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FacebookWitnesses say shooting by officer wasn’t fair
Leila Navidi / FILE PHOTO
On Feb. 12 Henderson police Officer Luke Morrison fatally shot 42-year-old Deshira Selimaj after she went to the scene where her husband had been pulled over on a traffic stop. An inquest is scheduled to determine whether the shooting was justified. The aftermath of the shooting is depicted in this photograph, which was pulled from a KLAS Channel 8 helicopter video.
Sun, Mar 30, 2008 (2 a.m.)
One is certain she saw a knife. Another says he watched an officer put his boot to her neck and hold it there. A third thinks the EMTs who responded to the officer-involved shooting were disturbed by how police handled the body.
In the month and a half since a Henderson police officer fatally shot ice cream lady Deshira Selimaj, private investigators hired by the Albanian woman’s family have found and interviewed 10 witnesses who contradict the police department’s contention that Selimaj attacked a cop and thus had to be shot.
So far, three of these witnesses have been subpoenaed by the district attorney’s office to testify at the coroner’s inquest slated to begin April 10. None of them thinks the shooting was fair.
One man said he was so bothered by what he witnessed that Tuesday afternoon at the corner of Sunridge Heights and Pecos Ridge parkways that he went home and vomited. Then he wrote up a description of exactly what he observed and sealed it in an envelope. He wanted to keep the real story, or his story at least, safe.
Critics say it isn’t. The real story, that is. Not safe because it’s going to be ground through a coroner’s inquest process, which is, as Gary Peck puts it, broken. Peck, the executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Nevada, and a “working group” including local members of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, spent a fair part of last year working to change the inquest process, asking for several modifications, the most notable of which was to allow a representative of the deceased to pose questions aloud, in open court.
This request was rejected by the Clark County Commission, as well as the Police Protective Association, a Metro Police officers union that was part of Peck’s working group. So the Selimaj family, and its attorneys, will be required to pose any questions they may have of police or witnesses through the long-standing means — in writing to a hearing master who will screen the questions and determine whether they will be posed at all.
In the end, a jury of seven will be asked to draw one of three conclusions: Was the deadly force that 5-foot-6-inch Henderson police Officer Luke Morrison used justified, excusable or criminal?
Since 1976, when the inquest process was adopted, officers have been cleared in all but one case, and that case was years ago.
If the Selimaj family does not get the verdict it wants — criminal — on April 11, when the two-day inquest is scheduled to end, then perhaps the closure they seek will come from another court case altogether: The Henderson Municipal Court case against Selimaj’s husband, Zyber, on charges of misdemeanor obstruction.
It was Zyber Selimaj’s Feb. 12 run-in with the law that set the wheels that led to his wife’s death in motion. Selimaj, an ice cream truck driver, was pulled over by a police officer for traffic violations. Police say Selimaj became irate, refused to sign the ticket and called his wife to the scene. Deshira Selimaj, at home with two of their three children, got them into her own ice cream truck and drove to where her husband was. When she got out of the truck, Zyber Selimaj says, police had guns drawn.
What happened in the next few minutes has since become the epicenter of a nasty debate.
Police say Deshira Selimaj had a knife and held that knife near one of her boy’s throat. They say they tried to shock her with a Taser, but failed. They say she then attacked an officer, and Morrison, 23, shot her.
Zyber Selimaj and some witnesses say she didn’t have a knife and attacked no one. He says his wife was senselessly shot as he and their children watched.
But everybody agrees on at least one thing: While all of this was happening, Zyber Selimaj became hysterical.
In a declaration of arrest, police report that Selimaj kept telling a police officer “that he had to go to his wife.” The report also notes that an officer had to “physically restrain (Zyber) Selimaj with his hands and arms, pushing Selimaj back on his chest area.”
Selimaj was taken to the Henderson jail while his wife was taken to a hospital, where she died. The county took custody of the children.
