NAACP hears sheriff’s view of shooting

Friday, Feb. 9, 2007

Click here to enlarge this photo Staff Photos by Darwin Weigel Det. Sgt. Michael Moore of the Calvert County Sheriff’s Office points out details of crime scene photographs in a slide show he used to explain the Jan. 10 shooting of Robert Commodore, 26, of Lusby, by Deputy Richard Windsor in St. Leonard to a meeting of NAACP leaders in Huntingtown Wednesday night, Feb. 7. Sheriff Mike Evans and State’s Attorney Laura Martin are listening to Moore. E-Mail This Article | Print This Story Click here to enlarge this photo NAACP members and interested citizens listen as Evans makes a point.

NAACP President Joyce Freeland set up the Wednesday Feb. 7 meeting in the Carroll Victoria Community Center in Huntingtown. Sheriff Mike Evans (R), Det. Sgt. Michael Moore and State’s Attorney Laura Martin (R) presented a slide show with photographs of the scene and diagrams of what occurred leading up to and after Robert Lee Commodore, 26, was shot Jan. 10 by Deputy Richard Windsor.

According to Moore, Windsor was parked in an empty lot at White Sands Drive and Pine Boulevard to watch an area known for drug activity. While on duty he saw a Ford speeding down the road and pulled in behind it. Windsor checked the tags with the computer in his patrol car and they came back registered to an Oldsmobile. Windsor stopped the car and approached the driver. At that time Commodore did not give the officer the card showing that the registration was valid.

Moore played the control center calls that occurred throughout the traffic stop for the audience to hear what was happening. The audience could hear Windsor calling in the tags on the car and the control center telling him that the tags are registered to an Oldsmobile.

Windsor went back to the car and asked for the driver’s name and Commodore gave the officer the name Alonzo Tarraz Chew and the birth date of Oct. 10, 1981. Moore played another tape in which Windsor runs a check of the name and asks if there is a criminal record. The name comes back with no criminal record but with a 1980 birth year. Moore said at this point Windsor suspected Commodore was giving a false name and also saw Commodore taking a stocking cap off of his head.

Windsor checked the vehicle identification number, which comes back showing the car as not being registered.

Moore said that at one point during the stop Windsor saw a pair of nunchuks — a martial arts weapon — in the car. Windsor also said in his statement that Commodore asked him what kind of gun he carries, which Windsor found odd given the situation.

Moore said Windsor asked Commodore to get out of the car and stand at the back of it between the car Commodore was driving and Windsor’s police cruiser. Commodore complied but he ‘‘puts his hands in his pockets touching the lower front portion of his jacket,” according to the slide show.

Moore said Windsor told Commodore to stop fidgeting and to take his hands out of his pockets and Commodore did but walked to the front of his car. When Windsor asked him to come back to the back of the car and Commodore went back and put his hands in his pockets again.

At this point Windsor asked for backup from the control center. According to Moore, Commodore asked Windsor in a very agitated voice why he was calling for backup and than ran to the front of his car and grabbed a dark object and ran away from the scene.

Windsor shouted for him to stop and at one point Commodore turned toward the officer pulling something from his waistband area, according to Moore at the meeting. Windsor feared for his safety and fired two rounds; one hit Commodore several inches below his armpit area.

Moore said Commodore was able to tell investigators exactly where he was standing which they said supports the theory that he was turning toward the deputy.

The audience can hear on the radio that right away Windsor called for an ambulance. Moore said that Commodore told them that the first thing Windsor said to him was ‘‘Why did you make me shoot you?”

The stocking cap was allegedly found to have a large quantity of suspected crack cocaine in an amount that would suggest drug dealing and also found suspected marijuana.

Evans said that the sheriff’s office did an extensive background check on Windsor prior to hiring him and he had no use of force complaints during the time he worked in Prince George’s County’s Police Department from 1999 to 2003. In 2003, he was hired by the Calvert County Sheriff’s Office and has had no use of force complaints prior to the shooting.

The citizens’ main concerns were why Windsor did not call for backup sooner and why he did not arrest Commodore after finding the nunchuks, which are illegal in Maryland. They also wanted to know who was in charge of investigating the shooting.

Martin said that the case did not have to go to the grand jury but Evans and Martin wanted the citizens to look at the facts and decide whether they thought there was wrongdoing. She said the decision to prosecute is hers, but she and the police wanted to take it before the grand jury. The grand jury chose not to indict Windsor on Jan. 22.

Martin told the audience that the biggest concern of the grand jury was that they though Windsor should have asked for backup earlier, a decision that also concerned the audience on Wednesday night.

Evans said that the decision to call for backup is the officer’s and that they have some newer officers who call for backup right away and then tell dispatchers to disregard.

Audience members generally were satisfied with the presentation on the shooting, with several members commenting that it did appear Commodore was involved in something illegal, and that it is easy to second-guess Windsor, but harder to condemn his decision.

E-mail Heather Dykstra at hdykstra@somdnews.com.