Esteban Parra

The News Journal

The family of Jeremy "Bam" McDole, who was fatally shot in 2015 by four Wilmington police officers as he sat in a wheelchair, are "guardedly optimistic" that city police are moving to adopt a comprehensive use-of-force policy that trains officers in de-escalation procedures.

McDole's sister Keandra, grandmother Janie and retired federal Judge Joseph J. Farnan Jr., who mediated a settlement between the family and the city, met for about an hour Tuesday with Police Chief Bobby Cummings to discuss the status of the use-of-force policies and to consider the family's suggestions. Following the meeting, Thomas S. Neuberger, one of the McDoles' attorneys, recounted portions of the meeting.

This included how Wilmington police will annually undergo at least 6½ hours of training in how to deal with mental health encounters, the use of force and de-escalation.

The change in policy is part of a $1.5 million settlement between the McDoles and the city. In addition to the money, the agreement called for updating police training and improving the department's use-of-force policy to be more in line with Seattle's, which addresses de-escalation procedures.

"It appears that Jeremy McDole will not have died in vain," said Neuberger, adding that the time Wilmington officers will be required to train surpasses nearby New Jersey, which had its more than 400 departments undergo five hours of annual training in de-escalation in the use of force.

"It appears that the Wilmington Police Department is promising to top that," he said.

John Rago, Wilmington Mayor Mike Purzycki's deputy chief of staff for policy and communications, said city officials would not release the plan until they complete its review. But once they finish, the policy will be made public. He expected that to be in the "near future."

While the policy is not complete, Rago said portions of the plan are already being used by the department, including training of all police officers.

Last month, city officials said the 18 graduates of the 97th Police Academy had focused on community-based service and the de-escalation of tense situations.

The city's – and Delaware's – use-of-force policy was criticized in a report by state Attorney General Matt Denn in reviewing McDole's Sept. 23, 2015, fatal shooting by Wilmington Senior Cpl. Joseph Dellose, Senior Cpl. Danny Silva, Cpl. Thomas Lynch and Cpl. James MacColl.

In Delaware, a police officer doesn't have to prove the use of deadly force was "actually necessary to protect the officer against death or serious physical injury," according to Denn's report in May. "All (the officer) must show is that he believed that to be the case at the time that he used deadly force, whether that belief was reasonable or unreasonable."

Denn called for reforms to Wilmington Police Department training procedures, noting that there were "serious deficiencies" in how officers are prepared to handle such crisis situations. He also suggested Wilmington review use-of-force policies that had been adopted by Seattle and Cleveland police departments.

Last year, a Seattle Police Department's Crisis Intervention Program report showed arrests and use-of-force to be a rare occurrence when officers dealt with persons in crisis, using force in less than 2 percent of the approximately 9,300 crisis responses in the city from 2014 to 2015.

The new de-escalation policy should point out to police the kinds of examples they should perform such as taking cover, standing back, waiting for other officers to arrive or using a beanbag gun rather than a shotgun. Neuberger said the new standard will mean that a reasonable person will have to agree that the officer was entitled to use force.

"These rules and regulations don't tie the hands of the police," he said. "Nobody is asking for them to be little wussies or anything else when there's drug dealers with submachine guns who just shot 10 people.

"But it's these other situations that we encounter all the time, you know a traffic stop, a little kid nonthreatening, a person going through a mental health crisis. Those are the situations that better training can only help protect members of the community."

In 2015, Wilmington officers responded to the 1800 block of Tulip St. after a person called 911 and told dispatchers that a man in a wheelchair had shot himself and had a gun in his hand. The subsequent police shooting was captured on cellphone video that showed 28-year-old McDole in a wheelchair rubbing his knees as Dellose and the three other officers moved in.

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Officers could be heard on the video screaming at McDole to drop his weapon.

Dellose fired at McDole with a shotgun approximately two seconds after initially ordering him to put his hands up, creating uncertainty among other officers who, not knowing where the gunfire came from, also turned their weapons on McDole, Denn's report found.

The report took the unusual step of singling out Dellose for "extraordinarily poor police work" during the incident. It also said Dellose should not be employed by the city police in any role where he would carry a firearm in public. Neither Dellose nor any of the officers were charged.

Neuberger hopes Wilmington's new policy becomes a standard the rest of the state will follow.

"While I haven't seen it, I will take my clients' recounting of the meeting today with the chief at face value and we very, very optimistic that perhaps here in Delaware, contrary of what's been happening in other part of the country, we will be turning a corner here and that minorities and the indigent poor among us will have greater protection with police encounters," he said.

Contact Esteban Parra at (302) 324-2299, eparra@delawareonline.com or Twitter @eparra3.