DENVER -- The new president of the City Council said Wednesday she has asked the U.S. attorney to investigate the death of Paul Childs, a mentally disabled 15-year-old who was shot in a confrontation with police on July 5.

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"We need an independent investigation into this shooting," Elbra Wedgeworth told a community meeting.

Wedgeworth, a veteran council member who became president on Monday, said she sent a letter to U.S. Attorney John Suthers on Friday. Suthers spokesman Jeff Dorschner said the request would be referred to the Justice Department's civil rights division in Washington.

Childs' shooting angered the community, prompting someone to circulate crude flyers in Childs' neighborhood urging people to "shoot cops." Neighborhood and religious leaders disavowed the flyers and counseled restraint.

Childs was shot four times by Officer James Turney after Childs' family called 911 and said the teen was threatening his mother with a knife. Police said Childs refused orders to drop the knife.

Some residents have charged the shooting was racially motivated. Childs was black.

Turney was placed on paid administrative leave because of the shooting and suspended two days later when he came under an unrelated investigation. Police have refused to offer details, but a judge in Iowa issued an arrest warrant for Turney accusing him of making a telephone threat to his former mother-in-law in that state the day before Childs was shot.

"Not all police are bad, but neither are all black boys," said resident Dionna Harding, who has three children, including a 17-year-old son. She said she fears he could be shot by police.

"Make sure your kid doesn't move when they're pulled over. Tell them, 'Keep your hands on the wheel and ask the officer for permission to roll down the window,'" Harding said. "If you don't, who knows, he may be having a bad day and end up shooting you."

Prosecutors have investigated 14 instances in the past decade where someone has died at the hands of police. Prosecutors cleared the officers each time.

No charges were filed last year after Turney and another officer shot and killed a hearing-impaired, 18-year-old black man. Turney had said the teen was wielding a pocket knife.

Gregory Smith's family said that he was standing far from the officers -- they were on the top of the stairwell and he was on the bottom -- so he couldn't have been a threat.

Wedgeworth said Denver District Attorney Bill Ritter, who decides whether to file charges in police shootings, should attend a community meeting when he announces his decision in the Childs' case.

The Justice Department's civil rights division is reviewing the investigation of the shooting of Mexican immigrant Ismael Mena by Denver police, Dorschner said. Mena was shot during a drug raid at the wrong house Sept. 29, 1999. The city paid the Mena family $400,000.

Another civil rights division investigation led to charges against seven guards at a federal prison in Florence who were known as "The Cowboys." Three were convicted on June 24 for their role in organizing attacks against inmates.