King Family Lawyer Positions His Arguments

Dear Editor,
   Lucius Lomax's piece on Sophia King's shooting death points to some of the questions left unanswered by the recent release of the Austin police investigation ("After 18 Months, APD Releases Report on King Shooting," News, Feb. 20). But there are others.
   Why, for example, did police and city officials constantly refer for the last 18 months to a large knife in Sophia King's hand, but the report only refers to a handleless "blade"? How can someone grip a handleless blade?
   Why does the report indicate that no fingerprints were found on the "blade"? How can that be?
   How is it that Officer Coffey didn't properly position himself at the back of Ms. King's apartment making his only alternative deadly force? This version of Coffey's role on the scene is at odds with other versions put out in his defense that he arrived on the scene and had to act quickly. Assuming the report's version of Coffey's role, why was the situation so ineptly handled for what the police knew was a mental health call ... indeed, the second police call of the day to Ms. King's apartment?
   Another question: Did the fact that the police let Ms. King lie on the ground dead for so many hours have anything to do with attempting to reconstruct events and shift culpability to Ms. King? After all, a number of residents in the same housing complex said Ms. King had no weapon at all.
   Finally, is Chief Stan Knee trying to focus on the particulars of this incident to avoid the larger systemic issue ... namely, how badly the police handle mental health calls in East Austin? As Lomax asked, where is Assistant Chief Rick Coy's long-promised plan for strengthening APD's mental health response calls?