Third in a series

Alan Pean was experiencing a psychotic break with reality when two uniformed, off-duty Houston police officers entered his hospital room in August, armed with stun guns and service pistols.

Pean, unarmed and naked, allegedly attacked the officers with his hands and objects inside the room, according to a court record, before officer Roggie Law shot him with a stun gun and, when Pean continued to resist, officer Oscar Ortega fired a bullet into his chest. Pean survived the shooting.

In the aftermath of the confrontation, St. Joseph's Hospital faced an emergency inspection and the threat of losing all of its Medicare and Medicaid funding - action that would have shuttered the downtown Houston facility. In a report, inspectors for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services concluded that hospital employees - including the officers, working as paid security guards - were inadequately trained in crisis response, bungled Pean's case and endangered him and other vulnerable patients through flawed procedures and demanded immediate reforms.

The Houston Police Department reached different conclusions, charging the now 27-year-old Pean with two counts of aggravated assault with a "deadly weapon" the day after he was shot. The charges were dismissed by a grand jury in March for insufficient evidence. No charges were brought against either officer by a grand jury.

Newly obtained records and interviews now also show that HPD's Internal Affairs investigation and senior police officials quietly cleared the officers of any policy violations as part of a review that was never made public. They did so without interviewing Pean or requesting his medical records, the records and interviews show.

HPD spokesman Victor Senties confirmed that the department considered Pean's shooting to be "justified" and emphasized that all shootings are subjected to multiple levels of review.

"It is tragic anytime a police officer must discharge his weapon, particularly when any person is hurt or injured," he said.

Family questions probe

Kent Schaffer, Pean's defense attorney, said numerous questions surround the department's Internal Affairs investigation, in which neither Pean nor his parents, who were in the hospital before and immediately after the shooting, were interviewed. Schaffer also provided diagrams in the medical records that show the location of Pean's entry and exit bullet wounds, which he believes contradict Ortega's account of how he shot Pean. He and family members insist police were the aggressors.

"I think their goal the whole time was to clear the officers so why would they want to interview somebody that could negatively impact the investigation?" he asked.

The results of the Internal Affairs investigation have become public as the father of another mentally ill man shot and killed by Houston police is broadly challenging HPD's internal review process in federal court. The civil rights lawsuit has been filed by Audry L. Releford, a retired Houston school teacher, whose son, Kenny, was killed in 2012. He argues that HPD officials have established a custom of condoning the lethal use of force.

All intentional shootings by HPD officers involving injuries or deaths - more than 150 since 2010 - have been ruled justified.

The same homicide detective who took the lead in the Releford case was assigned three years later to investigate Pean's shooting, court records show. In both cases, HPD investigators concluded in hours that the mentally ill men shot by police were the aggressors.

Pean, a physician's son from McAllen, moved to Houston in August 2015 to study biology at the University of Houston. He was hospitalized overnight at St. Joseph's after a psychotic episode that involved hallucinations and a minor car accident that occurred when he tried to drive himself to the hospital. At one point, shortly after his parents had left his room to pick up a rental car, he removed his gown, ripped out his IV and danced naked in the hallways wearing only his sneakers.

A hospital staff member summoned the two off-duty HPD officers to the eighth floor.

Pean was inside his room when the officers arrived. They entered his room unannounced and unaccompanied by any medical staff member. They did not initially know Pean's name or about his condition.

The 5-foot, 8-inch Pean, who'd played football in high school, fought them both, officers later said, delivering blows to their heads and cutting them, according to statements the officers gave to other officers and attorneys. The Internal Affairs review was completed under former Chief Charles McClelland, who retired in February.

No mention of shooting

The HPD veterans had spent only minutes alone with Pean in the closed room. Law said he attempted to stun Pean, but the effort failed. When Pean continued to fight, Ortega said he was forced to shoot Pean once in the chest. Bleeding from the bullet's entry and exit wounds, Pean was then handcuffed face down on the floor by Law.

Ortega, described as injured and confused, crawled out to the hallway and radioed for assistance.

In his radio message, he did not mention shooting a patient.

Ortega remains assigned to Southeast Patrol; Law is assigned to Burglary & Theft. They declined comment through their attorney. Both have HPD-approved extra jobs at St. Joseph's, records show.

Police charged Pean with two counts of aggravated assault with a "deadly weapon" before taking statements from either of the two officers involved, the records show.

According to the Aug. 28 sworn criminal complaint, an unidentified officer alleged that Pean used his "hands," a "wall fixture," a tray table and a "piece of furniture" to attack the other officers. No photos of the alleged "weapons" were provided to Schaffer, Pean's defense attorney, after the shooting or in March, when a grand jury dropped the charges against Pean for insufficient evidence, Schaffer said in an interview.

Normally, HPD officers involved in shooting civilians are interviewed during walk throughs conducted by homicide investigators immediately afterward.

In this case, the officers were not interviewed until Aug. 31, four days after the shooting when Pean remained hospitalized. Their statements were delayed by the injuries they suffered. Ortega had been cut on the head, and both officers had been treated in the St. Joseph's emergency room.

In their statements, both officers said they were forced to protect themselves, according to their lawyer, Sally Ring. Their statements included a description of how Ortega said he was hit in the head by Pean and was both cut and bleeding before his partner stunned the patient at close range.

Ortega said that it was only after the stun darts failed to stop Pean that he drew his service weapon and shot up at Pean from the hip.

Confusing events

Medical records show the bullet entered the center of Pean's chest, only millimeters from his heart, and traveled downward and out Pean's side, leaving two large bullet wounds.

Schaffer said it seems physically impossible for Ortega to have shot up at Pean when the bullet traveled down through Pean's body.

Julian Ramirez, an assistant district attorney who oversees the Harris County District Attorney's Civil Rights Division, said Ortega's account is one "possible" way the shooting could have occurred based on information available to prosecutors.

But Ramirez said he could not comment on whether the medical records were obtained by the prosecution via the grand jury subpoena process, which is secret by law.

Pean's brother Christian, a recent medical school graduate who lives in New York state, said his brother and parents were never interviewed by police. The only question family was asked was whether Alan had a criminal record - the answer was no, he said. He has led a national online petition drive that has collected more than 1,000 signatures from medical professionals calling attention to his brother's shooting and the use of armed police as guards in hospitals.

After the shooting, when a medical resident rushed in on a Code Blue, both officers said Pean had assaulted them. Neither reported Pean had been shot, according to a report federal hospital investigators released. It was that young doctor who found blood on the floor and insisted the handcuffs be removed. Pean lost a third of his blood, but has since recovered.

Ring, the officers' attorney, said any inconsistencies in the officers' statements and their delays in summoning help for Pean and in reporting the deadly use-of-force could be explained by the fact that both suffered injuries and that the struggle, the stun attempt and the shooting occurred in a confusing and rapid sequence of events.

The Pean family and their attorney claim the Internal Affairs investigation was inadequate. They question how a department that claims to be a leader in crisis intervention can condone the officers' handling of Pean's in-hospital mental crisis. They question why the officers entered a hospital room with their uniforms and weapons with little knowledge of a patient who had been dancing naked but had threatened no one. And they question whether officers did their duty when they failed to properly and promptly report the use of deadly force.