Officer cleared by use-of-force board

Keith Paul

Friday, Oct. 19, 2001 | 9:43 a.m.

A Metro Police sergeant was within the department's deadly force policy when he shot a man armed with a knife, a police oversight board ruled Wednesday night.

In a unanimous vote, Metro's use-of-force board decided that Sgt. Richard Barela followed police guidelines when he encountered Ronnie Russell July 21 during a domestic dispute at a home on Del Amo Drive near Charleston and Lamb boulevards, Deputy Chief Ray Flynn said.

The board determined a second officer, Truong Thai, who fired at Russell with a beanbag shotgun, also followed departmental guidelines, Flynn said.

Police went to the house after a woman called 911, saying her husband was threatening her and her two children with a hammer. The woman met police at the front door of her home and said that her husband had armed himself with a knife and had locked himself in a bedroom with her child, police said.

Barela and Thai met Russell at the bedroom door, and Russell, backing into the bedroom, refused to drop the knife, police said.

Thai then fired the beanbags, which struck Russell in the torso. Russell was momentarily stunned by the beanbags. Police said he then raised the knife and moved toward the 5-year-old girl, who was in the bedroom, police said.

Barela, using a handgun, fired several rounds at Russell, who was taken to University Medical Center, where he recovered from his wounds. He was released from the hospital July 26. The child was not injured.

Metro's use-of-force board, composed of four residents and three officers, reviews officers' actions when someone is killed or seriously hurt by an officer or whenever an officer shoots at a person.

The board has reviewed 14 cases this year and has cleared the officers in each instance. Last year the board ruled in several shootings that the officers involved violated the department's guidelines, prompting Sheriff Jerry Keller to order all officers to take a refresher course on use of force.