Policeman's widow pleads: Don't release video
CINCINNATI — The wife of a Cincinnati police officer fatally shot in the line of duty is pleading with the city not to release a video that shows the aftermath of his ambush.
Ohio law allows the public to view such recordings. And local media outlets, including The Cincinnati Enquirer, have asked to review the dash-camera footage of the second officer to arrive at the scene after Officer Sonny Kim, 48, of Symmes Township, Ohio, was shot June 19 in the Cincinnati neighborhood of Madisonville.
"For my kids, witnessing their father lying helplessly on the ground will only add to the devastation that they have already felt," Jessica Kim wrote in a letter to Mayor John Cranley, City Manager Harry Black and Police Chief Jeffrey Blackwell. "Sonny was their rock, strong and protective. They should not have to see a broken image of their father like that."
Jessica Kim, who has seen the video, said "the video clip will not add value to anyone but instead add an even greater amount of pain." She is now raising their three sons — Tim, Joshua and Jacob — alone.
Black called Sonny Kim "a hero in every sense of the word" but acknowledged that the city must abide by public-record laws.
"In this regard, I have asked the law department to carefully review this matter in order to advise on how best to proceed," he said.
At a little before 9 a.m. ET June 19, Trepierre Hummons, 21, texted friends and posted an ominous message on Facebook indicating that he planned to commit suicide by cop, investigators later discovered. Then a little after 9, Hummons made a call to police to report a man with a gun nearby and made a second call 7 minutes later.
Sonny Kim, a nearly 30-year veteran of the department, responded and Hummons ambushed him. Hummons' mom, who lived nearby, saw the shooting and used the policeman's radio to call for help.
Frantic officers, including Specialist Tom Sandmann, hurried to the scene. Sandmann pulled up and fatally shot Hummons, captured on the video from his patrol car's dashboard camera.
Hummons' father and grandmother also joined Jessica Kim to ask that the video not be released. In letters to the city, they argued it also would harm Hummons' siblings to view the recording.
"Our family has just begun the process of putting pieces of our lives together again and the release of this footage will reopen wounds that are just beginning to heal," wrote Hummons' father, Ronald Hummons. "We had no choice in how our loved ones left us. Please have the compassion to allow us to choose how we heal."
The Cincinnati police investigation is ongoing. Immediately after the shooting, department officials gave a brief account of what happened, but plenty of questions remain.
It's unclear how many shots were fired, who fired first, how Kim died and where a probation officer, who has never been named, plays into what happened.
"The Enquirer is seeking the video to shed light on exactly what happened that morning," Enquirer News Director Mike Kilian said. "There remain many unanswered questions."
Video in another Cincinnati shooting, the July 19 death of black motorist Samuel DuBose during a traffic stop in the Mount Auburn neighborhood, led to a murder indictment for University of Cincinnati police officer, Ray Tensing. That investigation also is ongoing.
Sonny Kim was the 58th officer who died in the line of duty so far this year, according to the Officer Down Memorial Page, which tracks law-enforcement deaths. On Wednesday, Officer Thomas LaValley of the Shreveport Police Department in Louisiana became the 71st officer to die; gunfire killed 19 of them. The deaths are down by 9% compared to the same time last year, and shooting deaths have decreased by 30%.
Trepierre Hummons was at least the 528th person killed by police this year across the USA, according to a database compiled by The Guardian. The London-based newspaper is tracking officer-involved deaths, including justifiable homicides, this year through news accounts and social media.
The death early Friday of Christian Taylor, 19, of Arlington, Texas, became at least the 696th person killed so far in 2015.
Ronald Hummons has said his son didn't lure anyone to the scene of the shooting.
Cincinnati Mayor John Cranley, who has seen the dash-cam video, said it shows that Sandmann's actions were "totally justified."
Trepierre "Hummons had murdered Kim and was trying to murder a probation officer and Sandmann," Cranley said.