Jill Porter: Mom's waited a year for police answers

WHEN she got up on New Year's Day after another in a long year of terrible nights, Gloria Jones saw the news on television - and was stunned.

It had happened again.

In an uncanny repeat of what happened to her son a year earlier, Philadelphia police had shot an unarmed man on New Year's Eve. The circumstances seemed identical: Police confronted revelers who were shooting into the air on New Year's Eve and wound up firing at them.

Jones' son, Bryan, 20 - who the family says was not among those firing guns - was shot in the head and died immediately. This year's victim, Abede Isaac, 33, died a week later.

Gloria Jones reeled at the news. She understood, like no one else could, the trauma Isaac's family was feeling. She only hopes they get an explanation quicker than she has. Police have yet to give their official version of what happened to Jones' son that night. Law-enforcement authorities would tell me only that the investigation is continuing.

"I just want some answers," said Jones' surviving son, Christopher.

And I don't blame him.

I'm not unmindful of the fact that a defendant was in court yesterday accused of killing Police Officer Chuck Cassidy. I'm aware the world is a treacherous place for police these days, filled with armed thugs who kill casually and without conscience.

So I don't know what happened out there the night Bryan Jones was killed. I do know it's taking far too long to find out.

Gloria Jones stares out the window of her lawyer's office, her eyes glazed in sorrow, as her surviving son explains what happened that night.

Bryan left his Overbrook home, on Haddington Street near 56th, about midnight, Christopher Jones said. Bryan was on his way to pick up his nephew at a house on 59th Street, where the boy was visiting a friend, and escort him home, Christopher said.

Meanwhile, a handful of police officers responded to reports that revelers on a rooftop on the 1700 block of North 59th Street were firing guns in the air in the dangerous ritual of celebrating New Year's Eve.

According to original news reports, police said the teens fired on them when they arrived. They originally claimed Bryan Jones was reaching for his waistband when he was shot.

Police later acknowledged he had been unarmed.

Bryan and his nephew were running toward home because they heard gunfire and were warned by another teen to get out of danger, Christopher said.

So, how and why was Bryan Jones shot?

Internal Affairs Chief Inspector William Colarulo said he couldn't comment because the investigation is still under way.

He said Internal Affairs can't even interview the officers involved until the district attorney's office decides whether or not to bring criminal charges against them. Presumably, that's to prevent the officers from making statements that could be used against them at trial.

Assistant D.A. Terry Kibestis, who's handling the investigation, said she couldn't comment on it, either.

The Joneses' lawyer, Bruce Ginsburg, said police and the D.A. have been uncooperative.

The family declined a police invitation to meet a while back and sent Ginsburg instead. "I just couldn't handle it," Gloria Jones said.

She's been in therapy since Bryan died, she said, struggling with depression. She's a widow who also lost her oldest son, who died after jumping in the Schuylkill, the result of being given "bad drugs," she said.

Gloria and Christopher Jones said they want some answers - and Ginsburg is filing suit to get them.

"I clearly understand the family's frustration," said William Johnson, head of the civilian Police Advisory Commission.

"Even as an oversight agency, at times we become frustrated by the way the process works."

One source of delay, he said, is the amount of time the D.A. sometimes takes to decide whether or not to bring charges.

Sometimes the D.A.'s office acts quickly. Other times - like this one - it doesn't, Johnson said. One investigation took two years to complete, he said.

Which leaves you to wonder: If the probe of Bryan Jones' shooting had been completed before now, could this year's tragedy have been prevented?

When identical incidents in seemingly identical circumstances end in identical tragedies, it seems to be more than a coincidence. It suggests a need for more training or more restraint or - any number of other things. It's hard to say, until the investigation is complete. How can you learn from your mistakes when you might not know what they are?

"The overall sense is that nothing has been learned," Ginsburg said. *

E-mail porterj@phillynews.com or call 215-854-5850. For recent columns:

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