An ‘object’ or a gun? Records reveal new details in Gulfport police killing of homeless man
Before a homeless man was shot and killed by police in November, Gulfport officers had run-ins with him for more than a decade, including hours before his death.
One of the last times police came face to face with Henry Leo ”Hank” Frankowski III was the same day officers shot him outside of a Dollar Tree store on the afternoon of Nov. 12.
The Sun Herald filed public record requests to obtain Frankowski’s history of arrests and the incident report from the day of the shooting. After more than two months and much back and forth with law enforcement agencies, the incident report was sent Jan. 19.
Immediately after the shooting, Gulfport police said Frankowski had “pointed a firearm at the officers,” and the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation said he was “brandishing a weapon.”
The incident report only says he was holding an “object.”
A late-night car fire
Thirteen hours before the fatal shooting, at 1:28 a.m., officers caught up with Frankowski at the scene of a car fire, according to records obtained from the Gulfport Police Department.
The car — a white 1998 four-door Infiniti — had gone up in flames in the parking lot of a club in the 2200 block of 15th Street.
The responding officer recognized the car as one belonging to Frankowski, a homeless man known for walking around town with his protective Labrador retriever mix named Lucy.
Gulfport police knew him well because of a history of run-ins with him dating back to 2002, all resulting in misdemeanor charges, according to police records.
Frankowski walked up and told officers he had been in the car smoking a cigarette a short time earlier.
Gulfport firefighters, according to the police report, ruled the fire accidental, though a friend of Frankowski’s told the Sun Herald that Frankowski indicated he set the fire because it wasn’t working and he didn’t want anyone else to use it.
What Gulfport police said after the shooting
At 2:51 p.m. the same day, Gulfport officers responded to a report of a disturbance outside the Dollar Tree on U.S. 49.
They had gotten a report of a man, later identified as Frankowski, who was “abusing an animal and acting irate,” Gulfport police said in a press release after the shooting.
As two officers approached Frankowski, he “pointed a firearm at the officers,” Gulfport said in the release.
Both officers fired their weapons, and Frankowski was taken to a hospital where he died after an attempt to save him in surgery.
The coroner’s report indicated he died of multiple gunshot wounds.
Frankowski’s dog was taken to a local shelter, but when some of his friends went to the shelter to try to adopt the dog, they learned Lucy had been euthanized.
What the officers’ incident report says
MBI investigators were notified of the fatal shooting at 3:10 p.m. Nov. 12.
Gulfport police, the report says, responded at 2:51 p.m. to a “call for service ....regarding an individual who was causing a disturbance.”
The report did not indicate whether the incident had anything to do with allegations of someone abusing a dog.
When police got to the scene, the report said, officers “came into contact” with Frankowski, who “displayed an object and pointed it in the direction of the officers.”
The report did not say whether the “object” was a gun or other kind of weapon.
Two Gulfport police officers “discharged their firearms and fatally wounded” Frankowski, the report said.
Frankowski was taken from the scene by ambulance to Gulfport Memorial Hospital, where he was pronounced dead, the report said.
Police chief: ‘If we screw up... I’ll own it’
After the shooting, the Sun Herald sat down with Gulfport Police Chief Chris Ryle to discuss the incident.
When Ryle took over as police chief on Sept. 1, he vowed to be transparent with the public about what’s going on in the community.
“You know, when I say transparent, I’m going to be open about what happens when I can,” Ryle said. “The (Frankowski) case is under investigation. We are not heading that investigation. They haven’t ended that investigation. I’m not going to speak on it. It’s not proper.”
The police chief, however, said he would talk about the shooting in more detail when he could.
A Harrison County grand jury will ultimately hear evidence in the case to determine if any criminal wrongdoing occurred.
For at least 25 years, no grand jury on the Coast has ever indicted an officer for wrongdoing after shooting someone.
“If we screw up, I’ll be transparent and I’ll own it,” he said. “If we do right and people accuse us of screwing up, I’ll be boisterous and defend us to the end as well.”
Ryle would not identify the two police officers who fired at Frankowski or in other police shooting pending grand jury review..
