Harold Titus's Blog, page 8

Letters, 2004, Bush's Popularity Wanes, March 13, July 31

Late in 2003 I was asked by the chair of the Florence Area Democratic Club to take the office of vice-chair. Nobody held that position and the chair wanted somebody to help her find guests to speak at our meetings and plan meeting agendas. I declined confessing that I hadn’t the experience to know how to do what she wanted. She then suggested that I take the office of secretary and the current occupant become the vice chair. I agreed. The job entailed taking the minutes of each meeting and releasing club reports to the press.

The Presidential election of 2004 was looming. Public support of President Bush was waning. Hope was in the air. Senator John Kerry, Vietnam War veteran, would become the Democratic Party candidate. Several polls taken in May suggested that Bush might be “on the ropes.”

***

Several new polls have Bush hitting new lows in important ways.

First, the Newsweek poll. In this poll, Bush’s overall approval rating is down to 42 percent, with 52 percent disapproval, his lowest rating yet in any public poll. (Note: Zogby also has his rating at 42 percent, but Zogby job ratings are based on a different question and therefore are not directly comparable with other public polls.) And Bush’s approval rating on Iraq is down to 35 percent, with 57 percent disapproval, also a new low. Wow. It was just a few days ago (see below) that his Iraq rating went below 40 percent for the first time.

Bad as the Newsweek findings are for Bush, the findings from the CNN poll are probably worse. First, the poll finds Kerry ahead of Bush in practically every issue area, including protecting the environment (+22); health care (+19); reducing the deficit (+18); handling the economy (+13); and even taxes (+6). But here’s the really significant part: besides these domestic issues, Kerry is also ahead of Bush on handling foreign policy (+2) and handling the situation in Iraq (+3). A couple of weeks ago, Bush had a healthy lead on handling Iraq; last week Bush had a small lead; this week, he’s behind. Clearly, the tide is turning.

And even on his “signature issue,” as it were, handling the war on terrorism, he now only has a seven-point lead over Kerry (49 percent to 42 percent). I am quite sure that this is the smallest lead we have seen yet for Bush on this issue. If he loses a few more points and Kerry gains a few more, he and Kerry will be essentially tied on handling terrorism! I suspect that would get the Bush-Cheney campaign kind of worried (Teixeira 1-2).

Source cited:

Teixeira, Ruy. “New Polls Bring New Lows for Bush.” Center for American Progress, May 19, 2004. Net. https://www.americanprogress.org/issu...

***

I was trying to influence public opinion of the President by sending letters to newspaper editors. This one was printed by the Siuslaw News March 13. I presumed that readers were sufficiently familiar with the people I mentioned that I would not need to identify them. The second letter was printed July 31.

***

Are Administration Republicans really a bunch of liars and crooks? Consider Iraq.

Thanks to Paul O’Neill we know that the Bush people were making plans in Jan. 2001 to depose Saddam. The day after 9/11 Rumsfeld opined that the hijacker attacks had provided the Administration the opportunity to remove Saddam. After bin Laden had escaped into Pakistan, the Administration exploited the opportunity.

We heard numerous speeches about WMD. Rumsfeld’s department created the Office of Special Plans to rake up nuggets of WMD “evidence” that the CIA, despite Cheney’s pressure, had refused to sanction. Chalabi and his exile group kept whispering falsehoods that Cheney and the neocons wanted to hear. And Bush had the assassination attempt on Pappy to avenge.

Wolfowitz admitted later that WMD had been the Administration’s most saleable argument. We heard about crop-duster drones, al Qaeda operatives given WMD secrets, mobile labs, aluminum tubes, and mushroom clouds.

9/11 and Saddam were constantly juxtaposed.

Well after Bush’s aircraft carrier landing, we were told that real progress was being made -- Why wasn’t the press reporting it? -- while our soldiers were being killed one or more a day.

We were told that Iraqi oil production would pay for Iraq’s reconstruction.

When public opinion turned, the Administration said it shouldn’t be blamed for declaring Saddam an “imminent” threat.

Heck, the CIA had given Bush bad intelligence. (And Bush had never used the word “imminent”) Congressional Democrats had looked “at the same intelligence” (the doctored version, thank you) and they had authorized preemptive action! Even the Clinton Administration had believed that Saddam had been developing WMD. (Meaning Clinton, in Bush’s place, would also have defied world opinion, dismissed Hans Blix’s inspection results, and invaded?)

And least we forget, Saddam had WMD programs! Because he would have used them, going to war preemptively was still warranted!

We are supposed to believe now that all of the chicanery above doesn’t matter. Bush is Mr. Democracy, Mr. Humanitarian, Protector of the Homeland, Savior of World Peace. Like Napoleon in Animal Farm, he will lead us safely, unselfishly through this “challenging,” harrowing time. Trust him. (God forbid that we elect Kerry!)

Printed March 13, 2004, in the Siuslaw News

***

Ed Gillespie goes on Hardball, Charley Black appears on Scarborough Country, Kelly Ann Conway expounds on Inside Politics, lesser and larger lights recite the same talking points on Fox Cable News. On the radio Limbaugh, Hannity, O’Reilly, etc. drive home the same message.

Lie. Vilify. “Frivolous” lawsuits are the cause of skyrocketing health care costs. The selfish trial lawyers lobby is preventing “essential” tort “reform.” John Edwards, no good. But the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office has stated that malpractice lawsuits represent less that 2% of the nation’s total health care costs.

Bushites have claimed that “frivolous” lawsuits are also responsible for outrageous medical malpractice insurance premiums. Another lie. The number of malpractice court cases over the past decade has remained constant. Insurance companies raised premiums to remedy bad stock market investments.

Why do many good Americans take as gospel this Administration’s gross deceit? Corporate ownership of media news is one answer. Tell them whatever will serve our and the Administration’s self-interest. Play to their foibles. Get them mad.

Bush’s Believers live in a fantasy land where Reagan’s “trickle-down” economic policy did bring about the prosperity of the 90s; Clinton’s “heavy-handed” tax rates did cause the recession of 2001-2002; Bush’s tax cuts, for sure, are helping all Americans; Saddam Hussein, in fact, had a hand in 9/11; and invading Iraq has, indeed, made us safer.

Calvin Hurd’s letters to the contrary, radical right governance has America’s ship of state steaming for the rocks. On November 2 we can do something about it.

Printed July 31, 2004, in the Siuslaw News

***

Karl Rove, campaign manager of the President, dubbed “Bush’s Brain” by syndicated columnist Molly Ivins, had become famous for his tactic of attacking his client’s opponent’s greatest perceived strength. John Kerry’s conspicuous strength was his Vietnam War record. Kerry would come under withering attack from Vietnam veterans claiming that Kerry had not deserved the purple hearts and service awards he received for valor under fire.

***

In the Navy, Kerry served aboard boats known as PCFs, or swift boats. According to a Boston Globe overview of Kerry’s service in Vietnam, as reported by Snopes.com and FactCheck.org: “Under [Navy Admiral Elmo] Zumwalt’s command, swift boats would aggressively engage the enemy. Zumwalt calculated in his autobiography that these men had a 75 percent chance of being killed or wounded during a typical year.”

Kerry received a Purple Heart after being wounded in December 1968 when he got hit by schrapnel. The Boston Globe quoted William Schachte, who oversaw the mission, as saying it “was not a very serious wound.”

A wound is described as any combat injury to the body; the Purple Heart criteria have no mention of how severe the injury needs to be.

In an affidavit, physician Lewis Letson said he treated Kerry and said Kerry’s wound was self-inflicted when his gun jammed and he threw a grenade at an object, which sprayed the area with shrapnel. Kerry’s medical records show that he was treated by J.C. Carreon (who has since died). Letson said it was common practice for medics to sign the paperwork for the attending physician.

Letson said in his affidavit that “the crewman with Kerry told me there was no hostile fire, and that Kerry had inadvertently wounded himself with an M-79 grenade.” But the crewmen with Kerry that day deny ever talking to Letson, FactCheck.org reported.

A second Purple Heart was awarded after Kerry was returning from a PCF mission in February 1969, when shrapnel hit his leg. Again, the wound was not serious.

Kerry earned his Silver Star later in February when he jumped onto the beach from his boat to chase and shoot a guerrilla who had a rocket launcher and who, Kerry thought, was about to fire a rocket at Kerry’s boat.

According to the Boston Globe, another member of the crew on Kerry’s boat - Frederic Short, with whom Kerry had not talked for 34 years until being contacted by the Globe reporter - confirmed the account and said there was no doubt Kerry’s action saved the boat and crew.

Republican Sen. John Warner, who was Under Secretary of the Navy at the time, said there was careful checking for the Silver Star award and “I think we best acknowledge that his heroism did gain that recognition.”

A third Purple Heart and Bronze Star was awarded in March 1969 when Kerry’s boat took fire, sending a man overboard. Kerry, who said his injuries came from an underwater mine, returned to pull the man to safety and to assist another damaged boat.
Jim Rassmann, the man who fell overboard, confirmed the account in a detailed article in the Wall Street Journal. But other sworn statements say there was no hostile fire and Kerry’s wounds came from his negligently throwing a grenade into a rice pile.

Although Snopes.com labels attacks on Kerry’s medals being earned under “fishy” circumstances as “false,” FactCheck.org said in 2004, “at this point, 35 years later and half a world away, we see no way to resolve which of these versions of reality is closer to the truth” (Fader 1-2).

Work cited:

Fader, Carole. Fact Check: John Kerry’s War Accounts and Whether He Deserved Commendations Still Being Called into Question.” jacksonville.com,, January 3, 2013. Net. https://www.jacksonville.com/article/...

Letters, 2003, Bush Dishonesty, July 1, August 23

Not until late in the year did a sizable number of registered voters begin to question the honesty of the President’s declarations about why our country invaded Iraq. Inter Press News Agency reported the following November 13, 2003.

***

WASHINGTON, Nov 13 2003 (IPS) - Popular doubts about President George W. Bush’s credibility and his justification for going to war in Iraq are on the rise, according to a new survey conducted by the University of Maryland’s Programme on International Policy Attitudes (PIPA).

The survey of a random sample of more than 1,000 voters, which echoes the results of other recent national polls, found that 55 percent of respondents believed the administration went to war on the basis of incorrect assumptions, particularly the notion that Iraq posed an imminent threat to the United States or its allies.

And despite subsequent denials by senior administration officials, an overwhelming 87 percent of the public felt that the administration before the war portrayed Iraq as an imminent threat.

While 42 percent believed that the administration did have the evidence to justify such a depiction, a strong majority of 58 percent said that it did not.

This disparity, according to PIPA, which conducted the survey between Oct. 31 and Nov. 10, has translated into major questions about the president’s personal veracity and credibility.

Only 42 percent of those polled said they believed that Bush was ”honest and frank”, while 56 percent said they had doubts about the things he says.

Moreover, 72 percent (up from 63 percent in July) said that when the administration presented evidence of Iraqi weapons of mass destruction (WMD) – one of its two major pre-war reasons for attacking Iraq – it was either presenting evidence it knew was false (21 percent) or ”stretching the truth” (51 percent), according to the survey.

That represents a sharp rise in public scepticism about the war’s justifications from five months ago.

Last June, 39 percent of respondents said they thought the administration was being truthful in its pre-war assertions about the threat posed by Baghdad. That percentage has now fallen to 25 percent.

And the 21 percent who now believe the administration was, in effect, lying in its claims about Iraqi WMD is more than double the 10 percent who told pollsters that five months ago.

…

Significantly, most of the public in the latest survey believed that Bush was determined to go to war regardless of the actual evidence.

Sixty-three percent said the president would have attacked even if U.S. intelligence agencies had told him there was no reliable evidence that Iraq possessed or was building WMD or was providing substantial support to al-Qaeda.

Despite all of these findings, only 38 percent of those polled believed that going to war was the wrong thing to do. Forty-two percent said the war was the best thing for the United States and an additional 15 percent said they supported the war in order to support the president, though they were not certain that war was the best option.

Supporting these judgments was the belief that, while Iraq might not have posed an imminent threat on the order depicted by the administration, most of the public still believed it had a WMD programme (71 percent) and was providing support to al-Qaeda (67 percent), despite no evidence to support these conclusions.

”The majority’s views about the decision to go to war are nuanced," said [Steven] Kull [director of the University of Maryland's Program on International Polling Attitudes (PIPA)]. "It believes there were legitimate concerns that prompted the decision, while at the same time it believes the threat was not imminent and the decision was taken precipitously, without proper international support" (Lobe 1,3).


Work cited:

Lobe, Jim. POLITICS-U.S.: Doubts Rise over War Rationale, Bush Credibility.” Inter Press Service News Agency, November 13, 2003. Net. http://www.ipsnews.net/2003/11/politi...

***

I had had George W. Bush pegged as an inveterate liar before the 2000 Presidential election. What I had observed and read about him forewarned me that this man from Texas might become our worst President. My suspicions were similar to what David Hastings Dunn wrote in International Affairs in February 2003, that Bush’s motives were about “oil, revenge for the President’s father [whom Hussein had order to be assassinated], support for Israel, hegemonic control of the Middle East, even just the hubris of the macho Texas cowboy. Or, in the words of the [British] poet laureate [Andrew Motion] ‘elections, money, empire, oil and Dad’” (Dunn 1).

Work cited:

Dunn, David Hastings. “Myths, Motivations and ‘Misunderestimations’: the Bush Administration and Iraq.” International Affairs (Royal Institute of International Affairs 1944-), vol. 79, no. 2, 2003, pp. 279–297. Net. www.jstor.org/stable/3095821.

***

I felt compelled to speak out. Here is what I wrote, printed July 1.

***

Does it bother you that President Bush
Claimed that we as a nation were in
immediate peril of Saddam Hussein’s
WMD when we were not?

Sent our soldiers off to war in the
Middle East not to defend our nation
but to do his and his neoconservative
advisors’ business?

Decided, after the defeat of the Taliban
and the disappearance of bin Laden,
that his mission of life was to rid the
world of evildoers, not just Al Queda,
and look what has happened since?

Is a crony capitalist that does
handsprings to give corporate America
everything it demands much to the
detriment of the vast majority of us?

Has pushed through huge tax cuts that
benefit only the rich and has the gall
to advertise them as growth, jobs
creation measures?

Pursues a hard-right, survival-of-the-
fittest domestic agenda that eliminates
revenue needed to preserve social
security, Medicare, and Medicaid, yet
still passes himself off as a
compassionate, every-man type leader?

Very much resembles Napoleon of
George Orwell’s Animal Farm, the
majority of us behaving like Manor Farm
sheep swallowing whole his simplistic
slogans, taking as gospel truth hate-talk
radio propaganda, accepting without
equivocation every assertion, every
criticism, every utterance that passes
from his anointed lips?

Printed July 1, 2003, in the Eugene Register-Guard

***

I continued to participate in the weekly Saturday protest gatherings at the corners of Highways 101 and 126 in Florence. My next door neighbor, a staunch Republican, spotted me and mentioned it amicably. Several of the people I got to know at the corners were members of the Florence Area Democratic Club. The group met at a local restaurant the first Saturday of each month. I decided to see what they were about.

I was welcomed as a guest and listened quietly to resolutions stating opposition to the war being read to the club members for a discussion and vote of acceptance. When the members were asked to offer their opinions, I raised my hand and was called upon. My one-sentence statement was “I don’t think the resolutions are strong enough.” Then I apologized, saying I wasn’t a member.

“Why don’t you become one?” the chair of the club replied. “The dues are ten dollars.”

I plopped a ten dollar bill on the table in front of me. I have been a member to this day.

Amid like-minded individuals, emboldened, I became a frequent letter-writer.

I wrote the following letter for the readers of the Siuslaw News, the Florence newspaper.

