Corpus Christi Police Chief Mike Markle described his department’s ongoing investigation of a shooting on Torreon on the city’s west side during his monthly interview with KRIS 6 anchor Mike Gillaspia.
“The investigation is ongoing,” Markle said about the Tuesday shooting. “We’re speaking with the DA … everybody is doing their evaluation of policy practices training and the law.”
The department was quick to reveal that the wrong potential suspect was shot in the incident. The police personnel who was involved immediately was placed on leave afterward.
“Those things, unfortunately, can happen,” Markle said. “Remember we had two robberies in the area and our officers were searching the area for suspects who did use weapons.
“Unfortunately, the contact with the individual wasn’t immediately compliant and we had an unfortunate sequence of events that led him to be shot. Thank the Lord he will be OK and is being treated.”
Markle described the difficult and sometimes instant decisions police officers regularly have to make.
“They approach people in a certain way and have certain orders they give,” Markle said. “They react in a certain way according to their training and their experiences. They are making split-second decisions that are sometimes life and death. We have the luxury of having time to evaluate those decisions. But they don’t have that luxury a lot of time when they make that. We respect that.”
Under routine policy, leave is provided to those officers involved in a shooting incident.
“As part of our process, we place the officers under administrative leave and that’s as much for their benefit,” he said. “They need to see a police psychologist and get their head right while we evaluate all of the factors. That’s what’s going on right now. That will include a whole lot of folks in a lot of different agencies, the D.A.’s office for one.”
Markle also discussed an upcoming ceremony on Friday where the department will select Officer of the Year, Employee of the Year, Detective of the Year, Supervisor of the Year and Volunteer of the Year. Markle said the vote is made by a committee after recommendations and committee evaluations.
“It’s a process,” the chief said. “They are all wonderful. There are a lot of good candidates for these awards. It’s a good thing we do and it’s a great thing to praise your folks when they are doing a great job.”
