Family seeks clues to Lazo's death in his wounds: Latino Man Collapses after Beating by Suffolk County Police
Thursday, April 17, 2008 at 01:21AM 
The bruises and cuts on Kenny Lazo's face were barely visible as he lay in his open coffin at a Bay Shore funeral home.
But beneath the makeup, there are dark bruises and cuts, worse than the ones his family said they saw in a photo of the right side of his face when they went to identify his body at the medical examiner's office.
A photo his girlfriend took of him Wednesday before the funeral shows the other side of his face, a purple bruise under his left eye and a thick scratch on his cheek. "The photograph says everything," Lazo's father, Alfonso Lazo, said at Rose's Funeral Home, where the image was passed around.
What role these wounds played in the 24-year-old man's death is at the heart of the family's struggle for answers, and one of the questions investigators are probing.
According to Suffolk police, Lazo was selling drugs in West Islip and struggled with three officers who tried to arrest him. He allegedly tried to grab an officer's gun, prompting them to beat him with flashlights. He collapsed about 30 minutes after his arrival at the Third Precinct, was taken to a hospital and pronounced dead, police said.
Daily, officers must decide when to use force and what is appropriate. When a suspect reaches for a gun, officers can use anything to protect themselves -- a radio, a flashlight or gun.
"Police officers everywhere are trained, if someone is trying to get your gun, you should assume they are trying to kill you," said Peter Moskos, a professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in Manhattan.
Moskos said police departments don't like officers to use flashlights, as there is a belief they are more likely to hit someone with them than with a baton. Another professor at the school, Eugene O'Donnell, said the question is whether the department authorizes officers to use flashlights as weapons. He said it's common to use them that way.
"What particular weapon they use is really not of consequence," he said. "What's of consequence is whether or not they're legally justified using the force that they're using."
The police department maintains the officers acted defensively. Lazo's family, however, believes they used excessive force. They question why Lazo would flee officers if he stepped out of his car voluntarily and why officers didn't take him to a hospital after he was beaten.
For two days, police have not responded to requests for a detailed timeline of Saturday evening, information on Lazo's cause of death or whether the officers involved are on any kind of modified duty. Lazo's family says they have not been able to get information from the medical examiner on his death.
An attorney representing the mother of Lazo's son has called on District Attorney Thomas Spota to hire a special prosecutor to investigate. Spota's office declined to comment yesterday.
Messages left for County Police Commissioner Richard Dormer and County Executive Steve Levy were also not returned.
A spokesman for the state Commission of Correction confirmed it had begun an inquiry, but could not discuss details.
At the law office of Edmond Chakmakian yesterday, a witness who was at the precinct Saturday night said he saw an officer demonstrate the beating and others laughing. The officer said the body would have to be moved before it began to smell, Eric Melendez said. Officials have not commented on Melendez's account.
At the office, Lazo's son, 5, spoke about playing with his father. His mother told him there was an accident and the hospital couldn't save him. "He started crying and screaming, 'Daddy,'" Jennifer Gonzalez said.[MORE]
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