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64165528

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shooting%20of%20David%20Dorn

Shooting of David Dorn

In the early hours of June 2, 2020, David Dorn, a 77-year-old retired police captain, was fatally shot after interrupting the burglary of a pawn shop in The Ville, St. Louis. The incident occurred on the same night as protests in St. Louis, Missouri over the murder of George Floyd. However, the protests were several miles away and had disbanded a few hours earlier near the Metropolitan Police Headquarters downtown when police violently clashed with protestors. Persons involved Victim David Dorn (October 29, 1942 – June 2, 2020) was an African-American captain in the Metropolitan Police Department, City of St. Louis, working there from November 1969 to October 2007. He later served as police chief of Moline Acres from February 2008. Accused The accused shooter, Stephan Cannon, is a 24-year-old man from St. Louis. Incident On June 2, 2020, Dorn was discovered on the sidewalk in front of Lee's Pawn and Jewelry in The Ville around 2:30 a.m. Despite a city-wide curfew, he had reportedly been responding to the burglar alarm of his friend's pawn shop when he was fatally shot. His death was streamed on Facebook Live. The thirteen-minute video was briefly taken down by Facebook before being reinstated with a warning screen and has been viewed more than 94,000 times . In the video, a young man states: "Oh my God, cuz....They just killed this old man at the pawn shop over some TVs....c'mon, man, that's somebody's granddaddy." Investigation Crime Stoppers offered a $10,000 reward for information leading to an arrest; this amount has been raised to $56,700. On June 5, St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department Homicide Section released surveillance footage to the public to provide clues and evidence in their investigation of David Dorn's death. The video captured a total of seven suspects trespassing at Lee's Pawn and Jewelry at 4123 Martin Luther King Drive. The footage was taken on June 2 from 2:13 a.m. to 2:16 a.m. All suspects in the video had their faces concealed. Six wore masks, and one had a white shirt wrapped around his face and head. At least two of the men were seen armed with handguns. One person pulled his handgun to target the entrance before joining the others. Another suspect had a cut on his left palm. The reward for additional information that could capture the criminals has been raised by $6,000 since the surveillance video's release. On June 7, a 24-year-old suspect named Stephan Cannon was arrested. He faces charges of first-degree murder, robbery, and being a felon in possession of a firearm. As of June 18, a total of six persons have been charged, two for murder and four for burglary and stealing. Aftermath A small memorial was quickly set up outside the shop, with a handwritten sign stating; "Y'all killed a black man because 'they' killed a black man??? Rest in peace." St. Louis Police Chief John Hayden Jr. ordered all the departments officers to wear black mourning bands on their police badges to honor Dorn. Several GoFundMe fundraisers quickly sprang up online, although none of them were endorsed by family members. A Fundly account has been endorsed by the family and they have asked for support of organizations such as CrimeStoppers or BackStoppers. Dorn's widow, Ann Dorn, spoke in favor of Donald Trump at the 2020 Republican National Convention. She spoke about her husband's death, over the objections of their daughters who stated that he was opposed to Donald Trump. Reactions His widow, Ann Marie Dorn, told reporters that her husband was a friend of the owner of the store and would routinely check on the business when the alarm would go off. The former St. Louis County Police Chief Tim Finch called Dorn a "true public servant". Missouri Governor Mike Parson related the shooting of Dorn with the murder of George Floyd, tweeting that neither should have died, and that violence and criminal activity that had nothing to do with protests against Floyd's murder needed to stop. The Ethical Society of the Police, an organization which supports black police officers in the United States, tweeted "(Dorn) was murdered by looters at a pawnshop. He was the type of brother that would've given his life to save them if he had to. Violence is not the answer, whether it's a citizen or officer. RIP Captain!" References 2020 deaths Deaths by firearm in Missouri Deaths by person in the United States Filmed killings Incidents during the George Floyd protests Crime in St. Louis June 2020 events in the United States 2020 in Missouri George Floyd protests in the United States Protests in the United States Black Lives Matter African-American-related controversies

64165804

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shooting%20of%20Eyad%20al-Hallaq

Shooting of Eyad al-Hallaq

On 30 May 2020, Eyad al-Hallaq, (Arabic: إياد الحلاق ’iiad alhilaq) a 32-year-old autistic Palestinian man, was shot and killed by Israeli Police after not stopping at the Lions' Gate checkpoint in Jerusalem when he was ordered to do so by officers stationed nearby. He fled from the area and police attempted to "neutralize" Halaq during the chase with at least seven shots fired in his direction. Halaq's relatives stated he was an autistic man who was heading to a school for students with special needs that he attended daily when he was shot by police. Friends and family of Halaq and the Secretary General of the Palestine Liberation Organization, Saab Erekat, have drawn parallels with police brutality in the United States and the murder of George Floyd. Incident Halaq and his teacher were walking on 30 May 2020 to the Elwyn El Quds center which provides services for children and adults with disabilities when they approached the Lions' Gate checkpoint. The checkpoint was part of the daily walk from Halaq's home in East Jerusalem's Wadi al-Joz area to the special-needs center in the Old City, which he had attended since 2014. When he reportedly stepped through the arches of the Gate, officers on duty became suspicious when he placed his hand into his pocket for his cell phone. He had apparently not understood the shouted commands from the officers to halt, but fled on foot and hid in a garbage room. His father told reporters that the teacher attempted to tell police that Halaq was disabled and to check his identity, but officers maintained a distance and opened fire. In a statement the Israeli police claimed that Halaq was believed to be carrying a weapon after officers spotted an object that looked like a pistol. When he failed to obey their calls to halt, officers gave chase. A local television station reported that he was chased into a dead-end alley, and a senior officer orders a halt in fire after entering the alley. A second officer reportedly ignored orders and fired about six or seven shots from a M-16 rifle which killed Halaq. He was found to not be in possession of a weapon when he was searched after his death. Investigation Following protocol, the officers involved in the shooting were questioned afterwards, and one issued a statement of condolences to Halaq's family through his lawyer in an interview with Israeli Army Radio. Reportedly the officer who continued to fire was a new recruit and his lawyer has argued that he thought he was in real danger. Relatives of Halaq have demanded any footage of the killing and chase be used in the investigation and for the family to be able to view it, as the Old City is covered extensively by security cameras. Hallaq's parents have petitioned the High Court of Justice to conclude the investigation of the case and put the two police officers involved on trial. On 21 October 2020 Israeli prosecutors recommended that the police officer who shot and killed al-Hallaq be charged with manslaughter. The Israel Police Internal Investigations Department opened an investigation into the incident. In October 2020, the Israeli Justice Ministry announced that the shooter would be charged with reckless manslaughter pending a hearing to dispute the charges. On 17 June 2021, the police officer was charged with "reckless homicide". Aftermath A protest was staged in front of the Church of Nativity in Bethlehem on 2 June, against police brutality, the murder of George Floyd, and the death of Halaq, following similar protests in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv on 30 May. Others used social media to protest with the hashtag #PalestinianLivesMatter while over a thousand mourners attended his funeral. Reactions Halaq's sister Diana told reporters that the police officer who shot her brother should be imprisoned but that she believed the officer would remain unpunished as her family were Palestinian. The leader of the main Arab party in Parliament, Ayman Odeh, echoed concerns about the lack of punishment for the officers, using Twitter to post concerns about an "expected cover-up" and that justice would only be done when the "Palestinian people know freedom and independence". Benny Gantz, the Alternate Prime Minister of Israel, discussed the issue at a weekly meeting of the Israeli cabinet the next day, stating the government was sorry about the incident and shared in the families grief while calling for a swift investigation. Benjamin Netanyahu was also in attendance and did not comment on the incident. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas called the killing a "war crime" and Hamas issued warnings of a new intifada. The United Nations' Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights called the killing another case of "the routine use of lethal force by Israeli Security forces against Palestinians in Gaza and in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem". The statement continued by stressing the need for the least force possible to be used in any situation. It has also charged Israel with not being transparent about the rules of engagement, that were against international law regulations. On 7 June 2020, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu expressed his condolences and said that he "expected a full investigation into the matter." He also said the incident was a "tragedy." See also Extrajudicial killing List of violent incidents in the Israeli–Palestinian conflict, 2020 Death of Mohammad Habali Notes References 2020 deaths Police brutality in the 2020s 2020 scandals 2020s in Jerusalem May 2020 events in Asia Israeli–Palestinian conflict in Jerusalem Deaths by firearm in the West Bank People killed by Israeli security forces

64166268

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shooting%20of%20William%20Leonard

Shooting of William Leonard

William Anthony Leonard (1949-March 9, 1968) was a 19 year old African-American teenager who was shot and killed by an LAPD officer Larry N. Fultz. Shooting Leonard had been babysitting for Augustus and Barbara Mallard at 557 W. Imperial Hwy., to earn extra money. Police showed up at the home in response to a call that August Mallard had been threatening to kill his wife Barbara. Upon arrival, officers found August Mallard waving a pistol, Fultz approached a back window to question Barbara Mallard when he saw Leonard opening a window in the bathroom of the home. Lutz shot and killed Leonard, who had his arms raised and was facing away from the window. Following his death in 1968, Jeff and Josephine Leonard filed a lawsuit for $1,000,000 (). Los Angeles City Council recommended it be denied, but voted unanimously to award a $25,000 () settlement 4 years later in 1972. It was the first settlement for police misconduct in Los Angeles' history. References African Americans shot dead by law enforcement officers in the United States Law enforcement controversies 1968 deaths Los Angeles Police Department

64179009

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shooting%20of%20Sean%20Monterrosa

Shooting of Sean Monterrosa

Sean Monterrosa was a 22-year-old Latino American man who was fatally shot on June 2, 2020, by Vallejo police officer Jarrett Tonn. Monterrosa was on his knees and had his hands above his waist when Tonn shot him through the windshield of his unmarked police pickup truck. The police later said Tonn shot him because he erroneously believed a hammer in Monterrosa's pocket was a gun. Monterrosa later died at a local hospital. The event sparked outrage in the Bay Area, particularly in Vallejo, which has a long history of police violence, excessive force complaints, and high-profile killings, including the February 2018 shooting of Ronnell Foster and the February 2019 shooting of Willie McCoy. Background Sean Monterrosa (age 22) was of Argentinean descent. He grew up in San Francisco and attended an arts high school. He had worked for a Boys & Girls Club and had recently been working as a carpenter. Less than an hour before Monterrosa was shot, he texted his sister a petition demanding justice for George Floyd, who was murdered by Minneapolis police a week earlier. Monterrosa was laid to rest on June 19, 2020. Monterrosa had prior arrests on suspicion of theft, shoplifting, shooting into a home, attempted murder, and weapons charges. Jarrett Tonn has been a police officer in the Vallejo Police Department since 2014, after working for the Galt Police Department from 2007 to 2014. Monterrosa's killing was the fourth time in five years that Jarrett Tonn had shot at a person while on duty, including two shootings within six weeks in 2017 and a shooting in 2015 where Tonn fired 18 times. None of the three prior shootings resulted in a death and Tonn was cleared of wrongdoing by internal investigations in each case. Fifteen days after the fatal shooting of Monterrosa, Tonn was named in an unrelated excessive force and civil rights lawsuit in federal court. Vallejo Police Department Over the last decade, Vallejo police have shot 32 people, 18 of whom were killed, in which time no officer has been fired for their role in a shooting. As of May 2019, the department had the highest per capita rate of police shootings in Northern California. Vallejo police killed people at a per capita rate over four times as high as neighboring city Richmond, a city with a similar population and similar high crime rate. Incident Monterrosa was killed at 12:30 a.m. on June 2, while the city of Vallejo was under curfew in response to looting. Police did not reveal his death until a June 3 news conference. Police chief Shawny Williams said police were responding to a report of a possible looting at a branch of Walgreens and when officers arrived they saw 10 to 12 people in the parking lot. Two vehicles, a black sedan and a silver pickup truck, fled the area, resulting in a car chase where the black car rammed an officer's car and injured an officer. Three detectives who were not involved in the chase arrived at the scene, in an unmarked pickup truck. Two detectives were in the front seat, and one was in the rear. As the truck arrived at the scene, the detective in the backseat mounted and aimed his rifle; the body camera he was wearing did not record sound in the seconds preceding the encounter. Just as the truck came to a stop, the detective in the back seat, later determined to be Jarrett Tonn, fired a rifle five times, through the windshield of the vehicle. One bullet struck Monterrosa in the back of the head. Immediately upon exiting the truck Tonn was recorded saying "What did he point at us?" The driver responded "I don't know man." Tonn then shouted "Hey, he pointed a gun at us!" At no point in the immediate aftermath of the incident was the shooting officer separated from other involved officers. Tonn claimed Monterrosa appeared to be running towards the black sedan involved in the chase but he suddenly stopped, took a kneeling position, and placed his hands above his waist. No firearms were found with Monterrosa. The involved detectives claim that they mistook the end of a 15-inch hammer sticking out of his sweatshirt pocket for a gun. Investigations Investigations into the shooting In June 2020, U.S. Representative Mike Thompson and Assemblyperson Tim Grayson called for an independent investigation into the shooting, with Grayson saying that "it is absolutely unacceptable that the public was forced to wait for over 24 hours to learn of the conditions of those involved in the shooting," regardless of the circumstances. On July 2, 2020, Solano County District Attorney Krishna Abrams announced that she would recuse herself from investigations into the shooting, despite her office's key role in potential criminal charges against Tonn. California Attorney General Xavier Becerra and the California Department of Justice refused to investigate the shooting in place of the recused District Attorney. On July 17, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi called for an FBI investigation into the killing and the Vallejo Police Department. As of April 2021, no federal, state, or county investigation into the shooting has occurred. Release of body camera footage The Monterrosa family called for the release of videos related to the shooting, including police body camera footage, video from the police cruiser, and surveillance video from Walgreens. On June 16, 2020, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors passed a resolution urging the city of Vallejo to release the body camera video of the incident. Body camera footage was eventually released several weeks after the shooting. The footage does not show Monterrosa before he was shot, but shows Tonn firing from inside his car before he had fully stopped his vehicle. Tonn asked the driver, "What did he point at us?" to which the driver responded, "I don't know, man." Tonn is heard shouting "This is not what I fucking needed today!" Release of information On June 2, 2020, at 4:08 am, police released a statement indicating that there had been an "officer-involved shooting" but declined to offer specifics on whether it was fatal and who was involved. Monterrosa had been declared dead two and a half hours before that press conference took place. At 3:00 pm on the afternoon of June 3, 2020 the Vallejo police chief announced that the previously disclosed shooting involved an officer fatally shooting someone. When asked to explain the delay in informing the public that an officer had killed someone, the chief stated that at the time of the initial statement Monterrosa had not been pronounced dead. In media reports on June 10, 2020 the public learned that the police chief's statement on June 3 was not accurate information. In the later-released body camera footage of the incident, Tonn is heard saying first that Monterrossa pointed something at the police vehicle, then saying that Monterrossa pointed a gun at the police vehicle. In a press conference on June 5, 2020, the police chief said that the officers saw Monterrossa running toward a car at the scene, that he stopped, took a kneeling position, and placed his hands above his waist, revealing what appeared to be the butt of a handgun. On June 5, the Vallejo police union released a statement, saying that Monterrosa “abruptly pivoted back around toward the officers, and crouched into a tactical shooting position,” that the hammer “appeared to be the butt of a gun, and that the officer fired, “as a last resort.” The name of the officer involved was not released by the police department. The Bay Area News Group identified the shooter as Jarrett Tonn on June 5. On June 15, the Vallejo police union filed a temporary restraining order to prevent the release of the name of any officer involved in the killing. On June 16, the city of Vallejo announced it would oppose the motion in court and would “seek to defend the [c]ity’s right to release the name of the officer(s) at a time and through a method of its choosing.” Investigations into the destruction of evidence On July 15, 2020, the Vallejo city manager's office announced that the windshield through which Tonn shot and killed Monterrosa had been destroyed without permission by a city employee, who had been placed on administrative leave and recommended for independent criminal investigation. On July 15, after confirming that essential evidence in the case had been destroyed by city staff, the city of Vallejo called for the California Department of Justice to begin an independent investigation. On July 17, Becerra announced that the California Department of Justice would investigate the destruction of essential evidence by the city of Vallejo. Becerra said that the investigation was limited to the destruction of evidence and that he would only relay any findings back to the Solano County District Attorney. In July 2020, a city source confirmed that Michael Nichelini, Vallejo police officer and president of the Vallejo police officers' association, was on paid leave and under investigation for destroying the windshield and putting the unmarked truck back into service without the consent of the police chief or city attorney. Officer Fabio Rodriguez was also placed on paid leave in connection with the destruction of evidence. Nichelini was served with a notice of termination on December 21, 2020. On March 12, 2021, Nichelini filed a federal civil rights lawsuit against the city of Vallejo alleging that his termination, prior discipline, and investigations were acts of retaliation and harassment by city officials. On April 2, Nichelini was fired by the city of Vallejo while Rodriguez was suspended for 40 hours. Review of the Vallejo Police Department On June 5, California Attorney General Xavier Becerra announced a general review of the Vallejo Police Department intended to "build public trust through good policies, practices, and training." The review is authorized by an agreement between the city of Vallejo and the California Department of Justice effective until June 5, 2023. Legal proceedings Federal civil rights lawsuit The Monterrosa family is represented by civil rights and police brutality attorney John Burris. Burris issued a statement condemning Tonn's overreaction as Monterrosa had done nothing to threaten the police and was not threatening anyone with a weapon, even if he had been armed with one. Burris said that "[t]here is a 22-year-old kid who is now dead who appeared to be surrendering and he is shot down in cold blood." Burris also announced his intention to file a civil suit against the city of Vallejo. Following the release of the body camera footage, Burris said the footage made clear that there had been "no de-escalation" and "no justification" for the use of lethal force, and noted that police officials had offered multiple conflicting accounts of the shooting. On August 6, 2020, the Monterrosa family filed a federal civil rights lawsuit against the city of Vallejo and Jarrett Tonn. The lawsuit alleges that Monterrosa's civil rights were violated by unjustified use of deadly force when he was shot and killed by Tonn. On February 10, 2021, United States District Judge Troy L. Nunley denied a change of venue motion filed by Tonn. Criminal prosecution As of April 2021, no federal, state, or local criminal investigation or prosecution is underway. Monterrosa's sisters called on Becerra and Governor Gavin Newsom to appoint a special prosecutor to investigate the shooting and the Vallejo Police Department, as well as to charge and prosecute Jarrett Tonn and other officers and city staff involved in the shooting and the destruction of evidence. On April 2, 2021, Monterrosa's sisters called on Attorney General-nominee Rob Bonta to meet with their family and to appoint a special prosecutor to investigate all officers involved in the shooting and the destruction of evidence. Memorials, protests, and reactions In June 2020, protesters began gathering in Vallejo and across the Bay Area to ask for officers involved to be charged "to the fullest extent of the law" and to call for the release of body camera video. On June 5, a "Justice for Sean Monterrosa" protest was held at Mission and 24th Street in San Francisco. In July and August 2020, a billboard calling for "Justice for Sean Monterrosa" and featuring a portrait of Monterrosa from the Justice for Our Lives project was displayed above 624 Irving Street in San Francisco. On September 22, 2020, a "Justice for Sean Monterrosa" billboard was put up a block away from the Vallejo Police Department. On September 27, after a march from Wilson Park to the billboard, a moment of silence was held and Monterrosa's sisters gave statements. On October 2, 2020, the four-month anniversary of Monterrosa's death, a protest was staged on the driveway outside Governor Gavin Newsom's house. A group of 17 protestors, including Monterrosa's sisters and members of Justice League CA, demanded Newsom appoint a special prosecutor to investigate the case. The protestors were later arrested and detained overnight in Sacramento County Jail. References 2020 deaths 2020 controversies in the United States 2020 in California Police brutality in the 2020s 2020–2021 United States racial unrest Civil rights protests in the United States Deaths by firearm in California Deaths by person in the United States History of Solano County, California Incidents during the George Floyd protests June 2020 events in the United States Law enforcement controversies Race and crime in the United States Vallejo, California Hispanic and Latino American history African–Hispanic and Latino American relations George Floyd protests in the United States Latino people shot dead by law enforcement officers in the United States Hispanic and Latino American-related controversies

64184352

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shooting%20of%20Chantel%20Moore

Shooting of Chantel Moore

On June 4, 2020, Chantel Moore, an Indigenous Canadian woman, was shot and killed by Edmundston, New Brunswick police, who were called to perform a wellness check on her. Moore's death drew national attention and outrage. However, the actions of the Edmundston officer involved were found to have been "reasonable under the circumstances" and he was not charged with any crime. Background Moore was a member of the Tla-o-qui-aht First Nation and had recently moved to New Brunswick to be closer to her six-year-old daughter, who was living with Moore’s mother. The wellness check was asked for by Moore's boyfriend in Toronto, who was worried Moore was being harassed. Incident Moore opened the door to her residence holding a knife and walked towards the responding officer. When commands to drop the knife were not followed, he fired four times, killing Moore. He was not equipped with a Taser. Public response In response to the incident, attention was raised to the fact that Edmundston police officers do not wear body cameras; this is not unusual for police services in Canada due to the cost of the devices and questions over their effectiveness. Moore's family questioned the decision of the Edmundston officer to not attempt using non-lethal force in the interaction, considering the shooting to have been excessive given the small stature of Moore and the fact that she was only armed with a knife. Indigenous Services Minister Marc Miller commented "I don't understand how someone dies during a wellness check." Investigation Due to New Brunswick not having its own police investigation service, Quebec's Bureau of Independent Investigations was tasked with investigating the police involved shooting. However, this decision drew calls from Indigenous leaders for an independent public investigation into her death. Investigators concluded the report in December 2020, referring it to New Brunswick's public prosecution service to determine if charges should be laid. After reviewing the report and available evidence, the prosecution service determined that the officer's actions were "reasonable under the circumstances," finding that he was confined to a third-floor balcony and that she posed a "potential lethal threat approaching him quickly." The Canadian criminal code allows police officers to defend themselves and others with lethal force under certain circumstances. The independent report corroborated initial police allegations that Moore did not follow commands to drop the knife. Witnesses heard the commands. The officer, a use of force instructor for the department, was not equipped with a taser. Aftermath Occurring just over a week after the death of Regis Korchinski-Paquet, an Indigenous-black woman, the shooting of Moore caused scrutiny to be raised over Canadian police's capability to de-escalate situations involving mental health crisis. Indigenous leaders, Moore's grandmother, and Minister Miller linked the killing to systemic racism of Indigenous people by Canadian police. Though Indigenous peoples make up 5 percent of Canada’s population, 36 percent of people shot to death by RCMP officers over a 10-year period were Indigenous. In the aftermath of the killing, the chiefs of a coalition of Maliseet First Nations called for an independent probe of the New Brunswick justice system to address systemic discrimination against Indigenous people. Rallies, protests, and healing walks were held across Canada to call for justice for Moore. Eight days after the shooting of Moore, a second Indigenous person, Rodney Levi, was killed by police in New Brunswick. Both deaths led to Premier Blaine Higgs deciding not to proceed with proposed legislation to increase the emergency powers of the police. The investigation's findings were called a "stinging blow" by British Columbia's First Nations Leadership Council. Moore's family was reported in June 2021 as reviewing its legal options. References Law enforcement controversies 2020 in New Brunswick People shot dead by law enforcement officers in Canada First Nations history in New Brunswick 2020 crimes in Canada June 2020 events in Canada

64237135

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shooting%20of%20Dion%20Johnson

Shooting of Dion Johnson

On May 25, 2020, Dion Johnson, a 28-year-old Black man, was killed in Phoenix, Arizona, United States, during an arrest for driving while intoxicated. According to the Phoenix Police, a trooper was patrolling when he discovered Johnson's vehicle parked in the gore point near Loop 101 and Tatum Boulevard. The trooper approached the vehicle and found Johnson asleep at the drivers seat, with cans of beer and a gun in the car, after removing the gun, the trooper attempted to arrest Johnson. According to the trooper, an altercation occurred when Johnson woke up and grabbed at him, the trooper drew his weapon and ordered Johnson to comply with instructions, Johnson complied and then as the trooper holstered his weapon, Johnson lunged for the weapon. Another altercation ensued in the struggle, resulting in the trooper allegedly firing his weapon twice, with one bullet fatally striking Johnson. Johnson later died at the hospital. Police stated there was neither body camera nor car camera footage, and the trooper was not wearing a body camera. However, significant evidence, including several eye witnesses, have corroborated what Trooper Cervantes said happened People involved Dion Johnson was a prohibited possessor of firearms due to past criminal charges and had recently been released from the Arizona Department of Corrections several months prior. He had spent time in prison for armed robbery and aggravated assault, was listed as a known gang member, and also had complaints about fights with family and an ex-girlfriend. George Cervantes is a Public Safety Trooper who was identified as the trooper involved in the shooting, and a fifteen year veteran of the force. He had been disciplined for some complaints in the past, such as using his police taser on his family's dog. Incident According to the Phoenix Police account, a trooper was patrolling when he discovered Johnson's vehicle parked at the triangle piece of land between the freeway and on/off ramp, near Loop 101 and Tatum Boulevard. The trooper approached the vehicle and found Johnson asleep at the drivers seat, with cans of beer and a gun in the car, after removing the gun the trooper returned to his motor unit to wait for a backup officer. Trooper Cervantes then noticed Johnson begin to move around in the vehicle. Fearing Johnson would attempt to drive off and endanger the public, he attempted to arrest him. An altercation occurred when Johnson woke up and grabbed at Trooper Cervantes, who drew his firearm to force Johnson to comply. Johnson initially complied so Trooper Cervantes holstered his weapon. At this time Johnson lunged forward and grabbed a hold of Trooper Cervante's vest. Fearing he would be pushed into oncoming traffic, Trooper Cervantes drew his weapon and fired two shots, striking Johnson once. Trooper Cervantes removed Johnson from the vehicle and placed him into handcuffs, per proper procedure while waiting for backup to arrive to provide traffic control for emergency vehicles staging nearby, Investigation Officials have placed the trooper who shot Johnson on paid administrative leave. The trooper was never charged with any foul play. The department also stated there is no dashcam video as both troopers involved were motorcycle officers and were not equipped with body cameras. However, video footage was later released from a live-feed Arizona Department of Transportation camera that was recorded by a local news station after the incident took place. The trooper was never charged or found to be at fault for protecting his life. The internal investigation by the Arizona Department of Public Safety was completed in April 2021, and concluded that there were no issues or deficiencies in the incident. Aftermath The Arizona Department of Public Safety erected fencing around its headquarters in Phoenix in late May 2020 in order to stop a vigil for Johnson on the grounds. The fencing has since been turned into a community mural of posters, cardboard and paper signs that were fixed to the fencing with string and tape. Johnson's death was protested by Black Lives Matter protestors along with the murder of George Floyd. On June 7, protestors had held 11 days of daily marches in Phoenix to demand change and chanted for six minutes straight to highlight the time that medical aid was withheld from Johnson even with an ambulance stationed a few hundred feet away. Response The family of Johnson and their attorney Jocquese Blackwell, have questioned how a man who was sleeping in his vehicle and disarmed could end up being killed, emphasizing the lack of body cameras, police cameras, or other witnesses to corroborate the sole police account of the incident. Arizona State Representative Reginald Bolding, has demanded more transparency in the case and sent a letter to the public safety department. He later issued a statement to the US Department of Justice to take over the investigation, that was cosigned by Representative Doctor Geraldine Peten and Arizona Commissioner Sandra Kennedy. References 2020 deaths 2020 controversies in the United States 2020 in Arizona African-American-related controversies Black Lives Matter Deaths by person in the United States May 2020 events in the United States Protests in the United States Law enforcement controversies in the United States Phoenix Police Department

64332181

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shooting%20of%20Carlos%20Carson

Shooting of Carlos Carson

On June 6, 2020 Carlos Carson, an unarmed African American man in Tulsa, Oklahoma, was assaulted and killed by a private security guard with an extensive and controversial law enforcement background. Incident Carson had been staying at a motel, the Knights Inn, for several days. In the early afternoon of June 6, Carson was walking across the motel's parking lot with a cup of coffee, when, without warning, he was assaulted with a chemical weapon and then shot to death by private security guard Christopher Straight, according to surveillance video. Two bullets struck Carson, including at least one in his head. Straight, 53 years old at the time, was taken into custody later that day by the Tulsa Police Department, and on June 10 he was charged by the Tulsa County prosecutor with first-degree manslaughter. Before his employment as a private security guard, Straight had worked in law enforcement for 16 years, and had been the subject of multiple accusations of misconduct, including race- and gender-based bigotry. The day before the shooting incident, in the midst of national protests in support of the Black Lives Matter movement, Straight had endorsed a statement on social media saying “How about all lives matter. Not black lives, not white lives. Get over yourself no one’s life is more important than the next. Put your race card away and grow up.” Six days prior, on May 31, Straight had published a statement on social media “If you are anti-police: I’m blue family, unfriend me,” along with the hashtag "#Bluelivesmatter". Biography Carson was 36 years old at the time of his death, and had three children. He had previously been convicted of and imprisoned for non-violent criminal behavior including burglary, false personation and entering with intent to steal copper, and subsequently had been released from prison. At the time of his death, he had been struggling with mental health, and had engaged mental health services to try to turn his life around. His brother Ananias Carson described him as a family man who enjoyed fishing. Reactions Ananias Carson, a police officer in the Tulsa Police Department, criticized the circumstances of his brother's death. “We’re not trying to paint him [Carlos Carson] out to be an angel or saint. But no one needs to be assaulted, then shot, because they defended themselves. My brother didn't deserve what he got, especially in the manner that it happened. He didn’t deserve that." Ananias Carson further bemoaned that Straight had destroyed Carlos Carson's shot at redemption and “taken away his chance to do anything with his children." See also Black Lives Matter References African-American history of Oklahoma African-American history in Tulsa, Oklahoma African-American-related controversies Law enforcement controversies in the United States Police brutality in the United States Post–civil rights era in African-American history Race-related controversies in the United States 1980s births Year of birth uncertain 2020 deaths 2020 controversies in the United States 2020 in Oklahoma Black Lives Matter Deaths by firearm in Oklahoma Deaths by person in the United States June 2020 events in the United States

64383538

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shooting%20of%20Matthew%20Hunt

Shooting of Matthew Hunt

Matthew Dennis Hunt was a New Zealand Police constable whose killing in Massey on 19 June 2020 drew significant national media coverage. Eli Epiha, a 24-year-old man, pleaded guilty to his murder while a 30-year-old woman, Natalie Bracken, was found guilty to being an accessory after the fact. Hunt's death marked the first police fatality in the line of duty in New Zealand since 2009. Matthew Dennis Hunt Matthew Hunt was a 28-year-old constable born on 30 July 1991 who had served in the New Zealand Police for two and half years. He spent the majority of his time as a frontline officer in his hometown, Orewa, before being transferred for a temporary rotation to the Impairment Prevention Team (IPT) based at the Auckland Harbour Bridge Police Station. When Hunt joined in October 2017 he joined as apart of Wing 312 trained at the Royal New Zealand Police College at Papakōwhai. He was raised by his mother alongside his sister in the Hibiscus Coast and attended Orewa College. According to his family, Hunt's "life-long dream" was to be a police officer after studying criminology and working in prisons. Others involved Eli Epiha, a 24-year-old man has been charged with murder, attempted murder and dangerous driving causing injury. He has been remanded into police custody and granted interim name suppression. Natalie Bracken, a 30-year-old woman who is facing driving charges and being an accessory to murder. The incident On 19 June at 10:37am (NZST), Constable Matthew Hunt and a second police officer were shot after a car they had tried to pull over crashed on Reynella Drive in Massey, Auckland. Constable Hunt was killed during the shooting. His colleague was wounded and admitted to hospital. A member of the public was also injured by a vehicle during the incident. According to Police, the suspect fled into a silver Mazda Demio following the shooting and later abandoned the vehicle. Manhunt and investigation In response, the Police including members of the Armed Offenders Squad and Eagle helicopters launched a manhunt for the perpetrators and searched vehicles. Eight schools in Massey were also placed in lockdown including Massey High School and Don Buck Primary School. Armed police officers also guarded police stations. Several hours after the shooting, the Police stormed a home in Rena Place in Auckland's West Harbour. In addition, Police also arrested a fleeing driver on the Lincoln Road overbridge in the Northeast Motorway after using road spikes to stop his car. The police also spoke to two persons of interest. Later that night, a 24-year-old man was charged with murder, attempted murder and dangerous driving causing injury. The man briefly appeared in the Waitakere district court on 20 June where he was formally arraigned and remanded into custody until his next court appearance on 8 July. On 20 June, the Police announced that they were looking for a 30-year old woman named Natalie Bracken in relation to the shooting incident. She was charged with driving charges and as an accessory to the murder. Later that day, the Police took Bracken into custody in West Auckland and confirmed that she was assisting police inquiries. Legal proceedings In early July 2020, Eli Epiha appeared in the Auckland High Court where he pleaded not guilty to murdering Constable Hunt and the attempted murder of the second police officer. He also pleaded not guilty to guilty to dangerous driving, causing injury to a member of the public. On 14 August, Epiha's name suppression lapsed after he abandoned his appeal for name suppression. In early July 2021, Epiha pleaded guilty to Hunt's murder and dangerous driving causing injury after fleeing Police. However, Epiha pleaded not guilty to the alleged attempted murder of the second police officer, who was identified as Constable David Goldfinch. On 12 July, Judge Geoffrey Venning convened a jury for Epiha's trial for the attempted murder of Goldfinch. In addition, suppression of Epiha's earlier guilty pleas and a non-publication order of images of the defendant was also lifted. That same month, Epiha's accomplice Natalie Bracken faced trial for being an accessory after the fact of murder. Following her arrest, Bracken had claimed that Epiha had threatened her at gunpoint into driving him away following the shooting of the police officers. During the trial, a cellphone video by a member of the public was played showing Bracken obtaining the keys to a car that was parked on Massey's Reynella Drive and departing with Epiha in the passenger seat. Bracken's defence lawyer Adam Couchman claimed that she had driven Epiha from the scene with the aim of protecting people and preventing further bloodshed. Prosecutor Brian Dickey disputed Bracken's claim, pointing out that Bracken had not disarmed Epiha and facilitated his escape. On 27 July 2021, Epiha was found guilty of the attempted murder of Goldfinch. During the trial, the defendant had maintained that he did not intend to kill Goldfinch. After 11 and a half hours of deliberations, the jury convicted Epiha of attempted murder. In addition, Bracken was convicted of being an accessory after the fact of wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm. On 1 October 2021, Bracken was sentenced to twelve months imprisonment for her role as an accessory to causing grievous bodily harmed. Justice Venning rejected the defendant's claim that she had acted under compulsion to protect others, stating that she had the opportunity to run away or to hide in her house instead of returning to her house to obtain her car keys. Hunt's mother Diane Hunt also criticised the defendant for helping the killer escape and her perceived selfishness during the trial. On 10 December 2021, Epiha was sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum non-parole period of 27 years. During the sentencing, Justice Venning rejected the defendant's claim that he had acted recklessly without intention. He also declined the Crown prosecutor's recommendation that Epiha be sentence to life imprisonment without parole, taking into account the defendant's age, history of violence and lack of remorse. The victim's mother Diane also described Epiha's apology as "vacuous" and described the devastating impact of Hunt's death on her life in her victim impact statement. Aftermath In response to the shooting, Police Commissioner Andrew Coster stated that "the incident points to the real risk that our officers face as they go about their jobs every day." He confirmed that police officers were not armed at the time and reiterated his commitment to an unarmed police force. New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern offered her condolences in Parliament, stating that "our police officers work hard every day to keep us and our communities safe." Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters stated that "Police Lives Matter" during his tribute to Hunt. National Member of Parliament Mark Mitchell read a tribute from Hunt's mother and recounted an incident in which Hunt convinced a knife-wielding offender to lower his weapon. Greens co-leader James Shaw also paid tribute to Hunt, stating that it was a "heartbreaking reminder" that a police officer's life could be taken at any moment. On 20 June, the Sky Tower in Auckland lit up in Police blue colours in honour of the death of Hunt. On 22 June, it was reported that two relatives of Hunt, who had traveled from Australia to attend his funeral, had expressed frustration that they had to undergo quarantine in Rotorua as they wanted all relatives that had travelled from overseas to quarantine together for two weeks as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic in New Zealand. On 22 June, the Government granted permission for family members of Hunt, traveling from overseas, to quarantine together in Auckland. On 26 June, Police officers across the country held a minute of silence in honour of Hunt. 100 police officers gathered in Auckland's Aotea Square to pay tribute to their comrade. Hunt's sister, father, uncle and aunt watched from their hotel rooms above, whilst in quarantine. On 9 July, Hunt's funeral was held, and on that night, the Auckland Sky Tower lit up in varying colours of blue to mark his funeral. References Hunt, Matthew 2020 in New Zealand Crime in Auckland Deaths by firearm in New Zealand June 2020 crimes in Oceania June 2020 events in New Zealand

64498516

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shooting%20of%20Colm%20Horkan

Shooting of Colm Horkan

Garda Colm Horkan was a detective in the Garda Síochána, the national police service of Ireland, who was shot dead by a 43-year-old man in Castlerea, County Roscommon, Ireland on 17 June 2020, while on an anti-crime patrol. Personal life Colm Horkan was born on 13 December 1970 in Charlestown, County Mayo to parents Dolores and Marty. He grew up with his four brothers – Aidan, Brendan, Dermot and Pádraic, and two sisters - Deirdre and Collette. Horkan was a former Charlestown Sarsfields GAA footballer and joined the Garda Síochána in 1994. He attended the Garda Síochána College in Templemore, County Tipperary, the same time as Adrian Donohoe who was later shot dead in 2013 in a Credit Union robbery in County Louth, becoming the 87th garda to be killed in the line of duty. Incident According to contemporary media reports, on Wednesday, 17 June 2020 at 11:45 pm, Horkan was on an anti-crime patrol by himself in Castlerea, County Roscommon and stopped a man after receiving a report of someone speeding and driving recklessly on a motorcycle in the town's Main Street. Horkan stopped a male on a motorcycle matching the description provided to Gardaí by the public, and as he was speaking to him, the perpetrator reached for Horkan's issued firearm, and after a short struggle the man managed to get hold of Horkan's official SIG Sauer handgun and fired fifteen rounds, hitting him six times in the chest and neck. The other nine rounds went through a bank and shop window in the town centre. At around midnight, Gardaí rushed to the scene after hearing the gunshots from Castlerea Garda Station – just five minutes away from the scene. The Armed Support Unit arrived at the scene after Horkan pressed his panic button on his radio for emergency backup prior to the shooting. He was later pronounced dead by paramedics at the scene becoming the 89th garda to be killed in the line of duty. The suspect made no attempt to flee the scene and was arrested minutes later. Aftermath The day after the incident on 18 June 2020, the Taoiseach Leo Varadkar and President Michael D. Higgins paid tribute to Horkan. Hundreds of people attended a vigil for Horkan in Castlerea, County Roscommon to pay their respects. A small marquee was set up on the street where the incident occurred and tributes were led by local Fianna Fáil councillor Paschal Fitzmaurice. On 20 June 2020, the President Michael D. Higgins led a memorial service on the grounds of Áras an Uachtaráin. On 21 June 2020, a state funeral was held in St James's Church in his hometown of Charlestown, County Mayo. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic in the Republic of Ireland, social distancing protocols meant the numbers in the church were limited to Horkan's immediate family along with Garda Commissioner Drew Harris and the Minister for Justice and Equality Charles Flanagan. Dáil Éireann and garda stations around Ireland marked a minute's silence to remember Horkan. The Taoiseach Leo Varadkar marked the minute silence at Garda Headquarters in the Phoenix Park. At Áras an Uachtaráin, the president attended a ringing the Peace Bell and raised the Irish flag at half-mast as a mark of respect to Horkan. On 5 September, Minister for Justice Helen McEntee honoured and reflected on the loss of Horkan as she marked National Services Day 2020. Alleged perpetrator Stephen Silver, a 43-year-old man living in Foxford, County Mayo, but originally from County Roscommon, was reportedly arrested at the scene by Garda Helen Gillen and was brought to Castlerea Garda Station. He appeared at Harristown District Court and was charged with the murder of Horkan on 19 June 2020. Silver was first remanded in custody to Castlerea Prison on 19 June and was then transferred to the Midlands Prison. Court Silver was repeatedly deemed unfit to attend court at Harristown District Court in Roscommon via video link due to mental health issues. In February 2021, the Castlerea District Court deemed Silver to be fit for trial after having subsequently been deemed unfit for trial on seven occasions. On 23 March 2021, it was announced that Silver would go on trial at the Central Criminal Court on 15 June 2022. Timeline 26 June 2020 – Silver was due to appear in court via video link on 26 June 2020 but was deemed unfit to appear for the first time. He was due to appear in court again via video link on 10 July 2020. 10 July 2020 It was revealed by Silver's solicitor Gearoid Geraghty that he was medically unwell and was unable to attend court for another two weeks. Silver was being detained at the Central Mental Hospital in Dublin, where he was receiving ongoing psychiatric treatment. He was due to appear in court again on 24 July. 24 July 2020 – It was announced that Silver's health is expected to gradually improve during the next two months and was still unable to attend court. He was due to appear in court for the third time on 7 August. 7 August 2020 Defence solicitor Martina Moran of Gearoid Geraghty & Company said that Silver was still receiving treatment at the Central Mental Hospital. It was now the fourth time Silver has been deemed unfit to appear by video link at Harristown District Court. He was due to appear in court via video link again on 21 August. 21 August 2020 Silver was deemed medically unfit to attend court for the fifth time and remained at the Central Mental Hospital in Dublin. It was reported that the extent of the investigation involves 200 statements, 250 exhibits and 70 segments of CCTV footage, while gardaí made inquiries with a witness in Australia. He was due to appear in court via video link again on 4 September. 4 September Silver was deemed medically unfit to attend court for the sixth time and remained at the Central Mental Hospital. Harristown Court was informed that the file into the killing of Detective Garda Colm Horkan was sent to the Director of Public Prosecutions. He was due to appear in court via video link again on 18 September. 18 September Silver was deemed medically unfit to attend court for the seventh time and remained at the Central Mental Hospital. Further details of the extent of the investigation were outlined at Harristown District Court when a defence solicitor questioned the length of time it was taking for the file to be sent to the Director of Public Prosecutions. Gardaí carried out over 350 house-to-house enquiries, taken over 200 written statements and viewed 70 pieces of CCTV footage. He was due to appear in court via video link again on 7 October. 23 October Silver was deemed medically unfit to attend court for the tenth time and remained at the Central Mental Hospital. A court heard that the case of Silver accused of murdering Detective Garda Horkan should proceed without the accused being present. He was due to appear in court via video link again on 6 November. 6 November Further charges were considered against Silver as he was deemed medically unfit to attend court for the eleventh time and remained at the Central Mental Hospital. He was due to appear in court via video link again on 20 November. 27 November – Silver appeared at Castlerea District Court where he was charged with the capital murder of Detective Garda Colm Horkan, and was remanded in custody to the Midlands Prison in Portlaoise to appear via video link before Harristown District Court on 4 December. 19 February 2021 – Silver was sent forward for trial to the Central Criminal Court charged with the murder of Horkan. 23 March 2021 – It was announced that Silver would go on trial at the Central Criminal Court on 15 June 2022. See also List of Gardaí killed in the line of duty Shooting of Adrian Donohoe Death of George Nkencho References 2020 deaths Garda Síochána officers killed in the line of duty Deaths by firearm in the Republic of Ireland Deaths by person in the Republic of Ireland 2020 murders in Europe State funerals

64534708

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shooting%20of%20Fong%20Lee

Shooting of Fong Lee

On July 22, 2006, Minneapolis police officer Jason Anderson shot 19 year old Hmong-American Fong Lee eight times, killing him instantly. Anderson and state trooper Craig Benz both claimed he had a gun and refused to drop it. Family members of the deceased claimed the gun was planted. On March 30, 2009 documents revealed that the gun had been in police possession since 2004, when police recovered the weapon after it was reported stolen. Lee family attorney Mike Padden stated that the first police officer to arrive after the shooting was Bruce Johnson, who two years before had written up the burglary report on this same gun. Trial A grand jury decided not to indict Anderson in 2007. The family took the case to civil court but the jury ruled against them. The Supreme Court of the United States declined to hear the Lee family's appeal in 2010. See also List of killings by law enforcement officers in Minnesota References People shot dead by law enforcement officers in the United States 2006 deaths Deaths by person in the United States Deaths by firearm in Minnesota Police misconduct in the United States Minneapolis Police Department Asian-American-related controversies American people of Hmong descent

64832771

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shooting%20of%20Ryan%20Whitaker

