Two former Oklahoma police officers facing manslaughter charges in the fatal 2021 shooting of an unarmed Black man must be reinstated and receive back pay, arbitrators who reviewed their cases have ordered.
In their findings, two arbitrators separately concluded that the former officers, Nathan Ronan and Robert Hinkle, who shot Quadry Sanders, 29, a dozen times on Dec. 5, 2021, in Lawton, Okla., were unjustifiably terminated because the officers had reasonably believed that the use of force was necessary.
A lawyer for the officers, Gary James, said by phone on Wednesday that his clients felt relieved about the decisions, which were made on May 30, and looked forward to returning to work, though it remained unclear when exactly that would be. The Lawton city manager terminated both officers in January 2022.
John Ratliff, the acting city manager in Lawton, said by phone that “the city is disappointed with the outcome,” and that city officials would convene a special counsel meeting next Thursday to discuss the arbitrators’ findings.
Both officers are still facing first-degree manslaughter charges in Comanche County and a lawsuit filed by Mr. Sanders’s family.
A lawyer for Mr. Sanders’s family, the Comanche County district attorney’s office and the Lawton Police Department did not immediately respond to emails and calls seeking comment on Wednesday.
Both arbitrators wrote in their findings, which each run nearly 50 pages, that Mr. Hinkle, who is Black, and Mr. Ronan, who is white, had believed that Mr. Sanders had a gun, which justified their decision to fire. The city, however, contends that the officers fatally shot a man who posed no imminent danger.
Body camera footage of the confrontation shows the officers responding to a 911 call about a man who was entering a home in violation of a protective order.
Mr. Sanders had a dispute with a woman when the police were called, his family’s lawyer has said, and he was the person in violation of the protective order, according to a statement issued in December 2021 by the Lawton Police Department.
The caller had reported that Mr. Sanders was waving a gun inside the house, the police said. Officers learned that Mr. Sanders was refusing to let one of the residents leave, according to prosecutors, and the footage shows officers using a loudspeaker to alert Mr. Sanders of their presence.
After a woman exits the home, Mr. Sanders emerges from a back door, according to the video.
Mr. Sanders complied with an officer’s commands to show his hands, according to the district attorney’s office, before running back inside. When Mr. Sanders exits the house again, an officer wearing the body camera moves toward him, directing him to put his hands up and get down on the ground.
The only object visible in his hands is a baseball cap, according to the district attorney’s statement. Mr. Sanders appears to try to move behind a refrigerator sitting outside, and just as he raises his hands above his head, one of the officers shoots at Mr. Sanders four times.
Mr. Sanders then falls to the ground, at which time an officer once again says, “Hands! Hands! Hands!”
The footage then shows Mr. Sanders sitting up with his hands above his head, and at that moment he is repeatedly shot, the video shows. Officers shout at Mr. Sanders to “stay down” and “roll over on your stomach.” Mr. Sanders, writhing, appears to say “I’m down” and “I can’t breathe.”
The arbitrators concluded that no excessive force was used to a degree that warranted termination. But police accountability experts continue to scrutinize and raise questions about the practice of arbitration in police misconduct cases nationwide; some contend that the process is more favorable toward police unions.
Diego Jesus Peña, the arbitrator in Mr. Hinkle’s case, declined to comment on his findings. He said he had worked as an arbitrator in other police misconduct cases in the past. Gary A. Anderson, the arbitrator in Mr. Ronan’s case, could not be immediately reached for comment on Wednesday night.
They were selected through a process in which each side, the city and the officers, can strike through a random panel of arbitrators from a national organization one by one until a single arbitrator is left, according to Mr. James, who described the process as fair.
But some experts have criticized that selection process because it could incentivize arbitrators to rule more favorably toward the police, or else risk being skipped over by officers in future cases.
“The arbitrator does the right thing and upholds discipline, the chances are he’s not going to get another gig,” said Michael Gennaco, a law enforcement reform and accountability expert. “On the other hand, for those that undo the discipline or cut the baby in half, or come up with a compromise resolution, those are the ones that get picked again by the union.”
Police unions typically negotiate such collective bargaining agreements with the city, resulting in widespread use of arbitrators, who are not elected and have little to no accountability, Mr. Gennaco said.
“I think it really is a systemic defect in the process,” he said.
Arbitrators also operate with a broad standard of review, focusing on specific phrases like whether an officer was terminated “without just cause or good cause, or some other generalized standard,” said Stephen Rushin, a professor of criminal law, evidence and police accountability at Loyola University Chicago.
Dr. Rushin, who has researched police arbitration across the country, said that it is “not uncommon at all for arbitrators to reinstate officers who have been terminated or to reduce discipline,” and that studies have consistently shown that it occurs about half the time.
Mr. James said he had not witnessed such an advantage for police officers in his experience with arbitration.
His clients, he said, had won “not because of bias toward the union,” but because of “all the facts that were presented in this case.”