Mark Lungariello

mlungariel@lohud.com

Westchester County police are facing questions about possible inflammatory statements made at an academy training session that included an officer involved in the fatal shooting of an off-duty cop nine years ago.

County Officer Christian Gutierrez, one of four officers involved in the shooting of Mount Vernon Officer Christopher Ridley in 2008, spoke to 48 cadets at the county police academy on Dec. 27.

Weeks after the training, allegations emerged from Mount Vernon police who said Gutierrez had belittled Ridley’s acumen as an officer during his presentation. County police deny the allegation, and said they haven’t received a direct complaint from any of the recruits.

County Legislator Lyndon Williams, a Democrat whose district includes Mount Vernon, said he is still pushing for answers after Westchester police leadership went on the defensive during a legislative meeting last week.

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“I’m trying to make sure that the complaint that was made to us was properly investigated and that we would be able to get information from the commissioner as to what his findings were,” Williams told The Journal News/lohud. “My inquiry was clearly on questions that were raised by my constituents, and I think that I have a right to ask them.”

The Ridley shooting

Ridley, who was black, was killed while off-duty in White Plains on Jan. 25, 2008. Ridley had seen a man beating up another man, went into the county's Michaelian Office Building to summon help and then caught up with the suspect on Court Street. Ridley and the suspect scuffled, and the officer’s gun accidentally went off and fell to the ground. Four county police officers arrived as the fight continued, and Ridley retrieved his gun. Of the four responding officers, one is white, one is black and two, including Gutierrez, are Hispanic.

A majority of witnesses said Ridley, who was in plainclothes, was shot after he didn’t identify himself as an officer and didn’t drop his gun as the county police ordered him. A grand jury declined to charge the officers, and a federal jury found them not liable in the family's lawsuit.

Gutierrez had served as a platoon leader at the police academy, and Ridley was among his cadets. The officer was accused of discussing how Ridley was as a recruit, a January report from Mount Vernon Detective Michael Plunkett said. According to Plunkett’s report, “a number of recruits” informed him that the presentation seemed disrespectful to Ridley.

A Jan. 13 letter from Mount Vernon Lt. Richton Ziadie to Capt. Edward Adinaro said that the lieutenant had heard and read accounts of the training and recommended that Gutierrez's behavior is addressed. Ziadie wrote he thought it’d be wise “not to include this incident as an instrument in this block of training with Mount Vernon recruits, as the majority are Mount Vernon residents who may have close relation to this incident.”

Ridley was posthumously promoted to detective.

The Mount Vernon police union didn’t respond to an email seeking comment.

Damon Jones, publisher of the site Black Westchester and New York representative of the group Blacks in Law Enforcement, has said the incident brings up a question as to what the county has done to improve training. After Ridley’s death, a county panel issued a report on use of force training at the police academy. That report came in 2010 and was followed by a state report by a Task Force on Police-on-Police shootings. Ten of 14 officers killed in police-on-police incidents in the 15 years before the report were people of color.

“The bottom line is if everybody did everything right that day, Christopher would be alive, today,” he said. “They wouldn’t have had to have a review if everybody did everything right and that’s the key.”

READ: State task force report on police-on-police shootings

READ: County panel's 2009 report on use-of-force training

County response

George Longworth, the commissioner of the Department of Public Safety, said Gutierrez took part in the training to help prevent future incidents. It was the third time he participated in the training, Longworth said at the legislative Public Safety and Social Services Committee meeting on Feb. 7

The commissioner, who took his position after the Ridley shooting, said Gutierrez “unequivocally denies” the alleged negative comments, and that a sergeant in the room for most of the training didn’t hear anything deemed offensive. Academy staff reached out to training officers from several departments where the recruits ended up after they graduated Dec. 16, and none of the officers identified recruits who felt disrespected by the training.

“It’s like we’re shadowboxing here, I’m fighting an argument here (that) I’m not even sure if the underlying incident occurred,” Longworth said.

Earlier in the meeting, he read from prepared statements and said Gutierrez wouldn’t participate in the training going forward, “not because he doesn’t want to but because I will not subject him to being disparaged in the way that he has been during this situation.”

Some recommendations from the report were adopted by Longworth and his predecessor, he said, while others were not. In the state task force report, Westchester was noted as a potential model for confrontation training that included role playing by every recruit to play both the challenging and confronting officers.

Inquiry may continue

As of this week, there had been no former recruits who had reached out to the county police department, according to a department spokesman. The commissioner declined further comment beyond his statements at the meeting.

But Legislator Williams said he had forwarded the documentation from the Mount Vernon police on the training that he believes may be sufficient to warrant a more in-depth look at the concerns. Williams said during the discussion he has focused on calling Ridley a hero.

“Regardless of how the circumstances eventually ended up, one cannot question his motivation of trying to save a county resident’s life, who he perceived was in danger,” he said. “I don’t think we can ever overemphasize that for any officer who’s trying to keep the peace and trying to protect residents.”

Twitter: @marklungariello