Police Chief Jeri Williams promised change in her department after being booed by some of hundreds of people gathered to discuss a videotaped police encounter that has caused a national outcry.
The meeting at a downtown church Tuesday night was called by the city after the release of a bystander’s video of officers who pointed their guns and shouted obscenities last month at a black family. Dravon Ames and his pregnant fiancee Iesha Harper, who was holding their 1-year-old daughter, say their 4-year-old daughter took a doll from a store without their knowledge.
“Real change starts with the community,” Williams said to a sometimes hostile crowd comprised mainly of blacks and Hispanics.
“Real change starts with the firing of the officers! Fire them!” one woman shouted toward the stage, where Williams, who is herself black, was seated next to Mayor Kate Gallego and other Phoenix city leaders.
Williams assured those gathered that the meeting would not be the last.
“We are here to listen, we are here to make change,” she said.
The couple wants the officers to be fired.
Local advocacy groups have called a rally outside City Hall on Wednesday afternoon, following by a march to a regular City Council meeting to call for police department reforms.
Ames addressed the crowd briefly, drawing applause when he said he and his family were lucky to be alive after the incident.
“No one should ever try to justify what happened that day,” he said.
“We matter,” said Harper.
Others who spoke included the father of Jacob Harris, a black 19-year-old man who was shot and killed by a Phoenix officer in January following an armed robbery.
Earlier Tuesday, Phoenix police released surveillance video aimed at backing up their assertion that adults and not just a child were shoplifting before the incident.
The heavily edited store video shows a man taking something from a display rack and examining it, but it’s unclear what happened to the package when he walked off camera.
Another snippet of video shows a little girl with a doll in a box walking out of the store accompanied by adults.
A police statement last week about the incident in late May states Ames told police he threw a pair of stolen underwear out of his car. Police also say a woman traveling in a different vehicle was arrested separately for stealing aluminum foil.
The store decided not to prosecute and no charges have been filed.
The couple filed a $10 million claim against the city alleging civil rights violations. The race of the officers is not known.
Ames has a pending case on charges of aggravated assault of a police officer in an unrelated case that followed a traffic accident in suburban Tempe, Arizona, last year. Court documents say Ames unsuccessfully tried to kick officers several times when they arrested him on suspicion of driving under the influence of marijuana.
One Tempe officer used a stun gun on Ames because he thought he was trying to grab the other officer’s gun, according to documents.
Phoenix police have not responded to repeated questions about whether the officers in the videotaped encounter following the alleged shoplifting were aware of, or influenced by, Ames’ earlier case. Civil liberties attorney Sandra Slaton has called the prior case irrelevant.
The police chief has said an investigation into the officers’ actions is under way.
