DENVER -- Denver Police Chief Jerry Whitman on Thursday recommended a 20-day suspension for Officer James Turney, the veteran who shot and killed a developmentally disabled black teen last summer, 7NEWS reported.

Whitman met with Turney Thursday during a "chief's hearing," after which Whitman recommended that the officer be suspended and not fired, 7NEWS reported.

Sources told The 7NEWS Investigators that the period of suspension was 20 days.

The personnel issue now moves to Manager of Safety Al LaCabe. He will review it and has 15 days to decide what action will be taken, Denver Police Department spokesman Sonny Jackson said.

The killing of 15-year-old Paul Childs on July 5 touched off an angry debate about police force and sparked a civil lawsuit from Childs' family.

Police were called to the Childs' family home when his sister called to report that the teen had allegedly threatened their mother with a knife.

Police say that when they arrived at Childs home, Childs was standing in the doorway, refusing several orders to drop the 13-inch kitchen knife he was holding. The teen's family said he may not have understood police officers' orders and that he was not a threat to any of the officers. The family argues that officers could have easily used a Taser gun instead of lethal force.

Turney was never charged for the shooting, even though it was the second disabled teen the policeman had shot dead in 18 months. District Attorney Bill Ritter said he had insufficient evidence to prove that Turney's actions amounted to criminal conduct. After reviewing videotape and audiotape statements from officers, family members and witnesses at the scene, he concluded that Turney's actions were not unreasonable. He also said that the officers at the scene were told only that a teen was trying to stab his mother, and not anything of his mental condition.

Turney was placed on paid administrative leave during the investigation of the shooting and suspended two days later when he came under an unrelated investigation. Turney had been accused of making a telephone threat to his former mother-in-law in Iowa the day before Childs was shot.

As a result of the high-profile shooting and the backlash that it unleashed from the black community, Mayor John Hickenlooper unveiled sweeping reforms to improve training, increased the number of Tasers available to officers, and reviewed the use of deadly force in the police department.

Family members have filed a civil lawsuit against the city, alleging excessive and unreasonable force led to the teen's death. They are represented by famed attorney Johnnie Cochran.

In 2002, Turney and another officer shot and killed a hearing-impaired, 18-year-old black man in the same Park Hill neighborhood. Turney had said the teen was wielding a pocket knife.