01:55 AM CST on Saturday, February 25, 2006

By BRETT SHIPP / WFAA-TV

WFAA-TV

Chad Fuqua said a police weapon wounded him in the neck and elsewhere.

New questions are being raised regarding the use of rapid-fire pepper ball guns being used by Dallas police.

Are police using the guns as a way to control criminals, or—as some suggest—as a means to exercise control?

Last month we told you about an innocent civilian who was shot in the face by an officer firing a pepper ball gun into a crowd.

Following that story, we heard from another citizen who said he was hit by Dallas police pepper ball fire 17 times.

But the story behind the story is the officer behind the gun.

On June 4, 2005, Darren Davis of Dallas walked out of a club on Lower Greenville Ave. He was shot in the face by an errant pepper ball fired by a Dallas police Sgt. Michael Smith, who was trying to break up a fight.

In a videotape taken shortly after the shooting, Sgt. Smith is seen attending to Davis' injuries, but he never admitted to shooting him.

Sgt. Smith charged someone else with assaulting Davis.

When Chad Fuqua of Arlington saw the video in a News 8 report, he perked up. "When I saw it, it was almost identical to what happened to me and my friend."

On June 12—the next weekend at almost the same spot on Lower Greenville—Fuqua said he and five friends were headed to their car when officers began to arrest one of his friends for appearing to be drunk.

"I started to walk back to the other friend that was still standing on the corner next to him, and had yelled across the street questioning what was going on and why was he being arrested," Fuqua recalled. "At that time, I started getting shot."

Photographs show Fuqua suffered 17 pepper shot wounds in the neck, chest, stomach, side, back, legs and arm. He dropped to his knees trying to cover up from the barrage.

"Got one in the finger; got shot in the back of the head, right here," Fuqua said. "It left a golfball-sized wound, and left an open wound on my head."

Fuqua was handcuffed and arrested, he says, for questioning police actions.

He went to the hospital for treatment following his release from jail.

Police charged Fuqua with public intoxication and resisting arrest. He pleaded guilty to a lesser charge, figuring it was his word against police.

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Chad Fuqua saw Sgt. Michael Smith in Channel 8's coverage of the June 4 shooting.

Then he saw the News 8 Investigates story about the Davis shooting and realized one key thing: Sgt Smith was involved in both incidents.

Fuqua is now the second civilian to file an internal affairs complaint against Sgt Smith, claiming reckless abuse of his authority.

David Schiller, an attorney and former police officer, represents both Fuqua and Davis. "I know for a fact that that's not proper, and not how a police department trains its officers," Schiller said, adding that the department has to punish any abusive behavior.

"I think the bigger concern out there is that this sergeant is setting an example for the officers out there that it's OK to be out of control; it's OK to make people pay for questioning the police," Schiller said.

Sgt. Smith's discipline records, which date back to 1991, are dominated by 75 commendations.

But there are 16 complaints in the back of his file, primarily "excessive force" and "physical abuse" allegations, all of which were deemed either "inconclusive" or "unfounded."

Police officials said while they are still investigating both events, they are troubled by the allegations.

"Yes, 15, 20 pepper ball sprays without any context, of course, at first glance looks like a clear violation," said Assistant Chief David Brown. "At the same time, there's a context to every police confrontation."

Chief Brown wanted to remind the public of the difficult job of both protecting and policing revelers on Lower Greenville Ave. and in the city's Deep Ellum district.

Fuqua wanted to remind police that pepper ball pelts are a poor way to gain the public's respect.

E-mail bshipp@wfaa.com