MOM ANGRY OVER SON'S KILLING BY POLICE

`They Used Him For Target Practice Dots'

As far as Susan Hartnett is concerned, police took her son from her
twice.

Derek Jason Kaeseman, 24, was killed in a hail of bullets fired by
seven Houston police officers Sunday after a car chase.

Police, said Hartnett, used her son "for target practice."

On June 20, 1994, Kaeseman drove off an overpass at Texas 288 and
Texas 6 while being pursued by a Manvel police cruiser. He was never
charged in the incident.

Kaeseman, a culinary student at the time, suffered brain damage and
permanently forgot his past.

"He didn't know what he looked like," said Hartnett, 47, who divorced
Kaeseman's father 18 years ago and later remarried.

Through therapy, Kaeseman learned to handle manual jobs and was
well-liked for his happy-go-lucky attitude, Hartnett said at her
southwest Houston apartment Thursday.

"He looked like my Derek, but he was different. But I loved him, too,
I wouldn't have traded him for anything."

Kaeseman completed a driver training program at The Institute for
Rehabilitation and Research and began driving again, his mother said.

But he was later involved in some minor fender-benders, so Hartnett
did not allow him to drive for a while. Eventually, confident he could
drive safely, she relented.

However, in July 1996, Kaeseman was involved in another car chase and
placed on 180 days' probation for fleeing a police officer and fined
for criminal mischief.

Hartnett could not explain her son's car chases, but she said there is
no justification for how the latest chase ended.

After Kaeseman's pickup crashed into a guard rail at the Southwest
Freeway and Corporate, police fired at least 50 shots, riddling his
body with 14 bullets, said Hartnett's attorney, Vicki Pinak.

"They used him for target practice," Hartnett said tearfully. "When I
found out they shot at him 50 times, I was appalled at the police
brutality, it's like they're out of control.

"They couldn't kill him the first time, so they killed him the second
time."

The shooting occurred around 5:30 p.m., but Hartnett said she learned
of it while watching television news around 11 p.m. She saw her son's
green Dodge truck on TV and suspected the worst. She frantically
called HPD, but got the runaround, she said.

About 45 minutes later, a doctor told her on the phone that her son
was "critically injured" and that she should come to Hermann Hospital.
She had already heard on TV that the driver had been killed.

HPD spokesman Robert Hurst said he could not comment because there is
an ongoing investigation by HPD's homicide and internal affairs
divisions and the Fort Bend County District Attorney's Office.

The chase began, police said, after two officers saw what they
believed was a drug transaction between Kaeseman in his truck and a
man standing outside it about 5:15 p.m. Sunday in the 2200 block of
Bagby.

The man, John Edick, 27, got into the truck and took off. Edick leaped
from the moving vehicle at Bagby and Tuam and was taken into police
custody.

Edick, who said Kaeseman threatened to kill him if he didn't get out
of the truck, was released without charges Monday.

During the chase, Kaeseman threw things out of the truck and rammed a
patrol car near Bellaire Boulevard, officers said.

Other officers joined the chase, which ended in Stafford. Kaeseman
exited the freeway at Corporate, then tried to drive across the grassy
median and re-enter the freeway inbound, but he hit a guard rail.

The seven officers who shot at Kaeseman said he had disregarded orders
to keep his hands in sight, reached under the seat, then began
climbing out the passenger-side window, holding something shiny.

The object was later determined to be a can opener, investigators
said.

Hartnett said her son did not use drugs.

She is unemployed, she said, and a fund has been set up to help her
pay for her son's medical expenses. Contributions can be made to the
Derek Kaeseman Memorial Fund at any BankOne branch.

Checked-by: Patrick Henry