Defending his decision to open fire on a man six years ago, Raleigh County Sheriff's Deputy Gregory Kade told a federal jury Tuesday he had no choice after Robert Webb shouldered a semi-automatic weapon he had been shooting at his Cabell Heights home in the wee hours of the Fourth of July. Webb dropped to his driveway after Kade fired at him with a Remington Model 807 shotgun, and Deputy John Hajash fired a 40-caliber handgun. Just before the officers opened fire, Kade said he called out to the victim in a loud voice, Police show us your hands; testimony that two of Webb's neighbors disputed. Kade testified on the second day of a trial in which Webb's widow, Mary, alleges the Raleigh County Sheriff's Department and the Raleigh County Commission were negligent, that he was worried about the safety of her and two daughters, Amanda and Samantha, since the first EOC call indicated shots were being directed at Webb's house. I was concerned for the safety of whoever was in the house, said Kade, called to the stand initially by one of the plaintiff's lawyers, Travis Griffith, of Charleston. In my mind, if he's shooting at them, he's going to shoot at me. In the jury's absence, U.S. District Judge Irene Berger granted a defense motion for a summary judgment that excused then-Sheriff Danny Moore and his successor, Steve Tanner, from individual liability. Kade was moonlighting at a Holiday Inn along Harper Road, taking a break outside, and talking to Hajash, when the latter got a call about a man firing a weapon in Cabell Heights. The two immediately took off to the neighborhood in separate cars, after Kade logged himself into active duty. A focus has been placed on the officers parking patrol cars a quarter of a mile from the Webb residence, arriving without their sirens or distress signals turned on. Kade said the two approached the scene as inconspicuously as they could with the objective to find cover, unaware of what they might find. Kade explained he wasn't sure what the two lawmen would encounter, recalling an ugly domestic incident a short time earlier when he and Hajash had went to fetch a 16-year-old girl from her father, and people in five houses all related in some fashion turned on them. Besides, he said, the use of lights and sirens normally is a deterrent of minimum value. Webb claims in the lawsuit that the officers refused her dying husband immediate medical treatment so photographs could be taken at the scene, but Kade denied this. I don't remember any photos being taken while I was there, said Kade, still a corporal on the force. Hajash has since taken a job with a coal company. Just before the officers fired, he said, Webb was standing adjacent the driver's side of his truck, and shouldered the rifle. It wasn't a pistol, Kade said. It was an AK-47, a very dangerous weapon. The only response I could do was to fire my weapon. One neighbor, Wanda Young, said she never heard the officers issue a warning to Webb, but believed she would have had such a directive been issued, even if dogs had been barking. Chris Hatfield, another neighbor, likewise said he didn't hear the deputies warn Webb to disarm himself before they shot him. Elmer Redden, a third neighbor called by Griffith, said he didn't think it unusual for Webb to be firing a semi-automatic firearm on a holiday. He would shoot up in the air, which was a common thing to do, he said. At no time did he observe anyone administer any medical aid to Webb, but said he noticed the police ordered Mary Webb back inside her house. I just didn't want her to see her husband lying there in the driveway, Kade testified. Asked by Griffith why he didn't bother to check on the welfare of her children, since he earlier said he was concerned about the occupants of the Webb household, the officer said, I assumed the mother would have known if there was something wrong with the children. Kade described himself as overwhelmed by the quick turn of events, after he and Hajash tried in vain to encircle Webb but were unable to get through a locked gate and knew the fence would rattle and give them away if they tried to scale it. I knew the totality of what happened, the officer said in retrospect. Nobody wants that to happen. Griffith said earlier the defense might attempt to show that Webb had it in for law enforcement officers but indicated in opening arguments that his client's husband counted a number of policemen as friends, among them a deputy sheriff who sang at his funeral. One such friend, Victor Birchfield, a retired Raleigh County deputy, described Webb as a close friend who generously volunteered his time on behalf of a trout association at Glade Creek. He was a good-natured fellow and had a passion for trout fishing, the former officer said. Tanner, who became chief deputy on the day of the 2006 incident, testified the first priority in such an incident is to assure the safety of citizens and officers alike. Asked about Webb's shooting after an internal investigation was performed, Tanner at one point told the court, I did find it was appropriate. Tanner was quizzed at length about a document indicating the department had a drug-and-alcohol testing policy applicable in cases in which officers are involved in motor vehicle accidents that result in serious injury or death, or have discharged a firearm. The sheriff said this wasn't an actual policy but simply a federal guideline in the event the department ever wanted to adopt one and couldn't say why former Sheriff Frank Lavender included it as part of office protocol. Before any testing, there has to be reasonable suspicion of alcohol or drug abuse, Tanner said, explaining why neither Kade nor Hajash was tested. Everybody has rights. Even law enforcement officers have rights.
By Mannix Porterfield E-mail: mannix@register-herald.com
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