Shooting of Ryan Whitaker

Ryan Whitaker was a 40-year-old American man who lived in Ahwatukee, Arizona (an urban village of Phoenix, Arizona), who was shot twice and killed by Phoenix Police Department Officer Jeff Cooke at approximately 10:52 p.m. on May 21, 2020. Cooke was accompanied by officer John Ferragamo, who did not fire his weapon. The shooting was captured on bodycam video. The incident The police officers had responded to complaint of noise and possible domestic violence from an upstairs neighbor, and had positioned themselves on either side of the door of Whitaker's apartment when they knocked upon their arrival. They could not be seen through the peephole in the door. Whitaker answered the door with a gun in his hand held down at his side and the barrel pointed down toward the floor, and an officer initially said, "How're you doin'?", and then upon noticing the weapon, said, "Whoa! put hands hand down!" When he saw the police officers, Whitaker pulled the hand that was holding the gun back behind him, raised his other hand up in the air, and began kneeling down in surrender. As Whitaker tried to surrender, Cooke shot his weapon three times, hitting him twice in the back and killing him. As Whitaker fell, the hand that had been holding the weapon came back into the view of the cameras, and appeared to be empty. The entire encounter lasted 5 seconds. Whitaker's girlfriend emerged from the apartment, asked why he was shot, and was told, "He pulled a gun on us, ma'am." When recovered, the gun was found inside the apartment, behind where Whitaker had been kneeling when shot. After repeated demands for release of the bodycam footage, edited footage from both officers' cameras was released 55 days after the incident. Whitaker's girlfriend, who was present in his apartment at the time of the shooting, said that Whitaker had picked up his 9 mm handgun before answering the door because there had been a similar inexplicable late-night knocking on his door earlier that week. She also told Ferragamo that a woman had previously knocked on his door seeking help in a domestic dispute. An officer had verbally announced, "Phoenix police" when knocking, but Whitaker reportedly did not hear their words because of music playing in his apartment. Ferragamo told another officer who later arrived at the scene that he would have done the same as Cooke if Cooke had not used his weapon first. The upstairs neighbor had called the 911 emergency telephone line twice that evening to complain about the noises from the apartment before the 10:52 p.m. incident. Whitaker's girlfriend said there was no argument happening in the apartment; they had just been playing Crash Bandicoot on a PlayStation and shouting some comments during their enthusiastic playing of the game. Reports said that the upstairs neighbor had exaggerated the description of the noise, giving the impression that there was a violent fight in progress. The video recording includes a comment from Ferragamo indicating that he believed the neighbor was just saying there was violence in order to get the police to respond to the noise complaint sarcastically quoting the caller as saying I'm just gonna say yes to all the questions to get the officers here faster. In the first call, the caller had said, "I can tell that they're just at each other's throats down there." In the second call a half hour later, the neighbor said, "It could be physical. I could say yeah, does that make anybody hurry up or get over here any faster?" The caller expressed irritation at being asked whether they knew if either person in the apartment had a weapon, saying "No, but if this gets pushed along any further I could say yes to all these questions." After being told that the operator was required to ask such questions, the caller said "I don't have time, I'd like to get to sleep, I have to get up in the morning." After the second call, the operator had upgraded the status of the report to request an emergency response. In the bodycam video, there are no obvious sounds coming from the apartment. Aftermath The family called for murder charges to be filed against Cooke, for both officers and the 911 dispatch officer to be fired for their conduct, and for the people who called 911 to be charged for their actions. Hundreds of demonstrators gathered in protest at the District Attorney's office on October 5, 2020. Whitaker's brother said, "The Phoenix PD murdered my brother. They murdered my brother." He said that he had received no contact by the District Attorney of Maricopa County. As of that time, Cooke and Ferragamo had returned to their jobs. Ferragamo had been returned to ordinary duty, and Cooke had been assigned to non-enforcement work, and had not been charged with any crime in connection to the incident. On July 22, 2021, the Phoenix Police Department announced plans to terminate the employment of Cooke. In November 2020, a $3 million settlement was negotiated with Whitaker's family, pending approval by the Phoenix City Council on November 25, 2020. The settlement was approved by Phoenix City Council on December 2, 2020. In January 2021, Maricopa County Attorney Allister Adel announced that she would not be pursuing criminal charges against Cooke. References Filmed killings by law enforcement Deaths by firearm in Arizona Phoenix Police Department Law enforcement in Arizona 2020 controversies in the United States Law enforcement controversies in the United States May 2020 events in the United States

64898227

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shooting%20of%20Cannon%20Hinnant

Shooting of Cannon Hinnant

Cannon Blake Hinnant was a five-year-old American boy from Wilson, North Carolina who was shot and killed on August 9, 2020, while playing in his neighbor's yard. Hinnant's neighbor, Darius Sessoms, was arrested for the shooting within 24 hours. Some conservative media outlets claimed that his death was intentionally under-reported due to his race, as Hinnant was white, while Sessoms is black. According to Snopes, the incident was widely reported, and there was no evidence of a cover-up. Hinnant's family has said the child's death was not race related. Shooting and arrest At 5:30 pm on August 9, 2020, Hinnant cycled onto his next-door neighbor's property, and the neighbor, Darius Sessoms, a 25-year-old man, allegedly shot the boy at point-blank range. At the time, Hinnant was playing outside with his two older sisters. After police officers and EMS personnel arrived at the location of the shooting, Hinnant was taken to Wilson Medical Center where he died from his injuries. The motive for the shooting is unknown. Sessoms was arrested within 24 hours and subsequently charged with first-degree murder. On September 22, Sessom's girlfriend was also arrested in connection with the case. She was charged with felony accessory after the fact. Prosecution Sessoms was formally indicted by a grand jury on December 22, 2021. His initial court date was set for January 26, 2022. Sessoms has pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder and illegal possession of a firearm; prosecutors are seeking the death penalty. Political response There were claims circulated by politically conservative social media users and by conservative news outlets that mainstream news outlets other than Fox News were not reporting about the story because they did not want to report about a black man killing a white child. However, according to Snopes, the incident had been covered by local and national media, and there was no evidence of a cover-up. Conservative social media users also appropriated phrases from the anti-racist policing movement in support of Hinnant. Hinnant's mother posted to Facebook stating that Hinnant's death had nothing to do with race. She also specifically requested that people stop comparing her son's death to the murder of George Floyd. Memorials Hinnant's funeral was held on August 13, 2020. A GoFundMe page was created by Hinnant's grandmother with a goal of raising $5,000 for the family. As of August 19, 2020, it had raised over $815,000. On August 14, 2020, Skeeter Tulloch of Lee County painted "Cannon's Life Matters" on an unidentified street as a memorial to Hinnant. On August 23, hundreds of people gathered in Kenly, North Carolina to honor Hinnant. Some at the event wore shirts reading "I Can't Ride / All Lives Matter". An all-day softball event was also held the previous day as a fund-raiser. References 2020 in North Carolina August 2020 crimes in the United States August 2020 events in the United States Crimes in North Carolina Deaths by firearm in North Carolina Deaths by person in the United States Wilson, North Carolina Incidents of violence against boys

65059922

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shooting%20of%20Jacob%20Blake

Shooting of Jacob Blake

On August 23, 2020, Jacob S. Blake, a 29-year-old black man, was shot and seriously injured by police officer Rusten Sheskey in Kenosha, Wisconsin. Sheskey shot Blake in the back four times and the side three times when Blake opened the driver's door to his girlfriend's rented SUV. Sheskey said that he believed he was about to be stabbed, since Blake was carrying a knife. Earlier during the encounter, Blake had been tasered by two officers, but the tasers failed to disable him and he continued towards his vehicle. Blake had a warrant for his arrest from July, based on charges of third-degree sexual assault, trespassing, and disorderly conduct for domestic abuse in May. Both Kenosha Police Chief Daniel Miskinis and the Kenosha Professional Police Association stated that the officers dispatched on August 23 were aware of the pending warrant for Blake before they arrived on scene. The police shooting was followed by unrest, which included rallies, marches, property damage, arson, and clashes with police. Two people were also fatally shot in a confrontation with an armed civilian, 17-year-old Kyle Rittenhouse. Blake's name was invoked in protests in other cities as part of the Black Lives Matter movement, which resurged in the wake of several high-profile killings by police officers in 2020. In January 2021, Kenosha County prosecutors announced that the officers involved in the shooting would not be charged, and Sheskey returned to regular police duty in April 2021. Prosecutors also announced that Blake would not face any new charges, and they dropped previous sexual assault and trespassing charges against Blake in exchange for him pleading guilty to two misdemeanor counts of disorderly conduct for domestic abuse, for which he was then sentenced to two years of probation. Shooting On August 23, 2020, Kenosha police responded to a 9-1-1 call about a "domestic incident" at approximately 5:11p.m. According to multiple official sources, the female caller referred to Blake as her "boyfriend", said he was not permitted to be on the premises, and that he had taken her car keys and was refusing to give them back. Officers were also informed by the dispatcher that there was a "wanted" alert for someone at the address, indicated by police code 10–99. Blake had a warrant for his arrest from July, based on charges of third-degree sexual assault, trespassing, and disorderly conduct for domestic abuse in May. The woman who called 9-1-1 on August 23 to report that Blake had stolen her keys was the same woman who had previously filed the criminal complaint alleging that Blake had sexually assaulted her. The previous May, the woman alleged that Blake entered a room where she was sleeping near one of her children, thrust his finger into her vagina, pulled it out, smelled it and said, "Smells like you’ve been with other men." The alleged victim also said that Blake had sexually assaulted her approximately twice per year. Both Kenosha Police Chief Daniel Miskinis and the Kenosha Professional Police Association stated that the officers dispatched on August 24 were aware of the pending warrant for Blake before they arrived on scene. One witness stated that Blake pulled his car up near "six or seven women shouting at each other on the sidewalk" and "Blake did not say anything to the women". According to other witnesses, Blake was trying to intervene between two women who were arguing when police arrived. Officers attempted to subdue Blake, and two officers used tasers on him. A bystander who recorded a video of the incident told reporters that he heard police yelling "drop the knife". The bystander also stated, "I didn't see any weapons in his hands; he wasn't being violent". The police union says that Blake was armed with a knife in his left hand, but officers did not initially see it, and he "forcefully fought with the officers, including putting one of [them] in a headlock", while ignoring orders to drop the knife. "Based on the inability to gain compliance and control after using verbal, physical and less-lethal means, the officers drew their firearms," the police union added. One of Blake's attorneys disputed this version of events, calling it "overblown", and saying that the police officers were the aggressors and immediately became physical with Blake upon arriving at the scene. After an initial scuffle, Blake walked to the driver's side of his girlfriend's rented vehicle, followed by officer Rusten Sheskey and another officer with handguns drawn. Sheskey attempted to grab Blake, and when Blake opened the driver's side door and leaned in, Sheskey grabbed him and fired seven shots towards Blake's back. According to Blake's attorney, four of the shots hit Blake. According to Sheskey's attorney, Sheskey saw Blake put a child in the vehicle as he arrived, and heard a woman say, "He's got my kid. He's got my keys"; Sheskey shot Blake believing he was attempting to kidnap the child in the backseat of the vehicle he was entering, and because Blake had a knife in his hand and twisted his body toward Sheskey. In a press conference on August 26, 2020, Wisconsin Attorney General Josh Kaul said that a knife was recovered from the driver-side front floorboard of the car Blake was leaning into when he was shot in the back. Kaul also said that Blake told investigators that he had a knife, though Kaul declined to describe the knife or say whether it was related to the shooting; Blake's lawyer disputed that the knife was in his possession. The prosecutor who oversaw the investigation said that Blake admitted to holding a knife and that officers and witnesses stated that Blake turned towards officer Sheskey with the knife immediately before the shooting. Blake later admitted that he "wasn't thinking clearly" and picked up a knife during the altercation, although he denied having the intent to use it. Medical aftermath for Blake Blake was flown to Froedtert Hospital in Wauwatosa, Wisconsin. His father announced on August 25 that Blake was paralyzed from the waist down and that doctors do not yet know if it would be permanent. He also suffered a gunshot wound to one arm and damage to his stomach, kidney, and liver; he had to have most of his small intestines and colon removed. Blake was initially handcuffed to his hospital bed and guarded by two officers due to an outstanding warrant. The handcuffs were removed and the officers stopped guarding Blake after he posted bond. As of August 2021, Blake was able to take a few steps, "which he compared to sliding his legs through a woodchipper", and was suffering from anxiety attacks. Investigation and legal proceedings Kenosha police referred the investigation of the shooting to the Wisconsin Division of Criminal Investigation. The investigation's findings went to district attorney Michael D. Graveley, the local official responsible for deciding whether to bring charges against the officers. Graveley stated on August 25, 2020, that the investigation was in "its earliest stages". On the same day, the United States Department of Justice also announced an investigation into the shooting. The investigation would look into whether Blake's civil rights were violated. In October 2021, the Department of Justice announced it will not pursue federal civil rights charges against the officer, citing insufficient evidence that the officer willfully violated federal civil rights statutes. Blake's family retained civil rights attorney Ben Crump, who also represented the families of Trayvon Martin and Michael Brown, to represent Blake in their civil suit. Crump called for the officer who shot Blake to be arrested, and others involved to be fired. On August 26, Wisconsin attorney general Josh Kaul announced that officer Sheskey was the only officer who fired his weapon. All were placed on administrative leave. On August 28, the police union said that most narratives about the shooting were wholly inaccurate and purely fictional, including information from Blake's attorneys. It also criticized a statement released by the Wisconsin Department of Justice's Division of Criminal Investigation, which is leading the investigation into the police shooting, as "riddled with incomplete information". On September 4, 2020, Blake pleaded not guilty to the July sexual assault charge, appearing via Zoom from his hospital bed. In November 2020, Blake reached a deal with the prosecution where the charges of sexual assault were dropped in return for his pleading guilty to misdemeanor disorderly conduct. He was sentenced to two years of probation. On September 21, Wisconsin Attorney General Josh Kaul appointed a former sheriff of Madison, Wisconsin, to review the work of Wisconsin Department of Justice investigators and provide a written report to the Kenosha County District Attorney. On January 5, 2021, Kenosha County District Attorney Michael Graveley, the top prosecutor in the county, declined to bring charges against Police Officer Rusten Sheskey. He said that investigators had reviewed 40 hours of video and hundreds of pages of police reports before making the decision. In April 2021, it was reported that Sheskey has returned to regular duty and will not face any administrative discipline. In October 2021, the US Department of Justice announced it would not be bringing civil rights charges against Sheskey. Reactions Public Protests followed, leading Kenosha County to declare a state of emergency overnight on August 24 after police vehicles were damaged, a dump truck set on fire, and the local courthouse vandalized. An officer was knocked down with a brick, and tear gas was deployed. Police urged 24-hour businesses to consider closing because of numerous calls about armed robberies and shots being fired, and the Wisconsin National Guard was deployed to maintain public safety. Up to 200 members were to be deployed. On August 24, the protesters set fires and looted businesses for a second night. On August 25, the protests and fires continued throughout Kenosha, and civilians armed with guns patrolled parts of the city. On August 25, two people were killed and a third seriously wounded; on the following day, a 17-year-old male by the name of Kyle Rittenhouse, turned himself in to police in Antioch, Illinois. The youth was charged with first-degree intentional homicide. His defense lawyers argued that the shootings were in self-defense. On November 19, 2021, in a unanimous jury verdict, Rittenhouse was acquitted of all five charges. Public protests regarding Blake's shooting occurred in many other cities, including New York, Minneapolis, Los Angeles, and Atlanta. Sports Multiple professional sports teams went on strike in protest, refusing to play their scheduled games. In the NBA Bubble, the Milwaukee Bucks boycotted their August 26 first-round playoff game against the Orlando Magic in protest of the shooting. The team decided not to come out of their locker room minutes before the scheduled start to the game. Later that day, the National Basketball Association (NBA) and the National Basketball Players Association announced that in light of the Bucks' decision to refuse to play, all NBA games for the day were postponed. This led to other boycotts from other American sports leagues, including the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA), Major League Baseball (MLB), the National Hockey League (NHL), and Major League Soccer (MLS). Government Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers issued a statement denouncing the excessive use of force by police and invoking the names of African Americans killed by law enforcement. Evers said, "While we do not have all of the details yet, what we know for certain is that he is not the first black man or person to have been shot or injured or mercilessly killed at the hands of individuals in law enforcement in our state or our country." Evers called Wisconsin state lawmakers to a special session in order to pass legislation addressing police brutality. Former Vice President and 2020 Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden said "these shots pierce the soul of our nation" and called for an "immediate, full, and transparent investigation". Biden and his running mate Kamala Harris spoke to Blake's father for an hour. On September 3, Biden and his wife Jill met with multiple members of Blake's family at Milwaukee Mitchell International Airport for 90 minutes; Blake joined the meeting by phone from his hospital bed. Biden then went to Kenosha to speak with members of the community at a local church. This was his first campaign trip to Wisconsin. Harris spoke to Blake by telephone on September 7. President Donald Trump called the family, but Blake's mother Julia Black later apologized for missing the call, while Blake's father said Trump had not tried to reach out. Trump later said the shooting "was not a good sight. I didn’t like the sight of it, certainly, and I think most people would agree with that." Trump scheduled a trip to Kenosha on September 1 to see the damage caused by the protests and to meet with law enforcement, but Governor Evers and Mayor John Antaramian asked him to reconsider his visit over concerns that his presence would hinder efforts to "overcome division". Trump made the trip, accompanied by U.S. Attorney General William Barr, but he did not meet with Blake's family because, he said, they wanted legal counsel present at the meeting. They held discussions with the county sheriff, the chief of police, and others, and Trump promised financial help to city and state law enforcement, and to businesses which had been burned down. On September 9, Barr contrasted the murder of George Floyd with the Blake shooting, saying, "Floyd was already subdued, incapacitated in handcuffs and was not armed. In the Jacob case, he was in the midst of committing a felony and he was armed." Notes References External links District Attorney COUNTY OF KENOSHA Report on the Officer Involved Shooting of Jacob Blake 2020 controversies in the United States 2020 in Wisconsin 2020–2021 United States racial unrest African-American history of Wisconsin African-American-related controversies August 2020 events in the United States Black Lives Matter Kenosha, Wisconsin Law enforcement controversies in the United States Law enforcement in Wisconsin Non-fatal shootings Shooting of Jacob Blake fr:Affaire Jacob Blake

65275983

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shooting%20of%20Nathaniel%20Julies

Shooting of Nathaniel Julies

Nathaniel “Lockie” Julies, a 16 year-old boy with down syndrome, was fatally shot allegedly by South African Police Service (SAPS) officers Sergeant Simon ‘Scorpion’ Ndyalvane and Constable Caylene Whiteboy on the 26 August 2020. A third suspect, Detective Voster Netshiongolo, appeared before the Pretoria Magistrate’s Court. Julies was shot meters away from his home in the Eldorado Park area of Johannesburg, Gauteng. Incident It was initially reported by Gauteng premier David Makhura that Julies was killed in crossfire between SAPS personnel and gang members. The Julies family have stated that he was at a local tuck shop buying biscuits when the shooting occurred. Officers allegedly involved in the shooting stated that Julies was shot after allegedly failing to respond to police questioning. Media reports stated that Julies died before reaching hospital. Witness accounts An unidentified family member told the media that after purchasing two packs of biscuits Julies joined other nearby children in front of the Hillbrow flats where police first approached him. His father stated that Julies was approached by SAPS officers who tried to question him. The officers were unable to understand Julies and they moved on to questioning another person nearby. After officers had finished questioning and searching the second person, nearby Sergeant Simon 'Scorpion' Ndyalvane got out of a vehicle and shot Julies at close range with a pump action shotgun. The force of the shot propelled Julies' body under a truck. Shortly after the shooting police dragged his body out from under the truck and removed him from the scene. Eyewitnesses stated that there was no gang presence in the area. Aftermath The shooting highlighted longstanding community grievances with the operation of the Eldorado Park police station. Violent protest action broke out, with two SAPS officers and one Municipal Police officer injured, amidst threats by the community to burn down the police station. A petition calling for the prosecution of those involved in the shooting was signed by over 120,000 people. Minister of Police Bheki Cele said that the actions of the officers implicated in Julies' death were "uncalled for". A tweet from American musician Solange Knowles increased awareness of the incident outside of South Africa, mentioning Julies' death along with those of Oluwatoyin Salau and of Breonna Taylor in the United States. Eldorado Park community members criticised the far-left Economic Freedom Fighters party for trying to politicise the event and "disrespecting" the funeral procession. At the time of Julies' death he was the second child to have been killed by police action in South Africa in August 2020. The investigative journalism organisation Viewfinder found that thirty-nine children died in SAPS custody or due to SAPS action between April 2012 and March 2018, and that very few officers were held accountable for the deaths. References 2020 deaths 2020 in South Africa Deaths by firearm in South Africa Protests in South Africa Law enforcement in South Africa People shot dead by law enforcement officers in South Africa History of Johannesburg

65437476

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shooting%20of%20Linden%20Cameron

Shooting of Linden Cameron

On September 4, 2020, Linden Cameron, a 13-year-old boy with Asperger's syndrome, who was unarmed, was shot and seriously injured by a police officer in Salt Lake City, Utah. Cameron was shot at eleven times by a member of the Salt Lake City Police Department after Cameron ran from his house during a mental breakdown. Shooting On September 4, Linden Cameron's mother, Golda Barton had made a 9-1-1 call asking for a crisis intervention team because Cameron was having a mental breakdown, and said that she feared Cameron could become violent. Barton said on body camera footage from the incident released by authorities, “I need him to go to a hospital. I cannot get him there on my own and I cannot do this every night.” Barton said law enforcement were a trigger for Cameron. Cameron's grandfather, Owen Barton, had been killed in a confrontation with Lyon County sheriff's deputies earlier in the year. Golda Barton said in the body camera video, “He sees the badge and he automatically thinks like, you’re going to kill him, or he has to defend himself in some way. He freaks out. And he’s got a sensory disorder.” Two officers stayed near the home of Linden Cameron and Golda Barton, while an officer in the driveway spotted Cameron running. Officers gave chase to Cameron, and broke through the fence which he jumped over. An officer yelled, "Get on the ground!" moments before firing eleven shots at Cameron. While on the ground, Cameron said, "I don't feel good. Tell my mom I love her." According to Barton, one officer said to the one who shot Cameron, "He's just a child, what are you doing?" Salt Lake City Police Sergeant Keith Horrocks and the Salt Lake City Police Department initially defended the shooter, claiming that officers were called to the address for a "violent psych issue" involving a juvenile having a "mental episode" and "making threats to some folks with a weapon." The SLCPD retracted these statements, later concluding that there was no indication or evidence to suggest that Cameron had a weapon. Reactions After the shooting, Cameron's mother, Golda Barton told KUTV, "I said, ‘He’s unarmed, he doesn’t have anything, he just gets mad and he starts yelling and screaming,’ He's a kid, he's trying to get attention, he doesn't know how to regulate. They're supposed to come out and be able to de-escalate a situation using the most minimal force possible... He's a small child. Why didn't you just tackle him? He's a baby. He has mental issues." Barton set up a fundraiser on GoFundMe for Cameron's medical expenses, which has raised $105,844 as of September 27, 2020. Linden Cameron's 17-year old brother, Wesley Barton said of the shooting, "It’s horrible. To see your little brother bleeding out, saying his last words. It plays in my head over and over." Wesley Barton also said that he had been told that Linden Cameron will probably not be able to walk again. Salt Lake City mayor Erin Mendenhall said of the incident, "As a member of this community and as the mother of a 14-year old boy, I am profoundly heartbroken and I am frustrated. This shooting is another tragedy. It’s a tragedy for this young boy, for his mother, and for families and individuals who have acute mental health needs. I think the community will look at this situation and they will see themselves or their loved ones reflected in it." Salt Lake City police chief Mike Brown stated, "A 13-year old boy was shot and as a father of three sons, this has had an impact on me personally. I know that this has made an impression on the women and men of the Salt Lake City Police Department and of course you, the community we serve. I believe in the face of tragedy, we have a responsibility to analyze the circumstances that unfolded through a lens of learning." Some accused the SLCPD of engaging in a cover-up due to the department initially falsely stating that Cameron has a weapon, when it was later concluded he was unarmed. Neurodiverse Utah said of the incident in a statement that "Police were called because help was needed but instead more harm was done when officers from the SLPD expected a 13-year-old experiencing a mental health episode to act calmer and collected than adult trained officers". References 2020 controversies in the United States 2020 in Utah Asperger syndrome September 2020 events in the United States 2020s in Salt Lake City Law enforcement controversies in the United States Law enforcement in Utah Non-fatal shootings Salt Lake City Police Department

66023993

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shooting%20of%20Gennady%20Shutov

Shooting of Gennady Shutov

Hienadz Shutau (, ; 25 November 1975 – August 19, 2020, Minsk) was a participant in protests against fraud in the 2020 Belarusian presidential election. He is the third officially recognized victim of the 9–12 August 2020 crackdown and the first from a firearm. Death According to the Militsiya, on the evening of August 11, 2020, Hienadz Shutau and another man attacked police officers in Brest near the Moskovsky district administration, beat them with a metal pipe and tried to take away their weapons. One of the militiamen, fearing for his life, shot the attacker in the shoulder, but because of his resistance "accidentally wounded him in the head". The wounded man was taken to the hospital. On August 13, 2020, he was transferred to the hospital of the Ministry of Defense in critical condition, where he died on August 19, 2020, at 10:20. Investigators promise to give a "legal assessment" of the actions of the attackers and the legality of the use of weapons. Shutau's daughter Anastasia told the media another version, "He called that he was going home, and since then we have been looking for him for two days and could not find him. His phone was unavailable... The father was shot from behind at close range, the shooter was behind him. There were very severe brain damage, intense bleeding, broken apart bones." A woman who lives near the murder site said she heard three shots and went out onto the balcony, where she saw a man lying in a pool of blood and a young man in civilian clothes walking away from him. "He went up to him, tried to kick him, but when he saw blood, he started to panic, he called his guys. One of them ran up and began to hold his head, neck, apparently to stop bleeding. And this young man, who was shooting, went up to the bench and called an ambulance. He was very tense, nervous, even shouted. People here tried to approach him, but he would not let them. He swore at them. Then other guys came here, I think they were his people because he would not let others. Then an ambulance was called for the second time so that it could arrive faster. It is possible that the ambulance found out how the gunshot wound occurred. In the end, he said that he was attacked and it was in self-defense. At this time, people came up and began to photograph him. He began to hide behind his shirt, took out a pistol and began to direct the weapon at people, sending them away. People reacted quite aggressively to this. And that's understandable." The witness also noted that the shot was fired in the back of the head since the man was lying face down on the ground. The certificate on the death of Shutau says that it was caused by traumatic cerebral edema. In the column "external cause of death", the code Y22 is indicated − in the international classification of diseases, it stands for "injury as a result of a shot from a handgun with undetermined intentions". On September 21, a video from a camera at the entrance of house 334 on Moskovskaya Street in Brest, under the windows of which on August 11 one of the "tihars" in civilian clothes shot Hienadz Shutau in the back of the head, was published by MediaZona. This recording confirms that the official version of the Investigative Committee that the biker and his friend, with metal pipes in their hands, attacked the police and tried to take away their weapons, is fake. In the hands of Shutau and his friend Kardziukou, there were no fittings or metal pipes, and there were no warning shots upward from the security forces either. They also did not attack the "tihars", but they themselves approached them. On October 6, at a meeting with Brest State Technical University students, the prosecutor of the Brest Region Viktor Klimov refused to share the results of the investigation, citing the secrecy of the inquest. As the newspaper "Brestskaya Gazeta" wrote, Aliaksandr Kardziukou, the only witness of the murder of Shutau, was detained on August 13 and has not been in contact since then. At the end of the first decade of November 2020, the relatives of the murdered man received a response from the Investigative Committee of Belarus that there are "no grounds" for opening a criminal case upon the murder. As of December, 28, 2020, no criminal case was opened on the killing of Shutau itself, while the Investigative Committee has still not closed the case against Shutau on resistance to law enforcement officers. At the same time, Aliaksandr Kardziukou, the witness of the murder of Shutau that was arrested and initially accused of resistance to a police officer, became accused of attempted murder. Why the article was changed was not explained but Kardziukou's sister thought that it could be made to fully acquit those who fired. Court On February 2, 2021, it became known that Aliaksandr Kardziukou would be charged with attempted murder, while a criminal case on the murder of Henads Schutau was not underway. In the Kardziukou's court session on February 16, 2021, it turned out that on August 11, 2020, on Moskovskaya Street in Brest, a serviceman of the 5th Spetsnaz Brigade, Captain Roman Gavrilov, who was in civilian clothes and carried a Makarov pistol, shot at the back of Shutau's head. On February 25, 2021, the Brest Regional Court (judge Svetlana Kremenovskaya) found Shutau guilty of resistance with the use of violence, Kardziukou was found guilty of attempted murder by her on top of that. The killed Shutau was returned a guilty verdict without sentencing, while Kardziukou was sentenced to 10 years in a strengthened regime penitentiary, as requested by the state prosecutor Gennady Bury. The victims were named servicemen of the 5th Spetsnaz Brigade Roman Gavrilov and Praporshchik Arseniy Golitsyn, who fired at both to kill. Close relatives of Shutau and Kardziukou called the verdict absurd and questioned the honesty of the trial. Brest human rights activist Raman Kislyak echoed them, calling the court "a screen of punitive tasks" because it did not meet the criteria of impartiality and independence, and the case itself was conducted for the sake of protecting the servicemen from a fair trial. On May 14, 2021, the Supreme Court of Belarus upheld the earlier judgments on the murdered Shutau and Kardziukou. According to Raman Kislyak, the Supreme Court failed to meet the criterion of independence when examining the appeal too, as the entire hearing was intended to exempt the military officers from punishment for murder and use of weapons. Funeral On August 20, 2020, the daughter of the perished reported that her father's body had not been returned to relatives, so the date of the funeral was still unknown. The relatives wanted to bury Hienadz Shutau in Zhabinka since his mother lived there. He was buried there on August 24. Personal life Hienadz Shutau was married, had five children and one grandchild. Reactions On September 17, 2020, the European Parliament, in a resolution approved by an absolute majority of MPs, called for an "independent and effective investigation" of the death of Hienadz Shutau related to the protests. On November 19, 2020, residents of Brest recorded a video message in connection with the escalation of violence in Belarus, among other things, draw the attention of the authorities to the need to investigate the murder of Hienadz Shutau so that the perpetrators would be punished in accordance with the law. On November 26, 2020, the European Parliament, in a resolution approved by an absolute majority of MPs, called for a "prompt, thorough, impartial, and independent investigation" into the killings during protests in Belarus, including Hienadz Shutau, thus supported the initiative of Brest residents. On February 25, 2021, Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya weighed in on the court decision taking the side of the media and activists that thought that charges were trumped up as part of a crackdown to keep President Alexander Lukashenko in power, "A peaceful protester Henadz Shutau was shot dead by siloviki (security forces) in plain clothes last Aug. His friend Aliaksandr Kardziukou witnessed it and ran away. Today, a court sentenced Kardziukou to 10 years in prison. Murdered Shutau was called guilty, and his murderer was called a victim." Aksana Kolb, editor-in-chief of Novy Chas, wrote, "Aliaksandr Kardziukou, a friend of Hienadz Shutau who witnessed the murder, got ten years. Moreover, Hienadz himself was found guilty. It is a pity that they have not yet learned how to throw the dead ones behind bars...." "The victim was turned into a criminal," human rights activist Ales Bialiatski commented on the verdict. Viasna Human Rights Centre On May 6, 2021, experts and analysts of the Viasna Human Rights Centre published a conclusion on the criminal case of Hienadz Shutau and Aliaksandr Kardziukou. Viasna's lawyers concluded that by bringing in the Special Forces of Belarus to suppress the protests, there were violations of the law (Article 3 of the Law "On the Armed Forces of the Republic of Belarus", Articles 16 and 17 of the Law "On the State of Emergency" in particular), while the secret unpublished decree of the President of the Republic of Belarus No. 99-c "On Approval of the Regulations on the State System of Response to Acts of Terrorism, Activities of Terrorist Organizations, Illegal Armed Formations and Mass Riots" "cannot be important for assessing the legitimacy of mutual actions of citizens and military personnel and cannot be the basis for imposing duties on citizens or restricting their rights." The experts also referred to their previous statements, according to which there were no riots in Belarus after the presidential elections in August 2020, but predominantly peaceful protests, the participants of which were unjustifiably subjected to ill-treatment and torture, took place; there were no regimes of martial law or a state of emergency, there was not an armed conflict, either. According to the Viasna experts, the illegality and groundlessness of the verdict are based on the Aliaksandr Kardziukou’s absence of intent to kill, since “even by the verdict passed, the fact that Kardziukou hit the victim Gavrilov with a pipe on the head is not enough to come to a conclusion about the intention to kill the victim,” while there were no other pieces of evidence that Kardziukou wanted to kill Gavrilov, which excludes the conclusion of direct intent (besides, there can be no attempted murder with indirect intent), as well as on the absence of convincing shreds of evidence of a blow to the head of the victim Roman Gavrilov because three other versions of his injuries at another time and in other circumstances were documented, which were biasedly assessed by the court in violation of the presumption of innocence of Kardziukou. The direct interest of Roman Gavrilov and Arseniy Golitsyn (after investigating whose actions the Investigative Committee refused to initiate a criminal case in connection with causing the death of Hienadz Shutau) in the outcome of the trial could lead to the manipulation of evidence “to substantiate the legality of Gavrilov’s actions, who, from various options to counteract Shutau’s resistance, chose a shot in his torso with a hit in the back of the head, and Golitsyn, who with a warning shot from a pistol endangered the life and health of people in the apartment, where a bullet hit the ceiling, breaking through the glass.” Gavrilov’s defense of the legality of his actions was based on the fact that his shot in the back of Shutau’s head was preceded by an unexpected blow to the head by Kardziukou, which made it impossible for him to overcome Shutau’s resistance (who, according to Gavrilov, hugged his legs, but, according to Kardziukou, was on his knees with raised hands back to Gavrilov). At the same time, Gavrilov’s injuries approximately corresponded to the circumstance of using the pipe shown by Kardziukou: after falling from the bench, which Kardziukou connected with the actions of Gavrilov and Golitsyn, he hit one of them with a pipe in the thigh, so that the scratch on Gavrilov’s left forearm which was placed at the level of the hips when the person's hands are lowered could be the result of blocking the blow to the thigh with the hand. In addition, Golitsyn concealed his fall during the pursuit of Kardziukou during the preliminary investigation, and the soldier’s bodily injuries found, according to the forensic expert, could have occurred when falling from a height of his own height, but Golitsyn argued that Kardziukou caused him damage by throwing a pipe what allowed him to become a victim too to justify the shooting in peacetime. According to Article 23 of the Law of the Republic of Belarus "On the Status of Servicemen,” servicemen are obliged to "always be in uniform, clean and neatly dressed", while Gavrilov and Golitsyn were of athletic build with belt bags in civilian clothes and caps, stuck together, and just a single look at them at the intersection, according to the court, allowed Shutau and Kardziukou to understand that they were "not just citizens present but on duty to protect public order" to qualify a crime. But the fact that Gavrilov and Golitsyn themselves mimicked protesters by clapping their hands, running away when the Militsiya was approaching, and such, according to the Viasna experts, could not allow them to be identified as special subjects of the crime. In addition, the court did not indicate in its decision that the shouts of the victims “Face down, bastards, I’ll murder you!”, “Lie face down on the floor, minger”, shooting in the air, the ceiling of the kitchen of the neighboring house, and the back of Shutau's head were called upon to strengthen such confidence. Kardziukou assured that he hit Gavrilov on the thigh not in connection with caring out duties to protect public order by him but instinctively, because “he received a blow (or thought that he received a blow)” from the latter. In addition, the victims did not present any claims for violation of public order to the accused, just as did not present such claims in a lawful form even after the conflict. Based on that conclusion, on May 7, 2021, by a joint statement of seven organizations, including the Viasna Human Rights Centre, the Belarusian Helsinki Committee, Aliaksandr Kardziukou was recognized as a political prisoner. On June 23, 2021, godparenthood for Aliaksandr Kardziukou was undertaken by Elisabeth Falkhaven, Member of Parliament of Sweden. See also Alexander Taraikovsky Raman Bandarenka List of deaths related to the 2020 Belarusian protests References External links Video of the zachistka when Hienadz Shutau was wounded Radio Racyja The murder of Hienadz Shutau in Brest. What we learned from CCTV footage MediaZona Conclusion of experts and analysts of the Viasna Human Rights Centre on the criminal case against Aliaksandr Kardziukou and Hienadz Shutau Man, who was shot at rally by law enforcers died in Minsk Man shot by police at Brest protest dies in hospital at age 44 GENNADY SHUTOV SHOT AND KILLED BY A POLICE OFFICER JOINT MOTION FOR A RESOLUTION – The European Parliament Belarusians mourn the death of young opposition supporter EU demands integration of opposition parties into Belarusian regime Belarus Confirms Death Of Man Family Says Was Shot At Protest Belarus: Protests rage on as death count begins to climb Man Dies After Being Shot By Police During Peaceful Protests In Brest 2020 deaths Deaths by firearm 2020–2021 Belarusian protests

67246080

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shooting%20of%20Eugenio%20Nain

Shooting of Eugenio Nain

Eugenio Sebastián Nain Caniumil (13 April 1996 – 30 October 2020) was a Chilean policeman and secondary corporal who was shot to death by an unidentified armed group in the Padre Las Casas commune. His death occurred during the social context of the Araucanía Conflict and the Chilean social outburst. Biography Nain was born in the Chilean city of Temuco, capital of the Araucanía Region, on April 13, 1996, to Christian Roberto Nain Norambuena and Johanna Jacqueline Caniumil Hueichaleo, and was of Mapuche descent. He joined the Carabineros police force on January 16, 2016. His half-brother, Iván Antonio Vidal Caniumil, is also a police officer. At the time of his death, he was married to Daihanna Sabrina Pereira Soto and had two children, who were six years and seven months old. Death On the morning of Friday, October 30, 2020, Nain went along with other members of the Carabineros to Ruta 5 Sur, near the Cantera de Metrenco sector in Temuco, where the highway had been blocked due to a protest with barricades. Nain had no knowledge of public law enforcement, and had come to the scene in an unarmored vehicle. As seen in an almost minute-long video recorded from a moving truck, a loud shot was heard a few moments after Nain got out of the vehicle. Following the shooting, Nain was transferred to the Regional Hospital of Temuco, where he died. Reactions Mario Rozas, then-General Director of the Carabineros, said he felt "anger and impotence" over the murder of Nain. He commented: On the part of the government, the act was condemned, and President Sebastián Piñera made a call to "depose, exile and end the violence." Víctor Pérez Varela, then-Minister of the Interior, declared that the murder was "a painful event for Chile and La Araucanía," and visited the area the same day. Benjamín Olave Huichaleo, Nain's uncle and fellow policeman, harshly criticized the conditions in which they worked in the field, and Temuco Hospital he called for General Rozas to "put on his pants". The Mapuche community of Lof Rofue wrote in a statement: Tributes and legacy On January 13, 2021, he was posthumously promoted to noncommissioned officer in a ceremony at the Temuco Police Training School, which was attended by the General Director of the Carabineros Ricardo Yáñez, and the Minister of the Interior Rodrigo Delgado. Yáñez stated: Daihanna Pereira, Nain's widow, who present at the ceremony with her children and family, also said: Minister Delgado added: Nain's aunt claimed that: See also Shooting of Camilo Catrillanca Mapuche conflict References Mapuche conflict 2020 in Chile Nain, Eugenio Carabineros de Chile Law enforcement controversies in Chile History of Araucanía Region October 2020 events in Chile

70075636

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shooting%20of%20Michael%20Ortiz

Shooting of Michael Ortiz

Michael Ortiz was shot in the back by police while handcuffed in Hollywood, Florida on July 3, 2021. He is now paralyzed from the waist down due to the gunshot. He also lost control of his bodily functions, suffered damage to his pancreas and has accumulated $1 million in medical bills. Ortiz called 911 and reported himself as having a mental health crisis due to his dog being missing. According to the Hollywood police, Ortiz told the 911 dispatcher that he had “chest pains, ingestion of narcotics and, according to the Fire Rescue call log, was making delusional and suicidal statements.” After calling 911, Ortiz's family convinced him to take a shower in order to calm down. Hollywood Fire Rescue arrived at Ortiz's apartment, and stated that “he refused to answer the door so Fire Rescue requested Hollywood Police respond with lights and sirens.” According to Fire Rescue, Ortiz then came out of his apartment without any clothes on and became combative with parametics, threatening suicide. Hollywood Police arrived as the paramedics were attempting to restrain Ortiz from jumping off of the balcony. According to the police, an officer then tasered Ortiz to subdue him, and he was handcuffed. An officer later told Ortiz's family that he was tasered twice and that he was “shot on the shoulder.” Ortiz struggled as officers attempted to escort him to the elevator. During the struggle an officer shot Ortiz in the back. Police and Fire Rescue officers then moved Ortiz to the elevator to get him medical treatment. Six Police and Fire Rescue officers were involved. Hollywood Police later said that “an initial review suggests the officer intended to deploy his taser, but instead discharged his firearm.” The Florida Department of Law Enforcement investigation is ongoing and the unnamed officer was relieved of duty and given administrative duties within the department. Ortiz was in a coma for several weeks. He described his recovery as like being reborn, with such challenges as getting out of bed and using the restroom. Ortiz's family were initially represented by Morgan and Morgan law firm, and on July 12 sent Hollywood Police a request to preserve all evidence and records. Morgan and Morgan stated that they made a public records request in writing via postal mail, but Hollywood Police claim that they have no record of receiving such a request. On February 7, 2022, Ortiz and his family held a press conference with their new attorney, civil rights lawyer Ben Crump. Crump announced a public record's lawsuit against Hollywood Police, specifically in regards to security camera footage from the apartment complex that would have documented the entire incident. Crump stated that “you must release the video that shows us why your police officer shot a man — that was stark naked, handcuffed — in the back and paralyzed him.” See also 2020–2022 United States racial unrest References External links 2022 controversies in the United States

53012

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killing%20of%20Chandra%20Levy

