Deputy's bullet kills driver who ran away

Officers mistakenly thought the unarmed Orange County man was a suspect in a slaying.

By Pedro Ruz Gutierrez
Sentinel Staff Writer

January 16, 2004

A veteran Orange County deputy sheriff Thursday shot and killed an unarmed motorist who was mistaken for a murder suspect and tried to elude authorities in a high-speed chase.

Marvin Williams, 26, died at Orlando Regional Medical Center after he was shot by Sgt. Richard Mankewich, a patrol supervisor. Witnesses said they heard three gunshots after Williams fled deputies on foot at Kaley Street near Parramore Avenue about 8:50 a.m.

Stephanie Taylor, the dead man's girlfriend, said he tried to outrun deputies because he did not have a drivers license and did not want to return to jail.

"He was scared. That's why he was running," said Taylor, 21, who lived with Williams and five children in south Orange County. Williams was released from state prison last year after serving 10 months in an Orange County case involving cocaine possession and the sale, manufacture and delivery of cocaine. His criminal history dates to 1993.

Thursday afternoon, Orange County Sheriff Kevin Beary asked the Florida Department of Law Enforcement to investigate the shooting, the first one involving a deputy this year. Typically the Sheriff's Office conducts its own shooting investigations. But most other law-enforcement agencies rely on the FDLE to investigate their cases."It's not because of any indication that anything was done wrong," sheriff's spokesman Chief Steve Jones said of the decision to bring in an independent agency. "It was probably a decision made in the best interest of the community."

At least one civic leader said the shooting illustrates problems at the Sheriff's Office.

"It always seems to me that there is a different thought pattern in the county than in the Orlando Police Department," said Gerald Bell, president of the Orange County branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.

Jones said the criticism by the NAACP is unwarranted because the Sheriff's Office has reduced the number of shootings and injuries to deputies and the public since the introduction of a less-lethal electric Taser gun in 2000.

In 2000, sheriff's records show, deputies opened fire on suspects 10 times. In 2001, there were four such shootings, and there were none in 2002. But last year, the number of shootings by deputies climbed back to nine. Thirteen suspects have been killed by Orange County deputies since 1997.

In that same period, Orlando police officers shot 15 suspects, killing four.

When Orlando police Chief Mike McCoy took office in late 2002 he threw out the department's old policy of investigating itself and called on the FDLE to investigate its shootings.

Sheriff's officials said they did not know if deputies tried to use a Taser on Williams.

Taylor, Williams' girlfriend, questioned why they did not use it.

"I don't know why they had to shoot him," said Taylor, who was handcuffed because deputies thought she was a suspect in the September shooting. "Eventually, he would have stopped."

Deputies began following Williams and Taylor about 8:30 a.m.

Undercover officers assigned to a squad that hunts violent felons and murder suspects staked out a hotel where an informant said they could find the couple wanted in the September slaying.

Taylor said she and Williams went to the hotel off Rio Grande Avenue about 8:30 a.m. to meet a friend of Williams'. They later drove by apartments, she said, and then Williams suspected he was being followed by undercover police cars. A few minutes later, Mankewich and other deputies took over the chase.

"I got this" under control, Williams told his girlfriend, trying to reassure her that he could outrun deputies.

During the pursuit, which started near Ivey Lane and Raleigh Street, Taylor said she pleaded with Williams to stop. He had no outstanding warrants, but he feared authorities because of his prior run-ins with the law.

Minutes later, authorities said, Williams stopped his car on Kaley Street, ran and tried to break into a woman's home.

Mankewich, 37, shot Williams after deputies said they thought he was reaching into his pants pockets as though he were looking for a weapon. However, his girlfriend said Williams was simply trying to pull up his pants.

Agents realized they had the wrong couple when they compared photos of the suspects to Williams and Taylor.

Investigators have not released where Williams was hit or how many times he was shot. He died at Orlando Regional Medical Center after 9:30 a.m.

Jones, the sheriff's spokesman, said the deputies felt threatened by Williams' actions and thought he was reaching for a gun. "Be careful. He's going in his waistband. He's going in his waistband," Jones quoted a deputy who radioed minutes before the shooting.

Jones defended the deputies' actions, saying the officers thought they were following a couple suspected in a fatal shooting. Sgt. Bob Dow, 58, accompanied Mankewich but did not fire.

"There was every indication and probable cause that these two [suspects] were the ones we were looking for," he said.

In addition, Jones said, Williams did not pull over in his vehicle and disobeyed deputies. Mankewich, who joined the department in 1991, was placed on leave with pay.

He is no stranger to public scrutiny. In 1997, he was one of three deputies involved in the stop and subsequent arrest of a Miami police major along Florida's Turnpike. Maj. Aaron Campbell, who is black, eventually settled a civil-rights suit that had alleged the Sheriff's Office had racially profiled him.

Kelly Brewington and Anthony Colarossi of the Sentinel contributed to this report. Pedro Ruz Gutierrez can be reached at pruz@orlandosentinel.com or 407-420-5620.