Witness to shooting still disputes official version

WINDOW ROCK, Oct. 30, 2008

I t's been two years since former Rock Point council Delegate Johnny Descheny witnessed the shooting of 21-year-old Clint John of Kirtland, N.M., by Farmington police officer Shawn Scott.

And for Descheny, the memory is like a festering wound, still painful to the touch.

As he recalled that day in June 2006 in a telephone interview Tuesday from Chinle, his voice transitioned between frustration, disbelief, anger, fear, and deep sadness.

"To see it happen in front of (me) and my family. And to see it happen in front of his family. He didn't deserve to die," he said.

Descheny stopped for a moment, then continued. "I didn't think it was right. He had all the room to back away. He could have put him to the ground."

"He" was Officer Scott, of whom Descheny says he had a clear view as the incident unfolded.

Scott, he maintains, had a choice. He could have stopped John without killing him.

The incident was investigated by the San Juan Sheriff's Department, where Scott had worked at one time. According to the sheriff's official summary, the San Juan County Communication Center received two 911 calls at 4:20 p.m. on June 10, 2006, a Saturday.

The two callers, a female and a male, reported that an Indian man was assaulting a woman in the Wal-Mart parking lot and said it looked like a domestic violence situation.

Scott was dispatched to Wal-Mart and arrived about four minutes later. The male witness met Scott and pointed out a green GMC truck. Scott parked about 20 feet from the truck.

John, Lynn Negale and their 4-year-old daughter Mikayla were at Wal-Mart to shop for items to celebrate the child's birthday, which was the next day.

According to the sheriff's department, the couple finished shopping and returned to the truck where John became "enraged" and began beating Negale with "closed fists...she sustained bruising and swelling on her head, left eye, lip, and body."

Negale testified that their child witnessed everything.

According to the sheriff's account, Scott started hitting John with his police baton when the latter refused to place his hands on the truck, and the two started wrestling for control.

John knocked Scott off balance and both men fell to the ground. John took the baton away from Scott, who "jumped backwards and drew his firearm," according to the sheriff's summary.

Scott then ordered John to drop the baton and John stated, "What are you going to do, shoot me? Go ahead, shoot me."

As John moved towards Scott, Scott shot John four times, the sheriff's summary said.

In her sworn testimony, Negale stated that after Scott shot John in the head and John fell to the ground, she and Mikayla started to run to John but stopped when Scott pointed his gun at them and ordered them to stay away.

About 50 seconds later, a backup officer arrived and John was transported to the emergency room by ambulance, where he was pronounced dead on arrival.

Rage, not fear

But according to Descheny, who gave a statement to the Farmington Police Department about an hour after the shooting and to attorneys representing the John family and the city of Farmington, it didn't happen as the official account goes.

Descheny said Scott returned to his car after disengaging from John, and was "visibly enraged" when he shot John three times in the upper body. Descheny also said Scott paused before shooting John in the head.

The John family maintained that Scott did not have to kill Clint John, that he could have stopped him without lethal force.

In July 2007, the family filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Scott, former Farmington police chief Mike Burridge and the city of Farmington in federal court.

Attorneys for the family and the city subsequently began settlement negotiations on the complaint, and an agreement was presented to the Farmington City Council in executive session Tuesday.

However, back in open session, the council did not act on the settlement, meaning the case will proceed to trial, which is scheduled to start Nov. 17.

Descheny said the Farmington police officer appeared to be enraged because he'd been "humiliated" by John, who got the best of Scott despite repeated blows from Scott's police baton.

Scott, in an interview with the San Juan Sheriff's Department two days after the shooting, said John "scared" him "because the male is a big person and outweighs him," the sheriff's summary said.

Descheny said Scott "staggered" backward after John pushed him away and then turned and walked to his police vehicle, where he reached inside for something.

Descheny said he couldn't see what the officer was doing but he thought Scott was getting a Taser or Mace.

Scott's statement does not explain why he went to his police vehicle or what he did there.

Meanwhile, Descheny said, John started walking towards Scott, who was now standing by his police vehicle with his gun pointed at John.

Scott reported that that he shot John because he was "afraid he could get hit in the head with the baton."

Descheny said he did not see a police baton in John's hand.

Procedure ignored

According to the family's lawsuit, Farmington police Chief James Runnels testified that Scott had been trained to wait for backup before approaching a potentially dangerous scene, particularly where no crime is in progress upon arrival.

Scott, in a sworn statement to John's attorneys, testified that that there was no time to wait for backup because it was a "volatile situation."

But according to his testimony, when Scott arrived at the scene he did not witness an assault in progress. What he saw was a woman sitting in the passenger seat of a truck and a man standing next to her.

The lawsuit also states that Farmington police procedures require officers to activate the dashboard cameras in their patrol units and the personal voice recorders that they carry on their belts.

Scott testified that these were not on because he did not turn on his siren or emergency lights, which would have automatically activated the camera and voice recorder. Both can also be activated manually by controls on the officer's belt, according to the police.

During the sheriff's investigation into John's death, Scott was placed on paid administrative leave but returned to work July 10, 2006, after the district attorney decided that it was a justifiable homicide.

Farmington Police Chief Jim Runnels did not answer questions about whether his department conducted an internal investigation of the John shooting.

According to Runnels, the most recent use of a firearm by one of his officers was on July 3, when an officer inflicted a non-lethal wound on a suspect armed with a gun.

Runnels said that after the officer ordered the suspect to drop the gun and the suspect refused, the officer shot him in the leg and then was able to arrest him.

Mike Burridge, who was Farmington's police chief when John was killed, has since relocated to Georgia and did not return telephone messages from the Navajo Times.

Burridge, who unexpectedly resigned six months after John's death, fully supported Scott's exoneration by the district attorney and said at the time that an internal police department investigation of the shooting would be conducted.

On Wednesday, Runnels said Scott was promoted to sergeant two years ago. Runnels could not recall the exact date that Scott was promoted.

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