/CONTRIBUTED PHOTO
BARTHOLOMEW WILLIAMS
BY RICHARD BROOKS
Campus police shot and killed a 38-year-old university student
outside his apartment after he grappled for an officer’s baton, grabbed
and used pepper spray, and then began kicking an officer in the head,
say city police officials.
“According to his mother … he’d been
off his medications (for bi-polar disorder) for at least a week,” Sgt.
Gary Robertson said of Bartholomew Williams, who died at the scene of
the 6:56 p.m. confrontation Saturday, Dec. 8, at University Village
along the 1500 block of West Northpark Boulevard.
Williams was a
graduate student who was has been working toward a master’s degree in
educational instructional technology since summer 2011, but had taken
only one course during the semester that ended Friday, said university
spokesman Sid Robinson.
Though
the shooting happened just hours after the university’s two graduation
ceremonies, the 18,000-student campus appeared tranquil – and largely
deserted -- Sunday.
“There’s not that many people on campus, so
there’s just not much of a buzz,” said 20-year-old student Holly Nicolet
of Wisconsin whose dorm was across the street from the violence. “We
feel safe. We’re not worried.”
Williams shared a ground-floor apartment in Building 8 with three other male students.
The
fatal confrontation occurred during the third time that officers had
been summoned to deal with Williams that day because of erratic
behavior, police said. Officers from an early shift dealt with the first
two incidents, details of which were unavailable Sunday.
The
violence began after three campus police officers on a later shift
answered the third call and knocked on the apartment door to investigate
a report that Williams was creating a disturbance and acting
irrationally, police said.
Williams answered the door and stepped into the hallway where the officers questioned him.
“They tried to take him into custody for psychological evaluation,” Robertson said. “He resisted … and the struggle began.”
Various witnesses told investigators that the fight lasted as long as seven to 10 minutes.
Williams was at least 6-feet-tall and weighed 205 pounds, police said.
During
the fight, officers used batons and pepper-spray, Robertson said,
“which had no effect on him whatsoever, according to the officers.”
Williams
reportedly fought for control of at least one of the batons. And at one
point, he gained possession of an officer’s pepper spray and used it,
Robertson said.
The officers, two men and a woman, were unable to
overcome him. Ultimately, Williams got the upper hand on one male
officer, police say.
“He had one handcuff on: It was now swinging …
(creating) a weapon with serrated teeth,” said Lt. Paul Williams. “He
was on top of the officer, kicking the officer in the head and torso.”
Believing
that the officer was in danger of great bodily injury or death, the two
remaining officers fired a total of five bullets, city police said.
Campus police are not equipped with Tasers.
The police account of the shooting seemed to change the mind of at least one student.
“The
reaction I’ve seen is that people are a little upset because he was
(rumored to be) unarmed,” said 21-year-old communications major Vanessa
Sandoval of Indio. “Was it really necessary (for him) to be shot?”
But
that was before Sandoval learned that Williams had allegedly grappled
for weapons, gassed his opponents with pepper spray and was kicking one
of the officers in the head.
“That’s different,” she decided.
http://www.pe.com/local-news/san-bernardino-county/san-bernardino-county-headlines-index/20121209-san-bernardino-university-police-killed-student-during-struggle.ece?ssimg=816223#ssStory816018
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