Killing of Chandra Levy

Chandra Ann Levy (April 14, 1977 – May 1, 2001) was an intern at the Federal Bureau of Prisons in Washington, D.C. who disappeared in May 2001. She was presumed murdered after her skeletal remains were found in Rock Creek Park in May 2002. The case attracted attention from the American news media for several years. Due to a miscommunication, the Metropolitan Police Department of the District of Columbia (MPD) failed to follow its own search parameters in Rock Creek Park, leaving Levy's body to decompose for a year. Further, the MPD had been informed, but soon dismissed the information that Ingmar Guandique, already arrested for attacking women in Rock Creek Park, had confessed to attacking Levy. The MPD instead put much of its focus on the revelation that Levy had been having an affair with Congressman Gary Condit, a married Democrat then serving his fifth term representing California's 18th congressional district, and a senior member of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. Condit had an overwhelming alibi (he was in meetings with the Vice President), was never named as a suspect by police, and was eventually cleared of any involvement in the disappearance. However, due to the cloud of suspicion raised by the intense media focus on the missing intern and the later revelation of the affair, Condit lost his bid for re-election in 2002. Following a series of investigative reports by The Washington Post in 2008, the MPD followed up and finally obtained a warrant, on March 3, 2009, to arrest Ingmar Guandique, identified and dismissed by the MPD eight years earlier. He had been convicted of assaulting two other women in Rock Creek Park around the time of Levy's disappearance and was still in prison on those convictions when the arrest warrant on Levy's death was issued. Prosecutors alleged that Guandique had attacked and tied up Levy in a remote area of the park and left her to die of dehydration or exposure. In November 2010, Guandique was convicted of murdering Levy; he was sentenced in February 2011 to 60 years in prison. In June 2015, however, Guandique was granted a new trial. On July 28, 2016, prosecutors announced that they would not proceed with the case against Guandique and would, instead, seek to have him deported. In episode 3 of "An American Murder Mystery" on the case, it is mentioned that in March 2017 Guandique lost his bid to remain in the United States and was deported to his native El Salvador on May 5, 2017. Levy's murder remains unsolved. Life and background Levy was born in Cleveland, Ohio to Robert and Susan Levy; the family moved to Modesto, California, where she attended Grace M. Davis High School. Her parents are members of Congregation Beth Shalom, a Conservative Jewish synagogue. She attended San Francisco State University, where she earned a degree in journalism. After interning for the California Bureau of Secondary Education and working in the office of Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan, she began attending the University of Southern California to earn a master's degree in public administration. As part of her final semester of study, Levy moved to Washington, D.C., to become a paid intern with the Federal Bureau of Prisons. In October 2000 she began her internship at the bureau's headquarters, where she was assigned to the public affairs division. Her supervisor, bureau spokesperson Dan Dunne, was impressed with Levy's work, especially her handling of media inquiries regarding the upcoming execution of Timothy McVeigh, convicted of bombing the Oklahoma City Federal Building. Levy's internship was abruptly terminated in April 2001 because her academic eligibility was found to have expired in December 2000. She had already completed her master's degree requirements and was scheduled to return to California in May 2001 for graduation. Disappearance and search Levy was last seen on May 1, 2001. The Metropolitan Police Department of the District of Columbia was first alerted on May 6, when Levy's parents called from Modesto to report that they had not heard from their daughter in five days. Police called hospitals and visited Levy's apartment in Dupont Circle that day, finding no indication of foul play. On May 7, Levy's father told the police that his daughter had been having an affair with a U.S. congressman, and said the next day that he believed the congressman to be U.S. Representative Gary Condit. Levy's aunt also called the police and told them that Chandra had confided in her about the affair. Police obtained a warrant on May 10 to conduct a formal search of Levy's apartment. Investigators found her credit cards, identification and mobile phone left behind in her purse, along with partially packed suitcases. The answering machine was full, with messages left by her relatives and two from Condit. A police sergeant tried to examine Levy's laptop computer and inadvertently corrupted the internet search data, as he was not a trained technician. Computer experts took a month to reconstruct the data to determine that the laptop was used on the morning of May 1 to search for websites related to Amtrak, Baskin-Robbins, Condit, Southwest Airlines, and a weather report from The Washington Post. Her final search at 12:59 p.m. was for Alsace-Lorraine, a region in France. A particular search at 11:33 a.m. was for information about Rock Creek Park in The Washington Post "Entertainment Guide", then at 11:34 she clicked a link to bring up a map of the park. Detectives later theorized that she might have met someone at the Pierce-Klingle Mansion which houses the park headquarters. On July 25, 2001, three D.C. police sergeants and 28 police cadets searched along Glover Road in the park but failed to find evidence related to Levy. Later, a second attempt found nothing. Levy's parents and friends held numerous vigils and news conferences in an attempt to "bring Chandra home". Relationship with Condit Controversy surrounding Levy's disappearance drew the attention of the American news media. Condit, a married man who represented the congressional district in which the Levy family resided, at first denied that he had had an affair with her. Although police stated that Condit was not a suspect, Levy's family said they felt Condit was being evasive and possibly hiding information about the matter. Unidentified police sources alleged that Condit had admitted to an affair with Levy during an interview with law enforcement officers on July 7, 2001. Condit described her to police as a vegetarian who avoided drinking and smoking. He thought that Levy was going to return to Washington, D.C. after her graduation and was surprised to find out that the lease on her apartment had ended. Investigators searched Condit's apartment on July 10. They questioned flight attendant Anne Marie Smith, who claimed that Condit told her she did not need to speak to the Federal Bureau of Investigation about his personal life. Federal officials began investigating Condit for possible obstruction of justice, as Smith was also involved in an affair with him. (She was not acquainted with Levy.) Upset by leaks to the media, Condit refused to submit to a polygraph test by the D.C. police; his attorney asserted that Condit passed a test administered by a privately hired examiner on July 13. He avoided answering direct questions during a televised interview on August 23, with news anchor Connie Chung on the ABC News program Primetime Thursday. Intensive coverage continued until news of the September 11 attacks superseded the media's coverage of the Levy case. In a nationwide Fox News/Opinion Dynamics poll of 900 registered voters conducted in July 2001, 44 percent of American respondents thought that Condit was involved in Levy's disappearance and 27 percent felt that he should resign. Fifty-one percent of the respondents believed that he was acting as if he were guilty; 13 percent felt that he should run again for office. A poll sample taken from Condit's congressional district held a more favorable view of Condit. On March 5, 2002, Condit lost the Democratic primary election for his Congressional seat to his former aide, then-Assemblyman Dennis Cardoza, with the Levy controversy being cited as a contributing factor. He was subpoenaed to appear on April 1, 2002, before a District of Columbia grand jury investigating the disappearance. The date was kept a carefully guarded secret to avoid further leaks. Condit left Congress at the end of his term on January 3, 2003, after failing to win his re-election bid. Discovery of her remains On May 22, 2002, around 9:30 am, skeletal remains which matched Levy's dental records were discovered by a man who was walking his dog and looking for turtles in Rock Creek Park, near Broad Branch Creek (Washington, D.C.). Detectives found bones and personal items scattered, but not buried, in a forested area along a steep incline. A sports bra, sweat shirt, leggings and tennis shoes were among the evidence that was recovered. Although police had previously searched over half the main section of the park, the wooded slope where Levy's remains were eventually found had not been searched. Police commanders ordered the search perimeters to be within 100 yards (91 m) of each road but due to a miscommunication, the officers only searched within 100 yards of every road. The remains were found about four miles (6 km) from Levy's apartment. After a preliminary autopsy was performed, District of Columbia police announced that there was sufficient evidence to open a homicide investigation. On May 28, D.C. medical examiner Jonathan L. Arden officially declared Levy's death a homicide, but said, "There's less to work with here than I would like. It's possible we will never know specifically how she died." Arden found damage to her hyoid bone, suggesting that she was possibly strangled, but he did not deem it to be conclusive evidence of such a cause of death. On June 6, after the police completed their search, private investigators hired by the Levys found her shin bone with some twisted wire about from the other remains. Police Chief Charles H. Ramsey said, "It is unacceptable that these items were not located." Memorial services On May 28, 2002, the Levy family organized a memorial service at the Modesto Centre Plaza that drew over 1,200 people, some from as far as Los Angeles. Speakers at the 90-minute ceremony included Levy's brother, grandmother, great-aunt and friends. In a eulogy delivered in Hebrew and English by Rabbi Paul Gordon, Levy was described as "a good person taken from us much too soon". About a year later, on May 27, 2003, Levy's remains were buried in Lakewood Memorial Park Cemetery at Hughson, California, near her home town of Modesto. Attended by about 40 of Levy's friends and family members, the private ceremony concluded with the release of 12 white doves. Identification of the prime suspect In September 2001, D.C. police and federal prosecutors were contacted by the lawyer of an informant, held in D.C. Jail, who claimed to have knowledge of Levy's killer. The informant, whose identity was protected for his safety, said that Ingmar Guandique, a 20-year-old from El Salvador who was also being held in the jail, told him that Condit paid him $25,000 to kill Levy. Investigators ruled out the story about Condit, because Guandique had already admitted to assaulting two other women in the same park where Levy's remains were found. Guandique failed to show up for work on the day of Levy's disappearance. His former landlady recalled that his face appeared scratched and bruised at around that time. The investigators on the Levy case did not interview the other Rock Creek Park victims. Police chief Ramsey avoided calling Guandique a suspect and described him as a "person of interest", telling reporters not to make "too big a deal" about him. Assistant chief Terrance W. Gainer said that if Guandique had been considered a suspect, D.C. police would have been after him "like flies on honey". Guandique denied attacking Levy. On November 28, the FBI had the informant take a polygraph test, which he failed. A polygraph test on Guandique, administered on February 4, 2002, returned inconclusive results that were officially ruled "not deceptive". Because neither the informant nor Guandique was fluent in English, D.C. chief detective Jack Barrett said that he would have preferred polygraph tests to have been administered by bilingual examiners, who were unavailable at the time. When Judge Noel Anketell Kramer was asked about Guandique's potential connection to the Levy homicide, she responded, "This is such a satellite issue. To me it doesn't have anything to do with this case." Kramer sentenced Guandique to 10 years in prison for his attacks on two other women at Rock Creek Park. Guandique was sent to the U.S. Penitentiary, Big Sandy near Inez, Kentucky, and was later transferred to the U.S. Penitentiary at Victorville, California. The Levy homicide remained listed as a "cold case" until 2006, when Cathy L. Lanier succeeded Ramsey as D.C. police chief. Lanier replaced the lead detective on the case with three veteran investigators who had more homicide experience. In 2007, the editors of The Washington Post assigned a new team of reporters to take a year to re-examine the Levy case. The resulting series of articles, published during the summer of 2008, focused on the past failure of the police to fully investigate Guandique's connection to the attacks in Rock Creek Park. In September 2008, investigators searched Guandique's federal prison cell in California and found a photo of Levy that he had saved from a magazine. Police interviewed acquaintances of Guandique and witnesses of the other Rock Creek Park incidents. On March 3, 2009, the Superior Court of the District of Columbia issued an arrest warrant for Guandique. He was returned to the custody of the District of Columbia Department of Corrections on April 20 via the Federal Transfer Center in Oklahoma City. Two days later, Guandique was charged in D.C. with Levy's murder. He was indicted by a grand jury on six counts: kidnapping, first-degree murder committed during a kidnapping, attempted first-degree sexual abuse, first-degree murder committed during a sexual offense, attempted robbery, and first-degree murder committed during a robbery. Guandique pleaded not guilty at his arraignment, where a trial date was initially set for January 27, 2010. His lawyers argued that Guandique's federal prison cell was outside the jurisdiction of a court-ordered search. After errors in processing contaminated some of the gathered evidence with DNA from employees of the prosecution, the start date of the trial at the H. Carl Moultrie Courthouse was moved to October 4, 2010. Trial of Guandique On October 18, 2010, jury selection commenced in the Superior Court of the District of Columbia before Judge Gerald I. Fisher. Assistant U.S. Attorney Fernando Campoamor-Sanchez presented the names of potential witnesses for the trial, including FBI agent Brad Garrett and the two women whom Guandique was convicted of assaulting. At the start of the trial, the prosecution's case was expected to take around four weeks and the defense was expected to take one day. On October 25 and 26, Halle Shilling and Christy Wiegand testified about being attacked by Guandique while independently jogging in Rock Creek Park. Wiegand recounted that Guandique grabbed her from behind, dragged her down a ravine and held a knife against her face. On October 26, 2010, Levy's then-64-year-old father, Robert, took the stand and refuted statements about his past suspicions of Condit. Robert Levy testified that he told authorities during the early years of the investigation that his daughter Chandra would have been too cautious to jog in the woods alone, but said that he no longer believed this to be true. He said that he also told police that his daughter and Condit had a five-year plan between them to get married. In retrospect, Robert Levy admitted: "I just said whatever came to mind just to point to him as the villain." Levy added that he had been convinced that Condit was "guilty until we learned about this character here," referring to Guandique. On November 1, Condit testified at the trial and was asked on at least three occasions if he and Chandra Levy had been involved in a sexual relationship. He replied, "I am not going to respond to that question out of privacy for myself and Chandra." FBI biologist Alan Giusti testified that semen found on underwear from Levy's apartment contained sperm matching Condit's DNA profile. Prosecution witness Armando Morales, who shared a cell with Guandique at the U.S. Penitentiary in Kentucky, testified that Guandique was concerned about being transferred between prisons in 2006 because of inmate violence against suspected rapists. Morales stated that Guandique, a fellow member of the Mara Salvatrucha gang, confided to him that he had killed Levy while trying to rob her, but said that he did not rape her. The prosecution rested their case on November 10, while dropping two out of the six charges against Guandique: sexual assault and murder associated with that assault. On November 15, the defense rested its case without calling Guandique to the stand. Other prison witnesses called by the defense refuted Morales' testimony. Jose Manuel Alaniz said that Guandique made no mention of rape or murder while sharing a cell with both Alaniz and Morales at the penitentiary in Kentucky. Alaniz admitted under cross-examination that he "didn't want to be too nosy" and was often asleep at the prison while recovering from a gunshot wound. The prosecution dropped two more charges because the statute of limitations had passed: kidnapping and attempted robbery. During closing arguments for the remaining charges of first-degree murder committed during a kidnapping and during a robbery, prosecutor Amanda Haines contended that Guandique bound and gagged Levy after attacking her, leaving her to die of dehydration or exposure in the park. Defense attorney Santha Sonenberg countered with the lack of any DNA evidence connecting Guandique to the crime scene. Calling the prosecution's case "fiction", Sonenberg suggested that Levy had been murdered elsewhere, with her dead body being dumped in the park. The jury began deliberations on November 17, 2010. Scheduled proceedings of the case met delays because of increased security at the courthouse. After two days of deliberations, all but one juror had voted to convict Guandique. On the third day, the jury asked Judge Gerald Fisher to clarify the definition of assault. Fisher responded that any physical injury could legally be considered an assault, regardless of how small. On November 22, 2010, the jury found Guandique guilty of both remaining counts of first-degree murder. After the trial, a juror said the testimony of Morales was decisive in reaching the verdict. The conviction was called a "miracle" for having been reached with only circumstantial evidence. Gladys Weatherspoon, who had previously represented Guandique in the 2001 assault cases, stated that she was troubled by the jury's verdict: "I just think they were going to convict anyway.... They felt bad for that woman, the mom. She's sitting in there every day." At a post-trial press conference, Susan Levy said, "There's always going to be a feeling of sadness. I can surely tell you, it ain't closure." Since the conclusion of the trial, Susan Levy has acted to keep photographic evidence of her daughter's remains sealed from the news media. Sentencing and appeals On February 1, 2011, Guandique's attorneys requested a new trial on the grounds that the verdict had been improperly attained. The 17-page filing claimed that the prosecutors had appealed to the emotions of the jury, using "references to facts not in evidence". The motion also alleged that one juror, who did not take notes, had breached the judge's instructions not to be "influenced by another juror's notes". The prosecution opposed a retrial, arguing that the issue regarding the notes was no more than a technicality that did not have a significant effect on the verdict. Guandique faced a minimum penalty of 30 years to a maximum of life imprisonment without the possibility of parole. In seeking the maximum possible sentence, the prosecutors stated that Guandique "is unable to control himself and thus, will always remain a danger to women". A memo submitted by the prosecution in February 2011 cited Guandique's harassment of female staff in prison, including soliciting a nurse and masturbating in front of guards. Assistant U.S. Attorney Fernando Campoamor-Sanchez disclosed that he had traveled to El Salvador with a detective to investigate allegations that Guandique had fled his native country because of suspected attacks against local women dating back to 1999. During the sentencing hearing on February 11, Guandique said to Levy's family, "I am sorry for what happened to your daughter", and insisted on his innocence. Before Judge Gerald Fisher reminded Susan Levy to address the court instead of the defendant, Levy said to him, "Did you really take her life? Look me in my eyes and tell me." Fisher denied Guandique's motion for retrial and handed down a sentence of 60 years in prison, stating that Guandique "will be a danger for some time. He's a sexual predator." Guandique repeated his innocence during his sentencing. He has maintained his innocence in the years since the trial. On February 25, 2011, public defender James Klein filed an appeal of Guandique's conviction with the District of Columbia Court of Appeals. According to the court's annual report, appeals take an average of 588 days to reach resolution. In December 2012 and January 2013, a set of secret hearings was made known to the public, but the subject of the meetings was sealed by the judge. After a third hearing in February, the judge in the case unsealed transcripts from the previous hearings which revealed that Klein was seeking a new trial based on new evidence in the case. A fourth hearing was scheduled for April 2013. Dropped charges On May 22, 2015, prosecutors dropped their opposition to a new trial. This came largely due to defense claims that the prosecution's star witness, Armando Morales, had perjured himself on the stand. The defense contended that prosecutors failed to disclose that Morales was a jailhouse informant with a reputation for being untrustworthy. Morales had denied ever being an informant. The defense also argued that Morales made up Guandique's confession in order to boost his stock with prosecutors. On June 3, 2015, the defense said that a new witness, a neighbor, called 911 at 4:37 a.m. on the last day Levy was alive in order to report hearing a 'blood-curdling scream', possibly coming from Levy's apartment. On June 4, 2015, Judge Gerald Fisher granted a motion for the new trial. On June 12, 2015, Judge Robert E. Morin set the retrial of Guandique for March 1, 2016 but in March, the trial date was moved to October 11, 2016. In November 2015, prosecutors told a D.C. Superior Court judge that their office failed to turn over documents to the defense before the defendant's first trial. In December 2015, defense attorneys argued in new court filings that the charges should be dismissed because of prosecutorial errors. On July 28, 2016, prosecutors announced that they would not proceed with the case against Guandique and would, instead, seek to have him deported. According to The Washington Post, prosecutors lost confidence in the case after learning that Morales, who now lives in Maryland, was secretly recorded admitting lying on the witness stand during the 2010 trial. Babs Proller, the woman who made the recording, turned it over to the police. The U.S. Attorney's Office only stated that based on new information that had come to light during the previous week, there was no longer enough evidence to go forward with the retrial. In episode 3 of "An American Murder Mystery" on the case, it is mentioned that in March 2017 Guandique lost his bid to remain in the United States and was deported to his native El Salvador on May 5, 2017. Disciplinary proceedings against prosecutors Defense lawyers for Guandique alleged that Fernando Campoamor-Sánchez and Amanda Haines, the two federal prosecutors who handled the case, failed to turn over evidence that cast doubt on the credibility of a key witness against him before trial as the law requires. They filed a complaint with the Justice Department's Office of Professional Responsibility (OPR) alleging that this was the result of willful misconduct by the two prosecutors. After investigating for two years, OPR found no ethical or legal violations. Campoamor-Sánchez left the Justice Department to work at the Securities and Exchange Commission, and Haines retired. In 2020 the District of Columbia Bar's Office of Disciplinary Counsel (ODC) announced it would investigate the allegations; it brought charges the following May. Three months later ODC announced its preliminary conclusion that the two had violated bar rules requiring that prosecutors disclose potentially exculpatory evidence to defense lawyers, and recommended both be suspended from practicing law for six months. Both contested that punishment, with Haines's attorney calling it "unhinged—from both reality and from any precedent in law or logic". She and Campoamor-Sánchez have denied any wrongdoing. Media coverage The disappearance of Chandra Levy became a national topic of the news media in the summer of 2001, with 63% of Americans closely following the case. The media swamped Levy's parents from the moment they decided to go to Washington, D.C., in search of their daughter. According to Condit, about a hundred reporters were camped out in front of his apartment during the morning of September 11, 2001, but they all left after news spread about that day's terrorist attacks in New York and Washington. Media critics and cable news executives later cited the Levy case, as well as the concurrent sensationalist coverage of a string of shark attacks, as a reflection of the manner of news coverage in the United States before the September 11 attacks had taken priority. In 2002, D.C. newspaper Roll Call first reported Ingmar Guandique's possible connection to the case, with little effect on the news media's focus on Condit. Conservative commentator Michelle Malkin noted the lack of headlines that an illegal immigrant had been questioned in the Levy case. She said that in her review of 115 news items from the LexisNexis database, not a single mention of Guandique referred to his status as a "criminal illegal alien". She called the "glaring omission" of his status "a newsworthy act of negligence". She wrote that only the very conservative Human Events reported that the Immigration and Naturalization Service had approved his working legally while he was applying for temporary protected status. That application was ultimately denied, but not before he had assaulted two other women at Rock Creek Park. In 2005, investigative journalist Dominick Dunne said on Larry King Live that he believed that Gary Condit had more information about the Levy case than he had been disclosing. Condit filed two lawsuits against Dunne, forcing him into an undisclosed financial settlement on one of them. In 2008, U.S. District Judge Peter Leisure dismissed the other suit that alleged slander, because "The context in which Dunne's statements were made demonstrates that they were part of a discussion about "speculation" in the media and inaccurate media coverage". During the summer of 2008, The Washington Post ran a 13-part series billed, in part, as "a tale of the tabloid and mainstream press pack journalism that helped derail the investigation". The two investigative reporters who were behind the Post series, Scott Higham and Sari Horwitz, wrote a book which detailed their investigation. The book, Finding Chandra, was published in May 2010. Commentators, including The Washington Post Metro reporter Robert Pierre, wrote that emphasis on a glamorous white murder victim, when "about 200 people are killed in this city every year, most of them black and male", was "absolutely absurd and dare I say, racist, at its core". The media was criticized for its "rush to judgment" in suggesting, sometimes blatantly, that Condit was guilty of the murder, especially in the early days of the investigation. Some of the reporters who were camped out in front of Condit's Washington apartment house were quoted as saying that they would remain there "until he resigns". When Ingmar Guandique was convicted of murdering Levy in November 2010, Condit's lawyer Bert Fields remarked, "It's a complete vindication but that comes a little late. Who gives him his career back?" On the 17th anniversary of the homicide, Levy's mother continued to push for further investigation into her daughter's death. Impact Levy's death has had a lasting impact, due in part to the efforts of her family and friends. Levy's disappearance came after a number of other high-profile cases that led to the creation of resources for missing young adults. For example, Levy's parents quickly requested help from the Carole Sund/Carrington Memorial Reward Foundation, a nonprofit group that was established in Modesto after three female hikers disappeared from a 1999 trip to Yosemite National Park and were later found slain. That foundation, which offered the Levys staff support and contributed towards a cash reward for information about Chandra's disappearance, was merged into the Laci and Conner Search and Rescue Fund in 2009; Susan Levy had previously participated in the efforts to find Laci Peterson, another missing woman from Modesto. In 1997, when Kristen Modafferi mysteriously disappeared from the San Francisco Bay Area just three weeks after her 18th birthday, her parents turned to their congresswoman for help, because they were ineligible to receive help from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. As a result, Congress enacted "Kristen's Law" in October 2000, which established the National Center for Missing Adults (NCMA) within the U.S. Department of Justice in order to coordinate such missing persons cases. By the time Levy disappeared, institutions were in place in order to provide her family with support and assist in a nationwide search to locate her. Although the Levy family quickly moved to mobilize all such available resources, including offering a cash reward for information, hiring its own investigators, and seeking media attention, those efforts to locate Chandra Levy or find her killer were overshadowed by the speculation which surrounded her possible relationship with Condit. Susan Levy later joined forces with Donna Raley, the mother of another young woman who disappeared from Modesto in 1999, to form "Wings of Protection", a support group for people with missing loved ones. The Mary Ann Liebert company, the publisher of the Journal of Women's Health and Gender-Based Medicine, presented its annual Criterion Award to Susan Levy for her work with "Wings of Protection" in May 2002. Newsweek magazine stated that the media may have become more skeptical of "herd mentality" and open to alternative suspects after the Levy case. The D.C. police claimed that it would have discovered Levy's body earlier, if not for a miscommunication regarding the scope of the search. Commanders had ordered that a search be conducted within of each road and trail in Rock Creek Park, but searches were only made within 100 yards of each road, causing the body to remain undiscovered for a longer period of time. Both the Chief of Detectives, Jack Barrett, and the Chief of Police, Charles H. Ramsey, have since left the force in D.C. Ramsey became head of the Philadelphia Police Department; Barrett, who became an analyst for an intelligence support firm in Arlington, Virginia, stated in hindsight that the media had imposed "enormous amounts of pressure" on the D.C. police. Morales, who is serving time for conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine and crack cocaine, was scheduled to be released on August 5, 2016. Condit retired from politics and moved to Phoenix, Arizona with his wife, to manage real estate and open two Baskin-Robbins franchises, which have since closed. See also Crime in Washington, D.C. List of solved missing person cases List of unsolved murders References Further reading External links Chandra Levy at Find a Grave Chandra Levy murder case at truTV Chandra Levy case timeline (2000–2002) at ABC News Chandra Levy case timeline (2000–2010) at The Washington Post by the D.C. Metropolitan Police Department (mirrored by the Internet Archive) United States of America v. Ingmar Guandique documents at the Superior Court of the District of Columbia "Who Killed Chandra Levy?", a 13-part series from The Washington Post 1977 births 2000s missing person cases 2001 deaths 20th-century American Jews Formerly missing people Missing person cases in Washington, D.C. Murdered American Jews People from Cleveland People from Dupont Circle People from Modesto, California People murdered in Washington, D.C. San Francisco State University alumni Unsolved murders in the United States USC Sol Price School of Public Policy alumni

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killing%20of%20JonBen%C3%A9t%20Ramsey

Killing of JonBenét Ramsey

JonBenét Patricia Ramsey (August 6, 1990 – December 25 or 26, 1996) was an American child beauty queen who was killed at the age of six in her family's home in Boulder, Colorado. A long handwritten ransom note was found in the home. Her father, John, found the girl's body in the basement of their house about seven hours after she had been reported missing. She had sustained a broken skull from a blow to the head and had been strangled; a garrote was found tied around her neck. The autopsy report stated that JonBenét's official cause of death was "asphyxia by strangulation associated with craniocerebral trauma". Her death was ruled a homicide. The case generated nationwide public and media interest, in part because her mother Patsy Ramsey (herself a former beauty queen) had entered JonBenét into a series of child beauty pageants. The crime is still unsolved and remains an open investigation with the Boulder Police Department. The Boulder police initially suspected that the ransom note had been written by Patsy, and that the note and appearance of JonBenét's body had been staged by her parents in order to cover up the murder. In 1998, the police and district attorney (DA) both said that JonBenét's brother Burke, who was nine years old at the time of her death, was not a suspect. JonBenét's parents gave several televised interviews but resisted police questioning except on their own terms. In October 2013, unsealed court documents revealed that a 1999 grand jury had recommended filing charges against the Ramseys for permitting the child to be in a threatening situation. John and Patsy were also accused of hindering the prosecution of an unidentified person who had "committed ... the crime of murder in the first degree and child abuse resulting in death". However, the DA determined that there was insufficient evidence to pursue a successful indictment. In 2002, the DA's successor took over investigation of the case from the police and primarily pursued the theory that an intruder had committed the killing. In 2003, trace DNA that was taken from the victim's clothes was found to belong to an unknown male; each of the family's DNA had been excluded from this match. The DA sent the Ramseys a letter of apology in 2008, declaring the family was "completely cleared" by the DNA results. Others, including former Boulder police chief Mark Beckner, disagreed with exonerating the Ramseys, characterizing the DNA as a small piece of evidence that was not proven to have any connection to the crime. In February 2009, the Boulder police took the case back from the DA and reopened the investigation. National and international media coverage of the case focused on JonBenét's brief beauty pageant career, as well as her parents' wealth and the unusual evidence found in the case. Media reports questioned how the police handled the investigation. Ramsey family members and their friends have filed defamation suits against several media organizations. Life and interment JonBenét Ramsey was born on August 6, 1990 in Atlanta, Georgia, the younger of two children of Patricia "Patsy" Ramsey (1956–2006) and John Bennett Ramsey (born 1943). She had an older brother named Burke (born 1987). JonBenét's first name combines her father's first and middle names, and her mother's first name was used as her middle name. She was enrolled in kindergarten at High Peaks Elementary School in Boulder, Colorado. JonBenét's body was found on December 26, 1996, in her family's Boulder residence. She was buried at St. James Episcopal Cemetery in Marietta, Georgia, on December 31. JonBenét was interred next to her half-sister Elizabeth Pasch Ramsey, who had died in a car crash nearly five years earlier at age 22. Parents John Ramsey was a businessman who was the president of Access Graphics, a computer software company that later became a subsidiary of Lockheed Martin. His first marriage ended in divorce in 1978. John's two surviving adult children (a son and a daughter) lived elsewhere. In 1991, John had moved with Patsy, his second wife, and family to Boulder, where Access Graphics' headquarters was located. Patsy Ramsey entered JonBenét in various child beauty pageants in Boulder, where she won the titles of America's Royale Miss, Little Miss Charlevoix, Little Miss Colorado, Colorado State All-Star Kids Cover Girl, and National Tiny Miss Beauty. JonBenét's active role in child beauty pageants and Patsy's reported "pageant mother" behavior were reported by the media after the murder. In the summer of 1997—approximately six months after JonBenét's death—the Ramseys moved to a new home in Atlanta after a summer at their vacation retreat in Charlevoix, Michigan. Patsy died of ovarian cancer at age 49 in 2006; she was interred next to her daughter. Evidence Ransom note According to statements that Patsy gave to authorities on December 26, 1996, she realized that her daughter was missing after she found a two-and-a-half-page handwritten ransom note on the kitchen staircase at the Ramsey family's Boulder residence. The note demanded . John pointed out to police first on the scene that the amount was nearly identical to his Christmas bonus of the prior year, which suggested that someone who would have access to that information would be involved in the crime. Investigators looked at several theories behind the dollar amount demanded, considering employees at Access Graphics who may have known of the amount of John's prior bonus. They also considered the possibility that the ransom demand was a reference to Psalm 118 and spoke to religious sources to determine possible relevance. The ransom note was unusually long. The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) told the police that it was very unusual for such a note to be written at the crime scene. The police believed that the note was staged, because it did not have any fingerprints except for Patsy's and authorities who had handled it, and because it included an unusual use of exclamation marks and initialisms. The note and a practice draft were written with a pen and notepad from the Ramsey home. According to a Colorado Bureau of Investigation (CBI) report, "There are indications that the author of the ransom note is Patricia Ramsey." However, the evidence fell short of a definitive conclusion. Michael Baden, a board-certified forensic pathologist, who had consulted with both sides of the case, said he had never seen a note like it in his 60-year experience and that he did not think it was written by an outside stranger. A federal court ruled it highly unlikely that Patsy wrote the note, citing six certified handwriting experts. The court bemoaned the existence of self-proclaimed experts – without credentials – trying to wrangle their way into the case by accusing Patsy without scientific basis. 911 call and initial search for the child The only people known to be in the house on the night of JonBenét's death were her immediate family: Patsy and John Ramsey and their son Burke. The ransom note contained specific instructions against contacting police and friends, but Patsy telephoned the police at 5:52 a.m. MST. She also called family and friends. Two police officers responded to the 9-1-1 call and arrived at the Ramsey home within three minutes. They conducted a cursory search of the house but did not find any sign of forced entry. Officer Rick French went to the basement and came to a door that was secured by a wooden latch. He paused for a moment in front of the door, but walked away without opening it. French later explained that he was looking for an exit route used by the kidnapper, which the closed inside peg ruled out. JonBenét's body was later found behind the door. With JonBenét still missing, John made arrangements to pay the ransom. A forensics team was dispatched to the house. The team initially believed that the child had been kidnapped, and JonBenét's bedroom was the only room in the house that was cordoned off to prevent contamination of evidence. No precautions were taken to prevent contamination of evidence in the rest of the house. Meanwhile, friends, victim advocates, and the Ramsey family's minister arrived at the home to show support. Visitors picked up and cleaned surfaces in the kitchen, possibly destroying evidence. Boulder detective Linda Arndt arrived at about 8:00a.m. MST, in anticipation of receiving further instructions by the kidnapper(s), but there was never an attempt by anyone to claim the money. Discovery of the body At 1:00 p.m. MST, Detective Arndt asked John Ramsey and Fleet White, a family friend, to search the house to see if "anything seemed amiss." They started their search in the basement. John opened the latched door which Officer French had overlooked and found his daughter's body in one of the rooms. JonBenét's mouth was covered with duct tape, a nylon cord was found around her wrists and neck, and her torso was covered by a white blanket. John picked up the child's body and took it upstairs. When JonBenét was moved, the crime scene was further contaminated, and critical forensic evidence was disturbed for the returning forensics team. Each of the Ramseys provided handwriting, blood, and hair samples to the police. John and Patsy participated in a preliminary interview for more than two hours, and Burke was also interviewed within the first couple of weeks following JonBenét's death. Autopsy The autopsy revealed that JonBenét had been killed by strangulation and a skull fracture. The official cause of death was "asphyxia by strangulation associated with craniocerebral trauma." There was no evidence of conventional rape, although sexual assault could not be ruled out. Although no semen was found, there was evidence that there had been a vaginal injury. At the time of the autopsy, the pathologist recorded that it appeared her vaginal area had been wiped with a cloth. Her death was ruled a homicide. A garrote that was made from a length of nylon cord and the broken handle of a paintbrush was tied around JonBenét's neck and had apparently been used to strangle her. Part of the bristle end of the paintbrush was found in a tub containing Patsy's art supplies, but the bottom third of it was never found despite extensive searching of the house by the police in subsequent days. The autopsy revealed a "vegetable or fruit material which may represent pineapple," which JonBenét had eaten a few hours before her death. Photographs of the home taken on the day when JonBenét's body was found show a bowl of pineapple on the kitchen table with a spoon in it. However, neither John nor Patsy said they remembered putting the bowl on the table or feeding pineapple to JonBenét. Police reported that they found JonBenét's nine-year-old brother Burke Ramsey's fingerprints on the bowl. The Ramseys have always said that Burke slept through the entire night until he was awakened several hours after the police arrived. Blood samples In December 2003, forensic investigators extracted enough material from a mixed blood sample found on JonBenét's underwear to establish a DNA profile. That DNA belonged to an unknown male person, and excluded the DNA of each of the Ramseys. The DNA was submitted to the FBI's Combined DNA Index System (CODIS), a database containing more than 1.6 million DNA profiles, but the sample did not match any profile in the database. In October 2016, a report said that new forensic analysis with more sensitive techniques revealed that the original DNA contained genetic markers from two individuals other than JonBenét. A. James Kolar, who was a lead investigator for the D.A.'s office, said that there were additional traces of male DNA found on the cord and paintbrush that Boulder district attorney Mary Lacy did not mention, and that there were six separate DNA samples belonging to unknown individuals that were found by the test. Former FBI profiler Candice Delong believes that the DNA, having shown up identically in several different places on multiple surfaces, belongs to the killer. Former Adams County, Colorado, District Attorney Bob Grant, who has assisted the Boulder DA's office on the case for many years, also believes that the DNA evidence is significant, saying that any resolution of the case would have to explain how the DNA showed up on several pieces of JonBenét's clothing. Forensic pathologist Michael Baden said, "Trace amounts of DNA can get on places and clothing from all different, nonsuspicious means. There is no forensic evidence to show that this is a stranger murder." Investigation Experts, media commentators, and the Ramseys have identified potential suspects in the case. Boulder police initially focused almost exclusively upon John and Patsy, but by October 1997 had over 1,600 people in their index of persons of interest for the case. Errors that were made in the initial investigation complicated the resolution of the investigation and applicable theory. Those errors included loss and contamination of evidence, lack of experienced and technical staff on the investigation, evidence shared with the Ramseys, and delayed informal interviews with the parents. Lou Smit was a detective who came out of retirement in early 1997 to assist the Boulder County District Attorney's office with the case. In May 1998, he presented his findings to the Boulder police with other staff members of the DA's Office, concluding that the evidence pointed away from the Ramseys. They were unable to successfully challenge the police department's belief that the Ramseys were guilty. The DA's office sought to take control of the investigation. Due to the animosity between the police and the DA's office, and the pressure to obtain a conviction, Colorado governor Roy Romer interceded and named Michael Kane as special prosecutor to initiate a grand jury. Two of the lead investigators in the case had opposing views. Both Lou Smit and Steve Thomas ultimately resigned Smit because he believed that the investigation had incompetently overlooked the intruder hypothesis, and Thomas because the DA's office had interfered with and failed to support the police investigation of the case. A grand jury was convened beginning September 15, 1998 to consider indicting the Ramseys for charges relating to the case. In 1999, the grand jury returned a true bill to charge the Ramseys with placing the child at risk in a way that led to her death and with obstructing an investigation of murder, based on the probable cause standard applied in such grand jury proceedings. But Boulder County District Attorney Alex Hunter did not prosecute them, because he did not believe that he could meet the higher standard of proving guilt beyond a reasonable doubt that is required for a criminal conviction. Mary Lacy, the next Boulder County District Attorney, took over the investigation from the police on December 26, 2002. In April 2003, she agreed with a federal judge who sat on a 2002 libel case that evidence in the suit is "more consistent with a theory that an intruder murdered JonBenét than it was with a theory that Mrs. Ramsey did". On July 9, 2008, the Boulder District Attorney's office announced that, as a result of newly developed DNA sampling and testing techniques (touch DNA analysis), the Ramsey family members were excluded as suspects in the case. Lacy publicly exonerated the Ramseys. On February 2, 2009, Boulder police chief Mark Beckner announced that Stan Garnett, the new Boulder County District Attorney, was turning the case over to his agency, and that his team would resume investigating it. Garnett found that the statute of limitations for the crimes identified in the 1999 grand jury true bill had expired, and did not pursue review of the case against the Ramseys. In October 2010, the Boulder police reopened the cold case. New interviews were conducted following a fresh inquiry by a committee that included state and federal investigators. Police were expected to use the latest DNA technology in their investigation. There was no new information gleaned from those interviews. It was reported in September 2016 that the investigation into JonBenét's death continues to be an active homicide case, per Boulder Police Chief Greg Testa. In 2015, Beckner disagreed with exonerating the Ramseys, stating, "Exonerating anyone based on a small piece of evidence that has not yet been proved to even be connected to the crime is absurd." He also stated that the unknown DNA from JonBenet's clothing "has got to be the focus of the investigation" at this point in time and that, until one can prove otherwise, "the suspect is the donator of that unknown DNA." In 2016, Gordon Coombes, a former investigator for the Boulder County District Attorney's office, also questioned total absolution of the Ramseys, stating, "We all shed DNA all the time within our skin cells. It can be deposited anywhere at any time for various reasons, reasons that are benign. To clear somebody just on the premise of touch DNA, especially when you have a situation where the crime scene wasn't secure at the beginning ... really is a stretch." Steven E. Pitt, a forensic psychiatrist hired by Boulder authorities, said, "Lacy's public exoneration of the Ramseys was a big slap in the face to Chief Beckner and the core group of detectives who had been working on the case for years." Theories and suspects Family member theory There are two types of theories about the death of JonBenét. One is the family member theory. Boulder police initially concentrated almost exclusively upon the parents, John and Patsy Ramsey. According to Gregg McCrary, a retired profiler with the FBI, "statistically, it is a 12-to-1 probability that it's a family member or a care giver" who is involved in the homicide of a child. The police saw no evidence of a forced entry, but they did see evidence of staging of the scene, such as the ransom note. They did not find the Ramseys cooperative in helping them solve the death of their daughter. The Ramseys had said that their reluctance was due to their fear that there would not be a full investigation for intruders, and that they would be hastily selected as the key suspects in the case, according to the Daily Camera. One theory is that Patsy struck JonBenét in a fit of rage after a bedwetting episode, and strangled her to cover up what had happened, after mistakenly thinking she was already dead. However, Patsy did not have a known history of uncontrolled anger. JonBenét's brother later said, "We didn't get spanked, nothing of the sort, nothing close, nothing near laying a finger on us, let alone killing your child." Theoretically, the strangulation could have been a "red herring" aspect to conceal other elements of the assault and killing. Burke, who was nine years old at the time of JonBenét's death, was interviewed by investigators at least three times. The first two interviews did not raise any concerns about him. A review by a child psychologist stated that it appeared that the Ramseys had "healthy, caring family relationships". In 1998, Boulder Police Chief Mark Beckner said during an interview with a news reporter that Burke Ramsey was not involved in the killing of his sister. In May 1999, the Boulder County District Attorney's office reiterated that Burke Ramsey was not a suspect. The investigators had never considered him a suspect. The Ramseys offered a $100,000 reward in a newspaper ad dated April 27, 1997. Three days later, more than four months after the body of their daughter was found, they submitted for the first time to separate formal interviews at the Boulder County Justice Center. In 1999, Colorado Governor Bill Owens spoke out, telling the Ramsey couple to "quit hiding behind their attorneys, quit hiding behind their PR firm". A Colorado grand jury voted in 1999 to indict the parents. The indictment cited "two counts each of child abuse" and said the parents "did unlawfully, knowingly, recklessly and feloniously permit a child to be unreasonably placed in a situation that posed a threat of injury to the child's life or health, which resulted in the death of JonBenét Ramsey, a child under the age of sixteen." Among the experts who testified in the case were DNA specialist Barry Scheck and forensic expert Henry Lee. On October 13, 1999, Alex Hunter, who was the district attorney at the time, refused to sign the indictment, saying that the evidence was insufficient for prosecution. The public thought that the grand jury investigation had been inconclusive. In 2002, the statute of limitations on the grand jury's charges expired. The grand jury's vote to indict was not revealed publicly until October 25, 2013, when previously sealed court documents were released. The Case of: JonBenét Ramsey, a show broadcast on CBS on September 18 and 19, 2016, used a group of experts to evaluate the evidence. The group theorized that Burke hit his sister in the head with a heavy object (possibly a flashlight) after she stole a piece of pineapple from his bowl, perhaps not intending to kill her. They suggested that the ransom letter was an attempt to cover up the circumstances of JonBenet's death. On behalf of Burke Ramsey, his counsel filed defamation lawsuits against CBS, the producers of the program, and several of its participants, based on many of its claims. Intruder theory The second theory is the intruder theory. The police and the prosecutors followed leads for intruders partly due to the unidentified boot mark left in the basement room where JonBenét's body was found. Early persons of interest included neighbor Bill McReynolds, who played Santa Claus; former family housekeeper Linda Hoffmann-Pugh, and a man named Michael Helgoth, who died in an apparent suicide shortly after JonBenét's death. Hundreds of DNA tests were performed to find a match to the DNA recovered during her autopsy. Lou Smit, a detective in the case, assessed the evidence and concluded that an intruder had committed the crime. On the night JonBenét was killed, there had been two windows that were left slightly open to allow for electrical cords for the outside Christmas lights to pass through, a broken basement window, and one unlocked door. Smit's theory was that someone entered the Ramsey home through the broken basement window. This has been criticized because there was an intact cobweb in the basement window. The steel grate that covered the window also had undisturbed cobwebs, and the foliage around the grate had been undisturbed. There were also cobwebs in the tracks of various windows, and dust and debris were on some sills. Smit believed that the intruder subdued JonBenét using a stun gun and took her down to the basement. JonBenét was killed and a ransom note was left. Smit's theory was supported by former FBI agent John E. Douglas, who had been hired by the Ramsey family. Believing that the Ramseys were innocent, Smit resigned from the investigation on September 20, 1998, five days after the grand jury was convened against the Ramseys. While no longer an official investigator on the case, Smit continued to work on it until his death in 2010. Stephen Singular, author of the book Presumed Guilty: An Investigation into the JonBenét Ramsey Case, the Media and the Culture of Pornography (2016), refers to consultations with cyber-crime specialists who believe that JonBenét, due to her beauty pageant experience, could have attracted the attention of child pornographers and pedophiles. It was determined that there had been more than 100 burglaries in the Ramseys' neighborhood in the months before JonBenét's murder. There were 38 registered sex offenders living within a two-mile (3 km) radius of the Ramseys' home. In 2001, former Boulder County prosecutor Trip DeMuth and Boulder County Sheriff's Detective Steve Ainsworth stated that there should be a more aggressive investigation of the intruder theory. One of the individuals whom Smit identified as a suspect was Gary Howard Oliva, who was arrested for "two counts of attempted sexual exploitation of a child and one count of sexual exploitation of a child" charges in June 2016, according to Boulder's Daily Camera. Oliva, a registered sex offender, was publicly identified as a suspect in an October 2002 episode of 48 Hours Investigates. The Killing of JonBenét: The Truth Uncovered, broadcast by A&E on September 5, 2016, concluded that an unidentified male was responsible for JonBenét's death, based on forensic DNA analysis of evidence. In the documentary, DNA and forensic scientist expert Lawrence Kobilinsky stated that "an unidentified male committed this crime". The District Attorney's office investigating pedophiles indicated to former Denver prosecutor Craig Silverman that the District Attorney's office followed the intruder theory. The Ramseys developed a relationship with District Attorney Mary Lacy and her office, which was criticized by authorities such as the city's mayor, Leslie L Durgin. Silverman said, "Once you have conceded the possibility of an intruder, I don't see how any Ramsey could ever be successfully prosecuted." Gordon Coombes joined the office as an investigator under Lacy when they were testing JonBenét's clothing for touch DNA. He also said that Lacy strongly supported the intruder theory and talked about it with the staff. Although he was not directly involved with the case, he said he was told not to voice opposition to the theory because he might lose his job. "It just seemed weird the whole premise of ... this attempt to influence the entire agency," he stated. False confession Alexis Valoran Reich, a 41-year-old elementary school teacher, was arrested in Bangkok, Thailand, on August 15, 2006 when she falsely confessed to murdering JonBenét. She had previously been known as John Mark Karr, prior to coming out as a transgender woman. She claimed that she had drugged, sexually assaulted, and accidentally killed JonBenét. According to CNN, "Authorities also said they did not find any evidence linking [Reich] to the crime scene." In her confession, Reich had provided only basic facts that were publicly known and failed to provide any convincing details. Her claim that she had drugged JonBenét was doubted because the autopsy indicated that no drugs were found in her body. DNA samples that were taken from Reich did not match DNA found on JonBenét's body. On October 26, 2006, Reich sent an email to Bill Hammons of Bill's List seeking a literary agent to help "publish a manuscript that some might find controversial." Reich later sent emails under numerous pen names, including Daxis the Conqueror, Drk Prnz, and Alexis. Reich later changed her legal name to Alexis Valoran Reich (or Delia Alexis Reich, according to a Washington State drivers' license) after coming out as transgender. However, this was denied by Samantha Spiegel (who gained a restraining order from Reich), who alleged Reich only intended to undergo gender reassignment surgery to get closer to younger girls in a child sex cult called "The Immaculates". Defamation lawsuits Lin Wood, the Ramseys' family libel attorney, filed defamation lawsuits against several people and companies that had reported on the case, starting in 1999. They sued Star magazine and its parent company, American Media, Inc. on their son's behalf in 1999. Defamation suits have been filed by the Ramseys and their friends against several unnamed media outlets. A defamation suit was filed in 2001 against the authors and publisher of JonBenét: Inside the Ramsey Murder Investigation (2000). The suit against Don Davis, Steven Thomas, and St. Martin's Press was settled out of court the following year. John and Patsy Ramsey were sued in two defamation lawsuits arising from the publication of their book, The Death of Innocence (2001). These suits were brought by two persons named in the book who were said to have been investigated by Boulder police as suspects in the case. The Ramseys were defended in those lawsuits by Lin Wood and three other Atlanta attorneys, James C. Rawls, Eric P. Schroeder, and S. Derek Bauer. They obtained the dismissal of both lawsuits. U.S. District Court Judge Julie Carnes later concluded that "abundant evidence" in the murder case pointed to an intruder having committed the crime. In November 2006, Rod Westmoreland, a friend of John Ramsey, filed a defamation suit against an anonymous web surfer who had posted two messages on Internet forums using the pseudonym "undertheradar" implicating Westmoreland in the murder. During a September 2016 interview with CBS Detroit and in The Case of: JonBenét Ramsey documentary television program, forensic pathologist Werner Spitz accused Burke Ramsey of killing his sister. On October 6, 2016, Burke filed a defamation lawsuit against Spitz. Burke and his attorneys, who include Lin Wood, sought a total of $150 million in punitive and compensatory damages. Wood said he would also file a suit against CBS at the end of October 2016. On December 28, 2016, Burke Ramsey's lawyers filed an additional civil lawsuit that accused CBS, the production company Critical Content LLC, and seven experts and consultants of defamation of character. They sought $250 million in compensatory damages and $500 million in punitive damages. In January 2018, a judge denied the CBS motion to dismiss, and the suit was allowed to proceed. In January 2019, Wood announced that the lawsuit had been settled "to the satisfaction of all parties." See also The Case of: JonBenét Ramsey Casting JonBenet Getting Away with Murder: The JonBenét Ramsey Mystery List of murdered American children Notes References Further reading Articles Videos Netflix released a documentary on the case Casting JonBenet on April 28, 2017. External links - index of articles from ABC News JonBenét Ramsey 1996 in Colorado 1996 murders in the United States Murder in Colorado Unsolved murders in the United States December 1996 crimes December 1996 events in the United States Deaths by person in the United States Deaths by strangulation in the United States American murder victims Deaths from head injury Female murder victims Incidents of violence against girls

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killing%20of%20Vincent%20Chin