Selimaj’s attorney in the misdemeanor case, Mario Lovato, naturally thinks the obstruction charge is nonsense. To make that argument, he subpoenaed the police department March 17 for an extensive number of items, including all records relating to the arrest, the gun that was used in Deshira Selimaj’s shooting, any shell casings and bullet fragments, transcripts of calls to police dispatch, the knife she allegedly held, any written statements taken by police, contact information for all police witnesses, e-mail or internal documents relating to the shooting, any and all photographs of the scene, a list of every officer on the scene with full rank and badge number, and a Henderson Police Department manual.
Police attorneys have filed a motion arguing that these items are not relevant to the obstruction charge. They have also filed a motion to quash Lovato’s numerous witnesses on the grounds that testimony about other things that happened in and around the time Selimaj was arrested — such as his wife’s shooting — are not relevant to the immediate charge.
On Thursday, Henderson Justice Court Judge Mark Stevens set a trial date of July 1, two months after the inquest. Whatever is said during that inquest, Lovato says, may end up in Selimaj’s misdemeanor trial. And if the district attorney’s subpoenas indicate anything, it’s that the list of witnesses in the inquest will overlap that of the misdemeanor case.
Until the inquest, however, none of those witnesses wants to be named. They’re afraid of retaliation, or becoming part of a story that has received considerable media attention.
Henderson police are also keeping their witnesses — people who corroborate their version of events, according to Police Chief Richard Perkins — under wraps. Repeated requests by the Sun to interview those witnesses have gone unanswered. Perkins has previously stated he doesn’t want to try the case in the press.
Of the accounts provided by witnesses to private investigator Hal de Becker of De Becker Investigations, some moments stand out. Parents who watched what happened took particular notice of the Selimaj boys, Alban, 11, and Arber, 5. One mother reported the children were crying, “one of those cries that you know as a mom is a deep, forlorn, sad, horrified kind of cry.”
Another mother said she wanted to step in and grab the children, who she thought were unrelated bystanders, caught in the wrong place at the wrong time. She also says she saw Deshira Selimaj with the knife police say they have in evidence, but she never saw her go near the children with it. A third woman said she watched police summon the children away from their mother and frisk the older boy for weapons, an act she found “appalling.”
Another witness, a man, claims he saw an officer put his boot to Selimaj’s neck after she had been shot, as if to get leverage while he removed Taser leads, the sharp prongs that transfer electricity, from the 42-year-old mother’s body.
He “sticks his boot in the back of her neck and holds her down with his boot, he must have held her there a good minute or two and he’s pulling the (Taser leads) out of her,” he said.
This witness and another man both claim they watched police then grab Selimaj and sit her up on a curb, “like a rag doll.” Seeing her propped up led one witness to think Selimaj would be fine, and when he asked an officer at the scene, that officer agreed. The other witness stayed around long enough to watch the EMTs arrive, and says they looked dismayed at the sight of Selimaj sitting up on the curb and immediately laid her back down.
Most of them say Selimaj was on her knees, or sitting, or somehow on the ground when she was shot.
These are the sort of details Peck says he’d like to see come out in court, although he doubts they will. Among his other ideas for inquest reform was the plan to replace the district attorneys who currently question inquest witnesses with lawyers from the attorney general’s office, on the grounds that the district attorneys’ close relationships with police unfairly skew the process. Or, as Peck likes to put it, makes the inquest no more than “the sound of one hand clapping.”
Prosecutors from the district attorney’s office, which works hand-in-hand with police, are still running inquests. Christopher Lalli, assistant district attorney in charge of the criminal division, rejects any accusations that the office is too close with the police to run a fair inquest. The district attorney’s office has an established history of prosecuting police officers when they have committed clear-cut criminal offenses, he said. When there is gray area surrounding a death involving police, they hold an inquest.
Lalli has been provided the names of the 10 witnesses interviewed by de Becker and says because so many people observed the shooting, he plans to call more witnesses to testify at the Selimaj inquest than is typical. What Lalli won’t disclose, however, is just how many witnesses that means.
Discussion: 27 comments so far…
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I sure would love to sit on that jury. That trigger happy cop would spend the rest of his life in jail. I only hope the family of the victim will go to this cops house one day and give him the same justice he showed their family member!
