Witness to Mesa Police Shooting of Black Man Claims Officer said Racial Slur during Confrontation

A Mesa officer made a racial slur before tackling a domestic-violence suspect in a skirmish that ended with the shooting death of the man, according to a witness to the March 31 incident.Mesa police Sgt. Chuck Trapani, a department spokesman, said no officers involved in the incident and no other witnesses reported hearing a slur. On Tuesday, police released a partial report of the investigation into the early morning shooting of James Deon Lennox, 35, at the Rosewood Villas Apartments. The 101-page report includes no statements from the four officers involved because they are either not complete or not requested for the probe, police said, and it provides only a few witness accounts. Police were called to the apartments to investigate a domestic dispute, and an officer approached Lennox in the courtyard. In the report, neighbor Matthew Arnold told police he was about eight feet from the incident. He told detectives in a taped interview that Lennox threatened physical violence to Officer Joseph Meacham, the first officer on scene, if he touched him. When two plainclothes officers arrived, Meacham asked one to fire a stun gun because he had been threatened. Sgt. Deanna Cantrell fired pepper spray. Arnold said Lennox wanted to sit down when Meacham said, "(racial slur), you're going down" and tackled him, the report states. The three other officers tried to break up the fight and Officer David Kohler was hit in the head by Lennox, Arnold told police. Lennox broke free and threw a plastic chair, striking Kohler, and then Lennox put his hands up in the air, Arnold said. Kohler then fired two shots at Lennox, according to Arnold. [MORE]