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Body Count

The Evansville Police Department will protect and serve the f@&k out of you!

By Phoenixx Fyre DeanPublished 4 years ago 9 min read
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The Evansville Police Department is rife with body camera failures.

Bad cops are real. They are real and they are dangerous. Their badge seems to excuse their behavior, and they often rise above the laws they are sworn to protect. Body cameras that should be able to provide a clear and indisputable record of what happened during any questionable incident often "fail" to collect information. It seems if you simply pin a badge on your chest, you are free to kill at will in Evansville, Indiana. It's become commonplace to hear one more press conference about yet one more officer involved shooting. Line of duty deaths or cold blooded murder? You decide.

Evansville Police Department, failing its citizens since 1863. (Photo credit: Facebook)

John Zirklebach began his career as a law enforcement officer March 12, 1973. Zirklebach's father (Don), grandfather (Peter) and son (Adam) were also law enforcement officers in Evansville. Though the Zirklebach's have an impressive history with the Evansville Police Department, with Peter Zirklebach the first to join in 1924, the family has not been without its scandals.

Just six years after John Zirklebach was hired and sworn as an officer of the Evansville Police Department, he was sued by Ann Peaches, mother of Walter Peaches, Jr., for the shooting death of her son. Seventeen-year-old Walter Peaches Jr., was running from an attempted burglary when he was shot dead by Zirklebach. Ann contended in the lawsuit that the City of Evansville was negligent in hiring Zirklebach, that Zirklebach wrongfully caused the death of her son and that her son was denied his civil rights. Although there was evidence of Zirklebach's explosive temper, it wasn't permitted in court. The incident that was thrown out of court and not given any weight at all was an incident in which Zirklebach was off duty and at his residence when a van hit his garbage cans. In response, Zirklebach grabbed his revolver, took aim and fired three shots into the van. Thankfully, nobody was injured, but Zirklebach faced no repercussions from that incident either.

Sgt. Jacob Taylor, Evansville Police Department (Photo credit: EPD)

The circumstances surrounding the death of Eugene McKnight are truly heartbreaking. On July 10, 2011, Sergeant Jacob Taylor was called to the 400 block of Read Street in Evansville, Indiana, for a suicidal subject. According to the lawsuit filed in the jurisdiction of the Indiana Supreme Court, and by the minor child of McKnight states in part:

At approximately 2:13 p.m. on July 10, 2011, Officer Taylor received a text message from the EPD SWAT Team Commander notifying him of an on-going situation involving a barricaded gunman at 403 Read Street and asking whether Taylor was available to respond. Officer Taylor responded that he was available, after which he reported to the EPD command building, where he prepared the SWAT Unit truck and drove to the scene of the standoff. En-route, Officer Taylor was informed by police radio transmissions that the barricaded suspect was firing shots at the police on scene. When Officer Taylor arrived at the scene, he stopped the truck just south of the residence, where he could hear officers shouting commands to the suspect to come out with his hands up. Sergeant Hoover, another officer on scene, informed Officer Taylor that the suspect had fired shots from the second story window and instructed Taylor to equip himself with a ballistics shield and prepare his 40 mm launcher, a non-lethal weapon that fires sponge rounds. While gathering his equipment, Officer Taylor heard what he believed was a gunshot coming from the second story of the residence. He delivered the ballistics shield to Officer Knight and was informed that the suspect, Eugene McKnight, was suffering from suicidal behavior and had been inhaling paint-thinners and consuming alcohol. He was also informed that McKnight had shot himself and had nearly struck an officer in the head with one of his prior gunshots.

Equipped with his 40 mm launcher and his standard-issue Heckler & Koch .45 caliber rifle, Officer Taylor located himself to the rear of Officers Knight and Montgomery. Officer Knight held the ballistic shield; Officer Montgomery took cover behind Officer Knight and to the right; and Officer Taylor stood behind Officer Knight and to the left. Together, the three officers huddled against the corner of an apartment building adjacent to the home, with Officer Montgomery closest to the building and Officer Taylor farthest away.

A few seconds after Officer Taylor positioned himself behind Officer Knight, Eugene McKnight emerged from the house onto the front porch. Although Officer Taylor could not personally see the door of the home — he was crouched down unzipping the bag containing his 40 mm launcher — he heard other officers begin shouting to McKnight to "show his hands" and "drop the gun." Officer Taylor heard the other officers command McKnight to "drop the gun" at least four times before he stood up and peered around Officer Knight to view the scene.

From that position, Officer Taylor was standing in direct sunlight and positioned less than thirty feet from the front porch on which McKnight was standing, motionless in the shade of the home's awning.3 McKnight, who was covered in blood from his self-inflicted wounds, assumed "a kind of crouched position with his right hand holding the door open and his left hand by his thigh." The officers continued to shout commands to him ordering him to drop the gun and show his hands, but McKnight remained motionless and stared out at them blankly. In McKnight's left hand, the officers saw a "silver and black" object that appeared to be approximately five or six inches long. Officer Knight, Officer Taylor, Officer Montgomery, and Sergeant Hoover all reported thinking that the silver and black object was a medium-sized handgun.

