Bodyguards: Kilpatrick didn't shove cops

DETROIT, Aug. 13 (UPI) -- Police bodyguards for Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, who is charged with assaulting court officers, say they never saw him attack anyone, sources say.

The Detroit Free Press, citing anonymous sources, says one of the two members of Kilpatrick's police bodyguard team present during an alleged shoving incident between the embattled mayor and a pair of Wayne County police officers has told investigators the confrontation never amounted to more than heated words.

Kilpatrick has been charged in connection with a July 24 incident in which two officers say they were assaulted by the mayor when they arrived at his sister's home to serve a subpoena on Bobby Ferguson, Kilpatrick's friend. The officers say Kilpatrick shouted through the screen door and then rushed onto the porch and grabbed and shoved White, the newspaper reported.

The police bodyguards, identified by the Free Press as Officer Roberto Maldonado and Sgt. Jefferson Travis, have downplayed the incident, saying it didn't amount to a physical assault, or have told investigators they couldn't tell what happened, sources told the newspaper.