Greta Powell is still angry and bewildered at the way the police handled the slaying of her husband, Spencer, who was killed by a cop. At left, Spencer cuddles his son Neiko on the waterfront just a few hours before he was shot dead in Frenchtown as Neiko watched. At right, Greta Powell holds her daughter, Princess, as she and Neiko talk about the killing.

The police have told Greta Powell only one thing about the man who drew a gun and shot her husband dead while their 6-year-old son watched: He's a cop.

The police won't tell her his first name or even the zone where he works.

They won't let her look at the investigation reports even though police brass say the investigation cleared the cop of any wrongdoing in the shooting of Spencer Powell, a 36-year-old moving company packer.

Her son Neiko gave a statement to the police but was never asked to testify at the officer's hearing.

Powell says the police didn't even call or come by to notify her that her husband had been shot. She says she heard about it from a woman who brought her son home.

"She came in with Neiko and say Spencer get shoot and he don't look good," recalls Greta Powell, 36. "But no police ever come tell me anything."

At the hospital, she was told her husband was dead, but she received no sympathy from the police. They threatened not to let her see the body unless she quit crying. They called her "stupid" when she became flustered and stumbled over her son's name, recalls Powell, who has 11 children.

"They kill my husband like a dog," Powell says. "And now they want to act like it's my fault."

Police say it is against their policy to make records from internal investigations public. If they had found that the shooting was unwarranted, the officer would have been arrested and charged, they say.

"But based on the statements of witnesses it was determined it was a justified shooting," says Capt. Vincent Georges, who heads the St. Thomas police Investigations Bureau.

"Under those circumstances, I certainly wasn't going to parade the officer in front of the woman just so she could see who he was."

The only police document on the killing Powell says she has been allowed to see is a 29-line preliminary report by the first officer on the scene. The officer based the report on two witnesses to the shooting.

Spencer Powell was shot once in the chest at close range May 29, 1994, in a Frenchtown bar.

The cop who killed Powell is Anthony Hunt, a seven-year police veteran. Police have refused to release details of his record on the force.

He is a former forensics officer now assigned to guard Lt. Gov.-elect Kenneth E. Mapp, according to police officials.

Police say Hunt shot Powell in self-defense after the man attacked him. They say Powell was drunk and armed with a bar stool.

Hunt was off duty and, police say, he was listening to music next door to the bar when he heard shouting. He went into the bar and found Powell and another man in a fight.

Police say Hunt identified himself and forced Powell outside. They say that Powell turned to hit Hunt in the head with the stool and Hunt drew his gun and shot him dead.

Greta Powell says her son's story differs from the police version. Hunt was not next door but was drinking in the bar, the boy told her.

Hunt was never tested to determine his blood-alcohol level at the time of the shooting.

"My son tell me that his daddy and a black man was arguing and his daddy pick a stool above his head and the man shoot him and he fall dead," Greta Powell says.

"I don't know what kind of training that police officer had. He see the young child right there and he still pull his gun and kill my husband."

V.I. police are trained to shoot a human target between shoulder and waist. At the police shooting range, the targets are just heads and torsos.

Greta Powell says she had to take a $1,400 loan from Island Finance to help pay for her husband's funeral. She works two jobs to support herself and the six children still living at home.

"Nobody know how rough it is now Spencer dead," she says.