6TH WARD RESIDENTS DEMANDING ANSWERS AFTER FRIDAY NIGHT DRUG RAID

LIMA -- Sixth Ward Councilman Derry Glenn held a news conference
Sunday on Lima's south side, calling for outside help in the
investigation into the death of Tarika Wilson and ensuring Lima
residents, "We are not going to let this go."

Glenn spoke in front of the house at 218 E. Third St., where a Lima
SWAT team officer shot and killed Wilson, 26, and injured her
13-month-old son, Sincere.

Wilson's mother, Darla Jennings, stood by Glenn as he spoke to
reporters. Appearing with Glenn were Brenda Johnson, of the Cheryl
Allen Southside Center, and Bishop Richard Cox, a Dayton-based
executive assistant to the national board chairman of the Southern
Christian Leadership Conference.

Glenn said he contacted Cox, with whom he has worked in the past,
shortly after the raid occurred Friday night to assist in the raid's
investigation. Glenn said he is not satisfied with the decision to
turn the investigation over to the Ohio Bureau of Criminal
Investigation, a division of the Ohio Attorney General's office,
saying instead he plans to call the FBI for assistance.

Glenn said that because he is the 6th Ward councilman and the owner of
the house, he should have been contacted before police conducted the
raid. He also challenged the notion that drugs were found in the
residence at the time of the raid, calling statements from Lima Police
Department officials on drugs found in the residence "a smear campaign."

"I challenge anyone who said they found any drugs in my house. I will
pay for a lie detector test personally," he said.

Police Chief Greg Garlock has said that both crack cocaine and
marijuana were found inside the home after Wilson was shot. He also
said Sunday everything the officers did was by the book.

"The entry [into the house] and the decisions were all in keeping with
the policies in place for literally hundreds of other raids," he said.

Speaking out for the first time since her daughter's death, Darla
Jennings said Sincere Wilson was still receiving treatment at
Nationwide Children's Hospital in Columbus, and will undergo
additional surgery on his injured arm today. She has not made
arrangements yet for Wilson's funeral, she said, because Wilson's body
had not yet been released to the family.

Her voice trembling with emotion, Jennings said she thinks police
officials have not been honest regarding her daughter's death, and she
wants answers from the officer who shot Wilson, as well as punishment
for his act.

"He's the only one that can tell me the truth," she said. "What was in
that bedroom that had you so scared of your life that you had to take
mine? It's not over. [The officer who shot Wilson] is no higher than
anybody else out here when he takes off that uniform. He's just like
me. He needs to be charged with murder, attempted murder and five
child endangerings. He needs to go to the penitentiary and pay for his
mistake. I want justice."

Cox said he, Glenn and other community leaders will form a committee
to try and bring national attention to Wilson's death. He also said
they will try to bring national figures to the area, such as the Rev.
Al Sharpton, the Rev. Jesse Jackson and Martin Luther King III.

Cox said he believes what happened Friday has to do with the race of
the victim and the police officers involved.

"I think it's a race issue, No. 1, because all the police officers
were white, and No. 2, they were coming to a councilman's office, who
they know is black," he said. "The reason I say it's racially
motivated, we would not like for it to be, we don't want it to be
that, but if the police chief isn't going to say anything, if the
mayor has not spoken out, if the city manager has not said anything,
and they withhold information, then what is it?"

Garlock said Wilson's death had nothing to do with
race.

"This whole situation was stemming from a police enforcement
operation, and nothing more," he said.

Glenn stopped short of calling the situation a racial issue. He did
say, however, he feels police target the 6th Ward, saying drug arrests
in the area are the product of outsiders visiting Lima to buy drugs.

"Sixty-five percent of the drug dealers in here didn't live in the 6th
Ward," he said. "They got arrested in the 6th Ward. We can't use
statistics to say why this murder was done here. We've been fighting
this for years. This is all over the city of Lima, not just the 6th
Ward. That doesn't give justifiable cause for what happened."

According to statistics reported by The Lima News in October, the 6th
Ward had the most drug arrests of any ward. The ward had 206 arrests
in 2005 and 198 arrests in 2006. Most of the people booked for drug
crimes in 2005 and 2006 listed their hometowns as Lima, although
records show a mix of people who do come from outside communities.