PRICHARD NARCOTICS OFFICERS CLEARED OF WRONGDOING FOR FIRING INTO VEHICLE

Shooting Of Three Men Prompted Stray Gunfire That Killed 6-Year-Old Boy

Two Prichard narcotics officers followed procedure when they fired into a
vehicle they had stopped Dec. 11, wounding three men, said Prichard Police
Chief Sammie Brown.

"I didn't see any criminal intent on the part of my officers," said Brown,
who said his department investigated the shooting, looking for possible
criminal wrongdoing and violations of police procedure. "The officers were
in fear of their lives, and they attempted to protect themselves."

Prichard's criminal investigation was turned over Thursday to the Mobile
County District Attorney's office. The case will go to a grand jury after
their investigation is complete, said District Attorney John Tyson Jr.

The Dec. 11 shooting in the Alabama Village community prompted a
retaliatory effort the next day, when stray gunfire intended for police
killed a 6-year-old Kearis Bonham, authorities have said.

Brown, for the first time, identified the narcotics officers as Eric
Pettway and an Officer Tucker. Brown, who was not in his office Friday,
said he did not know Tucker's first name.

Tyson's office said the officer is Aaron Tucker.

Brown said the officers pulled over a car of four men during an
investigation. Brown did not have the case file with him and said he did
not know why the car was pulled over.

"As the officers got out of their car, the suspect's car was thrown in
reverse and the officers fired at the vehicle as it backed into theirs,"
Brown has said. He said that each case of an officer shooting is considered
on a case-by-case basis.

Without naming which one, Brown said one of the officers shot at suspect's
tires, although some of the bullets went into the car. The other officer
took steps to protect himself, but Brown said he did not know what the
officer was aiming at.

Brown said he did not know how many bullets were fired at the car. A Mobile
Register reporter counted at least 19 shell casings at the scene. No
charges have been filed against the men in the car -- Clifford Williams,
then 19, Kenta Todd, then 23, Freddrick Hatcher, then 20, and a fourth
person whose name was not available Friday. Williams and Todd are from
Mobile and Hatcher is from Prichard.

Williams was critically wounded and was at the University of South Alabama
Hospital for more than a week. Todd, shot in the chest, and Hatcher, shot
in the back, were treated and released the day of the shooting.

The fourth man fled after the shooting and apparently was not injured. No
weapons were found at the scene, Brown said. He said police did find
marijuana but he did not know how much.

Pettway has worked for the Police Department for about six years. Tucker, a
rookie, graduated from the police academy within the last year, Brown said.

Pettway was featured in a story a couple of years ago when he volunteered
his own Labrador, trained as a drug dog, to the department.

Prichard Mayor Charles Harden ordered Pettway suspended for 10 days last
September on a charge that he had a verbal altercation in February 2001
with someone during a traffic stop, according to personnel records. When
the person asked the officer for his name, Pettway told him it was
Stallworth, records show.

Former Prichard Lt. James Stallworth Jr. at the time was at the center of a
federal racketeering probe. Stallworth was indicted last summer and pleaded
guilty to racketeering earlier this year.

Five other narcotics officers also were indicted; three of them pleaded
guilty to charges related to the racketeering probe in exchange for reduced
sentences and a jury convicted the other two.

Pettway appealed his suspension to the Mobile County Personnel Board, but
he withdrew his appeal on December 12, the day after he shot at the car.

Pettway and Tucker are part of new vice unit replacing the previous group,
that was headed by Stallworth. Brown said Pettway and Tucker have been on
administrative leave pending the outcome of the grand jury.