***

If George Bush were a truth-teller, he would have to admit the following:

I’ve brought secrecy and hypocrisy to the White House.
I like photo-ops and speech lines that make me look, if not compassionate, heroic.
We stick it to our enemies, like allowing Enron to price gouge California.
I’m a crony capitalist. Ken Lay is an old family friend.
My tax cuts are designed to cut “socialist” programs off at the knees.
We give corporations everything they want. Get used to dirtier air, polluted water, toxic waste, and genetically altered food.
If the economy recovers, it won’t be my doing but I’ll take the credit.
We really used 9/11 to push our hard-right political and economic agenda.
You can get a lot that you want done if you get the public scared and act like you’re John Wayne.
Because we’re the world’s only superpower, we expect other countries to dance to our tune.
Waging war on “terror,” not just Al Qaeda, allows us to redo the Middle East to our liking.
We attacked Iraq because we wanted to, we could, Saddam was the perfect target, and Arabs needed a smack in the face.
Our propaganda machine really works. How about all those Americans believing that some of the 9/11 terrorists were Iraqis.
I’ve been hearing the name George Orwell. I don’t know him from Adam. If anybody does, it would be Karl Rove.

Disrespectful? Yes. Justified? Absolutely. We need a political debate to expose this administration’s intentions and conduct. Feel free to join in. The forthcoming election is much too important not to.

Printed August 23, 2003, in the Siuslaw News

Letters, 2003, Demonstrating, April 29, Flags, May 17

I began writing letters in 2003 to editors of newspapers located in Florence (my residence), Coos Bay, and Eugene, Oregon. President George W. Bush’s invasion of Iraq was the impetus. Subsequent policy and conduct of Republican Party officials have motivated me ever since to vent. I wish to share some of my letters to represent whatever you wish to discern of the political history of our country since 2000. They will enumerate detail of what transpired that you may have forgotten or did not know.

Consider this series a history of the frustrations of a liberal Democrat appalled at the damage that the modern Republican Party has wrought upon our country, on the verge now – I and many others believe – of becoming an autocracy.

***

(From an article printed by Brookings June 1, 2003)

The Iraq war validated a basic rule of American politics: the American public closes ranks in times of national crisis. In the prolonged march to war, the public was divided and ambivalent about the wisdom of invading Iraq rather than relying on continued United Nations weapons inspections. Most of those doubts evaporated once the bombs began falling. And the surge of patriotism not only boosted public support for President Bush, but extended beyond the White House to raise optimism about the country’s institutions and American society as a whole.

…

Iraq dominated the headlines throughout the fall of 2002 and into the winter of 2003. Public opinion on the wisdom of war, however, stabilized relatively early and slightly in favor of war. Gallup found that from August 2002 through early March 2003 the share of Americans favoring war hovered in a relatively narrow range between a low of 52 percent and a high of 59 percent. By contrast, the share of the public opposed to war fluctuated between 35 percent and 43 percent.

Not surprisingly, Republicans (75 percent in favor) backed war more strongly than did Democrats (only 40 percent). …

In sum, public opinion on the eve of war with Iraq was permissive—it was willing to follow the White House to war but not demanding war. About 30 percent of Americans were convinced that war was not only just but necessary. Another 30 percent firmly believed that a war could not be justified. The remaining 40 percent could imagine scenarios in which it made sense to go to war as well as scenarios in which it didn’t. It was this “movable middle” that the Bush White House targeted in its public comments in the weeks leading up to war.

Once Operation Iraqi Freedom began on March 19, support for the war surged to 72 percent in Gallup’s polling and remained there throughout the fighting. President Bush also benefited personally, gaining greater public approval; in the first days of fighting, Gallup recorded a 13-percentage-point rise. The increase, however, was much smaller than either the 35-percentage-point leap Bush enjoyed immediately after September 11—or the 24-point jump his father received at the start of the 1991 Gulf War.

The modest nature of Bush’s Iraq rally reflected a deep partisan split over the wisdom of the war. More than nine out of ten Republicans supported the decision to go to war, as against only half of Democrats. …

In the weeks immediately after the capture of Baghdad and the end of major combat operations, Americans continued to support the decision to invade. In late April, Gallup found that seven in ten Americans believed that President Bush had been right to order this attack. Support held even though nearly two out of every three people surveyed thought that the war was not yet over. Nor were Americans overly concerned about continued sporadic fighting or scenes of looting in Iraqi cities. More than eight in ten Americans said that they believed that things were going “very well” or “moderately well” with the end of major fighting in Iraq.

Not surprisingly, given the speed with which U.S. forces unseated Saddam Hussein, most Americans also were optimistic about the war’s consequences. In late April the share of the American public saying that the United States and its allies were winning the war on terrorism stood at 65 percent, up from 37 percent two weeks before the start of war. This optimism roughly equaled what Gallup found in the immediate aftermath of the Afghanistan war. The newfound confidence in America’s success in the war on terrorism was clearly boosted by the overall rally effect. When specifically asked whether the Iraq War had made Americans safer, the share of the public saying yes was somewhat lower at 58 percent (Smith and Lindsay 1-3).

Work cited:

Smith, Caroline and Lindsay, James M. “Rally ‘Round the Flag: Opinion in the United States before and after the Iraq War.” Brookings, June 1, 2003. Net. https://www.brookings.edu/articles/ra...

***

Protests against the run-up to the invasion had been taking place every Saturday morning on the corners where two major highways (US Hwy 101 and OR Hwy 126) met in the heart of Florence. I did some shopping at the nearby Safeway store one Saturday, saw that protesters were present on the corners, and decided to join them, thinking, How can I be critical of what the President is doing and not participate in these demonstrations?

I took a place on one of the corners, beside two women, neither of whom I knew. Every protester present was a stranger to me. One of the two women told me to expect a visit by one or several staunch supporters of the President. All right, I thought. This could be interesting.

Minutes later a somewhat squat, burly guy approach us. He was wearing a hat that indicated he was a veteran. He stopped about three feet from us and proceeded to stare us down. We gazed back at him neutrally.

At last, he said, a sneer animating his face, “I wanted to get a good look at you!” He scrutinized in particular me. I returned his expression.

“You ever been in the service?” he asked, disrespectfully.

“Yeah. Two years in the Army. 1958 to 1960.”

He looked surprised. “I was in Korea,” he countered. A few seconds passed. He questioned how I could oppose the reasons Bush had for invading. I answered that his statements were “simplistic.”

“Simplistic,” he scoffed and walked away, headed to scrutinize another group.

This experience caused me to write this letter.

***

A veteran of the Korean War said he wanted to “get a look at” our faces at our April 12 rally in Florence opposing President Bush’s war and his domestic agenda. I salute him for having served in Korea. I would salute him for having the conviction to express his point of view had he not been rude. I disagree with his assertions that we are unpatriotic and that we should withhold our demonstrations until the war in Iraq is finished.

Protesting a wrong is not unpatriotic. It does not connote lack of support for our soldiers. These young men and women put in harm’s way by the president are our nation’s treasure. May they safely and humanely finish the task put upon them. Every American prays for their security and also, I would hope, that of noncombatant Iraqis. What we protest is Bush’s unilateralist policy!

Our demonstrations must continue. We must indicate to mindful Americans that this administration has made considerably worse just about every one of our domestic and international problems.

Not to demonstrate is to suggest that the president’s domestic agenda is not destructive of civil rights, health and environmental protections, fiscal stability and fair economic practices. Not to demonstrate is to validate his foreign policy of intimidation and pre-emption, of transforming Uncle Sam into the world’s bully, of saying, “We have the greatest military; we know best; we are going to make sure the world complies with our interests.”

Printed April 20, 2003, in the Eugene Register-Guard

***

Several weeks later American flag poles, inserted in holes drilled in sidewalks in downtown Florence, stood like sentinels on parade. Quite a display of patriotism, I thought, driving past. I learned that the city official responsible was a staunch Republican. A day or so later I submitted this letter to the local paper.

***

A few words regarding the intended display of hundreds of American flags throughout the town on forthcoming Sundays.

If they are displayed to honor the sacrifices of our soldiers “in circumstances beyond their control” as well as to express our love of country, yes, do it.

If they are displayed to deflect criticism of and/or to extol the Bush administration and the Republican Party, such an action is out of line.

Let us hope that patriotism and politics are not being mixed.

Printed May 17, 2003, in the Siuslaw News

Bad Apples---The Beat Goes On VII--Andrew Brown Jr., April 21, 2021

A New York Times review of bodycam footage showing the fatal police shooting of Andrew Brown Jr. in April raises questions about whether officers were in imminent danger when they used lethal force as he drove away to avoid arrest.

The officers have not been charged in the shooting. R. Andrew Womble, the district attorney for North Carolina’s First Judicial District, determined that they were justified in their actions because Mr. Brown was using his car as a “deadly weapon.” He said police body-camera videos “clearly illustrate the officers who used deadly force on Andrew Brown Jr. did so reasonably” and only when their lives were in danger.

Mr. Brown’s family members and their lawyers have described the shooting as an “execution.”


A review of slowed-down bodycam footage by The Times shows that 13 of the 14 gunshots — including the fatal one — were fired as Mr. Brown was driving away from officers, not at them. The footage was presented by the district attorney at a press conference and is from four officers’ cameras.

Sheriff Tommy Wooten II of Pasquotank County said that “while the deputies did not break the law, we all wish things could have gone differently. Much differently.”
Here’s what the videos of the 20-second interaction show.

The police officers arrive in a Pasquotank County Sheriff’s Office pickup truck at Mr. Brown’s house at 8:23 a.m. on Wednesday, April 21, to execute search and arrest warrants. According to the prosecutor, the police team had been briefed that morning that Mr. Brown, 42, had previous convictions and a history of resisting arrest.

Mr. Brown is sitting in his vehicle outside his house after returning from a drive that morning, the prosecutor added. The officers approach him with their weapons drawn, shouting orders at him.

Mr. Brown does not comply with officers’ orders. The situation escalates.
As two officers reach the driver’s-side door, Mr. Brown backs up the vehicle, and grazes but does not injure an officer.

Mr. Brown ignores officers’ repeated commands to stop the car, and lurches the vehicle forward while steering it sharply to the left, putting officers at risk.

The car initially moves toward the same officer who had been grazed moments earlier. This officer does not move away from the vehicle, but takes a step into Mr. Brown’s path. It’s unclear if the officer is trying to obstruct Mr. Brown’s escape, or trying to evade the car.

The officer briefly places his left hand on the hood of the car, and this is when another officer fires a shot that Mr. Womble said “entered the front windshield” of the car and was not fatal. That contradicts a preliminary internal investigation report, which found that no bullet went through the windshield.

The video shows that there is a brief pause in shooting while Mr. Brown steers his car between two officers. At this point, as Mr. Brown accelerates and drives away, three officers fire 13 more shots into the side and rear of Mr. Brown’s car. One of the shots is fatal, hitting Mr. Brown in the back of his head. His car crashes into a tree 50 yards from his home.

In justifying the police's use of lethal force, Mr. Womble said Mr. Brown “drove recklessly and endangered the officers." He also argued that “they could not simply let him go.”

But the legalities around this can get complicated. “The Supreme Court has never authorized the use of deadly force simply because someone is resisting arrest or fleeing,” Paul Butler, a law professor at Georgetown University and former federal prosecutor, said in an interview about the footage. He also said that “sometimes the best policing is to let the suspect go.”

The officers’ actions may have violated their department’s guidelines. The Pasquotank County Sheriff’s Office’s use-of-force policy states that shooting at a moving vehicle is “rarely effective,” and that officers should fire at a moving vehicle only “when the deputy reasonably believes there are no other reasonable means available to avert the imminent threat of the vehicle.”

Seth Stoughton, a law professor and policing expert at the University of South Carolina, questioned the officers’ actions at the time Mr. Brown was speeding away. “Deadly force is only justified while there is an imminent threat of death or great bodily harm,” he said. “Once the vehicle has driven past the officers and they are now to the side of it, or behind it, as it's going away from them, there is no more imminent threat.”

Beyond the shooting of Mr. Brown, the videos show that officers may have placed some of their colleagues and others at risk. In their line of fire was a neighbor’s house and an unmarked white police minivan.

Mr. Womble said that while the white minivan was in the path of the bullets, there was no danger to the officers inside.

Michael Anthony Gordon Sr., whose house was in the line of fire, told The Times that a bullet from the shooting entered his kitchen, and that no one was home at the time. Mr. Womble stated that one shot fired by the police was believed to have ricocheted, and hit the house.

The district attorney’s decision not to press charges closes a state-level criminal case, though a federal civil rights case is ongoing (Koettl and Kim 1-4).

[The following are excerpts from the April 26 airing of the MSNBC program “The ReidOut” hosted by Joy Reid]

Reid:… in Elizabeth City, North Carolina, yet another black life came to a premature end after a police interaction. Andrew Brown Jr. was shot and killed by multiple sheriff`s deputies who the sheriff`s department claims were carrying out search and arrest warrants. He now joins Daunte Wright, Adam Toledo, Ma`Khia Bryant, George Floyd and Breonna Taylor, just to name a few other black Americans killed by police, and that`s just recently.

Also today, Attorney General Merrick Garland announced that the Department of Justice would investigate whether there was a pattern or practice of unconstitutional or unlawful policing in Louisville, Kentucky, which may have led to the death of Breonna Taylor. And we`ll have more on a little bit later.

For several nights now, hundreds have taken to the streets in Elizabeth City, North Carolina, demanding that the sheriff release the body cam video of Andrew Brown`s killing. Elizabeth City Mayor Betty Parker has joined those calls, and so has Governor Roy Cooper, writing in a tweet that Brown`s death is extremely concerning and body camera footage should be made public as quickly as possible.

Now, what we know about Andrew Brown Jr.`s death is murky because the sheriff`s department has not release very much information. Pasquotank County Sheriff Tommy Wooten has not made himself available to the public since a press event last Wednesday. The deputies who shot Brown were wearing active body cameras at the time of the shooting. Sheriff Wooten declined to identify the officers involved and declined to say how many shots they fired.

Media reports citing police scanner audio indicate that Brown seems to have been shot in the back while in his car. And today a family lawyer told reporters that Brown was shot in the back of the head. One eyewitness told the Raleigh News and Observer that she heard the first shot and ran outside and watched deputies continue firing. She said the deputies unloaded on him, meaning Andrew Brown Jr.

…

REID: And on Saturday, Sheriff Wooten posted a Facebook live video reading from prepared remarks, he said he would release the video if granted permission.

SHERIFF TOMMY WOOTEN II, PASQUOTANK COUNTY, NORTH CAROLINA: Only a judge can release the video. That`s why I`ve asked the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation to confirm for me that the releasing of the video will not undermine their investigation. Once I get that confirmation, our county will file a motion in court, hopefully on Monday to have the footage released.

REID: The North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation is leading a probe into the shooting. Today, Andrew Brown Jr.`s family was allowed to view body camera footage, but only after deputies redacted it. And Brown`s family was ultimately allowed to see only a 20-second snippet of the video. It remains unclear when or if the full video will be released to them or the public. The video has not been viewed by NBC News.

Joining me now, Bishop William Barber, Co-Chair of The Poor People`s Campaign and a former president of the North Carolina NAACP, and Ben Crump, attorney for the Family of Andrew Brown Jr.

And, Ben, I saw that press conference today. There were a lot of angry folks there, a lot of angry local people. I want to play a couple of them. This is Andrew Brown Jr.`s son, Khalil Ferebee.

KHALIL FEREBEE, ANDREW BROWN`S SON: It`s like we`re against all odds in the world. My dad got executed just by trying to save his own life.

REID: Multiple people calling that an execution. Were you able to see that video yourself, Ben, and would you characterize it as an execution?


BENJAMIN CRUMP, CIVIL RIGHTS ATTORNEY: Well, Joy, our co-Counsel, Chantel (ph), got to see the video (INAUDIBLE). And the reason was this county attorney, they are for whatever reason, and we don`t understand it, they continue to try not to be transparent. They said no lawyers who were not barred in North Carolina could come with the family to see the video.

So we had Attorney Lassiter go in and see the video, and she took copious notes of the 22nd video that said three main things to us, Joy, and it was number one, the fact that when they turned on the video, they were already shooting. And so we don`t know what transpired to them shooting the video. They were swearing at him, telling them to show the hands. He had both his hands on the steering wheel.

