Former police officers who shot man must be reinstated, arbitrators decide

Two former Oklahoma police officers charged with manslaughter in the fatal 2021 shooting of an unarmed black man should be reinstated and receive back pay, arbitrators reviewing their cases have ordered.

In their findings, two arbitrators separately concluded that the former officers, Nathan Ronan and Robert Hinkle, who shot Quadry Sanders, 29, a dozen times on Dec. violence was necessary.

An attorney for the officers, Gary James, said by telephone on Wednesday that his clients were relieved by the decisions, which were made on May 30, and were looking forward to returning to work, although it remained unclear exactly when that would be. The Lawton city manager fired both officers in January 2022.

The Lawton city attorney’s office did not immediately respond to calls for comment Wednesday evening, but the city told KSWO TV in a statement that officials disagreed with the arbitrators’ findings and were “disappointed with the outcome”.

Both officers continue to face charges of first-degree manslaughter in Comanche County and a lawsuit filed by Mr. Sanders’ family.

An attorney for Mr. Sanders’ family, the Comanche County district attorney’s office and the Lawton Police Department did not immediately respond to emails and phone calls for comment on Wednesday.

Both arbitrators wrote in their findings, each running nearly 50 pages, that Mr. Hinkle, who is black, and Mr. Ronan, who is white, believed Mr. Sanders had a gun, justifying their decision to fire. However, the city claims that the officers shot and killed a man who posed no imminent danger.

CCTV footage of the confrontation shows officers responding to an emergency call about a man who entered a home in violation of a protection order.

Mr Sanders was in a dispute with a woman when police were called, his family’s lawyer said, and he was the person who breached the protection order, according to a rack issued December 2021 by the Lawton Police Department.

The caller had reported Mr. Sanders brandishing a gun in the house, police said. Officers overheard Mr Sanders refusing to let any of the residents leave, according to prosecutors, and the footage shows officers using a loudspeaker to alert Mr Sanders of their presence.

After a woman leaves the house, Mr. Sanders emerges through a back door, according to the video.

Mr Sanders followed an officer’s orders to show his hands, according to the prosecutor’s office, before running back inside. When Mr. Sanders leaves the house again, an officer with the body camera approaches him, who tells him to put his hands up and sit on the floor.

The only visible object in his hands is a baseball cap, according to the prosecutor’s statement. Mr. Sanders appears to be trying to move behind a refrigerator sitting outside, and just as he raises his hands above his head, one of the officers shoots Mr. Sanders four times.

Mr. Sanders then falls to the ground, to which an officer says again: “Hands! Hands! Hands!”

The footage then shows Mr. Sanders sitting upright with his hands above his head, at which point he is repeatedly shot, the video shows. Officers yell at Mr. Sanders to “stay down” and “roll over on your stomach.” Mr. Sanders, squirming, seems to be saying, “I’m down” and “I can’t breathe.”

The arbitrators concluded that excessive force was not used to an extent warranting termination. But police accountability experts continue to scrutinize and question the practice of adjudicating police misconduct cases across the country; some argue that the process is more favorable to police unions.

Diego Jesus Peña, the arbitrator in Mr Hinkle’s case, declined to comment on his findings. He said he had served as an arbitrator in other cases of police misconduct in the past. Gary A. Anderson, the arbitrator in Mr. Ronan’s case, was not immediately available for comment Wednesday evening.

They were selected through a process whereby each party, the city and officers, can go through a random panel of arbitrators from a national organization one by one until a single arbitrator remains, according to Mr. James, who described the process as fair.

But some experts have criticized that selection process because it could incentivize arbitrators to rule more favorably on police, or else risk being passed over by officers in future cases.

“The arbitrator is doing the right thing and enforcing discipline. Chances are he won’t get another gig,” said Michael Gennaco, an expert on law enforcement reform and accountability. “On the other hand, for those who break discipline or cut the baby in half, or come up with a compromise, those are the ones who get picked up again by the union.”

Police unions typically negotiate such collective bargaining agreements with the city, resulting in widespread use of arbitrators, who are unelected and have little to no accountability, Mr Gennaco said.

“I think it’s really a systemic flaw in the process,” he said.

Arbitrators also work to a broad standard of judgment, focusing on specific sentences, such as whether an officer was fired “without due cause or good cause, or some other general standard,” said Stephen Rushin, a professor of criminal justice, evidence and police accountability at Loyola. University of Chicago.

Dr. Rushin, who has researched police arbitration across the country, said it is “not at all unusual for arbitrators to reinstate or reduce discipline on fired officers,” and that studies have consistently shown this to occur about half the time .

Mr James said he had not seen such an advantage for police officers in his experience with arbitration.

His clients, he said, had won “not because of any bias against the union,” but because of “all the facts that came out in this case.”