Police: Teen who was shot at West High was armed; mom disputes that (+video)

A 17-year-old West High student was shot by Wichita police on Friday evening.

Police say the teen, whose identity has not been released, was armed and running toward the police officer who fired.

His mother says on Facebook her son was “unarmed and shot in the back while running.”

He remains in critical but stable condition at a local hospital.

Interim Wichita Police Chief Nelson Mosley held a media briefing Saturday to release more information on the shooting.

“This is an ongoing investigation – we still have interviews to do and a lot of work to do, but we wanted to put this information out as soon as we could,” Mosley said.

The police narrative

Mosley gave the following account at the Saturday briefing.

On Friday evening, police officers were conducting follow-up work related to Tuesday’s double homicide, in which three “specific individuals” were implicated.

Police received “reliable information” that the suspects could be found at one of two locations.

Two of the suspects had been arrested earlier Friday – one at one of the locations police had gotten information on.

Police went to the second suspected location and saw a burgundy 1997 Ford F-150 leaving with four men inside. Police thought the truck contained a suspect.

Officers followed the truck to West High School’s east entrance, where they attempted a traffic stop near the school’s tennis courts.

The 17-year-old got out of the truck and began to run west, holding a Smith and Wesson handgun, Mosley said.

The other three occupants remained inside the truck.

Police do not know why the teen ran.

Other officers had pulled into an entrance farther west.

Police issued multiple verbal commands for the teen to drop the handgun, which were ignored.

One of the officers who had arrived from the west fired “several rounds,” striking the teen at least once in his side/back area and once in his right wrist, hitting the handgun.

The teen was about 26 feet from the doors of the school and 10 feet from the building when the gun was dropped shortly after he was shot.

Mosley could not say for sure whether the teen ever pointed the gun at officers.

“All I can say at this point is that the individual was running at the officers with the gun in his hand,” Mosley said. “We’re still asking the questions and getting to whether or not it was pointed, but again, he was running towards our officers with it in his hand, and then we were heading towards the door at West High.

“We had officers behind, but we had other officers coming in the other drive, so that’s where we get ‘running towards.’ ”

At the Saturday briefing, police displayed pictures showing the handgun that was collected from the scene. It had been chipped below the barrel.

After being shot, the 17-year-old continued running southwest for about 100 yards to McCormick Street before surrendering to officers.

Police immediately gave medical aid to the teen and called Emergency Medical Services. He was taken to Via Christi Hospital St. Francis in critical condition, where he remained Saturday.

The three other occupants of the truck were taken in for questioning and have since been released. Police do not think any of the men were involved in the homicide.

The officer who shot at the teen has been with the department for approximately 20 years and has been placed on paid administrative leave, as per departmental policy.

Family disputes police narrative

Tiffany Ford, the 17-year-old’s mother, wrote on her Facebook page early Saturday morning that her son was unarmed. She then wrote the hashtag #justicefordayday.

Ford also posted a video of her son in the hospital on what appears to be a breathing machine, where she asked for prayers.

In the video, she says: “OK, I know a lot of you guys are worried about DayDay. Please keep him in your prayers. He’s going to be OK. I claim that my baby’s gonna be fine. Pray for him. And we, we’ve got to stop them doing us like this. Our black kids. Our black people. We’ve got to stop y’all. Today is the day. We’ve got to stop. We’ve got to stand up for ourselves. This makes no sense. My baby’s 17 years old. And look how they’ve got him laid up. Please pray for DayDay.”

When someone commented that they didn’t like her sharing the video on Facebook, Ford responded: “This needs to be seen, this needs to get out. I will not be sweeping this under the rug.”

Mosley said Saturday after noon that he had not seen the video.

“The Wichita Police Department wants to extend its thoughts and prayers to all those involved in the incident,” a statement from the police read.

Ford could not be reached Saturday for an interview.

Body cameras

The shooting comes at a time of increased scrutiny of police shootings across the country.

In Wichita, there have been two officer-involved fatalities in 2015 – John Paul Quintero in January and Nicholas Garner in August.

Wichita police said Saturday that officers have been involved in four shootings in 2015.

The Wichita Police Department is in the process of outfitting all of its officers with body cameras by the end of 2015. Two bureaus already have access to body cameras, Mosley said.

Two of the responding officers at West High were wearing body cameras, and police released a still image from the footage on Saturday.

The image appears to show the teen holding a gun in his right hand.

Police are also looking through surveillance footage from the West High parking lot.

Mosley said the teen was a documented gang member.

He said he would not speculate on whether the teen was trying to get inside the school, where the West and Northwest girls basketball teams were playing. There were between 200 and 300 people in the school, Mosley said.

“I don’t want to speculate what he was going to do, but we do know he was headed in that direction,” Mosley said. “I don’t want to get into what he may or may not have done.”

The case will be presented to the district attorney’s office for consideration of charges, including possession of a handgun by a juvenile and possession of a firearm on school grounds.

Sunflower Community Action is expected to release a statement about the shooting on Monday, according to its spokesman, Djuan Wash.

Police are still looking for a third homicide suspect.

Police are also still looking into the location where the truck was originally pulling away from, Mosley said.

This story was originally published December 5, 2015 at 12:23 PM with the headline "Police: Teen who was shot at West High was armed; mom disputes that (+video)."