INSIDE:
C O M M U N I T Y P. 3 1 | B U S I N E S S P. 3 5 | O P I N I O N P. 3 9 | S P O R T S P. 4 3 | G E T O U T P. 4 5 | C L A S S I F I E D P. 4 9
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NOT THIS YEAR
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BANDS OF HELP
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BUSINESS BINGO
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75 YEARS OF YUMMY
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Wednesday February 3, 2021
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No charges in fatal police shooting of Ahwatukee man BY PAUL MARYNIAK AFN Executive Editor
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oth the Ahwatukee man who was fatally shot twice in the back in the doorway of his condo and the Phoenix Police officer who pulled the trigger “could have made decisions that would have avoided this terrible result” but “neither did anything that is prohibited by our criminal laws.” With that conclusion, County Attorney Allister Adel last Friday announced she would not file criminal charges against Officer Jeff Cooke in the May 21 death of Ryan Whitaker at his
Desert Foothills Parkway home. Whitaker was shot to death seconds after answering his door when Cooke and Officer John Ferragamo responded to a 911 report that there was a domestic dispute in his building. Adel’s decision still leaves open an ongoing disciplinary case involving Cooke. City Council last month unanimously approved a $3 million settlement with the family of Whitaker, whose great great grandfather was one of Phoenix’s first 12 policemen. A spokesman for Councilman Sal DiCiccio’s office said that the outcome of that disciplinary investigation has not yet been resolved.
The family’s attorney did not return a request for comment on Adel’s decision and Phoenix Law Enforcement Association President Michael “Britt” London issued a statement that said it agreed with the county attorney’s conclusion. “Each day, our men and women in uniform encounter dangerous situations, many resulting in split-second decisions,” London wrote. “In circumstances where a deadly weapon is involved, our officers try to deescalate the situation but must also defend themselves and
see WHITAKER page 14
Club West feud escalates Veggie medley amid election, court case BY PAUL MARYNIAK AFN Executive Editor
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he upcoming HOA board elections in the Foothills Club West Association are starting to become as bitterly contested as the 2020 presidential campaign. Fueled largely by the debate over the future of the now-closed golf course, the fight between the HOA board and the Club West Conservancy escalated last week as board President Michael Hinz sent the community’s approximate 2,600 homeowners a 2,030word email that he said addressed “misleading and false assertions by the Club West Conservancy.” The Club West Conservancy fired back with a 646-word rejoinder that characterized Hinz’s “long, never-ending letter” as “a desperate attempt to make excuses and explain the board’s failure to bring solutions for the golf
course to the community over the last decade.” The exchange came as the feuding parties await two outcomes that eventually could determine if parts of the course will be sold to a homebuilder so that the 160acre site’s owners have money to fund a park on the rest of the land. One outcome involves the lawsuit the Conservancy has filed against the board and the other involves the March election, where 11 candidates, including four incumbents, are vying for four of the board’s five seats. Only Hinz’s seat is not on the ballot. Though a trial had been tentatively scheduled this month on the Conservancy’s effort to have the courts reverse the board’s assumption of the declarant rights to the course, no date has been set and even a judge has not yet been assigned to preside.
see WEST page 16
Ahwatukee artist Sandra Davis Marshall’s food art rendering of an already famous photo sent her into viral fame with the help of horror novelist Stephen King. See page 12 for details. (Courtesy Sandra
Marshall)