And you can see that clearly from the video, his son, as well as Attorney Lassiter said, and the fact that he never used a car to put them in any jeopardy or danger. He was evading them the whole time. They were shooting at him from the side and behind while he was getting away from them.

And the final point is it confirmed what we had already heard, that all the shots were from the back.

…

REID: … Do you feel like this is an attempted cover-up? I have never heard of a video being redacted before even the family could see it. Does that sound normal to you?

CRUMP: It doesn`t at all, especially when it`s the family. We`re not talking about what`s released to the public. Bishop Barber knows Eastern Carolina better than I will ever know. But the one thing that just was appalling to us was the fact that not only would you only show them 20 seconds, you redacted their faces, but you then release the warrant and all the criminal history of Andrew Brown to assassinate his character, but you will blot out the faces of those officers and not give their names. Well, we want to see their rap sheet since they are putting out the rap sheet of Andrew Brown.

And finally, Joy, my eight-year-old daughter could understand that, that if you`re only showing 20 seconds of a video, then you`re hiding something, because of Andrew Brown would have did something bad in there, we wouldn`t need a judge to silent. They would have that all over the news.

…

BISHOP WILLIAM BERBER, CO-CHAIR, THE POOR PEOPLE`S CAMPAIGN: This a city where there the state university is. It`s in Eastern North Carolina. There is a long history of police conduct in Eastern North Carolina. And people know it. They know the arrogance. This is where Jesse Helms and others had his stronghold.

…

… I talked to the attorney general of the state along with Dr. Spearmon. You should know this. The D.A. right now, Brother Crump knows this as well, could call the state attorney general, just like they did in Minnesota, and say take this case. Now, North Carolina, the local has to ask for it. The state can`t take it from him. But the local D.A. could right now say, this is too messy, we`ve messed it up. Give to it the state A.G. and they can handle this. All that could be done in 20 seconds.

...

REID: I just want you to clear up something first in the law. People keep talking about the fleeing felon rule. You said something today that I thought was very important to repeat. You said the most dangerous thing apparently to police is a black man running from them. Under the fleeing felon rule, police are not allowed to shoot somebody simply because they are fleeing, correct?

CRUMP: Absolutely. The United States Supreme Court has a rule that it is not against the law to flee from police. And it should not be the death penalty just because you`re black and you`re running away. We never hear about them Joy and Bishop Barber shooting white men in the back. But them shooting black men in the back in America is almost like a cliche. I mean, Jacob Blake Jr., in Kenosha, Wisconsin, Walter Scott in South Carolina, Laquan McDonald in Chicago, Terence Crutcher in Tulsa, Oklahoma, Christian Hall, Oakland, Pennsylvania, I mean, Anthony McClain in Pasadena, California, who literally ran out of his shoes and they shot him in the back.

...

BARBER: Then you have to have proper -- when you find that someone has murdered someone, shot them in the back and they`re a police, a warrant, a badge and a gun is too much powerful for someone trigger-happy, there needs to be prosecution without immunity, there needs to be imprisonment and there needs to be fellow investigation of pattern and practice. It`s been a long time overdue in Eastern North Carolina. This case needs to make it happen.

And you`re right. We need to get these things passed. We don`t need Sinema or Manchin blocking this. This is serious business. This is about people`s lives. And we can see clearly if you don`t have the kind of federal law to standardize this stuff, then you have one thing happening in one county, another thing happening in other county, depending on the sheriff, depending on the D.A. No. We need accountability, transparency and truth, and we need it right now.

REID: Absolutely. And I will add to that, just from my -- you know Bakari Sellers said something. He is very familiar with the media, to people in my profession, don`t fall for the banana in the tailpipe. Don`t run with Andrew Brown Jr.`s history, because police do this on -- Rudy Giuliani used to do this when he was Mayor of New York. Police would kill somebody, and their whole juvenile record comes out, everything about them, well, they`re not a choir boy. Don`t fall about that. This is not about this dead young black man`s history. This is about him getting killed. Don`t fall for that.

We don`t want to hear stories all about whatever he ever did wrong in his life. We need to know why he was shot and killed, whether he was shot in the back while he was driving away. That is the story that just my plea to those of us who are covering the story. Bishop William Barber, Ben Crump, thank you both very much. Really appreciate you both (Transcript 1-5).

When a jury last week found former Minneapolis police Officer Derek Chauvin guilty in the second-degree murder of George Floyd, the rare conviction of an officer on the job brought relief and a glint of hope that a transformative moment for policing in America was within reach.

While no one expected a shift overnight, a string of shootings by law enforcement officers nationwide — particularly the killing of Andrew Brown Jr., a Black man, in North Carolina — in the hours after the verdict was announced is viewed by some as a major setback. Civil rights leaders, activists and some law enforcement experts say the deadly violence points to a difficult realization that belies the outcome of Chauvin's trial: People will continue to die at the hands of law enforcement, and one ex-officer's conviction was never going to rewrite a system that many agree remains critically flawed.

"Sending Chauvin to prison doesn't make Floyd's family whole, it doesn't change an individual cop from pulling the trigger, and, most importantly, it doesn't change the system that's broken," said Dawn Blagrove, a lawyer who is executive director of Emancipate NC, an advocacy nonprofit that seeks to end mass incarceration in North Carolina. "It's going to take America growing a conscience about the deplorable systemically and institutionally racist system and challenging the status quo."

The events of the past week have crystallized broader conversations about effective and constitutional policing, particularly in communities of color, as well as about tracking and reducing agencies' use of excessive force and what alternatives to lethal and excessive force should look like.

…

"The law enforcement model is set up so that a measure of a good officer is the number of arrests and the number of lockups. Even for small traffic stops, they're looking for a gun and drugs — those are the big scores where officers get rewarded," said James Nolan, a professor and chair of sociology at West Virginia University, who is a former police officer in Wilmington, Delaware.

"So even the conviction of Chauvin isn't going to change anything, because the police mindset is still in place. It's what keeps them being hypervigilant and suspect of everyone," he said. "That's why cars look like weapons, cellphones look like weapons, and everything looks dangerous" (Ortiz 1-2).

[Paste the following on Google to watch a CNBC produced video of the police arriving on the scene of the shooting and commentary made by attorneys for the Brown family]

Video shows moments leading up to police shooting of ...

[Paste the following on Google to watch TMZ produced bodycam video of officers shooting at Brown’s car and chasing after it]

Andrew Brown Jr. Shooting Video Released, Cops Keep Job ...


Works cited:

Koettl, Christoph and Kim, Caroline. “Andrew Brown Jr. Shooting: Videos Cast Doubt on Police Use of Force.” The New York Times, May 22, 2021. Net. https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2...

Ortiz, Erik. “Andrew Brown Jr.'s Shooting Exposes 'Enduring Flaws' in Policing, Experts Say.” NBC News, April 28, 2021. Net. https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/...

“Transcript: The ReidOut, 4/26/21.” MSNBC, April 26, 2021. Net. https://www.msnbc.com/transcripts/tra...

Bad Apples---The Beat Goes On V--Ma'khia Bryant--April 20, 2021

COLUMBUS, Ohio — The voice on the 911 call is a teenage girl’s, and it is quavering, as if she has been crying.

“I want to leave this foster home,” she tells the dispatcher. “I want to leave this foster home.”

When two police officers arrived at the home in Columbus, Ohio, they reported later, they met an agitated ninth grader, Ja’Niah Bryant, who told them that the fighting at 3171 Legion Lane was getting worse and worse.

They said there was nothing they could do, and this seemed to push her over an edge. She became “irate,” the officers wrote in their report, and told them that if she was not allowed to leave, “she was going to kill someone.”

Twenty-three days later, Ja’Niah called 911 again, telling the police that she and her older sister were being threatened by two young women who used to live at the house.
Officers arrived in the middle of a melee outside the house, and one of them fatally shot Ja’Niah’s 16-year-old sister, Ma’Khia Bryant, who was lunging at one of the women, brandishing a steak knife.

The shooting, which occurred moments before a jury in Minneapolis convicted Derek Chauvin of murdering George Floyd, released a new wave of anger over shootings by the police. To calm the furor, the Columbus police quickly released body camera footage, which showed some of the fight outside the house and, they said, demonstrated that the officer had acted to protect the other woman.

But Ms. Bryant’s tragic death was also preceded by a turbulent journey through the foster care system, which had cycled Ma’Khia through at least five placements in two years — after her own mother was found to be negligent — despite efforts by their grandmother to reunite the family.

Ohio places children in foster care at least at a rate 10 percent higher than the national average, and child welfare officials here are considerably less likely than in the country as a whole to place children with their relatives.
Black children, like Ma’Khia and her sister, account for nearly a third of children removed from homes — nearly twice their proportion in the population.

A review of Ma’Khia’s pathway through foster care shows that it failed her in critical ways.

Research has demonstrated that children fare far better when they remain with family members, a practice known as kinship care. It also shows that each successive placement causes additional trauma, further setting back a child in crisis.

…

What the Bryant sisters wanted, Ja’Niah said, was to return to their family.

“We can go to Mommy or Grandma, it doesn’t matter, as long as we can get off the system,” Ja’Niah recalled Ma’Khia telling her younger siblings, who were also in foster care. “That was her biggest thing, she didn’t want to be in the foster care system until she was 18.”

…

The oldest of four children born to Paula Bryant, a nursing assistant, and Myron Hammonds, Ma’Khia was removed from her mother’s home in 2018, and spent 16 months living with her grandmother Jeanene Hammonds.

When her grandmother was kicked out by her landlord, the siblings went into foster care and spent two years cycling through short-term placements, arrangements that dissolved one after another.

People who knew Ma’Khia had trouble recognizing her in the chaotic footage of the shooting released by the police. Staff members at her school saw her as quiet and diligent, the kind of student who would hug her teacher’s aide every morning before math. She had a tight knot of girlfriends, who lavished one another with affection.

Aaliyaha Tucker, 16, recalled her once coming to school with her hair in an outrageous style she called a “rainbow horn,” extending vertically from the top of her head and then bursting into a mop.

“She didn’t care what other people thought of her,” said Aaliyaha, who allowed tears to run down her face. “She taught us how to love ourselves.”

By this spring, when Ma’Khia’s sister placed the first call to the police, her life in foster care had spiraled into dysfunction and disorder, family members said. And it was about to get much worse.

In 2018, Paula Bryant had moved with her five children — including a teenage son from a previous relationship — into a house in West Columbus, where, she said in an interview, the landlords did not mind her credit problems. Mr. Hammonds, Ma’Khia’s father, did not live with the family and Ms. Bryant described herself as raising the children largely on her own.

…

The family had been on the radar of Children Services for several years, amid repeated complaints that the two youngest children were absent from school. In February 2017, Ms. Bryant took Ma’Khia, Ja’Niah and two younger siblings to one of the agency’s offices and said “she was at her wits end” and could no longer handle them, according to a Children Services document outlining the case. The children, Ms. Bryant told the agency, had “no respect” for those around them.

…

Ms. Hammonds, their grandmother, took the four children into her two-bedroom apartment, sleeping on the couch so the children could have the beds.

“I was worn out,” she recalled. “I was doing all the laundry, all the cooking, and I was working a part-time job at the time. And it was difficult because these children came from a lot of dysfunction.”

Then her landlord found out that the children had moved into the apartment and told her she would have to move. …

…

… the county placed all four children in foster care.

Ms. Hammonds slept wherever she could for several months — sometimes in hotel rooms, sometimes with friends, and many nights in her car — until she secured a home that could accommodate the children. In December 2019, Ms. Hammonds submitted a petition to the court for their return, but it was rejected.

The girls, meanwhile, were placed in group homes. Ja’Niah recalled that, not long after their grandmother dropped them off, she and Ma’Khia were told they had to go into separate rooms for physical examinations. When she emerged, her sister was no longer there.

“I said, ‘Where’s my sister?’” she said. “It was like, ‘We don’t know, we’ll check,’ but he never got back. So that’s when I realized we were being split up.”

After that, Ja’Niah said, the two sisters moved through half a dozen living situations. There was, she said, a foster home so strict that Ma’Khia was often not allowed to leave the house; a group home with dog feces on the floor; a foster mother who screamed at the top of her lungs, not realizing Ma’Khia was recording it all on her phone.

Even when the living situation was good, and a foster parent in Dayton mused about adopting Ma’Khia, her sister was not interested, Ja’Niah said. “She wanted to get back to me, to family. To Columbus,” she said.

At school, Ma’Khia kept her family issues to herself. Jessica Oakley, the teacher’s aide who worked with her at Canal Winchester High School, recalled her as “a hard worker, a sweet girl, very shy.” At the end of ninth grade, she made the school’s honor roll.
She was diligent about schoolwork, and continued to seek out Ms. Oakley’s assistance even when the school shut down because of the coronavirus, once spending eight hours with her teacher on a Google Hangout, going through all her homework.

“She was definitely my girl,” Ms. Oakley said.

She said it was rare for Ma’Khia to mention anything about her family — except for Ja’Niah.

“She was very protective of her sister,” she said. “She was like, ‘No one messes with my baby sister.’”

…

The two girls ended up at Ms. Moore’s house on Legion Lane — not far from their grandmother’s house, and together for the first time since they left her care.

The suburban home is neat and well-tended, with bunches of artificial yellow flowers poking out of the turf beside the door. The two sisters would make TikTok videos, dance, go skating, or go to an amusement center called Scene75 that has rides and video games, Ms. Moore said. Ma’Khia, she said, was not troublesome.

“She’s a quiet girl. She doesn’t start fights anywhere. She wasn’t a troubled child,” she said. “She was fun. She loved her family. She loved her siblings. They were close.”

Still, Ms. Moore placed repeated calls to 911 in which she seemed to struggle to manage the children she had taken in.

Sometimes, she was calling to report that a teenager had “gone AWOL,” failing to return home by curfew. But late last year, Ms. Moore sounded deeply shaken as she asked the police to remove a 10-year-old boy — or, as she put it, “one of my irate foster youths” — from her home.

…

Ms. Cates, who formerly cared for Ma’Khia, said Ms. Moore faced a problem common to many foster parents: The agency expected her to work full-time outside the home, a situation that forced her to leave foster children unsupervised.

“I believe she was a loving, caring foster parent,” she said. But, she added, “foster parenting is a full-time job.”

By this spring, Ja’Niah said, Ms. Moore’s home had become increasingly tense. In the weeks leading up to the shooting, she said, Ms. Moore had accused the girls of stealing the cards that carry cash benefits for food.

And she said Ms. Moore sometimes left them unsupervised, or with former foster children, women in their 20s who, she said, berated them and mocked Ma’Khia’s speech impediment.

After school on April 20, the two Bryant girls found themselves alone in the house with Tionna Bonner, 22, one of Ms. Moore’s former foster children and, Ja’Niah said, her special favorite.

Ms. Bonner, who had come to celebrate Ms. Moore’s birthday the previous day, was now scolding the girls, saying they were habitually disrespecting Ms. Moore.

“She’s like, ‘My mom told you all to clean up this house, it’s dirty,’” Ja’Niah said.

The dispute escalated quickly, but when Ja’Niah called Ms. Moore, who was at work, she said she was too busy to get involved, Ja’Niah said. So each of them called for backup: Ja’Niah called her grandmother, and Ms. Bonner called another young woman, Shai-Onta Craig-Watkins, 20, who had lived in the house as a foster child. …

Ms. Hammonds rushed over and described standing on the stairway inside, trying to protect her granddaughters as the older women threatened to beat them up. Ms. Bonner had pulled out a knife, Ja’Niah and her grandmother said, and Ma’Khia had grabbed a steak knife from the kitchen. Ja’Niah went into her room and called 911. In the call, placed at 4:32 p.m., Ja’Niah asked for help as people shouted in the background.

Someone could be heard saying, “I’m not scared of no knife.”

“It’s 3171 Legion Lane,” Ja’Niah told the dispatcher. “We got Angie’s grown girls trying to fight us, trying to stab us, trying to put her hands on our grandma. Get here now!”

Twelve minutes later, the police arrived.

In a brief lull, Ms. Craig-Watkins left the house and the sisters began to pack up their things, thinking the worst of the situation was over. As they rushed out of the house, their father was pulling in to come to their aid. But also arriving was Ms. Craig-Watkins, who had returned with two more people. The two groups crossed paths, and Ms. Craig-Watkins spit toward the family, Ja’Niah and Ms. Hammonds said.

“I feel like that really made Ma’Khia really mad when she spit,” Ja’Niah said. “That’s when everything just went left.”

A police officer stepped out of his car and walked toward the driveway just as Ma’Khia turned her attention to Ms. Craig-Watkins and could be heard on a video from a neighbor’s surveillance camera threatening to stab her.

As Ma’Khia charged, Ms. Craig-Watkins tumbled to the ground, and Ma’Khia’s father tried to kick her. Ma’Khia turned to Ms. Bonner and backed her up against a car.

Ma’Khia raised a knife, and Officer Nicholas Reardon, a white 23-year-old who was the first officer to approach the scene, shot four times at Ma’Khia, who slumped down.

As Ma’Khia’s body lay on the ground, police officers led Ja’Niah inside Ms. Moore’s house, along with her father’s young son.

Ja’Niah turned on the television to find some cartoons for her younger brother to watch. Instead, what flashed on the screen first was a news report: a jury in Minneapolis had found Mr. Chauvin guilty of murdering Mr. Floyd.

Before an officer took her phone, she sneaked into a bathroom and made one more call for help.

“I called my real mom — my biological mom — and I told her, I said, ‘I need you. They just shot Ma’Khia. Get here now,’” Ja’Niah recalled. “I needed her” (Bogel-Burroughs, Barry, and Wright 1-7).

As Officer Reardon got out of his vehicle, he encountered seven people outside a two-story brick home and asked, “What’s going on?” Yelling could be heard in the background.

An unidentified girl appeared to fall to the grass after being attacked by Ms. Bryant and then kicked by an unidentified man. The video footage then showed Ms. Bryant, who was holding a knife, appearing to lunge toward a person dressed in pink who was pinned against a car parked in the driveway.

“Hey! Hey!” Officer Reardon said as he pulled his gun. “Get down! Get down!”

He fired four quick shots, and Ms. Bryant dropped to the ground at the edge of the driveway.

A witness yelled, “Why did you shoot her?”

The officer responded, “She came at her with a knife,” apparently referring to Ms. Bryant and the person dressed in pink.

Chief Woods said Columbus officers were allowed to use deadly force to protect somebody who was in danger of being killed by another person. A Taser, he said, is generally reserved for situations where there is no immediate threat of death. Officers are not required to call out that they are about to fire their weapon, he added, though they try to if there is time.

“Were there other options? Not if she was about to stab that woman,” Dr. [Geoffrey P.] Alpert [a professor of criminology at the University of South Carolina] said, adding that a Taser could take too long to deploy, and that the less-than-lethal weapons are not 100 percent reliable. “He’s protecting her life, not his own,” he said. “What if it didn’t work and she ended up killing this woman?”

Still, Ms. Bryant’s family and activists across Columbus questioned why the officer shot Ms. Bryant.

“I don’t know why he shot her,” Ms. Moore, Ms. Bryant’s foster parent, said. “I don’t know why he didn’t Tase her, why they didn’t try to break it up.”

She added, “At the end of the day, it wasn’t worth all this.”

Tensions over police shootings of Black people were already raw around Columbus. In early December, Casey Goodson Jr., 23, was shot to death at the entrance of his home by a Franklin County sheriff’s deputy who had been searching for someone else. Two weeks later, Andre Hill was shot by a Columbus police officer who was later charged with felony murder (Williams, Healy, and Wright 1-2).

Bryant’s death has become a debate that questions a child’s actions — and worthiness to live — instead of another example of the racism of policing and the institution’s failure to provide wholesome support, care, and safety for the communities it serves. The insistence that Reardon had no other option than to take Bryant’s life to save others — though he risked everyone’s life in the process — displays the lack of consideration and value that society places on the lives of Black girls and women.

Treva Lindsey, a professor of African American women’s history at Ohio State University, told Vox that there are those who won’t see Bryant as a victim but as someone who brought this on herself. And even for those who do see her as a victim, they’ll still victim-blame, erasing the systemic oppression — including that Black children are far more likely to be in foster care than their white counterparts, and kids in foster care are often exposed to high levels of violence — that brought her to being killed at the hands of the police.

“People will say ‘I’m really sad this whole scenario happened, but had she not had that knife …’ That becomes the ‘but,’ the qualifier, the caveat. And too often we have a caveat when it comes to defending, protecting, and caring for Black girls,” Lindsey said.

… Bryant’s death sparked debate across media and social media about whether the officer should have shot the 16-year-old.

On Face the Nation, Rep. Val Demings (D-FL), a former Orlando police chief, vehemently defended the officers’ actions, saying that police are forced to make calls in the heat of the moment. “Everybody has the benefit of slowing the video down and seizing the perfect moment. The officer on the street does not have that ability. He or she has to make those split-second decisions, and they’re tough.”

...

… Psychologist Merushka Bisetty explained in an essay for Vox that children like Bryant may “present with aggression and an inability to self-regulate their emotions and, consequently, engage in behaviors that can seem aggressive or involve weapons,” but that doesn’t mean that these situations “require or should be met with violent force.” Instead, it’s the role of intervening professionals to stop an aggressive interaction from becoming fatal.

That the reaction to Bryant’s killing has turned into a debate about whether the use of force is justified is an attempt to “displace blame onto the victim and their family rather than on the systems that created situations that led to her death,” Bisetty, who has provided services in shelters, schools, and jails, wrote. “It is worth considering whether Bryant might have still been alive today if a mental health expert — or someone else trained in nonviolent deescalation — had responded to the call.”

It’s also worth considering whether the police officer would have fired shots if Bryant or the people involved in the altercation were white. There are countless examples of police peacefully apprehending white boys and men wielding weapons. …

…

“It’s important for us to continuing highlighting and vocalizing how the inhumanity of white supremacy shows up in the lives of Black women and girls,” Lindsey said. “When we’re equipped with the full truth of how it operates, we have a better chance at rooting out the operating system of white supremacy and anti-Blackness” (Cineas 1-7).

[Paste the following on Google to watch a 3 minute ABC-produced video]

New video shows Columbus police shooting of teenager Ma ...


Works cited:

Bogel-Burroughs, Nicholas; Barry, Ellen; and Wright, Will. “Ma’Khia Bryant’s Journey through Foster Care Ended with an Officer’s Bullet.” The New York Times, May 8, 2021. Net. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/08/us...

Cineas, Fabiola. “Why They’re Not Saying Ma’Khia Bryant’s Name.” Vox, May 1, 2021. Net. https://www.vox.com/22406055/makhia-b...

Williams, Kevin; Healy, Jack; and Wright, Will. “ ‘A Horrendous Tragedy’: The Chaotic Moments before a Police Shooting in Columbus.” The New York Times, updated May 8, 2021. Net. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/21/us...

Bad Apples -- The Beat Goes On V--Anthony Thompson, April 12, and Matthew Williams, April 12, 2021

The national reckoning over police violence has spread to schools, with several districts choosing in recent days to sever their relationships with local police departments out of concern that the officers patrolling their hallways represent more of a threat than a form of protection.

School districts in Minneapolis, Seattle and Portland, Ore., have all promised to remove officers, with the Seattle superintendent saying the presence of armed police officers “prohibits many students and staff from feeling fully safe.” In Oakland, Calif., leaders expressed support on Wednesday for eliminating the district’s internal police force, while the Denver Board of Education voted unanimously on Thursday to end its police contract.

In Los Angeles and Chicago, two of the country’s three largest school districts, teachers’ unions are pushing to get the police out, showing a willingness to confront another politically powerful, heavily unionized profession.

Some teachers and students, African-Americans in particular, say they consider officers on campus a danger, rather than a bulwark against everything from fights to drug use to mass shootings.

There has been no shortage of episodes to back up their concerns. In Orange County, Fla., in November, a school resource officer was fired after a video showed him grasping a middle school student’s hair and yanking her head back during an arrest after students fought near school grounds. A few weeks later, an officer assigned to a school in Vance County, N.C., lost his job after he repeatedly slammed an 11-year-old boy to the ground.

Nadera Powell, 17, said seeing officers in the hallways at Venice High School in Los Angeles sent a clear message to black students like her: “Don’t get too comfortable, regardless of whether this school is your second home. We have you on watch. We are able to take legal or even physical action against you.”

…

Police departments have typically responded to calls from school employees, but the everyday presence of officers in hallways did not become widespread until the 1990s. That was when concern over mass shootings, drug abuse and juvenile crime led federal and state officials to offer local districts money to hire officers and purchase law enforcement equipment, such as metal detectors.

By the 2013-14 school year, two-thirds of high school students, 45 percent of middle schoolers and 19 percent of elementary school students attended a school with a police officer, according to a 2018 report from the Urban Institute. Majority black and Hispanic schools are more likely to have officers on campus than majority white schools (Goldstein 1-2, 4).

A police officer who fatally shot 17-year-old Anthony J. Thompson Jr. in a chaotic confrontation inside a high school bathroom on April 12 will not face charges.

Knox County District Attorney General Charme Allen said she will not charge officer Jonathon Clabough, who fired the shot that killed Thompson. Clabough also shot officer Adam Willson in the struggle.

"This is a self-defense case," Allen said at a two-hour news conference. "At the end of the day, we have found the shooting by Officer Clabough was justified."

Prominent civil rights attorney Benjamin Crump announced Monday he is representing Thompson’s family.

"Once again, when a Black person is killed, in this case a Black child, the police quickly shape a narrative to justify the death," said Crump in a statement issued on Twitter.

In the days after the shooting, the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation released two differing accounts of what occurred, including an incorrect assertion that Thompson fired a shot that struck an officer.

"The world was told that Anthony shot an officer and that's why police fatally shot him," Crump said.

…

Allen said police went into the school's bathroom to find Thompson after his girlfriend's mother accused Thompson of beating her daughter at school. Thompson and his best friend were inside, each in separate stalls, though it's not clear whether police knew that when they entered the bathroom.

Body camera footage revealed four officers wound up inside the bathroom: Clabough, officer Brian Baldwin, school resource officer Adam Willson and Lt. Stanley Cash. They surrounded Thompson, who was wearing a backpack, and began pulling him out of the stall.

Allen said Clabough saw a gun in the front pocket of Thompson's hoodie "with Anthony Thompson's hand" on the butt.

"He thinks, 'I'm about to die,'" Allen said of the officer's mindset.

Suddenly, Thompson's gun fired. Baldwin immediately dropped away from Clabough's view. Clabough mistakenly believed Baldwin had been shot so he fired, striking Thompson in the chest.

Allen said Clabough fired a second shot because he believed Thompson was about to shoot Cash. That shot, she said, struck Willson in the back of his thigh. Cash then climbed on top of Thompson, who was facedown on the floor and bleeding to death.
Allen said only 11 seconds elapsed between the time Clabough first saw the gun and when he shot Thompson (Satterfield “No” 1-2).

[Police attorney] Burks said Willson opted to go into the bathroom first.

"This was his beat, so to speak, so he went in first," Burks said. "Once he got in there, he called Anthony out by name."

Burks said Willson saw a set of feet under a stall door just as the three other officers began arriving inside the restroom.

Thompson opened the stall door. Willson placed his hand on Thompson's right arm.

"There was a hesitation," Burks said.

"(Thompson) put both hands into his (hoodie front) pocket, which causes most every officer concern."

Burks said Willson is a firearms training expert and used one of the techniques he teaches other officers to avoid being shot or being forced to shoot an assailant.

"He wasn't trying to disarm Thompson," Burks said. "His training is not to go down in the pocket, so he grabbed Anthony's wrist. You can see that in the video. Once Officer Willson realizes the gun is in Anthony's hand, Officer Willson was determined to hold onto his wrist" (Satterfield “KPD” 3-4).

The Knox County District Attorney’s Office has charged a man for providing a handgun to Anthony Thompson Jr., the 17-year-old student killed in a shooting at a Knoxville high school last month.

Kelvon Foster, 21, has been charged with providing a handgun to juveniles. Federal officials also obtained complaints charging him with making false statements in connection with the purchase of a firearm.

An arrest warrant states Thompson went to Harvey’s Pistol & Pawn in Knoxville on April 5 and met with Foster. Thompson viewed the handguns for sale and left the pawnshop. Foster then purchased a handgun and met with Thompson later that day. Foster admitted to exchanging the pistol for cash and marijuana (Raucoules 1).

… We know that just after 12:30 p.m. on April 12 Thompson’s ex-girlfriend had gone to a school leader’s office to get away from his alleged threatening behavior. She then went home.

After that, we also know Thompson was seen on school security camera footage leaving and coming back to the school. He wanders around.

He sat on a staircase for quite some time. All of this activity took place during school hours.

Finally, just after 3 p.m., nearly three hours after the confrontation with his ex-girlfriend, police found him in that bathroom (Dashe 1).

Officer Adam Willson's attorney, Charles Burks Jr., told Knox News in an exclusive interview that Willson wasn't trying to hurt Thompson on the day the boy was killed. He was trying to save him and his fellow officers.

…

A 20-year veteran of KPD, Willson's current assignment made it his job to keep students and staff safe at Austin-East. He made the critical decision to go into the bathroom — a decision that would cost Thompson his life and leave Willson permanently scarred from a gunshot from his fellow officer.

Burks says evidence made public earlier this week makes clear what Willson has said privately all along - he wasn't expecting or seeking to spur violence and was never told Thompson might be armed, angry or scared.

"Willson was trying to prevent Anthony from shooting or hitting anybody else," Burks said. "He grabbed Anthony's wrist. ... He was trying to keep Anthony's hand inside his pocket and keep it pressed next to his body to keep him from pulling it out.

"He held onto that wrist throughout the whole process," Burks said. "When a shot fired from Anthony's gun, (Willson) still had his wrist."

Burks said Willson didn't even register what happened next — Clabough raised his gun and fired twice, hitting the teenager in the chest and Willson in the back of his thigh.

"(Willson) was still trying to protect everyone," Burks said, explaining that Willson purposely covered Thompson's body as he fell to the floor to try to trap the gun underneath him (Satterfield “KPD” 5-6).

{Paste the following on Google to watch Knox News’s 12 minute 5 second video. Note that two teenagers end up face down on the floor. The boy wearing a white t-shirt was a friend of Thompson’s. He had been sitting in another stall when the officers entered the bathroom]

Video shows final moments before Anthony Thompson Jr. is ...


Works cited:

Dashe, Summer. “Questions Arise after Anthony Thompson Jr. Seen Roaming Campus prior to Austin-East Shooting; School Launches Internal Investigation.” WATE, updated April 24, 2021. Net. seen-roaming-campus-prior-to-austin-east-shooting-school-launches-internal-investigation/https://www.wate.com/news/top-stories...-

Goldstein, Dana. “Do Police Officers Make Schools Safer or More Dangerous?” The New York Times, June 12, 2021. Net. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/12/us...

Raucoules, Gregory. “Man Charged with Providing Handgun to Knoxville Student Fatally Shot by Police. KWRN, May 14, 2021. Net. https://www.wkrn.com/news/tennessee-n...

Satterfield, Jamie. “KPD Will Conduct Internal Investigation Surrounding Anthony J. Thompson Jr. Shooting Death.” Knox News, updated April 24, 2021. Net.
https://www.knoxnews.com/story/news/c...

Satterfield, Jamie. “No Charges for Tennessee Officer Who Fatally Shot Black Student in High School Bathroom.” USA Today, April 21, 2021. Net. https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/n...



Dekalb County [Georgia] Police said they were called to Terrace Trail on Monday after getting a call about a man "aggressively wielding a knife." Police said when they made contact with the man, he lunged at them with the knife, leading an officer to open fire. It was unclear if [Matthew] Williams was hit.

GBI [Georgia Bureau of Investigation] said Williams ran into his home, when at some point he came at police again and was shot.

…

… Investigators said the man was shot after he lunged at police with a knife, but his
Williams' family said they don't believe law enforcement's account that their loved one threatened the officers, describing him as the most caring and selfless person they knew.

"My brother was not violent. My brother was not confrontational," his sister, Chyah Williams explained.

The GBI has taken over the investigation, and said a knife was recovered from the scene. We have requested the body cam video from the officers who responded that night, but have been told it is not available because the case is still under investigation (Kleinpeter 1).

On Thursday, Matthew Williams’ family and their attorney said they went to the police department headquarters where Chief Mirtha Ramos played body camera video showing the shooting from Monday.

…

His family members and their attorney, Mawuli Davis, tell 11Alive the video does show Williams with a knife, but they don't believe he should have been shot or killed.

Two of his sisters said they understand why officers initially responded as they did, but they believe their brother was having some form of a mental health crisis. Once he was back inside his home, they believe officers should have backed off and called for a mental health expert to intervene.

“He went into his own home. He was in the sanctuary of his own home, in his safe space. They kicked the door down, he kept repeatedly telling them this is my house," said Hannah Williams.

Davis said -- to him -- the video showed two separate incidents that should have received two different responses.

“The initial officers were clearly afraid for their lives and justifiably, but then in another one where Mr. Williams was clearly in his home and scared for his life," he said (Henke 1).

A private pathologist hired by the family of Matthew Zadok Williams … said the 35-year-old could have survived had police acted with greater urgency.

Attorney Mawuli Davis, who represents Williams’ family, said more than an hour elapsed between the shooting and the discovery of his body by a SWAT officer. It’s unclear how long Williams had been dead. At a news conference last week, Williams’ family questioned why he received no medical attention after he was shot.

“They left him to die,” Davis said.

And why, they ask, was he shot at all? He had been contained to his Snapfinger Woods Drive condo, and while armed with a knife, he was surrounded by police. There was no imminent threat to public safety, Davis said.

Jackson Gates, the pathologist hired by the family, said preliminary findings revealed “some hemorrhaging, which gave me the idea it was a slow bleed.”

“That gave me the impression that he dropped his blood pressure really, really quick,” Gates said. “Which means he wasn’t quite dead and could’ve been salvageable. "

DeKalb police stressed different aspects of the case more than a week ago, releasing body camera video showing Williams chasing after an officer outside his condo, knife in hand.

In the ensuing standoff, an officer can be heard telling Williams, “Let me see you throw (the knife) down. You throw it down, we’ll put our stuff down.”

“I’m begging you,” the unidentified officer continued. “You’re a Black man. I’m a Black man. You don’t have to die today.”

Williams refused to surrender, saying he was defending his property. Police had been called to the scene by a resident of the complex. She told them Williams’ condo was vacant, and initially officers tried to get him to leave the scene.

“It was a deadly error to communicate that wasn’t his home,” Davis said. Police treated him like a trespasser, not a homeowner, said the lawyer, which likely influenced their decision to kick the door down in a show of force.

Family members acknowledge the first shot, fired outside of the condo by one officer in defense of another, was reasonable.

“The analysis cannot stop at that door,” Davis said.

…

In a statement, DeKalb County spokesman Andrew Cauthen told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, “Due to the ongoing investigation, only two of the videos have been released, and we cannot comment on the specifics of the case” (Boone 1).

On April 12, Dekalb County (east of metro Atlanta) police shot into the home of Matthew Zadok Williams while he was behind closed doors, hiding behind an ottoman. The police left him to bleed to death inside his own home. In the aftermath, a doctor stated that Williams’ life could have been saved had the police administered medical aid.

A neighbor called the police on April 12 saying a man with a knife had broken into an abandoned home. The police arrived onsite around 4 p.m. under the impression that Williams was homeless. The family later indicated that Williams owned the home and had lived there for 15 years.

Williams, who was having a mental health episode and needed a mental health professional, was instead met by armed police. At one point, Williams lunged at the police with a knife and the police retaliated by shooting. Williams escaped into his home and hid behind the ottoman. The police simply shot into his home.

The Williams family, distrustful of the initial autopsy results, hired their own physician.
“There wasn’t a lot of blood clot, so that gave me the impression that he was not quite dead, and could have been salvageable in my opinion,” said Dr. Jackson Gates.

The media has tried to blame Williams for his own death with misleading headlines stating that he was killed after lunging at police with a knife. However, what the headlines are leaving out is that the shots that killed him occurred while he presented no threat to police. It should be noted that the Dekalb Police Department has released only a segment of the body camera footage.

…

In recent years, 911 has become the only option for people looking for mental health crisis intervention. The New York City Police Department has reported that they respond to more than 400 mental health calls per day, averaging more than 12,000 per month.
Police encounters with people suffering mental illness typically do not end well.

Recent studies have found that 25 to 50 percent of people who are shot and killed by police officers in the U.S. suffer from mental illness. The Treatment Advocacy Center states that people with untreated mental illness are 16 times more likely to be killed during a police encounter than other civilians approached by law enforcement. This number is even higher if the victim is also a person of a color and/or identifies as LGBTQ (Justice 1, 3).

{Paste the following on Google to watch WSB-TV video coverage of the encounter and shooting]

EXCLUSIVE: Bodycam video shows man with knife moments …


Works cited:

Boone, Christian. “Lawyer for Family of DeKalb Man Shot by Cops: ‘They Left Him To Die’.” The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, April 26, 2021. Net. https://www.ajc.com/news/crime/lawyer...

Henke, Joe. “Family of Man Killed by DeKalb Police Says Chief Showed Them Bodycam Video of Shooting.” 11 ALIVE, updated May 26, 2021. Net. https://www.11alive.com/article/news/...

“Justice for Matthew Zadok Williams: Mental Health Crises and Police Terror.” Liberation, May 3, 2021. Net. https://www.liberationnews.org/justic...

Kleinpeter, Brittany. “Neighbor Says He 'Didn't See Anything in His Hands' in Shooting Where Police Killed Man Allegedly Armed with Knife.” 11 ALIVE, April 15, 2021. Net. https://www.11alive.com/article/news/...

Bad Apples -- The Beat Goes On IV--Daunte Wright--April 11, 2021

Daunte Wright called his mother. The tremble in his voice told her something was wrong. The police had stopped him, he told her nervously.

“He’s afraid of the police, and I just seen and heard the fear in his voice,” said his mother, Katie Wright.

She tried to keep him calm, as he spoke with her on the phone on Sunday while he was being pulled over in the Minneapolis suburb of Brooklyn Center.

He had told her the reason for the traffic stop had something to do with the air fresheners dangling from the rearview mirror, and she asked him to take them down and to let her speak with the officers over the phone.

Mr. Wright, 20, she said, asked the officers, “Am I in trouble?” Then Ms. Wright heard scuffling and a woman screaming in the background. The call dropped abruptly, and Ms. Wright feared that her son had become another victim of police brutality in America. (Martinez and Sandoval 1).

The officer who fatally shot a Black man during a traffic stop near Minneapolis mistakenly confused her gun for her Taser, police officials said on Monday, quickly releasing video as they tried to ease tensions in a state on edge over the Derek Chauvin trial.

In a brief clip of body camera video, officers from the Brooklyn Center Police Department can be seen trying to handcuff the driver, Daunte Wright, before he suddenly lurches back into his car. One of the officers aims a weapon at Mr. Wright and shouts, “Taser! Taser! Taser!”

She fires one round, and Mr. Wright groans in pain.

“Holy shit, I just shot him,” the officer can be heard shouting.

Late Monday, the officer who fired the fatal shot was identified as Kim Potter, who has worked for the department for 26 years. [Officer Potter had been assigned to guide less experienced colleagues that Sunday night]

The announcement came as protesters faced off with the police. Hundreds had gathered outside the Brooklyn Center police station for the second consecutive night, defying a new 7 p.m. curfew in a steady rain.

Demonstrators occasionally lobbed water bottles and rocks over newly erected fencing, chanting “killer cop” and “hands up, don’t shoot” while officers clad in riot gear stood guard. Officers responded by sporadically firing projectiles at the crowd and at one point released a chemical agent that caused people to start coughing.

…

… As the investigation into Mr. Wright’s death in Brooklyn Center was beginning on Monday, prosecutors in a courtroom less than 10 miles away completed the questioning of their witnesses in the trial of Mr. Chauvin, the former Minneapolis police officer charged with murdering George Floyd last May.

…

The police said officers attempted to detain him [Wright] after they discovered that there was a warrant for his arrest, stemming from a missed hearing on a misdemeanor gun charge.

Mr. Wright was facing two misdemeanor charges after Minneapolis police said he had carried a pistol without a permit and had run away from officers last June. Katie Wright told reporters that her son had been driving a car his family had given him two weeks ago and that he had called her as he was being pulled over.

“He said they pulled him over because he had air fresheners hanging from his rearview mirror,” she said. Ms. Wright added that her son had been driving with his girlfriend when he was shot. The police said a woman in the car had been hurt in a crash that occurred as the vehicle kept moving after the shooting.

Chief Tim Gannon of the Brooklyn Center Police Department said in a news conference that it would use the body camera video of the shooting to determine whether Officer Potter would remain on the force.

“It is my belief that the officer had the intention to deploy her Taser, but instead shot Mr. Wright with a single bullet,” he said (Bogel-Burroughs; Bosman; and Hubler 1-2).

A 2012 article published in the monthly law journal of Americans for Effective Law Enforcement documented nine cases in which officers shot suspects with handguns when they said they meant to fire stun guns dating back to 2001.

Reasons cited include officer training, the way they carry their weapons and the pressure of dangerous, chaotic situations. To avoid confusion, officers typically carry their stun guns on their weak sides — or their nondominant hand — and away from handguns that are carried on the side of their strong arms. This is the case in Brooklyn Center, where Gannon, the police chief, said officers are trained to carry a handgun on their dominant side and their stun gun on their weak side.

Bill Lewinski, an expert on police psychology and founder of the Force Science Institute in Mankato, Minnesota, has used the phrase “slip and capture” errors to describe the phenomenon. Lewinski, who has testified on behalf of police, has said officers sometimes perform the direct opposite of their intended actions under stress — their actions “slip” and are “captured” by a stronger response. He notes that officers train far more often on drawing and firing their handguns than they do on their stun guns.

Other experts express skepticism about the theory.

“There’s no science behind it,” said Geoffrey Alpert, a criminology professor at the University of South Carolina and an expert on police use of force. “It’s a good theory, but we have no idea if it’s accurate.”

Alpert said a major factor in why officers mistakenly draw their firearm is that stun guns typically look and feel like a firearm. St. Paul, Minnesota, Mayor Melvin Carter brought up the same point during a news conference Monday.

“Why do we even have Tasers that operate and function and feel and deploy exactly like a firearm?” Carter asked. “Why can’t we have Tasers that look and feel different? That you could never mistake for deploying a firearm so that we can ensure that mistake that has happened before can never happen again” (Murphy 1-2).

Before Sunday, Mr. Wright had been a young Black man unknown to the world, but known and loved by his friends and relatives in the Minneapolis area. He was a young father of a toddler who was almost 2, Daunte Jr. He loved basketball. As a freshman at Thomas Edison High School, he was voted a “class clown.”

But in the moments that his mother overheard in horror, her fears were realized, Ms. Wright said on Tuesday on “Good Morning America” and at a news conference in Minneapolis. Her son was shot by the police in what officials described as an accidental discharge, after a veteran white officer pulled and fired her firearm instead of her Taser as officers tried to handcuff him. Like Michael Brown, Tamir Rice and George Floyd, Mr. Wright’s name and life have become both a chant and symbol, and in the small universe of the Twin Cities region, the police killings of Black men share tragic connections.

Mr. Floyd’s girlfriend, Courteney Ross, was one of Mr. Wright’s former teachers, his family said.

…

Mr. Wright’s family said the young father did not have to suffer the same fate.

“He was loved. He was ours. This is no broken family,” said an aunt, Naisha Wright.

He was remembered as a dedicated father with a bright smile and outgoing demeanor.

The mother of his son, Chyna Whitaker, said in a Facebook post that the two had been amicably sharing custody of the child.

Mr. Wright attended Patrick Henry High School in Minneapolis in 2018, said the school principal, Yusuf Abdullah.

“He was just like any other kid,” Mr. Abdullah said.

He had also attended Edison High School in Minneapolis, where he was voted class clown as a freshman, according to the school’s 2015-16 yearbook.

“He loved to make people laugh,” said Emajay Driver, a friend of Mr. Wright. “He was just great to be around. There was never a dull moment” (Martinez and Sandoval 2).

The city of Brooklyn Center late Wednesday released more materials from Potter's service file to The Associated Press. The file was released to AP through a request under the Minnesota Government Data Practices Act.

Potter received a chief's commendation in 2007 for her handling of a “suicidal homicidal suspect” and his 2-year-old daughter. A copy of the commendation said: “Your actions assisted in the safe release of the child and the apprehension of the suspect without incident.”

Other commendations were for Potter recovering a company's stolen computer in 2008; helping recover a child who was the subject of an Amber Alert in 2006; helping locate and arrest two bail-jumpers from Mississippi in 2006; and tracking down suspects in a home invasion robbery in 1998.

…

The materials also included a four-hour suspension for Potter missing in-service training in 2000. The subject of the training wasn't given. Other discipline included a verbal reprimand in 2007 for Potter's work as part of a team focusing on violent robberies in part of the city. A supervisor wrote that Potter didn't do enough to make direct contact with people in the area.

The file also included reprimands for driving accidents in 1995, 1996 and 1998, respectively, including one where Potter spun out on wet pavement, hit a curb and caused up to $4,000 in damage to a squad car. The writeup in 1995, Potter's first year on the force, noted that she was backing a different squad car out of the police garage the next day and hit a city code enforcement vehicle.

In 2019, Potter was one of the first officers on the scene of a fatal police shooting when officers shot an autistic man, Kobe Dimock-Heisler, who had allegedly grabbed a knife, the Minneapolis Star Tribune reported.

Potter told two officers involved in the shooting to "exit the residence, get into separate squad cars, turn off their body worn cameras, and to not talk to each other," the newspaper reported, citing an investigative report from the Hennepin County Attorney's Office.

Potter and other officers were awarded the Medal of Merit for their response in a house fire in 2014, according to KARE-TV (Aspegren 1).

Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison announced Friday that he will lead the prosecution of a former suburban police officer who is charged with second-degree manslaughter in the death of Daunte Wright. Former Brooklyn Center officer Kim Potter, who is White, fatally shot Wright, a 20-year-old Black motorist, on April 11.

…

Ellison said Assistant Attorney General Matthew Frank, who manages the office's criminal division, will supervise the case.

Frank was one of the trial attorneys in the case against Derek Chauvin, a former Minneapolis police officer convicted of murder and manslaughter in the May 25 death of George Floyd. Ellison will actively assist in the case, and Freeman's office will also provide staff.

Ellison's office said a review of the evidence and charges against Potter is already underway.

"I did not seek this prosecution and do not accept it lightly," Ellison said. "I have had, and continue to have, confidence in how both County Attorney Orput and County Attorney Freeman have handled this case to date. ... Prosecutors are ministers of justice. This means we must and will follow justice wherever it leads."

Ellison said he will handle the prosecution responsibly and consistent with the law but that no one should expect the case will be easy to prosecute. His statement did not indicate whether murder charges would be filed (Daunte 1).

The mother of a teenage boy who was shot in the head and critically injured in 2019 has filed a civil lawsuit claiming the shooter was Daunte Wright …

…

A newly filed lawsuit claims that Wright shot 16-year-old Caleb Livingston in the head at a Minneapolis gas station on May 14, 2019, leaving him with permanent physical and mental disabilities.

Livingston’s mother is seeking damages from Wright’s estate to help pay for her son’s continuing care.

Although Wright was not criminally charged before his death in connection with Livingston’s shooting, the civil court filings in the case allege that “evidence generated to date reveals that the perpetrator of this crime was Daunte Wright.”

Livingston’s mother also alleges in court documents that Wright was a gang member with a lengthy criminal history.

Daunte Wright and Caleb Livingston had been childhood friends, according to a memorandum filed in the lawsuit. In fact, it says Caleb’s “first sleep over as a boy was at Wright’s home.”

As time went on, though, there apparently was a falling out. Court filings say Livingston “beat up” Wright in front of others. That may have been a motive for what the lawsuit claims happened next.

Shortly after 9 o’clock on the night of May 14, 2019, the lawsuit says Livingston was at a gas station/convenience store in the 1800 block of Lowry Avenue in North Minneapolis. It claims Wright was there, too.

It alleges Wright “brandished, pointed, and discharged a firearm” at Livingston, with one bullet striking him in the head.

Caleb Livingston survived – but with severe and permanent injuries.

At the time, no one was charged in the shooting. But attorneys for Livingston’s mother point to new evidence they say links Wright to the crime.

One year later, in June 2020, Minneapolis police received a report about a man with gun. When they arrived, a criminal complaint alleges that Daunte Wright jumped out of a car and fled on foot. However, officers said they found a loaded black Ruger .45 caliber handgun on the floor of the car where Wright had been sitting.

Wright was charged with fleeing police and carrying a handgun without a permit.

In a recent filing, an attorney for Livingston’s mother told the court “Based on reasonable information and belief, this gun is being compared to the shell casings found at the scene” of the 2019 gas station shooting.

The filing says the Minneapolis Police Department has not released details because their investigation is “active and ongoing.”

…

When Brooklyn Center police stopped Wright’s car for expired license plate tabs on April 11, officers discovered he had an outstanding arrest warrant for missing a court appearance in the illegal weapons possession case and fleeing police in June 2020.

He was also awaiting trial on felony robbery charges – accused of trying to rob a woman at gunpoint in December 2019 (Raguse and Eckert 1-2).

The lawsuit seeks more than $50,000 from Wright’s estate due to “grievous and permanent injuries to Livingston’s body and nervous system, past and future loss of earnings and earning capacity, past and future medical expenses, past and future pain, suffering … and severe emotional distress”.

None of the allegations contained in the civil suit has been proven.

…

Michael Padden, the lawyer representing Livingston’s family, told KARE 11 the lawsuit was filed “because of the statute of limitations. [Minnesota] law does not permit a case like this to be or remain sealed. Having said that, the allegations are valid” (Lawsuit 3).

[Paste the following on Google to watch CNN’s 3 minute 33 second video]

Bodycam footage of Daunte Wright shooting released - CNN ...

[Paste the following on Google to watch “The Daily Show”’s Trevor Noah comment on the shooting and police irresponsibility and brutality]

Daunte Wright's Death & America's Broken Policing System ...


Works cited:

Aspegren, Elinor. “Service File Reveals Commendations, Reprimands for Ex-Police Officer in Daunte Wright Shooting Death.” USA Today, May 6, 2021. Net. https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/n...

Bogel-Burroughs, Nicholas; Bosman, Julie; and Hubler, Shawn. “Minnesota Officer Who Shot Daunte Wright Meant to Fire Taser, Chief Says.” The New York Times, updated April 16, 2021. Net. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/12/us...

“Daunte Wright Police Shooting To Be Prosecuted by Minnesota Attorney General's Office.” CBS News, updated May 21, 2021. Net. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/daunte-w...

“Lawsuit Claims Daunte Wright ‘Shot’ Teenager in June 2019.” Aljazeera, June 1, 2021. Net. https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/6...

Martinez, Andres R. and Sandoval, Edgar. “Daunte Wright Spent Final Moments Talking with His Mother.” The New York Times, updated April 23, 2021. net. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/13/us...

Murphy, Sean. “EXPLAINER: How Does an Officer Use a Gun Instead of a Taser?” AP News, April 12, 2021. Net. https://apnews.com/article/how-does-p...

Raguse, Lou and Eckert, Steve. “KARE 11 Investigates: Lawsuit Claims Daunte Wright Shot a Teenager in the Head.” KARE11, May 28, 2021. Net. https://www.kare11.com/article/news/i...

Bad Apples -- The Beat Goes On III -- Michael Hughes, March 30, and Roger Allen, April 7, 2021

The Jacksonville, Fla. Sheriff’s Office on Friday released officer-worn body camera recordings which captured audio, but not video, of the police shooting and killing of Michael Hughes, 32, at an Argyle Forest hotel last month.

Hughes, whose family described him as a loving person who was battling a mental illness, was fatally shot by Officer J.H. Wing at a Quality Inn on March 30 following a struggle where Hughes was able to wrestle control of Wing’s Taser away from the officer and stun him, according to a police press conference. But the recording indicates a critical gap between two volleys of gunfire which an attorney for the Hughes family has vowed to exploit.

Wing and another officer were responding to a call about a domestic disturbance dispute between Hughes and his girlfriend for the fourth time that day, local television station WJXT reported earlier this month. According to the report, Hughes had left the hotel room earlier in the day but then forced his way back in and refused to leave, even after the officers arrived at the scene.

The body camera footage shows what happened in the moments just before Hughes and the officers began grappling.

The officers tell Hughes that they plan on detaining him until he can be properly identified. Hughes says he’s “straight,” but an officer replies, “No, you’re not straight.”

As the officers reach for Hughes, he immediately pulls away and says, “back up; don’t touch me” to the officers.

The beginning of the struggle is shown on camera before the officer’s body cam falls to the ground. The video goes dark, but a microphone captured audio for the remainder of the encounter.

The fight continues for about 60 seconds, with Hughes repeatedly yelling “Get off me. Get off me,” throughout. Then Hughes can be heard saying, “Okay,” and seconds later one of the officers yells, “He’s reaching for my Taser! He’s reaching for my Taser!” followed by, “He’s got my Taser! He’s got my Taser!”

A second later the sound of the Taser discharging can be heard for approximately two seconds. Two gunshots occurred in quick succession.

“Shoot him!” someone yells several times.
Three more gunshots go off approximately twenty seconds after the original two shots.

The officers immediately call in “shots fired” and a female voice, presumably Hughes’s girlfriend can be heard yelling “What the fuck!” and pleading to come in the room.

One of the officers asks Hughes if he was hit by the bullets and where he was hit. Hughes [Should be Officer Wing], audibly out of breath after the struggle and after being tased, speaks to police dispatch and says, “I have been tased. He has been 18’ed,” which is code for a person suffering a gunshot wound.

The officers then say they’re going to “cuff him” and then “cover him and then we’re gonna apply first aid.”

Attorney Marwan Porter, who is representing Hughes’s family in the matter, said Thursday that he believed there was more to the story than authorities were letting on, according to a Friday report from WJXT. Porter claimed to have a “witness [who] believes it was Wing who stunned Hughes and then shot him twice in the lower extremities inside the hotel room. Porter said those wounds were not life-threatening but left Hughes disoriented and stumbling and no longer a threat,” the station reported. “Porter said that when police and Hughes exited the hotel room, there was a time gap, and that’s when Wing shot Hughes three more times, killing him. He said that’s when JSO should have defused the situation.”

Porter is demanding that all video of the incident be released, including the other officer’s body camera and hotel surveillance footage (Lambe 1-2).

Porter said there are two body camera videos -- one of the cameras stopped working and the other fell to the ground. Porter said he was able to review the video and said you can initially see the officers approach Hughes inside the hotel room and hear a struggle as they try to restrain him.

…

Porter said there was a gap in time and more shots were fired outside the hotel room. He said those shots weren’t heard on the body camera.

Porter has also been shown one hotel surveillance video but said the State Attorney’s Office hasn’t yet shown him a second hotel surveillance video, and he’s demanding that in the name of transparency. Porter said the key question is what happened outside the hotel room?

As of right now, Porter doesn’t feel the shooting is justified and said there’s a “strong possibility” the officer could be charged (Peel 1).

Tears streaming down her face, Dawn Johnson demanded to know why a Jacksonville police officer shot and killed her boyfriend a week ago during a domestic incident at a Youngerman Circle hotel.

Surrounded by the family of Michael Leon Hughes and the attorneys they hired to investigate the death of the 32-year-old father of her two children, she said her call to police for help on March 30 "was not supposed to go that way!"

She also disputed what police said at the scene that Hughes threatened to kill the officers who came to handle the fourth domestic dispute call at that same Quality Inn room within several hours.

"Michael never said 'I'm going to kill you, I'm going to kill you,'" said Johnson, who was there when the shooting occurred.

"That is a lie," she said. "I want bodycam too. I want to know why if Michael was such a threat didn't the other officer not pull his Taser? ... Why did they have to shoot him so many times?"

Hughes' father joined the attorneys demanding all officer bodycam, police car dashcam and motel security video so he can see his son "from the time he was alive until the time he lay on the ground with blood coming out of his head." He wants closure in his son's death, he said.

"I want to know why they shot my son, my only son, in the face, then the stomach and chest and the butt," said Timothy Hughes, who said he just drove to Jacksonville from Charlotte, N.C. "... I would also like to know why the police had two Tasers, two pepper sprays and two batons, but they could not arrest one Black man with no violence and no weapon?"

…

Attorney Marwan Porter said Johnson called police to "de-escalate the situation, to calm it down." He said Hughes had a mental illness, and it should have been dealt with in a less lethal manner.

"You have to understand that everything isn't clicking the way it is supposed to be clicking and you have to be patient with them and have to go into it with a plan, otherwise it is going to end bad," Porter said.

Porter demanded a "transparent investigation" of the death as his law firm does its own investigation. He said his requests to the State Attorney's Office for the video have not been answered. The State Attorney's Office investigates all Jacksonville officer-involved shootings for criminal infractions before the Sheriff's Office investigates for officer misconduct.

"We love our officers. But our officers must make proper decisions, and the training has to be proper so this does not continue to happen," Porter said.

Sheriff's Office spokesman Christian Hancock said no new information will be released at this time.

"This continues to be an active investigation, both within JSO and externally through the State Attorney's Office," he said.

State Attorney's Office spokesman David Chapman said his office is still investigating and had no update on any police video for now (Scanlan 1-2).

[Paste the following on Google to watch and hear the confrontation. The video is located at the beginning of the article]

https://lawandcrime.com/police/body-c...


Works cited:

Lambe, Jerry. “Body Camera Captures Sound of Police Shooting and Killing Man Accused of Tasing an Officer.” Law and Crime, April 24, 2021. Net. https://lawandcrime.com/police/body-c...

Peel, Corley. “Attorney Believes Deadly Shooting of Man by Jacksonville Police Was Not Justified.” News 4 JAX, April 22, 2021. Net. https://www.news4jax.com/news/local/2...

Scanlan, Dan. “Family Demands Jacksonville Police Release All Video in March 30 Officer-Involved Death.” Floride Times-Union, updated April 9, 2021. Net. https://www.jacksonville.com/story/ne...


San Mateo County District Attorney Stephen Wagstaffe revealed Tuesday that Allen was shot by a Daly City police officer after they saw what they believed was a firearm in his lap. The weapon turned out to be a BB gun.

Few details about the incident had been released by Daly City Police prior to the district attorney's account Tuesday.

According to Wagstaffe, the incident took place April 7 on the 700 block of Niantic Avenue when an officer saw three people in a parked truck with a damaged rear tire around 2:30 p.m. and stopped to speak to the driver about possibly needing assistance. The officer was joined by another officer on the driver's side of the vehicle.

Two men were seated in the front of the truck, with Allen in the front passenger's seat, while a woman was in the back seat. While the officer spoke to the driver, two other officers approached the passenger side of the vehicle, where the front passenger door was open, Wagstaffe said.

According to the district attorney, the officers "saw what appeared to be a Glock firearm" on Allen's lap. The officers "yelled out there was a gun and Mr. Allen picked the gun up and held it in his hand."

Wagstaffe said a struggle ensued after one of the officers on the passenger's side leaned in and grabbed Allen's hand in a bid to prevent the gun from being fired. At one point the weapon was directed at the officer and driver on the other side of the truck and then at the officer struggling with Allen.

According to Wagstaffe, one of the officers on the passenger side "reported he feared that his fellow officer was going to be shot in the face," when he "saw the gun pointed at the face of the officer struggling with Mr. Allen."

Wagstaffe said: "He fired his service handgun at Mr. Allen twice, with one shot striking Mr. Allen in the chest and the other shot missing and lodging inside the vehicle."

The suspected firearm was actually "a replica handgun that was stamped with the word Glock" and is not a firearm, Wagstaffe said.

"There was no orange tape around the tip of the gun to show that it was not a real firearm," according to Wagstaffe.

Allen was administered emergency aid before being taken to Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital where he died around 90 minutes later, according to the district attorney's account.

The driver and another passenger, who described themselves as acquaintances of Allen, were not injured in the incident. They were released after being interviewed by police. They have been cooperating with investigators, according to Wagstaffe.

There is no video evidence of the incident and "Daly City police officers are not presently equipped with body cameras," Wagstaffe said. It is unknown why police dash cameras did not record the incident.

The name of the officer who fatally shot Allen has not been released. He has been placed on paid administrative leave during the investigation, according to Wagstaffe.

…

Allen grew up in San Francisco, according to his father, who said they last spoke about a month earlier. He said the district attorney's account of his son having a gun was "not like him," The Mercury News of the San Francisco Bay Area reported.

"I don't want my son to be forgotten," the father told The Mercury News. "He wasn't perfect; none of us are perfect. Other than that, he was an easygoing person" (Kim 1-2).


Daly City officials changed course Thursday and identified four officers at the scene of the fatal police shooting of Roger Allen, after facing backlash for initially refusing to release the names.

The officers are identified as Lt. Michael Brennan and officers Rosa Brenes, Nicholas McCarthy and Cameron Newton, according to a statement from the city. Officials have not said how each of the officers was involved and which of them is the officer who discharged his firearm.

Daly City officials did not immediately respond to a request for further information.

…

… His killing has since prompted protests in both Daly City and San Francisco and renewed calls for the Daly City Police Department to equip its officers with body-worn cameras.

As of last Friday, authorities said they had not recovered any video of the shooting.

In the three weeks after the shooting, Daly City police and officials had declined to name the officers at the scene citing an open investigation into the incident by the San Mateo County District Attorney’s Office.

However, similar investigations into other police shootings by law enforcement in San Mateo County have not stopped those agencies from identifying officers (Barba 1).

Family members of a Daly City man are still looking for answers nearly a month after he was shot and killed by police.

44-year-old Roger Allen was shot during what investigators say was a struggle over a fake gun.

Roger Allen’s sister says she’s enraged and upset. She misses her brother, and she’s angry it took police so long to release the names of the officers involved.

“It hurt because that was the last person that I had left in my family,” Talika Fletcher said.

… She feels alone.

“My brother was an amazing person. He was outgoing, funny, he could light up a whole entire room.”

Investigators say Allen was killed after a struggle over a fake gun.

“A cop should know a BB-gun from a real gun.”

…

Daly City police officers are not equipped with body-worn camera but Fletcher says she believes video will still come out.

“In that area people have rings, they have cameras on their houses. They have video. The truth will come out” (Hari 1).

City officials have formally requested that California Attorney General Rob Bonta conduct an independent investigation into the circumstances surrounding the fatal shooting of Roger Cornelius Allen by Daly City police officers during a traffic stop on Apr. 7.

The city also plans to hire an outside expert to lead the administrative investigation that includes reviewing whether the officers complied with police policies, procedures and tactics.

…

None of the four officers involved were wearing body cameras at the time of the shooting. In the wake of the shooting, Daly City officials have approved funding to purchase body cameras for all their officers.

…

On July 1, 2021, Assembly Bill 1506 goes into effect, providing Bonta’s office with the ability to take over investigations into officer-involved shootings of unarmed civilians (Daly 1-2).


Works cited:

Barba, Michael. “Amid Pressure, Daly City Releases Names of Officers in Roger Allen Police Shooting.” San Francisco Examiner, April 29, 2021. Net. https://www.sfexaminer.com/news/amid-...

“Daly City Officials Ask State Attorney General To Investigate Officer-Involved Shooting of Roger Allen.” San Francisco Chronicle, May 18, 2021. Net. https://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/202...

Hari, Amanda. “Family Demands Answers after Daly City Police Shoot, Kill Man with BB Gun.” KRON4, updated May 4, 2021. Net. https://www.kron4.com/news/bay-area/f...

Kim, Soo. “Who is Roger Allen? Black Man Shot Dead by Daly City Police Officer.” Newsweek, April 16, 2021. Net. https://www.newsweek.com/roger-allen-...

Bad Apples -- The Beat Goes On II -- Marvin Scott, March 14, and Adam Toledo, March 29, 2021

Marvin Scott III was inside a sprawling outlet mall in Allen last month when police searched him and allegedly found less than 2 ounces of marijuana. They arrested him and eventually took him to the local jail.

Hours later, the 26-year-old was dead.

Now, seven Collin County detention officers have been fired for their role in allegedly restraining Scott, blasting him with pepper spray and placing a [spit hood, a controversial device meant to keep a person from biting or spitting on an officer] over his head as he suffered through what his family has described as a mental health emergency. An investigation found the officers had violated policies and procedures, Collin County Sheriff Jim Skinner said Thursday.

A lawyer representing Scott’s family called for the officers to face criminal charges in the case, which the Texas Rangers are investigating.

“Marvin Scott III’s family is relieved these men have been terminated — however they are anxious to see these men arrested and held criminally accountable,” attorney Lee Merritt tweeted Thursday.

The case has sparked outrage in North Texas as Scott’s family and local activists question why he was arrested for such a small amount of marijuana — a drug soon to be fully legal in 16 states and widely decriminalized elsewhere — and why he was subject to force in jail rather than immediately taken for medical treatment.

Many police departments nationwide have stopped making arrests for small amounts of marijuana, a policy already held by several forces around Dallas and adopted by another area agency this week in the wake of Scott’s death.

Police have also faced scrutiny in their response to mental health crises, particularly after the death last year of Daniel T. Prude, a Black man who died after Rochester, New York, police restrained him and used a spit hood to cover his head.

Scott was a beloved brother and son, his family members said after his death.

“He was a gentle giant. He would do anything for anybody,” his sister, LaChay Batts, said at a news conference after his death. “Y’all really took away a good person — a really good person. He was amazing.”

Like Prude, Scott also had mental illness that frequently put him in contact with local police. Scott had been diagnosed with schizophrenia, his family said, and in the past, police had taken him to get medical care when he had a crisis.

“He had been arrested several times before where he was taken to a clinic, given his meds and then released,” Merritt said in a news conference streamed by KXAS-TV.

On March 14, Scott once again ended up in police custody, this time after he was observed acting strangely in the Allen Premium Outlets, a mall in suburban Dallas, and then allegedly found with a small amount of marijuana. Police initially took him to a hospital, Merritt said, but unlike in previous cases, they then took him to the Collin County Jail instead of a local mental health center.

He was booked into the jail around 6:40 p.m., Skinner said at a news conference. According to Merritt, he was put into a cell with eight other people, but later moved into an isolation cell. When the jail staff feared that he might hurt himself, they sent in seven officers to restrain him, Merritt said.

Video of the encounter shows one officer applying an “illegal choke hold” as the others fought to tie down his arms, Merritt alleged.

Skinner confirmed that video was taken of the struggle and said the officers used pepper spray once and restrained Scott in a bed. He declined to discuss any other details about the video recording, pending the ongoing investigation.

At 10:22 p.m., the sheriff said, Scott became unresponsive on the restraining bed. He was rushed to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

“As you might imagine, I was brokenhearted to learn that someone had died in our custody,” Skinner said later, calling his death a “tragedy.”

Seven detention officers — a captain, a lieutenant, two sergeants and three officers, none of whom have been named — were suspended while the sheriff conducted an internal investigation. On Thursday, Skinner announced that they had been fired and said an eighth officer had resigned as a result of the probe.

“Evidence I have seen confirms that these detention officers violated well-established Sheriff’s Office policies and procedures,” Skinner said in a statement shared with The Washington Post. “Everyone in Collin County deserves safe and fair treatment, including those in custody at our jail. I will not tolerate less” (Elfrink 1-2).

For the past four weeks, a group of up to 40 protesters has gathered outside the Collin County Jail nearly every night around 9 p.m. They hang signs, draw on the sidewalk with chalk and decorate the chain link fence, celebrating the life of Marvin Scott III, who died while in the custody of jail staff in March.

Consistently, their memorials have been taken down by county staff. But that doesn’t deter his sister, LaChay Batts, from returning every day with other community members outside the jail in McKinney.

“We just do it again,” Batts, 28, told the Tribune Sunday, her voice hoarse from chanting all day. “They want us to stop, to go away. We’re gonna remain until the officers are arrested.”

...

Though seven of the sheriff’s officers have been fired after initially being put on administrative leave and another resigned while under investigation, the family and protesters say they don’t plan to stop until the officers have been charged with a crime.

The officers' names have not been publicly released. The Collin County Sheriff’s Office, which operates the jail, said personnel information cannot be released due to pending civil service appeals.

The Texas Rangers are investigating Scott’s case. Nearly a month later, the county medical examiner’s office has not yet released an official cause of death.

The family hired a forensic pathologist to conduct a second, independent autopsy. During the March 23 press conference, the pathologist, Amy Gruszecki of American Forensics, said: “The physical struggle of the restraint as well as the possible asphyxia from the restraint would likely be causes of his death, and a negative autopsy, meaning no injuries, no blunt force trauma, is consistent with that.”

During the press conference, Merritt said the Collin County district attorney had explained that he would need a cause of death and a medical examiner’s report before he could decide whether to pursue criminal charges.

…

“Today marks 30 days since Marvin was murdered, and we still haven’t seen the tape. We still don’t know the names of these officers,” [Scott’s sister Lachay] Batts said on Sunday. “[They] could be our neighbors, and we don’t know.”

For the first few nights, the protesters congregated near where inmates are brought into the jail. A week later, they arrived to find a new chain link fence surrounding their former protesting grounds, [Elizabeth] Michel [a community activist] said.

…

In addition to physical barriers, Michel said that several sheriff’s office vehicles have circled the area and flashed the high beams of their headlights on the group. At one point, sheriff’s employees told protesters they were unlawfully assembled, she said.

“There’s a big sign on the fence that says designated protest,” Michel said. “I’m like, ‘You told us to be here, and now you’re telling us to move again.’”

“They definitely didn’t expect us to still be out there,” she added. “They expected this to die down and go away. And we’re not.”

[Kamona Nelson, one of LaChay Batts’ hairstyling clients] … said her family moved to McKinney more than three years ago, and she said she was shocked to hear negative things about Collin County law enforcement after hearing that the city was one of the top places to live in the state.

A few years before, in 2015, McKinney police responded to a report of teenagers scaling a fence to enter a private pool party. An officer pointed a gun at the teens and detained a Black girl by throwing her to the ground and pressing his knee into her back. She was ultimately released back to her parents with no charge filed. The incident sparked national outrage and prompted additional protests on its five-year anniversary.

Nelson said that when they first moved to McKinney, three police officers stopped one of her sons, then 15, as he walked home because he happened to fit the description of someone “tall, big and Black” that they were looking for, she said, though they eventually let him go.

…

“It seems like there is a lot of injustice, as if we are doing something wrong,” she said of the way officers have treated protesters.

“That, I don’t understand — why the family is being treated the way that they are.”

Batts said having Nelson and so many other community members stand with her family has given her family strength.

While the protests cannot bring Scott back, Batts said they will continue to protest “so this doesn’t have to be somebody else’s brother” (Martinez and Tauber 1-2).

The in-custody death of Marvin David Scott III, a 26-year-old Black man who was allegedly pepper-sprayed and had a spit mask placed on his face while he was held at a Texas detention facility in March, was ruled a homicide on Wednesday.

Dr. William Rohr, the medical examiner in Collin County, said Scott's death was caused by "fatal acute stress response in an individual with previously diagnosed schizophrenia during restraint struggle with law enforcement." Rohr's office said it's waiting to obtain laboratory results before publishing a final autopsy report.

…

Scott's family viewed video footage of Scott's death on Wednesday. Family attorney Lee Merritt said the family viewed almost five hours of footage, adding that the footage showed "repeated opportunities" to provide aid to Scott, who he said "was clearly in a schizophrenic episode."

"Instead, he received brutality," Merritt said. "Instead, he was maced. He was assaulted, he was restrained, he was treated as someone who was being criminally non-compliant, not as someone in need of desperate help."

Merritt said the sheriff's office had records of Scott's mental health issues. At the March 19 press conference, [Sheriff] Skinner declined to comment on whether officers had known of a history of mental illness.

Scott's mother, LaSandra, described the footage as "Horrific, inhumane," and "very disheartening." The family has repeatedly called for the officers involved to be arrested.

"When I was watching this, I felt like I wanted to be there for him, but I couldn't. It was too late," another family member said. "And we ask for justice because at this point that's all we can ask for" (Albert 1).

[Paste the following on Google to watch a brief WFAA-produced news video update]

Family of Marvin Scott III view video of his final moments, react ...

Works cited:

Albert, Victoria. “In-Custody Death of Marvin David Scott III Ruled a Homicide.” CBS News, April 29, 2021. Net. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/marvin-s...

Elfrink, Tim. “He Died in Jail Hours after a Minor Pot Arrest. Now 7 Corrections Officers Have Been Fired.” The Texas Tribune, April 2, 2021. Net. https://www.texastribune.org/2021/04/...

Martinez, Marissa and Tauber, Shelby. “Marvin Scott III Died in Texas Police Custody. His Family Will Protest until the Officers Involved Are Arrested.” The Texas Tribune, April 13, 2021. Net. https://www.texastribune.org/2021/04/...



Officials in Chicago released body camera footage on Thursday of a police officer fatally shooting a 13-year-old boy last month, setting off protests over the use of deadly force by police in a city that has been beleaguered by violence.

The boy, Adam Toledo, who was Latino and was a seventh-grader, was one of the youngest people killed by the police in Illinois in years.

The release of the video from the March 29 shooting came during the murder trial of Derek Chauvin, one of the Minneapolis police officers charged in George Floyd’s killing last year.

…

In the early-morning hours of March 29, two officers had been responding to reports of gunfire when they saw two people in an alley and started to chase them, officials said.
Prosecutors have said that Adam was holding a gun when he ran down the alley as an officer called for him to stop and drop the weapon.

In the moment before the shooting, Adam can be seen holding what appears to be a gun behind his back, which he drops behind a wooden fence just before he raises his hands, according to an analysis of the police videos by The New York Times.

In one of the videos, the officer yelled at him to stop. “Stop right now!” the officer screams while cursing, telling him to drop his gun. “Hands. Show me your hands. Drop it. Drop it.”

As Adam turned and lifted his hands, the officer opened fire, striking him once in the chest. The officer can be seen administering CPR on Adam and telling him to “stay with me” as blood poured out of his mouth.

Adam, a seventh grader at Gary Elementary School, had been missing for several days before he finally returned home on the night of March 28, according to his mother, Elizabeth Toledo, who told reporters that she had even previously called the Chicago police to report him missing.


But that Sunday night, she would later tell reporters, she saw him go into the room he shared with his brother. The next day, he was gone. Ms. Toledo later heard from the police: Adam was dead.

“I just want to know what really happened to my baby,” Ms. Toledo said at a news conference on April 2, demanding transparency from law enforcement officials and expressing disbelief that Adam — who, she said, played with Legos and rode bikes with his siblings — would end up in what the police called an “armed confrontation.”

Adeena Weiss-Ortiz, a lawyer representing the Toledo family, said at a news conference on Thursday that the video showed that Adam was attempting to comply with the officer’s orders.

“He tossed the gun,” she said. “If he had a gun, he tossed it. The officer said, ‘Show me your hands.’ He complied. He turned around.”

The officer was identified in police reports as Eric E. Stillman, 34, who is white and whose lawyer said had been placed on administrative duties for 30 days.

The lawyer said that the shooting, while tragic, was justified given the nature of the threat.

“The police officer was put in this split-second situation where he has to make a decision,” said Timothy Grace, a lawyer at the firm of Grace & Thompson retained by the Fraternal Order of Police in Chicago (Vigdor 1-2).

A little after 5 a.m. CT that morning, less than three hours after the shooting, police spokesman Tom Ahern called the incident an "armed confrontation" in a tweet. He also shared a photo of the gun recovered from the scene.

…

Nearly 12 hours later, a little after 4 p.m. CT, the department released an official press release removing the word "armed" from "armed confrontation," and referring to the two people involved as "two males."

…

Saturday, prosecutors described what the officer's body camera footage showed, alleging Adam was holding a gun when the officer shot him.

The details were revealed during a bond hearing for Ruben Roman, 21, who was with Adam when he died. Prosecutors said shots fired by Roman while standing next to Adam set off a chain of events that led to the fatal shooting.
...

After 2:30 p.m., a police watchdog agency released 17 bodycam videos, four third-party videos, a transmission from the Office of Emergency Management and Communications, two audio recordings of 911 calls, six ShotSpotter recordings, as well as response and arrest reports (Hauck 3).

The videos show the moments leading up to Stillman shooting Toledo, the shooting itself and the aftermath.

Video taken from the front door of a Little Village church shows Toledo and 21-year-old Ruben Roman walking down the street before stopping at the corner of 24th Street and Sawyer Avenue, where it appears Roman fired shots at a target that is out of view. Toledo and Roman leave, video footage shows.

Body-camera footage shows Stillman — a 10th District tactical unit officer, according to COPA — chasing Toledo through an alley, yelling at the teen to stop. Stillman catches up to Toledo, who appears to have stopped running near a gap in a fence between the alley and a church parking lot.

Video from a different angle appears to show Toledo tossing the gun behind the fence moments before he is shot.

Stillman flashes a strobe flashlight at Toledo and says, “Hands! Show me your fucking hands!”

Immediately after commanding Toledo to show his hands, Stillman shot the boy at close distance. Toledo’s hands were raised when he was shot, the footage shows.

The footage does not show Toledo point or raise a gun at Stillman at the end of the chase. Toledo does not appear to be holding the gun as the officer shot him.

Toledo collapsed into the parking lot after being shot and died at the scene. The gun was found alongside the fence behind Toledo, police said.

...

“Look at me. Look at me. You all right? Where you shot?” Stillman said to Toledo, who was unresponsive. The officer lifted up Toledo’s sweatshirt to look for a wound and told the boy, “Stay with me.”

Stillman radioed for someone to bring him a medical kit. Responding officers and Stillman then began to treat the 13-year-old, performing CPR.

Stillman walked away from the scene by himself. Minutes later, a police supervisor radioed in to officers on the scene to turn off their body cameras.

Stillman has been placed on administrative duties for 30 days … (Pena, Bauer, and Ward 1-2).

There is no question we need police and no question we need policing to change. But that’s not the only change we need. In an op-ed in the Chicago Tribune on Fri., April 16, Adam Toledo’s teachers talk about how he was labeled a special ed student, isolated with a group of six others from the rest of his classmates, had a talent for art, but in an under-resourced and underfunded education system, had no art class. They noted that he painted graffiti on a wall at school and while everyone worried about how to cover it up, no one asked why he did it (Illinois 1).

[Paste the following on Google to watch the ABC 7 Chicago-produced video of the shooting].

Adam Toledo shooting video shows teen with hands up ...


Works cited:

Hauck, Grace. “Evolution of a City's Account of a Killing: How Chicago's Narrative Changed in the Fatal Police Shooting of Adam Toledo.” USA Today, April 16, 2021. Net. https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/n...

“Illinois Education Association releases statement on death of Adam Toledo.” IEA-NEA, April 16, 2021. Net. https://ieanea.org/2021/04/16/illinoi...

Pena, Mauricio; Bauer, Kelly; and Ward, Joe. “Video Shows Chicago Police Shooting 13-Year-Old Adam Toledo as He Raised His Hands.” Block Club Chicago, April 15, 2021. Net. https://blockclubchicago.org/2021/04/...

Vigdor, Neil. “What To Know about the Police Shooting of Adam Toledo.” The New York Times, April 16, 2021. Net. https://web.archive.org/web/202104231...

Bad Apples -- The Beat Goes On I--Vincent Belmonte--01-05--2021 and Patrick Warren Sr.--01-10-2021

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- An 18-year-old Cleveland man shot and killed by an East Cleveland police officer Tuesday morning was driving his girlfriend to work in a car a friend allowed him to drive as a favor, his stepmother told cleveland.com.

The family’s insistence that Vincent Belmonte drove a borrowed car runs counter to East Cleveland police’s initial report that says the officers tried to stop a car they say was stolen.

Body camera video released by East Cleveland identified the officer who shot Belmonte as Sgt. Larry McDonald, a police officer with a history of discipline issues currently on departmental probation for getting a woman released from jail in 2019 in exchange for a date.

The department placed McDonald on paid administrative leave while the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation investigates the shooting, East Cleveland Police Chief Scott Gardner said.

When asked how police concluded that Belmonte was in a stolen car, Gardner said the car was speeding down Euclid Avenue and responding officers told the dispatcher that “the vehicle was the same vehicle that had run from an officer on a previous occasion.”

“At some point, they are able to get the plate information and the plates did not match the vehicle,” Gardner said.

In response to the family’s claim that Belmonte borrowed the car, Gardner said, “I have no idea if the owner made a false report, but that would be hindsight from our officers thinking it was stolen. I am unaware of the owner of the vehicle had a relationship with the decedent.”

Belmonte spent his life working on his family’s 7-acre farm in Garrettsville, where he lived at the time of his death. Bullets struck him in the back of the neck, his shoulder and his head, according to Gardner and Belmonte’s stepmother Nickey Duckworth.

Belmonte’s father, who asked not to be identified over concerns for his safety, said the shooting left him in a state of panic. He said he’s visited the crime scene three times as he and other family members attempt to get some closure over his son’s death.

“He didn’t get the time he probably should have,” he said as he choked back tears.

“Vincent was so gifted. He could read by the time he was 3. He was taking high school classes in the fourth grade.”

“I don’t understand why this happened,” his father said.

The shooting happened about 10:30 a.m. Tuesday on Allandale Avenue near the Apex Academy charter school. The initial police statement said that officers followed Belmonte because they said the same car had driven away from officers the day before.
Police followed him, and the car caught fire after it hit several objects police have still not identified. Police gave a short chase as Belmonte sped through side streets, Gardner said.

Belmonte, his girlfriend and another man got out of the car and ran. Belmonte ran behind houses and jumped over a fence to head to the school.

Officers told a dispatcher that he pulled out a gun, and they shot at him. Though videos obtained by cleveland.com do not show the actual shooting.

Duckworth said the car Belmonte drove belonged to a friend, and he borrowed it because his car would not start. She called rumors that her stepson -- who has no criminal record available in public records -- was involved in a robbery or a carjacking are disheartening.

“And it’s not like he hot-wired the car. He had the keys. (Police are) trying to say my son’s a carjacker,” Duckworth said. “And we’re not going to pretend like Black men don’t run from police. Why he ran from the police was because he was scared he was going to die. And guess what? His worse nightmare came to life, and he died. That’s why he ran. He didn’t want to die. He didn’t try to run that car into the police. He didn’t try to run over police. He ran away.”

Belmonte’s brother, Dejour Duckworth, said the police don’t care what they did to Belmonte.

“He knew what was going to happen after he got out of the car,” he said. “He feared for his life. I know my brother. Even if he did have his gun on him, we have a farm. We have firearms. There were really no bad intentions with what he was trying to do.”

Paramedics took Belmonte to University Hospitals, where he died.

“They (police) snatched a vital part out of our lives,” Nickey Duckworth said as she described her blended family of eight children. “We always teach about blended families and how to get along. We’ve taught our children how to properly release their anger. They’re farm people. He wouldn’t have shot (at the police).”

Advocates, pastors, family of Belmonte and public officials held a press conference Friday afternoon to demand the firing of McDonald and that changes in the police department’s policies be made.

Civil Rights Advocate Justin Anderson said during the press conference that McDonald has been a huge problem for the city.

Anderson said he has begged East Cleveland Mayor Brandon King to terminate him.

“Instead the mayor promoted him,” Anderson said. “I’m not saying all officers are bad, there are a lot of good officers in this department. I and the community are fed up. We demand the termination of Officer Larry McDonald.”

He turned his body camera off, Anderson said. To him, that should be enough to terminate him, he added (Remington 1-3).

Video that East Cleveland police released on Wednesday shows McDonald activate his body camera and then immediately turn it off as he closed in on Belmonte, who police said pulled out a pistol as he ran from the car.

When asked about McDonald’s video, East Cleveland police Chief Scott Gardner said it was “a common occurrence” for officers using that type of body camera not to hear it beep, the indication that the camera started recording. Officers often try to activate it a second time and inadvertently shut it off, Gardner said, adding that he was offering “pure speculation.”

Another officer’s body camera caught the sound of three gunshots.

As officers approached Belmonte’s body lying face-down on the ground, an out-of-breath McDonald said the man had a gun, the video showed. An officer asked where it was.
McDonald said it was in his hand.

“He went to grab it out his pocket,” McDonald added, panting.

An officer rolled Belmonte over, peaked under his body, and said, “It’s affirmed.”

McDonald asked if the man he just shot was alright. No one answered.

McDonald repeatedly screamed out, “godd----t,” as an officer walked with him away from the scene. He stopped to ask people sitting in a van in a driveway if they were OK, then directed an officer to move a police cruiser away from the smoldering car that police said Belmonte left behind.

Officers called for an ambulance, rolled Belmonte over and cut off his shirt to examine the wound, which appeared to be on his right side, the video showed. A pistol lay on his body on the ground, the video showed.

An officer could be heard on the video telling another officer that the gun had been in the pocket of Belmonte’s hooded sweatshirt.

Belmonte was pronounced dead at University Hospitals shortly after the shooting.

The Ohio Attorney General’s Office’s Bureau of Criminal Investigations took over the investigation into the shooting (Shaffer 1-2).

[East Cleveland police Chief Scott] Gardner slapped McDonald with a 10-day suspension and placed him on probation for one year on Jan. 7, 2019 after finding McDonald improperly intervened in a woman’s case and helped release her from jail. The woman, arrested after she went to the police station to clear up an outstanding warrant, filed a formal complaint with the department accusing McDonald of offering to help get her out of jail if she went out to dinner with him.

She also accused him of harassing her over the following weeks.

McDonald told Internal Affairs investigators in a written statement that a city prosecutor permitted him to release the woman from the jail because she was upset about possibly missing school because she was in jail, the Plain Dealer reported. The newspaper reported that McDonald said he did not exchange numbers or agree to meet the woman until she was out of jail.

…

McDonald was also investigated late last year after another officer in the department flagged comments McDonald made about taking marijuana from the department’s evidence locker, Gardner said.
…
McDonald was also featured in a 2019 Eye on Ohio story about East Cleveland’s financial struggles. The article described McDonald’s approach to his job as “radical Broken Windows policing” and chronicled him arresting two 18-year-old men for standing on a public sidewalk.

The city’s prosecutor and assistant law director, Heather McCollough, told the man [McDonald] she was letting him go with a warning that “he has been noticed … to cite people that he recognizes for hanging around on sidewalks and things of that nature,” according to the article.

McDonald is also currently a defendant in a wrongful arrest lawsuit pending in U.S. District Court over his role in the May 2018 arrest of a then-17-year-old boy who is now charged as an adult in Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court with aggravated murder.

The lawsuit says he [McDonald] and several other East Cleveland officers initiated a traffic stop against Martaze Burrell as a pretext so they could arrest him and question him in the killing of Steven Swain, which happened months earlier. They then cited Burrell with driving with fictitious plates to justify the stop (Shaffwe 3-4).

Belmonte’s stepmother Niki Duckworth said, “They called themselves the siblings because there are eight of them. Now there are seven.

To sit and watch people degrade my family’s integrity with some of the sickest stuff I’ve ever seen in the name of the man who has been harassing the community since I was a child.”

“He’s not an angry urban child. He had a place to release his aggression. My children are devastated from the loss of their brother. His mother and my husband are devastated that they’ve loss their baby,” Duckworth said (Anderson and Boomer 1).

[A video exists that shows an officer who is not McDonald chasing Belmonte and arriving where McDonald is standing after shots have been fired. Paste the following on Google]

East Cleveland police officer turned off body camera just ...


Works cited:

Anderson, Chris and Boomer, Harry. “Family of 18-Year-Old Killed by Officer Speaks along with East Cleveland Council after Police-Involved Shooting.” Cleveland 19 News, January 8, 2021. Net. https://www.cleveland19.com/2021/01/0...

Remington, Kaylee. “Man Shot and Killed by East Cleveland Police Officer Was Taking Girlfriend to Work in Borrowed Car, Family Says.” Cleveland.Com, January 8, 2021. Net. https://www.cleveland.com/crime/2021/...

Shaffer, Cory. “East Cleveland Police Officer Who Shot Man Was on Departmental Probation for Soliciting Date from Woman He Arrested.” Cleveland.Com, January 7, 2021. Net.
https://www.cleveland.com/crime/2021/...


The family of a man shot and killed by a Texas police officer during a mental health check is calling for the officer's arrest. Patrick Warren Sr.’s son said his family had called for help on Sunday because Warren was having a mental health emergency.

Ring doorbell footage shows Killeen Police Officer Reynaldo Contreras knocking on Warren's door, a surprise to his family who had requested help from a mental health professional. The family said they had called for help the day before, and a mental health professional arrived with no issue.

"They never told us that one wasn't available. They just sent out a Killeen police officer," Warren's son, Patrick Warren Jr., told CBS News correspondent Omar Villafranca.

Warren Jr. said Contreras's demeanor toward his family was hostile, so they asked him to leave. But moments later, he returned and knocked.

Warren Sr. answered and stepped outside with his hands in the air. His son said he noticed a red dot shining on the door.

"The only reason we got up and walked to the door was because we saw an infrared beam from a taser on the door which concerned us. We heard a pop," he said. "We got up. We ran to the door. By the time we made it outside, my father was on the ground, and that's where everything kind of took place."

The video, which was released by the family's attorney and appears to be edited, then cuts to cell phone footage.

The family stood and watched as Contreras, a five-year veteran at the department, shot the husband and father of three in the chest.

Warren was pronounced dead at the hospital.

The family is calling for the body camera footage to be released.

Lee Merritt, who represents Warren's family, said the police officer should not have been sent to their home.

"If they couldn't send someone with the training to deal with the crisis that was actually occurring, then it would have been better for them to send no one at all," he said.

Warren Jr. said his family is still processing their father's death, including his younger brother, who has Down Syndrome.

"He's constantly — he was like, you know, 'My father's in heaven?' And I have to answer that question 1,000 times a day, and sometimes he just breaks down and he just wants to cry," Warren Jr. said.

The Killeen Police Department and the Texas Rangers are now investigating Warren's death. In a statement, Killeen's police chief wrote "it is my duty to ensure a thorough investigation is conducted so that all parties, including the public, have the answers they seek” (Texas 1-2).

Civil Rights attorney for Patrick Warren, Sr.'s family Lee Merritt held a press conference Wednesday to provide an update on the fatal shooting.

This update comes a day after the Killeen Police Department held its own press conference where Chief Charles Kimble shared the graphic footage from Officer Reynaldo Contreras' body camera from the day [January 10] he shot and killed Warren.

Kimble said he released the video because the narrative up to that point told a story that was not accurate. He also took issue with the accusations against Contreras.

"Officer Contreras was dealing with the incident right in front of him. He was not some rude, hostile officer who was not wanted in the home," Kimble said at the Jan. 19 press conference.

Merritt said it was their goal by sharing their evidence, KPD would share theirs, so the community could have a clearer picture.

"The scary thing is that the narrative wasn't in fact demonstratively different than what we believed happened," Merritt said.

Merritt said Officer Contreras should not have been the officer responding. He said Contreras was not prepared for the emergency outlined in the call.

"What I expected to see is what we saw the day before, which is an officer whose willing to engage Mr. Warren in his manic state, to be able to get him to help safely and get him back home to his family safe," Merritt said.

Chief Kimble said Warren's wife called 911 and asked for a mental health deputy. He said she mentioned to the call taker Warren was being aggressive. Kimble did admit there was a breakdown in the system.

"I fully admit there was a breakdown in the system where police had to go out and deal with people with mental health. Our tools are very limited," Kimble said.

The body camera footage begins with Contreras pulling up to the house and coming to the front door. He's invited inside then leaves again to deescalate the situation and wait for backup, according to Kimble.

The footage shows Warren coming out of the house just 90 seconds later. He constantly repeats the phrase "take it by faith" and starts walking into the yard at Contreras. At this same time, Contreras is seen moving backward and telling Warren to get on the ground. He verbally warns Warren that he will use the Taser two times before finally deploying it.

Warren then falls to the ground and Contreras tells Warren to stay on the ground.

Instead, Warren gets back up and continues toward Contreras while picking up speed. The officer tries to retreat out of the yard while warning Warren that he is going to shoot him.
As Warren closes the distance at the edge of the front yard, Contreras fires his gun three times.

"It's a tragic situation. It's hard to watch. I'll tell you, we watched that video over and over and over," Chief Kimble told reporters Tuesday afternoon. "I can't imagine putting myself in Officer Contreras's shoes because I believe this video shows he waited till the last possible second to use force."

Different video, from a doorbell camera that was released by the Warren family, shows Warren walk out his front door and walk toward Contreras while waving his arms.

Warren walks out of view of the camera at which point Contreras used a taser on him.
The video then cuts to another shot that shows Warren get back up and continue toward the officer. One of Warren's family members can be heard telling Warren to sit down, and asking the officer not to shoot him. Then three gunshots are fired out of view of the camera.

Warren died at Carl R. Darnall Army Medical Center.

Merritt believes criminal charges will go forward for Contreras. There was talk of a civil suit, but Merritt said they will decide on that after a grand jury has made its determination (Civil 1).

Asked why a police officer was deployed on Sunday, Kimble said the call taker raised concerns about what they heard on the call from the family.

"It was a call for a psychiatric person," Kimble said. "But as the call taker was listening to the caller, if certain things are said, or certain things are heard, then it prompts a different response...It prompted a police response, and it prompted a response from fire and medics who were standing by" (Killough and Alonso 2).

A Texas police officer who fatally shot a Black man experiencing a mental health crisis will not be charged for his death.
…
The Texas Rangers, the agency tasked with investigating the incident, turned over their report earlier this week to a Bell County grand jury, which declined to indict Contreras, police said Friday.

Following the announcement, Merritt told reporters he was disappointed in the decision and that the family, all present at the time of the fatal shooting, should have had the opportunity to testify.

Police have said that Contreras had had mental health training, but Merritt added it “obviously was insufficient to deal with an unarmed man in his pajamas on his front lawn.”

The officer returned to work in April (Schladebeck 1-2).

[Paste the following on Google to see the Now This News produced video of this incident]

Patrick Warren Sr. Shot by Police During Mental Health Check


Works cited:

“Civil Rights Attorney Lee Merritt Gives Update on Fatal Shooting of Patrick Warren, Sr.” KCENTV, January 20, 2021. Net. https://www.kcentv.com/article/news/l...

Killough. Ashley and Alonso, Melissa. “Body Cam Video Shows Police Officer's Fatal Shooting of a Black Man during a Mental Health Check.” CNN, January 24, 2021. Net. https://www.cnn.com/2021/01/23/us/pat...

Schladebeck, Jessica. “Texas Police Officer Won’t Be Charged for Shooting Black Man Experiencing Mental Health Crisis.” New York Daily News, May 22, 2021. Net. https://www.nydailynews.com/news/nati...

“Texas Family Calls for Arrest of Cop Who Fatally Shot an Unarmed Black Man during a Mental Health Emergency.” CBS News, January 15, 2021. Net. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/patrick-...