Decision in St. Petersburg Riot Case Sparks New Violence

An officer was shot in the leg and police used tear gas to disperse small bands of angry youths Wednesday, hours after a grand jury ruled that a white police officer was justified in killing a black motorist whose death sparked a night of rioting.

“We’re trying to get control of this as quickly as we can,” police spokesman Bill Doniel said.

Officer Keith Glasgow, 39, was shot in the left leg after police responded to a report of gunfire in south St. Petersburg, a predominantly black section of the city rocked by rioting on Oct. 24, Doniel said.

“He’s doing fine,” Police Maj. Cedric Gordon told reporters after a visit to the hospital where Glasgow, an 18-year veteran of the force, was being treated.

At least two dozen squad cars screeched out of police headquarters at the first report of the shooting. The streets in the neighborhood were immediately blocked off, and moments later dozens of gunshots were heard. There were shouts of “Get down, get down,” and tear gas filled the area.

Glasgow was shot in front of a house where members of a black separatist group, the National People’s Democratic Uhuru Movement, meet. The group has called for the executions of the police officers involved in last month’s shooting.

The group handed out fliers Wednesday afternoon, after the grand jury ruling, promoting a community meeting. The shooting occurred shortly before the meeting was to have taken place.

“KILLER COP GOES FREE,” the flier read. “We will not be shot down in the streets like dogs. Neither will we be pushed into jails for defending our community. . . . GET ORGANIZED!”

Despite appeals for calm from police and local officials, clumps of black youths began crowding onto the streets, throwing rocks and bottles at passing cars in a scene that resembled last month’s night of violence.

“It’s unfair. Any time a white cop shoots a black man who’s unarmed, they say it’s OK,” said Joyce Gibson, a 56-year-old nurse who lives near the site of last month’s rioting. “He took a life, and they’re taking it so lightly.”

The grand jury’s decision means Officer Jim Knight won’t face criminal charges. However, he was suspended for 60 days with pay by Police Chief Darrel Stephens, who said Knight failed to take “reasonable means to avoid the danger.”

Stephens explained that officers are told to move out of positions of danger before using deadly force.

The Pinellas County grand jury said it had decided the shooting was not racially motivated and that its findings “are the only conclusions that could reasonably be reached.”

Authorities said TyRon Lewis failed to respond several times when Knight ordered him out of a car that Knight and his partner had stopped for speeding.

When Knight moved to the front of the car to peer inside, Lewis moved the vehicle toward him, bumping him twice “in an apparent effort to intimidate or challenge the officer,” the grand jury said.

The panel said Knight’s partner, Sandra Minor, broke a car window to gain entry and the car moved forward and hit Knight again. He ordered the driver to stop or he’d shoot.

The car then turned sharply to the left, hitting Knight a fourth time and dropping him onto the car’s hood. Knight fired three times, hitting Lewis twice in the right arm and once in the chest.

Police later learned that the car Lewis was driving had been reported stolen and that he was wanted on three outstanding arrest warrants. They also said six pieces of crack cocaine were found in the car.

“It is the grand jury’s belief and that of the passenger of the Pontiac that these were the reasons TyRon Lewis did not respond appropriately to the officers’ commands,” the panel’s statement said.