The IU Police Department has completed an internal investigation of officer conduct and response to the incident outside the School of Health, Physical Education and Recreation on the morning of Sept. 18 after a dance at the Indiana Memorial Union. It concluded that officers responded appropriately and within IUPD training procedures. The report recommended no disciplinary action or change in policy for IUPD. The Indiana Daily Student met with IUPD officials to discuss their findings on the investigation. \nUnless otherwise noted, all information was provided by IUPD Capt. Keith Cash and reflects the IUPD's view of what happened during the incident. \nAccording to police reports, IUPD responded to a tip that a group gathered outside the HPER after an Alpha Phi Alpha dance possessed "an SKS and automatic weapons." Officers handcuffed four suspects and released them. While no weapons were found, outside the IMU, witnesses at 14th Street and Indiana Avenue reported people firing off weapons one hour following the breakup of the dance.\nIUPD's response at the IMU sparked controversy in some black organizations, such as the Black Student Union and the National Panhellenic Council. Student reactions prompted an internal investigation by Cash over claims that IUPD responded inappropriately and might have exhibited some degree of racial profiling. Four complaints were filed with the department, but only two people have followed up on their complaints. \nMeanwhile, several IUPD detectives continue to investigate the case of who shot firearms at 14th and Indiana, and then fled in at least three vehicles. \nThis much is known: Alpha Phi Alpha played host to a dance at the IMU, which ended abruptly, about half an hour before it was scheduled to end. There were four IUPD officers patrolling the dance, which is normal in keeping with IMU dance policies, Cash said. Four people were removed from the dance at the request of the sponsors. The people removed, Cash said, were cited by the sponsors as people who had caused trouble in the past. \n
WHY WERE THERE SO MANY OFFICERS AT THE IMU?
\nAs people were told to leave the dance, two officers were shoved by attendees. One person shoved an officer, and as another officer went to help him, he was shoved as well. Uncertain with how the crowd was starting to respond, officers radioed for assistance, Cash said.\n"At this point we're just saying, 'It's over. Please leave. The sponsoring organization says it's over.' That's all," Cash said. \nMeanwhile, some people were lingering behind, while some were still waiting in line, trying to get in, Cash said. \n"From a police officer's point of view, if that's the crowd's response, that's not a good response," Cash said. \nThe radio broadcast is difficult to hear, garbled by the noise of the crowd, Cash said. This might have caused confusion and likely explains why a simple request to assist with breaking up a dance caused such a widespread response, Cash said. \n"There's so much crowd noise, and sometimes you can't really tell what (the officers are) saying. They just want other officers to respond. Other officers don't know exactly what's going on, they're responding from their other locations. So that automatically puts more officers at the IMU," Cash said. \n
WHY DID OFFICERS DRAW THEIR GUNS ON A GROUP OF SIX PEOPLE?
