Speaker 1: Billy cunning in the Great American Reds Baseball kicked off
Speaker 1: about five forty tonight in Pittsburgh. Now winners of five
Speaker 1: in a row, marching for glory this weekend a big
Speaker 1: series here with the Chicago Cubs. But until then, Jonan,
Speaker 1: you and I now is Michael Wright, who's the civil
Speaker 1: attorney for the estate of Ryan Hinton, the eighteen year
Speaker 1: old teenager shot and killed by Cincinnati police. And Michael Wright,
Speaker 1: welcome again to the Bill Cunningham Show. And first of all,
Speaker 1: I wanted a touch base with you after the comments
Speaker 1: yesterday of last me so Marco, as you may know,
Speaker 1: I had her on with me and she talked about
Speaker 1: the bullet wound that killed Ryan Hinton, which maybe factually
Speaker 1: was in conflict to what the chief of police had
Speaker 1: said the day after the shooting. And I wanted to
Speaker 1: see what impact that has on your case, if anything.
Speaker 2: Oh, absolutely, I think it is significant. The fact that
Speaker 2: the chief and the corner can't get on the same page.
Speaker 2: I mean, that's pretty interesting. We I believe that you know,
Speaker 2: what the chief was saying has been intentionally misleading from
Speaker 2: the corners report. He was shot in the left forearm,
Speaker 2: he was shot. It says left lateral chests below the armpit. Now,
Speaker 2: and that's not what she said when she was on
Speaker 2: your show. She said that he was shot in the chest,
Speaker 2: mid center the chest and he was shot below the armpit.
Speaker 2: And the third finding, which was pretty interesting, was that
Speaker 2: he was shot in the back. It says right postereo
Speaker 2: lateral chest, so basically he was shot in the back
Speaker 2: behind the right shoulder. So, you know, I think the
Speaker 2: chief has some explaining to do. Why this she was
Speaker 2: intentionally misleading, and I believe that you know this really
Speaker 2: this is really interesting that you know, these facts are
Speaker 2: coming out. We did an independent autopsy and we have
Speaker 2: not released the results yet because we are waiting for
Speaker 2: information from the corner that we requested, such as photographs
Speaker 2: and things of that nature that they have not sent
Speaker 2: to us. So, you know, we believed all along this
Speaker 2: was a bad shoot, and this is more indication, more
Speaker 2: evidence that this was an unlawful shooting of Ryan Hinton.
Speaker 2: But again, we're still investigating, and we unlike the Cincinnati
Speaker 2: Police Department, unlike the Corner's office, we're not going to
Speaker 2: do things piecemeal. We're going to have all our information
Speaker 2: together and we will present all at one time. What
Speaker 2: we believe will show the unwallful killing of Ryan.
Speaker 1: And Hinton Michael right, Let's break it down, doctor Lasmisimaco said.
Speaker 1: An autopsy revealed Ryan Hinton had three gunshot wounds, one
Speaker 1: in the left forearm, one in the left lateral chest,
Speaker 1: and one near the right part of the chest. I
Speaker 1: asked her yesterday, could there'd be two shots that hit
Speaker 1: his body causing three gunshot wounds? She said yes, But
Speaker 1: I asked her. I asked her specifically, the one in
Speaker 1: the left forearm and the one in the left lateral
Speaker 1: chest could be one bullet that exit at the sternum,
Speaker 1: and one shot was say, in the woods somewhere, and
Speaker 1: the one near the right part of the chest launched
Speaker 1: himself at the base of the skull. And I asked her, well,
Speaker 1: how do you shoot somebody on the right side of
Speaker 1: the chest if they're if they're running, if they're in
Speaker 1: front of you, running away from you on the right
Speaker 1: and she said, well, it could have been the first shot,
Speaker 1: which may I use the term kill shot, is the
Speaker 1: one that took out part of his heart and that
Speaker 1: could have flipped his body to the right that caused
Speaker 1: that bullet wounded the right part of the chest with
Speaker 1: a bullet lodging up by a skull. Isn't that a
Speaker 1: reasonable assumption or not?
