Prometheus 6

Police officials said the trouble began after the officers, riding in a personal car, saw the youth on the minibike and confronted him. Last night, authorities said they did not have the motorized bike. Like the gun, police speculated, it must have been taken from the scene before the area was secured.

Lanier and other officials would not identify the officer who fired the fatal shot. Lanier's spokeswoman, Traci Hughes, said, "Considering the heated reaction of the community, we don't want to put an officer in danger." 

D.C. Police Trying to Explain Lack of Gun With Slain Teen
By Allison Klein
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, September 19, 2007; A01

The D.C. police officer who fatally shot a 14-year-old boy in Southeast Washington on Monday night was off duty, out of uniform and acting on his own to find a minibike that he believed was stolen from his home, authorities said yesterday.

New details emerged about the killing of DeOnté Rawlings, who was shot in the head after he allegedly fired a gun at the officer and an off-duty colleague. But authorities were unable to answer a question that has raised a community outcry: If the youth had a gun, where is it?

No weapon was found, but the officer's unmarked car has a bullet hole, and authorities said they found shell casings from a .45-caliber gun.

Police Chief Cathy L. Lanier's explanation did little to satisfy family members and neighborhood residents. "Immediately after the shooting, there was a lot of chaos," Lanier said. "It's possible somebody picked the weapon up."...

Yesterday, police officials provided this account of the shooting:

The officer, a member of the helicopter unit, saw that his minibike had been stolen from the garage of his home in Southeast Washington. To look for it, he cruised the neighborhood in his personal car with another off-duty officer. He spotted DeOnté on a bike that he thought was his.

Remaining in his car, the officer called out to the youth. Before the officer identified himself as police, the teenager opened fire, hitting the officer's car about a foot below the driver's-side window, police said.

The officer fired back, then left his car and chased the teenager, engaging him in a running gun battle that ended with the youth shot in the head, police said. The second officer, whose name was also not released, did not draw his weapon, police said. Both officers are black, as was DeOnté.

Police think the gun and the minibike were stolen from the scene after the shooting, according to two police sources who declined to be identified because the investigation is continuing. After the shooting, the officer crouched behind his car for safety and waited for backup, one source said. That could be when the gun and minibike were stolen, the source said.