Oklahoma police fatally shoot naked teenager
EDMOND, Okla. (AP) — Police in the Oklahoma City suburb of Edmond said Wednesday that a naked 17-year-old high school student was not armed when he was fatally shot by police after breaking into a home.
The Oklahoma state medical examiner’s office identified the teen as Isaiah Mark Lewis. Police initially said he was an adult after the Monday shooting . Officers had been searching for the teen for about an hour after a woman called 911 to report a domestic disturbance for her neighbor.
Edmond police spokeswoman Jenny Wagnon said Lewis was shot after fighting with two officers who first used a stun gun on him. When that failed to subdue him, Wagnon said, at least one officer then fired a handgun.
“We know a Taser was deployed because we found the probes in the suspect,” according to Wagnon, who said one officer was treated at a hospital for a head injury and released.
Lewis was taken to a local hospital where he died.
The department Wednesday identified the officers involved as Sgt. Milo Box and Officer Denton Scherman. Box has worked at the department for 17 years, and Scherman was hired in September.
Neither was wearing a body camera during the shooting, Wagnon said. An officer who responded after shots were fired had a camera on his dashboard.
“Our department is in the process of issuing body cameras later this year,” Wagnon said in a statement. “There are four issued for various officers to wear while on duty as we roll out our system, but none involved in the OIS were wearing a body camera.”
Edmond Public Schools spokeswoman Susan Parks-Schlepp said Lewis attended an alternative school for students who were behind in their graduation requirements.
“He had completed his coursework and was set to walk with his classmates … in graduation ceremonies on May 18,” Parks-Schlepp said in a text to The Associated Press.
During the Monday 911 call that prompted the police response, a woman who identifies herself as Lewis’ 18-year-old girlfriend tried to take the phone from her neighbor to tell dispatchers that her “boyfriend just flipped out. I have no idea what’s going on.”
Other 911 calls later reported Lewis stripped off his clothes as he ran down the street. Police later said they chased him as he jumped fences before breaking into the house where he was shot.
Kamri Pollock, who said Lewis was her boyfriend, later told KFOR-TV she saw no reason for police to be involved and that she wanted to know “what he was on.” Police said they would have to await a toxicology report to determine if he was on drugs.
No one answered the door on Wednesday at the address listed for Pollock.
Wagnon said a man inside the home Lewis forced his way into about an hour after the 911 call hid in another room and two officers followed Lewis inside, then shot him.
A woman who answered the door at that house on Wednesday declined to give her name and said the man who had been there at the time of the shooting was not home, but said the door damaged during the forced entry had been replaced.
Wagnon said police do not yet know whether both officers fired at Lewis and are waiting for the state medical examiner’s report on how many times he was shot.
The medical examiner’s office said only that Lewis suffered “multiple gunshot wounds” and that a final autopsy report is pending.
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