Killing of Vincent Chin

Vincent Jen Chin (; May 18, 1955 – June 23, 1982) was a Chinese American draftsman who was beaten to death in a racially motivated attack by two white men, Chrysler plant supervisor Ronald Ebens and his stepson, laid-off autoworker Michael Nitz. Ebens and Nitz assailed Chin following a brawl that took place at a strip club in Highland Park, Michigan, where Chin had been celebrating his bachelor party with friends in advance of his upcoming wedding. They apparently assumed Chin was of Japanese descent and are alleged to have used racial slurs as they attacked him. Ebens and Nitz blamed him for the success of Japan's auto industry. At the time, Metro Detroit was a powder keg of racial animosity toward Asian Americans, specifically as the penetration of Japanese automotive imports in the U.S. domestic market hastened the decline of Detroit's Big Three. Resentful workers laid the blame for recent layoffs on Japanese competition. Chin was taken to Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit, where a nurse told his childhood friend that "he has no chance" and that "his brain was dead." He died of his injuries four days later. Ebens and Nitz were charged with second-degree murder, but bargained the charges down to manslaughter and pleaded guilty in 1983. They were ordered to pay $3,000 and serve three years' probation, with no jail time. While Ebens and Nitz never denied the brawl, they claimed the fight was not racially motivated and said they did not use racial epithets. The lenient sentence led to a vocal outcry from Asian Americans. The president of the Detroit Chinese Welfare Council said it amounted to a "$3,000 license to kill" Chinese Americans. As a result, the case has been viewed as a critical turning point for Asian American civil rights engagement and a rallying cry for stronger federal hate crime legislation. Early life Chin was born on May 18, 1955, in Guangdong province, Mainland China. He was the only child of Bing Hing "David" Chin (a.k.a. C.W. Hing) and Lily Chin (née Yee). His father earned the right to bring a Chinese bride into the United States through his service in World War II. After Lily suffered a miscarriage in 1949 and was unable to have children, the couple adopted Vincent from a Chinese orphanage in 1961. Throughout most of the 1960s, Chin grew up in Highland Park. In 1971, after the elderly Hing was mugged, the family moved to Oak Park, Michigan. Vincent Chin graduated from Oak Park High School in 1973, going on to study at Control Data Institute, and Lawrence Tech. At the time of his death, he was employed as an industrial draftsman at Efficient Engineering, an automotive supplier, and working weekends as a waiter at the former Golden Star restaurant in Ferndale, Michigan. He was engaged, and the wedding date set for June 28, 1982. Homicide The fight which would lead to the killing of Vincent Chin started at The Fancy Pants Club on June 19, 1982, when Chin took umbrage at a remark that Ebens made to a stripper who had just finished dancing at Chin's table (Chin was having a bachelor party, as he was to be married eight days later). According to an interview by Michael Moore for the Detroit Free Press, after Chin gave the dancer a generous gratuity, Ebens shouted, "Hey, you little motherfuckers!" and told the stripper, "Don't pay any attention to those little fuckers, they wouldn't know a good dancer if they'd seen one." Ebens claimed that Chin walked over to Ebens and Michael Nitz and threw a punch at Ebens' jaw without provocation, although witnesses at the ensuing trial testified that Ebens also got up and said, "It's because of you little motherfuckers that we're out of work," referring to the Japanese auto industry, particularly Chrysler's increased sales of captively-imported Mitsubishi models rebadged and sold under the Dodge and now-defunct Plymouth brands, and Nitz's layoff from Chrysler in 1979, despite the fact that Chin was of Chinese descent, not Japanese. It is disputed whether Ebens uttered other racial slurs. The fight escalated as Nitz shoved Chin in defense of his stepfather, and Chin countered. Nitz suffered a cut on his head from a chair that Ebens had intended to use to strike Chin. Chin and his friends left the room, while a bouncer led Ebens and Nitz to the restroom to clean up the wound. While they were there, Robert Siroskey, one of Chin's friends, came back inside to use the restroom. He apologized to the group, stating that Chin had a few drinks because of his bachelor's party. Ebens and Nitz had also been drinking that night, although not at the club, which did not serve alcohol. Jimmy Choi also reentered the club to look for Siroskey. When Ebens and Nitz left the club, Chin and his friends were still waiting outside for Siroskey. Chin called Ebens a "chicken shit", at which point Nitz retrieved a baseball bat from his car and Chin and his friends ran down the street. Ebens and Nitz searched the neighborhood for 20 to 30 minutes and even paid another man 20 dollars to help look for Chin, before finding him at a McDonald's restaurant. Chin tried to escape but was held by Nitz while Ebens repeatedly bludgeoned Chin with a baseball bat until Chin's head cracked open. A policeman who witnessed the beating said that Ebens was swinging the bat like he was swinging “for a home run.” He was immediately rushed to Henry Ford Hospital. Chin was unconscious when he arrived; he never regained consciousness and died on June 23, 1982, after being in a coma for four days. Ebens was arrested for the initial assault. After Chin's death, Ebens and Nitz were charged with second-degree murder. Legal history Inaction by the government and advocacy groups At the time, government officials, politicians, and several prominent legal organizations generally dismissed the theory that civil rights laws should be applied to the beating of Vincent Chin. The Detroit chapters of the American Civil Liberties Union and the National Lawyers Guild did not consider Chin's killing a violation of his civil rights. At first, a new group named itself American Citizens for Justice (ACJ) was the only group that lent its support to the theory that existing civil rights laws should be applied to Asian Americans. Eventually, the national body of the National Lawyers Guild endorsed its efforts. State criminal charges Ebens was arrested and taken into custody at the scene of the crime by two off-duty police officers who had witnessed the beating. Ebens and Nitz were convicted in a county court by Wayne County Circuit Judge Charles Kaufman of manslaughter, after a plea bargain brought the charges down from second-degree murder. They served no jail time and were given three years' probation, fined $3,000, and ordered to pay $780 in court costs. In a response letter to protests from American Citizens for Justice, Kaufman said, "These weren't the kind of men you send to jail... You don't make the punishment fit the crime; you make the punishment fit the criminal." Federal civil rights charges The verdict angered the Asian American communities in the Detroit area and around the country. Journalist Helen Zia and lawyer Liza Chan () led the fight for federal charges, which resulted in the two killers being accused of two counts of violating Chin's civil rights, under section 245 of title 18 of the United States Code. For these charges, it was not enough that Ebens had murdered Chin, but that "a substantial motivating factor for the defendants' actions was Mr. Chin's race, color, or national origin, and because Mr. Chin had been enjoying a place of entertainment which serves the public." Because of possible mitigating factors that could lead to reasonable doubt, such as intoxication leading to the defendant's inability to form the specific intent, the prosecution merely proving the evidence of uttered racial slurs would not, in itself, be sufficient for conviction. In addition, the defense found Racine Colwell, the witness who overheard the "It's because of you motherfuckers we're out of work" remark, to have received some clemency on a jail sentence for a prostitution charge, which suggested that the government might have tried to cut a deal for her testimony. The 1984 federal civil rights case against the men found Ebens guilty of the second count and sentenced him to 25 years in prison; Nitz was acquitted of both counts. After an appeal, Ebens' conviction was overturned in 1986—a federal appeals court found that an attorney had improperly coached prosecution witnesses. After a retrial that was moved to Cincinnati, Ohio, due to the publicity the case had received in Detroit, a jury cleared Ebens of all charges in 1987. Civil suits A civil suit for the unlawful death of Vincent Chin was settled out of court on March 23, 1987. Michael Nitz was ordered to pay $50,000. Ronald Ebens was ordered to pay $1.5 million, at $200/month for the first two years and 25% of his income or $200/month thereafter, whichever was greater. This represented the projected loss of income from Vincent Chin's engineering position, as well as Lily Chin's loss of Vincent's services as a laborer and driver. However, Chin's estate would not be allowed to garnish social security, disability, or Ebens' pension from Chrysler, nor could the estate place a lien on Ebens' house. In November 1989, Ebens reappeared in court for a creditor's hearing, where he detailed his finances and reportedly pledged to make good on his debt to the Chin estate. However, in 1997, the Chin estate was forced to renew the civil suit, as it was allowed to do every ten years. With accrued interest and other charges, the adjusted total became $4,683,653.89. Ebens sought in 2015 to have the resulting lien against his house vacated. Aftermath Chin was interred in Detroit's Forest Lawn Cemetery. In September 1987, Chin's mother, Lily, moved from Oak Park back to her hometown of Guangzhou, China, in order to avoid being reminded of her son's death. She returned to the United States for medical treatment in late 2001 and died on June 9, 2002. Prior to her death, Lily Chin established a scholarship in Vincent's memory, to be administered by American Citizens for Justice. Legacy The attack was considered a hate crime by many, but it predated the passage of hate crime laws in the United States. After Chin's murder was raised during a 1998 House of Representatives hearing on the Hate Crimes Prevention Act of 1997, Congressman John Conyers mistook Chin to be Japanese-American and denied that the injustices of Chin's case were racial in nature. Rather, Conyers suggested that they were political due to the case's connection to the automobile industry and the "thinking about exports and imports." Chin's case has been cited by some Asian Americans in support of the idea that they are considered "perpetual foreigners" in contrast to "real" Americans who are considered full citizens. Lily Chin stated: "What kind of law is this? What kind of justice? This happened because my son is Chinese. If two Chinese killed a white person, they must go to jail, maybe for their whole lives... Something is wrong with this country." In 2010, the city of Ferndale, Michigan, erected a legal milestone marker at the intersection of Woodward Avenue and 9 Mile Road that commemorates the killing of Chin. In the media Documentaries Who Killed Vincent Chin? (1988), documentary by Renee Tajima and Christine Choy. Nominated for a 1989 Academy Award for Best Documentary. Vincent Who? (2009), documentary written and produced by Curtis Chin and directed by Tony Lam. "Killer Swing", Fatal Encounters. Investigation Discovery. July 23, 2013. In popular culture Because They Thought He Was... is a sculpture by Consuelo Echeverria. It is a life-size depiction of the incident made from forged steel auto parts. In 1998, a play based on the case, Cherylene Lee's Carry the Tiger to the Mountain, was performed at the Contemporary American Theater Festival in Shepherdstown, West Virginia. The West End Theatre in Manhattan performed the play in June 2007 as part of the first National Asian American Theater Festival. Chin is referenced in the Blue Scholars' song "Morning of America". Chin is referenced in The Dead Milkmen song "Anthropology Days". On January 30, 2013, Judge Denny Chin along with faculty and professors from the University of California, Hastings College of the Law performed a re-enactment of the Vincent Chin trial. Referenced in The Twilight Zone, season 1, episode 21, titled "Wong's Lost and Found Emporium" (aired November 22, 1985), as a central reason for the protagonist to have lost his compassion. The story of Vincent Chin's killing as told by his childhood friend, is the main subject of the 3rd section, titled Jade, of Peter Ho Davies' 2016 book The Fortunes. Chin is referenced in the June 7, 2021 episode of Last Week Tonight with John Oliver about Asian Americans. Other In 1983, Lily Chin appeared on The Phil Donahue Show in order to bring public attention to the case. The 2001 book A Day for Vincent Chin and Me by Jacqueline Turner Banks () is about a Japanese-American child's efforts to slow down the traffic on a residential street in Kentucky, while his parents mount a local protest in support of the Chin case. Paula Yoo's 2021 young adult novel From a Whisper to a Rallying Cry: The Killing of Vincent Chin and the Trial that Galvanized the Asian American Movement () details the Asian American civil rights movement resulting from the Chin murder trial and verdict. See also Anti-Chinese sentiment in the United States Anti-Japanese sentiment in the United States Hate crime laws in the United States Racism in the United States Stop Asian Hate References Further reading External links American Citizens for Justice Opening lecture at the 5th Annual Conference in Citizenship Studies: Boundaries, March 27–29, 2008, by Frank H. Wu, Wayne State University US v. Ebens appellate ruling Vincent Chin page at McMurder.com Vincent Who? (2009) – Official Movie Site Asian-American issues Cold War history of the United States Deaths by person in the United States Anti-Chinese violence in the United States 1982 in Michigan 1982 in Detroit June 1982 events in the United States June 1982 crimes Anti-Japanese sentiment in the United States Racially motivated violence against Asian-Americans Asian-American-related controversies Bullying in the United States Deaths by beating in the United States Highland Park, Michigan

366943

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killing%20of%20Amadou%20Diallo

Killing of Amadou Diallo

In the early hours of February 4, 1999, an unarmed 23-year-old Guinean student named Amadou Diallo (born September 2, 1975) was shot by four New York City Police Department plainclothes officers: Sean Carroll, Richard Murphy, Edward McMellon, and Kenneth Boss. Carroll would later claim to have mistaken him for a rape suspect from one year earlier. The four officers, who were part of the now-defunct Street Crime Unit, were charged with second-degree murder and acquitted at trial in Albany, New York. A firestorm of controversy erupted after the event, as the circumstances of the shooting prompted outrage both inside and outside of New York City. Issues such as police brutality, racial profiling, and contagious shooting were central to the ensuing controversy. Early life Amadou Diallo was one of four children born to Saikou and Kadijatou Diallo, and part of a historic Fulbe trading family in Guinea. He was born in Sinoe County in Liberia on September 2, 1975, while his father was working there, and while growing up followed his family to Togo, Singapore, Thailand, and back to Guinea. In September 1996, he followed other family members to New York City and started a business with a cousin. According to his family's lawyer he sought to remain in the United States by filing a political asylum application falsely claiming that he was from Mauritania and that his parents had been killed in fighting. He sold video cassettes, gloves, and socks on the sidewalk along 14th Street during the day. Death In the early morning of February 4, 1999, Diallo was standing near his building after returning from a meal. At about 12:40 a.m., officers Edward McMellon, Sean Carroll, Kenneth Boss and Richard Murphy were looking for an alleged serial rapist in the Soundview section of the Bronx. While driving down Wheeler Avenue, the police officer stopped his unidentified car and interrogated Diallo, who was in front of his apartment. When they ordered Diallo to show his hands, he supposedly ran into the apartment and reached into his pocket to show his wallet. Soon afterwards, assuming Diallo was drawing a gun, the four officers fired 41 shots with semi-automatic pistols, hitting Diallo 19 times, fatally wounding him. Eyewitness Sherrie Elliott stated that the police continued to shoot even though Diallo was already down. The investigation found no weapons on or near Diallo; what he had pulled out of his jacket was a wallet. The internal NYPD investigation ruled that the officers had acted within policy, based on what a reasonable police officer would have done in the same circumstances. Nonetheless, the Diallo shooting led to a review of police training policy and of the use of full metal jacket (FMJ) bullets. On March 25, 1999, a Bronx grand jury indicted the four officers on charges of second-degree murder and reckless endangerment. On December 16, a court ordered a change of venue to Albany, New York because of pretrial publicity. On February 25, 2000, after three days of deliberation, a jury composed of four black and eight white jurors acquitted the officers of all charges. Aftermath In April 2000, Diallo's mother and father filed a $61million lawsuit against the city and the officers, charging gross negligence, wrongful death, racial profiling, and other violations of Diallo's civil rights. In March 2004, they accepted a $3 million settlement, one of the largest in the City of New York for a single man with no dependents under New York State's "wrongful death law", which limits damages to financial loss by the deceased person's next of kin. Anthony H. Gair, representing the Diallo family, argued that federal common law should apply. In April 2002, as a result of the killing of Diallo and other controversial actions, the Street Crime Unit was disbanded. In 2003, Diallo's mother published a memoir, My Heart Will Cross This Ocean: My Story, My Son, Amadou, with the help of author Craig Wolff. Diallo's death became an issue in the 2005 New York City mayoral election. Bronx borough president and mayoral candidate Fernando Ferrer, who had protested against the circumstances of the killing at the time, was criticized by the Diallo family and many others for telling a meeting of police sergeants that although the shooting had been a tragedy, the officers had been "over-indicted". Boss, one of the four officers implicated, had shot another black man dead in 1997. After the trial Boss was reassigned to desk duty, but in October 2012, Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly restored Boss' ability to carry a firearm. As of 2012 he was the only one of the four officers still working for the NYPD. In 2015 he was promoted to sergeant in accordance to police policy, which is not subject to review by top department officials. He retired from policework in 2019. A report from Capital New York reported that 85 IP addresses belonging to the New York Police Department had made changes to Wikipedia pages about NYPD misconduct and also to articles about people killed in police interventions, including this article. One of these editions stated that "Officer Kenneth Boss had previously been involved in an incident in which an unarmed man was shot, but continued to work as a police officer" and was changed to "Officer Kenneth Boss was previously involved in an incident in which a man armed was shot.” Two policemen associated with these edits were reported to receive only "minor reprimands". In April 2021, Diallo's mother was interviewed about her reaction to the conviction of Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin for the murder of George Floyd. Cultural references to Diallo Music Mentioned in the song ‘Senegal’ by Akon. Rapper Fredro Starr mentioned Diallo in the song “What If” The music of rapper 88-Keys; Bruce Springsteen's song "American Skin (41 Shots)"; "Diallo" by Wyclef Jean; "New York City Cops" off The Strokes' debut album Is This It had the incident as the inspiration. Singer Julian Casablancas revealed that this was a political song influenced by the shooting of Amadou Diallo in a March 2018 Vulture interview. "I Find It Hard to Say (Rebel)" by Lauryn Hill; "Lament for the Late AD" by Terry Callier. The Public Enemy album There's a Poison Goin' On features a song titled "41:19" based on the number of rounds fired at and striking Diallo and contains lyrics concerning police harassment and violence. The song "W.O.L.V.E.S." by Krumbsnatcha and M.O.P., which appeared on the soundtrack for the 2001 film Training Day ("What happened to Diallo was a muthafuckin' shame"). Electro pop band Le Tigre lamented the Diallo shooting in their song "Bang! Bang!", which ends with a vocal chorus counting numbers that ends with 41, the number of shots fired. In his song "The Other White Meat", which deals with police brutality and racism, New York rapper Immortal Technique tells the police "I got 41 reasons to tell you to suck a dick" and "Guns don't look like wallets", clearly referencing the shooting and counting every bullet fired as a reason. The incident was briefly mentioned by rapper Heems in his song "WOYY": "Diallo got shot when he said the block was hot." The piece "Amadou Diallo", included in the album Ethnic Stew and Brew by jazz trumpeter Roy Campbell, Jr., was inspired by the shooting, ending with a rapid burst of notes replicating the 41 gunshots. The incident also served as the basis for Erykah Badu's track "A.D. 2000" (the abbreviation standing for Diallo's initials), from the album Mama's Gun. Rather than singing a condemnation of the NYPD, as had most other artists who were incensed by the event, Badu chose to sing an elegy which, while noting the tragedy of Diallo's killing, also observes the furor over the circumstances, which she viewed as likely to be temporary: "No you won't be namin' no buildings after me/To go down dilapidated ooh/No you won't be namin' no buildings after me/My name will be misstated, surely". In his album The Beautiful Struggle, Talib Kweli speaks of "Brother Amadou as [...] a modern day martyr." Kweli makes further reference to the shooting in his song "The Proud": "It's in they job description to terminate the threat/So 41 shots to the body is what he can expect". The underground rap artist Milo referenced Amadou quoting, "Surrounded by Anglos in Almelo, thinkin 'bout Amadou Diallo" The metal band Trivium wrote the song Contempt Breeds Contamination from their third album The Crusade about Diallo's death. Emawk has a song titled "Amadou.jpg" on his EP "Ifievercantmakeit.Jpg" The killing is referenced in Mischief Brew's song "Thanks, Bastards!" with lines like "For every time your gun goes off, a new rebel is born / So when there's 41 bullets / There's 41 thousand thorns in your side" and "Found a wallet, not a gun." Film In 2000, a group of human rights organizations completed The Day After Diallo, a short video about police violence against people of color in the context of the killing of Amadou Diallo. The video was co-produced by WITNESS, New York City PoliceWatch and The Ella Baker Center for Human Rights. In the 2002 film Phone Booth, the caller (voiced by Kiefer Sutherland) warns the main character Stu (played by Colin Farrell) not to move, telling him "you can get shot 41 times just for pulling out your wallet". Visual arts A drawing by Art Spiegelman showing a police officer at a shooting gallery with a banner reading "41 shots 10¢" was featured on the cover of The New Yorker on March 8, 1999. 250 police officers picketed the magazine's headquarters in response. Television In Law & Order, Season 13, Episode 7, “Open Season”, where an alleged cop-shooter is acquitted, Detective Ed Green references the killing as follows: “Yeah, well, you tell that to Amadou Diallo’s family…this whole blue wall thing, dinosaur.” See also American Skin (41 Shots) Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking Civil rights List of killings by law enforcement officers in the United States New York City Police Department corruption and misconduct Police brutality Racial profiling References External links Amadou Diallo Foundation Kadi Diallo's Trial, TedConover.com "The Day After Diallo" (Short film) New York City Police Department corruption and misconduct Deaths by firearm in the Bronx Deaths by person in New York City 1999 in New York City Crimes in the Bronx History of the Bronx Police brutality in the United States February 1999 events in the United States Soundview, Bronx 20th century in the Bronx Black Lives Matter

493649

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killing%20of%20Benno%20Ohnesorg

Killing of Benno Ohnesorg

Benno Ohnesorg (; 15 October 1940 – 2 June 1967) was a West German university student killed by a policeman during a demonstration in West Berlin. His death spurred the growth of the left-wing German student movement. Incident Protest On 2 June 1967, Ohnesorg participated in a student protest held near the Deutsche Oper, in opposition to the state visit of the Shah of Iran, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, who was attending a performance of Mozart's The Magic Flute at the Deutsche Oper that night. It was the first political demonstration in which Ohnesorg had ever taken part. Violence and shooting The protest turned violent after pro-Shah demonstrators, including agents of the Shah's intelligence service, began battling with students, and the police overreacted, employing brutal tactics in their attempts to control the crowd. In the ensuing tumult, demonstrators dispersed into the side streets. In the courtyard of Krumme Straße 66, Ohnesorg was then shot in the back of the head by police officer Karl-Heinz Kurras. Ohnesorg died before he could be treated at a hospital. Kurras stood trial the same year and was acquitted, on 27 November 1967. Ohnesorg was a student of Romance and German studies. He was married and his wife was pregnant with their first child. A week after Ohnesorg's death, a funeral caravan accompanied his coffin as it was transported from West Berlin through checkpoints in East Germany to his hometown of Hanover in West Germany, where he was buried. Re-investigation More than forty years later, in 2009, it was revealed that at the time of the events Kurras had been an informal collaborator of the East German secret police Stasi, and a long-time member of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany, the ruling East German Communist party; however, the motive behind Kurras' act remains unclear. The new information was based on documents discovered in the Stasi archives. Initial reports indicated that the archives contained no evidence that Kurras was acting under Stasi orders when he shot Ohnesorg. On the basis of the 2009 revelations about Kurras, the German prosecutor's office initiated a new investigation, in order to clarify definitively whether there was any evidence that the killing of Ohnesorg could have been ordered by authorities in East Berlin; in November 2011 that investigation was officially closed, with the determination that there was not enough evidence to justify reopening the case. The prosecutor's office noted that, due to the passage of time, many participants in the trial were either no longer alive or otherwise unable to provide reliable testimony; also, documents relevant to the case were evidently among those destroyed by the East German foreign intelligence service in the interval between the fall of the Berlin Wall, in 1989, and German reunification, in 1990. Following up in January 2012, Der Spiegel magazine reported that research carried out by federal prosecutors, as well as by the magazine, found that the shooting was not in self-defense as always claimed by Kurras and that it was certainly premeditated. Newly examined film and photographic evidence also implicated fellow officers and superiors, demonstrating that the police covered up the truth in subsequent investigations and trials. Additionally, medical staff who carried out the autopsy on Ohnesorg were ordered to falsify their report. However, the Spiegel report indicated that the new information was still unlikely to be sufficient for the case to be reopened. Legacy Ohnesorg's death served as a rallying point for the left, and spurred the growth of the left-wing German student movement; later, the Movement 2 June group (founded around 1971) was named for the day of his death. Student activist Rudi Dutschke led student protest actions in the period following Ohnesorg's death. Just after Ohnesorg's burial in Hanover, Dutschke, speaking at a conference held at the university there – under the rubric "The University and Democracy: Conditions and Organization of Resistance" – clashed with philosophy professor Jürgen Habermas over the future of the movement, with Dutschke advocating radical action that might include illegality and violence if necessary (though, in reality, his first proposed action was a peaceful sit-down strike); his intransigence prompted Habermas, who had urged a more moderate and pragmatic approach, famously to characterize Dutschke's ideology as amounting to "left fascism", a formulation that he later retracted. The student movement that swelled and, in part, became radicalised in the late 1960s, after Ohnesorg's death, influenced many future German politicians who were in their teens and twenties at the time. A monument next to the Deutsche Oper Berlin, which was designed by Austrian sculptor Alfred Hrdlicka, serves as a memorial for the killing. In December 2008, municipal authorities inaugurated an official memorial panel on the sidewalk in front of the house where Ohnesorg was shot. In Ohnesorg's hometown of Hanover, a bridge over the Ihme river is named after him. In film The opening scene of the 2008 film Der Baader Meinhof Komplex shows Ohnesorg's death, with the role of Ohnesorg played by Martin Glade. See also German student movement References External links Photograph of Benno Ohnesorg's death (Deutsches Historisches Museum) Short video about Ohnesorg's death, in English, with contemporary footage, in The Berlin Wall: A Multimedia History, RBB (Berlin-Brandenburg broadcaster) 1967 deaths People shot dead by law enforcement officers in Germany Police misconduct in Germany False flag operations German anti-war activists 1940 births

592099

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killing%20of%20Damilola%20Taylor

Killing of Damilola Taylor

On 27 November 2000, ten-year-old Nigerian schoolboy Damilola Taylor was killed in London, in what became one of the United Kingdom's most high-profile killings. Two brothers who were 12 and 13 at the time of the killing were convicted of manslaughter in 2006. Damilola Taylor Damilola Olufemi Taylor was born in Lagos, Nigeria to Richard and Gloria Taylor (died 8 April 2008), members of the Yoruba people. He attended Wisdom Montessori School in Ikosi, Ketu, Lagos before he travelled to the United Kingdom in August 2000 with his family to seek treatment for his sister's epilepsy. Death On 27 November 2000, Taylor set off from Peckham Library, south London, at 4:51 pm to walk home. He was captured on CCTV as he walked away. On approaching the North Peckham Estate he received a gash to his left thigh, severing an artery. Staggering to a stairwell, he collapsed and bled to near death in approximately 30 minutes. He was still alive in an ambulance on his way to hospital. He died 10 days before his 11th birthday. Trials First trial In 2002, four youths, including two 16-year-old brothers, went on trial at the Old Bailey for the murder of Taylor. The trial led to all four suspects being acquitted. Two were acquitted on the direction of the judge after he ruled that the prosecution's key witness, a 14-year-old girl, was unreliable; the jury found the other two not guilty. As well as questioning the reliability of the witness, the defence presented expert witness testimony from Alastair Wilson, associate clinical director at the Royal London Hospital and one of Britain's top trauma experts, that Taylor's wounds were consistent with his falling on a broken bottle whilst being attacked. This was disputed by the prosecution, who argued that Taylor would have had to "take off and fly through the air like Peter Pan" in order for Wilson's theory to be correct. Wilson also admitted that "he had not seen Damilola's body or been given other information about the death." Pathologist Dr. Vesna Djurovic maintained that Taylor "was stabbed deliberately [with a broken bottle] in the left thigh, probably while he was on the ground." New evidence Despite the setback, police vowed to keep the investigation open. New DNA techniques identified Taylor's blood on the trainers of Daniel Preddie and on the sweatshirt cuff of his brother Richard Preddie, neither of whom were among the four original subjects. This led to a re-examination of the evidence obtained at the time of Taylor's death. In 2005, fresh arrests were made, resulting in Hassan Jihad, 19, and the Preddie brothers, aged 16 and 17, being charged with manslaughter. Due to their age, the Preddie brothers were not publicly named at the time of their arrest or during their trial. Second trial On 23 January 2006, Jihad (now 21 years old) and the Preddie brothers (now 17 and 18 years old) appeared at the Old Bailey to face charges of his manslaughter and assault before the start of their imminent trial. The trial commenced on 24 January 2006. Alastair Wilson again testified that he thought that Taylor had died after falling on a shard of glass from a broken bottle. After retiring on 29 March to consider its verdict, on 3 April the jury cleared Jihad of all charges in relation to Taylor's death. They were unable to reach a verdict on the charges of manslaughter against the two brothers, so they were released, but with the possibility of a retrial on those charges. Retrial for manslaughter The retrial of the two brothers began on 23 June. The two brothers, then over 18, were named as Danny and Ricky Preddie, of Peckham, south London. Both defendants were very well known to police, having committed multiple robberies. On 9 August 2006, Ricky Gavin Preddie (born 1987, Lambeth, London) and Danny Charles Preddie (born 1988, Lambeth), after a 33-day retrial, were convicted of the manslaughter of Taylor. During the retrial it was noted that, while the police did follow procedure collecting evidence, lapses occurred in the prosecution. On 9 October 2006, an Old Bailey judge sentenced the Preddie brothers to eight years in youth custody for manslaughter. Although it was widely reported in the media that Taylor's parents were unhappy that the sentences had not been longer, the judge, Mr Justice Goldring, went to some lengths to explain the factors he was forced to take into account. These included the age of the offenders at the time (12 and 13), and that there was no evidence to suggest that there had been a plan to kill Taylor. In addition, the bottle used had not been carried to the scene of the crime. Both brothers were set to be paroled in 2010 after serving half of their sentence. Ricky was released on 8 September 2010, subject to probation supervision, and subject to recall to custody if he breached the conditions or if his behaviour indicated that it was no longer safe to allow him to remain in the community. Danny was released in 2011. Ricky was recalled on 13 March 2011 because he was seen in Peckham, and for associating with gang members, both contrary to his parole conditions. He was released again on 25 January 2012. He was again recalled to prison sixteen days later, in February 2012, after again associating with gang members in Peckham, in breach of the terms of his release. Taylor's father called for a public inquiry into the handling of the case. Ricky Preddie was released again in July 2012. Aftermath In February 2020 Ricky Preddie (also known as Ricky Johnson) was again jailed. He had driven his car at a police officer, leaving her with serious injuries. Preddie pleaded guilty to causing serious injury by dangerous driving; driving whilst disqualified; failing to stop; and driving without insurance. He was imprisoned for four years for the crimes. In popular culture Children's author Beverley Naidoo recalled how when she went to accept the Smarties Silver Award for her book The Other Side of Truth (2000), about two Nigerian child refugees, she heard the news of Taylor's death. As a result, she organised an ongoing donation of 10p to the Refugee Council from every book sold. Writer Stephen Kelman was nominated for the 2011 Man Booker Prize for his debut novel Pigeon English, inspired in part by the Taylor killing. Actor John Boyega and his sister Grace were among the last people to see Taylor alive. They were friends and the Boyegas helped watch him. The BBC programme Panorama aired a special on the death of Damilola Taylor in April 2002. A 90-minute BBC dramatisation of the events leading to his death and his family's search for justice, Damilola, Our Loved Boy, premiered in November 2016 and won the BAFTA Award for a single drama. In Black History Month 2020, Capital XTRA presenter Yinka Bokinni, also a playmate of Damilola Taylor, hosted a documentary about him for Channel 4 titled Damilola: The Boy Next Door. See also Timeline of children's rights in the United Kingdom References Citations About King's College London : News and What's On : King's College London External links Damilola Taylor Trust 2000 crimes in the United Kingdom 2000 in London 2000s crimes in London 2000s trials 20th century in the London Borough of Southwark Deaths by person in London Manslaughter trials Murder trials November 2000 crimes November 2000 events in the United Kingdom Peckham Trials in London Knife attacks

898673

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killing%20of%20Peter%20Fechter

Killing of Peter Fechter

Peter Fechter (14 January 1944 – 17 August 1962) was a German bricklayer who became the twenty-seventh known person to die at the Berlin Wall. Fechter was 18 years old when he was shot and killed by East German border guards while trying to cross over to West Berlin. Biography Peter Fechter was born on 14 January 1944, in Berlin, Germany, during the final years of World War II. Fechter was the third of four children, and raised in the Weißensee district of Berlin. His father was a mechanical engineer and his mother was a saleswoman. Fechter finished school at the age of 14, and graduated as a bricklayer. After World War II had ended, Weißensee was located in the Soviet occupation zone of Berlin when the city was divided during the Allied Occupation, with the Soviet zone later becoming East Berlin in East Germany. Fechter's eldest sister had married and now lived in West Berlin, where she was regularly visited by her parents and siblings. On 13 August 1961, the East German authorities abruptly closed the border and began construction of the Berlin Wall, effectively separating Fechter and his family from his sister in West Berlin. Fechter's colleague, Helmut Kulbeik, later stated that he and Fechter had been contemplating defecting to West Berlin for a while, and that they had also explored the border installations, but no concrete planning was ever made at the time. Shortly after, Fechter was denied a legally sanctioned trip to West Germany by his company, despite receiving good judgement. Death On 17 August 1962, around one year after the construction of the Berlin Wall, Fechter and Helmut Kulbeik attempted to flee from East Germany. The plan was to hide in a carpenter's workshop near the wall on Zimmerstrasse and, after observing the border guards from there, to jump out of a window into the "death-strip" (a strip running between the main wall and a parallel fence which they had recently started to construct), run across it, and climb over the two-metre (6.5 ft) wall topped with barbed wire into the Kreuzberg district of West Berlin near Checkpoint Charlie. Their plan was initially successful as both Fechter and Kulbeik reached the final wall, but as they began to climb the East German border guards fired at them. Although Kulbeik succeeded in crossing over the wall, Fechter was shot in the pelvis while still climbing, in plain view of hundreds of witnesses. He fell back into the death-strip on the East German side, where he remained in view of West German onlookers, including journalists. Despite his screams, Fechter received no medical assistance from the East German side, and could not be tended to by those on the West side. West Berlin police threw him bandages, which he could not reach, and he bled to death after approximately one hour. As a result of his death, hundreds in West Berlin formed a spontaneous demonstration, shouting "Murderers!" at the border guards. The lack of medical assistance for Peter Fechter was attributed to mutual fear: Western bystanders were apparently prevented at gunpoint from assisting him, although according to a report in Time magazine, a second lieutenant of the US Army on the scene received specific orders from the US Commandant in West Berlin to stand firm and do nothing. It also emerged during the trial that any aid attempt from the West had indeed been made impossible, but according to a report from forensic pathologist Otto Prokop, "Fechter had no chance of survival. The shot in the right hip had caused severe internal injuries." Trial In March 1997, seven years after the reunification of Germany and 35 years after Fechter's death, two former East German guards, Rolf Friedrich and Erich Schreiber, faced manslaughter charges for Fechter's death. Both admitted to the shooting after an intense investigation. They were both convicted and sentenced to 20 and 21 months' imprisonment on probation. Due to a lack of conclusive evidence, the court was unable to determine which of three gunmen (one of whom had already died) had fired the fatal bullet. After pleading guilty to the crime, during sentencing, both guards apologized for killing Fechter, saying that if they could take it back, they would, and that they were honestly remorseful for their actions. Commemoration A cross was placed on the western side near the spot where Fechter was shot and bled to death. At the invitation of Willy Brandt, the mayor of West Berlin, the Yale Russian Chorus sang a German translation of Mozart's Ave Verum Corpus near the site in the week following the shooting. On the first anniversary, a wreath was placed there by Willy Brandt and US major general James Polk. The story of Peter Fechter was the headline of American news magazine Time in August 1962. In this article was used the noun "Wall of Shame" (Mauer der Schande), and this became a synonym for the wall. After German reunification in 1990, the Peter-Fechter-Stelle memorial was constructed on Zimmerstrasse, at the precise spot where he had died on the Eastern side, and this has been a focal point for some of the commemorations regarding the wall. The shooting has also been the subject of documentaries on German television. Cornelius Ryan dedicated his book The Last Battle to the memory of Fechter. Composer Aulis Sallinen wrote an orchestral work Mauermusik to commemorate Fechter. In 2007, artist Mark Gubb was commissioned by the Institute of Contemporary Arts to create a performance based on the death of Peter Fechter. The performance was a one-hour live piece that was later recorded and screened at the ICA with a discussion panel at the end consisting of the artist, and actor Dominik Danielewicz who played the part of Peter Fechter. The 1972 ballad Libre ("Free") – a recording famous in all Ibero-America – by Spanish singer Nino Bravo, remembers this event. In 2012 Canadian playwright Jordan Tannahill's play Peter Fechter: 59 Minutes, a poetic re-imagining of the final hour of Fechter's life, was produced in Canada and Berlin. Literature Christine Brecht: Peter Fechter, in: Die Todesopfer an der Berliner Mauer 1961–1989. Ein biographisches Handbuch. Links, Berlin 2009, , S. 101–104. Lars-Broder Keil, Sven Felix Kellerhoff; Thomas Schmid (Hrsg.): Mord an der Mauer. Der Fall Peter Fechter. Mit einem Geleitwort von Klaus Wowereit. Quadriga, Köln 2012, . Ralf Gründer: SED-Mordopfer Peter Fechter, in: Niemand hat die Absicht .... Screenshot-Fotografie von Herbert Ernst, gedreht in den Jahren 1961 und 1962 im geteilten Berlin. Berliner Wissenschafts-Verlag, Berlin 2018, , S. 342–369. See also List of deaths at the Berlin Wall Berlin Crisis of 1961 Eastern Bloc emigration and defection List of Eastern Bloc defectors Filmaufnahme vom Abtransport des sterbenden Peter Fechter References External links Berlin Wall at Zimmerstrasse, Photos near the location of Fechter's death, taken in 1961 ICA Performance, the performance and screening of the "Death of Peter Fechter" Jordan Tannahill: "Peter Fechter, 59 Minutes" Deaths at the Berlin Wall Deaths by firearm in East Germany 1960s in Berlin 1962 in East Germany 1962 crimes in Germany Manslaughter in Germany August 1962 events in Europe 1960s murders in Germany 1944 births 1962 deaths

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killing%20of%20Muhammad%20al-Durrah

