SINCE NOV. 9, The Ann Arbor Independent has filed multiple Freedom of Information Act requests in an effort to disseminate public records about the shooting of 40-year-old Ann Arbor resident Aura Rosser’s Nov. 9 shooting. The newspaper requested a copy of the Incident Report filed by the responding officers about the shooting. The request was denied as was a subsequent appeal to City Administrator Steve Powers. The paper is preparing to sue the City of Ann Arbor and the AAPD for allegedly violating the state’s Freedom of Information Statute.
In the course of releasing information to the public, AAPD Chief John Seto told the media that the responding officers had been hired in 1990 and that two officers had been placed on paid administrative leave. After the paper’s FOIA for the names of the officers was denied, The Ann Arbor Independent filed requests for the names of all City of Ann Arbor employees currently on paid administrative leave.
In response to that FOIA, officials responded that there were no city employees on leave, an assertion which contradicted the Police Chief’s statement. A reworded FOIA request was submitted on Dec. 5. City officials asked for a 10 business day extension to respond to that request. On Dec. 12, Police Chief John Seto released the name of the officer who had killed Aura Rosser in the line of duty, Officer David Ried, as well as the name of the second responding officer, Mark Raab.
Both are veteran officers with 15 years of experience on the AAPD. The Ann Arbor Independent has filed a Freedom of Information Act request for copies of any citizen complaints filed against both officers over the course of their employment with the AAPD.
Chief Seto’s initial press release about the shooting said that he would not release any information about the officers until the Michigan State Police had completed its investigation into the Nov. 9 death of Rosser.
The release of the officers’ names, according to Chief Seto, will “not impact the investigation at this point.” Seto ended his Dec. 12 press release with an announcement that, “no additional information regarding the case will be released until it is reviewed by the Washtenaw County Prosecutor’s office and a final disposition is announced.”
Aura Rosser, according to family members, came to Ann Arbor to better her life. On Nov. 5 she changed her Facebook profile photo. Four days later she was dead, shot by an Ann Arbor Police officer who responded to a yet another domestic dispute call in the 2000 block of Winewood.
It has been over a month since the shooting and neither the public nor Aura Rosser’s family are any closer to knowing exactly what happened. An autopsy was done as were tests to determine if Rosser’s blood contained traces of any drugs.
AAPD officials have said patrol officers wear audio-recorders, but have refused to say if Officer Ried, who shot Rosser, was wearing one at the time of the incident. AAPD patrol cars are equipped with cameras, but it’s unclear anything recorded would be of use to determine if the shooting of the woman was justified.
Though the U.S. government does not have a database collecting information about the total number of police involved shootings each year, it’s estimated that between 500 and 1,000 Americans are killed by police officers each year. Since 9/11, about 5,000 Americans have been killed by U.S. police officers, which is almost equivalent to the number of U.S. soldiers who have been killed in the line of duty in Iraq.
AAPD officials suggest the shooting was justified, saying that the 40-year-old Rosser was advancing with a “fish knife.”
