The Washington Post
March 21, 1979, Wednesday, Final Edition
No Violation of Police Procedure Ruled in Officers' Slaying
of Man
BYLINE: By Liza Bercovici, Washington Post Staff Writer
SECTION: Metro; C3
LENGTH: 319 words
Two police officers who shot and killed a 21-year-old Mount
Vernon man by mistake last month have been cleared of violating police
procedures in the incident, although an investigation by the Fairfax County
prosecutor is continuing.
Fairfax County police Sgt. Walter Blankenship, 38, and
Officer Kenneth Madden, 33, of the Arlington police force were cleared by an
internal review by the Fairfax police department, Fairfax Chief Richard A. King
said yesterday.
Fairfax Commonwealth's Attorney Robert F. Horan Jr. is still
investigating to determine if there were criminal violations in the death of
Stanley Hughes, who was shot to death Feb. 12 as he ran unarmed from his
apartment where a murder suspect was staying. Horan refused comment yesterday
on the status of his investigation.
Blankenship, who had been suspended from the force, returned
to his job Monday at the Groveton police substation. Arlington police said
Madden, assigned desk duty pending the Fairfax police department review, would
be back on street patrol by today.
The officers who shot Hughes had been staking out Hughes'
apartment at 3332 Lockheed Blvd. in the Mount Vernon area in hope of capturing
Kenneth Eugene King 34, who was sought in connection with the death of his
father-in-law and the wounding of his mother.
Hughes was shot as he ran from his apartment after gunifire
was heard from outside. Afterward, police said, they found King inside the
apartment dead of a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
At first, the police effort to investigate the matter was
frustrated, first by the officers' refusal, on advice of their attorneys, to
discuss the matter, and then by Hughes' mother, Naomi Hughes, the only other
eyewitness to the incident, who announced she would have "nothing to say
to police."
Blankenship and Madden decided about two weeks ago to talk
with police investigators about the incident.
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