Fatal shooting of double amputee sparks call for reforms at HPD

John Garcia owns the personal care home where a wheelchair-bound man was fatally shot by Houston police. John Garcia owns the personal care home where a wheelchair-bound man was fatally shot by Houston police. Photo: Cody Duty Photo: Cody Duty Image 1 of / 1 Caption Close Fatal shooting of double amputee sparks call for reforms at HPD 1 / 1 Back to Gallery

Advocates are calling for better training and more discipline after a Houston police officer fatally shot a mentally ill double-amputee in a wheelchair on Saturday, the third unarmed person police have shot in less than three months.

Matthew Marin, a five-year HPD veteran, shot and killed Brian Claunch at a personal care home at 4309 Polk. Houston Police Department officials stated that Marin - who fatally shot another suspect in 2009 - felt he and his partner were threatened by Claunch, who was waving a silver pen.

Claunch was wheelchair-bound after losing his lower right leg and all of his right arm after being hit by a train.

Police were called to the East End personal care home around 2 a.m. after Claunch became agitated because his caretaker refused to give him a soda and a cigarette. Authorities said Claunch was waving a silver pen, stabbing at the two officers, trapping one in a corner. Officers said the man ignored their commands and threatened them and the occupants of the home before Marin shot him.

"How difficult is it, if nothing else, to get away from someone in a wheelchair who has no weapon, has only one arm and one good leg?" asked Arlene Kelly, co-founder of Civilians Down, a support group for victims of police violence that tracks misconduct. "It's totally and completely needless. Those officers should have had that matter well in hand. The gun should have never been out of the holster."

The incident - as well as two other recent shootings - point to a lack of training, a need for a better vetting process for hiring officers and a lack of discipline, Kelly said.

Recent cases

On Sept. 16, an unarmed 26-year-old man was shot in the leg by police officers on Beechnut after he reached for a cellphone on his waistband that officers believed was a gun. Investigators learned that the man had a history of mental illness and had attempted suicide several times, including an attempt just a few months ago.

On July 9, Rufino Lara, 54, an illegal immigrant from El Salvador, was fatally shot by an HPD officer who reported that Lara ignored repeated commands to stop and show his hands. The officer said Lara had his hand in his waistband, and when he whirled to face her, she shot him, believing he could have had a weapon.

A search showed Lara had a beer can concealed in his waistband. Activists are suspicious because two witnesses contend Lara had his hands up against a wall before he turned to face the officer.

In the first seven months of 2012 compared to the same period last year, officer-involved shootings have almost doubled. As of July 25, Houston police were involved in 14 shootings with suspects, killing seven, on pace to exceed the 21 incidents last year by the police in which nine persons were killed.

Harris County District Attorney Pat Lykos told the Houston Chronicle in July that most of the shootings this year stemmed from suspects who threatened or evaded police.

Texas law mandates that officers receive 16 hours of crisis training, although Houston and some other departments provide additional instruction. Lt. Mike Lee, who oversees HPD's mental health services, told the Chronicle recently that the department teaches officers to talk in a calm voice and not to get close to or touch individuals.

The Houston Police Department teams officers with mental health clinicians, provides crisis intervention team training for officers and gives expedited care for mentally troubled individuals. Since the 1980s, agencies around the country have devised such strategies to defuse potentially violent situations.

Another fatal shooting

HPD spokeswoman Jodi Silva said she did not know whether Marin had a Taser or another weapon to help defuse the situation. She said she did not have access to his records, so she did not know whether he had completed crisis intervention training.

Reports show that Marin, 29, fatally shot a knife-wielding man in October 2009. That suspect had killed a neighbor and injured his girlfriend when Marin fired at him.

Marin also was involved in a controversial 2008 case of an alleged assault of the father of Green Bay Packer Donald Driver. Marin and two other officers were cleared by an internal investigation and later filed a defamation lawsuit against Quanell X and Marvin Driver Jr. A Harris County grand jury declined to indict Driver on a charge of filing a false report after he accused three police officers of beating him during a traffic stop.

As is standard practice with officer-involved shootings, Marin, who is assigned to the South Central Patrol Division, will work three days of desk duty.

When a Houston officer is involved in a shooting, it is investigated by HPD's homicide division as well as the internal affairs unit. Their findings are handed over the to Harris County District Attorney's Office, which presents the case to the grand jury.

No police officer in Harris County has been charged in a shooting since the prosecution of Sgt. Jeffrey Cotton, who was acquitted by a jury in May 2010 for shooting an unarmed man outside the victim's Bellaire home.

Randall Kallinen, a Houston civil rights attorney, said an uptick in officer-involved shootings points to the need for more discipline and better training, particularly in crisis intervention team training to manage mentally ill and erratic people.

"It doesn't appear that the shootings are taken very seriously to avoid liability," Kallinen said. "Discipline actually works quite well."

erin.mulvaney@chron.com