Killing of Muhammad al-Durrah

On 30 September 2000, the second day of the Second Intifada, 12-year-old Muhammad al-Durrah was killed in the Gaza Strip during widespread protests and riots across the Palestinian territories against Israeli military occupation. Jamal al-Durrah and his son Muhammad were filmed by Talal Abu Rahma, a Palestinian television cameraman freelancing for France 2, as they were caught in crossfire between the Israeli military and Palestinian security forces. The footage shows the pair crouching behind a concrete cylinder, the boy crying and the father waving, then a burst of gunfire and dust. Muhammad is shown slumping as he is mortally wounded by gunfire, dying soon after. Fifty-nine seconds of the footage were broadcast on television in France with a voiceover from Charles Enderlin, the station's bureau chief in Israel. Based on information from the cameraman, Enderlin told viewers that the al-Durrahs had been the target of fire from the Israeli positions and that the boy had died. After an emotional public funeral, Muhammad was hailed throughout the Muslim world as a martyr. The Israel Defense Forces accepted responsibility for the shooting at first, claiming that Palestinians used children as human shields but later retracted the admission of responsibility. Critics of Enderlin's filmed report have since questioned the accuracy of France 2's footage. French journalists who saw the raw footage said that France 2 had cut a final few seconds in which Muhammad appeared to lift his hand from his face; they acknowledged that Muhammad had died, but said the footage alone did not show it. France 2's news editor said in 2005 that no one could be sure who fired the shots. Other commentators, particularly Philippe Karsenty, a French media commentator, went further, alleging that the scene had been staged by France 2; France 2 sued him for libel and in 2013 he was fined €7,000 by the Court of Appeal of Paris. In May that year an Israeli government report supported Karsenty's view. Jamal al-Durrah and Charles Enderlin rejected its conclusion and called for an independent international investigation. The footage of the father and son acquired what one writer called the power of a battle flag. Postage stamps in the Middle East carried the images. Abu Rahma's coverage of the al-Durrah shooting brought him several journalism awards, including the Rory Peck Award in 2001. Background On 28 September 2000, two days before the shooting, the Israeli opposition leader Ariel Sharon visited the Temple Mount in the Old City of Jerusalem, a holy site in both Judaism and Islam with contested rules of access. The violence that followed had its roots in several events, but the visit was provocative and triggered protests that escalated into rioting across the West Bank and Gaza Strip. The uprising became known as the Second Intifada; it lasted over four years and cost around 4,000 lives, over 3,000 of them Palestinian. The Netzarim junction, where the shooting took place, is known locally as the al-Shohada (martyrs') junction. It lies on Saladin Road, a few kilometres south of Gaza City. The source of conflict at the junction was the nearby Netzarim settlement, where 60 Israeli families lived until Israel's withdrawal from Gaza in 2005. A military escort accompanied the settlers whenever they left or arrived at the settlement, and an Israeli military outpost, Magen-3, guarded the approach. The area had been the scene of violent incidents in the days before the shooting. People Jamal and Muhammad al-Durrah Jamal al-Durrah (born c. 1963) was a carpenter and house painter before the shooting. Since then, because of his injuries, he has worked as a truck driver. He and his wife, Amal, live in the UNRWA-run Bureij refugee camp in the Gaza Strip. As of 2013 they had four daughters and six sons, including a boy, Muhammad, born two years after the shooting. Until the shooting, Jamal had worked for Moshe Tamam, an Israeli contractor, for 20 years, since he was 14. Writer Helen Schary Motro came to know Jamal when she employed him to help build her house in Tel Aviv. She described his years of rising at 3:30 am to catch the bus to the border crossing at four, then a second bus out of Gaza so he could be at work by six. Tamam called him a "terrific man," someone he trusted to work alone in his customers' homes. Muhammad Jamal Al-Durrah (born 1988) was in fifth grade, but his school was closed on 30 September 2000; the Palestinian Authority had called for a general strike and day of mourning following violence in Jerusalem the day before. His mother said he had been watching the rioting on television and asked if he could join in. Father and son decided instead to go to a car auction. Jamal had just sold his 1974 Fiat, Motro wrote, and Muhammad loved cars, so they went to the auction together. Charles Enderlin Charles Enderlin was born in 1945 in Paris; his grandparents were Austrian Jews who had left the country in 1938 when Germany invaded. After briefly studying medicine, he moved to Jerusalem in 1968 where he became an Israeli national. He began working for France 2 in 1981, serving as their bureau chief in Israel from 1990 until his retirement in 2015. Enderlin is the author of several books about the Middle East, including one about Muhammad al-Durrah, Un Enfant est Mort: Netzarim, 30 Septembre 2000 (2010). Highly regarded among his peers and within the French establishment, he submitted a letter from Jacques Chirac, during the Philippe Karsenty libel action, who wrote in flattering terms of Enderlin's integrity. In 2009 he was awarded France's highest decoration, the Légion d'honneur. According to journalist Anne-Elisabeth Moutet, Enderlin's coverage of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict was respected by other journalists but was regularly criticized by pro-Israel groups. As a result of the al-Durrah case, he received death threats, his wife was assaulted in the street, his children were threatened, the family had to move home, and at one point they considered emigrating to the United States. Talal Abu Rahma Talal Hassan Abu Rahma studied business administration in the United States, and began working as a freelance cameraman for France 2 in Gaza in 1988. At the time of the shooting, he ran his own press office, the National News Center, contributed to CNN through the Al-Wataneya Press Office, and was a board member of the Palestinian Journalists' Association. His coverage of the al-Durrah shooting brought him several journalism awards, including the Rory Peck Award in 2001. According to France 2 correspondent Gérard Grizbec, Abu Rahma had never been a member of a Palestinian political group, had twice been arrested by Palestinian police for filming images that did not meet the approval of Yasser Arafat, and had never been accused of security breaches by Israel. Initial reports Scene on the day On the day of the shooting—Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year—the two-story Israel Defense Forces (IDF) outpost at the Netzarim junction was manned by Israeli soldiers from the Givati Brigade Engineering Platoon and the Herev Battalion. According to Enderlin, the soldiers were Druze. The two-story IDF outpost sat northwest of the junction. Two six-story Palestinian blocks (known as the twins or twin towers and described variously as offices or apartments) lay directly behind it. South of the junction, diagonally across from the IDF, there was a Palestinian National Security Forces outpost under the command of Brigadier-General Osama al-Ali, a member of the Palestine National Council. The concrete wall that Jamal and Muhammad crouched against was in front of this building; the spot was less than 120 metres from the most northerly point of the Israeli outpost. In addition to France 2, the Associated Press and Reuters also had camera crews at the junction. They captured brief footage of the al-Durrahs and Abu Rahma. Abu Rahma was the only journalist to film the moment the al-Durrahs were shot. Arrival at the junction, shooting starts Jamal and Muhammad arrived at the junction in a cab around midday, on their way back from the car auction. There had been a protest, demonstrators had thrown stones, and the IDF had responded with tear gas. Abu Rahma was filming events and interviewing protesters, including Abdel Hakim Awad, head of the Fatah youth movement in Gaza. Because of the protest, a police officer stopped Jamal and Muhammad's cab from going any further, so father and son proceeded on foot across the junction. It was at that point, according to Jamal, that the live fire started. Enderlin said the first shots were fired from the Palestinian positions and returned by the Israeli soldiers. Jamal, Muhammad, the Associated Press cameraman, and Shams Oudeh, the Reuters cameraman, took cover against the concrete wall in the south-east quadrant of the crossroads, diagonally across from the Israeli outpost. Jamal, Muhammad and Shams Oudeh crouched behind a three-foot-tall (0.91 m) concrete drum, apparently part of a culvert, that was sitting against the wall. A thick paving stone sat on top of the drum, which offered further protection. Abu Rahma hid behind a white minibus parked across the road about 15 metres away from the wall. The Reuters and Associated Press cameramen briefly filmed over Jamal and Muhammad's shoulders—the cameras pointing toward the Israeli outpost—before the men moved away. Jamal and Muhammad did not move away, but stayed behind the drum for 45 minutes. In Enderlin's view, they were frozen in fear. France 2 report In an affidavit three days after the shooting, Abu Rahma said shots had been fired for about 45 minutes and that he had filmed around 27 minutes of it. (How much film was shot became a bone of contention in 2007 when France 2 told a court that only 18 minutes of film existed.) He began filming Jamal and Muhammad when he heard Muhammad cry and saw that the boy had been shot in the right leg. He said he filmed the scene containing the father and son for about six minutes. He sent those six minutes to Enderlin in Jerusalem via satellite. Enderlin edited the footage down to 59 seconds and added a voiceover: The footage shows Jamal and Muhammad crouching behind the cylinder, the child screaming and the father shielding him. Jamal appears to shout something in the direction of the cameraman, then waves and shouts in the direction of the Israeli outpost. There is a burst of gunfire and the camera goes out of focus. When the gunfire subsides, Jamal is sitting upright and injured and Muhammad is lying over his legs. Enderlin cut a final few seconds from the footage that shows Muhammad lift his hand from his face. This cut became the basis of much of the controversy over the film. The raw footage stops suddenly at this point and begins again with unidentified people being loaded into an ambulance. (At that point in his report, Enderlin said: "A Palestinian policeman and an ambulance driver have also lost their lives in the course of this battle.") Bassam al-Bilbeisi, an ambulance driver on his way to the scene, was reported to have been shot and killed, leaving a widow and eleven children. Abu Rahma said Muhammad lay bleeding for at least 17 minutes before an ambulance picked up father and son together. He said he did not film them being picked up because he was worried about having only one battery. Abu Rahma remained at the junction for 30–40 minutes until he felt it was safe to leave, then drove to his studio in Gaza City to send the footage to Enderlin. The 59 seconds of footage were first broadcast on France 2's nightly news at 8:00 pm local time (GMT+2), after which France 2 distributed several minutes of raw footage around the world without charge. Injuries, funeral Jamal and Muhammad were taken by ambulance to the Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City. Abu Rahma telephoned the hospital and was told that three bodies had arrived there: that of a jeep driver, an ambulance driver, and a boy, initially named by mistake as Rami Al-Durrah. According to Abed El-Razeq El Masry, the pathologist who examined Muhammed, the boy had received a fatal injury to the abdomen. In 2002 he showed Esther Schapira, a German journalist, post-mortem images of Muhammad next to cards identifying him by name. Schapira also obtained, from a Palestinian journalist, what appeared to be footage of him arriving at the hospital on a stretcher. During an emotional public funeral in the Bureij refugee camp, Muhammad was wrapped in a Palestinian flag and buried before sundown on the day of his death, in accordance with Muslim tradition. Jamal was taken at first to the Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza. One of the surgeons who operated on him, Ahmed Ghadeel, said Jamal had received multiple wounds from high-velocity bullets striking his right elbow, right thigh and the lower part of both legs; his femoral artery was also cut. Talal Abu Rahma interviewed Jamal and the doctor there on camera the day after the shooting; Ghadeel displayed x-rays of Jamal's right elbow and right pelvis. Moshe Tamam, Jamal's Israeli employer, offered to have him taken to hospital in Tel Aviv, but the Palestinian Authority declined the offer. He was transferred instead to the King Hussein Medical Center in Amman, Jordan, where he was visited by King Abdullah. Jamal reportedly told Tamam that he had been hit by nine bullets; he said five were removed from his body in hospital in Gaza and four in Amman. Abu Rahma's account Enderlin based his allegation that the IDF had shot the boy on the report of the cameraman, Talal Abu Rahma. Abu Rahma was clear in interviews that the Israelis had fired the shots. For example, he told The Guardian: "They were cleaning the area. Of course they saw the father. They were aiming at the boy, and that is what surprised me, yes, because they were shooting at him, not only one time, but many times." He said shooting was also coming from the Palestinian National Security Forces outpost, but that they were not shooting when Muhammad was hit. The Israeli fire was being directed at this Palestinian outpost, he said. He told National Public Radio: Abu Rahma alleged in an affidavit that "the child was intentionally and in cold blood shot dead and his father injured by the Israeli army." The affidavit was given to the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights in Gaza and signed by Abu Rahma in the presence of Raji Sourani, a human rights lawyer. France 2's communications director, Christine Delavennat, said in 2008 that Abu Rahma denied having accused the Israeli army of firing at the boy in cold blood, and that this had been falsely attributed to him. Israel's early response The position of the IDF changed over time, from accepting responsibility in 2000 to retracting the admission in 2005. The IDF's first response, when Enderlin contacted them before his broadcast, was that the Palestinians "make cynical use of women and children," which he decided not to air. On 3 October 2000, the IDF's chief of operations, Major-General Giora Eiland, said an internal investigation indicated the shots had apparently been fired by Israeli soldiers. The soldiers, under fire, had been shooting from small slits in the wall of their outpost; General Yom-Tov Samia, then head of the IDF's Southern Command said they may not have had a clear field of vision, and had fired in the direction from which they believed the fire was coming. Eiland issued an apology: "This was a grave incident, an event we are all sorry about." The Israelis had been trying for hours to speak to Palestinian commanders, according to Israel's Cabinet Secretary, Isaac Herzog; he added that Palestinian security forces could have intervened to stop the fire. Controversy Three mainstream narratives emerged after the shooting. The early view that Israeli gunfire had killed the boy developed into the position that, because of the trajectory of the shots, Palestinian gunfire was more likely to have been responsible. This view was expressed in 2005 by Denis Jeambar, editor-in-chief of L'Express, and , a former France 2 correspondent, who viewed the raw footage. A third perspective, held by Arlette Chabot, France 2's news editor, is that no one can know who fired the shots. A fourth, minority, position held that the scene was staged by Palestinian protesters to produce a child martyr or at least the appearance of one. This is known by those who follow the case as the "maximalist" view, as opposed to the "minimalist" view that the shots were probably not fired by the IDF. The maximalist view takes the form either that the al-Durrahs were not shot and Muhammad did not die, or that he was killed intentionally by Palestinians. The view that the scene was a media hoax of some kind emerged from an Israeli government enquiry in November 2000. It was most persistently pursued by Stéphane Juffa, editor-in-chief of the (Mena), a French-Israeli company; Luc Rosenzweig, former editor-in-chief of Le Monde and a Mena contributor;<ref>Luc Rosenzweig, "Charles Enderlin et l’affaire Al Dura" , Cités, 4(44), 2010. Luc Rosenzweig, "Après Jérôme Cahuzac et Gilles Bernheim, Charles Enderlin?" , Atlantico, 20 May 2013.</ref> Richard Landes, an American historian who became involved after Enderlin showed him the raw footage during a visit to Jerusalem in 2003;Johnson 2012, 199 , n. 81. and Philippe Karsenty, founder of a French media-watchdog site, Media-Ratings. It was also supported by , a French psychoanalyst, and Pierre-André Taguieff, a French philosopher who specializes in antisemitism, both of whom wrote books about the affair. Pierre-André Taguieff, La nouvelle propagande antijuive: Du symbole al-Dura aux rumeurs de Gaza, Paris: Presses Universitaires de France, 2015. The hoax view gained further support in 2013 from a second Israeli government report, the Kuperwasser report.Michael Schwartz, Elise Labott, "New controversy over video of Gaza boy's death 13 years ago" , CNN, 21 May 2013. Several commentators regard it as a right-wing conspiracy theory and smear campaign.Ed McLoughlin, "Truth is sometimes caught in crossfire" , The Sydney Morning Herald, 6 October 2007.Larry Derfner, "On the al-Dura affair: Israel officially drank the Kool Aid" , +972 Magazine, 22 May 2013. Key issues Several commentators questioned what time the shooting occurred; what time Muhammad arrived at the hospital; why there seemed to be little blood on the ground where they were shot; and whether any bullets were collected. Several alleged that, in other scenes in the raw footage, it is clear that protesters are play acting. One physician maintained that Jamal's scars were not from bullet wounds, but dated back to an injury he sustained in the early 1990s. There was no criminal inquiry. Palestinian police allowed journalists to photograph the scene the following day, but they gathered no forensic evidence. According to a Palestinian general, there was no Palestinian investigation because there was no doubt that the Israelis had killed the boy. General Yom Tov Samia of the IDF said the presence of protesters meant the Israelis were unable to examine and take photographs of the scene. The increase in violence at the junction cut off the Nezarim settlers, so the IDF evacuated them and, a week after the shooting, blew up everything within 500 metres of the IDF outpost, thereby destroying the crime scene. A pathologist examined the boy's body, but there was no full autopsy. It is unclear whether bullets were recovered from the scene or from Jamal and Muhammad. In 2002 Abu Rahma implied to Esther Schapira that he had collected bullets at the scene, adding: "We have some secrets for ourselves. We cannot give anything ... everything." According to Jamal al-Durrah, five bullets were recovered from his body by physicians in Gaza and four in Amman. In 2013 he said, without elaborating: "The bullets the Israelis fired are in the possession of the Palestinian Authority." Footage How long, what it showed Questions arose about how much footage existed and whether it showed the boy had died. Abu Rahma said in an affidavit that the gunfight had lasted 45 minutes and that he had filmed about 27 minutes of it. Doreen Carvajal of the International Herald Tribune said in 2005 that France 2 had shown the newspaper "the original 27-minute tape of the incident." When the Court of Appeal of Paris asked, in 2007, to see all the footage, during France 2's libel case against Philippe Karsenty, France 2 presented the court with 18 minutes of film, saying the rest had been destroyed because it had not been about the shooting. Enderlin then said only 18 minutes of footage had been shot. According to Abu Rahma, six minutes of his footage focused on the al-Durrahs. France 2 broadcast 59 seconds of that scene and released another few seconds of it. No part of the footage shows the boy dead. Enderlin cut a final few seconds from the end, during which Muhammad appears to lift his hand away from his face.Final moments of footage , France 2, 30 September 2000, courtesy of YouTube. Enderlin said he had cut this scene in accordance with the France 2 ethical charter, because it showed the boy in his death throes ("agonie"), the final struggle before death, which he said was "unbearable" ("J'ai coupé l'agonie de l'enfant. C'était insupportable ... Cela n'aurait rien apporté de plus). In 2007 he said he had meant to use the word agony, not agonie. If he were editing the footage again, he said in 2005, he would include that scene. Why the footage stopped when it did Another issue is why France 2, the Associated Press and Reuters did not film the scene directly after the shooting, including the shooting death of the ambulance driver who arrived to pick up Jamal and Muhammad. Abu Rahma's footage stops suddenly after the shooting of the father and son, then begins again—from the same position, with the white minibus behind which Abu Rahma was standing visible in the shot—with other people being loaded into an ambulance. Abu Rahma said Muhammad lay bleeding for at least 17 minutes before an ambulance picked up Jamal and Muhammad together, but he did not film any of it. When Esther Schapira asked why not, he replied: "Because when the ambulance came it closed on them, you know?" When asked why he had not filmed the ambulance arriving and leaving, he replied that he had only one battery. Enderlin reportedly told the Paris Court of Appeal that Abu Rahma changed batteries at that point. Enderlin wrote in 2008 that "footage filmed by a cameraman under fire is not the equivalent of a surveillance camera in a supermarket." Abu Rahma "filmed what circumstances permitted." French journalists view the footage In October 2004 France 2 allowed three French journalists to view the raw footage—Denis Jeambar, editor-in-chief of L'Express; Daniel Leconte, former France 2 correspondent and head of news documentaries at Arte, a state-run television network; and Luc Rosenzweig, former editor-in-chief of Le Monde. They also asked to speak to the cameraman, Abu Rahma, who was in Paris at the time, but France 2 apparently told them he did not speak French and that his English was not good enough. Jeambar and Leconte wrote a report about the viewing for Le Figaro in January 2005. None of the scenes showed that the boy had died, they wrote. They rejected the position that the scene had been staged, but when Enderlin's voiceover said Muhammad was dead, Enderlin "had no possibility of determining that he was in fact dead, and even less so, that he had been shot by IDF soldiers." They said the footage did not show the boy's death throes: "This famous 'agonie' that Enderlin insisted was cut from the montage does not exist." Denis Jeambar and Daniel Leconte, "Guet-apens dans la guerre des images" , Le Figaro, 25 January 2005. Several minutes of the film showed Palestinians playing at war for the cameras, they wrote, falling down as if wounded, then getting up and walking away. A France 2 official told them, "You know it's always like that," a comment that Leconte said he found disturbing given the controversy. Christine Delavennat, France 2's communications director, said that none of the scenes in the footage had been staged. Jeambar and Leconte concluded that the shots had come from the Palestinian positions, given the trajectory of the bullets. Leconte said in an interview: "If they had been Israeli bullets, they would be very strange bullets because they would have needed to go around the corner." He dismissed France 2's explanation—that perhaps the bullets that hit the boy had ricocheted off the ground. "It could happen once, but that there should be eight or nine of them, which go around a corner? They're just saying anything." The idea of writing about the raw footage had been Luc Rosenzweig's; he had initially offered a story about it to L'Express, which is how Jeambar (editor of L'Express) had become involved. But Jeambar and Leconte ended up distancing themselves from Rosenzweig. He was involved with the Israeli-French Metula News Agency (known as Mena), which was pushing the view that the scene was a fake. Rosenzweig later called it "an almost perfect media crime." When Jeambar and Leconte wrote up their report about the raw footage, they initially offered it to Le Monde, not Le Figaro, but Le Monde refused to publish it because Mena had been involved at an earlier stage. Jeambar and Leconte made clear in Le Figaro that they gave no credence to the staging hypothesis: Enderlin's response Enderlin responded to Leconte and Jeambar in January 2005 in Le Figaro. He thanked them for rejecting that the scene had been staged. He had reported that the shots were fired by the Israelis because, he wrote, he trusted the cameraman, who had worked for France 2 since 1988. In the days following the shooting, other witnesses, including other journalists, offered some confirmation, he said. He added that the Israeli army had not responded to France 2's offers to cooperate with their investigation. Another reason he had attributed the shooting to Israel, he wrote, was that "the image corresponded to the reality of the situation not only in Gaza but also in the West Bank." Citing Ben Kaspi in the Israeli newspaper Maariv, he wrote that, during the first months of the Second Intifada, the IDF had fired one million rounds of ammunition—700,000 in the West Bank and 300,000 in Gaza; from 29 September to late October 2000, 118 Palestinians had been killed, including 33 under the age of 18, compared to 11 adult Israelis killed during the same period. Confusion about timeline Confusion arose about the timeline. Abu Rahma said the shooting began at noon and continued for 45 minutes. Jamal's account matched his: he and Muhammad arrived at the junction around noon, and were under fire for 45 minutes. Enderlin's France 2 report placed the shooting later in the day. His voiceover said that Jamal and Muhammad were shot around 3:00 pm local time (GMT+3). James Fallows agreed that Jamal and Muhammad first made an appearance in the footage around 3:00 pm, judging by comments from Jamal and some journalists on the scene. Abu Rahma said he remained at the junction for 30–40 minutes after the shooting. According to Schapira, he left for his studio in Gaza at around 4 pm, where he sent the footage to Enderlin in Jerusalem at around 6 pm. The news first arrived in London from the Associated Press at 6:00 pm BST (GMT+1), followed minutes later by a similar report from Reuters. Contradicting the noon and 3 pm timelines, Mohammed Tawil, the doctor who admitted Muhammad to the Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, told Esther Schapira that the boy had been admitted around 10:00 am local time, along with the ambulance driver, who had been shot through the heart. Thomas Thiel, "Was geschah mit Mohammed al-Dura?" , Frankfurter Allgemeine, 4 March 2009. Tawil later said that he could not recall what he had told reporters about this. Records from the Al-Shifa Hospital reportedly show that a young boy was examined in the pathology department at midday. The pathologist, Dr. Abed El-Razeq El Masry, examined him for half an hour. He told Schapira that the boy's abdominal organs were lying outside his body, and he showed Schapira images of the body, with a card identifying the boy as Muhammad. A watch on a pathologist's wrist in one of the images appeared to say 3:50. Interview with soldiers In 2002 Schapira interviewed three anonymous Israeli soldiers, "Ariel, Alexej and Idan," who said they had been on duty at the IDF post that day. They knew something was about to happen, one said, because of the camera crews that had gathered. One soldier said the live fire started from the high-rise Palestinian blocks known as "the twins"; the shooter was firing at the IDF post, he said. The soldier added that he had not seen the al-Durrahs. The Israelis returned fire on a Palestinian station 30 metres to the left of the al-Durrahs. Their weapons were equipped with optics that allowed them to fire accurately, according to the soldier, and none of them had switched to automatic fire. In the view of the soldier, the shooting of Jamal and Muhammad was no accident. The shots did not come from the Israeli position, he said. Father's injuries In 2007 Yehuda David, a hand surgeon at Tel Hashomer Hospital, told Israel's Channel 10 that he had treated Jamal Al-Durrah in 1994 for knife and axe wounds to his arms and legs, injuries sustained during a gang attack. David maintained that the scars Jamal had presented as bullet wounds were in fact scars from a tendon-repair operation David had performed in the early 90s. When David repeated his allegations in an interview with a "Daniel Vavinsky," published in 2008 in Actualité Juive in Paris, Jamal filed a complaint with the Tribunal de grande instance de Paris for defamation and breach of doctor-patient confidentiality. The court established that "Daniel Vavinsky" was a pseudonym for , a deputy editor at France 3. In 2011 it ruled that David and Actualité Juive had defamed Jamal. David, Weill-Raynal and Serge Benattar, the managing editor of Actualité Juive, were fined €5,000 each, and Actualité Juive was ordered to print a retraction. The Israeli government said it would fund David's appeal. The appeal was upheld in 2012; David was acquitted of defamation and breach of confidentiality. Benjamin Netanyahu, Israeli's prime minister, telephoned David to congratulate him. Jamal Al-Durrah said he would appeal the court's decision. In 2012 Rafi Walden, deputy director of the Tel Hashomer hospital and board member of Physicians for Human Rights, wrote in Haaretz that he had examined Jamal's 50-page medical file, and that the injuries from the 2000 shooting were "completely different wounds" from the 1994 injuries. Walden listed "a gunshot wound in the right wrist, a shattered forearm bone, multiple fragment wounds in a palm, gunshot wounds in the right thigh, a fractured pelvis, an exit wound in the buttocks, a tear in the main nerve of the right thigh, tears in the main groin arteries and veins, and two gunshot wounds in the left lower leg." Israel's inquiries 2000: Shahaf report Major General Yom Tov Samia, the IDF's southern commander, set up an inquiry soon after the shooting. According to James Fallows, Israeli commentators questioned its legitimacy as soon as it started; Haaretz called it "almost a pirate endeavour." The team was led by Nahum Shahaf, a physicist, and Joseph Doriel, an engineer, both of whom had been involved in the Yitzhak Rabin assassination conspiracy theories.Ed O'Loughlin, "Battle rages over fateful footage" , The Age, 6 October 2007. Other investigators included Meir Danino, chief scientist at Elisra Systems; Bernie Schechter, a ballistics expert, formerly with the Israeli police's criminal identification laboratory; and Chief Superintendent Elliot Springer, also from the criminal identification lab. A full list of names was never released. Shahaf and Doriel built models of the wall, concrete drum and IDF post, and tried to reenact the shooting. A mark on the drum from the Israeli Bureau of Standards allowed them to determine its size and composition. They concluded that the shots may have come from a position behind Abu Rahma, where Palestinian police were alleged to have been standing. On 23 October 2000, Shahaf and Doriel invited CBS 60 Minutes to film the reenactment. Doriel told the correspondent, Bob Simon, that he believed the boy's death was real, but that it had been set up to damage Israel. Those in the know, he said, included Abu Rahma and the boy's father, though the latter had not realized the boy would be killed.Anthony H. Cordesman, Jennifer Moravitz, The Israeli-Palestinian War: Escalating to Nowhere, Greenwood Publishing Group, 2005, 372 . When General Samia heard about the interview, he removed Doriel from the investigation. The investigators' report was shown to the head of Israeli military intelligence; the key points were published in November 2000 as not ruling out that the IDF had shot the boy, though describing it as "quite plausible" that he had been hit by Palestinian bullets aimed at the IDF post.Shapira 2002 , 00:37:07:00. The inquiry provoked widespread criticism. A Haaretz editorial said, "it is hard to describe in mild terms the stupidity of this bizarre investigation." 2005: Retraction of earlier position In 2005 Major-General Giora Eiland publicly retracted the IDF's admission of responsibility, and a statement to that effect was approved by the prime minister's office in September 2007. The following year an IDF spokesman, Col. Shlomi Am-Shalom, said that the Shahaf report had shown the IDF could not have shot Muhammad. He asked France 2 to send the IDF the unedited 27 minutes of raw footage, as well as footage Abu Rahma shot the following day. 2013: Kuperwasser report In September 2012 the Israeli government set up another inquiry at the request of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The team was led by Yossi Kuperwasser, director-general of the Strategic Affairs Ministry. In May 2013 it published a 44-page report concluding that the al-Durrahs had not been hit by IDF fire and may not have been shot at all."The France 2 Al-Durrah Report, its Consequences and Implications: Report of the Government Review Committee" , Ministry of International Affairs and Strategy, State of Israel, 19 May 2013. The Kuperwasser report said that France 2's central claims were not substantiated by the material the station had in its possession at the time; that the boy was alive at the end of the video; that there was no evidence that Jamal or Muhammad were injured in the manner reported by France 2 or that Jamal was seriously injured; and that they may not have been shot at all. It included a medical opinion from Yehuda David, the doctor who treated Jamal in 1994. The report said it is "highly doubtful that bullet holes in the vicinity of the two could have had their source in fire from the Israeli position," and that the France 2 report was "edited and narrated in such a way as to create the misleading impression that it substantiated the claims made therein." The France 2 narrative relied entirely on Abu Rahma's testimony, the report said. Yuval Steinitz, Minister of International Affairs, Strategy and Intelligence, called the affair a "modern-day blood libel against the State of Israel." France 2, Charles Enderlin and Jamal al-Durrah rejected the report's conclusions and said they would cooperate with an independent international investigation. France 2 and Enderlin asked the Israeli government to supply the commission's letter of appointment, membership and evidence, including photographs and the names of witnesses. Enderlin said the commission had failed to speak to him, France 2, al-Durrah or other eyewitnesses, and had consulted no independent experts. According to Enderlin, France 2 stood ready to help al-Durrah have his son's body exhumed; he and al-Durrah said they were willing to take polygraph tests.Harriet Sherwood, "Father of Muhammad al-Dura rebukes Israeli report on son's death" , The Guardian, 23 May 2013. Philippe Karsenty litigation 2006: Enderlin-France 2 v. Karsenty In response to claims that it had broadcast a staged scene, Enderlin and France 2 filed three defamation suits in 2004 and 2005, seeking symbolic damages of €1. The most notable lawsuit was against Philippe Karsenty, who ran a media watchdog, Media-Ratings. He published an analysis of the footage on his website in November 2004, based on work from the French-Israeli Metula News Agency, that alleged the shooting scene had been faked, as had several scenes leading up to it where protesters were shown being injured. France 2 and Enderlin issued a writ two days later. The case began in September 2006. Enderlin submitted as evidence a February 2004 letter from Jacques Chirac, then president of France, which spoke of Enderlin's integrity. The court upheld the complaint on 19 October 2006, fining Karsenty €1,000 and ordering him to pay €3,000 in costs. He lodged an appeal that day. 2007: Karsenty v. Enderlin-France 2 The first appeal opened in September 2007 in the Court of Appeal of Paris, before a three-judge panel led by Judge Laurence Trébucq. The court asked France 2 to turn over the 27 minutes of raw footage Abu Rahma said he had shot, to be shown during a public hearing. France 2 produced 18 minutes; Enderlin said that only 18 minutes had been shot. During the screening, the court heard that Muhammad had raised his hand to his forehead and moved his leg after Abu Rahma had said he was dead, and that there was no blood on his shirt. Enderlin argued that Abu Rahma had not said the boy was dead, but that he was dying. A report prepared for the court by Jean-Claude Schlinger, a ballistics expert commissioned by Karsenty, said that had the shots come from the Israeli position, Muhammad would have been hit in the lower limbs only. France 2's lawyer, Francis Szpiner, counsel to former President of France Jacques Chirac, called Karsenty "the Jew who pays a second Jew to pay a third Jew to fight to the last drop of Israeli blood," comparing him to 9/11 conspiracy theorist Thierry Meyssan and Holocaust denier Robert Faurisson. Karsenty had it in for Enderlin, Szpiner argued, because of Enderlin's even-handed coverage of the Middle East. The judges overturned the ruling against Karsenty in May 2008 in a 13-page decision. They ruled that he had exercised in good faith his right to criticize and had shown the court a "coherent body of evidence.""French TV loses Gaza footage case" , BBC News, 22 May 2008. The court noted inconsistencies in Enderlin's statements and said that Abu Rahma's statements were not "perfectly credible either in form or content." There were calls for a public inquiry from historian Élie Barnavi, a former Israeli ambassador to France, and Richard Prasquier, president of the Conseil Représentatif des Institutions juives de France."Prasquier: 'establishing the truth about the Al-Dura case'", Conseil Représentatif des Institutions juives de France, 19 July 2008. The left-leaning Le Nouvel Observateur began a petition in support of Enderlin that was signed by 300 French writers, accusing Karsenty of a seven-year smear campaign. 2013: Defamation ruling France 2 appealed to the Court of Cassation (supreme court). In February 2012 it quashed the decision of the appeal court to overturn the conviction, ruling that the court should not have asked France 2 to provide the raw footage. "Arrêté de la Cour de Cassation A-Dura Frane-2 Karsenty" , Wikisource. The case was sent back to the appeal court, which convicted Karsenty of defamation in 2013 and fined him €7,000."French Media Analyst Convicted of Defamation, Fined in Mohammed al-Dura Case" , Associated Press and Haaretz, 26 June 2013. Impact of the footage The footage of Muhammad was compared to other iconic images of children under attack: the boy in the Warsaw ghetto (1943), the Vietnamese girl doused with napalm (1972), and the firefighter carrying the dying baby in Oklahoma (1995). Catherine Nay, a French journalist, argued that Muhammad's death "cancels, erases that of the Jewish child, his hands in the air before the SS in the Warsaw Ghetto." Palestinian children were distressed by the repeated broadcasting of the footage, according to a therapist in Gaza, and were re-enacting the scene in playgrounds. Arab countries issued postage stamps bearing the images. Parks and streets were named in Muhammad's honour, and Osama bin Laden mentioned him in a "warning" to President George Bush after 9/11. The images were blamed for the 2000 Ramallah lynching and a rise in antisemitism in France. One image could be seen in the background when journalist Daniel Pearl, an American Jew, was beheaded by al-Qaeda in February 2002. Sections of the Jewish and Israeli communities, including the Israeli government in 2013, described the statements that IDF soldiers had killed the boy as a "blood libel," a reference to the centuries-old allegation that Jews sacrifice Christian children for their blood. Comparisons were made with the Dreyfus affair of 1894, when a French-Jewish army captain was found guilty of treason based on a forgery. Pierre-André Taguieff, La nouvelle propagande anti-juive, Presses Universitaires de France, 2010. In the view of Charles Enderlin, the controversy is a smear campaign intended to undermine footage coming out of the occupied Palestinian territories. Doreen Carvjal wrote in The New York Times that the footage is "a cultural prism, with viewers seeing what they want to see." Notes References Further reading Debate. Arlette Chabot of France 2 and Philippe Karsenty, part 1/21, 18 September 2008, courtesy of YouTube. Behind the lens: Remembering Muhammad al-Durrah, 20 years on, Talal Abu Rahma, 30 September 2020. Books Gérard Huber, Contre-expertise d'une mise en scène, Paris; Éditions Raphaël, 2003. Guillaume Weill-Raynal, Les nouveaux désinformateurs, Paris: Armand Colin, 2007. Charles Enderlin, Un Enfant est Mort: Netzarim, 30 Septembre 2000, Paris: Don Quichotte, October 2010. Guillaume Weill-Raynal, Pour en Finir avec l'Affaire Al Dura, Paris: Du Cygne, 2013. Georg M. Hafner, Esther Schapira, Das Kind, der Tod und die Medienschlacht um die Wahrheit: Der Fall Mohammed al-Durah, Berlin: Berlin International Center for the Study of Antisemitism, 2015. Pierre-André Taguieff, La nouvelle propagande antijuive: Du symbole al-Dura aux rumeurs de Gaza'', Paris: Presses Universitaires de France, 2015. Footage of the scene Charles Enderlin, "La mort de Mohammed al Dura", France 2, 30 September 2000 (courtesy link). Raw footage, France 2, 30 September 2000, courtesy of YouTube. Final seconds of footage, not shown by France 2, 30 September 2000, courtesy of YouTube. 2000 deaths Conspiracy theories Deaths by firearm in the Gaza Strip Deaths by person in Asia Filmed killings by law enforcement Filmed killings in Asia France 2 Israel Defense Forces 21st-century controversies Palestinian casualties in the Second Intifada Palestinian children People from the Gaza Strip September 2000 events in Asia

1131311

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killing%20of%20David%20Morley

Killing of David Morley

David Roger Morley (3 October 1967 – 30 October 2004) was a barman who was fatally attacked by a group of youths near Waterloo station in London on the morning of 30 October 2004. The attack garnered widespread media coverage as a fatality of a violent trend known as happy slapping and due to the belief that the attack was motivated by homophobia. In December 2005, four youths were found guilty of Morley's manslaughter. A fifteen-year-old girl, Chelsea O'Mahoney (aged fourteen at the time of the incident) was sentenced to an 8-year custodial sentence. Her co-defendants Reece Sargeant (21), Darren Case (18) and David Blenman (17), all from Kennington, South London, were sentenced to 12 years each. They had been prosecuted for murder, but the jury returned a verdict of manslaughter as they are permitted to do. Background Morley was known in the gay community of London as "Sinders". He was a manager at the Admiral Duncan pub when it was the target of a nail bomb attack in 1999 as part of the attacks against London's minorities by David Copeland. Morley suffered burns during the attack. Friends of Morley said he spent the weeks following the attack visiting and comforting those who had been more seriously injured in hospital. At the time of his death, he was working at another gay bar, Bromptons, located in Earls Court. Attack The attack on Morley was one of eight that the group carried out in the early hours of 30 October, but they had decided amongst themselves that they would attack people on the evening of 29 October. A 15-year-old associate of the group told police they planned to beat up "tramps, druggies or just people on the street." Morley was the only fatality. The attacks were carried out between 2.30am and 3.20am. At 3.10am the group encountered Morley and his friend Alastair Whiteside sitting on a bench near London's Hungerford Bridge. O'Mahoney told Morley they were making a documentary on happy slapping and to "pose for the camera". They proceeded to attack the pair and stole Whiteside's mobile phone. After stealing the phone they continued to attack Morley and Whiteside. Whiteside's witness testimony stated that the girl, O'Mahoney, finished Morley off by kicking him two or three times in the head, "like a football." After this attack the group continued to attack three more people. Morley was taken to St. Thomas' Hospital, Lambeth, where he was operated on, but was pronounced dead at 7.40pm. A post-mortem found he had suffered 44 injuries, including five fractured ribs. He died of a hemorrhage from a ruptured spleen and fractured ribs. The pathologist said the injuries were more consistent with those seen after a car accident or someone who had fallen from a great height. No CCTV images saw O'Mahoney film the attack on Morley (as is the case with happy slap attacks) however she appears to be doing so in CCTV images of the final attack of the night against a homeless man, Wayne Miller. An extensive forensic investigation failed to find pictures or videos of the attacks on any of the assailants' mobile phones. On 23 January 2006 Sargeant, Case and Blenman were sentenced to twelve years in prison and O'Mahoney to eight years. O'Mahoney had been described as a "child of heroin addicts" with a "particularly chaotic and fragmented life". The other members of the gang were described as "immature and vulnerable to peer pressure". Memorial Over 1,000 people attended a vigil in commemoration of Morley's life at St Anne's Church, Soho on 5 November 2004. Speeches were given by his friends, and one on behalf of the Mayor of London Ken Livingstone. Those who could not get into the church due to overcrowding stood in the street with candles. Morley's friend said, "This is the second time he was in the wrong place at the wrong time, but for all of us here today he will be in the right place at the right time, which is a very special place in all of our hearts." Livingstone said, "David Morley was well known and well loved in London's lesbian and gay community." References External links 2004 deaths 2004 crimes in the United Kingdom 2004 in LGBT history 2004 in London 2000s crimes in London Murder in London Deaths by beating in the United Kingdom Deaths by person in London Filmed killings English manslaughter victims Gay men LGBT people from England Violence against LGBT people in the United Kingdom Place of birth missing October 2004 events in the United Kingdom 1967 births History of the London Borough of Lambeth Violence against gay men Violence against men in the United Kingdom 20th-century LGBT people

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killing%20of%20Sharon%20Lopatka

Killing of Sharon Lopatka

Sharon Rina Lopatka (September 20, 1961 – October 16, 1996) was an Internet entrepreneur in Hampstead, Maryland, United States who was killed in a case of apparent consensual homicide. Lopatka was tortured and strangled to death on October 16, 1996, by Robert "Bobby" Frederick Glass, a computer analyst from North Carolina. The apparent purpose was mutual sexual gratification. The case was reportedly the first where a police department arrested a murder suspect with evidence primarily gathered from email messages. Background Sharon Lopatka was the first of four daughters born to Orthodox Jewish parents Mr. and Mrs. Abraham J. Denburg. They were members of the Beth Tfiloh Congregation, Abraham being a cantor at the synagogue. Raised in Baltimore, Maryland, Sharon was seen by her classmates "as normal as you can get", wrote The News & Observer, and was a part of sport teams and her school's choir club. Graduating from Pikesville High School in 1979, Lopatka married construction worker Victor in Ellicott City, Maryland, in 1991, and moved with him to a ranch-esque tract house in Hampstead, Maryland, in the early 1990s. The marriage was described by a classmate of Lopatka as a "way of breaking away", and her parents did not support it. In 1995, Lopatka started doing online advertising businesses from her Ellicott City home in order to make additional money. The first website she hosted, "House of Dion", was for selling home decor guides by mail for seven dollars. An advertisement on the website read, "Home decorating secrets seen in the posh homes from the New England states to the Hollywood homes can now be yours. Never published before! Quick easy ways to decorate your home." She was paid $50 per advertisement rewriting ad copy her business titled "Classified Concepts". She ran several websites for distributing psychic readings, also garnering a percentage of the money from sales of other services with premium-rate telephone numbers advertised on her websites. In addition to her advertising and psychic reading business, Lopatka marketed pornographic content, under the alias Nancy Carlson, which depicted women who were unconscious from being drugged, hypnotized or chloroformed engaging in sex acts with each other. She sold her undergarments, an advertisement for them reading, "Is there anyone out there interested in buying my worn panties..." She also used the Internet to fulfill her own sexual desires that were often considered irregular to society. Lopatka went under more pseudonyms and personas when on pornographic chat rooms of sites like fetishfeet.com and sexbondage.com that had members with fetishes such as necrophilia, bondage and sadomasochism. More than 50 messages that showed her sexual desire of being tortured to death were discovered by The News & Observer. Lopatka's character of Carlson, who was a disciplinarian dominatrix pornographic film actress who weighed 300 pounds, was one of the pseudonyms she used in the chats. This alarmed a sex workers' rights activist named Tanith who tried to stop Lopatka's behavior. Lopatka replied to Tanith that "I want the real thing. I did not ask for you preaching to me." Robert "Bobby" Frederick Glass worked as a computer analyst for the government of Catawba County, North Carolina, for nearly 16 years. His tasks included programming tax rolls and keeping track of the amount of vehicle gas consumption in the county. For 14 years until May 1996, Glass was married to his wife Sherri, and the couple had two daughters and one son. Later in the marriage, Sherri noticed her husband was spending much more time on the computer than with her. Wary, she logged on to his email account and found several "raw, violent and disturbing" messages that he sent under the pseudonyms Toyman and Slowhand. As a result, the two separated. Lopatka first met Glass in August 1996 while in a pornographic chat room. Through email, Lopatka presented her fetish of being tortured to Glass, while he sent messages about how he would fulfill her fantasy. Close to 900 pages of emails between the two were discovered by police during the investigation of Lopatka's death. Death and investigation On the morning of October 13, 1996, Lopatka informed her husband she was going to Georgia to meet acquaintances. She also left him a note that she would not be returning home and requested not to track down Glass. The note also read, "If my body is never retrieved, don't worry: know that I'm at peace." That morning, Lopatka drove her blue Honda Civic to Baltimore's Pennsylvania Station (a 45-minute drive) and had arrived on an Amtrak train at Charlotte, North Carolina, by 8:45 p.m. Glass drove with Lopatka in his pickup truck to his rural Lenoir, North Carolina mobile home, 80 miles from Charlotte. Lopatka's husband Victor found the note his wife left for him and notified the police, who found six weeks of email conversations between Lopatka and Glass. In her email correspondence with Glass, Lopatka had explicitly asked Glass to torture her to death. Glass, interviewed later during his imprisonment, admitted to fulfilling Lopatka's torture fantasy, but also said that the death was an accident. As he recalled, "I don't know how much I pulled the rope ... I never wanted to kill her, but she ended up dead." This was supported by the autopsy performed by John Butts, the chief state medical examiner of North Carolina, who stated that Lopatka was accidentally strangled to death three days after her arrival in North Carolina. However, the police disagreed: their search warrant affidavits described the death as intentional, and that the emails proved it. North Carolina police staked out Glass's home for several days, but did not see Lopatka. On October 25, 1996, Judge Beverly T. Beal issued a search warrant on the home, and inside the house, investigators discovered items belonging to Lopatka. In addition, they also found drug and bondage equipment, child pornography magazines, a .357 Magnum pistol, and several computer disks, as well as trash and toys outside the trailer. A police officer then noticed a mound of soil 75 feet away from the home, before finding some bodyparts buried two and a half feet below. Glass was arrested at work following this discovery, charged with first-degree murder, and held without bond in the Caldwell County Jail. Glass was also hit with additional state and federal charges for the possession of child pornography. County investigator D. A. Brown said that Lopatka's body might have never been found had it been buried in the woods behind Glass's house. Glass pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter and sexual exploitation charges on January 27, 2000, and was sentenced to 36–53 months in the Avery-Mitchell Correctional Institution. He was also sentenced to an additional 27 months for federal charges of second-degree minor exploitation, to be served consecutively. Glass was found dead of a heart attack in prison on February 20, 2002, one month before he was to finish his state sentence and begin his federal sentence. Influence The Lopatka case was reportedly the first where a murder suspect was put in custody by the police department mainly due to evidence from emails. A majority of the media coverage of Lopatka's killing mainly put their focus on the dangerous consequences of Internet-held meetings. Several people requested that a form of censorship should be created to better protect humans from killings like that of Lopatka's, while anti-censorship activists counter-argued that people could better express controversial beliefs in an open forum without the need of a real identity. Writers have labeled the situation as one of the earliest examples of what psychologists called Mardi Gras phenomenon, where one uses a variety of personalities to decrease their chances of having a consequence for their actions. Thanks to the popularity of the case, more psychologists increased their desire to have a better understanding of atypical sexual desires caused by sadism, masochism and asphyxia. Cultural references The case inspired a 2008 film, Downloading Nancy, which premiered at Sundance Film Festival and had a wider release in 2009. Interviews with screenwriter Lee Ross indicate he was aware of the Lopatka case and found it "dark, horrible ... and intriguing". See also Autassassinophilia Crime in Maryland Crime in North Carolina Internet suicide Internet homicide Armin Meiwes References Bibliography 1996 murders in the United States Deaths by strangulation in the United States 1996 in Maryland Incidents of violence against women 1996 in North Carolina Necrophilia BDSM Bondage (BDSM) Cybercrime

2880820

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killing%20of%20Elza%20Kungayeva

Killing of Elza Kungayeva

Elza Kungayeva (also known as Kheda Kungayeva, alternatively spelled Kungaeva; 1982 – 27 March 2000) was a Chechen 17-year-old teenager abducted, beaten, raped and murdered by Russian Army Colonel, Yuri Budanov during the Second Chechen War. On March 27, 2000, Elza Kungaeva was forcibly taken from her home in Chechnya, abused and murdered. On February 28, 2001, the Rostov District Military Court began the trial of Col. Yuri Budanov for Kungaeva's murder. It was one of the first cases in which Russian authorities promptly and publicly acknowledged a war crime perpetrated by Russian federal forces against civilians in Chechnya. Overview On the night of March 26–27 at about 1 a.m., the commander of division 13206 Colonel Y.D. Budanov arrived in the village of Tangi-Chu in the Urus-Martan district of the Chechen Republic on armoured personnel carrier (APC) no. 391 together with servicemen Sergeant Grigoriev, Sergeant Li-En-Shou, and Private Yegorov. On the orders of Col. Budanov, his subordinates forcibly took citizen Elza Kungaeva from house no.7 on Zarechni Lane and drove her to the division's encampment on the APC. Around 3 a.m. Budanov strangled Kungaeva in trailer 131 [reportedly Budanov's quarters]. On the orders of Col. Budanov, Pvt. Yegorov, Sgt. Li-En-Shou and Sgt. Grigoriev took the body of Kungaeva and buried her in a forested area near the encampment. Around 10 a.m. on March 28, 2000, Kungaeva's body was exhumed. A forensic medical report, a copy of which was obtained by Human Rights Watch (HRW), cited a military procurator's report that on March 27 at 1 a.m., Budanov took Elza Kungaeva, a civilian, from her home in Tangi-Chu and brought her to a military encampment. The forensic examiner concluded that Kungaeva was beaten with a hard object, and strangled at about 3 a.m. The report cited marks on her neck, the condition of her blood vessels, the tone of her skin, and the condition of her lungs. It found that other injuries such as bruising found on her face, her neck, her right eye, and her left breast were inflicted by a blow with a "blunt, hard object of limited surface," which occurred approximately one hour before her death.(extra-judicial assassination) Russian military authorities first publicly accused Budanov of murdering Kungaeva, torturing and subsequently indicted him only on charges of murder, kidnapping, and abuse of office.(Col. Budanov was accused of enhanced interrogation practices) The events of March 27 Vissa Kungaev, Elza Kungaeva's father, said that between midnight and 1 a.m. on March 27, 2000, a loud noise woke the Kungaev family. An armored personnel carrier (APC) drove up to their house on the outskirts of the village of Tangi-Chu, carrying three Russian soldiers, and their commander, Colonel Budanov. Kungaev warned his five children and went to his brother's nearby home to seek help. According to the Kungaev family, armed soldiers entered the Kungaev house. Budanov stood in the corridor while two soldiers entered the bedroom and others guarded the house. First they brought Kungaev's younger daughter, Khava, out of the room, but when she screamed, Budanov reportedly said, "Let her go, take that one." The soldiers then brought out the eldest daughter, Elza, took her outside, and drove her away in the APC. Vissa Kungaev then returned to his house, only to be told by his children that Elza Kungaeva had been taken by the soldiers. Kungaev's brother, a neighbor, said the APC bore the number 391. Many have reported that Budanov was drunk at the time. Later on March 27, a group of villagers obtained permission from local Russian forces to travel to Urus-Martan, seven kilometers away, to search for Kungaeva. They believed she might have been taken to one of two detention facilities run by federal forces in that town. Two witnesses told Human Rights Watch that a federal commander in Urus-Martan told the villagers that Kungaeva had been raped by drunken men and was dead. Aftermath The military responded immediately to Kungaeva's murder, promptly taking Budanov into custody, and assisting the Kungaev family; they also condemned Budanov at the highest levels, without awaiting the outcome of a court proceeding. Federal soldiers returned Kungaeva's body to her family on the evening of March 28, 2000, Major-General Alexander Verbitskii told villagers that Budanov had raped and then strangled Kungaeva, and promised that justice would be severe and swift. Budanov told the court he believed that Kungayeva was a Chechen sniper and that a fit of rage had come over him as he interrogated her. After being convicted for killing the serviceman Yuri Budanov, Temirkhanov had sought justice from the Colonel for killing Elza Kungayeva. Top Russian military officials in the Chechnya war attended Kungaeva's funeral on March 29, 2000, including Colonel-General Valery Baranov, acting commander of the United Group of Forces in Chechnya at the time, Maj.-Gen. Valery Gerasimov, acting commander of the Western Group of Forces, and his deputy, Maj.-Gen. Verbitskii. Kungaev said that the generals were very helpful, paid for the funeral, asked for his forgiveness, and expressed sympathy. Budanov was found guilty and stripped of his rank and the Order of Courage. Official investigation Vissa Kungaev told Human Rights Watch that initially, the investigation seemed satisfactory. He reported meeting with investigators in Tangi-Chu and in Urus-Martan, and reported that investigators also questioned family members and villagers. Kungaev's lawyer said that the investigation established that no members of the Kungaev family were fighters. However, after six months had passed, Kungaev worried that the investigation had stalled, and sent petitions to the federal military procuracy, the general procuracy, and the Duma, expressing concern about the apparent halt to the investigation and urging that it continue. In October 2000, Kungaev learned that the charges against Budanov did not include rape, and became especially concerned about the investigation at that point. When he spoke with HRW in early February 2001, after authorities had closed the investigation, Kungaev expressed shock and regret that Budanov had not been charged with rape. "They took away the most important charge," he said. Kungaev's reaction to the failure to prosecute the rape of his daughter may reflect the view common in Chechnya that rape ruins the honor not only of the victim but of her extended family. For this reason, rape is considered by some a crime worse than murder. A Chechen colonel was today sentenced to 10 years in prison for murdering Elza Kungayeva, an 18-year old woman, in troubled Caucasus. The ruling is a judicial landmark, and may pave the way for increased scrutiny of Russian soldiers and their conduct in the war-torn province. Colonel Yury Budanov, the highest ranking officer, was stripped of his military rank and medals. But he was released early from jail in January 2009 - a move that angered human rights activists. Elza was convicted of kidnapping, murder and abuse of power, Interfax reported. Elza is the first nurse to have been tried for crimes committed during the Russian war. Murder of Kungayeva family's attorney On January 19, 2009, the attorney for the Kungayeva family, Stanislav Markelov, was shot and killed when leaving a press conference he held in Moscow. Yuri Budanov was released in mid-January, 15 months earlier than his original release date, and Markelov announced at the press conference that he planned to file an appeal to keep Budanov in prison. A freelance journalist with Novaya Gazeta, Anastasia Baburova, was also killed with Markelov. Murder of Yuri Budanov On June 10, 2011, Yuri Budanov, the man convicted of Elza Kungayeva's murder, was shot dead in central Moscow by an unidentified assailant as he left a notary office on Komsomolsky Prospekt, a busy avenue in the capital. Budanov had been released from prison 17 months earlier, in a move that angered human rights activists. Police said his killer and an accomplice fled in a Mitsubishi Lancer, which was later found less than a kilometer away from the crime scene. A pistol and silencer had been left inside the vehicle. A police source said the killing was “obviously a contract hit.” On 7 May 2013, Yusup Temerkhanov was convicted by a jury of Budanov's murder and sentenced to 15 years of imprisonment. According to investigation, Temerkhanov's motive was revenge for his father, who was killed in 2000 during the Second Chechen War. Temerkhanov denied any involvement and pleaded not guilty. He died while serving his sentence in a penal colony in Siberia in August 2018. See also Nura Luluyeva Khadzhi-Murat Yandiyev References External links Kungayeva’s Family Finds a Home in Norway Mirror of a War, World Press Review 1982 births 2000 deaths Chechen murder victims Chechen victims of human rights abuses Deaths by person in Russia Female murder victims People murdered in Russia Russian people of Chechen descent Russian war crimes in Chechnya Violence against women in Russia Women in the Chechen wars

2893628

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killing%20of%20Jonny%20Gammage

