londay, October 30, 2000
NEWS
THE BATTALION
Police shoots party guest
LOS ANGELES (AP) — The po-
■lice shooting of a Halloween party
■guest who was brandishing a fake
■ gun has left the troubled Los Ange-
■ les Police Department (LAPD) in an
■ unwanted spotlight and the victim’s
■ friends blaming racial profiling.
Actor Anthony Dwain Lee, 39,
I died at the Hollywood Hills mansion
■ after he was shot several times by an
i| officer who fired at him through a
■ glass door about 1 a.m. Saturday.
if Police say Lee had pointed what
K looked like a gun at Officer Tarriel
I Hopper, and Hopper, who had been
■ called to the mansion to respond to a
I noise complaint, fired in self defense.
“He had no way of knowing it was
I fake even though people were in cos-
I tume,” LAPD spokeswoman Char-
i lotte Broughton said Sunday. “If you
■ feel your life is threatened, you react
| in the way you were trained.”
But Lee’s friends said Sunday that
■ the shooting was more than a mis-
■ take. Some planned to hold vigil
I Monday night in front of the police
| station where Hopper is stationed to
| protest the shooting.
“His biggest fear was getting
killed by cops, because he’s a tall
black man,” Mary Lin, a friend of the
Lee’s, told the Los Angeles Times.
It was not clear whether Lee knew
that Hopper, who is also black, was a
real policeman and not just another
party guest. Some at the party said
other guests were wearing LAPD
uniforms.
The police department and district
attorney’s office are both investigat
ing the shooting.
“This is so incredibly shocking
that a person would be taken down
like this,” said Kirsten Blackburn, a
friend of Lee’s.
The shooting comes as the LAPD
is already struggling to recover from
a widespread corruption scandal and
accusations of civil rights abuses and
police brutality.
Two other officers have faced
criminal charges this year for shoot
ings, district attorney spokeswoman
Sandi Gibbons said. Meanwhile, four
police officers are currently on trial
for allegedly framing gang members.
Broughton said she believes the
public will realize the Lee shooting
was not intentional or a case of police
brutality.
“I think most people can under
stand where we’re coming from as
far as what we have to do,” she said.
“We’re risking our lives every day.
Police said several hundred peo
ple were at the mansion early Satur
day when Hopper and his partner ar
rived and began searching for the
owner.
Broughton refused to say whether
Hopper, a three-year veteran, shout
ed a warning before firing. She said
she did not know whether Lee’s toy
gun had any brightly colored marks
that would distinguish it from a real
weapon.
One partygoer, Rick Hull, told
KTLA-TV in Los Angeles that he
didn’t hear the officers identify them
selves before shooting.
Lee was an actor who had ap
peared in supporting TV and film
roles, including on the programs
“ER” and “NYPD Blue,” and as the
character Fred in the 1997 Jim Car
rey comedy, “Liar Liar.”
Bonfire
Continued from Page 1
verify every aspect of the group’s plan, Clark said.
KTFB board members declined to accept a policy that
was offered to the group last week. Group members rea
soned that plans for the off-campus bonfire would, at this
point, be “rushed.”
The group’s decision not to proceed was in part due
to not having enough time to complete a safe project,
Clark said.
“People would be rushing around and tend to overlook
safety procedures to try and get [the bonfire’s building]
done in time,” he said.
The safety of A&M’s students is paramount, said Di
rector of University Relations Cynthia Lawson as re
ported in Saturday’s Bryan-College Station Eagle.
The University’s administration believed members of
KTFB would “ultimately do the right thing — not build
an off-campus bonfire,” Lawson said. “Regardless of the
reasons, they have done just that. We hope they will now
join us in our efforts to remember the young people who
were injured and the lives that were lost last Nov. 18.”
Clark estimated that several hundred students and
alumni supported the off-campus bonfire. People contin
ually contacted the group with inquiries of where and
when they could help with the bonfire’s construction,
Clark said.
KTFB will continue to be active, he said. Board mem
bers will be replaced in March, so a decision to build an
off-campus bonfire in 2001 will be made by the new
leaders.
The only influence that current board members will
have is as voting members of the organization, said board
member Joe Dyson, a junior geology major, in an earlier
interview.
Dyson said he had hoped that the new leaders would
plan for an off-campus bonfire next year, and that — giv
en enough time to ensure that everything was safe — they
would build it larger than board members had planned for
this year.
However, Clark said board members now express
doubt that plans from KTFB will surface next year.
“We know we could have done it, and I’m not saying
that somebody won’t in the future,” he said. “[But] it
probably won’t be us.”
The off-campus bonfire was not about having a bon
fire KTFB’s way, Clark said, but rather about trying to
change the future of Aggie Bonfire.
“If anything comes — any kind of changes — from
what we’ve done, I feel like we’ve accomplished pretty
much most of our goal,” Clark said.
Gift
Continued from Page 1
values and traditions that are impor
tant to this class,” said A&M Presi
dent Dr. Ray M. Bowen. “I think [the
Class of ’95] couldn’t have done a
more significant act than give a
sculpture for Muster.”
Bowen’s sentiment was echoed
by members of the Class of ’95.
“The most powerful tradition to us
as former students would have to be
Muster,” Blackmon said.
“Muster is a very dignified cere
mony,” Hill said, reflecting on the
statue’s simplicity. “I wanted the
sculpture to be just as understated
and dignified.”
Some students found the simplici
ty of the sculpture difficult to describe.
“It’s hard to explain in words,”
said Patrick Freshwater, a junior in
dustrial distribution major. “But we
don’t have Muster to bring attention
to ourselves. We do it to pay respect
to the dead.”
Muster does not have to be a for
mal event, said Katherine Kohler,
Muster Committee chair.
“It shows that you don’t have to
have details,” Kohler said. “A Muster
ceremony can just be two people get
ting together for dinner or a group
coming together for barbecue. It’s not
always the big ceremony we have
here at A&M.”
Upton reflected on the spirit of the
Aggie family, citing the 1999 Aggie
Bonfire collapse.
“Last year we saw how the Aggie
family came together,” Upton said.
“It was much more than just students
and former students. That’s what the
Aggie family is all about.”
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