\nAs officers arrived, some positioned themselves at the north and south sides of the IMU, the two main places where people would be leaving, Cash said.\nOfficer Douglas Wietlisbach, already stationed near the HPER parking lot, noticed three men who looked like they were about to fight, Cash said. Wietlisbach radioed that information to the station.\n"So now we've got officers responding towards the HPER parking lot. One of those officers, Officer (Collin) Whitesell, as he's nearing where he thinks this fight's taking place, a young man comes up to him and says 'Those men have automatic weapons. They have an assault rifle,'" Cash said, adding that Whitesell was approached near the parking hut that sits in the middle of Seventh Street, between the IMU and the HPER. \nThe informant was pointing at a group of four to six people. One of them had a white shirt with a "25" on it. Whitesell asked if he was talking about the group that contained the guy with the "25" on his shirt, and the informant said "yes," Cash said. This was a different group than the three people Wietlisbach had seen in a verbal altercation.\n"As the officer's getting this information, there are other officers almost on top of the group he's just been told might have a gun," Cash said. "He needs to go tell his officers, 'look, I just got information these people have automatic weapons.'"\nThat's when the officers went into STOPS, or Strategies and Tactics of Patrol Stops. The STOPS procedure is used by officers to gain control of a person who might have a weapon or pose some sort of risk to those in the area, Cash said.\nIdeally, two officers should be on one person with a weapon. \n"It doesn't always work out that way, but if you have the luxury of this many officers, it can work out that way. If you have too many officers it can be confusion," Cash said.\nUsing the STOPS procedure, officers draw their weapons and tell the suspect to put his or her hands up. Then officers put the suspect in a cuffing position.\nOne officer, called the "command officer," gives the commands and cuffs the person, while the other officer called the "cover officer" holds his firearm on the person. \n"That's textbook. Now put yourself out here," Cash said. "In this scenario, we got all the officers that have responded. We've got the crowd, and we've got people now running back from the HPER towards the IMU with someone screaming 'They've got a gun.'"\nCash said there were probably several hundred people in clusters moving around the area at the time. He described the scene as "chaotic." \nSome of the chaos spawned when the people in the parking lot began running because they believed someone in the group had a gun, Cash said.\n"Even the people we stopped said they believed there was a gun, too. It just wasn't them. Unfortunately, we didn't know that at the time," Cash said. \nThe group of six people, two female and four male, were trying to exit the scene after the dance ended. Four of those people were handcuffed. \nPolice searched them, and they did not have weapons. \nIUPD Lt. Steve Fiscus said the informant has been interviewed twice, and he is not an IU student. \n"What's interesting is that he does know the people or some of the people he pointed out to us," Cash said. \nCash said there were at least 12 officers initially surrounding the six people. As more officers arrived, they drew their weapons but then realized they could be of more help elsewhere. \n"As they arrived, they'd assess the situation. When they saw there were enough officers, they'd put their (guns) away, and they'd go do another detail -- like a crowd was starting to gather so they'd move to the perimeter of the crowd," Cash said. \nCash said 19 officers on the scene could be accounted for. There were six officers responding as cover, four were handcuffing people, two were giving commands, two supervised, four assisted with crowd control and one responded to a medical call.\nThe connection between the HPER incident and the 14th Street and Indiana Avenue shooting appears to be mostly the mention of an SKS assault rifle at the HPER when the informant alerted police that people had an automatic weapon. \nFiscus, who has been investigating the 14th Street and Indiana Avenue shooting, said beyond the SKS shell found at 14th and Indiana, there was no concrete evidence connecting the perpetrators to the people leaving the dance outside the HPER building. Although descriptions of people were vague, there seemed to be about 30 people walking together when two almost got into a fight. \n"There seemed to be a little bit of friction between two people in the street that dissipated quickly. A couple of people walked back to their cars, pulled out their guns and ripped off the round in the air, got in their cars and took off. That's about the extend of what happened at 14th and Indiana," Fiscus said. \nFrom witness testimony and interviews, Fiscus and his fellow investigators are working to try to track down what they believe are three cars that belong to the perpetrators. \n"We've got some good descriptions of vehicles we haven't found on campus," Fiscus said. "And it will continue to be an ongoing investigation as time allows through the year until we can either ascertain who belongs to the vehicles, or they never come back to the University. Either way it's a win-win situation."\nEric Love, adviser to the IU Black Student Union, and Oyibo Afoaku, director of the Neal-Marshall Black Culture Center, will be meeting with Cash and Police Chief Michael Hanson later today to discuss the case. \nLove said, despite some skepticism, he would try to keep an open mind. \n"I'm not sure if any precipitating action can really justify some of the behavior of the police," he said. "I do think it was excessive, but I'm learning more about everything that happens, like everybody else."\nLove said he was optimistic about the meeting. \n"I don't think IUPD is out to destroy the educational experience of African American students," Love said. "I'm hoping that when we meet we'll get to know each other and work together to make this a great place for students and a safe place to go to school."\nCharlie Nelms, IU vice president for institutional development and student affairs, and Courtney Williams, president of the BSU, declined to comment on Cash's internal investigation.
