downtown alexandria, la shooting incident
thursday 04 october 2007
click here or the link to download the report in a 9 page .pdf (8mb)
courtesy of an alexandria daily town talk public records request, here is the 'time line of events case #07100460' and the copy of the letter rapides parish district attorney james c. "jam" downs signed in which he wrote that "it is our conclusion that the use of deadly force by the srt personnel from apd was both necessary and appropriate." then gives "some" reasons how they arrived at that conclusion.
one thing that we find interesting (and make no mistake we are in no way attempting to excuse mr. ashley's actions nor attempting to knock the apd) is that district attorney downs writes that "this review is not required by law, but is keeping with the general practice in this parish that files generated by incidents in which fatalities occur by police agencies' use of deadly force should be examined by an outside agency."
then in the closing writes that "finally, on a personal note , i and andy van dyke and a number of other office personnel witnessed the unfolding of this unspeakable tragedy which occured across the street from the courthouse parking garage. the professionalism and bravery of your officers and the personnel from assisting agencies gives new meaning to the peace officers' motto, "to protect and to serve."
which leads us to question the fairness of the district attorney's analysis when he and the other reviewer(s) personally witnessed the goings on. it would seem that if apd et al wanted a true and fair analysis, the district attorney would have recused himself and his office and a disinterested outside agency would have been called in to review the file.