JJ
www.Privacy-Center.net
Like I said before --- SHE WAS MURDERED (by a midget cop too)!!!
The Henderson Police are now out in full force trying to collect additional funds via tickets to help pay for the HUGE settlement they're going to have to offer to the widower.
Wow. This police murder of a helpless women is far worse than the story of the reuse of needles at the clinics. The lousy rigged system will work to the cops advantage just like the medical boards will for the doctors (only one of whom has voluntarily given up his license on a temporary basis.) Hopefully a civil suit gainst each officer who was involved will take everything they have away from them. Still doesn't compare what they took away from the women - her life.
Have you heard about the 11-year old girl who was tased by an officer in a Florida school? I read the story at http://detentionslip.org.
I have just read all the stories online about Henderson PD's quick draw Luke.Only(my opinion)in Clark county's inquest system would this guy walk.I recently was stopped for not signaling a lane change.Officers(2)came up on both sides,hands on thier guns,asking for my papers.I'm 50 years old with kids older than these two,on my way home from work.I've never been arrested.I kept both hands in plain sight.Let me tell you,I think these 2 cops were overdosed on steroids.Both were"jittering"and very hair triggered.I felt they wanted someone to shoot.I'm a white guy and they only gave me a $300. ticket.Thank god I didn't call my wife.I worked maintenance for metro for over 10 years and can tell you there is a couple of good ones.Just dig deep to find them.What other job could you find where you go thru 4(four) months of training and start at $60,000. a year? Such a tough job,huh? Ever hear of any quitting to get a job where they would have to really work? Not!!
So far this year 29 Officers have been killed in the Line of Duty. In the last five years 692 Officers never came home from work (Officers Down Website). Law Enforcement Officers have split seconds to make a choice. The public has months and years to second guess them.
The public and the media need to back off and let the facts come out at the Coroners Inquests. If you don't like the process, change it. All of these people are elected officials. How many of you voted last year?
So we are to believe that the officers who killed this woman were in fear for their life? Even if the woman did have a knife (which is disputed) who in their right mind could say it was necessary to shoot her in front of her family. Don't bother bringing up the 29 officers killed. It is no excuse for incompetent and dirty cops. And it won't excuse the murder of an innocent civilian.
As far as the process, it is rigged in favor of the police. This is the opinion of every news organization in town. They tried to change it to provide more independant input and direct questioning but the policer officers union shot it down. Just like they did to the woman involved.
This is quite a rush to judgement. Let's not forget that a majority of the witnesses back the cops' story.
Being a cop is a difficult, and often thankless job & we should be willing to give them the benefit of the doubt until proven otherwise.
We should have great compassion for this woman's family, but also for this young officer....this was a terrible tragedy for everyone involved.
Any peace officer unable to contain a 90 pound female without shooting her to death should not be a COP! Maybe a dog catcher, something he can handle and not get to afraid.
Cops get shot all the time, occupational hazard, if they don't like go become firemen. If your a scared lil kid playing cop and need to shoot a mother in front of her children your not a cop your a fake.
Henderson needs some standards that stop putting sociopaths who lack all empathy behind a badge holding a loaded gun.
Did they slam her lifeless body to the asphalt and cuff her like the inhuman slobs did to that guy on the strip?
Why do people think that if you state a lie as if it's fact it suddenly becomes true?!
Queenbean, NOT A SINGLE ONE OF THE WITNESSES BACKS THE COPS' STORY! They ALL say the shooting was unnecessary, and NONE saw her hold a knife to her children.
A 5' 6" midget straight from the Iraq war has no place on the Police force. Let him take his Napoleon complex out on a video game or something...not an Ice Cream Lady!!!!
WOW I'm really wondering after reading all of the comments, why we have a justice system. Everyone on these pages, have had the trial, heard ALL the witnesses, and found the Officer Guilty and want him sent right to jail. Have you ever heard "you can't believe everything you read in the paper"?
