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Since the start of 2003, there have been at least six cases of police-related shootings. The best known is the shooting of 23-year-old Truyen Pham outside the Spy Club in downtown Houston. There are conflicting accounts as to what provoked the shooting. The official police report is that Pham fired shots into a crowd [after] leaving the club after 2 a.m., wounding a woman. According to police, after the shooting Pham pointed his gun at Deputy Danny Avalos. Kelly Sorsangham, the woman who sustained the gunshot wound, and her sister Sandy were eyewitnesses to the shooting. Both insist that another unidentified man actually fired the shots. And that Pham had in fact tackled the gunman in order to protect them from harm. They said Pham was shot in the back by Houston police officers as he got up from the ground. Due to conflicting eyewitness testimony and police reports, the best way to determine whether or not Pham actually fired the weapon was to collect and analyze a specimen from his hands. The Harris County medical examiner conducted an autopsy shortly after Pham's body arrived at the morgue. The results of which were revealed today by medical examiner Sanchez. "By using an analysis that is called AA or atomic-absorption aspectroscopy. [sic] The results on that analysis is [are] inconclusive. We also tested the paperbacks that were used to protect the deceased's hands. We use another type of analysis called a scanning electro-microscope, or SEM, and the results are also inconclusive. We also tested the pants and the black t-shirt that was wearing the deceased, using the analysis called the scanning electro microscope, or SEM, and the results are also inconclusive." Dr. Sanchez described how the balistics tests are conducted and what is then done with the results. "With the absorption aspectroscopy or AA what we're looking for is the detection of three elements. The elements arrive from the cartridge primer and are deposited on the hands. The three elements that we're looking for are: antimony, aryan and lead. With the elctro-microscope, or SEM, we lookfor particles that contain the three elements, and in forensics we call them unique particles. And if we don't find any unique particles, then the case is classified as inconclusive. With the absorption aspectroscopy or AA, if we don't find the three elements like in this case, then we call it inconclusive. We take the samples and then we run the tests in this case, but it will be the firearms experts that will give that opinion because they will have access to the totality of the case. You have to interpret these findings in light of the entire police investigation, you can not look at this test and make a conclusion based on a single test or a series of testing. You need to look at the entire case. And the fact that the hands are inconclusive, again, that doesn't rule out the possibility that he could have discharged a firearm." To clarify the meaning of the word "inconclusive". "In this case we don't use negatives because we don't want to add to that misconception that if you don't find the elements that means that he didn't charge did charge the weapon. So that's why in forensics we use positive or inconclusive." At this point, the investigation has been handed over to HPD's own firearms expert. Pham's case illustrates a common complaint by local citizen groups monitoring police activities regarding the lack of law enforcement accountability in that the police department ends up investigating itself. Arlene Kelly of Civilians Down said the Medical Examiner's inconclusive findings in the Pham shooting came as no surprise. "Inconclusive evidence suggests that there was no residue found on the boy's hands. Obviously. If it were inconclusive, then nothing was found. So that suggests to me that the investigating officers need to look a little closer at the civilian witness statements and give them a whole lot more credence and look with a jaundice eye at the police officers' version of the incident." Earlier today, Kelly and members of Houston Copwatch and Corpus Justice spoke out against recent police shootings and the issue of witnesses contradicting official police statements. In a case similar to the Pham shooting, Jan Rencher's husband was shot last year by a constable responding to a domestic disturbance call. Jan Rencher and her teenaged children have contradicted the shooting officer's claim that Eric Rencher aimed a rifle at him. She described her reaction to this month's shooting of the 23-year-old Port Arthur man. "When I read the Pham incident, it reminded of ours all over again. And they will stick to their story until someone in court, or someone down the line two years from now has a lawsuit, and then things might change." Unlike Pham, Eric Rencher survived. Shannon Young and Mauryzia Wong, KPFT News. E-mail Shannon Young & Mauryzia Wong at news@kpft.org & MauryziaWong@yahoo.com respectively. This story was broadcast on January 17, 2003.