Police Pledge Probe of Pa. Beating

PHILADELPHIA — The city’s police chief vowed Friday that there will be no rush to judgment in determining whether officers who beat a carjacking suspect acted properly.

“There are prescribed ways of doing this. I know this is very frustrating and isn’t satisfactory, but that’s the way it is,” Police Commissioner John F. Timoney told reporters.

Timoney and Mayor John Street have promised a thorough investigation into Wednesday’s videotaped beating of Thomas Jones, and the U.S. Justice Department opened a separate inquiry into whether Jones’ civil rights were violated.

Timoney said authorities have not determined which gun was used to shoot Police Officer Michael Livewell as he tried to prevent Jones from stealing a police cruiser. Livewell, who was shot in the thumb, was released from the hospital Friday.

“Right now, it looks like he was shot by the suspect. But it may change,” depending on what witnesses say, Timoney said.

Aides said Street briefed business leaders and City Council members on the situation Friday morning and planned further briefings with black clergy and state lawmakers.

The mayor declined to comment, but his chief of staff, Stephanie Franklin-Suber, told KYW-AM that the investigation will be fair.

“There’s not going to be a witch hunt, but there’s not going to be a whitewash,” she said.

Philadelphia NAACP President J. Whyatt Mondesire said the group is pressing for criminal charges against the officers and will help the Jones family sue the city.

“I guarantee they will pay,” Mondesire said.

Jones, 30, was hospitalized in fair condition Friday with two gunshot wounds to the stomach and three to the left arm, said his mother, Clemeline Jones. She said he woke up and spoke Thursday morning but has been under heavy sedation since.

Police said they began chasing Jones on Wednesday after spotting him driving an automobile that had been reported stolen in a July 1 carjacking.

Police said the car crashed, they exchanged gunfire with Jones, and he then stole the police car and fled before he was cornered and subdued. Police said Jones shot Livewell in the thumb and bit another officer’s hand.

Ever since Philadelphia was selected to be the host of the Republican National Convention more than 18 months ago, civic leaders have been giddy over the chance to promote the city as an exciting, renewed urban center.

But less than three weeks before the start of the convention, millions of television viewers saw a more disturbing image of Philadelphia: police officers kicking and punching Jones over and over.

“This is not the kind of image that Philadelphia wants on the eve of the Republican convention,” said G. Terry Madonna, a political analyst at Millersville University.

Leaders of the city’s black community called it a case of police brutality but said the beating did not appear to be racially motivated. Several black officers took part.

“We’re hoping that the black community of Philadelphia will remain calm,” said the Rev. Vernal Simms, president of the Black Clergy of Philadelphia and Vicinity.

Timoney said police do not receive training in when to kick and when not to kick, but under certain circumstances it is permissible.

“If you feel you’re in a life-and-death situation, clearly you do whatever you have to do to survive. Is that the situation here now? We have no idea,” he said Friday.

Timoney noted the video shows only an aerial view of the beating and does not indicate whether Jones was resisting. The video was taken by a television news crew in a helicopter.

A frame-by-frame analysis of the video by the Philadelphia Inquirer showed Jones was punched and kicked 59 times in 28 seconds before a supervisor rushed in and backed the officers away.

The majority of the blows, 41, were inflicted by just three officers, two of them plainclothes officers, the newspaper said.