84 Hours

It has been 84 hours since something went very wrong on Celina in Akron, leaving a father of 12 shot to death and officers of the Akron Police Department on leave pending results of an investigation. Should it take this long to learn some of the basics?

The lesson left from last year's Vinson shooting was that the APD not talk before it was sure of the facts, and you really can't blame the police brass, the FOP, the Police Auditor, nor even the various city officials who got calls shortly after the incident led to the death of Jeffrey Stephens.

Talk too soon and open yourself up to attack from community sources who imagine the worst from the police, so the best course of action is to not speak at all. Better to let investigative nature take its course, don't interrupt the silence for speculation and don't encourage questions.

Fine advice from an attorney, and a solid course of action for the first 48 hours. But it has been four days now -- Saturday morning, afternoon and evening; all day Sunday, all day Monday and now close of business Tuesday -- without having some of the basic questions on what happened answered.

In many respects this has the potential to become a reverse Vinson; there, speculation was fueled by the facts contained in statements immediately following the shooting. In the Stephens case, the facts are those set forth by eyewitnesses and neighbors not handcuffed by this new don't tell policy.

There are some questions which the department should be able to address by this time, but have been addressed mainly by the Beacon Journal accounts of what happened in the early morning hours of July 5:

- a basic time line of when four officers responded other than a 4:40a call to 9-1-1 and the apparent shooting four minutes later;

- did all of the officers discharge their weapons? A caller noted hearing five shots to begin with and then another "four or five", according to the newspaper's account of 9-1-1 calls;

- was Stephens armed and do officers report he confronted them with a weapon, or failed to drop his weapon? Was his weapon fired?

Caution to avoid the firestorm of controversy that erupted following the Vinson shooting is understandable but four days after the fact Akron's taxpayers -- and both police critics and supporters -- should have a better idea of what happened than sketchy observations from neighbors and skimpy reports from 9-1-1 calls.

Jeffrey Stephens, from all accounts, was a decent man who only left his home on fears his family was under attack. Neighbors speak of him as respectful and someone who was just interested in protecting his children. His life will be remembered by family, friends, neighbors and greater Akron in a memorial service tomorrow evening; it would be appropriate to learn more than what we know now about how and perhaps why he died.