrival, police reported hearing screams coming from Ulmer's apartment, but the door was locked. After breaking out a window, officers saw Anderson's head "bobbing up and down" from behind a couch.
Both Scherrey and Willyard initially thought Anderson was punching Ulmer, at which point they drew their Tasers simultaneously.
According to the internal investigation, Scherrey deployed his Taser in an attempt to stop the assault, but the deployment was unsuccessful.
Both officers drew their service weapons and began firing upon realizing that the victim was being stabbed rather than punched.
Police fired a total of nine rounds, until they saw Anderson roll away from his original position, the report stated. Officers covered one another as they entered Ulmer's apartment through the broken window. Upon making full entry, they discovered Anderson sitting beside Ulmer's body with a knife lying nearby.
Ulmer was pronounced dead at the scene by Central Emergency Medical Service personnel.
According to police, Ulmer obtained a protective order against Anderson after telling friends she was pregnant with his baby.
Anderson was arrested earlier in June for violating that order. He also spent 13 days in jail for allegedly destroying $1,600 in electronics and personal items in Ulmer's apartment, which they used to share.
Violation of a protection order is classified as a misdemeanor offense the first two times, meaning suspects can bond out of jail. After that, it becomes a felony.
The State Medical Examiner's Office confirmed that Ulmer was less than 12 weeks pregnant at the time of her death.
Threet said if a fetus is older than 12 weeks, a second murder charge can be pursued in Arkansas. Younger than 12 weeks, it cannot.
The officers
Scherrey and Willyard were placed on routine administrative leave after the shooting, but returned to normal duty after being cleared by the internal investigation conducted by the Fayetteville Police Department several weeks ago.
Willyard and Scherrey underwent critical incident debriefing before returning to work earlier this month.
"It consists of a group of people related to all aspects of critical incident response and police shootings," Tabor said. "It includes law enforcement who've been through the same thing and people trained in critical response. Based on their recommendations, we may provide additional counseling."
Scherrey and Willyard, who've both been with the Fayetteville Police Department for several years, haven't been involved in any officer-related shootings prior to Ulmer's homicide, which marked the third officer-involved shooting in Fayetteville since 2004.
All five officers involved in the last two shootings were cleared of any wrongdoing by both an internal and external investigation.
News, Pages 1, 3 on 07/29/2009