OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) – The Latest on a deaf man who was shot and killed by an Oklahoma City police officer (all times local):
6:10 p.m.
A spokesman for the family of a deaf man who was fatally shot by an Oklahoma City police officer has hired an attorney who also represented the family of a black man who was killed by a white Tulsa police officer.
FILE – In this Wednesday, June 15, 2016 file photo, Oklahoma City Police Chief Bill Citty speaks during a news conference in Oklahoma City. 2016. Citty says he plans to meet with advocates for the hearing and speech-impaired following the fatal shooting of a deaf man. (AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki, File)
The spokesman, Julio Rayos, told The Associated Press on Thursday that the family of 35-year-old Magdiel Sanchez has hired Melvin C. Hall. The website for the Oklahoma City attorney’s law firm says he specializes in employment law and civil rights cases.
Hall also represented the family of 40-year-old Terence Crutcher, who was fatally shot in September 2016 by Tulsa police officer Betty Jo Shelby after she encountered the unarmed man in a roadway.
Shelby was acquitted of first-degree manslaughter in Crutcher’s death. Crutcher’s family has filed a lawsuit over his death.
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4:50 p.m.
The police chief of Oklahoma City says he plans to meet with advocates for the hearing- and speech-impaired following the fatal shooting of a deaf man.
Police Chief Bill Citty said Thursday that the fatal shooting of 35-year-old Magdiel Sanchez has raised “a lot of concerns” about training for officer interaction with people who have hearing or speech problems.
Citty says officers who responded to a hit-and-run accident Tuesday night encountered Sanchez holding a metal pipe in his right hand. Citty says Sanchez didn’t respond to commands to drop the pipe and was fatally shot.
Officials say witnesses yelled, “He can’t hear you,” before the officers fired, but they didn’t hear them. The officer who fired the gun, Sgt. Chris Barnes, is on administrative leave pending an investigation.
In this photo provided by the Sanchez family, Magdiel Sanchez is pictured in an undated photo. Sanchez was shot and killed when Oklahoma City police officers opened fire on him in front of his home Tuesday, Sept. 19, 2017, as he approached them holding a metal pipe. A department official said the police officers didn’t hear witnesses yelling that Sanchez was deaf. (Sanchez Family Photo via AP)
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