Monday, March 31, 2003 | 11:09 a.m.
A coroner's inquest ruled Friday that a Metro police officer's fatal shooting of an unarmed suspect was excusable.
The ruling means that the shooting may have been not entirely acceptable, but it was also not considered criminal.
Officer Brian Hartman shot Orlando Barlow Feb. 28 after responding to a call in Spring Valley. The shooting occurred while the suspect was surrendering outside a home where he was accused of holding a woman's seven children hostage.
Police said at the time that Barlow appeared to be reaching toward his waistband.
Hartman was one of four officers present at the time of the shooting.
Barlow's family has retained a lawyer, who will be filing a federal civil rights lawsuit, Chief Deputy District Attorney Dan Bowman, who led the inquest, said.
Coroner's inquests are not adversarial in nature, involve a seven-person jury and allow all those present -- including the family members of the deceased -- to question the police officers involved.
The jury can decide that a shooting was justifiable, excusable, or criminal. Since 1976, 171 coroner's inquests in Clark County have produced 163 verdicts of justifiable shootings and seven verdicts of excusable shootings.
Bowman said he was not surprised that a lawsuit will follow Friday's ruling. The district attorney's office will not be a party to the lawsuit.
"After every single inquest, someone is not happy and says the whole system should be changed," he said. "If the police lose, they complain, and if the family of the deceased loses, they also complain -- even though they participate in the proceedings.
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