Speaker 2: Well, I don't believe so. Our corner, independent corner, does
Speaker 2: not believe so. But again we're waiting for all the evidence,
Speaker 2: all the information, everything that we requested from the corner
Speaker 2: in order for us to finish our independent autopsy. So
Speaker 2: that doesn't sound plausible. However, you know that's their you
Speaker 2: know that that's their story, and they're sticking to it
Speaker 2: at this point. But what's interesting is that it's all piecemeled,
Speaker 2: you know, her autopsy. I've never seen an autopsy like this.
Speaker 2: It was just three sentences that that makes no sense.
Speaker 2: So again, oh go ahead.
Speaker 1: You know fairly, Michael, right, there's nothing in here to
Speaker 1: indicate that he was shot in the back. She uses
Speaker 1: the term left forearm, left life chest and one near
Speaker 1: the right part of the chest. I don't see the
Speaker 1: word back anywhere in there.
Speaker 2: Well, and there again they're being intentionally misleading. Right posterior
Speaker 2: lateral chest adjacent to the shoulder. He was shot in
Speaker 2: the back. So again intentionally misleading information that is being
Speaker 2: piece milled by this department that's investigating themselves.
Speaker 1: Do you have a corner, do you have an equal
Speaker 1: you have a corner saying these findings have doctor Lasmi
Speaker 1: Samaka are not accurate.
Speaker 2: Yes, we do, but we are waiting for the additional
Speaker 2: information that we requested to finalize. You know, our corner's report.
Speaker 1: Can you address yourself to the issue of an eighteen
Speaker 1: year old illegally with a gun, pulling it out of
Speaker 1: the car that he was stolen, running four or five steps, falling,
Speaker 1: dropping the gun, and picking up back up. Isn't that
Speaker 1: an indication that he intended to use it if he
Speaker 1: picked it up at least twice.
Speaker 2: No, absolutely not, that's not what that means. Let's let's
Speaker 2: let's look at how he was shot. He was running
Speaker 2: away and even with the chief said, there's nothing in
Speaker 2: the video that indicates that he was pointing the gun
Speaker 2: towards an officer. And what's even more interesting, Bill, was
Speaker 2: that it was an undercover officer, a detective that shot him.
Speaker 2: It wasn't a uniformed officer that shot him. So how
Speaker 2: do we know that, Ryan, Well, one, there's nothing indicating
Speaker 2: or showing that he pointed the gun towards this officer.
Speaker 2: And let's say for argument's sake, that he did. If
Speaker 2: this is an If this is an ununiformed officer that's
Speaker 2: pointing a gun at you, how does Ryan know this
Speaker 2: is not the person that owned the vehicle that was
Speaker 2: coming after him with a gun trying to get their
Speaker 2: vehicle back.
Speaker 1: So, Michael, right, you're saying that the officer who killed
Speaker 1: Ryan Hinton was not in uniform? Is that what you're saying?
Speaker 2: That's what I'm saying. This was an undercover and as
Speaker 2: the chief, As the chief indicated when she spoke to you,
Speaker 2: she said that once the uniform officers got there, the
Speaker 2: undercover officers were supposed to back off. So again, intentionally
Speaker 2: misleading statements that we are still trying to piece together.
Speaker 2: But you know, we're not going to make, you know,
Speaker 2: statements that we can't back up. So again, once we're
Speaker 2: finished with our investigation, we're going to present the evidence
Speaker 2: that we believe is going to show that this was
Speaker 2: an unlawful shoot, that the officer should not have been
Speaker 2: in reasonable fear for his life, That Ryan was running away,
Speaker 2: trying to get away, this officer shot him in the
Speaker 2: side and also in the back, and what we're still
Speaker 2: trying to determine, also, is whether or not there was
Speaker 2: more than one shooter. We don't have that information either,
Speaker 2: so we requested the corner's information, the ballistics information. We
Speaker 2: have not received that either.
Speaker 1: Wasn't it wrong for Ryan Hinton at the age of
Speaker 1: eighteen to illegally possess a gun and to steal a car?
Speaker 1: Didn't his behavior bring about his own death in a
Speaker 1: sense by illegally committing felonies at the moment he was
Speaker 1: shot because you can't be under twenty one to have
Speaker 1: a firearm, and he had a handgun, and not hard
Speaker 1: to agree that.
