One of three police officers suspended for returning a Laotian teenager to accused serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer said he and the other two officers did nothing wrong.
"God as my witness, I just didn't dump a little boy in the hands of a murderer. That's not what happened," Joseph T. Gabrish, 28, told the Milwaukee Journal in a copyrighted article published in Sunday's editions.Dahmer has told police he killed Konerak Sinthasomphone, 14, after police left the boy with him May 27.
Police responded to a call that a naked male was bleeding and staggering in the street outside Dahmer's apartment. The officers believed Dahmer's story that the boy was his adult lover. Dahmer, who has confessed to 17 killings, has been charged with 15 slayings - including the death of Sinthasomphone.
"With the set of circumstances we had on that night, we acted properly and within our training," Gabrish said. "We handled the situation as we thought it should be handled. And that was with four officers on the scene - we're talking probably a combined effort of 23 years of police experience."
Milwaukee Police Chief Philip Arreola has suspended three officers with pay during an investigation. The fourth officer was not suspended, presumably because he had little or no involvement with Dahmer.
The state Attorney General's Office also has been investigating the incident while the U.S. Justice Department said its investigation showed no civil rights violations by the officers.
Gabrish said he takes solace from wide support from colleagues and supervisors. To deal with the stress, he has been catching up on repairs to a house he bought last year and has been socializing with other officers. He said he keeps in touch with the other suspended officers, John A. Balcerzak, 34, his longtime partner, and Richard Porubcan, 25.
Gabrish said he was shocked at the reaction of many in the city.
"I can't believe the community would believe that I would leave a young boy bleeding and just turn him over to someone, just leave without having administered any care. That just wasn't the case.
"We thought there was a caring relationship between these two individuals," he said.
He also said the three noticed nothing unusual in Dahmer's apartment - although body parts, skulls and photos of mutilated men were found in the apartment July 23 after Dahmer's arrest.
"We're trained to be observant and spot things," he said. "There was just nothing that stood out, or we would have seen it. I've been doing this for a while, and usually if something stands out, you'll spot it. There just wasn't anything there. I run this thing through my mind. I wish there would have been. There just wasn't."
Some residents of the area have criticized the police handling of the case as being racist because Dahmer is white, while the women who called police and directed them to Sinthasomphone and the woman who called police later to follow up on the matter were black.
Gabrish, who in seven years as an officer has earned 19 awards for meritorious service and a superior achievement award, said he was amazed at charges of racism.