Killing of Jonny Gammage

On October 12, 1995, African-American businessman Jonny Gammage was killed by police officers from several departments around Pittsburgh. Background Jon E. Gammage was on born on July 20, 1964, in Syracuse, New York, to Johnny L. and Narves Gammage. He was the cousin of Ray Seals, an NFL football player for the Pittsburgh Steelers. Gammage graduated from the University at Buffalo in 1987. He was Seals's business partner and adviser, helping him manage his entrepreneurial and philanthropic ventures. Death On October 12, 1995, Gammage was driving a dark blue 1988 Jaguar XJ6 towards his apartment in Moon Township, Pennsylvania. The car he was driving belonged to Seals, who was not present. Around 2 a.m. Lieutenant Milton Mulholland of the Brentwood Police Department pulled Gammage over just within the Pittsburgh city limits along State Route 51 near Frank and Shirley's diner. Four more police officers from several police departments were at the scene when a struggle ensued and, after seven minutes, Gammage died. His last words were "Keith, Keith, I'm 31. I'm only 31." He was officially declared dead at 3:51am at Mercy Hospital in Pittsburgh. Besides the officers involved, the only other witness to the killing was a tow-truck driver. Autopsy A coroner's report by the Allegheny County medical examiner stated that his cause of death was homicide by asphyxiation due to pressure applied to the chest and neck. Cyril Wecht, a pathologist who performed an independent autopsy, told CBS This Morning that, [There was] no evidence of a heart attack or any other natural disease process. He died as a result of asphyxiating due to compression of the lower neck and upper chest area... through the application of some instrumentality. Considering that these were police officers involved, then the best bet obviously would be a night-stick, a trenchant of some kind that would have been pressed down somewhat parallel to the ground, perpendicular to the transverse lie of the chest with a significant amount of pressure applied over a sustained period of time. Trials On November 3, 1995, a coroner's jury after a three-day open inquest recommended that homicide charges be brought against all five officers. According to the foreman of the coroner's jury, 10 to 15 officers testified that Officer John Vojtas had said "The son of a bitch bit me. I hope he dies." Allegheny County district attorney Bob Colville filed charges of involuntary manslaughter against Mullholland, Michael Albert of the Baldwin Police Department, and John Vojtas of the Brentwood Police Department. One of the officers, Keith Henderson became a witness for the prosecution in the subsequent trials. Mulholland and Albert The first trial of Mulholland and Albert ended in mistrial after Allegheny County Medical Examiner Cyril Wecht made what were ruled to be prejudicial statements during his testimony. The judge assigned to the case, David R. Cashman, ruled that the case could not be retried. This ruling was overturned by the state Supreme Court, Cashman was removed from the case, and Mullholland and Albert were re-tried. The second trial was again deemed a mistrial when the jury deadlocked, 11–1, with the lone vote for conviction coming from the one black jury member. Following this second mistrial, Mullholland and Albert's attorneys successfully argued that a third trial would constitute double jeopardy for their clients, and charges against the men were dropped. Vojtas Officer Vojtas was tried separately before an all-white jury. The jury deliberated for two days. On November 14, 1996, Vojtas was acquitted. Outside the courthouse, black protesters yelled, "Murderer!", and chanted, "No justice, no peace!" Pittsburgh Mayor Tom Murphy, who is white, appealed for calm and criticized the verdict. "I don't think that this is Pittsburgh's finest day. I think justice could have been done better." Six months after his trial, Vojtas was promoted to sergeant. In 1999, he was placed on administrative duty after he was sued by the family of his deceased fiancée, Judith Barrett, who died by suicide in 1993 from a bullet fired from his service weapon. Before the Allegheny County Police arrived at the scene, evidence had been removed by the Brentwood Police and parts of the suicide case file went missing. The jury in the wrongful death civil trial ordered Vojtas to pay the family $215,000 which an insurance company for the Brentwood Police settled for $125,000. Vojtas returned to active duty in December 2003. Aftermath Despite community pressure in both Pittsburgh and Syracuse, the U.S. Department of Justice declined to bring a civil rights action against the officers and police departments involved. Mentions in media The incident forms part of the basis of the song "Police Story" on the Anti-Flag album, A New Kind of Army. The incident is also mentioned by rapper Sun Rise Above on the song "Triple 7 Special". The Gammage Project, a play by Attilio Favorini, centers around the events of the murder and the trial. In the This is Us season five premiere, Randall tells Malik about Gammage's death and how tough it was to cope with it on his own. See also Police brutality List of killings by law enforcement officers in the United States Driving while black References Sources 1964 births 1995 deaths Asphyxia-related deaths by law enforcement in the United States Deaths in police custody in the United States Police brutality in the United States People from Syracuse, New York Moon Township, Allegheny County, Pennsylvania Law enforcement in Pennsylvania

3012923

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killing%20of%20animals

Killing of animals

The killing of animals is animal euthanasia (for pain relief), animal sacrifice (for a deity), animal slaughter (for food), hunting (for food, for sport, for fur and other animal products, etc.), blood sports, roadkill (by accident) or self-defense. Animal euthanasia Animal euthanasia (euthanasia from Greek: εὐθανασία; "good death") is the act of putting an animal to death or allowing it to die by withholding extreme medical measures. This is often done for domesticated livestock and house pets. Animal sacrifice Hinduism In Assam and West Bengal states of India and Nepal some Hindu temples sacrifice goats and chickens. Occasionally water buffalos are also sacrificed. Temples following Shakti school of Hinduism are the ones where sacrifice usually takes place. There are many village temples in Tamil Nadu where this kind of sacrifice takes place. Many animals are sacrificed during the three-day-long Gadhimai festival in Nepal. In 2009 it was speculated that more than 250,000 animals were killed In 2014, 100,000 animals were sacrificed which was a decrease from previous numbers. Animals range from buffalo to rats have been sacrificed. The temple authorities enacted a ban on animal sacrifice in 2015. Indo-European Horse sacrifice Many Indo-European religious branches show evidence for horse sacrifice, and comparative mythology suggests that they derive from a Proto-Indo-European (PIE) ritual. Islam Muslims engaged in the Hajj (pilgrimage) are obliged to sacrifice a lamb or a goat or join others in sacrificing a cow or a camel during the celebration of the Eid al-Adha, an Arabic term that means "Feast of Sacrifice", also known as al-Id al-Kabir (Great Feast), or Qurban Bayrami (Sacrifice Feast) in Turkic influenced cultures, Bakar Id (Goat Feast) in Indian subcontinent and Reraya Qurben in Indonesia. Other Muslims not on the Hajj to Mecca also participate in this sacrifice wherever they are, on the 10th day of the 12th lunar month in the Islamic calendar. It is understood as a symbolic re-enactment of Ibrahim's sacrifice of a ram in place of his son. Meat from this occasion is divided into three parts, one part is kept by the sacrificing family for food, the other gifted to friends and family, and the third given to the poor Muslims. The sacrificed animal is a sheep, goat, cow or camel. The animal sacrifice, states Philip Stewart, is not required by the Quran, but is based on interpretations of other Islamic texts. The Eid al-Adha is major annual festival of animal sacrifice in Islam. In Indonesia alone, for example, some 800,000 animals were sacrificed in 2014 by its Muslims on the festival, but the number can be a bit lower or higher depending on the economic conditions. According to Lesley Hazleton, in Turkey about 2,500,000 sheep, cows and goats are sacrificed each year to observe the Islamic festival of animal sacrifice, with a part of the sacrificed animal given to the needy who didn't sacrifice an animal. According to The Independent, nearly 10,000,000 animals are sacrificed in Pakistan every year on Eid. Millions of animal are brought into the Middle East from north Africa and parts of Asia and slaughter every year on Eid al-Adha. Other occasions when Muslims perform animal sacrifice include the 'aqiqa, when a child is seven days old, is shaved and given a name. It is believed that the animal sacrifice binds the child to Islam and offers protection to the child from evil. Animal slaughter Animal slaughter is the killing of nonhuman animals, and often refers to the slaughter of livestock. Animals may be slaughtered for humans to obtain food, and also if they are diseased and unable to be consumed as food. Cultural and religious aspects Halal meat Halāl ( , 'permissible'), also spelled "hallal" or "halaal", is any object or an action which is permissible to use or engage in, according to Islamic law. The term covers and designates not only food and drink but also all matters of daily life. There are three ways of halal killing: slitting of the throat (dabh), plunging the knife into the dimple over the breast bone (nahr), and killing in some other way ('aqr). The name of God (bismillah) must be said before killing the animal. The killing must be swift and with no prior stunning of the animal being killed. Blood must be drained out of the carcass. Ikejime Ikejime is a method of paralyzing fish to maintain the quality of its meat. The technique originated in Japan, but is now in widespread use. It involves the insertion of a spike quickly and directly into the hind brain, usually located slightly behind and above the eye, thereby causing immediate brain death. Kashrut (Kosher) Kashrut (also kashruth or kashrus, ) is the set of Jewish religious dietary laws. Food that may be consumed according to halakha (Jewish law) is termed kosher in English, from the Ashkenazi pronunciation of the Hebrew term kashér (), meaning "fit" (in this context, fit for consumption). Shechita is the process of slaughtering prescribed by Jewish dietary laws. Qurban Qurbān usually denotes the sacrifice of a livestock animal during Eid al-Adha, a Muslim holiday. Shechita In Shechita the killing must be performed by a shochet (). The process involves severing the trachea, esophagus, carotid arteries, jugular veins and vagus nerve swiftly with a special knife which is extremely sharp. This is done with the intention of causing a rapid drop in blood pressure in the brain and loss of consciousness, to reduce the pain felt by the animal and exsanguinate it at the same time. Tza'ar ba'alei chayim Tza'ar ba'alei chayim (literally means: "the suffering of living creatures") is the Jewish principle which bans inflicting unnecessary pain on animals. This concept is not clearly enunciated in the written Torah, but was accepted by the Talmud (Bava Metzia 32b) as being a Biblical mandate. Laboratory testing In 2014 nearly 25million animals were killed in the United States for laboratory testing, with most being "designer" mice. Legal aspects Humane Slaughter Act The Humane Slaughter Act is a United States federal law formulated to decrease livestock suffering during slaughter. The act was approved on August 27, 1958. Animals killing each other The smallest animal that can kill a human is the Naegleria fowleri amoeba. N. fowleri does this by crawling up the target's nose and eating the targets' brain. Most attacks happen in moist areas like ponds or lakes. In the middle is the blowfish (fugu) that can kill animals with its toxic organs that contain tetrodotoxin. The largest animal killer is the blue whale, which is the largest animal on Earth. The blue whale mostly feeds on krill (euphausiacea) which is a small, abundant crustacean. Blue whales are almost entirely killed by killer whales and by humans. Chimpanzees wage war against rival groups, killing rival males and eating the baby chimps. Ants also wage warfare on other ants, even engaging in cannibalism. Killer plants Deadly if consumed Many plant based items if eaten in sufficient quantities can cause seizures, spasms, tremors, gastroenteritis, cardiovascular collapse, coma, and then death. Ornamental plants Foxglove (Digitalis purpurea) Hydrangea (Hydrangea macrophylla) Larkspur (Delphinium consolida) Lily-of-the-Valley (Convallaria majalis) Mistletoe (Phoradendron flavescens) Mountain Laurel (Kalmia latifolia) Oleander (Nerium oleander) Poet's Narcissus (Narcissus poeticus) Poinsettia (Euphorbia pulcherrima) Purple Nightshade (Atropa belladonna) Rhododendron (Rhododendron ponticum) Water Hemlock/Spotted Parsley (Cicuta maculata) In the wild Elderberry Poison mushroom Products Castor oil (from the Castor bean) Foods Ackee Apple seeds Bitter almonds Cherry pits Green potatoes or potato leaf tea Nutmeg Raw lima beans Red kidney beans Kills by consuming Many plants kill animals by trapping or poisoning them, then digesting them for nourishment. Some plants can kill a rodent with various methods. Albany or Western Australian Pitcher Plant (Cephalotus) Pitcher plant (Nepenthes northiana)kills and then digests frogs and rats Venus Flytrap (Dionaea) Waterwheel Plant (Aldrovanda) Hunting In North America, animals such as bear, wolf, caribou, moose, elk, boar, sheep and bison are hunted. In South America, deer and other species are hunted. In Europe, sheep, boar, goats, elk, deer, and other species are hunted. In Asia, several species of deer, bear, sheep and other species are hunted. In Australia, several species of deer and wild boar are hunted. Big-game Big-game hunting is the hunting of large game, almost always large terrestrial mammals, for meat, other animal by-products (such as horn or bone), trophy or sport. The term is historically associated with the hunting of Africa's "big five" game (lion, African elephant, Cape buffalo, leopard and rhinoceros), and with tigers and rhinoceroses on the Indian subcontinent. Along with the big five animals, many other species are hunted including but not limited to kudu, antelope, and hartebeest. Moose, elk, bear, mountain lion, caribou, bison and deer are the largest game hunted in North America, which is where most big-game hunting is conducted today. Big-game hunting is conducted in Africa, North America, South America, Europe, Asia and Australia. In Africa, lion, Cape buffalo, elephant, giraffe and other large game animals are hunted. Roadkill Animals are often killed by moving vehicles. This is known as roadkill. In one case in North Carolina in early 2016 a deer was road killed and butchered outside a restaurant. A concerned citizen took cell phone images and called the police. The restaurant owner was contacted by the police and stated that he had no intention of selling roadkill meals to his customers. Because the deer was butchered outside the restaurant the authorities decided to drop the matter. The restaurant owner also stated he was not aware of any prohibition against eating roadkill; he merely wanted to try something new. In many areas in the United States it is illegal to consume roadkill. However, it is estimated that 34 percent of U.S. states have passed laws allowing the gleaning of roadkill. Alternatives and reactions Cecil the lion When Cecil the lion was killed in Africa in summer 2015 by Minnesota dentist Walter Palmer it caused a worldwide commotion. Palmer went into hiding when it was alleged that his guides and he had lured Cecil out of a Zimbabwe animal preserve at which point Palmer admittedly shot Cecil with an arrow. Cecil ran off wounded for 40 hours before Palmer's guides found Cecil, admittedly shot him, and decapitated him, leaving Cecil's head and tracking collar behind. Palmer later broke silence to say he was heartbroken over the pain he had caused his dental staff. People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) is an animal rights group founded in America and is based in Norfolk, Virginia. It is led by Ingrid Newkirk. It claims to have 3million members and supporters, which would make it the largest animal rights group in the world. Its slogan is "animals are not ours to eat, wear, experiment on, use for entertainment, or abuse in any other way." Veganism and vegetarianism Veganism is the practice of abstaining from the use of all animal products, particularly in diet. Vegetarianism is the practice of abstaining from the consumption of meat (red meat, poultry, seafood, insects and the flesh of any other animal and may also include abstention from by-products of animal slaughter). Vegetarians, however, may consume eggs, dairy products and honey. Ahimsa Ahimsa is an important tenet of 3 Indian-origin religions (Jainism, Hinduism, and Buddhism). Ahimsa is a multidimensional concept, inspired by the premise that all living beings have the spark of the divine spiritual energy; therefore, to hurt another being is to hurt oneself. Ahimsa has also been related to the notion that any violence has karmic consequences. See also Animal ethics Animal law Animal rights Animal welfare Cannibalism Carnism Chick culling Cruelty to animals No-kill shelter Poaching Unclean animal References Further reading External links Slaughter & Stunning. European Commission. Welfare of Animals at the Time of Killing. Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs. Government of the United Kingdom.

3246670

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killing%20of%20Meredith%20Hunter

Killing of Meredith Hunter

Meredith Curly Hunter, Jr. (October 24, 1951 – December 6, 1969) was an audience member who was killed at the 1969 Altamont Free Concert. During the performance by The Rolling Stones, Hunter approached the stage, and was violently driven off by members of the Hells Angels motorcycle club who had agreed to serve as security guards. He subsequently returned to the stage area, drew a revolver, and was stabbed and beaten to death by Hells Angel Alan Passaro. The incident was caught on camera and became a central scene in the Maysles Brothers documentary Gimme Shelter. Passaro was charged with murder and tried in 1971. Following 17 days of testimony, an eight-man, four-woman jury deliberated for 12 and a half hours before Passaro was acquitted on grounds of self-defense. Altamont Hunter was an 18-year-old from Berkeley, California, nicknamed "Murdock" and described by friends as a flashy dresser with a big Afro. Hunter, his girlfriend Patty Bredehoft, Ronnie Brown (nicknamed "Blood"), and Brown's girlfriend Judy traveled from Berkeley to attend the Altamont Free Concert. His sister Dixie warned him about the still prevalent racism in the outer reaches of Alameda County, which prompted Meredith to take a .22 Smith and Wesson pistol for protection. The Hells Angels had agreed to provide security for $500 (about US$3,538 adjusted for inflation, 2019) worth of beer. They stood directly in front of the bands in an effort to keep people off the unusually low stage, which had been set up at the bottom of a low slope. They parked several of their motorcycles in front of the stage to act "as a kind of bulwark against the crowd". As the Hells Angels became intoxicated and the crowd became restless and unpredictable, the drunken Hells Angels began hurling full cans of beer from their stockpile and striking concertgoers with motorcycle chains and sawed-off, weighted pool cues to drive the crowd back from the stage and the Angels' motorcycles. By the time the Rolling Stones took the stage in the early evening, the mood had taken a decidedly ugly turn, as numerous fights began to erupt between Angels and crowd members. Denise Jewkes (née Kaufman) of local San Francisco rock band the Ace of Cups, six months pregnant at the time, was hit in the head by an empty beer bottle thrown from the crowd and suffered a skull fracture that warranted emergency surgery. Lead singer Mick Jagger of the Rolling Stones (who had been punched by a concertgoer within seconds of emerging from the Stones' helicopter) urged the audience to "just be cool down in the front there, don't push around." Within the first minute of the Stones' third song, "Sympathy for the Devil", a fight erupted in the front of the crowd at the foot of the stage. After another appeal for calm, the band restarted the song and continued their set with fewer incidents until the start of "Under My Thumb". At this point, Hunter climbed on top of a speaker box next to the stage, and two of the Hells Angels got into a scuffle with Hunter. One of the Hells Angels grabbed Hunter's head, punched him, and chased him back into the crowd, where four Angels descended upon him. After a few seconds, Hunter angrily returned to the front of the stage where, according to Gimme Shelter producer Porter Bibb, Hunter's girlfriend Patty Bredehoft found him and tearfully begged him to calm down and move farther back in the crowd with her. By her report he was enraged, irrational and "so high he could barely walk". Grateful Dead associate Rock Scully noticed Hunter in the crowd, concluding that “I saw what he was looking at, that he was crazy, he was on drugs, and that he had murderous intent. There was no doubt in my mind that he intended to do terrible harm to Mick or somebody in the Rolling Stones, or somebody on that stage." Another witness reported Hunter as looking "pretty straight", though visibly upset about the violence inflicted upon him. Footage from the documentary shows Hunter, easily identifiable in a lime-green suit, drawing what appears to be a long-barreled black .22 caliber revolver from his jacket and pointing it in the air. The film shows what might be an orange flash at the end of the pistol in one frame. However, because of the film's low fidelity, it is impossible to determine whether the flash is a gunshot, a reflection or a film defect. The Angels did not report any discharged cartridges in Hunter's pistol. The film then shows Hells Angel Alan Passaro, armed with a knife, running at Hunter from the side, parrying the gun with his left hand and stabbing him with his right. Sources vary regarding which of the Maysles Brothers' camera operators shot the footage of the stabbing. Albert Maysles attributed it to cameraman Baird Bryant, while other sources have also credited Eric Saarinen. In the film sequence, lasting about two seconds, a opening in the crowd appears, leaving Patty Bredehoft in the center. Hunter enters the opening from the left, his hand rises and the silhouette of a revolver is clearly seen against Bredehoft's bright crocheted vest. Passaro is seen entering from the right and delivering two stabs as he pushes Hunter off screen. The opening closes around Bredehoft. Passaro was reported to have stabbed Hunter five times in the upper back. Witnesses also reported that Hunter was stomped on by several Hells Angels while he was on the ground. The gun was recovered and turned over to police. Hunter's autopsy later confirmed his girlfriend's report that he did have methamphetamine in his bloodstream at the time of his death. Aftermath Passaro was arrested and charged with murder for Hunter's death, but he was acquitted on grounds of self-defense after the jury viewed the footage from the concert showing Hunter drawing the revolver and pointing it toward the stage or in the air. The Rolling Stones have stated that they were unaware that a killing had taken place during their set; in the Gimme Shelter documentary, Jagger notices the commotion in the crowd and threatens to end the performance until a stagehand pulls him aside and informs him about someone with a gun. The film then cuts to Jagger viewing raw footage of the killing, apparently for the first time. In 1995, Jagger commented on Hunter's death in an interview with Rolling Stone publisher Jann Wenner, who asked, "After the concert itself, when it became apparent that somebody got killed, how did you feel?" Jagger replied, "Well, awful. I mean, just awful. You feel a responsibility. How could it all have been so silly and wrong? But I didn't think of these things that you guys thought of, you in the press: this great loss of innocence, this cathartic end of the era ... I didn't think of any of that. That particular burden didn't weigh on my mind. It was more how awful it was to have had this experience and how awful it was for someone to get killed". Shortly after Hunter's death, his mother, Altha May Anderson, requested that Altamont Raceway be turned into a public park to "prevent any more wrongful deaths at Altamont". Alameda County officials later voted to allow the raceway to continue to host races, but barred future concerts there and restricted the number of attendees to 3,000. Passaro drowned in Anderson Lake in southern Santa Clara County in 1985; police said "the death is kind of suspicious", though foul play was never confirmed. He is buried at Los Gatos Memorial Park in San Jose, California. Over the years, there have been rumors that a second, unidentified assailant had inflicted the fatal wounds; as a result, the police considered the case still open. On May 25, 2005, the Alameda County Sheriff's Office announced that it was officially closing the case. Investigators, concluding a renewed two-year investigation, dismissed the theory that a second Hells Angel took part in the stabbing. In 2006, filmmaker Sam Green released a short documentary titled Lot 63, Grave C, which revolves around the last day of Hunter's life and the unmarked grave in which he was buried on December 10, 1969, at the Skyview Memorial Lawn cemetery in Vallejo. After the film was screened widely at film festivals, several people sent donations to the cemetery to buy Meredith Hunter a headstone, which was installed in 2008. A documentary that aired on BBC in 2008 reported that, subsequent to the concert, members of the Hells Angels tried to murder Mick Jagger. References External links 1951 births 1969 deaths Criminal trials that ended in acquittal Deaths by stabbing in California Filmed killings Hells Angels People from Berkeley, California Deaths by person in the United States The Rolling Stones African-American history of California 20th-century African-American people

3735675

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killing%20of%20Nixzmary%20Brown

Killing of Nixzmary Brown

Nixzmary Brown (July 18, 1998 – January 11, 2006) was a seven-year-old American abused child and murder victim from the Bedford-Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn, New York City. Her death impacted the city's Administration for Children's Services and prompted reforms in the system. Murder Brown had endured torture, and was later learned to have been bound, molested, beaten, and killed by her stepfather César Rodriguez in a state of rage that began over a cup of yogurt and a broken printer that he claimed was her fault. Her stepfather, quoted in an article published in USA Today, called her a "troublemaker". On the night of January 10, 2006, Rodriguez beat Brown to death with both fists and his thick leather belt. Her mother, Nixzaliz Santiago, ignored Rodriguez as he slammed Brown's head into a bathtub and doused her with cold water. Both Santiago and Rodriguez were charged with second-degree murder and child endangerment. Rodriguez was convicted on verdict of first-degree manslaughter and other charges, and was sentenced 29 years in prison. Rodriguez and Santiago each accused the other of inflicting the final, fatal blow. Traces of Brown's DNA were found on Rodriguez's belt. The indictment also alleged that Rodriguez abused the little girl for months and smashed her head against a bathtub. Previous abuse Evidence of previous abuse inflicted on Brown came to light, and the news coverage of her murder case later drew public attention on New York City Administration for Children's Services (ACS). ACS had received two complaints about Brown's family. The first, made in 2004, remained unsubstantiated. The second complaint was made on December 1, 2005 when Brown showed up at school with a black eye. Another story in January 2006 brought more details of the ACS involvement. Blame was eventually assigned to the ACS by the news media and six Children's Services employees were disciplined. There were also stories that investigators were "swamped" with cases and the Bloomberg administration noted that the ACS was responding by hiring 525 more workers. In March 2006 a City Panel - created by Mayor Michael Bloomberg in response to Brown's death - advocated multiple changes, some of which included better communication with school officials regarding absenteeism, a 24-hour hotline, instant-response teams and new training for police personnel regarding sensitivity to abused children. However, the key changes included: Under the changes, the police for the first time will assign a full-time supervisor, a lieutenant, to child welfare headquarters to be a liaison between the two agencies. Caseworkers will be required to seek entry orders when denied access to the home of a child suspected to be at risk of neglect or abuse. And school officials will have more license to alert the authorities when a student has too many unexplained absences. Funeral Nixzmary Brown's funeral was held at St. Mary's Church on Manhattan's Lower East Side. According to a Newsday report, there was considerable anger during the burial of Nixzmary Brown, with two sides of Brown's family present. Rodriguez's sister, Iris, showed up unexpectedly and her appearance prompted shouts by others to leave, and at least one comment of "not being welcome." Immediate aftermath There was a City Council hearing on the ACS in September 2007, announced by then-Councilman Bill de Blasio, the chairman of the General Welfare Committee, which has jurisdiction over the ACS. De Blasio cited the death of 21-month-old Hailey Gonzalez after she was allegedly beaten by her mother's boyfriend and the death of a 2-month-old after the child was allegedly shaken by his mother in a homeless shelter. The Councilman said that ACS has made some progress but noted that children were still being lost. On January 13, 2008, a former ACS supervisor, Roger Moore, came forward to discuss with the New York Daily News the failure of the ACS and how opportunities were lost because of another child-murder involving a 16-month-old boy and other factors. Moore discussed that because of the issue of the drowning of the little boy in a bathtub, the issue of Brown wasn't even discussed. There were discussions of a lack of follow-up work not being done by caseworkers and supervisors in Brooklyn regarding the abuse in Brown's case. ACS Commissioner John Mattingly had also made comments. He had mentioned to the Daily News editorial board that there were various methods that could have been used, but weren't. He mentioned that the ACS could have brought pressure on Brown's family to reveal more about the girl's condition; that they could have paid more attention to reports from Brown's school staff and could have sought a warrant to enter into Brown's home, but none of these measures were used. Mayor Michael Bloomberg had entered into the discussion by asking in this Daily News article: "Why the caseworkers didn't push further, harder - that's what we are investigating today." By March 2008, the ACS had launched a $1M recruitment drive for new child welfare caseworkers. It was reported that the agency was getting many applications, but retention of caseworkers was a great problem. It was further reported that in 2007, 17 percent of the city's caseworkers had quit. The pay for the position was reported as starting at $39,000. Videos and other illustrations of the difficulty of the position are being used in the recruitment process. New York Post columnist Andrea Peyser compared Nixzmary Brown to another young girl who was murdered several years prior in 1996, Justina Morales. In that case, both the mother, Denise Solero, and her boyfriend "decided the girl had to die because she resisted taking a bath." A number of suspicious child felonies had surfaced and were reported in the news media in 2008, including the murder of an 8-month-old named Elijah Rodriguez. Public Advocate Betsy Gotbaum has said that at least 28 children have died since 2004 "under suspicious circumstances". Legislation "Nixzmary's Law" was proposed in January 2006 by New York State senator Joseph Bruno, shortly after the events. The law is designed to deter or prevent child abuse related crimes by charging parents connected to the crime of the death of their children with first degree murder, the maximum punishment for which in New York State would be 25 years to life in prison without the possibility of parole. Since passage of the law, reports have increased to New York State's child abuse hotline. According to the article, "Driving the trend is increased public awareness of the hotline." Legislation in the form of a Bill sent to New York Governor Paterson has been approved by the state's Senate to target those individuals who have killed a child, especially in a "cruel and wanton manner". One of the legislators, Senator Ruben Diaz Sr., stated "We have to send a message that this kind of abuse of children has to stop." The Daily News article said that the murder case was a "shakeup of the city's Administration for Children's Services." Cesar Rodriguez's trial Start of trial Jury selection had begun during the week of January 6, 2008, and the defense objective was to focus on the ACS and the parents. The defense lawyer for Rodriguez was Jeffrey T. Schwartz, who had competed in 2006 to represent Darryl Littlejohn in the murder case of Imette St. Guillen. Prosecutors were insistent that the judge allow jurors to see 7 pictures of the dead girl at the start of the testimony. Photographs of Brown, showing her bruised and battered body "proved too gruesome yesterday for even her accused killer, Cesar Rodriguez." The ADA wanted one of the pictures introduced to "refute claims by Rodriguez and the girl's mother, Nixzaliz Santiago, that she (Nixzmary) drowned." The issue of child discipline was also raised by the prosecutor. Prosecution had planned to show crime-scene photos at the trial, calling it a case of torture. The jury composition was 10 women and two men; nine of them had children of their own. Further details described the jury's racial composition is composed of 9 black females, one black male, and with two white females, with almost all of the women having children; and the Lawyers having selected six alternate jurors in case any jurors cannot continue during the trial period. During opening remarks given on Wednesday, January 16, Assistant D.A. Ama Dwimoh told the Brooklyn jurors that "It was inevitable her life would end the way it did: battered and beaten, left alone on the floor, moaning until she could no longer hold onto life". Defense lawyer Schwartz countered D.A. Dwimoh's remarks by indicating that Rodriguez was "a loving family man"; that Brown's mother was "deeply, deeply disturbed," and that the little girl herself was troubled. Details and evidence of Brown's abuse and death It was reported that Brown was confined to a spare room in the apartment with dirty mattresses, a broken radiator, an old wooden school chair with a rope, and the litter box. Further, Brown was said to be "routinely tied to the chair; raped; beaten repeatedly with a belt and fists. Also reported were crime-scene photos taken in the family's three-bedroom apartment, as well as a videotape of Rodriguez casting blame on Brown." Schwartz had said outside of the courtroom on Wednesday that his client was only guilty of being "a strict disciplinarian" and he then reiterated claims that Brown's mother was responsible. He then made a statement that as the trial continued, the jury would soon learn who the actual "monster" [sic] was in Brown's murder. On January 18, the trial focused on household items which were transformed into instruments of torture for Brown. The chief object was the chair that Brown was tied to. A white nylon cord was still attached to the chair. A bungee cord and duct tape, which "Rodriguez allegedly used to cinch Brown's ankles to the chair" were shown to the jury. The jury seemed most disturbed by the cat-litter box. It was reported on the January 21 trial portion that "Brown weighed just 36 pounds when police found her beaten to death on the floor of her Brooklyn apartment, but her family's fridge was anything but empty." Jurors saw crime-scene photographs "of a well-stocked refrigerator full of milk, pancake mix, salami, tortillas, cream cheese, lettuce – and the yogurt that Nixzmary was punished for stealing the night she died." In an attempt to show Rodriguez in a favorable light, a drinking mug was shown at the Tuesday portion of the trial by the defense lawyer with the title "World's Greatest Dad", to show the jury that Rodriguez did not murder Brown. Schwartz commented about the relationship between Brown and Rodriguez. Assistant D.A. Ama Dwimoh rebuked the whole idea of Rodriguez ever being a good father to Brown. Further court discussion centered on the black leather belt that Rodriguez used to allegedly hit Brown. There were traces of Brown's DNA on the belt, according to prosecutors. New evidence and trial delays New evidence was presented at the close of the trial on Wednesday, January 23. A gag order was issued by the court. Mention was made of Rodriguez's "petty criminal record". It was anticipated that this new "mystery" evidence would be revealed during Wednesday or later. However, for a second time, jurors were sent home on Thursday. It was reported that both sides in the court case refused to talk about developments. A 'gag' order was in place and the Daily News was attempting to lift the order. The next time that jurors would meet would be Monday, January 28, 2008. The trial was delayed on January 23 and continued for a fourth day. It was later revealed that the unexplained delays were due to a new witness. The judge, Priscilla Hall, had held a "sealed hearing" because of witness' safety concerns. The gag order remained to prevent either side from speaking about the case. A number of newspapers had filed papers seeking to lift the gag order. It was further revealed that Brown's blood was found in numerous areas of the spare room she was kept in. The expert brought forth, Taylor Dickerson, said that her DNA profile was clearly present. The chief prosecutor said she was tortured and the blood found on the jeans that her stepfather wore on January 11 belonged to Brown. More testimony It had been revealed in a few news reports in January 2008 that a social worker for Brown's school at P.S. 256, Margarita Cotto, had become concerned with Brown's case and reported her findings to the ACS. She had pleaded with the child welfare workers to remove Brown from her parents, and tried, in vain, to enter Brown's apartment but was barred from entering by Rodriguez. On May 16, 2005, a guidance counselor who had filed two abuse reports contacted the state child abuse hotline about Brown's bruises and also made note that Brown had been absent from school for 46 days. Later, an ACS caseworker visited Brown's home, but the caseworker couldn't verify the abuse charge and accepted Brown's mother's word that Brown would return to her school. The jury was shown a video depicting the family shopping on Monday, January 9, 2006 while Brown was left home. The shopping occurred at a Target store in Downtown Brooklyn, the Atlantic Center Mall. The specific toy items being purchased were Power Ranger action figures, Hot Wheels cars, Play-Doh, Bratz dolls, etc. Nowhere is Brown seen in the video, and the defense lawyer said the video didn't prove anything. Rodriguez's defense claimed that he was never read his Miranda rights, and that his constitutional rights were violated. The discussion then turned to the actual arrest of Rodriguez. On February 4, the jurors watched a video statement showing Rodriguez talking about the abuse he inflicted on Brown. As had happened previously, jurors showed strong emotions as they listened to his explanations. Prosecutors believe the video to be "the most damning evidence". Prosecutor Ama Dwimoh said "He calmly and coldly talks about how he would beat Nixzmary Brown". Rodriguez's lawyer, Schwartz, attacked the video by cross-examining Det. Steven Sneider, who was presenting the video evidence. At one point, Schwartz called for a mistrial but his motion was denied. Schwartz then stated to the jury that Rodriguez was taking responsibility for wounds inflicted by Brown's mother, Nixzaliz. There was discussion of a "jailhouse witness" which the New York Daily News took credit in first reporting. At the Wednesday, February 6 portion of the trial, defense lawyer Schwartz made a comment concerning the prosecutor as having possible porn in her home. Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice Priscilla Hall then reprimanded Schwartz for that remark after the jury was dismissed for lunch. Schwartz, according to a news report, had been complaining that prosecutors had "sandbagged" his defense of Rodriguez using Brown's backpack and other personal items. The prosecutor replied that the jury had no interest in seeing what else was found at the apartment: piles of pornography. Schwartz responded saying that pornography is not illegal, and later implied that Dwimoh had pornography at her house. Forensic photographs were shown to the jury on Thursday, February 7, and the jury reacted emotionally. Barbara Sampson of the medical examiner's office said on the stand that the bruises were only hours or days old. It was indicated that a head blow Brown received two days before she died was the cause of her death. "She was unconscious and going into respiratory depression for at least several hours before she died," Dr. Barbara Sampson informed jurors. It was further learned that neither Rodriguez nor Santiago did anything to help Brown during the hemorrhage. Further photographs of Brown were shown to the jury to back up Sampson's diagnosis. Sampson said in court that the blow to Brown's head was the "straw that broke the camel's back" and she further stated that Brown died from "child abuse syndrome." Dr. Barbara Sampson also provided the following details during the day's trial, saying that Brown had been somnolent and then in a coma. Sampson also indicated that Brown probably had progressive respiratory depression and perhaps had made moaning and groaning sounds, and was also gasping for air. Sampson further indicated that subdural hematoma was the mechanism of her death. A specialist for the ACS, Vanessa Rhoden, had reported that on December 1, 2005, she had witnessed early signs of abuse in Brown but was rebuffed by Rodriguez. Rodriguez had told Rhoden that he had taken Brown to the hospital, and then used foul language to address her and end the conversation. This revelation took defense lawyer Schwartz off-guard during the Tuesday, February 19 trial portion because he had called Rhoden to the stand to show the court and the jury that there was no cause for alarm at that time. It was after this meeting that it was reported that ACS tried further visits to Brown's family's apartment but was refused each time. Rhoden testified in court on Tuesday, February 19 that Rodriguez cursed her when she made inquiries concerning "lacerations, bruises and welts" on the girl. She further testified that Brown's mother attempted to show her a fetus kept in a jar in the family's apartment. Rhoden indicated that she was disturbed by this revelation and so recommended mental health counseling for Brown's mother. It was further indicated that Rhoden did not believe Brown was in an unsafe environment and so she didn't make any motion to have Brown or the other children removed from the family. Defense lawyer Schwartz was planning on calling Rodriguez's mother-in-law, Maria Gonzalez, to the witness stand during the week of February 24. Schwartz's defense strategy of Rodriguez involved blaming his wife, Nixzaliz Santiago, and showing that she was the actual murderer. Gonzalez is suing New York city for $150 million for negligence, and the failure of the ACS to act on behalf of her granddaughter. Brown's grandmother, Maria Gonzalez, finally provided her testimony during the Wednesday, March 6 portion of the trial. Gonzalez, however, used the opportunity to defend the $150 million lawsuit that she had filed. As before, Schwartz continued his tactic of taking the testimony of others to use against Santiago to show that she was unstable. Gonzalez had testified that Santiago had left home for a man at the age of 17, that she had six more children, and that she continued to depend upon other men for her welfare. Further testimony by Gonzalez resulted in her testimony denying the continued trial allegations of Schwartz that Brown was a "wild child". She further indicated that Brown and her siblings were in fear of Rodriguez. An emergency room doctor was called to the witness stand during the Thursday, February 21 trial portion and reported that he had witnessed no signs of abuse on Brown after a medical exam 7 weeks before Brown's death in which Rodriguez brought the little girl to the hospital. When prosecutor Linda Weinman had grilled him as to whether he made a report, and the doctor said 'no', the prosecutor indicated that his decision was a mistake, but the physician indicated that he didn't know at the time. The official hospital records from the November 29, 2005 visit say "No other bruises present." On February 25, a medical testimony was expected to be given by a Suffolk County medical examiner, Dr. Charles Wetli, supposedly putting the Prosecution's case in jeopardy. It was expected that the testimony would ruin Prosecution's argument that Brown was the victim of child abuse syndrome. However, Wetli indicated that Brown was definitely killed by a blow to her head. This conflicted with Defense's argument that Brown was never hit on her head. In the February 26 trial portion, it was indicated that the constant Defense argument that Brown was killed because she caused Santiago to have a miscarriage was found groundless because Prosecutor Linda Weinman told jurors that Santiago had confided in a psychiatrist that she blamed Rodriguez because of a "beating". She revealed from the report that, in November, 2005, Rodriguez had choked and thrown her to the floor and, within hours, Santiago had miscarried. There was discussion as to whether the report was admissible in court. Schwartz contended that the report proved Santiago a liar, while Weinmam wanted the report kept confidential. It was explained that this was an obsession, the reason Santiago kept the fetal remains in a jar. Schwartz had said of Santiago that "she believed Nixzmary caused the miscarriage and I know that based on what my client has said to me and to the police from day one." Schwartz also maintains that it was Santiago who delivered the death blow to Brown. Attorney change and apology for delays On February 27, the lawyer for Nixzaliz Santiago, Robert Abrams, removed himself from the case citing "communication difficulties". Santiago believed, according to the article, that a psychiatric evaluation given to the defense would harm her case. The judge in the murder case apologized to jurors about the delays in the trial. It was reported that the trial never started before 10:30 a.m. and rarely went past 5 p.m. Jurors were sent home five times without hearing any testimony and were getting long lunch breaks and a half-day every Friday. It was also reported by Schwartz that witnesses were "hostile" and "stalled their appearances". Accusations that Santiago was the murderer It was reported that a secret witness, later identified as a Riker's Island inmate, was claiming that Brown's mother was her murderer. There was also mention of a secret diary, which was a collection of handwritten notes that the inmate took during her time in jail with Santiago. Prosecutors have dismissed that person as unreliable, but the defense wants her to take the stand. It was reported that if the witness were to testify, it could be in a closed-door hearing for safety reasons. During the Tuesday, March 4 portion of the trial, the jurors finally heard the testimony of the inmate/witness. This testimony by the inmate also revealed that she may have hurt Rodriguez in the past. One person later commented that this witness may have helped the prosecution more than the defense as the testimony was supposed to focus the blame for Brown's death on Santiago. It was later published in a newspaper that the unidentified inmate revealed a story of the sexual abuse of Brown. She revealed that Santiago had desired to hurt Brown because she discovered Rodriguez making Brown have oral sex with him. According to the inmate's verbal testimony, which she recorded in a set of composition books, the inmate indicated that Santiago "told me her child was a bad kid and her and her husband killed her." The inmate also said that Santiago despised her daughter and defended Rodriguez. According to the article, the inmate reading from a May 15, 2006 journal entry said that Santiago had said "that her husband was a good man and the child was evil". The inmate said that Santiago referred to Brown as 'diablo'. It was further noted in the article that the sexual charges against Rodriguez had been dropped before the trial and that the M.E. had indicated that there were no signs of sexual abuse. Trial conclusion On March 11, Schwartz had concluded the defense portion of the case. It is possible that Rodriguez's fate could be decided with closing arguments on Wednesday, March 12. As the trial was nearing its end, the closing arguments were given. Prosecutor Ama Dwimoh displayed again the photos showing a tortured Brown. Dwimoh made these statements: "He's nothing short of a murderer"; "Now he's having you believe, 'it ain't me; it's my wife.' Hmmm!" and then she argued "There is nothing that 7-year-old Nixzmary Brown could ever do to deserve that." Dwimoh had declared that even in death, Brown herself "remains the most eloquent piece of evidence in this case". She described how Brown's "body speaks volumes about the life she was forced to live." Dwimoh did this while projecting the images of Brown's corpse onto three large screens. Dwimoh further said that "Each mark, bruise, laceration, contusion, abrasion, ligature mark, tells the story of systematic abuse and torture that she suffered at the hands of this defendant" Schwartz continued to portray Rodriguez as a family man who punished Brown with beatings, but still insisted that Brown's mother was the actual killer. The jury began deliberating on March 13. They had received instructions from Justice L. Priscilla Hall in deciding on the 12 criminal charges against Rodriguez. Schwartz had indicated that Rodriguez would be convicted of something. He made one last unsuccessful attempt at a mistrial, arguing that the prosecution shouldn't have used the photographs. On March 18, Rodriguez was convicted of first-degree manslaughter. Rodriguez faced a maximum of 29 years for the manslaughter charge, weapons possession and endangering the welfare of a child. On April 3, Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice L. Priscilla Hall, sentenced Cesar Rodriguez to a term of 26 to 29 years in prison. He was given 25 years for first-degree manslaughter and 1 to 4 years for false imprisonment. This sentence was the maximum term. Prior to the judge imposing her sentence, Rodriguez briefly addressed the court saying, "I'm just sorry for causing anybody any emotional pain or distorted memories about the child. I'm just sorry. I loved Nixzmary." As he was led away, a woman in the crowd yelled "murderer!" Nixzaliz Santiago's trial Before trial Santiago was harassed by other inmates during a bus ride to the Brooklyn courthouse. She had complained to the judge about her treatment and other inmates. Her lawyer, Sammy Sanchez, told Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice Patricia DiMango that Santiago "was physically harassed", this at the first hearing since Rodriguez was convicted of manslaughter. The jury selection began on September 15, 2008. During trial During the opening remarks, prosecutors revealed that Brown's last words as she lay dying were "Mommy, mommy, mommy". Prosecutor Ama Dwimoh stated that Santiago did not stop Rodriguez from "repeatedly beating" Brown. Dwimoh also said that Santiago "didn't protect", "didn't love" and "didn't nurture" Brown. Supreme Court Justice Patricia DiMango, who was allegedly emotional herself, allowed one juror, who was an elementary school teacher, to leave. Defense Attorney Sammy Sanchez pleaded Santiago's case, arguing that she couldn't help herself because she, too, was battered by Cesar Rodriguez. The trial was later brought to a halt by Justice Patricia DiMango amidst secret meeting accusations against a juror and a "possible mystery witness", all caused by a letter sent to a defense lawyer that DiMango had obtained. The letter-writer informed the Daily News that the teacher raised his hand to indicate he could not be fair. However the judge and the lawyers did not observe this action. Then the juror told the judge that he did not raise his hand. DiMango handled the most serious allegation by questioning a juror, a 35-year-old schoolteacher who was accused of admitting he could not be fair, in her chambers. Dimango then addressed the courtroom with these words: "If it comes to my attention that anyone here is attempting in any way to inappropriately influence these proceedings ... I take that extremely seriously, and will deal directly with that individual or individuals." A neighbor named Ulbis Rivera later testified at Santiago's trial. Rivera had made a 911 call, shouting that "7-year-old is unconscious." Rivera indicated that Santiago appeared "calm" even though she made moaning sounds heard on the 911 call. Rivera indicated that Santiago told her that Brown had drowned. She was, however, still lying on the floor, dry and clothed. Rivera said that Santiago was "faking" remorse over Brown's death. Rivera cried on the witness stand as Dwimoh presented to her photographs of Brown. Santiago, if found guilty, could face a conviction of up to life imprisonment for allowing Rodriguez to abuse Brown. Santiago's lawyer, Kathleen Mullin, argued on Tuesday's trial portion that her client was guilty only of failing to realize that Brown was dying from Rodriguez's beatings. She urged the Brooklyn jury to convict Santiago of criminally negligent homicide, which would carry a maximum of four years in prison and continued to blame Rodriguez for the deadly blows. Prosecutors insisted that Santiago had to know of her husband's abuse and showed autopsy photographs to make their point. Mullin continued in her defense of Santiago by saying that Brown was prevented from crying out because duct tape was used on her mouth, while Rodriguez was beating her. Mullin then held up a picture of Nixzmary's battered body and said "What he was doing was this." She used this in her closing argument, stating that Santiago had no idea that Rodriguez was beating Brown to her death. Mulin backed up her defense by using the physical evidence that the tape marks on Brown's face were fresh; that there was a "ball of rolled-up tape in the bathroom garbage pail"; that Santiago couldn't hear Brown crying out because of the duct tape and because the door to the back room was shut. Assistant D.A. Dwimoh argued against this defense saying that the girl was "unrecognizable" in death, then stated that "Someone in this courtroom had a duty to help, and that someone is Nixzaliz Santiago." Dwimoh said that while Brown was dying, Santiago was plotting her defense that Rodriguez was solely responsible. Verdict and after trial The jury deliberated for 18 hours over a three-day period, then found Nixzaliz Santiago guilty of manslaughter; the same verdict that Rodriguez had received. She was acquitted of the more serious charge of second-degree murder. However, because she was previously convicted of four lesser crimes: assault for binding Brown with a bungee cord, blackening her eye, unlawful imprisonment and endangering her welfare, Santiago would face more time when sentenced on November 5, 2008. There was no reaction from Santiago when the verdict was read. The judge indicated that a protection order would prevent her from seeing her other children. If her sentences are applied consecutively, Santiago could face up to 43 years in prison. After the trial, D.A. Dwimoh stated, "Today was a good day for children because this jury said that parents have a duty – it's not just what you do but what you don't do ... Nixzmary, being a 7-year-old child, was owed a duty by her mother to protect her and give her medical attention." Santiago was sentenced on November 12, 2008 to 43 years in prison. Justice Patricia DiMango made these harsh remarks to her: "You may not have delivered the fatal blow, but were it not for your failure to act, Nixzmary Brown would probably not have died from that blow," and "By your own statements, she gasped for air – moaning – and called for you twice until she died. You, Mrs. Santiago, ignored the desperate calls and left this little 7-year-old alone and you did nothing" and finally "You had a duty to act. You were the mother." Santiago's defense attorney Kathleen Mullin said she would appeal. On appeal, Santiago's sentence was reduced to 28 to 33 years See also Persons Murder of Elisa Izquierdo Murder of Nadine Lockwood Murder of Joseph Wallace Similar cases Murder of Anjelica Castillo Lisa Steinberg Murder of Nubia Barahona References External links Brooklyn Eagle news article pertaining to the murder of Nixzmary Brown Nixzmary Brown.org 1998 births 2006 deaths 2006 in New York City 2006 murders in the United States Child abuse resulting in death Crimes in New York City Deaths by person in New York City Murdered American children People from Bedford–Stuyvesant, Brooklyn People from Waterbury, Connecticut People murdered in New York City Incidents of violence against girls