Funny how each witness saw something different, I mean one saw a knife one didn't, one sayes she was standing there other sayes she was on her knees. I'm not here saying what the Officer did was Right or wrong, all I have is newspaper accounts and second had information. I believe we should all wait until ALL the evidence is presented. An Officers job is hard. Alot of the comments show that people are siding against the Police because they got a ticket or had an unhappy encounter with the police somewhere.
All I know is I'm glad there their when you need them.
All those who want to send this Officer to prison should be able to wait to see if the evidence shows that he acted without cause.
If that happens, then I will be the first to show him the way to jail, but until then I believe in this Great Country your still Innocent until Proven guilty.
SteveR,
Tell that innocent until proven guilty crap to the dead woman's children. Tell it to her! Wasn't she innocent? Do we shoot innocent people?
Wake up man.
Lots of stuff to comment on here. I met the husband on Friday in front of my house doing his ice cream run. I gave him the bills I had on me mostly because I feel bad for his kids. I am on the fence, however, on this whole thing. If she did have a knife she was asking for trouble. Everyone knows this in this country that cops don't have the same justice system applied to them as civilians. A 'furtive' movement is justifiable for a cop. If someone breaks into my home and I say they made a furtive movement before I provided them with extra holes I am going to court to be tried. Short story is when cops have guns you make nice, plain and simple. On the other hand, I have tried to recreate in my head the events based on what the cops and witnesses have said. I throw in my experience serving my country in harms way and how crazy other cultures and ethos seemed to me at first. Point is she may have seemed suicidal or frantic but maybe not. The officer may have been technically justified in killing her but maybe it wasn't the right thing to do. Maybe a finger didn't need to be in the trigger well at that moment because the threat was not truly there. I wonder what the outcome of this would be if the officer was placed under the same scrutiny as the rest of us. My wish would be that if he could have avoided killing her and actually been playing the part of protect and serve that at this point he do the right thing and find another line of work.
one other comment. I have had two traffic stops with Henderson PD. One was completely justified and the stop was handled very professionally. The other was a young guy that had a chip on his shoulder and the stop was horrible. Questionable stop that was dismissed last month. Last encounter was this month when I had to call Henderson PD to clear my house when I seemed to have encountered uninvited occupants. I am glad that they were so quick to respond. I am extremely glad they are doing the job they are doing and with the crazies we have in this town I can't imagine it's easy. I just want to know that all members of that team are acting responsibly.
One trained cop with a nightstick should be able to take down this little woman whether she had a knife or not. PERIOD. No, let's draw our weapons on her and shoot her. Are you kidding me? Now we're hearing she had a cop stepping on her neck after being shot. What the hell is this world coming to?
Chief only states there were "several" officers at the scene. Why? Because it would look really bad and be embarrassing to tell the truth that there were probably 10-20 cops at this scene when this woman was shot and killed. That's right, and 10-20 cops couldn't use any other tactics to take this woman down if she was so dangerous without shooting and killing her. oooh, scary ice-cream lady. pathetic.
As a cop you get paid to take risks, that's what you signed up for, and to take people into custody using whatever tactics you can use WITHOUT KILLING THEM! So if you're too afraid and can't do the job the right way, quit!
Be careful in Henderson, you could be the next victim. Think about it.
I also love the way they try to smear this dead woman saying she was holding her children hostage and the courageous officers had to rescue the children. What a joke. The kids were scared and wanted to be with their mother. How stupid do you think we are?
The HPD has delivered quite the movie script to coverup thier own screw up and I'm not buying it for one second.
And how many times is the HPD going to change their story. First HPD statements and reports state morrison shot her protecting himself. Next thing you know he's protecting another officer. They couldn't even get that part of the story right. Pathetic. When a criminal keeps changing his story to cops or a court what happens? He is not believed. Just read the reports and different articles, and listen to the many changing and contradicting statements of the HPD. Nothing to do with the media. It's the statements they made and the reports they wrote up.
Sad thing is the way the inquest is run here, this will wind up justified and they will honor the brave luke morrison (sarcasm) on medal day. Remember to hold your head up high loser.
