Lawton City Council to discuss arbitration ruling in shooting

City Council members will meet in executive session today to discuss arbitrator recommendations that could restore two former Lawton police officers to the force.

The meeting will begin at 2 p.m. in the auditorium of Lawton City Hall. Three executive session items center on the December 2021 shooting death of Quadry Malik Sanders by two Lawton police officers.

Council members are expected to decide the city’s actions following a decision by arbitrators that former Lawton police officers Nathan Michael Ronan and Robert Leslie Hinkle be returned to duty. City administrators fired the two men in January 2022 after they fatally shot Sanders. Both also have been charged with first-degree manslaughter and are waiting for their preliminary hearing.

Earlier this month, arbitrators found the City of Lawton had not established the two officers used excessive or unreasonable force in the shooting, the reason for their terminations. The awards from the two arbitration hearings specify the officers be reinstated because they had acted within their training and department protocols. Reinstatement would mean the officers also would receive back pay.

But the City of Lawton could appeal the decisions, action that is expected to be discussed by the council today in executive session. Any action the council decides upon must be 062223-tlc-statefarm on in open session, under the state’s Open Meetings Act.

In a related item, the council will be updated on pending action in U.S. District Court filed against the city, Ronan and Hinkle by Sander’s mother.

Before that happens, the council will consider recommendations from its Youth and Family Affairs Committee to designate funding from the 2019 Capital Improvements Program to three programs specifically keyed toward supporting at-risk youth. Skills for Life Foundation is seeking $89,000 for its Skills for Life Academy Program; Joshua Empowering Survivors Unique Servants Inc, $48,500; and the Tulsa Greenwood STEM and Entrepreneurship Program $95,640.20.