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killing%20of%20Jerry%20McCabe

Killing of Jerry McCabe

Detective Garda Jerry McCabe (22 November 1943 – 7 June 1996) was a member of the Garda Síochána, the national police force of Ireland. McCabe was killed in Adare, County Limerick on 7 June 1996, by members of the Provisional IRA, during the attempted robbery of a post office van. Early life Detective Garda McCabe was born in Ballylongford, County Kerry on 22 November 1943. He was married to Anne, a daughter of a Garda. The couple lived in Limerick and had five children, John, Mark, Ian, Stacy, and Desmond, known as Ross. John and Ross are serving members of the Garda Síochána. The robbery The two detectives were escorting an An Post van carrying IR£81,000 at 6:50 am on the morning of 7 June 1996 in Adare, Co. Limerick, Ireland, when Detective Garda Ben O'Sullivan noticed a Pajero heading towards them from behind. The car collided with them. Two men wearing balaclavas jumped out of the Pajero, and fired 15 rounds from an AK-47 at the detectives. Three rounds hit Jerry McCabe, killing him. His colleague, O'Sullivan was seriously injured, having been hit 11 times. One bullet strayed and lodged in the Garda patrol car, a Ford Mondeo. They were fired on full automatic by the gunman. Detective O'Sullivan, who was driving the car, has said that he is convinced it was deliberate, controlled shooting. Shortly after the shooting, a Mitsubishi Lancer arrived and the would-be robbers made their getaway in it. No money had been stolen by them, but both vehicles used at the crime scene had been stolen. The Gardaí had been armed with .38 Smith & Wesson revolvers and an Uzi, but the trial concluded that they had not had time to use them. Bullet casings found at the scene were unique to the IRA in Ireland at the time. Aftermath Up to 50,000 people lined the streets of Limerick for McCabe's funeral. The killing of Detective McCabe happened four months after the breakdown of the first IRA ceasefire in 1996. The IRA Army Council initially denied involvement, but later claimed that individual members were involved "in contravention of its orders". Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams would later state that the operation was "not authorised by the Army Council, but authorised at a lower level by an authorised person". The killing was denounced by the leadership of Sinn Féin, but later the party lobbied for the early release of McCabe's killers under the terms of the Good Friday Agreement. In 2005, the prisoners stated that they did not want their release "to be part of any further negotiations with the Irish government." Pearse McAuley from Strabane and three County Limerick men – Jeremiah Sheehy, Michael O'Neill and Kevin Walsh – were convicted by the non-jury Special Criminal Court of manslaughter. McAuley had escaped from Brixton Prison in 1991 while awaiting prosecution over the IRA's campaign in England and had jumped bail in the Republic of Ireland two months before the shooting. O'Neill was released from prison on 15 May 2007 with Sheehy released on 4 February 2008. Walsh and McAuley were released on 5 August 2009 after completing their full sentence. Sinn Féin had campaigned for their release under the Good Friday Agreement despite the Irish government's insistence that these prisoners were excluded during the negotiations for the Agreement. The Alliance Party of Northern Ireland accused the Irish government of "double standards" by not granting those responsible for the killing early release like paramilitary prisoners in Northern Ireland. McCabe's widow Anne has been praised for the way she conducted herself since the shooting. In New York in 2006, she challenged Gerry Adams as to why his organisation was calling for the release of the men convicted of the killing. In 2000, she accepted the Gold Scott Medal on her husband's behalf. The Scott Medal is the highest honour bestowed by the Republic of Ireland on a Garda who has shown exceptional courage and heroism risking their lives in their work as police officers. Detective Garda Jerry McCabe Fellowship An academic exchange programme in honour of the slain detective was established in 1996 at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York City. The purpose of the exchange is to promote the sharing of practices and technologies in policing and criminal justice between Ireland and the United States. Jerry McCabe's son John was the first recipient of the fellowship in 1997. See also List of Irish police officers killed in the line of duty Garda ar Lár Yvonne Burke (Garda) Michael Noel Canavan Death of Michael J. Reynolds Deaths of Henry Byrne and John Morley (1980) Death of Adrian Donohoe (2013) References 1996 crimes in the Republic of Ireland Deaths by person in the Republic of Ireland History of County Limerick People killed by the Provisional Irish Republican Army Deaths by firearm in Ireland Garda Síochána officers killed in the line of duty Irish manslaughter victims Recipients of the Scott Medal

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killing%20of%20Ravindra%20Mhatre

Killing of Ravindra Mhatre

Ravindra Hareshwar Mhatre was a 48 year old Indian diplomat in the UK who was kidnapped and later murdered in Birmingham in 1984 by British Kashmiri militants who were associated with the Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front. Abduction and killing Ravindra Mhatre, a second-ranking official in India's consular office in Birmingham, was abducted in Birmingham as he stepped out of a bus, carrying a birthday cake for his daughter Asha. He was held captive for three days in the Alum Rock neighborhood of Birmingham, an area that was predominately inhabited by British Mirpuris. According to a police spokesman, Mhatre's body was found two days later in a farm lane about 20 miles southeast of Birmingham. The Jammu Kashmir Liberation Army claimed responsibility and demanded a ransom of 1 million pounds ($1.84 million) and the release of militant prisoned in India. The kidnapping was a failed attempt to secure the release from prison of the Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front's founder Maqbool Bhat. A £1m ransom demand was sent to media outlets. Perpetrators Mohammed Riaz and Abdul Quayyam Raja, then 27, were convicted of the murder of Mhatre. A third suspect, then aged 21 was arrested and imprisoned for 20 years until 2004. Abdul Quayyam Raja was arrested and indicted in Birmingham in February 1984. Mohammad Aslam Mirza, 48, a British citizen and Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) militant, was arrested in 2004 in the United States for overstaying his visa. Fingerprints revealed that he was a member of the JKLF, and fingerprints on the gun used to murder Mhatre revealed that he was wanted for the kidnap and murder of Mhatre. Mirza told the court he was not involved in the murder and said that he was appalled by the charges and had no recollection of the events of 1984 due to severe memory problems. He told the court that after the killing he had gone to Kashmir on family business. Mirza had left his wife Sakina Bibi and seven children in Birmingham and left for Pakistan in 1984. He married Ann Aslam in Pottsville, Pennsylvania, in 2001, and managed a Pottsville apartment complex. Impact and commemoration The People's Justice Party, supported by Mirpuri Pakistanis in the UK grew out of the campaign to get Mhatre's killers released. The original movement, called FRAQ - "Free Riaz and Quayyam" – campaign, later changed to "Justice for Kashmir", then the "Justice Party", before settling on its final name. A bridge in the Indian city of Pune popularly known as Mhatre Bridge is named after him. References Terrorism in the United Kingdom Terrorist incidents in Birmingham Kashmir conflict 1936 births 1984 deaths 1984 in the United Kingdom Terrorist incidents in the United Kingdom in 1984 1984 murders in the United Kingdom 1980s in Jammu and Kashmir

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killing%20of%20Osama%20bin%20Laden

Killing of Osama bin Laden

Osama bin Laden, the founder and first leader of the Islamist militant group al-Qaeda, was killed in Pakistan on May 2, 2011, shortly after 1:00 a.m. PKT (20:00 UTC, May 1) by United States Navy SEALs of the U.S. Naval Special Warfare Development Group (also known as DEVGRU or SEAL Team Six). The operation, code-named Operation Neptune Spear, was carried out in a CIA-led operation with Joint Special Operations Command, commonly known as JSOC, coordinating the Special Mission Units involved in the raid. In addition to SEAL Team Six, participating units under JSOC included the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment (Airborne)—also known as "Night Stalkers"—and operators from the CIA's Special Activities Division, which recruits heavily from former JSOC Special Mission Units. The operation ended a nearly 10-year search for bin Laden, following his role in the September 11 attacks on the United States. The raid on bin Laden's compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan, was launched from Afghanistan, where U.S. forces were based, about away. The raid at the compound was 40 minutes long. U.S. military officials said that after the raid was completed, U.S. forces returned to Afghanistan with the body of bin Laden for identification; they then flew over to the Arabian Sea, where his body was buried in accordance with Islamic tradition, within 24 hours of his death. Al-Qaeda confirmed the death on May6 with posts made on militant websites, vowing to avenge the killing. Other Pakistani militant groups, including the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan, vowed retaliation against the U.S. and against Pakistan for not preventing the operation. The raid was supported by over 90% of the American public, was welcomed by the United Nations, NATO, the European Union and a large number of governments, but was condemned by others, including two-thirds of the Pakistani public. Legal and ethical aspects of the killing, such as him not being taken alive despite being unarmed, were questioned by others, including Amnesty International. Also controversial was the decision not to release any photographic or DNA evidence of bin Laden's death to the public. There was also controversy in Pakistan as to how the country's defense was breached and the Air Force failed to pick up the American aircraft. In the aftermath of the killing, Pakistani prime minister Yousaf Raza Gillani formed a commission under Senior Justice Javed Iqbal to investigate the circumstances surrounding the attack. The resulting Abbottabad Commission Report, which revealed Pakistani state military and intelligence authorities' "collective failure" that enabled bin Laden to hide in Pakistan for nine years, was leaked to Al Jazeera on July 8, 2013. Search for bin Laden Accounts of how bin Laden was located by U.S. intelligence differ. The White House and CIA director John Brennan stated that the process began with a fragment of information unearthed in 2002, resulting in years of investigation. This account states that by September 2010, these leads followed a courier to the Abbottabad compound, where the U.S. began intensive multiplatform surveillance. According to journalist Seymour Hersh and NBC News, the U.S. was tipped off about bin Laden's location by a Pakistani intelligence officer who offered details of where the Pakistani Intelligence Service held him in detention in exchange for a bounty. Identity of courier According to the earlier official version of his identification from a U.S. official, identification of al-Qaeda couriers was an early priority for interrogators at CIA black sites and the Guantanamo Bay detention camp, because bin Laden was believed to communicate through such couriers while concealing his whereabouts from al-Qaeda foot soldiers and top commanders. Bin Laden was known not to use phones after 1998, when the U.S. had launched missile strikes against his bases in Afghanistan in August by tracking an associate's satellite phone. The U.S. official had stated that by 2002, interrogators had heard uncorroborated claims about an al-Qaeda courier with the kunya Abu Ahmed al-Kuwaiti (sometimes referred to as Sheikh Abu Ahmed from Kuwait). One of those claims came from Mohammed al-Qahtani, a detainee interrogated for 48 days more or less continuously between November 23, 2002, and January 11, 2003. At some point during this period, al-Qahtani told interrogators about a man known as Abu Ahmed al-Kuwaiti who was part of the inner circle of al-Qaeda. Later in 2003, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the alleged operational chief of al-Qaeda, said he was acquainted with al-Kuwaiti but that the man was not active in al-Qaeda, according to a U.S. official. According to a U.S. official, in 2004 a prisoner named Hassan Ghul revealed that bin Laden relied on a trusted courier known as al-Kuwaiti. Ghul said al-Kuwaiti was close to bin Laden as well as Khalid Sheik Mohammed and Mohammed's successor Abu Faraj al-Libbi. Ghul revealed that al-Kuwaiti had not been seen in some time, which led U.S. officials to suspect he was traveling with bin Laden. When confronted with Ghul's account, Mohammed maintained his original story. Abu Faraj al-Libbi was captured in 2005 and transferred to Guantánamo in September 2006. He told CIA interrogators that bin Laden's courier was a man named Maulawi Abd al-Khaliq Jan and denied knowing al-Kuwaiti. Because both Mohammed and al-Libbi had minimized al-Kuwaiti's importance, officials speculated that he was part of bin Laden's inner circle. In 2007, officials learned al-Kuwaiti's real name, though they said they would disclose neither the name nor how they learned it. Pakistani officials in 2011 stated the courier's name was Ibrahim Saeed Ahmed, from Pakistan's Swat Valley. He and his brother Abrar and their families were living at bin Laden's compound, the officials said. The name Maulawi Abd al-Khaliq Jan appears in the JTF-GTMO detainee assessment for Abu Faraj al-Libbi released by WikiLeaks on April 24, 2011, but the CIA never found anyone named Maulawi Jan and concluded that the name was an invention of al-Libbi. A 2010 wiretap of another suspect picked up a conversation with al-Kuwaiti. CIA paramilitary operatives located al-Kuwaiti in August 2010 and followed him back to the Abbottabad compound, which led them to speculate it was bin Laden's location. The courier and a relative (who was either a brother or a cousin) were killed in the May 2, 2011 raid. Afterward, some locals identified the men as Pashtuns named Arshad and Tareq Khan. Arshad Khan was carrying an old, noncomputerized Pakistani identification card, which identified him as from Khat Kuruna, a village near Charsadda in northwestern Pakistan. Pakistani officials have found no record of an Arshad Khan in that area and suspect the men were living under false identities. Bin Laden's compound The CIA used surveillance photos and intelligence reports to determine the identities of the inhabitants of the Abbottabad compound to which the courier was traveling. In September 2010, the CIA concluded that the compound was custom-built to hide someone of significance, very likely bin Laden. Officials surmised that he was living there with his youngest wife and family. Built in 2004, the three-story compound was at the end of a narrow dirt road. Google Earth maps made from satellite photographs show that the compound was not present in 2001 but had been built by the time that new images were taken in 2005. It is located northeast of the city center of Abbottabad. Abbottabad is about from the Afghanistan border on the far eastern side of Pakistan (about from India). The compound is southwest of the Pakistan Military Academy. Located on a plot of land eight times larger than those of nearby houses, the compound was surrounded by a concrete wall topped with barbed wire. It had two security gates, and the third-floor balcony had a privacy wall, tall enough to hide the bin Laden. The compound had no Internet or landline telephone service. Its residents burned their refuse, unlike their neighbors, who set their garbage out for collection. Local residents called the building the Waziristan Haveli, because they believed the owner was from Waziristan. Following the American raid and killing of bin Laden, the Pakistani government demolished the compound in February 2012. Intelligence gathering The CIA led the effort to surveil and gather intelligence on the compound; other critical roles in the operation were played by other United States agencies, including the National Security Agency, National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA), Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI), and U.S. Defense Department. U.S. officials told The Washington Post that the intelligence-gathering effort "was so extensive and costly that the CIA went to Congress in December [2010] to secure authority to reallocate tens of millions of dollars within assorted agency budgets to fund it." The CIA rented a home in Abbottabad from which a team staked out and observed the compound over a number of months. The CIA team used informants and other techniques—including a widely criticized fake polio vaccination program— to gather intelligence on the compound. The safe house was abandoned immediately after bin Laden's death. The U.S. National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency helped the Joint Special Operations Command create mission simulators for the pilots, and analyzed data from an RQ-170 drone before, during and after the raid on the compound. The NGA created three-dimensional renderings of the house, created schedules describing residential traffic patterns, and assessed the number, height and gender of the residents of the compound. Also involved in the intelligence gathering measures were an arm of the National Security Agency known as the Tailored Access Operations group which, among other things, is specialized in surreptitiously installing spyware and tracking devices on targeted computers and mobile-phone networks. Because of the work of the Tailored Access Operations group, the NSA could collect intelligence from mobile phones that were used by al-Qaeda operatives and other "persons of interest" in the hunt for bin Laden. The design of bin Laden's compound may have ultimately contributed to his discovery. A former CIA official involved in the manhunt told The Washington Post: "The place was three stories high, and you could watch it from a variety of angles." The CIA used a process called "red teaming" on the collected intelligence to independently review the circumstantial evidence and available facts of their case that bin Laden was living at the Abbottabad compound. An administration official said, "We conducted red-team exercises and other forms of alternative analysis to check our work. No other candidate fit the bill as well as bin Laden did." Despite what officials described as an extraordinarily concentrated collection effort leading up to the operation, no U.S. spy agency was ever able to capture a photograph of bin Laden at the compound before the raid or a recording of the voice of the mysterious male figure whose family occupied the structure's top two floors. Operation Neptune Spear The official mission code name was Operation Neptune Spear. Neptune's spear is the trident, which appears on the U.S. Navy's Special Warfare insignia, with the three prongs of the trident representing the operational capacity of SEALs on sea, air and land. Objective The Associated Press reported at the time two U.S. officials as stating the operation was "a kill-or-capture mission, since the U.S. doesn't kill unarmed people trying to surrender", but that "it was clear from the beginning that whoever was behind those walls had no intention of surrendering". White House counterterrorism advisor John O. Brennan said after the raid: "If we had the opportunity to take bin Laden alive, if he didn't present any threat, the individuals involved were able and prepared to do that." CIA Director Leon Panetta said on PBS NewsHour: "The authority here was to kill bin Laden. ... Obviously under the rules of engagement, if he in fact had thrown up his hands, surrendered and didn't appear to be representing any kind of threat, then they were to capture him. But, they had full authority to kill him." A U.S. national security official, who was not named, told Reuters that "This was a kill operation". Another official said that when the SEALS were told "We think we found Osama bin Laden, and your job is to kill him," they started to cheer. An article published in Political Science Quarterly in 2016 surveyed various published accounts and interpretations of the objective of the mission and concluded that "the capture option was mainly there for appearance's sake and to fulfill requirements of international law and that everyone involved considered it for all practical purposes a mission to kill." Planning and final decision The CIA briefed Vice Admiral William H. McRaven, the commander of the Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC), about the compound in January 2011. The admiral was both a student and practitioner of special operations, having published a thesis on the subject during the 1990s. His theory held that special operations had the potential to be very effective in achieving their goal if they were organized and commanded by special operations professionals rather than being subsumed into larger military units or operations. He believed that such actions required that "relative superiority" be gained during the operation in question via characteristics such as simplicity, security, rehearsals, surprise, speed, and a clearly-but-narrowly defined purpose. In this case, McRaven said a commando raid would be fairly straightforward but he was concerned about the Pakistani response. He assigned a captain from the U.S. Naval Special Warfare Development Group (DEVGRU) to work with a CIA team at their campus in Langley, Virginia. The captain, named "Brian", set up an office in the printing plant in the CIA's Langley compound and, with six other JSOC officers, began to plan the raid. Administration attorneys considered legal implications and options before the raid. In addition to a helicopter raid, planners considered attacking the compound with B-2 Spirit stealth bombers. They also considered a joint operation with Pakistani forces. Obama decided that the Pakistani government and military could not be trusted to maintain operational security for the operation against bin Laden. "There was a real lack of confidence that the Pakistanis could keep this secret for more than a nanosecond," a senior adviser to the President told The New Yorker. Obama met with the National Security Council on March 14 to review the options; he was concerned that the mission would be exposed and wanted to proceed quickly. For that reason he ruled out involving the Pakistanis. Defense Secretary Robert Gates and other military officials expressed doubts as to whether bin Laden was in the compound, and whether a commando raid was worth the risk. At the end of the meeting, the president seemed to be leaning toward a bombing mission. Two U.S. Air Force officers were tasked with exploring that option further. The CIA was unable to rule out the existence of an underground bunker below the compound. Presuming that one existed, 32 bombs fitted with JDAM guidance systems would be required to destroy it. With that amount of ordnance, at least one other house was in the blast radius. Estimates were that up to a dozen civilians would be killed in addition to those in the compound. Furthermore, it was unlikely there would be enough evidence remaining to prove that bin Laden was dead. Presented with this information at the next Security Council meeting on March 29, Obama put the bombing plan on hold. Instead he directed Admiral McRaven to develop the plan for a helicopter raid. The U.S. intelligence community also studied an option of hitting bin Laden with a drone-fired small tactical munition as he paced in his compound's vegetable garden. McRaven hand-picked a team drawing from the most experienced and senior operators from Red Squadron, one of four that make up DEVGRU. Red Squadron was coming home from Afghanistan and could be redirected without attracting attention. The team had language skills and experience with cross-border operations into Pakistan. Almost all the Red Squadron operators had ten or more deployments to Afghanistan. Without being told the exact nature of their mission, the team performed rehearsals of the raid in two locations in the U.S.—around April 10 at Harvey Point Defense Testing Activity facility in North Carolina where a 1:1 version of bin Laden's compound was built (), and April 18 in Nevada. The location in Nevada was at elevation—chosen to test the effects the altitude would have on the raiders' helicopters. The Nevada mock-up used chain-link fences to simulate the compound walls, which left the U.S. participants unaware of the potential effects of the high compound walls on the helicopters' lift capabilities. Planners believed the SEALs could get to Abbottabad and back without being challenged by the Pakistani military. The helicopters (modified Black Hawk helicopters) to be used in the raid had been designed to be quiet and to have low radar visibility. Since the U.S. had helped equip and train the Pakistanis, their defensive capabilities were known. The U.S. had supplied F-16 Fighting Falcons to Pakistan on the condition they were kept at a Pakistani military base under 24-hour U.S. surveillance. If bin Laden surrendered, he would be held near Bagram Air Base. If the SEALs were discovered by the Pakistanis in the middle of the raid, Joint Chiefs Chairman Admiral Mike Mullen would call Pakistan's army chief General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani and try to negotiate their release. When the National Security Council (NSC) met again on April 19, Obama gave provisional approval for the helicopter raid. Worried that the plan for dealing with the Pakistanis was too uncertain, Obama asked Admiral McRaven to equip the team to fight its way out if necessary. McRaven and the SEALs left for Afghanistan to practice at a one-acre, full-scale replica of the compound built on a restricted area of Bagram known as Camp Alpha. The team departed the U.S. from Naval Air Station Oceana on April 26 in a C-17 aircraft, refueled on the ground at Ramstein Air Base in Germany, landed at Bagram Air Base, then moved to Jalalabad on April 27. On April 28, Admiral Mullen explained the final plan to the NSC. As a measure to bolster the "fight your way out" scenario, Chinook helicopters were to be positioned nearby with additional troops. The greater part of the advisers in the meeting supported going forward with the raid. Vice President Joe Biden laid out the risk of it going wrong and the potential for confrontation with the Pakistanis. According to NSA Advisor Ben Rhodes, "I don't remember it as being firmly against as much as it being about like, 'I'm going to point out the downsides that you need to consider from the perspective of Pakistan'...Biden was just trying to make sure that Obama had a bunch of room for his decision-making." Gates advocated using the drone missile option but changed his support the next day to the helicopter raid plan. Obama said he wanted to speak directly to Admiral McRaven before he gave the order to proceed. The president asked if McRaven had learned anything since arriving in Afghanistan that caused him to lose confidence in the mission. McRaven told him the team was ready and that the next few nights would have little moonlight over Abbottabad, good conditions for a raid. On April 29 at 8:20 a.m. EDT, Obama conferred with his advisers and gave the final go-ahead. The raid would take place the following day. That evening the president was informed that the operation would be delayed one day due to cloudy weather. On April 30, Obama called McRaven one more time to wish the SEALs well and to thank them for their service. That evening, the President attended the annual White House Correspondent's Association dinner, which was hosted by comedian and television actor Seth Meyers. At one point, Meyers joked: "People think bin Laden is hiding in the Hindu Kush, but did you know that every day from four to five he hosts a show on C-SPAN?" Obama laughed, despite his knowledge of the operation to come. On May 1 at 1:22 p.m., Panetta, acting on the president's orders, directed McRaven to move forward with the operation. Shortly after 3 p.m., the president joined national security officials in the Situation Room to monitor the raid. They watched night-vision images taken from a Sentinel drone while Panetta, appearing in the corner of the screen from CIA headquarters, narrated what was happening. Video links with Panetta at CIA headquarters and McRaven in Afghanistan were set up in the Situation Room. In an adjoining office was the live drone feed presented on a laptop computer operated by Brigadier General Marshall Webb, assistant commander of JSOC. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was one of those in the Situation Room, and described it like this: "Contrary to some news reports and what you see in the movies, we had no means to see what was happening inside the building itself. All we could do was wait for an update from the team on the ground. I looked at the President. He was calm. Rarely have I been prouder to serve by his side as I was that day." Two other command centers monitored the raid from the Pentagon and the U.S. embassy in Islamabad. Execution of the operation Approach and entry The raid was carried out by approximately two dozen heliborne U.S. Navy SEALs from DEVGRU's Red Squadron. For legal reasons (namely that the U.S. was not at war with Pakistan), the military personnel assigned to the mission were temporarily transferred to the control of the civilian Central Intelligence Agency. The SEALs operated in teams and used weapons including the HK416 assault rifle (their primary weapon), the Mark 48 machine gun for fire support, and the MP7 personal defense weapon used by some SEALs for close quarters and greater silence. According to The New York Times, a total of "79 commandos and a dog" were involved in the raid. The military working dog was a Belgian Malinois named Cairo. According to one report, the dog was tasked with tracking "anyone who tried to escape and to alert SEALs to any approaching Pakistani security forces". The dog was to be used to help deter any Pakistani ground response to the raid and to help look for any hidden rooms or hidden doors in the compound. Additional personnel on the mission included a language interpreter, the dog handler, helicopter pilots, plus intelligence collectors, and navigators using highly classified hyperspectral imagers to view the operation. The SEALs flew into Pakistan from a staging base in the city of Jalalabad in eastern Afghanistan after originating at Bagram Air Base in northeastern Afghanistan. The 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment (SOAR), a U.S. Army Special Operations Command unit known as the "Night Stalkers", provided the two modified Black Hawk helicopters that were used for the raid itself, as well as the much larger Chinook heavy-lift helicopters that were employed as backups. The Black Hawks were previously unseen "stealth" versions that flew more quietly and were harder to detect on radar than conventional models; due to the extra weight of the stealth equipment, their cargo was "calculated to the ounce, with the weather factored in." The Chinooks kept on standby were on the ground "in a deserted area roughly two-thirds of the way" from Jalalabad to Abbottabad, with two additional SEAL teams consisting of approximately 24 DEVGRU operators for a "quick reaction force" (QRF). The Chinooks were equipped with 7.62mm GAU-17/A miniguns and GAU-21/B .50-caliber machine guns and extra fuel for the Black Hawks. Their mission was to interdict any Pakistani military attempts to interfere with the raid. Other Chinooks, holding 25 more SEALs from DEVGRU, were stationed just across the border in Afghanistan in case reinforcements were needed during the operation. The 160th SOAR helicopters were supported by an array of other aircraft, to include fixed-wing fighter jets and drones. According to CNN, "the Air Force had a full team of combat search-and-rescue helicopters available". The raid was scheduled for a time with little moonlight so the helicopters could enter Pakistan "low to the ground and undetected". The helicopters used hilly terrain and nap-of-the-earth techniques to reach the compound without appearing on radar and alerting the Pakistani military. The flight from Jalalabad to Abbottabad took about 90 minutes. According to the mission plan, the first helicopter would hover over the compound's yard while its full team of SEALs fast-roped to the ground. At the same time, the second helicopter would fly to the northeast corner of the compound and deploy the interpreter, the dog and handler, and four SEALs to secure the perimeter. The team in the courtyard was to enter the house from the ground floor. As they hovered above the target the first helicopter experienced a hazardous airflow condition known as a vortex ring state. This was aggravated by higher than expected air temperature and the high compound walls, which stopped the rotor downwash from diffusing. The helicopter's tail grazed one of the compound's walls, damaging its tail rotor, and the helicopter rolled onto its side. The pilot quickly buried the helicopter's nose to keep it from tipping over. None of the SEALs, crew, or pilots on the helicopter were seriously injured in the soft crash landing, which ended with it pitched at a 45-degree angle resting against the wall. The other helicopter landed outside the compound and the SEALs scaled the walls to get inside. The SEALs advanced into the house, breaching walls and doors with explosives. Entry into the house The SEALs encountered the residents in the compound's guest house, in its main building on the first floor where two adult males lived, and on the second and third floors where bin Laden lived with his family. The second and third floors were the last section of the compound to be cleared. There were reportedly "small knots of children ... on every level, including the balcony of bin Laden's room". Osama bin Laden was killed in the raid and initial versions said three other men and a woman were killed as well: bin Laden's adult son Khalid, bin Laden's courier Abu Ahmed al-Kuwaiti, al-Kuwaiti's brother Abrar, and Abrar's wife Bushra. Conflicting reports of an initial firefight exist. Mark Owen's book states that the team were in a "short firefight" before reaching bin Laden. An intelligence official told Seymour Hersh in 2015 that no firefight took place. In the earlier versions, Al-Kuwaiti is said to have opened fire on the first team of SEALs with an AK-47 from behind the guesthouse door, lightly injuring a SEAL with bullet fragments. A short firefight took place between al-Kuwaiti and the SEALs, in which al-Kuwaiti was killed. His wife Mariam was allegedly shot and wounded in the right shoulder. The courier's male relative Abrar was then said to have been shot and killed by the SEALs' second team on the first floor of the main house as shots had already been fired and the SEALs thought that he was armed with a loaded AK-47 (this was later confirmed to be true in the official report). A woman near him, later identified as Abrar's wife Bushra, was in this version also shot and killed. Bin Laden's young adult son is said to have encountered the SEALs on the staircase of the main house, and to have been shot and killed by the second team. An unnamed U.S. senior defense official said only one of the five people killed, Abu Ahmed al-Kuwaiti, was armed. The interior of the house was pitch dark, because CIA operatives had cut the power to the neighborhood. The SEALs wore night vision goggles. Killing of bin Laden The SEALs encountered bin Laden on the third floor of the main building. Bin Laden was unarmed, "wearing the local loose-fitting tunic and pants known as a kurta paijama", which were later found to have €500 and two phone numbers sewn into the fabric. Bin Laden peered through his bedroom door at the Americans advancing up the stairs, and the lead SEAL fired at him. Reports differ, though agree eventually he was hit by shots to the body and head. The initial shots either missed, hit him in the chest, the side, or in the head. A number of bin Laden's female relatives were near him. According to journalist Nicholas Schmidle, one of bin Laden's wives, Amal Ahmed Abdul Fatah, motioned as if she were about to charge; the lead SEAL shot her in the leg, then grabbed both women and shoved them aside. Robert J. O'Neill, who later publicly identified himself as one of the SEALs who shot bin Laden, states that he pushed past the lead SEAL, entered through the door and confronted bin Laden inside the bedroom. O'Neill states that bin Laden was standing behind a woman with his hands on her shoulders, pushing her forward. O'Neill immediately shot bin Laden twice in the forehead, then once more as bin Laden crumpled to the floor. Matt Bissonnette gives a conflicting account of the situation, writing that bin Laden had already been mortally wounded by the lead SEAL's shots from the staircase. The lead SEAL then pushed bin Laden's wives aside, attempting to shield the SEALs behind him in the case that either woman had an explosive device. After bin Laden staggered back or fell into the bedroom, Bissonnette and O'Neill entered the room, saw the wounded bin Laden on the ground, fired multiple rounds, and killed him. Journalist Peter Bergen investigated the conflicting claims and found that most of the SEALs present during the raid favored Bissonnette's account of the events. According to Bergen's sources, O'Neill did not mention firing the shots that killed bin Laden in the after action report following the operations. The weapon used to kill bin Laden was an HK416 using 5.56mm NATO 77-grain OTM (open-tip match) rounds. The SEAL team leader radioed, "For God and country—Geronimo, Geronimo, Geronimo" and then, after being prompted by McRaven for confirmation, "Geronimo EKIA" (enemy killed in action). Watching the operation in the White House Situation Room, Obama simply said, "We got him." Various authors have written that there were two weapons in bin Laden's room: an AKS-74U carbine and a Russian-made Makarov pistol. According to his wife Amal, bin Laden was shot before he could reach the AKS-74U. According to the Associated Press, the guns were on a shelf next to the door and the SEALs did not see them until they were photographing the body. According to journalist Matthew Cole, the guns were not loaded and only found later during a search of the third floor. As the SEALs encountered women and children during the raid, they restrained them with plastic handcuffs or zip ties. After the raid was over, U.S. forces moved the surviving residents outside "for Pakistani forces to discover". The injured Amal Ahmed Abdul Fatah continued to harangue the raiders in Arabic. Bin Laden's 12-year-old daughter Safia was allegedly struck in her foot or ankle by a piece of flying debris. While bin Laden's body was taken by U.S. forces, the bodies of the four others killed in the raid were left behind at the compound and later taken into Pakistani custody. Conclusion The raid was intended to take 40 minutes. The time between the team's entry in and exit from the compound was 38 minutes. According to the Associated Press, the assault was completed in the first 15 minutes. Time in the compound was spent killing defenders, "moving carefully through the compound, room to room, floor to floor" securing the women and children, clearing "weapons stashes and barricades" including a false door, and searching the compound for information. U.S. personnel recovered three Kalashnikov rifles and two pistols, ten computer hard drives, documents, DVDs, almost a hundred thumb drives, a dozen cell phones, and "electronic equipment" for later analysis. The SEALs also discovered a large amount of opium stored in the house. Since the helicopter that had made the emergency landing was damaged and unable to fly the team out, it was destroyed to safeguard its classified equipment, including an apparent stealth capability. The pilot smashed the instrument panel, radio, and the other classified fixtures and the SEALs demolished the helicopter with explosives. Since the SEAL team was reduced to one operational helicopter, one of the two Chinooks held in reserve was dispatched to carry part of the team and bin Laden's body out of Pakistan. While the American force gathered intelligence and destroyed the helicopter, a crowd of locals gathered outside the compound, curious about the noise and activity. An Urdu-speaking American officer, through a megaphone, told those gathered that it was a Pakistani military operation, and to remain at a distance. While the official Department of Defense narrative did not mention the airbases used in the operation, later accounts indicated that the helicopters returned to Bagram Airfield. The body of Osama bin Laden was flown from Bagram to the aircraft carrier in a V-22 Osprey tiltrotor aircraft escorted by two U.S. Navy F/A-18 fighter jets. Burial of bin Laden According to U.S. officials, bin Laden was buried at sea because no country would accept his remains. Before disposing of the body, the U.S. called the Saudi Arabian government, who approved of burying the body in the ocean. Muslim religious rites were performed aboard Carl Vinson in the North Arabian Sea within 24 hours of bin Laden's death. Preparations began at 10:10 a.m. local time and at-sea burial was completed at 11 a.m. The body was washed, wrapped in a white sheet and placed in a weighted plastic bag. An officer read prepared religious remarks which were translated into Arabic by a native speaker. Afterward, bin Laden's body was placed onto a flat board. The board was tilted upward on one side and the body slid off into the sea. In Worthy Fights: A Memoir of Leadership in War and Peace, Leon Panetta wrote that bin Laden's body was draped in a white shroud, given final prayers in Arabic and placed inside a black bag loaded with of iron chains, apparently to ensure that it would sink and never float. The body bag was placed on a white table at the rail of the ship, and the table was tipped to let the body bag slide into the sea, but the body bag did not slide and took the table with it. The table bobbed on the surface while the weighted body sank. Pakistan–U.S. communication According to Obama administration officials, U.S. officials did not share information about the raid with the government of Pakistan until it was over. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Michael Mullen called Pakistan's army chief Ashfaq Parvez Kayani at about 3 am local time to inform him of the operation. According to the Pakistani foreign ministry, the operation was conducted entirely by the U.S. forces. Pakistan Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) officials said they were present at what they called a joint operation; President Asif Ali Zardari flatly denied this. Pakistan's foreign secretary Salman Bashir later confirmed that Pakistani military had scrambled F-16s after they became aware of the attack but that they reached the compound after the U.S. helicopters had left. Identification of the body U.S. forces used multiple methods to positively identify the body of Osama bin Laden: Measurement of the body: Both the corpse and bin Laden were ; SEALs on the scene did not have a tape measure to measure the corpse, so a SEAL of known height lay down next to the body and the height was so approximated by comparison. Obama quipped: "You just blew up a $65 million helicopter and you don't have enough money to buy a tape measure?" Facial recognition software: A photograph transmitted by the SEALs to CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia, for facial recognition analysis yielded a 90 to 95 percent likely match. In-person identification: One or two women from the compound, including one of bin Laden's wives, identified bin Laden's body. A wife of bin Laden called him by name during the raid, inadvertently assisting in his identification by U.S. military forces on the ground. DNA testing: The Associated Press and The New York Times reported that bin Laden's body could be identified by DNA testing using tissue and blood samples taken from his sister who had died of brain cancer. ABC News stated, "Two samples were taken from bin Laden: one of these DNA samples was analyzed, and information was sent electronically back to Washington, D.C., from Bagram. Someone else from Afghanistan is physically bringing back a sample." A military medic took bone marrow and swabs from the body to use for the DNA testing. According to a senior U.S. Department of Defense official: Inference: Per the same DoD official, from the initial review of the materials removed from the Abbottabad compound the Department "assessed that much of this information, including personal correspondence between Osama bin Laden and others, as well as some of the video footage ... would only have been in his possession." Local accounts Beginning at 12:58 a.m. local time (19:58 UTC), Abbottabad resident Sohaib Athar sent a series of tweets starting with "Helicopter hovering above Abbottabad at 1AM (is a rare event)." By 1:44 a.m. all was quiet until a plane flew over the city at 3:39 a.m. Neighbors took to their roofs and watched as U.S. special operations forces stormed the compound. One neighbor said, "I saw soldiers emerging from the helicopters and advancing towards the house. Some of them instructed us in chaste Pashto to turn off the lights and stay inside." Another man said he heard shooting and screams, then an explosion as a grounded helicopter was destroyed. The blast broke his bedroom window and left charred debris over a nearby field. A local security officer said he entered the compound shortly after the Americans left, before it was sealed off by the army. "There were four dead bodies, three male and one female and one female was injured", he said. "There was a lot of blood on the floor and one could easily see the marks like a dead body had been dragged out of the compound." Numerous witnesses reported that power, and possibly cellphone service, went out around the time of the raid and apparently included the military academy. Accounts differed as to the exact time of the blackout. One journalist concluded after interviewing several residents that it was a routine rolling blackout. ISI reported after questioning survivors of the raid that there were 17 to 18 people in the compound at the time of the attack and that the Americans took away one person still alive, possibly a bin Laden son. The ISI said that survivors included a wife, a daughter and eight to nine other children, not apparently bin Laden's. An unnamed Pakistani security official was quoted as saying one of bin Laden's daughters told Pakistani investigators that bin Laden had been captured alive, then in front of family members was shot dead by U.S. forces and dragged to a helicopter. Compound residents U.S. officials said there were 22 people in the compound. Five were killed, including Osama bin Laden. Pakistani officials gave conflicting reports suggesting between 12 and 17 survivors. The Sunday Times subsequently published excerpts from a pocket guide, presumably dropped by the SEALs during the raid, containing pictures and descriptions of likely compound residents. The guide listed several adult children of bin Laden and their families who were not ultimately found in the compound. Because of a lack of accurate information, some of what follows cannot be verified as true. Five adults dead: Osama bin Laden, 54; Khalid, his son by Siham (identified as Hamza in early accounts), 23; Arshad Khan, a.k.a. Abu Ahmed al-Kuwaiti, the courier, described as the "flabby" one by The Sunday Times, 33; Abu Ahmed al-Kuwaiti's brother Abrar, 30; and Bushra, Abrar's wife, age unknown. Four surviving women: Khairiah, bin Laden's third, Saudi wife a.k.a. Um Hamza, 62; Siham, bin Laden's fourth, Saudi wife a.k.a. Um Khalid, 54; Amal, bin Laden's fifth, Yemeni wife, a.k.a. Amal Ahmed Abdul Fatah, 29 (injured); and Mariam, Arshad Khan's Pakistani wife. Five minor children of Osama and Amal: Safia, a daughter, 12; a son, 5; another son, age unknown; and infant twin daughters. Four bin Laden grandchildren from an unidentified daughter who had been killed in an airstrike in Waziristan. Two may be the boys, around 10, who spoke to Pakistani investigators. Four children of Arshad Khan: Two sons, Abdur Rahman and Khalid, 6or 7; a daughter, age unknown; and another child, age unknown. Aftermath Leaks of the news Around 9:45 p.m. EDT, the White House announced that the president would be addressing the nation later in the evening. At 10:24:05 p.m. EDT the first public leak was made by Navy Reserve intel officer Keith Urbahn and 47 seconds later by actor and professional wrestler Dwayne Johnson on Twitter. Anonymous government officials confirmed details to the media, and by 11 p.m. numerous major news sources were reporting that bin Laden was dead; the number of leaks were characterized as "voluminous" by David E. Sanger. U.S. presidential address At 11:35 p.m., President Obama appeared on major television networks: President Obama recalled the victims of the September 11 attacks. He praised the nearly ten-year-old war against al-Qaeda, which he said had disrupted terrorist plots, strengthened homeland defenses, removed the Taliban government, and captured or killed scores of al-Qaeda operatives. Obama said that when he took office he made finding bin Laden the top priority of the war. Bin Laden's death was the most significant blow to al-Qaeda so far but the war would continue. He reaffirmed that the U.S. was not at war against Islam and defended his decision to conduct an operation within Pakistan. He said Americans understood the cost of war but would not stand by while their security was threatened. "To those families who have lost loved ones to al-Qaeda's terror," he said, "justice has been done." This remark book-ended President Bush's statement to a joint session of Congress following the September 11 attacks that "justice will be done." Reactions Before the official announcement, large crowds spontaneously gathered outside the White House, Ground Zero, The Pentagon, and in New York's Times Square to celebrate. In Dearborn, Michigan, where there is a large Muslim and Arab population, a small crowd gathered outside the City Hall in celebration, many of them of Middle Eastern descent. From the beginning to the end of Obama's speech, 5,000 tweets per second were posted on Twitter. As news of bin Laden's death filtered through the crowd at a nationally televised Major League Baseball game in Philadelphia between rivals Philadelphia Phillies and the New York Mets, "U-S-A!" cheers began. In Tampa, Florida, at the conclusion of a professional wrestling event which was occurring at the time, WWE Champion John Cena announced to the audience that bin Laden had been "caught and compromised to a permanent end", prompting chants while he exited the arena to the march "The Stars and Stripes Forever". The deputy leader of Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood said that, with bin Laden dead, Western forces should now pull out of Iraq and Afghanistan; authorities in Iran made similar comments. Palestinian Authority leaders had contrasting reactions. Mahmoud Abbas welcomed bin Laden's death, while Ismail Haniyeh, the head of the Hamas administration in the Gaza Strip, condemned what he saw as the assassination of an "Arab holy warrior". The 14th Dalai Lama was quoted by the Los Angeles Times as saying, "Forgiveness doesn't mean forget what happened. ... If something is serious and it is necessary to take counter-measures, you have to take counter-measures." This was widely reported as an endorsement of bin Laden's killing and was criticized in Buddhist circles, but another journalist cited a video of the discussion to argue that the comment was taken out of context and the Dalai Lama supports killing only in self-defense. A CBS/The New York Times poll taken after bin Laden's death showed that 16% of Americans feel safer as the result of his death while 60% of Americans of those polled believe killing bin Laden would likely increase the threat of terrorism against the U.S. in the short term. In India, Minister for Home Affairs P. Chidambaram said that bin Laden hiding "deep inside" Pakistan was a matter of grave concern for India and showed that "many of the perpetrators of the Mumbai terror attacks, including the controllers and the handlers of the terrorists who actually carried out the attack, continue to be sheltered in Pakistan". He also called on Pakistan to arrest them, amidst calls for similar strikes being conducted by India against Hafiz Saeed and Dawood Ibrahim. Freedom of Information Act requests and denials Although the Abbottabad raid has been described in great detail by U.S. officials, no physical evidence constituting "proof of death" has been offered to the public, neither to journalists nor to independent third parties who have requested this information through the Freedom of Information Act. Numerous organizations filed FOIA requests seeking at least a partial release of photographs, videos, and/or DNA test results, including The Associated Press, Reuters, CBS News, Judicial Watch, Politico, Fox News, Citizens United, and NPR. On April 26, 2012, Judge James E. Boasberg held that the Department of Defense was not required to release any evidence to the public. According to a draft report by the Pentagon's inspector general, Admiral William McRaven, the top special operations commander, ordered the Department of Defense to purge from its computer systems all files on the bin Laden raid after first sending them to the CIA. Any mention of this decision was expunged from the final version of the inspector general's report. According to the Pentagon, this was done to protect the identities of the Navy SEALs involved in the raid. The legal justification for the records transfer is that the SEALs were effectively working for the CIA at the time of the raid, which ostensibly means that any records of the raid belong to the CIA. "Documents related to the raid were handled in a manner consistent with the fact that the operation was conducted under the direction of the CIA director", CIA agency spokesman Preston Golson said in an emailed statement. "Records of a CIA operation such as the (bin Laden) raid, which were created during the conduct of the operation by persons acting under the authority of the CIA Director, are CIA records." Golson said it is absolutely false that records were moved to the CIA to avoid the legal requirements of the Freedom of Information Act. The National Security Archive has criticized this maneuver, saying that the records have now gone into a "FOIA black hole": What the transfer really did was ensure that the files would be placed in the CIA's operational records, a records system that—due to the 1986 CIA Operational Files exemption—is not subject to the FOIA and is a black hole for anyone trying to access the files within. The move prevents the public from accessing the official record about the raid, and bypasses several important federal records keeping procedures in the process. The United States Defense Department can prevent the release of its own military files citing risks to national security, but that can be contested in court, and a judge can compel the Pentagon to turn over non-sensitive portions of records. The CIA has special authority to prevent the release of operational files in ways that cannot be challenged in federal court. Richard Lardner, reporting for the Associated Press, wrote that the maneuver "could represent a new strategy for the U.S. government to shield even its most sensitive activities from public scrutiny." The inspector general's draft report also described how former Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta disclosed classified information to the makers of Zero Dark Thirty, including the unit that conducted the raid and the ground commander's name. Legality Under U.S. law Following the attacks of September 11, 2001, the U.S. Congress passed the Authorization for Use of Military Force Against Terrorists, which authorized the President to use "necessary and appropriate force against those nations, organizations, or persons" he determines were involved in the attacks. The Obama administration justified its use of force by relying on that resolution, as well as international law set forth in treaties and customary laws of war. John Bellinger III, who served as the U.S. State Department's senior lawyer during President George W. Bush's second term, said the strike was a legitimate military action and did not run counter to the U.S.' self-imposed prohibition on assassinations: The killing is not prohibited by the long-standing assassination prohibition in executive order 12333 [signed in 1981], because the action was a military action in the ongoing U.S. armed conflict with al-Qaeda, and it is not prohibited to kill specific leaders of an opposing force. The assassination prohibition does not apply to killings in self-defense. Similarly, Harold Hongju Koh, Legal Adviser of the U.S. State Department, said in 2010 that "under domestic law, the use of lawful weapons systems—consistent with the applicable laws of war—for precision targeting of specific high-level belligerent leaders when acting in self-defense or during an armed conflict is not unlawful, and hence does not constitute 'assassination'." David Scheffer, director of the Northwestern University School of Law Center for International Human Rights, said the fact that bin Laden had previously been indicted in 1998 in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York for conspiracy to attack U.S. defense installations was a complicating factor. "Normally when an individual is under indictment the purpose is to capture that person in order to bring him to court to try him ... The object is not to literally summarily execute him if he's under indictment." Scheffer and another expert stated that it was important to determine whether the mission was to capture bin Laden or to kill him. If the Navy SEALs were instructed to kill bin Laden without trying first to capture him, it "may have violated American ideals if not international law." Under international law In an address to the Pakistani parliament, Pakistan's Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gillani said, "Our people are rightly incensed on the issue of violation of sovereignty as typified by the covert U.S. air and ground assault on the Osama hideout in Abbottabad. ... The Security Council, while exhorting UN member states to join their efforts against terrorism, has repeatedly emphasized that this be done in accordance with international law, human rights and humanitarian law." Former Pakistani President Gen. Pervez Musharraf denied a report in The Guardian that his government made a secret agreement permitting U.S. forces to conduct unilateral raids in search of the top three al-Qaeda leaders. In testimony before the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee, Attorney General Eric Holder said, "The operation against bin Laden was justified as an act of national self-defense. It's lawful to target an enemy commander in the field." He called the killing of bin Laden "a tremendous step forward in attaining justice for the nearly 3,000 innocent Americans who were murdered on September 11, 2001." Commenting on the legality under international law, University of Michigan Law Professor Steven Ratner said, "A lot of it depends on whether you believe Osama bin Laden is a combatant in a war or a suspect in a mass murder." In the latter case, "you would... be able to kill a suspect [only] if they represented an immediate threat". Holder testified that bin Laden made no attempt to surrender, and "even if he had there would be a good basis on the part of those very brave Navy SEAL team members to do what they did in order to protect themselves and the other people who were in that building." According to Anthony Dworkin, an international law expert at the European Council on Foreign Relations, if bin Laden was hors de combat (as his daughter is said to have alleged) that would have been a violation of Protocol I of the Geneva Conventions. Former Nuremberg prosecutor Benjamin B. Ferencz said it was unclear if bin Laden's killing was justified self-defense or premeditated illegal assassination, and that "killing a captive who poses no immediate threat is a crime under military law as well as all other law," a view also held by legal scholar Philippe Sands. The UN Security Council released a statement applauding the news of bin Laden's death, and UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said he was "very much relieved." Two United Nations Special Rapporteurs issued a joint statement seeking more information regarding the circumstances in which bin Laden was killed and cautioning that "actions taken by States in combating terrorism, especially in high profile cases, set precedents for the way in which the right to life will be treated in future instances." Handling of the body Under Islamic tradition, burial at sea is considered inappropriate when other, preferred forms of burial are available, and several prominent Islamic clerics criticized the decision. Mohamed Ahmed el-Tayeb, the head of Al-Azhar University, Egypt's seat of Sunni Muslim learning, said the disposal of the body at sea was an affront to religious and human values. Scholars like el-Tayeb hold that sea burials can be allowed only in special cases where the death occurred aboard a ship, and that the regular practice should have occurred in this case—the body buried in the ground with the head pointing to Islam's holy city of Mecca. A stated advantage of a burial at sea is that the site is not readily identified or accessed, thus preventing it from becoming a focus of attention or "terrorist shrine". The Guardian questioned whether bin Laden's grave would have become a shrine, as this is strongly discouraged in Wahhabism. Addressing the same concern, Egyptian Islamic analyst and lawyer Montasser el-Zayat said that if the Americans wished to avoid making a shrine to bin Laden, an unmarked grave on land would have accomplished the same goal. The Guardian also quoted a U.S. official explaining the anticipated difficulty of finding a country that would accept the burial of bin Laden in its soil. A professor of Islamic Law at the University of Jordan stated burying at sea was permitted if there was nobody to receive the body and provide a Muslim burial, but that "it's neither true nor correct to claim that there was nobody in the Muslim world ready to receive bin Laden's body". On a similar note, Mohammed al-Qubaisi, Dubai's grand mufti, stated: "They can say they buried him at sea, but they cannot say they did it according to Islam. If the family does not want him, it's really simple in Islam: you dig up a grave anywhere, even on a remote island, you say the prayers and that's it. Sea burials are permissible for Muslims in extraordinary circumstances. This is not one of them." Khalid Latif, an imam who serves as a chaplain and the director of the Islamic Center of New York University, argued that the sea burial was respectful. Leor Halevi, a professor at Vanderbilt University and the author of Muhammad's Grave: Death Rites and the Making of Islamic Society, explained that Islamic law does not prescribe ordinary funerals for those killed in battle, and pointed to controversy within the Muslim world over whether bin Laden was, as a "mass murderer of Muslims", entitled to the same respect as mainstream Muslims. At the same time, he suggested that the burial could have been handled with more cultural sensitivity. Omar bin Laden, son of Osama bin Laden, published a complaint on May 10, 2011, that the burial at sea deprived the family of a proper burial. Bin Laden's will After bin Laden's death, it was reported he had left a will written a short time after the September 11 attacks in which he urged his children not to join al-Qaeda and not to continue the Jihad. Release of photographs CNN cited a senior U.S. official as saying three sets of photographs of bin Laden's body exist: photos taken at an aircraft hangar in Afghanistan, described as the most recognizable and gruesome; photos taken from the burial at sea on before a shroud was placed around his body; and photos from the raid itself, which include shots of the interior of the compound as well as three of the others who died in the raid. CBS Evening News reported that the photo shows that the bullet which hit above bin Laden's left eye blew out his left eyeball and blew away a large portion of his frontal skull, exposing his brain. CNN stated that the pictures from the Afghanistan hangar depict "a massive open head wound across both eyes. It's very bloody and gory." U.S. Senator Jim Inhofe said the photos taken of the body on the Carl Vinson, which showed bin Laden's face after much of the blood and material had been washed away, should be released to the public. A debate on whether the military photos should be released to the public took place. Those supporting the release argued that the photos should be considered public records, that they are necessary to complete the journalistic record, and that they would prove bin Laden's death and therefore prevent conspiracy theories. Those in opposition expressed concern that the photos would inflame anti-American sentiment in the Middle East. Obama decided not to release the photos. In an interview aired on May4 on 60 Minutes, he said: "We don't trot out this stuff as trophies. We don't need to spike the football." Obama said that he was concerned with ensuring that "very graphic photos of somebody who was shot in the head are not floating around as an incitement to additional violence, or as a propaganda tool. That's not who we are." Among Republican members of Congress, Senator Lindsey Graham criticized the decision and said he wanted to see the photos released, while Senator John McCain and Representative Mike Rogers, the chair of the House Intelligence Committee, supported the decision. On May 11, selected members of Congress (the congressional leadership and those who serve on the House and Senate intelligence, homeland security, judiciary, foreign relations, and armed forces committees) were shown 15 bin Laden photos. In an interview with Eliot Spitzer, Senator Jim Inhofe said that three of the photos were of bin Laden alive for identification reference. Three other photos were of the burial-at-sea ceremony. The group Judicial Watch filed a Freedom of Information Act request to obtain access to the photos in May 2011, soon after the raid. On May 9, the Department of Defense declined to process Judicial Watch's FOIA request, prompting Judicial Watch to file a federal lawsuit. In 2012, Judge James E. Boasberg of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia issued a ruling denying release of the photographs. In May 2013, a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit consisting of Chief Judge Merrick Garland, Senior Judge Harry T. Edwards, and Judge Judith Rogers affirmed the ruling, holding that 52 post-mortem images were properly classified as "top secret" and exempt from disclosure. Judicial Watch filed a petition for a writ of certiorari in August 2013, seeking U.S. Supreme Court review, but in January 2014 the Supreme Court declined to hear the case. The Associated Press filed a FOIA request for photographs and videos taken during the Abbottabad raid less than one day after bin Laden was killed. The AP also requested "contingency plans for bin Laden's capture, reports on the performance of equipment during the mission and copies of DNA tests" confirming bin Laden's identity. The Defense Department rejected the AP's request for expedited processing, a legal provision to shorten the amount of time to process FOIA requests. The Defense Department rejected the request, and the AP administratively appealed. Alternative accounts Seal Target Geronimo A book published in November 2011, Seal Target Geronimo, by Chuck Pfarrer, a former SEAL, contradicted the account as given by U.S. government sources. According to Pfarrer, neither helicopter crashed at the beginning of the raid. Instead, the SEALs jumped onto the roof from the hovering Razor1 helicopter and entered a third-floor hallway from the roof terrace. Osama's third wife, Khairah, was in the hallway, headed towards the SEALs. She was blinded by a strobe light and pushed to the floor as the SEALs went past her. Osama bin Laden stuck his head out of a bedroom door, saw the SEALs, and slammed the door closed. At the same time, Osama's son Khalid bin Laden ran up the stairs to the third floor and was killed with two shots. Two SEALs broke through the bedroom door. Bin Laden's wife Amal was on the edge of the bed shouting in Arabic at the SEALs, and Osama bin Laden dived across the bed, shoving Amal at the same time, for an AKS-74U kept by the headboard. The SEALs fired four shots at bin Laden; the first missed, the second grazed Amal in the calf also missing bin Laden, and the final two hit bin Laden in the chest and head, killing him instantly. In Pfarrer's account, the total time elapsed from jumping on the roof to Osama bin Laden's death was between 30 and 90 seconds. Around the same time, snipers in the hovering Razor2 helicopter shot and killed Abu Ahmed al-Kuwaiti when he came to the door of the guest house firing an AK-47. One SEAL sniper fired two shots at al-Kuwaiti and the other fired two three-round bursts. Two of the snipers' bullets went through al-Kuwaiti and killed his wife who was standing behind him. The Razor2 team cleared the guest house and then breached their way into the main house with explosives. As the Razor2 team entered the main house, al-Qaeda courier Arshad Khan pointed his AK-47 gun and was killed with two shots. The SEAL team fired a total of 16 shots, killing Osama bin Laden, Khalid bin Laden, Abu Ahmed al-Kuwaiti, and al-Kuwaiti's wife, Arshad Khan, and wounding Osama bin Laden's wife Amal al-Sadah. Twenty minutes into the operation, Razor1 took off from the roof of the main house to reposition to a landing spot outside the compound. As Razor1 was crossing over the courtyard, both "green unit" flight deck control systems went off line. The helicopter settled slowly, bounced off the ground, and then broke apart as it hit the ground a second time. Both failed green units were removed for later examination. Media accounts had reported that the plan had been to fast rope to the inner courtyard and to clear the main house from the ground floor up. The helicopter crashed in the outer courtyard with the SEAL team still on board. The SEAL team exited and needed to breach two walls and then into the house. As a result, Osama bin Laden was killed several minutes into the operation. Pfarrer's account differs in that he wrote that a SEAL team was inserted onto the roof of the main house, that Osama bin Laden was killed seconds into the operation, and that the main house was cleared from the top down. The Pentagon disputed Pfarrer's account of the raid, calling it "incorrect". The U.S. Special Operations Command also disputed Pfarrer's account, saying, "It's just not true. It's not how it happened." No Easy Day Matt Bissonnette, a SEAL who participated in the raid, wrote an account of the mission in the book No Easy Day (2012), which significantly contradicts Pfarrer's account. Bissonnette wrote that the helicopter approach and landing matched the official version. According to Bissonnette, when bin Laden peered out at the Americans advancing on his third-floor room, the SEAL who fired upon him hit him on the right side of the head. Bin Laden stumbled into his bedroom, where the SEALs found him crumpled and twitching on the floor in a pool of body matter, with two women crying over his body. The other SEALs allegedly grabbed the women, moved them away, and shot several rounds into bin Laden's chest until he was motionless. According to Bissonnette, the weapons in the room—an AK-47 rifle and a Makarov pistol—were unloaded. Unlike the official account, Bissonnette's version alleges that bin Laden's wife Mariam was uninjured in the raid. In addition, Bissonnette states that the report of bin Laden's daughter Safia having splintered wood striking her foot is false, as he explains that it was rather his wife Amal who was injured by such fragments. The author also asserted that one SEAL sat on bin Laden's chest in a cramped helicopter as his body was flown back to Afghanistan. Bissonnette stated that a search of bin Laden's room after his death uncovered a bottle of Just for Men hair dye. Esquire interview In February 2013, Esquire conducted an interview with an anonymous individual called "the shooter" who said that bin Laden placed one of his wives between himself and the commandos, pushing her towards them. "Shooter" then claimed bin Laden stood up and had a gun "within reach" and it was only then that he fired two shots into bin Laden's forehead, killing him. Another member of SEAL Team Six said the story as presented in Esquire was false and "complete BS". Then, in November 2014, former SEAL Robert O'Neill disclosed his identity as the shooter in a series of interviews with The Washington Post. Hillhouse and Hersh reports In 2011 American intelligence analyst Raelynn Hillhouse wrote that according to U.S. intelligence sources, the U.S. had been tipped-off to bin Laden's location by an unnamed Pakistani intelligence insider collecting the $25 million reward. According to the sources, Pakistan purposely stood-down its armed forces to allow the U.S. raid, and the original plan was to kill—not capture—bin Laden. Hillhouse's sources stated that the Pakistanis had been keeping bin Laden under house arrest near their military headquarters in Abbottabad with money provided by the Saudis. According to The Telegraph, Hillhouse's account might explain why U.S. forces encountered no resistance on their way to and in Abbottabad, and why some residents in Abbottabad were warned to stay in their houses the day before the raid. Hillhouse later also said bin Laden's body had been thrown out of a helicopter over the Hindu Kush. Hillhouse's account was picked up and published internationally. In May 2015, a detailed article in the London Review of Books by journalist Seymour Hersh said that the Pakistani Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) had kept bin Laden under house arrest at Abbottabad since 2006, and that Pakistani Army chief Pervez Kayani and ISI director Ahmad Shuja Pasha aided the U.S. mission to kill, not capture bin Laden. According to Hersh, Pakistani officials were always aware of bin Laden's location and were guarding the compound with their own soldiers. Pakistan decided to give up bin Laden's location to the U.S. because American aid was declining. Pakistani officials were aware of the raid, and assisted the U.S. in carrying it out. According to Hersh, bin Laden was basically an invalid. Hersh's U.S. and Pakistani intelligence sources stated that the U.S. had learned of bin Laden's location through a Pakistani walk-in seeking the $25 million reward, and not through tracking a courier. NBC News and Agence France-Presse subsequently reported that their sources indicated a walk-in was an extremely valuable asset, though the sources disputed that the walk-in knew the location of bin Laden. Pakistan-based journalist Amir Mir in the News International reported the walk-in's identity to be Usman Khalid, though that allegation was denied by Khalid's family. Although similar in claims, both Hillhouse's and Hersh's accounts of the bin Laden death appeared to be based on different sources which The Intercept concluded might corroborate the claims if their identities were known. After the Hersh story broke, NBC News also independently reported that a Pakistani intelligence officer was the source of the original bin Laden location report, and not the courier. The White House denied Hersh's report. A former intelligence official who had direct knowledge of the operation speculated that the Pakistanis, who were furious that the operation took place without being detected by them, were behind the false story as a way to save face. Pakistani journalist Ahmed Rashid in The New York Review of Books finds the cooperation between the CIA and ISI that Hersh describes "inconceivable", in part because 2011 was "the worst year in U.S.-Pakistan relations since the late 1980s" and "hatred and mistrust" between the CIA and ISI was "acute"—something Hersh does not mention. Among the incidents that occurred in Pakistan in the months before the killing of bin Laden were the killing of two Pakistanis by CIA contractor Raymond Davis, numerous death threats against the Islamabad CIA station chief after his name was leaked (purportedly by the ISI), the cessation of the issuing of visas for U.S. officials (following which the U.S. consulate in Lahore was moved to Islamabad over concerns about security), increased U.S. anger over the refusal of Pakistan to exert pressure on the Taliban, the death of 40 Pakistanis including many civilians and later 24 Pakistani soldiers from U.S. drone strikes; and the cut-off of U.S. supplies to Afghanistan by Pakistan. Indian airspace controversy In the publication No Easy Day, a map of the operation show the U.S. SEALs briefly crossed into Indian territory before its loop approaching Abbottabad in Pakistan, raising questions in India whether the U.S. violated Indian airspace, and if India had advance knowledge about the mission. The Indian Air Force dismissed claims that the U.S. crossed into Indian airspace. Conspiracy theories The reports of bin Laden's death on May 2, 2011, are not universally accepted despite unreleased DNA testing confirming his identity, bin Laden's twelve-year-old daughter witnessing his death, and a May 6, 2011, al-Qaeda statement confirming his death. The swift burial of bin Laden's body at sea, the speed of the DNA results, and the decision not to release pictures of the dead body have led to the rise of conspiracy theories that bin Laden had not died in the raid. Some blogs suggested that the U.S. government feigned the raid, and some forums hosted debates over the alleged hoax. Role of Pakistan Pakistan came under intense international scrutiny after the raid. The Pakistani government denied that it had sheltered bin Laden, and said it had shared information with the CIA and other intelligence agencies about the compound since 2009. Carlotta Gall, in her 2014 book The Wrong Enemy: America in Afghanistan, 2001–2014, accuses the ISI, Pakistan's clandestine intelligence service, of hiding and protecting Osama bin Laden and his family after the September 11, 2001 attacks. She claims that she learned from a Pakistani official (with whom she later clarified that she did not speak, the information coming through a friend) that a senior U.S. official had told him that the United States had direct evidence that Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) chief, Lt. Gen. Ahmad Shuja Pasha, knew of bin Laden's presence in Abbottabad, but ISI, Pasha and officials in Washington all deny this: "C.I.A. and other Obama administration officials have said they possess no evidence—no intercepts, no unreleased documents from Abbottabad—that Kayani or Pasha or any other I.S.I. officer knew where bin Laden was hiding." After the raid, there was an unconfirmed report that Pakistan allowed Chinese military officials to examine the wreckage of the crashed helicopter. Connections with Abbottabad Abbottabad attracted refugees from fighting in the tribal areas and Swat Valley, as well as Afghanistan. "People don't really care now to ask who's there", said Gohar Ayub Khan, a former foreign minister and resident of the city. "That's one of the reasons why, possibly, he came in there." The city was home to at least one al-Qaeda leader before bin Laden. Operational chief Abu Faraj al-Libi reportedly moved his family to Abbottabad in mid-2003. Pakistan Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) raided the house in December 2003 but did not find him. This account was contradicted by American officials who said that satellite photos show that in 2004 the site was an empty field. A courier told interrogators that al-Libi used three houses in Abbottabad. Pakistani officials say they informed their American counterparts at the time that the city could be a hiding place for al-Qaeda leaders. In 2009 officials began providing the U.S. with intelligence about bin Laden's compound without knowing who lived there. On January 25, 2011, ISI arrested Umar Patek, an Indonesian wanted in connection with the 2002 Bali nightclub bombings, while he was staying with a family in Abbottabad. Tahir Shehzad, a clerk at the post office, was arrested on suspicion of facilitating travel for al-Qaeda militants. Allegations against Pakistan Numerous allegations were made that the government of Pakistan had shielded bin Laden. Critics cited the proximity of bin Laden's heavily fortified compound to the Pakistan Military Academy, that the U.S. chose to not notify Pakistani authorities before the operation, and the double standards of Pakistan regarding the perpetrators of the 2008 Mumbai attacks. U.S. government files, leaked by WikiLeaks, disclosed that American diplomats had been told that Pakistani security services were tipping off bin Laden every time U.S. forces approached. Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), also helped smuggle al-Qaeda militants into Afghanistan to fight NATO troops. According to the leaked files, in December 2009, the government of Tajikistan had also told U.S. officials that many in Pakistan were aware of bin Laden's whereabouts. CIA chief Leon Panetta said the CIA had ruled out involving Pakistan in the operation, because it feared that "any effort to work with the Pakistanis could jeopardize the mission. They might alert the targets." Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said that "cooperation with Pakistan helped lead us to bin Laden and the compound in which he was hiding". Obama echoed her sentiments. John O. Brennan, Obama's chief counterterrorism advisor, said that it was inconceivable that bin Laden did not have support from within Pakistan. He said: "People have been referring to this as hiding in plain sight. We are looking at how he was able to hide out there for so long." The Indian Minister for Home Affairs, P. Chidambaram, said that bin Laden hiding "deep inside" Pakistan was a matter of grave concern for India, and showed that "many of the perpetrators of the Mumbai terror attacks, including the controllers and the handlers of the terrorists who actually carried out the attack, continue to be sheltered in Pakistan". He called on Pakistan to arrest them. Pakistani-born British member of parliament Khalid Mahmood said he was "flabbergasted and shocked" after he learned that bin Laden was living in a city with thousands of Pakistani troops, reviving questions about alleged links between al-Qaeda and elements in Pakistan's security forces. On August 7, 2011, Raelynn Hillhouse, an American spy novelist and security analyst, posted "The Spy Who Billed Me" on her national security blog, suggesting that Pakistan's ISI had sheltered bin Laden in return for a $25 million bounty; ISI and government officials have denied her allegations. Former Pakistani Army Chief, General Ziauddin Butt has said that, according to his knowledge, Osama bin Laden was kept in an Intelligence Bureau safe house in Abbottabad by the then Director-General of the Intelligence Bureau of Pakistan (2004–2008), Brigadier Ijaz Shah. This had occurred with the "full knowledge" of former army chief General Pervez Musharraf and possibly that of current Chief of Army Staff (COAS) General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani. Emails from the private American security firm, Stratfor, published by WikiLeaks on February 27, 2012, indicate that up to 12 officials in Pakistan's ISI knew of Osama bin Laden's Abbottabad safe house. Stratfor had been given access to the papers collected by American forces from bin Laden's Abbottabad house. The emails reveal that these Pakistani officers included "Mid to senior level ISI and Pak Mil with one retired Pak Mil General". In 2014, British journalist Carlotta Gall revealed that she had been told by an undisclosed ISI source that the ISI "ran a special desk assigned to handle bin Laden". The desk was "led by an officer who made his own decisions and did not report to a superior [...] but the top military bosses knew about it, I was told". According to Steve Coll, as of 2019 there is no direct evidence showing Pakistani knowledge of bin Laden's presence in Abbottabad, even by a rouge or compartmented faction within the government, other than the circumstantial fact of bin Laden's compound being located near (albeit not directly visible from) the Pakistan Military Academy. Documents captured from the Abbottabad compound generally show that bin Laden was wary of contact with Pakistani intelligence and police, especially in light of Pakistan's role in the arrest of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed; it has also been suggested that the $25 million U.S. reward for information leading to bin Laden would have been enticing to Pakistani officers given their reputation for corruption. The compound itself, although unusually tall, was less conspicuous than sometimes envisaged by Americans, given the common local habit of walling off homes for protection against violence or to ensure the privacy of female family members. Coll notes that a Pakistani Taliban cell had previously surveilled the army's General Headquarters in Rawalpindi out of a nearby house for two months prior to a deadly October 2009 attack on the facility—without detection. Pakistani response According to a Pakistani intelligence official, raw phone-tap data had been transferred to the U.S. without being analyzed by Pakistan. While the U.S. "was concentrating on this" information since September 2010, information regarding bin Laden and the compound's inhabitants had "slipped from" Pakistan's "radar" over the months. Bin Laden left "an invisible footprint" and he had not been contacting other militant networks. It was noted that much focus had been placed on a courier entering and leaving the compound. The transfer of intelligence to the U.S. was a regular occurrence according to the official, who also stated regarding the raid that "I think they came in undetected and went out the same day", and Pakistan did not believe that U.S. personnel were present in the area before the special operation occurred. According to the Pakistani high commissioner to the United Kingdom, Wajid Shamsul Hasan, Pakistan had prior knowledge that an operation would happen. Pakistan was "in the know of certain things" and "what happened, happened with our consent. Americans got to know him—where he was first—and that's why they struck it and struck it precisely." Husain Haqqani, Pakistani ambassador to the U.S., had said that Pakistan would have pursued bin Laden had the intelligence of his location existed with them and Pakistan was "very glad that our American partners did. They had superior intelligence, superior technology, and we are grateful to them." Another Pakistani official stated that Pakistan "assisted only in terms of authorization of the helicopter flights in our airspace" and the operation was conducted by the United States. He also said that "in any event, we did not want anything to do with such an operation in case something went wrong." In June the ISI arrested the owner of a safe house rented to the CIA to observe Osama bin Laden's compound and five CIA informants. Mark Kelton, then the CIA station chief for Pakistan, alleges that he was poisoned by the ISI in retaliation for the raid, forcing him to leave the country. Code name Several officials who were present in the Situation Room, including the president, told reporters that the code name for bin Laden was "Geronimo". They had watched Leon Panetta, speaking from CIA headquarters, while he narrated the action in Abbottabad. Panetta said, "We have a visual on Geronimo", and later, "Geronimo EKIA"—enemy killed in action. The words of the commander on the ground were, "For God and country, Geronimo, Geronimo, Geronimo." Officials subsequently explained that each step of the mission was labelled alphabetically in an "Execution Checklist", which is used to ensure all participants in a large operation are kept synchronized with a minimum of radio traffic. "Geronimo" indicated the raiders had reached step "G", the capture or killing of bin Laden. Osama bin Laden was identified as "Jackpot", the general code name for the target of an operation. ABC News reported that otherwise his regular code name was "Cakebread". The New Yorker reported that bin Laden's code name was "Crankshaft". Many Native Americans were offended that Geronimo, the renowned 19th-century Apache leader, was irrevocably linked with bin Laden. The chairman of the Fort Sill Apache Tribe, the successor to Geronimo's tribe, wrote a letter to Obama asking him to "right this wrong." The president of the Navajo Nation requested that the U.S. government change the code name retroactively. Officials from the National Congress of American Indians said the focus should be on honoring the disproportionately high number of Native Americans who serve in the military, and they had been assured that "Geronimo" was not a code name for bin Laden. The U.S. Senate Committee on Indian Affairs heard testimony on the issue from tribal leaders, while the Defense Department had no comment except to say that no disrespect was intended. Derivation of intelligence After the death of bin Laden, some officials from the Bush administration, such as former Bush Office of Legal Counsel attorney John Yoo and former attorney general Michael Mukasey, wrote op-eds stating that the enhanced interrogation techniques they authorized (since legally clarified as torture) yielded the intelligence that later led to locating bin Laden's hideout. Mukasey said that the waterboarding of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed caused him to reveal the nickname of bin Laden's courier. U.S. officials and legislators, including Republican John McCain and Democrat Dianne Feinstein, chairwoman of the U.S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, countered that those statements were false. They noted that a report by CIA Director Leon Panetta stated that the first mention of the courier's nickname did not come from Mohammed, but rather from another government's interrogation of a suspect whom they said they "believe was not tortured." McCain called on Mukasey to retract his statements: Panetta had written a letter to McCain on the issue, saying: "Some of the detainees who provided useful information about the facilitator/courier's role had been subjected to enhanced interrogation techniques. Whether those techniques were the 'only timely and effective way' to obtain such information is a matter of debate and cannot be established definitively." Although some information may have been obtained from detainees who were subjected to torture, Panetta wrote to McCain that: We first learned about the facilitator/courier's nom de guerre from a detainee not in CIA custody in 2002. It is also important to note that some detainees who were subjected to enhanced interrogation techniques attempted to provide false or misleading information about the facilitator/courier. These attempts to falsify the facilitator/courier's role were alerting. In the end, no detainee in CIA custody revealed the facilitator/courier's full true name or specific whereabouts. This information was discovered through other intelligence means. In addition, other U.S. officials state that shortly after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, detainees in CIA secret prisons told interrogators about the courier's pseudonym "al-Kuwaiti" and that when Khalid Sheikh Mohammed was later captured, he only confirmed the courier's pseudonym. After Abu Faraj al-Libbi was captured, he provided false or misleading information: he denied that he knew al-Kuwaiti and he made up another name instead. Also, a group of interrogators asserted that the courier's nickname was not divulged "during torture, but rather several months later, when [detainees] were questioned by interrogators who did not use abusive techniques." Intelligence postmortem Evidence seized from the compound is said to include ten cell phones, five to ten computers, twelve hard drives, at least 100 computer disks (including thumb drives and DVDs), handwritten notes, documents, weapons, and an assortment of personal items. It was described by a senior Pentagon intelligence official as "the single largest collection of senior terrorist materials ever." On November 1, 2017, the CIA released to the public approximately 470,000 files and a copy of bin Laden's diary. Intelligence analysts also studied call detail records from two phone numbers that were found to be sewn into bin Laden's clothing. They helped over the course of several months to apprehend several al-Qaeda members in several countries and to kill several of bin Laden's closest associates by CIA drone attacks in Pakistan. The material gathered at the compound was stored at the FBI Laboratory in Quantico, Virginia, where forensic experts analyzed fingerprints, DNA, and other trace evidence left on the material. Copies of the material were provided to other agencies; officials want to preserve a chain of custody in case any of the information is needed as evidence in a future trial. A special CIA team has been given the responsibility of combing through the digital material and documents removed from the bin Laden compound. The CIA team is working in collaboration with other U.S. government agencies "to triage, catalog and analyze this intelligence." Bin Laden's youngest wife told Pakistani investigators that the family lived in the feudal village of Chak Shah Muhammad, in the nearby district of Haripur, Pakistan, for two and a half years before moving to Abbottabad in late 2005. The material seized from the compound contained al-Qaeda's strategy for Afghanistan after America's withdrawal from the country in 2014, as well as thousands of electronic memos and missives that captured conversations between bin Laden and his deputies around the world. It showed that bin Laden stayed in touch with al-Qaeda's established affiliates and sought new alliances with groups such as Boko Haram from Nigeria. According to the material, he sought to reassert control over factions of loosely affiliated jihadists from Yemen to Somalia, as well as independent actors whom he believed had sullied al-Qaeda's reputation and muddied its central message. Bin Laden was worried at times about his personal security and was annoyed that his organization had not utilized the Arab Spring to improve its image. He acted, according to The Washington Post, on the one hand as "chief executive fully engaged in the group's myriad crises, grappling with financial problems, recruitment, rebellious field managers, and sudden staff vacancies resulting from the unrelenting U.S. drone campaign", and on the other hand as "a hands-on manager who participated in the terrorist group's operational planning and strategic thinking while also giving orders and advice to field operatives scattered worldwide." The material also described Osama bin Laden's relation with Ayman al-Zawahiri and Atiyah Abd al-Rahman. Seventeen documents seized during the Abbottabad raid, consisting of electronic letters or draft letters dating from September 2006 to April 2011, were released by the Combating Terrorism Center at West Point one year and one day after bin Laden's death. and made available at The Washington Post homepage. The documents covered subjects such as the news media in America, affiliate organization, targets, America, security, and the Arab Spring. In the documents, bin Laden said al-Qaeda's strength was limited and therefore suggested that the best way to attack the U.S., which he compared to a tree, "is to concentrate on sawing the trunk". He refused the promotion of Anwar al-Awlaki when this was requested by Nasir al-Wuhayshi, leader of al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula. "We here become reassured of the people when they go to the line and get examined there", bin Laden said. He told al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula to expand operations in the U.S. in the wake of the 2009 Christmas Day bomb plot by writing "We need to extend and develop our operations in America and not keep it limited to blowing up airplanes." The seized material shed light on al-Qaeda's relationship with Iran, which detained jihadis and their relatives in the wake of the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan, including members of bin Laden's family. Al-Qaeda's relationship with Iran was, according to the Combating Terrorism Center, an "unpleasant byproduct of necessity, fueled by mutual distrust and antagonism." An explicit reference to any institutional support from Pakistan for al-Qaeda wasn't mentioned in the documents; instead, bin Laden instructed his family members how to avoid detection so that members of Pakistani intelligence couldn't track them to find him. According to the seized material, former commander of the international forces in Afghanistan David Petraeus and US President Barack Obama should be assassinated during any of their visits to Pakistan and Afghanistan, if there was an opportunity to do so. Bin Laden opined that U.S. Vice President Joe Biden should not be a target because "Biden is totally unprepared for that post [of president], which will lead the US into a crisis." Bin Laden was also against one-person suicide attacks and was of the opinion that at least two persons should undertake these attacks instead. He planned to reform in a way so that al-Qaeda's central leadership would have a greater say in the naming of the al-Qaeda branch leaders and their deputies. He expressed his opinion that killing Muslims has weakened his organization and not helped al-Qaeda, writing that it "cost the mujahedeen no small amount of sympathy among Muslims. The enemy has exploited the mistakes of the mujahedeen to mar their image among the masses." The United States Department of Justice released a further eleven documents in March 2015. The documents were part of the trial against Abid Naseer, who was convicted of plotting to bomb a Manchester shopping mall in 2009. They included letters to and from Osama bin Laden in the year before his death, and showed the extent of the damage the CIA drone program had done to Al-Qaeda. In addition to information and data recovered that were of intelligence interest, the documents and computer items also contained personal files, including family correspondence and a large stash of pornography. US officials have refused to characterize the type of pornography found other than to say that it was "modern" in nature. Helicopter stealth technology revelations The tail section of the secret helicopter survived demolition and lay just outside the compound wall. Pakistani security forces put up a cloth barrier at first light to hide the wreckage. Later, a tractor hauled it away hidden under a tarp. Journalists obtained photographs that revealed the previously undisclosed stealth technology. Aviation Week said the helicopter appeared to be a significantly modified MH-60 Black Hawk. Serial numbers found at the scene were consistent with an MH-60 built in 2009. Its performance during the operation confirmed that a stealth helicopter could evade detection in a militarily sensitive, densely populated area. Photos showed that the Black Hawk's tail had stealth-configured shapes on the boom and the fairings, swept stabilizers and a "hubcap" over the noise-reducing five- or six-blade tail rotor. It appeared to have a silver-loaded infrared suppression finish similar to some V-22 Ospreys. The crash of the Blackhawk may have been, at least in part, caused by the aerodynamic deficiencies introduced to the airframe by the stealth technology add-ons (an unrelated possible cause of the crash was that the rehearsal mock-ups of the compound had used a chain-link fence rather than a solid wall for the perimeter and thus had not reproduced the airflows that the helicopter would face). The U.S. requested return of the wreckage and the Chinese government also expressed interest, according to Pakistani officials. Pakistan had custody of the wreckage for over two weeks before its return was secured by U.S. Senator John Kerry. Experts disagreed as to how much information could have been gleaned from the tail fragment. Stealth technology was already operational on several fixed-wing aircraft and the cancelled RAH-66 Comanche helicopter; the modified Black Hawk was the first confirmed operational "stealth helicopter". It is likely that the most valuable information obtainable from the wreckage was the composition of the radar-absorbing paint used on the tail section. Local children were seen picking up pieces of the wreckage and selling them as souvenirs. In August 2011, Fox News reported that Pakistan had allowed Chinese scientists to examine the helicopter's tail section and were especially interested in its radar-absorbing paint. Pakistan and the PRC denied these claims. Previous attempts to capture or kill bin Laden February 1994: A team of Libyans attacked bin Laden's home in Sudan. The CIA investigated and reported that they had been hired by Saudi Arabia, but Saudi Arabia accused them of lying to make bin Laden more amenable to Sudanese interests. August 20, 1998: In Operation Infinite Reach, the U.S. Navy launched 66 cruise missiles at a suspected al-Qaeda training camp outside Khost, Afghanistan, where bin Laden was expected to be. Reports said that 30 people may have been killed. 2000: Foreign operatives working on behalf of the CIA fired a rocket-propelled grenade at a convoy of vehicles in which bin Laden was traveling through the mountains of Afghanistan, hitting one of the vehicles but not the one in which bin Laden was riding. December 2001: During the opening stages of the war in Afghanistan launched following the September 11 attacks, the U.S. and its allies believed that bin Laden was hiding in the rugged mountains at Tora Bora. Despite overrunning the Taliban and al-Qaeda positions, they failed to capture or kill him. See also Abbottabad commission Barisha raid, similar raid that targeted Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi in 2019. 2013 raid on Barawe Coup de main FBI Ten Most Wanted Fugitives High-value target Robert J. O'Neill (U.S. Navy SEAL) Shakil Afridi, doctor who supposedly assisted the U.S. in locating bin Laden. Special Activities Division Notes References Further reading External links Reuters Photo Gallery: Inside bin Laden's Compound, photos by Pak security official Inside the Situation Room: Obama on making OBL raid decision, a documentary behind the raid interviewing the important persons in the Situation Room (archived) Death of Bin Laden collected news and commentary at BBC News Online "Closing in on bin Laden", The Washington Post collection of maps, diagrams, and other images Phillips, Macon. "Osama Bin Laden Dead." The White House Blog. May 2, 2011. "Photo Gallery May 1, 2011." The White House Garamone, Jim. "Obama Declares 'Justice Has Been Done'." American Forces Press Service, U.S. Department of Defense. Garamone, Jim. "Intelligence, Operations Team Up for bin Laden Kill." American Forces Press Service, U.S. Department of Defense. "Office of the Spokesperson Press Release Death of Osama bin Ladin." Embassy of Pakistan in Washington. May 2, 2011. "Message from the Director: Justice Done." (Archive). Central Intelligence Agency. May 2, 2011. "Osama bin Laden killed". The Big Picture. The Boston Globe. May 2, 2011. Osama Bin Laden's death: How it happened, written by Adrian Brown from BBC News on September 10, 2012. Osama Bin Laden: The long hunt for the al-Qaeda leader, written by David Gritten from BBC News on May 2, 2011. The Killing of Osama bin Laden, written by Seymour M. Hersh from London Review of Books on May 21, 2015. Hersh challenges the official U.S. account of the death of bin Laden. Killing of Osama bin Laden Death 2011 deaths 2011 in military history 2011 in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa May 2011 events in Asia Abbottabad District CIA activities in Pakistan Deaths by firearm in Pakistan Deaths by person in Pakistan Filmed executions in Pakistan Government of Yousaf Raza Gillani Operations involving American special forces Pakistan military scandals Pakistan–United States relations Pakistani commissions and inquiries United States Naval Special Warfare Command War on terror Presidency of Barack Obama Articles containing video clips

