Ohio officer acquitted in fatal drug-raid shooting

The officer shot and killed a woman and injured her year-old son.

LIMA, Ohio (AP) — A white police officer was acquitted Monday in the drug-raid shooting death of an unarmed black woman that set off protests about how police treat minorities in a city where one in four residents is black.

The all-white jury found Sgt. Joseph Chavalia not guilty on misdemeanor charges of negligent homicide and negligent assault. He had faced up to eight months in jail if convicted of both counts.

Chavalia shot 26-year-old Tarika Wilson and her year-old son she was holding, killing her and hitting him in the shoulder and hand, during a SWAT raid on her house on Jan. 4. One of the child’s fingers had to be amputated.

Officers had been looking for Wilson’s boyfriend, a suspected drug dealer.

Wilson’s family members stormed out of the Allen County Common Pleas courtroom before visiting Judge Richard Knepper finished dismissing the jury.

“I need out of here,” one woman said.

Chavalia left the courthouse with his family, declining to comment to reporters. Juror also left the court without commenting, escorted by sheriff’s deputies.

Prosecutors said Chavalia recklessly fired three shots into a bedroom where Wilson and her six children were gathered, even though he could not clearly see her or whether she had a weapon.

“He couldn’t tell Tarika had a child in her arms,” Prosecutor Jeffrey Strausbaugh said during closing arguments Monday.

Chavalia, an officer for 32 years, had testified that he thought his life was in danger when he fired the shots. He said he saw a shadow coming from behind the partially open bedroom door and heard gunshots that he thought were aimed at him. The gunfire he heard was coming from downstairs, where officers shot two charging pit bulls.

Attorneys on both sides finished their closing arguments earlier Monday. The jury deliberated about three hours.

Outside the courthouse, a woman holding a sign that said “police accountability now” shouted at drivers.

“Who’s gonna be next in the war on drugs?” shouted Maria Williams, a friend of Wilson’s family. “It’s a sad day. Tell me how it’s justified to kill an innocent mother with a baby in her arms.”

Wilson’s brother, Ivory Austin, shouted across the street at Lima Police Chief Greg Garlock.

“Garlock, your boy got off,” he said.

Austin said justice was not served. “Now he [Chavalia] gets to get back on with his life,” he said. “He took my sister’s life.”

He said he wasn’t surprised by the verdict but was hoping someone from the police department would at least admit a mistake was made.

“I’m not saying he went up there to kill her,” he said.

Garlock said in an interview later Monday that the jury made the right decision and that the police department will try to return to community policing practices it initiated with federal funding in the mid-1990s.

“Ultimately, we’re realizing the impact this has had on our community, knowing that we’ve got a lot of issues out there, perceptions of the police department and how it works, and we’re challenged to work on that,” he said.

A month after the shooting, the Rev. Jesse Jackson visited the city and demanded that the officer who fired the fatal shots and those who planned the raid be held accountable.

Chavalia was the only one charged.

Local black clergy leaders were upset that the two misdemeanor charges were not more severe, and dozens of people accused the police department of being hostile and abusive toward minorities. One group led a series of marches through the city to protest what they said was mistreatment by police.

Arnold Manley, pastor of Pilgrim Rescue Missionary Baptist Church, said he and other black clergy leaders have been trying to work with police and city officials since the shooting. But he wonders whether that will continue.

“I’m hurting deeply,” he said. “The message I got out of all this is that it’s OK for police to go and kill in a drug raid,” he said.

Defense attorney Bill Kluge told jurors Monday that Chavalia should not be judged on what wasn’t known until after shooting, including that Wilson did not have a gun or pose a threat.

“We tried to explain why Joe used deadly force that night,” Kluge said inside the courtroom after the verdict was announced.

Kluge said Chavalia didn’t intend to kill anyone, and he hoped the verdict would bring peace to the community.

Jason Upthegrove, president of the Lima National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, said he was sickened but not surprised by the verdict and he hopes it won’t reflect poorly on the city.

“It’s another example that there’s very low value on black lives in this community,” he said.

Tarika Wilson’s boyfriend, Anthony Terry, was arrested in the raid and pleaded guilty in March to charges of drug trafficking.