This story was revised at  12:30 p.m., Jan. 19, 2010, to make clear that a committee will be appointed to review the police shooting that occurred Saturday night in Lyman but that the panel has not yet been appointed.
 

The police shooting in Lyman that killed a 22-year-old Sanford man will be reviewed by a committee to be formed by the York County sheriff to determine whether training or policies need changing.

State law requires the Attorney General’s Office to investigate any use of deadly force by police and determine whether it was justified. It also requires review by a committee that includes a member of the public and a commissioned state police officer, to determine whether improvements can be made to make officers and the public safer.

York County sheriff’s deputies were called to 13 Faucher’s Lane in Lyman on Saturday night for a report of an “emotionally disturbed” man. They found Andrew Landry clutching two knives in a threatening way, police said. Deputies tried to disable him with a Taser. It failed to stop him, though it is unclear why.

Sgt. Kyle Kassa then shot Landry, fatally wounding him. Kassa has been put on administrative leave, as is standard in such cases.

Landry had no history of mental health problems or contacts with police, said his aunt, Sharon O’Brien.

Landry’s grandmother, who lived with him in Sanford, could not find him Saturday morning. At one point, a family member saw him walking in town but he refused to get in the car, O’Brien said.

When they called Landry’s cell phone, a man they didn’t know answered and said he had found the phone along with clothing and other belongings that had spilled from a bag along New Dam Road in Sanford. Family members called police.

Eventually, Landry’s grandmother found him walking along the road back toward his house, wearing just a pair of jeans and one sock.

Sanford rescue workers checked him out, but did not take him to a hospital. “The patient denied any injuries and refused transport,” said Assistant Fire Chief Jeff Rowe, who oversees the rescue workers. “They did a work-up on him to make sure he was OK.”

Rowe said there was nothing in the report about the person’s mental health, and if someone appears to have their faculties, responders don’t have the right to transport them involuntarily.

O’Brien said the medical personnel should have required Landry to go to the hospital, regardless of his statements.

The attorney general’s investigation will focus solely on whether Kassa was justified in using deadly force – whether he believed his life or someone else’s was threatened with deadly force.

A new requirement calls for a separate review of the tactics and techniques used in such an incident to determine whether changes in training, equipment or policy might produce better outcomes.

The head of the department, in this case York County Sheriff Maurice Ouellette, appoints the committee to do the review, and the results are to be made public.

Two such reviews are under way. One involves a game warden’s fatal shooting of a man in Togus in July. In the other, a Clinton police officer shot the tires of a car after a woman driving drunk allegedly tried to run him down. She was not shot.

Col. Patrick Fleming, chief of the state police, said it is too early to pass judgment on the reviews but major agencies like his typically do their own internal reviews.

“We find some things, either equipment issues or tactical issues, that we can use as learning points for the future,” he said.

The requirement for a shooting review committee stemmed from a bill submitted last year by Rep. Don Pilon, D-Saco.

“When the police department looks at these incidents, you have basically police reviewing police,” he said, “and that is not an objective review process.”

His proposal followed the shooting of a man in South Portland in 2008.

Police were called to Michael Norton’s house because he was in mental health crisis. When he finally emerged from the house, he advanced on officers, carrying knives. A South Portland officer fatally shot him.

“I don’t believe the police in charge of that utilized all the resources available to them that could have resulted in a more favorable outcome,” Pilon said. “I would like to have seen a mental health worker available at the scene and as an intervenor, and not have the police take this to a tragic ending.”

Norton’s family has sued the South Portland Police Department.

Pilon and Rep. Mark Dion, D-Portland, a former Cumberland County sheriff, have proposed a bill for this session, to require departments with tactical teams to have certified crisis negotiators.

The bill also would require that a comprehensive report be submitted to the state’s Criminal Justice Academy whenever a tactical team is deployed. That would help the academy develop training and best practices, Dion said, to the benefit of officers and the public.

“There is a lot of money spent on the military side of the equation. We want to make sure we spend an equal amount of resources on the peacetime side of the equation,” Dion said.

Staff Writer David Hench can be contacted at 791-6327 or at: dhench@pressherald.com