Officer Suspended for Ignoring Pleading Mother While Her Children Were Kidnapped at Gunpoint

A Dallas police officer is on administrative leave following the Monday chase and deadly shooting of a man who had taken his children at gunpoint from their mother.

The suspect, Steven Douglas, was ultimately shot and killed by police after police and witnesses said he pointed a gun at officers at the end of the chase, after he had crashed.



Before he was shot, Douglas had been chasing his children's mother, Miesha Kilson. Officer Cpl. Les Richardson, a 28-year police veteran, drove off when Kilson flagged him down for help. He was reportedly responding to a call about a burglary in progress.

“And we went out Lancaster to Illinois, and when I hit the curb, my tire went flat and I could just hear shots behind me, and my baby said, ‘Mama! He's shooting! He's shooting!'” said Kilson. “And I look back and [Douglas] had it up in the air. He said, ‘Pull over! Pull over!' I said, ‘I'm not stopping.'”

Kilson says that Douglas was trying to take her and her children's lives.

“When he pointed it right at me, I looked and my baby, she said, ‘Mama, he's gonna shoot me!'” said Kilson. “‘Cause she's in the passenger seat; he's on the right side. ‘Mama, he's gonna shoot me!' I heard the shot. I didn't see ‘cause I turned so hard to the left and now I'm crossing the median in oncoming traffic where my car was disabled. It just wouldn't go no more. Now we're facing the wrong side of traffic and everybody's coming toward us.”

Kilson says Douglas came to her car.

“He reached into the windows, pulls it out,” said Kilson. “And as the window exploded in my face, I actually thought he shot it; I didn't know at the time. But I did see his hands up and he pulled [the window] out. And I looked over, and as I looked up out that passenger window, I swear I saw an angel ‘cause I saw a police car right at my car.”

In that squad car was Officer Richardson.

“That man looked up, he said, ‘What's going on?'” said Kilson. “Right at my window, directly. I said, ‘Get him, get him!' As [Douglas] got the gun, Maya said, ‘Get out, get out!' [Douglas] saw the policeman, so he moved the gun. He jerked my son out the car. That policeman drove off. He drove off. He didn't come back.”

Kilson had been on the phone with 911 throughout the ordeal.

“So I yelled to the lady on the phone, ‘Ma'am a cop just drove off!'” said Kilson. “I said, ‘Why did he pull up, ask me what's wrong and drive off, and now [Douglas] got my kids?'”

A male witness saw the ordeal and tried to help, even driving to find another officer.

Kilson said that motorcycle cop later told her the same thing.

“A motorcycle cop said, ‘I was right here, I was right there. I saw everything and I heard all the bullets, but I was writing a ticket,'” said Kilson.

“To me, the [witness] and when the final…‘cause five cars passed us. The [witness] flagged down two,” said Kilson. “No one stopped.”

Some of the five cars that passed were responding to the automotive repair shop where Douglas ran into after he crashed.

Richardson was identified by Dallas police by conducting a computer review of officers' locations.

His presence at the location without taking any action was confirmed by dashcam video from his squad car.



Source: Dallas News | myFOXdfw.com

---

Kimberly Foster is the founder and editor of For Harriet. Email or Follow @KimberlyNFoster

police misconduct