Fatal police shooting of 16-year-old Ruben Debrosse raising more questions than answers

http://www.thewestsidegazette.com/News/article/article.asp?NewsID=90624&sID=4&ItemSource=L

by K. Chandler
Westside Gazette
Originally posted 8/20/2008

‘How was it physically possible for Debrosse to not only shift the Kia from reverse into drive, but also accelerate the car forward & hit a pole after being shot in the head?’

Three weeks after the fatal police shooting of 16-year-old Ruben Debrosse of Royal Palm Beach, the case is raising more questions than it is answering. Now, eyewitness accounts are surfacing that appear to differ substantially from the official police version of events.

According to Attorney Val Rodriguez, who is representing the Debrosse family, a number of eyewitnesses have come forward, including two women from Pahokee who said they witnessed the entire incident while awaiting help for their disabled car after they came out of the Regal Royal Palm Beach 18 Cinema on North State Road 7. So close was the women’s car, in fact, that it literally had to be moved out of the crime scene parameters.

Both women confirmed that they saw a sheriff’s deputy follow the decedent’s car (an alleged stolen Kia) into the parking lot of the plaza without the patrol car’s blue lights flashing, after which it appeared that Debrosse’s car accidentally bumped into the deputy’s vehicle behind him.

Then, according to the women’s story — which Atty. Rodriguez described as being both consistent and believable (the women produced movie theatre stubs to verify their presence at the theatre) – Debrosse, who had no prior criminal record, apparently tried to move forward but was hemmed in by another sheriff’s patrol car which had arrived on the scene and was in front of the Kia.

Rodriguez stated that the women told him the officer (later identified as Sheriff’s Deputy Eric Bethel) appeared to be very angry that the youth, a sophomore at Royal Palm Beach High School, bumped into his squad car. Subsequently, Bethel got out and repeatedly screamed at Debrosse: Get out of the car now!” (It might be noted here that the patrol car sustained little or no damage and was put right back into service.)

Per the women’s account, the officer was never in any danger as the car was moving awayfrom him at a slow rate of speed, not toward him. It was at this point that Debrosse was hit twice in the head and back with at least one shot going through the window behind the driver’s seat, by Bethel, who was standing beside the left rear bumper.

Rodriguez and a lot of others are having trouble buying into the notion that Bethel had reason to fear for his life. What bothers Rodriguez the most, however, is the officer’s contention that Debrosse was trying to back his car into him, causing the deputy to shoot. By several accounts, the youth slumped over the steering wheel after being shot in the vicinity of the left ear, raising the question, ‘How could it have been physically possible for Debrosse to not only shift the Kia from reverse into drive, but then also accelerate the car forward (which is the condition the car was found in) and hit a pole after being shot in the head?’

“By law an officer cannot shoot a fleeing suspect,” noted Rodriguez. The only way it can be justified is if it is determined that the officer believed he was in fear for his life from a car careening into him.

Describing the case as one of the “saddest” he’s seen in the 15 years he’s been litigating civil rights cases, Rodriguez noted that had the officer turned on his flashing blue lights to identify himself, given that it was dark, the decedent would have more than likely gotten out of his car and cooperated with authorities. Ironically, Debrosse had recently received a $1,000 scholarship for being the “most outstanding cadet” at the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office Eagle Academy, a youth intervention program that his mother had voluntarily enrolled him in to build character.

Rodriguez also took umbrage with reports portraying the Kia as stolen. “The fact of the matter is that it’d been reported as an ‘over stay’ by the car rental agency for only one week.”

Rodriguez also emphatically stressed that it was crucial for State Attorney Barry Krischer to recuse himself from this case as Krischer is expected to begin working for the Sheriff’s Department upon the conclusion of his term of office in November, raising a serious ethical conflict of interest.