Mesquite grilled

Helen Washington was in a hurry. A big hurry. And anyone with a shred of humanity would understand why.

A home health aide, Washington had been at her job of five years–caring for an elderly woman in Garland–when she received a heart-stopping phone call from her neighbor, Minnie.

Minnie said there had been a shooting at Washington’s house. “There are police cars and an ambulance there,” Minnie told Washington. “One of the small kids has been shot.”

The “small kids” were Washington’s 13-year-old grandson, Eldrick, who lived with her, and 11-year-old Paul Pritchett, the son of Washington’s best friend. Washington’s 15-year-old nephew, Leonard Miles, had been watching the boys while Washington was at work.

The call came shortly after 4 p.m. on Sunday, November 12. As soon as Washington hung up, she paged the daughter of the woman she was caring for. The daughter said she would come to the house in a few minutes, and gave Washington permission to leave. Washington jumped into her white 1991 Plymouth Sundance–bought for her by her daughter Cynthia–and drove as fast as she could toward her house in southeast Dallas.

“All I was thinking was ‘Who’s dead?'” Washington recalls. “I know I was speeding. I even drove on the shoulder of the highway. But I put on my hazard lights and was blowing my horn. I was trying to be cautious at the same time I was trying to get home as fast as I could.”

As Washington drove down Interstate 635 to Interstate 30 at speeds of up to 80 miles per hour, her mind was on one thing–getting home. She didn’t notice when a Mesquite police car with flashing lights began following her, before she crossed into the city limits of Dallas.

In fact, Washington says she didn’t realize the police were trying to get her attention until the cops flipped on their siren as she approached the Dolphin Road exit on I-30. In her single-minded frenzy, Washington says, she was glad to see them.

“Fantastic. More help I thought,” says Washington. “I put my hand out the window and waved them along.”

But helping the 48-year-old woman wasn’t what the Mesquite police had in mind. They finally caught up to Washington, after she stopped at a red light about a mile from her house.

Three Mesquite police cars surrounded Washington’s car. Washington claims officer K.L. Halbert jerked her out of the car and told her to sit on the ground. “I realize I was speeding, but there’s been an accident at my house, a shooting,” Washington says she told the police. “Just go with me to my home, so I can find out what happened,” Washington says she pleaded.

The police, Washington says, told her to shut up and informed her she was going to jail for evading arrest. They handcuffed her and put her in the backseat of officer Halbert’s squad car.

When the Mesquite officers got around to phoning Washington’s house, a Dallas police officer answered the phone and confirmed that there had been a shooting. But the Mesquite police still would not release Washington, so a Dallas officer drove to the arrest scene to tell her the news. Her best friend’s 11-year-old son, Paul, had been shot in the mouth and right hand by suspects believed to be gang members. An ambulance had taken him to Children’s Medical Center, where he was expected to make a full recovery.

When she heard the news, Washington dissolved into tears. But the information did not move the Mesquite police. Officer Halbert told Washington she was still under arrest. Then he ordered her car impounded.

Washington’s daughter, who had just left her mother’s house, drove by the scene and stopped, asking if she could at least drive her mom’s car home. Halbert refused; it would later cost Washington $120 to get it out of the pound.

Paul, who considers Washington his “auntie,” spent the next day at Children’s Medical Center. Helen Washington spent the next 24 hours in jail before being released on bond.

The Mesquite police believe the arrest was perfectly justified. “She was operating a vehicle in a highly dangerous manner,” says Mesquite police spokesman Melvin Willis. “The officer determined that the dispute at her home was taken care of, and the emergency no longer existed. Even if the emergency still existed, there was no justification for her to operate a vehicle in such a manner, and for failing to stop.”

Kevin Brooks, Washington’s attorney, vehemently disagrees. “Police officers have discretion about whether or not to ticket or arrest someone and they use it all the time,” says Brooks. “This was definitely a case where they should have used their discretion.”

The Dallas County District Attorney’s Office recommended Washington pay a $500 fine, be put on probation for one year, and take a life skills course. Washington refused and demanded that the case go to trial.

Washington’s therapist–who counseled her for emotional troubles after the incident–even wrote an open letter urging leniency for the woman. “It is my professional opinion that any behavior on Mrs. Washington’s part which appeared to be imprudent as she responded to the call concerning the shooting was a result of her overriding concern for her family’s well-being,” the therapist wrote.

On July 23, when Washington’s criminal case came to trial, County Criminal Court Judge Ralph Taite saw it the same way. He ruled in Washington’s favor, finding her not guilty of evading arrest.

But the victory still cost Washington–emotionally and financially (more than $1,000 in all, including the cost of the bond she had to put up to get out of jail, and the court costs).

The police never found the teen-agers who did the shooting at Washington’s house. The police didn’t have a lot to go on.

Paul and Eldrick told police they were in the backyard playing football when four teen-age boys walked down the alley. The teen-agers pointed to some graffiti spray-painted on the back wall of a detached garage. It had been there when Washington moved in, and the landlord was supposed to have it painted over.

While he pointed to the graffiti, one of the teen-age boys asked Eldrick if he was “down with that,” according to the police report. As Eldrick and Paul continued to play, one of the boys in the alley pulled out a handgun and fired a shot. The bullet flew into Paul’s mouth and ripped through his left cheek. Another bullet hit his hand.

Paul was in the hospital for a day to have his wounds sewn up. Doctors told Washington the boy was lucky he wasn’t injured more seriously. But even after his injuries healed, Paul needed to attend physical therapy sessions at Children’s Medical Center to help regain the use of the muscles in his face and hand.

While no one else was injured, other wounds persist in the Washington family. Eldrick was so rattled by the shooting, he refused to continue living with his grandmother. Since the shooting, he has been living with his great-grandmother in Oak Cliff.

Eldrick and Washington have attended counseling–together and separately–once or twice a week to deal with their emotional upset.

For Washington and her family, the trauma of the shooting was compounded by the way the Mesquite police treated her. Not only did they arrest Washington, but they also persisted in pressing charges despite the circumstances.

“The whole thing made me feel degraded,” says Washington.
The blood that soaked the floors and furniture throughout Washington’s small and tidy rental house is gone now. But the chilling memories persist, which is why her house is now cluttered with boxes. With the trial behind her, Washington is finally looking to move.

Washington wants to find a new house, she says, in the hopes of getting back both her grandson and her peace of mind.

Her nephew, Paul, sums up the situation best, as kids so often do: “The police did a bad job. It was an emergency. They should have been fired.