To Officer Taylor, the silver and black object looked like a handgun with a silver slide and black rail, much like other handguns he had seen in the past, and the stance in which McKnight had positioned himself — a crouched stance with a low center of gravity with his left foot forward and his right foot still in the doorway — looked to Officer Taylor like a shooting position. Seeing McKnight positioned in an "aggressive bladed stance" and holding what appeared to be a silver and black handgun, Officer Taylor shouldered his Heckler & Koch .45 caliber rifle and ordered McKnight to drop the gun. McKnight gave no response to the command, remaining motionless on the front porch. Seeing no response, Officer Taylor fired a single shot that struck McKnight in the chest. Approximately 5-6 seconds elapsed from the time McKnight was first commanded to drop the gun to the moment Officer Taylor shot him in the chest.

By Sergeant Taylor's own admission, the man didn't attempt to attack the officers in that moment. In that moment, it seems Mr. McKnight was ready to accept the offer of help, and was surrendering peacefully. Six seconds grace is what he was given, after inhaling paint thinners, drinking alcohol and losing an enormous amount of blood from the self-inflicted bullet hole in his foot. It was a call for help ended in with the violent death of a despondent man holding a cell phone.

Evansville Police Department K-9 handler, Jason Thomas. (Photo credit: EPD)

Officer Dexter Wolf, Evansville Police Department. (Photo credit: Facebook)

Officer Zachary Elfrich, Evansville Police Department. (Photo credit: EPD)

Officers Jason Taylor, Dexter Wolf and Zachary Elfrich were called to backup an officer in the vicinity of TGI Friday's on Evansville's Green River Road. There were multiple 911 calls to report a man that was threatening to "kill some cops" before he exited the restaurant and crossed the parking lot to an adjacent bank parking lot. The first police officer, arrived in the parking lot just as thirty-eight year old Daniel Wooters was peering into a vehicle parked in the bank parking lot. The officer got out of her patrol car and attempted to approach Wooters when he pulled a knife and advanced toward the officer. When the officer retreated to the back of her patrol car to put distance between herself and Daniel, the homeless man seized the opportunity and jumped into the Evansville Police Department patrol car, leaving the officer without her suspect or her vehicle.

Hearing the call over their radios, three officers were pulling into the parking lot of the bank just as Wooters took off in the stolen police cruiser. The three officers pursued him at a high rate of speed through the streets of Evansville, and ended when Daniel wrecked the car. When Daniel Wooters exited the car holding the knife, Officers Taylor, Wolf and Elfrich opened fire on the man, hitting him eleven times. Wooters was then handcuffed and the officers began CPR on the bullet-riddled man. One minute later, the officers realized the attempt to save the life they had just taken was futile and ceased their efforts.

It has been argued that Wooters was giving up. It's been argued that the officers had plenty of distance between themselves and danger and that it was unnecessary to use lethal force. The body camera footage from the incident tells the truth. Once you have watched the video and read the details of the case, you decide for yourself. Was it necessary and justified to have shot Wooters eleven times?

Officer Kenny Dutschke, Evansville Police Department (Photo credit: Facebook)

Fifty-five year old Ricky Ard went to the Winfield K. Benton Federal Building August 28, 2017, to “complain about the government.” He was approached by security and asked to leave, and Ard did so.

August 29, 2017, Ricky Ard made the fateful decision to return to the Winfield K. Benton Federal Building. Ard arrived, baseball bat in hand and shouting the same complaints he had attempted to voice the day before. After using the bat to break out windows in the building, Ricky retreated to a shady spot away from the building for a few short seconds before turning and starting towards the glass doors of the building once again. It was upon Ard's second approach that Evansville Police Department officer, Kenny Dutschke, arrived and approached Ricky from behind. Officer Dutschke and shouted the order to put the bat down. Immediately upon hearing the voice of Officer Dutschke, Ard turned with his bat raised and charged the officer. Dutschke deployed his taser, which was wholly ineffective, as Ricky Ard continued towards the officer. Dropping the taser, Officer Kenny Dutschke drew his weapon and pulled the trigger eight times, striking Ard. Kenny Dutschke and a federal security guard (US Marshal), whose name has not been released, shot Ricky Ard a total of six times, killing the mentally ill man.

Was Kenny Dutschke justified in killing Ricky Ard? Was there anything else he could have done to have avoided killing another citizen?

In no other free country do police officers shoot at will. Instead, they take time to speak with the suspect or they use non-lethal means of intervention to put an end to an incident. Most years, police officers around the United States have a combined body count of almost one thousand! Compare that astounding number with the four hundred thirty-six in South Africa in 2018 and one officer-involved death in the whole of the United Kingdom.

Those numbers aren't conspiracy theory. They are fact and each one of those numbers represents a life lost. A family shattered. It should be harder to pull the trigger on a human being, and these are the people we entrust with our safety and the safety of our children.

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About the Creator

Phoenixx Fyre Dean

Phoenixx lives on the Oregon coast with her husband and children.

Author of Lexi and Blaze: Impetus, The Bloody Truth and Daddy's Brat. All three are available on Amazon in paperback format and Kindle in e-book format.

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