And the bullsh#t Obstruction Charge: That is an insult to society as a whole. The abusive police just executed this poor guy's wife and he wants to go to her and be with her. I sure know I wouldn't listen to them telling me to stay back. Who would? Anyone with half a brain would do anything to get to a loved one after being shot right in front of them by the police of all people.
Henderson's Escalation of events:
First they execute his wife unjustly, then put a boot in her neck. No one was in imminent danger of death or serious physical injury. I will never believe that. NEVER. UNJUSTIFIED EXECUTION.
Then they tell her husband to stay away after shooting her. Now he doesn't listen so they lock him up too. I would hope anyone reading this post would do the same and do anything possible to be with a loved one right after they have been shot! This department here is a pathetic circus show joke. What a trumped up BS charge that should be dropped immediately! This shows what a comedy show the system is here. This entire city and criminal justice system here should be nothing but ashamed and embarassed at their actions. Why is that BS charge still on the board? explain that one to me.
And now that they've killed their mother right in front of them, let's take the kids away and put them with strangers at a shelter since we trumped up charges on Dad and put him in jail, too.
What happens behind closed doors: the police and system probably just laugh at us, concerned citizens, because they know the have permission to do as they please, because they know they can get away with anything.
I am ashamed to be a Henderson resident and I am truly sorry to Mr. Selimaj that the police department and system here that my taxes support wronged him in the worst possible way.
I'm just curious how much longer we as a public are going to put up with this.
Useful Links to this story:
Listen and see the changes in the HPD's statements and written reports.
http://www.lasvegasnow.com/global/video/... - Special Coverage&h1=Woman Dead After Officer Involved Shooting in Henderson
http://www.lasvegasnow.com/global/video/... - Special Coverage&h1=Questions Surround Henderson Officer-Involved Shooting
Henderson Police Press Conference:
http://www.lasvegassun.com/videos/2008/f...
Contradicting Stories:
http://www.lasvegassun.com/videos/2008/f...
Conflicting Evidence:
http://www.lasvegassun.com/videos/2008/m...
The D.A.'s office needs to call all 10 witnesses that the Selimaj investigative team has come up with that contradict the fairytale HPD story. I don't care if this inquest takes a week, the jury deserves to hear every witness available and real questions need to be answered to all ten witnesses.
If the D.A.'s office has any integrity whatsoever that is what they need to do.
Postman;
I really don't know was she Innocent? I wasn't there and from what I read you wern't either. Did she have a knife? What was she doing with if?
I would have to say we all have to wait until ALL the witnesses are heard, and if the family dosen't like how the inquest goes there is always Civil court. I don't know the Family and I don't know the Officer, so I can't make any conclusion, but it sure appears you have a deap seated hatred for Authority and it appears that all cops are wrong and you are right in your mind. You need to wake up, and let the chips fall where they may. Like I said if he's guilty of shooting this woman with out cause then I would gladly escort him to his sentence, what ever it may be.
No hatred for authority at all. Hatred for some and their tactics, yes. I am retired from law enforcement. Knife or no knife there were plenty of tactics that should have been used without shooting her. This disgusts me. Was this woman upset, yes. Was she a criminal, No. If all those cops couldn't subdue this woman without shooting her, then they should go find another line of work. Nothing professional about them and their tactics.
read all posts
Everyone on this blog except for maybe the retired officer has never been where that officer was. He gets seconds to make a decision that the rest of you get years to second guess. How many of you have been in life or death situations? Not many. Most of you would have pissed your pants and the others would have ran like little school girls from a frog. And as for the investigators witness's, who to say he didnt offer a little something for them to "see it" his way? Until you have walked a mile in a Police Officers boots, SHUT YOUR PIE HOLE! I don't see you down @ the station signing up to be one. But your quick to judgement of one. Where were you when this went down? Did you see it? As for the 50 year old that was complaing about 2 officers "jittery". Did they know you? Did they know that you had never been arrested? What does a killer look like? If you know please tell the rest of us so next time we see one we will know. As for the ones that say a 90lb person cant kill you, at what point did we say "Oh you have to weigh 180 lbs to kill soeone? So the next time that 50 year old 90 lb with a knife has you at knife point, dont call the police, handle it! But until you are there and know what its like, SHUT YOUR PIE HOLE!
