WASHINGTON POST December 23, 1994
DEATH ON A WHITE HOUSE SIDEWALK
AGAIN GUNFIRE shatters the peace around the White House. This
time it involves a homeless man, shot twice by a U.S. Park Police
officer in front of the White House as he wielded a large knife
at officers. This latest incident was unlike the shooting three
days earlier, when 9mm bullets fired in the wee hours of the
morning by an unknown gunman landed within yards of the
presidential mansion and went through a first-floor State Dining
Room window. Tuesday's shooting also differs sharply from the
assault weeks earlier by a Colorado man who blasted away at the
White House with a semiautomatic weapon. In this week's shooting,
someone died. White House press secretary Dee Dee Myers said
Tuesday's incident "underscores the nature of violence in our
society and that nobody's immune." That is true. But this
shooting raises as many questions as it answers.
A widely seen videotape of the incident shows the victim,
Marcelino Corniel, in a face-off with four law enforcement
officers who have their handguns trained on him. According to
the FBI and other eyewitnesses, Mr. Corniel had chased U.S. Park
Police officer Stephen J. O'Neill from Lafayette Square to the
sidewalk in front of the White House while brandishing a large
knife. We still don't know why Mr. Corniel went after Officer
O'Neill. Confronted by officers who had responded to Officer
O'Neill's need for help, Mr. Corniel--again according to the
FBI-- refused to drop the knife and refused to lie on the
ground." Apparently for not following orders--and with dozens 'of
tourists and pedestrians looking on -- Marcelino Corniel was shot
down. Park Police officials say it was a tough call to make under
some pretty awful conditions. But a man is dead. And now
officials must defend that decision to fire.
From the videotape, Mr. Corniel appears to be standing still
before he was shot down. He obviously needed to be subdued. But,
it is being asked,were there less violent means available for
bring him under control, such as the use of Tasers or stun guns,
pepper spray or other nonlethai devices' At bottom, was deadly
force justified? .... The metropolitan police department's
homicide branch, which has jurisdiction over Marcelino Corniel's
death, is investigating. Although fellow officers are involved,
the Metropolitan Police Department and the U.S. attorney who must
review the results must be objective, fair and honest.
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