“Am I going to release officer names?” he said. “Probably not. The officers don’t need that. They do a tough enough job as it is. Why do they need somebody coming to them and reminding them of what they had to go through?”
A fear or retribution in the homeless community
Mike Oneil, who considered Frankowski a close friend, says he and others in the homeless community haven’t felt safe since the shooting.
“They want us off the streets,” Oneil said, adding that he feels like police are arresting more people for vagrancy, begging or other offenses at homeless camps off U.S. 49 since the November shooting death of Frankowski.
Oneil calls Frankowski, a 49-year-old former resident of Saucier, his uncle and said he befriended him on the streets when he didn’t have any food to eat or money to spare. Frankowski, he said, helped him out.
“I really think Gulfport Police Department really messed up when they shot him,” Oneil said. “I know he didn’t own no gun, no golf club, any of that. (Now) They are coming into our camps, arresting everybody.”
Since the shooting, Oneil said he’s twice been picked up for panhandling, begging or vagrancy, something he says he has no choice but to do because he can’t get a job with a felony criminal record. He said he’s rarely faced repercussions from police in the past.
He’s also among others who do not believe Frankowski did anything to warrant his fate.
“He was real good,” Oneil said. “He gave me money when he had it to spare. I don’t believe police had to shoot him. He didn’t own no firearm.”
But Oneil did not witness the shooting.
Police chief disputes harassment claims
Chief Ryle disputes claims of police harassment, instead saying the department is working with its community partners, including the Homeless to Housing Hub, to try to find help for the homeless.
“Our first priority is to offer these individuals assistance through our community partners,” Ryle said. “Now, if these individuals don’t want assistance or they break the law, they will be held accountable.”
Ryle noted that police officers can’t go onto private property (where some of homeless camps are) and arrest people unless the property owners sign an affidavit accusing the offenders of trespassing or other offenses.
That has been the case at some of the camps, including on private property on Creosote Road off U.S. 49.
“We have partnered with our community partners trying to get the homeless housed, but there are those certain individuals who don’t want resources and don’t want the assistance and those individuals may be arrested with the cooperation from the property owners,” Ryle said.
A pursuit of public records
The Sun Herald filed various public records requests related to the shooting on Nov. 16.
Gulfport police did not provide the incident report, instead referring the request to the Mississippi Department of Public Safety since the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation is conducting an independent probe.
MBI always investigates shootings by law enforcement officers, and the agency has provided limited information from incident reports in the past.
After repeated attempts to obtain the incident report from MDPS, the agency began saying Nov. 20 that it was still working on it and would turn it over as soon it was completed.
The Mississippi Public Records Act requires agencies to turn over records, or explain why they’re not, within seven working days.
On Tuesday — over two months after the shooting and well past the deadline — an official with the MDPS official said it was able to track down MBI’s incident report and turned it over to the Sun Herald.
History of misdemeanor arrests
The Sun Herald requested public records on Frankowski’s history of arrests with Gulfport police:
- April 5, 2002: Arrest on U.S. 90 on misdemeanor charges of driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs or other substances and cited him for running a stop sign, reckless driving and driving with a suspended license
- May 1, 2012: Arrest on U.S. 49 on charges of public drunk, begging, possession of drug paraphernalia and providing false information
- Sept. 29, 2017: Arrest on U.S. 90 at DeBuys Road on warrant for a misdemeanor probation violation, contempt of court for failure to appear and a misdemeanor charge of sending obscene electronic communications
- Sept. 9, 2018: Arrest on Dedeaux Road on a misdemeanor charge of abuse of the emergency 911 telephone service
- Nov. 11, 2018: Arrest outside a bookstore off U.S. 49 on a misdemeanor warrant for failure to appear in court
- April 2, 2019: Arrest on U.S. 49 on a misdemeanor warrant for failure to appear in court
- April 24, 2019: Arrest on U.S. 49 on a misdemeanor warrant for failure to appear in court
- Jan. 24, 2020: Arrest on a misdemeanor warrant for failure to appear in court
This story was originally published January 21, 2021 at 11:58 AM.
