4 March 2023
WICHITA, Kan. (KSNW) — Sedgwick County District Attorney (DA) Marc Bennett’s decision not to charge the officers involved in the Roller City incident resulted in a mixed reaction from Wichita youth advocates.
Several community leaders who spoke at a news conference less than 48 hours after the incident called at the time for the male officer involved to be fired. Since Bennett released his findings Friday, some of those same speakers have changed their tune, while others say his decision didn’t go far enough.
“We need to replace Marc Bennett—period,” youth advocate Tracey Mason said. “[Bennett] keeps hiding behind this ‘stand your ground’ law that is used to give qualified immunity to any officer as it seems right now to be able to do anything they choose to do.”
Mason says he hopes the Wichita Police Department’s (WPD) internal review of the incident provides a different outcome.
“Anything less than this officer being fired is, is nothing,” Mason said.
Other local leaders have expressed many different sentiments. The pastor of Calvary Baptist Church, Dr. T. La Mont Holder, says although he wishes the male officer involved in the altercation would have reacted differently, he was with his right to defend himself.
“We have to take all of these cases on a case-by-case situation,” Dr. Holder said. “We believe in this incident, that the DA demonstrated grace and reasonableness, and we’re happy about that.”
In a statement to KSN News, Wichita Mayor Brandon Whipple says: “As our chief mentioned, the next step in the process is an administrative review. To preserve the integrity of that process, I will reserve my comments until Chief Sullivan’s investigation has been completed.”
As for the timeline of the WPD’s internal review, Chief Sullivan says he’s “two-thirds” of the way through. He says he will be open to take questions once the results of that review have been released.