Speaker 2: I would agree that his behavior was not what he
Speaker 2: should have been doing. However, that doesn't mean that he
Speaker 2: should get the death sentence by an officer that should
Speaker 2: not have shot.
Speaker 1: Let's talk about the gun itself pointed, according to the
Speaker 1: Cincinnati Police, and I have the statement originally here of
Speaker 1: the Chief of Police who talked about this is the
Speaker 1: day after the event took place, and she essentially said,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna share it with you. This is from the
Speaker 1: Cincinnati Police on Tuesday morning. Cincinnati Police officers from the
Speaker 1: Fugitive Apprehension Squad we're investigating a stolen car near East
Speaker 1: Price Hill. When the officers approached the car, four suspects
Speaker 1: jumped out of the car and ran. One of the
Speaker 1: suspects pulled a semi automatic handgun and pointed it at
Speaker 1: an officer. That officer fired his weapon, hitting the suspect,
Speaker 1: the armed suspect instead. No other officers were injured. They're saying,
Speaker 1: in this statement quote pointed it at an officer. Are
Speaker 1: you contending that is false?
Speaker 2: That's absolutely false. It's intentionally misleading. And then she says
Speaker 2: that there's no video evidence that would substantiate or that
Speaker 2: would confirm that the gun was pointed at an officer.
Speaker 2: So absolutely false, misleading statements that we disagree with.
Speaker 1: It does the videotape, which is the blurry. I've seen
Speaker 1: it one hundred times. You probably seen it five hundred times.
Speaker 1: It's blurry, and I can't see him having a gun
Speaker 1: in his right hand, and the officer said he did.
Speaker 1: And the videotape, to be generous, is blurry. How can
Speaker 1: you make this statement he didn't have it when there's
Speaker 1: not video evidence that he did or didn't. From my
Speaker 1: perspective as a great American, I looked at that a
Speaker 1: lot and it's so blurry, I can't see what's in
Speaker 1: his hand, if anything, can you right?
Speaker 2: No, absolutely no. So how does the chief make the
Speaker 2: statement that he pointed it at the officer and that's
Speaker 2: why the officer discharged his firearm and left out the
Speaker 2: fact that this was a undercover detective closes officer. So
Speaker 2: you know this, there's just a lot of things that
Speaker 2: don't add up there. There there's a lot of information,
Speaker 2: there's a lot of statements that just don't they they
Speaker 2: don't fit together. So that's why we are still investigating.
Speaker 2: That's why we have not come out and made you know,
Speaker 2: uh statements to the fact that this was absolutely a
Speaker 2: bad shoot early on. But the more information that we
Speaker 2: are getting, you know, it points to the fact that
Speaker 2: Ryan should should still be here with us. He should
Speaker 2: not have been shot and killed by the officer. It
Speaker 2: was an unlawful shoot, and you know, we are going
Speaker 2: to hold the department accountable.
Speaker 1: Michael, right, I'll paraphrase a little bit what the chief
Speaker 1: of police said to me on the air, and also
Speaker 1: the coroner and also Ken kober Uh, the Queen City Police.
Speaker 1: The president of the lodge said an officer does not
Speaker 1: have to wait for an armed suspect to point a
Speaker 1: gun at them or to fire around to respond. And
Speaker 1: and and there was a gun. I've seen the picture
Speaker 1: of the nine millimeter gun on the on the on
Speaker 1: the pavement, I've seen pictures of it. Is that Ryan
Speaker 1: Hinton's gun.
Speaker 2: He had it in his possession, So whether or not
Speaker 2: it was his gun, I can't speak directly to that.
Speaker 2: But yes, it was in his possession, all right.
Speaker 1: If it's in his possession, he.
Speaker 2: Did he did fall, he did pick it up, he
Speaker 2: did run away from the officers. But this officer shot
Speaker 2: him in the side, and he has a bullet in
Speaker 2: his back, so there was no He did not even
Speaker 2: look in the officer's direction. So it is not reasonable
Speaker 2: for the officer to use deadly force in this situation
Speaker 2: when it does not.
Speaker 1: The video shows him picking up the weapon and running
Speaker 1: between the big dumpsters. Can you say whether your client
Speaker 1: had the gun in his right hand at the moment
Speaker 1: he was shot.
