Pennsylvania State Police Corporal speaking at the Community Information Meeting, 2nd Baptist Church, Coatesville, PA, Saturday, May 8, 2010

DW_C1590 State Police Corp.mp3

Pennsylvania State Police Corporal:*


"The very first thing that I’d like to say here today is that I am very sorry for the loss that the community has suffered and especially the loss the family has suffered.


Again, I am very grateful that I work for Commanders like Lieutenant Brown that I’ve worked under for quite some time who care enough to be here today and have us here today and the District Attorney who cares enough to be here today recognizing that we have issues that we need to get through…


I had to go back to the area there to help with some forensic photography that was being done. As I stood there with other State Troopers on one side of the street and saw the residents lining up on the other side of the street, it pained me that the animosity that I felt between us the community across the street; that none of us could take a step across the street and talk to the other person. It hurt me, bothered me. So I’m grateful that I have the opportunity be here today.


As Sergeant Wilson said, I can’t probably answer every single question you have, but I can give you the best, per our regulations, about what I’m able to gather at this point. And as Lieutenant Brown said, ‘our goal is to be as transparent as possible, as objective as possible and that’s what we intend to do’.


The Coatesville Police Department to this point has given us everything that we’ve asked for. We’ll have some time for questions; I’ll just give you a breakdown of where we are so far:


Our initial response on Wednesday evening; we were asked by the Coatesville Police Department, originally to assist in the investigation and ultimately to assume responsibility for the investigation. We responded with our full patrol unit that was available at the time including two patrol Corporals with significant experience and time on the job.


As we assumed command we brought in our forensic people, those are our CSI people to do the forensic photography and evidence collection. And brought in our Car Zone, which is a collision reconstruction team to forensically map the area so that we could make the best possible determination of exactly how that accident occurred on that street.


We also responded with criminal investigators. Our initial response was ten to twelve officers we’ve had assigned to this investigation since Wednesday night and are currently involved with this investigation at this time.


We have criminal investigators whose primary responsibility has been to interview residents. We’ve done several interviews with people, but we’re seeking more interviews. We know that there’s information out there. We know that there’s word on the street that we haven’t been able to obtain. And part of that is; we’re standing on separate sides of the street. We’re not making progress, in that regard. So we’re looking for people to come forward. We can set up some type of mechanism to address that. So that we can get the people who have information to come forward and that we can talk to them.


On Thursday we spent a significant amount of time with two of our forensic specialists combing over very detailed searches of both the police vehicle and also the Jeep Patriot. Those vehicles were inspected and what that has shown us at this point is we have not found to this point any physical evidence to indicate that there was a collision between those two vehicles. We do not have any physical evidence to this point that has shown us that.


I spoke to Doctor Dickter this morning the Coroner and he advised me that he would be able to contact the family today (Saturday). His findings he will be able to be released, he hopes have by at least the end of the week. But he told me that what I was able to say at this point, on his behalf:


First his deep concern for his family. He has told me the detail that he is going through to explain every step to his family and some of the information that he’s not releasing now is out of respect for the family. So they have all the information first.


I did quote his finding that it is a ‘closed head injury’ his findings in the autopsy. A closed head injury and he’s telling me that there has been no evidence in the autopsy of any foul play on the part of the police based on his autopsy…


So just to summarize:


We assumed responsibility for the investigation shortly after it occurred and we’ve had ten to twelve investigators working on it.


Our first step was to take the vehicles, to comb over the vehicles for physical evidence.


I know that there are rumors that we’ve heard and one of the things that we’ve heard that we’re trying to address. And maybe some of those questions will come up today that I will be happy to answer if I can.


Again, the physical evidence from the vehicle is not showing us anything to indicate striking between the police vehicle and the Jeep vehicle.


The autopsy, I gave you information that I am able to give.


The third thing that is critical, we need people who saw what happened to come out. Again, we have to discern between whether you’ve heard it from somebody and what you actually saw.


And I think it’s important and I keep saying, to this point this is what we’ve found; we are not finished by any stretch of the imagination. We are not finished and we are going to follow up every phone call, every leak, every person that comes forward because it’s the right thing to do and it’s the fair thing to do for everybody involved, especially the family of Rasheem. And the right thing to do for the police offers who are involved."

*When I get his correct name I'll type it in. I can't discern it from the recording.