[stop-polabuse] kilKS99-Deputy cleared in fatal shooting of man who had pepper spray
Michael Novick
Deputy is cleared in shooting
A Sedgwick County sheriff's deputy faced "an immediate threat of ... harm
or death" last fall when he shot and killed a man who had fired pepper spray.
By Deb Gruver
The Wichita Eagle
Butler County Attorney Jan Satterfield ruled Friday that a former Sedgwick
County Sheriff's deputy did nothing criminal when he shot and killed a
32-year-old Wichita man after an October car chase.
Satterfield said she had cleared Troy Griggs of any wrongdoing in the death
of Darren Watts. Griggs, she said, "perceived an immediate threat of great
bodily harm or death based on Darren Watts' conduct and imminent and
unlawful use of force against the officers in his attempt to avoid
apprehension."
Griggs, who has said he resigned from the Sheriff's Department after the
shooting to run for sheriff, said Satterfield's decision didn't surprise him.
"That was the ruling I expected all along," he said. "What it means as far
as I'm concerned is that incident's over. That's all it really means."
Watts' wife, Jeaneen, plans to sue Griggs and Sedgwick County, said her
lawyer, Mark Schoenhofer.
"I mean he was wrong," Jeaneen Watts said Friday of Griggs' actions.
"What about my family? What about my kids and me? He left us without a
husband and father."
The couple would have been married 11 years Feb. 27, Watts said. Their two
girls are 9 and almost 11.
Griggs said he understood Watts' family's pain, but added: "I would say
that he made the choices that he made. We didn't make that car run. We
didn't make him run on foot. We didn't make him pepper spray us. He put
himself in that position. He made those choices, and, as a result, he lost
his life, and that's tragic when it comes to his family.
"But to think I'm not going to defend myself is something that no one
should ask a sheriff's deputy to do."
According to officials' summary of the incident, Watts and his wife led
Sedgwick County deputies on a 20-mile chase through two counties. At the
end of the chase, near Douglass, Watts ran from the car, scuffled with two
deputies and sprayed them with pepper spray.
The spray temporarily blinded the deputies, knocking them off their feet.
Griggs, thinking Watts had pulled a gun, fired several shots that struck
the man.
Jeaneen Watts said she was told the deputy fired five times when Watts
raised and straightened his arms with what appeared to be a dark object in
his hands.
The deputies first attempted to stop the couple because the tag on the
vehicle Jeaneen Watts was driving was not assigned to that vehicle. Darren
Watts was wanted for violating his probation on a forgery conviction.
"It's always a traumatic, sad experience for both the family of the
deceased and for the public entity when a situation like this occurs,"
Sedgwick County Sheriff Mike Hill said. "However, the incident was
thoroughly investigated by outside agencies, and the ruling, needless to
say, came up showing there was no malicious or criminal intent."
He added, there's "no one in law enforcement, myself included, that wants
to in their career use deadly force."
But there are occasions when deadly force is the only alternative, Hill
said, "and that's what happened in this one."
Satterfield said she received and reviewed information from the Kansas
Bureau of Investigation, Butler County Sheriff's Department, Sedgwick
County Sheriff's Department, Andover Police Department, KBI's laboratory
and Sedgwick County Regional Forensic Science Center.
Jeaneen Watts, who has stressed her husband did not have a gun, said Friday
she hadn't yet told her children about the ruling. They do know how their
father died, she said.
"I'm just waiting for a good time when I can really explain to them
everything that's going on," she said. "I'm trying to get some more
information. I don't know if I want to just yet."
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Reach Deb Gruver at 268-6400 or dgr...@wichitaeagle.com.
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