Speaker 2: I can't at this point, Bill, We're still investigating. As
Speaker 2: you indicated, the video is very blurry. Blurry video is
Speaker 2: hard to see, So you know, how do you make
Speaker 2: the determination? How did the chief make the determination that
Speaker 2: you know, it makes the statement that it was pointed
Speaker 2: at the officer when the officer took a shot. Furthermore,
Speaker 2: the officer shot him from the side. Ryan was running,
Speaker 2: He was trying to get away, So it doesn't make
Speaker 2: a lot of sense. So again, we're still investigating. But
Speaker 2: as we do more and more investigation, it appears and
Speaker 2: the story does not jive with the facts and circumstances
Speaker 2: of the evidence.
Speaker 1: Did he do you have any illegal substances in his body?
Speaker 2: Do you know? I can't answer that. I asked, We
Speaker 2: asked for the corner's report and we got three sinces,
Speaker 2: so I can't. I can't answer that. And whether or
Speaker 2: not he did or did not, I don't think that
Speaker 2: has anything to do with whether or not the officer,
Speaker 2: would you know, have taken this unlawful shot.
Speaker 1: Lastly, when the officers pulled up into a condo project,
Speaker 1: I believe there's one way up, one way out. Uh,
Speaker 1: weren't there marked police cars present and officers in uniform
Speaker 1: present in uniform at the time your client was shot?
Speaker 2: Yes? There was?
Speaker 1: Okay, so your guy was Your guy was running away
Speaker 1: from police that were in uniform. I would assume someone's
Speaker 1: yelling stop and someone yelled gun, gun, gun, and.
Speaker 2: Well, we heard gun gun gun. I don't know if
Speaker 2: I heard stop, we're still going.
Speaker 1: I didn't see that.
Speaker 2: Yeah, we heard gun gun, gun, and I believe that
Speaker 2: was the reason for the shot. I don't believe that
Speaker 2: the officer or the undercovered detective even saw the gun.
Speaker 2: He just heard another officer yo, gun gun gun, saw
Speaker 2: someone running and then took took shots.
Speaker 1: Well, I would point out again that the Cincinnati Police
Speaker 1: are saying that the suspect pulled a semi automatic handgun
Speaker 1: pointed at an officer, and I guess this. Some say
Speaker 1: that's not critical because you can't wait to be shot
Speaker 1: at or have a gun pointed at you to return fire.
Speaker 1: That the mere possession of the firearm by someone of
Speaker 1: fleeing felon puts the officers at a life at risk.
Speaker 1: But you disagree with that.
Speaker 2: I disagree. And they also said he was shot twice,
Speaker 2: that that was not the case. So you know, just
Speaker 2: all this investigation has not been handled correctly. And I
Speaker 2: even with regards to the corner, I thought it was
Speaker 2: suspicious as it relates to the corner was having a
Speaker 2: press conference. Then stop the press conference because the Grand
Speaker 2: jury subpoenas and then had a press conference. And you know,
Speaker 2: we don't know what they are trying to hide. Was
Speaker 2: there a grand jury, what were the findings? I mean,
Speaker 2: this just doesn't none of this adds up.
Speaker 1: Michael, Right, what's your next step for the estate of
Speaker 1: Ryan Hinton? What's your next step?
Speaker 2: Well, our next step is hopefully to receive all the
Speaker 2: information that we requested. Once we've done that, then we
Speaker 2: will make a decision as to our steps going forward.
Speaker 1: All right, Michael Wright of the Cochrane Law Firm, thanks
Speaker 1: for coming on the Bill Cunningham Show. The investigation continues,
Speaker 1: and Michael, thank you very much.
Speaker 2: Thank you for having me.
Speaker 1: Well, let's continue with more. There you have it, and
Speaker 1: it could be a he said, she said, And I
Speaker 1: don't know. You can look at the videotape a thousand
Speaker 1: times and it is so blurry you can't see what
Speaker 1: is or what is not in Ryan Hinton's hands. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I can't see it, and I don't think the chief
Speaker 1: of police sees it. But the officer said it was
Speaker 1: there and in his mind it was a good shoot.
Speaker 1: We'll see what happens. Let's continue with more. Bill Cunningham
Speaker 1: News Radio seven hundred ww