Police officer who fired gun at deputy car is suspended|[2/26/05]

Published 12:00 am Monday, February 28, 2005

A Vicksburg police officer was suspended for five days Friday for firing two shots at a tire of a Warren County Sheriff’s Department vehicle two weeks ago.

The Board of Mayor and Aldermen voted unanimously to uphold the recommendation by Police Chief Tommy Moffett that Virgil Woodall, a 15-year officer, be suspended without pay.

Woodall opened fire on the dark-colored Ford Crown Victoria driven by Investigator Mike Traxler during a search of an area off Wisconsin Avenue after a burglary had been reported late Feb. 12.

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“He believed he was shooting at a burglary suspect,” Moffett said.

Mayor Laurence Leyens said after the closed-door meeting that the board has instructed the police department to re-train officers on use of firearms and the use of deadly force.

“Discharging a firearm is a serious and significant incident, and every incident will be investigated,” Leyens said.

Deadly force is defined as force that could cause death or serious injury. The Vicksburg Police Department’s standard operating guidelines, or SOG, states that deadly force can only be used in self-defense, defense of another person or, if there is imminent danger, that an escaping suspect will cause death or bodily harm to another.

Woodall did not attend the city board meeting, and phone calls to his home were not answered.

The shooting followed a break-in at Cowboy Maloney’s Electric City, 1800 S. Frontage Road, around 11:40 p.m. Witnesses reported seeing two men fleeing the area on foot and two satellite radios and speakers, all valued at about $350, were reported missing, according to police reports.

Traxler, who drives the same make and model car as many city patrol cars, including unmarked cars, responded to the call along with several police officers. No one was injured and there was no vehicle damage, except to the tire.

Moffett has said Woodall violated that policy, but indicated the infraction warranted only a suspension. The action against Woodall comes a week after the city board upheld a recommendation from Moffett to fire a 17-year officer after he reportedly attempted to assault a shackled prisoner.

Clay Griffin, who was a prisoner transfer officer, reported to his supervisor that he had attempted to knee a shackled prisoner in the groin after the prisoner made lewd comments about the officer’s wife. Griffin’s lawyer has filed to appeal that decision before the Civil Service Commission.

Moffett said he fired Griffin because the incident opened the department to liability, but he said that comparing what happened with the two officers is comparing “apples to oranges.”

“We’re not talking about the same things,” Moffett said.

Neither Griffin nor his lawyer, Travis T. Vance Jr., was available for comment.

In other matters the city board: