Yesterday, Mrs. White surprised us with criticism of HPD’s murder reporting (as first reported by KHOU-11’s Mark Greenblatt).
As Greenblatt now reports, Mayor White has taken the lead after Chief Hurtt’s poor handling of the situation:
And now, the Mayor’s on the defensive.
“There’s not been an intentional effort to hide data,” said White.
Intentional or not, the mayor is admitting to potential problems in at least six homicides the 11 News Defenders uncovered.
“Based off some of the issues you’ve raised… I think there’s going be a lot more discipline in the way the reports are handled,” said White.
And in a major about face, the city’s finally admitting to problems in HPD’s investigation of Stephen McCoy’s death that after being shot in the chest three times and then in the back of the head, police labeled a suicide even though the medical examiner ruled his death a homicide.
But now?
11 News: The investigation’s now back open?
“Yes,” said White. “My take is: It was a murder and then it was ruled a suicide. And I’m asking (HPD) to take a new look at this case.”
That’s quite a rebuke from the Mayor for his bungling police chief, considering that Chief Hurtt refused to take questions on the matter before Thanksgiving (in fairness, he might have had a plane to Phoenix to catch); and after Thanksgiving HPD merely took to repeating talking points that called Greenblatt’s reporting “inaccurate and misleading.” So much for Chief Hurtt’s ghostblogger’s effort to smear an award-winning reporter.
