ATLANTA — Civil rights activist Rev. Markel Hutchins says he has changed his approach to police shootings, after he became the one holding the gun.
Hutchins has held numerous news conferences and led protests over police shootings, including the Neal Street shooting in 2006, the killing of teenager Corey Ward in Buckhead in 2002 and others.
“We face an unjust criminal system,” Hutchins said of the recent police shooting and non-indictment in Ferguson, Missouri.
Hutchins agreed to an unusual challenge from Channel 2 Investigative Reporter Mark Winne.
He arranged to meet Winne at the Atlanta Police Academy for immersion in shooting policy and handgun handling.
Hutchins told Winne he frankly wanted to know if the experience would change him.
Armed first with a special high-tech gun, Hutchins moved through a series of interactive video scenarios meant to force officers, or in this case the activist, to decide in a flash whether to shoot or not shoot, and at whom.
In the first video, Hutchins yelled for a woman with a gun to put her weapon down. When she didn't, he pulled the trigger, the correct decision.
"Eleven shots fired. Three hits, none of them were lethal," said Atlanta police Investigator William Lyons.
Instructors explained to Hutchins the very limited circumstances in which an officer may fire at a fleeing suspect, an issue tragically underscored in a notorious recent incident captured on cellphone video.
Winne traveled to North Charleston, South Carolina, for one-on-one interviews with the family of the shooting victim and his Atlanta-based attorney, L. Chris Stewart.
"Why did you feel it necessary to use lethal force?" Lyons asked Hutchins.
"I saw her hand in her purse and when I gave the command to show me her hands she refused," Hutchins answered.
"Were you justified in using lethal force?" asked Lyons.
When Hutchins answered yes, Lyons asked him who he was protecting.
"Myself," said Hutchins, and Lyons agreed.
Hutchins went through another video scenario before getting to a third that showed a man arguing with a woman. Another woman is holding a gun on the man telling him to stop.
Hutchins fired off several shots in the direction of the melee.
"A whole lot going on very quickly and that's what we as police officers have to deal with," said Lyons.
Lyons told Hutchins the woman with the gun was an off-duty officer, and that some of Hutchins shots hit her.
"You probably gave a lethal shot to the off-duty officer," Lyons told him, citing Hutchins’ lack of marksmanship experience as a significant factor in the outcome.
In the aftermath, it appeared Hutchins had been trying to shoot the right person, the wrongdoer.
Winne noticed Hutchins was emotional and asked if he was really sure who he was trying to shoot.
"No. At best I made some place between a head and heart judgment," Hutchins answered.
Though, in the end, Winne said it appeared his intentions were the correct ones.
Then, with head and heart protected, Hutchins put on police safety gear as the scenarios ramped up, moved outside and involved real people.
Lyons gave Hutchins direction, then turned him around to face three people, one armed with a hammer, another with a can and the third armed with a gun.
Hutchins fired his gun. Lyons asked why.
“I saw him draw his weapon," Hutchins said.
"But you pointed the weapon at the (other) two as well, didn't, you," Lyons pointed out.
Hutchins did well on the first three situations, but not the fourth.
"The dynamics just changed. You just shot a guy with a hammer who is 16 feet away from you," Lyons told him. "(He's holding) the hammer at port arms. You probably would've been prosecuted for that one."
Hutchins told Winne, without question, he was moved by the experience.
He said he was changed in ways that will make him more effective as a civil and human rights activist, now able to discern issues in police shooting controversies he would not have been able to before.
"If we are going to have an advocacy community that demands accountability among law enforcement, we've got to be reasonable and understand the process," he said.
Winne asked if having a real gun pointed at him changed the way Hutchins looks at police shootings.
"Absolutely. Having a real weapon in real time pointed at me sensitized me in a way that no other experience could have to the rigors that police officers face," Hutchins said. "They want to go home to their families too."