When QuanDavier Hicks opened his apartment door in Cincinnati on Tuesday, police say the first thing two officers saw was the muzzle of a .22-caliber rifle, says the Cincinnati Enquirer. “It wasn’t a hello,” said Assistant Police Chief James Whalen. “It was a rifle in the face.” One officers grabbed the barrel of the gun and pushed it away from his partner. The other fired a fatal shot into Hicks’ chest. So ended another violent encounter in the worst year for gun violence in Cincinnati in the past decade.
Shootings are up 26 percent over last year through the first week of June, a jump that prompted Police Chief Jeffrey Blackwell to start a violence-reduction plan yesterday that includes a youth curfew and more cops on the street. Tuesday’s death underscores the depth of the problem. The shooting was the third involving Cincinnati police so far this year. In 2014, officers were involved in three shootings all year.