Cops’ Testimony Sketchy at Officer’s Trial

Police testifying in the trial of a white officer who shot a fleeing, unarmed black man to death say they are having trouble remembering details of the killing that touched off riots here.

Officer Robert Kidd Jr. acknowledged in court Tuesday that he has told different accounts of what Officer Stephen Roach said just before and after shooting 19-year-old Timothy Thomas on April 7.

The death touched off the city’s worst racial violence since the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination in Memphis, Tenn., in 1968, and led to a citywide dusk-to-dawn curfew to restore order. Dozens of people were injured and more than 800 were arrested.

Roach, 27, has pleaded not guilty to misdemeanor charges of negligent homicide and obstructing official business. If convicted of both charges, he could face as much as nine months in jail.

His trial began Monday and is expected to last through Friday. The judge may take the case under review and issue a verdict later.

Kidd testified Tuesday that Roach said to another officer just after the shooting: “I don’t know what happened, it just went off.”

But under defense questioning, Kidd said he told investigators he didn’t remember Roach saying anything at the scene.

On Monday, Officer Christopher Schroeder, who is Kidd’s partner, testified that he has had difficulty remembering how far behind Roach he was as they ran down a dark alley in pursuit of Thomas, and exactly where he went just after the shooting.

Roach, Kidd, Schroeder and two other officers chased Thomas, who was wanted on 14 misdemeanor charges, including driving without a license, other traffic violations and fleeing police, officers said.

Thomas scaled at least two fences before Roach shot him once in the chest, prosecution witnesses said.

All the other officers involved in the chase have denied seeing the shooting.

Defense attorney Merlyn Shiverdecker has said that Roach always has asserted that Thomas made a move to his waistband, which made Roach fear for his safety.

Prosecutors said Monday that Roach violated police procedures by not trying other means to stop Thomas before firing and by putting his finger on the trigger of his revolver before he intended to use the weapon.

Thomas was the 15th black male to die at the hands of Cincinnati police since 1995. Police union officials have noted that 10 of those men fired or pointed firearms at officers, and two drove at or dragged officers from cars.

Two other officers await trial in October on charges resulting from the death of another black man, Roger Owensby Jr., who died in November when police arrested him.