"SHUT YOUR PIE HOLE". That's just the kind of fascist attitude we don't want from our police force. "How many of you have been in life or death situations?" No, I must admit, I have never had a 90lb older woman threaten my life while trying to protect her children and concerned about her husband. But if I had shot her I can guarantee you I would be indicted and most probably convicted of murder. Hopefully the police officer will be indicted and if guilty, found guilty. In case he hadn't noticed, police officers are not above the law.
calm down jbg. everyone knows they have a hard job. It is our expectation that they are held to a higher standard. we put our trust in our law enforcement because we expect them to put themselves in these situations. In my past experience I couldn't understand why people would join a volunteer force then complain about being put in harms way. Police officers choose to perform this work. They are not victims. Just yesterday a Metro officer chose to shoot a guy with intent and a baseball bat in the ankle. That seems appropriate. I would be much more afraid of a full grown man with a baseball bat than a 90 pounder with a pocketknife.
Well of course I always jump out of my ice cream truck with my knife in plain sight....are you telling me that this is wrong?
Like I said. I don't see you down at the police headquarters signing up robert_lv. You are quick to judge. Of course the husband is going to say something different. As far as shooting a guy in the ankle, if he has a bat most officers are going to eliminate the threat. Just as with a knife. Again when did we decide that a 90lb woman with a knife couldnt kill you?
The policeman that shot ms. Selimaj testified that he was "really really scared" at the time he fired his weapon. Here's a man that recently served in Iraq, was surrounded, in one corner, by gun wielding, bullet proof vest wearing, young, able bodied henderson police officers. And he was pitted against two children whose ages combined do not add to adulthood, a diminutive, 42 year old woman holding a knife that you and i use to peel a potato, and was also assisted by her cornered, meek, scrawny husband. The officer was really really scared.
How in the world did he act in Iraq when he had to jump off a humvee. My guess is that he probably served his country with pride and courage. So what happens when he returns to the land that he fought for so that people like the selimajs can sell ice cream.
He now manuevers within an institution that is galvanized by a process known as the coroner's inquest, and all those that look to the process for sustinence, from the uniformed cop all the way to the Clark County District Attorney's office, are clad in battle gear sewed with cowardice.
Do not bore readers with comments concerning the daily rigors and dangers of police work for the reason that every civilized person accepts and commends the fact, but no civilized society accepts the existence of police aggression that is undetered by a sham system offered as our consitutional check and balance protection.
Our community is sadly, in the very deepest sense of the word, distinguished as one that allows police to "shoot first and ask meaningless coroner's inquest questions later." Society exists only as people and the people of our community cannot be expected to respect police organizatiuons that hide behind an institutionalized veil whenever it makes a mistake. And consistently repeated mistakes by an otherwise intelligent group are no mistakes at all.
I have had the chance to be on a grand jury. During that trial a family was suing a fire inspector for damages surrounding what they called bias of his inspection based on their race. The family testified and then the two groups settled before the defense presented. During the family testimony I heard a bunch of embellishment of the facts. The women were hysterical on the stand, crying and stuff. I saw it as a Ricki Lake show. But, through the crap I felt I could see the truth of what had gone on at least from the families perspective.
I apply this to what I was able to see of the testimony from the inquest. Although I believe the testimony from the officer I saw was a bit rehearsed I also think that woman had the knife. Sure there may be questions to be asked but at the heart of this I think that officer wishes he didn't have to shoot her. I feel bad for the kids. I wish we weren't here today with this.
My last thoughts on this are that I don't feel that she was murdered on our streets. It may have been avoidable but that onus is on the woman. She made a mistake by having that knife in the first place. It would have been better for the kids if the gunshot wouldn't have killed her but dang it why would you act like that in front of kids. Emotion and weapons are not a good mix, ever.