Shooting victim's son questions officers' judgment

Officers shot Alvin Curtis Jennings, 61, of Davenport late Wednesday in his home, and his son questions their reasons.

"I don't understand the thought process of shooting him," Dustin Jennings of Davenport told the Quad-City Times on Thursday.

Police released the officers' names involved in the shooting as Epigmenio Canas, an 11-year veteran, and Shawn Sullivan, a six-year veteran. This is Canas second officer-involved shooting in four years.

Canas and Sullivan have been placed on administrative leave as the Scott County Sheriff's Office investigates Wednesday's shooting.

Canas was one of three officers who shot Michael Lynn Cross on the Centennial Bridge in 2011 following a pursuit. Cross, then 18, was injured in the shooting. Canas was cleared of wrongdoing in an investigation.

Davenport officers were dispatched to 602 W. 9th St. about 10:30 p.m. Wednesday after a report of a person threatening another with a knife. Canas and Sullivan confronted Alvin Jennings in the house, and when he went at the officers with a knife, both fired their weapons, Assistant Davenport Police Chief Don Schaeffer said in a written statement.

Their next-door neighbor, Rachel Wommack, said she heard four gunshots while sitting in her living room with her daughter. She said Jennings suffered from mental and physical disabilities.

"They shot a disabled man," Wommack said. "I'm still so mad. I can't believe it. They could have tazed him. I'm still battling the fact he's gone."

Jennings lived in the house with Aubrey Jordan, the home's owner, for the past several years, Wommack said.

Wommack, who said she has been in touch with Jordan since the incident, said Jennings was drinking and threatening Jordan with a knife. Jordan barricaded himself inside his bedroom because the man was "stabbing at his bedroom door, stabbing at the walls."

Wommack referred to Jordan as "AJ."

"AJ is feeling really bad about what happened," she said.

Jordan couldn't be reached for comment.

Jordan and Jennings were lifelong friends.

"Aubrey was my dad's best friend," Dustin Jennings said.

Alvin Jennings' became disabled after suffering both a stroke and aneurysm in 2006. Surgeons removed a portion of his skull, his son said, and the injury contributed to his mental health issues in recent years.

"He was frail and weak," Dustin Jennings said. "He could not walk without a cane."

Wommack said she would find Jennings wandering the neighborhood and talking to himself. She would honk her car horn as a way of saying "hi" to Jennings almost every day as she came up the hill on 9th Street toward her home.

She honked her horn coming up the hill Thursday morning as a way to remember him.

"He was unpredictable, but he was harmless," Wommack said.

Jon Fredenburg, another neighbor, said Jennings made it a point almost every day to stand in his front yard and shout across the street at his neighbors or anyone passing by. What Jennings would shout was "nonsensical," he said.

He also had been seen talking to the cats in the neighborhood, Wommack said.

A cat sat on the front porch of his home Thursday morning. The porch light was on, but no one answered the door.

"He was a great person, had a lot of friends," Dustin Jennings said of his father.

Dustin Jennings didn't remember his father ever showing violent behavior toward anyone.

Wommack said that prior to Wednesday night, Jordan never had called 911 on Jennings. She never witnessed him act violently toward anyone.

Jennings had a brush with law enforcement in 1996. He was living in Montpelier, Iowa, at the time when police accused him of kicking in the door of a man in Buffalo and assaulting him. He was convicted on charges of trespass with injury and simple assault, both misdemeanors, and sentenced to 120 days in jail.

The block where Wednesday night's incident occurred was a lot quieter Thursday morning after police tape was removed. The neighborhood of overgrown trees and bushes backs up to a small ravine stretching from Gaines to Ripley streets.

Jordan and Jennings grew up in the neighborhood. Their families even swapped homes at one point.

The 602 W. 9th St. address used to be owned by Jennings' family, whereas Jordan grew up in the next-door duplex where Wommack now lives. Jordan is her landlord.

Jordan's mother lived in the other half of the duplex until she passed away earlier this year at age 94. A woman who answered the door at his mother's former duplex declined to talk. Pictures of Jordan shaking hands with Vice President Joe Biden and Davenport Mayor Bill Gluba are hung on a wall in an enclosed front porch.

Jordan, a delegate to the Scott County Democratic Conventions in 2008, has been active in political campaigns. Gluba considers him a friend.

"It's most unfortunate," Gluba said when reached by phone Thursday. "Aubrey is a really nice person, very active in the community. I'm sorry this happened to him."

Gluba said he's keeping Jordan and Jennings' family in his prayers.

"I'm in a crazy mindset right now," Dustin Jennings said. "I'm trying to process it."