New Richmond Police chief hands over Blount file - Dept. has been Evasive in Suspicous Death of Black Man

In one of his first moves as Richmond police chief, Rodney Monroe ordered his staff to hand over the internal affairs file on the Sept. 20 fatal shooting of East End robbery suspect Curtis Blount to the commonwealth attorney's office. Four thick binders of investigation materials and documents made the five-minute trip Monday from police headquarters at 200 W. Grace St. to the office of Commonwealth's Attorney David M. Hicks at 400 N. Ninth St. -- thus taking Monroe just a few hours to do what his predecessor had refused to do for months. "I am glad we can move forward on this," Hicks said. "I commend the chief on getting off to a start in which all of us can work together." A memorandum summarizing the report, obtained last week by The Times-Dispatch, states that the internal affairs investigation into the shooting determined that Blount fatally shot himself after being cornered in an alley by police officers near the corner of Mosby Street and Fairmount Avenue. The report states that an officer from Virginia Commonwealth University witnessed Blount point his gun to his head and shoot. The memorandum also states that Richmond Police officers and another officer from VCU fired a total of 10 times during the incident, striking no one. Hicks had been denied a copy of the report in November by former Chief André Parker, despite the fact that the commonwealth attorney's office is responsible for determining whether criminal charges are filed in such cases. The police eventually allowed a representative of Hicks' office to review the report in December but never provided the documents to his office. [more]