WEST WARWICK - It was in the back seat of an SUV barreling down a Brooklyn, N.Y., street that I first used what I’d learned at the Citizen’s Police Academy.

I’d only been in class a few weeks when I went to visit my sister in Brooklyn. We’d just left church and were riding with a friend of hers to get brunch. As she drove, we passed a police station where a small demonstration was taking place. I craned my neck to survey the scene. Officers in blue windbreakers surrounded the handful of people who shouted at the department with a bullhorn. Road barricades and a few police cruisers blocked the street directly in front of the station. Drizzling rain moistened the scene as we drove by.

The protest, we figured, was in memory of Khiel Coppin, an 18-year-old killed the week before by five police officers who fired 20 bullets at him after he confronted them and pulled an object from under his sweatshirt; he was hit eight times, in the body and lower leg. When officers searched his body, they found no gun - just a black hairbrush.

The shooting occurred only blocks from where we were driving.

"The police are always shooting someone," my sister’s friend said. "I don’t know why they couldn’t have used a Taser on him instead of shooting."

"Yeah," my sister seconded. "And 20 shots? That’s kind of excessive."

"They could have at least shot him in his hand or arm or something instead of killing him."

I sat in the back seat in silence. I’d heard about the story only in passing, so I didn’t know details. But in Citizen’s Police Academy, we’d learned about the types of force police officers use, from batons and pepper spray, their voices and hands, to Tasers and guns.

The weapons, West Warwick Sgt. James Tierney told us, are tools officers use to stay in control of the situations they encounter.

"Every time an officer responds to a call, he has to win," he said. "He has to be the one who goes home at night."

The concept was hard to swallow that night. I’d heard enough stories of police brutality from friends and family to warrant skepticism. But hearing about Coppin and watching the demonstration on the slick Brooklyn street, I began to understood what Tierney was trying to say. We call the police when we need a situation to stop. If officers can’t do that, what’s their purpose?

As the SUV rolled along I tried to bite my lip, but after a while I had to say something.

"Actually, officers are taught to shoot to stop a person, so they aim for their center mass. Unfortunately, that’s where all of the important organs are, but in a stressful situation it’s likely the only place an officer will be able to hit with some accuracy."

Silence from the front seat. "Think about it," I said. "All of that adrenaline and you think an officer can aim - and hit - a tiny arm or leg while someone is coming at them? I’m not saying the officers in this situation were right, I’m just saying that’s what police officers are taught."

I could all but see the wheels in their heads turning. About half a minute passed before my sister broke the silence.

"I guess you’re right," she said. "It’s just sad that boy had to die the way he did."

That was one thing I couldn’t argue with.

tbuford@projo.com / (401) 277-7378