 |
 |
| Graffiti in a restroom in the D.C. Police Department’s Fifth District station includes disparaging sexual remarks. Sgt. Robert Schoonover (inset), found dead in an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound, had just been assigned to the district. |
|
|
| | |
| |
|
|
| | |
HOME > NEWS > LOCAL
By: Kelly Carson COMMENTS
 
continued...
"who preferred to quietly lead from the wings, rather than share the stage with others."
But Parson saw some of the problems Schoonover struggled with.
"His transition to sergeant was difficult," Parson said. "He expressed to me several times his yearning to return to being an officer."
Greene said Schoonover had not been under her command long enough to form relationships with the officers of the Fifth District. He had only worked a few shifts and gone through orientation and training before his death. She did, however, attend a memorial on Jan. 22 remembering Schoonover.
Greene said that like other police officers, Schoonover would have had closer relationships with his peers before his promotion.
"We all form relationships when we are officers," Greene Said. "You have to keep those relationships because those are the people who are your source of comfort."
Trouble in the past
In 2004, while stationed at the Third District, Schoonover filed a complaint against Officer Hiram Rosario after Rosario allegedly shoved Schoonover and dragged him across a room full of fellow officers while Schoonover was seated in a chair.
That incident occurred less than two months after Rosario returned to the Third District after being transferred as punishment for a June 2002 incident involving another gay officer.
Because the proceedings of police disciplinary action are not public, the outcome of that complaint isn’t known.
Schoonover "filed a complaint with the EEO officer against Rosario," Sanders said. "[Rosario] was transferred pending a trial board, which is a disciplinary trial. I don’t know his status."
| 