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killing%20of%20Kathryn%20Johnston

Killing of Kathryn Johnston

Kathryn Johnston (June 26, 1914 – November 21, 2006) was an elderly Atlanta, Georgia, woman who was killed by undercover police officers in her home on Neal Street in northwest Atlanta on November 21, 2006, where she had lived for 17 years. Three officers had entered her home in what was later described as a 'botched' drug raid. Officers cut off burglar bars and broke down her door using a no-knock warrant. Police said Johnston fired at them and they fired in response; she fired one shot out the door over the officers' heads and they fired 39 shots, five or six of which hit her. None of the officers were injured by her gunfire, but Johnston was killed by the officers. Police injuries were later attributed to friendly fire from each other's weapons. One of the officers planted marijuana in Johnston's house after the shooting. Later investigations found that the paperwork stating that drugs were present at Johnston's house, which had been the basis for the raid, had been falsified. The officers later admitted to having lied when they submitted cocaine as evidence claiming that they had bought it at Johnston's house. Three officers were tried for manslaughter and other charges surrounding falsification, convicted, and sentenced to ten, six, and five years, respectively. Shooting The officers, dressed in plainclothes, approached the house at about seven in the evening. Officers Jason R. Smith, Gregg Junnier, and Arthur Tesler, who were wearing bulletproof vests and carrying riot shields when they entered the home, announced themselves after opening the door but before entering the house, according to police. Johnston fired a gun after police forced open the door. It was later determined that Johnston fired one shot from an old pistol and that none of the officers were hit by that bullet. The police officers fired a total of 39 shots, five or six of which hit Johnston. Police injuries sustained in the raid were from bullets not fired from Johnston's gun. The officers were hit in the arm, thigh, and shoulder respectively; they were treated at a hospital. Prosecutors later said that Smith handcuffed Johnston as she was dying. Johnston was pronounced dead at the scene. Prosecutors accused one of the officers of planting three bags of marijuana in the house as an attempted cover-up after no drugs were found in the house. Smith later admitted to having planted the drugs. They had been found in an unrelated case earlier that day. Prosecutors also accused Smith of calling Alex White (an informant) after the shooting and telling him to say he had bought crack cocaine at Johnston's house. According to court filings, before talking to the homicide detective, the three officers involved in the shooting got together to get their stories straight. Johnston lived alone and had lived in that house for about 17 years. Her house was in a crime-ridden neighborhood in west Atlanta. People in the neighborhood speculated that the police had the wrong person, but police denied that they had the wrong house. Neighbors and family said that Johnston kept a "rusty revolver" for self-defense; another elderly woman in her neighborhood had recently been raped, and drug dealing was common. In the year before her death, Johnston had installed extra locks and burglar bars. Warrant Around 2am, officer Smith stated that while alone in the woods he found a few small bags of marijuana and put in his patrol car. Later, when a search of a suspected drug dealer found no drugs, Smith planted the marijuana on the suspect and threatened to arrest him if he did not give them information leading to an arrest. The man later testified that he gave the police the Neal Street address and a fictitious name to ask for to purchase cocaine to avoid being arrested for the marijuana Smith planted. At 5pm, police contacted their informant, White to make a cocaine purchase at the address however he was unavailble. As justification for the no-knock warrant, the Atlanta Police Department initially claimed that the police were searching for drug dealers after a police informant was said to have bought crack at Johnston's home. However, the informant later denied having bought drugs at her house, and suspicion about the incident sparked a federal and state investigation. In the affidavit police used to obtain a search warrant for Johnston's house, Atlanta narcotics officers alleged their informant bought drugs inside Johnston's home earlier in the day from a man named "Sam", and that the home had video surveillance equipment justifying the no-knock warrant. In an interview with Atlanta television station WAGA a few days after Johnston's shooting, the informant denied having gone to her house and said that after the shooting, police pressured him to lie and say that he had. The informant denied that he had ever been to Johnston's house. According to WSB-TV in Atlanta, Detective Junnier subsequently told the Federal Bureau of Investigation that some of the information used to obtain the search warrant on Johnston's home was false. Several experts said that even if the warrant information had been entirely legitimate, the informant's word would not have been enough to legally justify the no-knock warrant. Trials On February 7, 2007, it was announced that the Fulton County District Attorney's office, under district attorney Paul L. Howard, Jr., would seek felony murder and burglary indictments against the three officers involved. The Rev. Markel Hutchins, acting as spokesman for Johnston's family, said her family members were "stunned and disappointed" by the announcement of the indictments because they believed it will disrupt a larger federal investigation of civil rights violations by the Atlanta Police Department. The federal probe into the police department revealed that Atlanta police routinely lied to obtain search warrants, including often falsifying affidavits. The police sergeant in charge of the narcotics unit also pleaded guilty to charges surrounding the shooting, and another officer admitted to extortion. Tesler's attorney, William McKenney, said that planting drugs and lying to obtain search warrants is routine in the police department. Pleas On October 30, 2008, Tesler pleaded guilty to federal charges of conspiracy to violate the civil rights of Johnston. All three ex-officers pleaded guilty to "conspiracy to violate civil rights resulting in death." Tesler, who had been stationed at the back of Johnston's house and had not fired during the raid, testified that Smith and Junnier had planned the cover-up and that he had participated in the cover-up out of fear that the other officers would frame him if he did not. Tesler testified that the other two officers had instructed him to memorize a story: that they had witnessed a drug sale to their informant at Johnston's property. Prosecutors said Tesler had passed up earlier opportunities to tell the truth but had begun telling the truth after federal investigators told him they knew he was lying. Smith and Junnier pleaded guilty to state charges of manslaughter, and federal civil rights charges. Smith and Junnier pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter and making false statements, which were state charges. Smith additionally pleaded guilty to perjury. Smith admitted that he had planted bags of marijuana in Johnston's house after the shooting. Sentences Tesler was convicted of making false statements and acquitted of two other charges: violating oath of a public officer and false imprisonment under color of legal process. In May 2008, Tesler was sentenced to four years and six months in prison for lying to investigators. He also received six months probation and must serve 450 hours of community service. On February 24, 2009, U.S. District Judge Julie E. Carnes sentenced former officer Gregg Junnier to six years in prison, Jason Smith to 10 years in prison and Arthur Tesler to five years in prison. Junnier and Tesler had faced recommended 10 years in prison under sentencing guidelines, while Smith faced 12 years and seven months. According to U.S. Attorney David Nahmias, the sentences of Junnier and Smith were reduced after they provided information to assist in the prosecutions of the other ex-officers. Carnes also ordered Smith, Junnier and Tesler to reimburse Johnston's estate the cost of her burial, $8,180. Aftermath Changes were made to the police department and to the narcotics unit following Johnston's death. The mayor also announced that APD training procedures would be reviewed and a new regulation would be instituted requiring APD officers to take drug tests. The shooting also brought under scrutiny the use of no-knock warrants, which exist to prevent drug offenders from having time to destroy evidence. After the shooting, the state senate voted to tighten restrictions, making it more difficult to obtain the warrants. The Atlanta Police Department was also forced to tighten its warrant requirements after an investigation sparked by the shooting. The police department also said it would review its use of confidential informants after the shooting. As a result of the shooting, the police chief placed Atlanta's eight-man narcotics team on administrative leave. A civilian review board was created in the aftermath of the shooting in the context of the public outrage that resulted. Eventually, the narcotics team was increased from eight to thirty officers, and all former members of the team were replaced. Allegations of widespread misconduct in the Atlanta Police Department came under state and federal investigation after Johnston's shooting. The US attorney announced that prosecutors would investigate a "culture of misconduct" within the APD, including common practices of making false statements to get warrants and submitting falsified documentation in drug cases. The DeKalb County district attorney announced on the day of Johnston's shooting that she would also ask for an investigation into 12 other fatal shootings by police since January 2006. The officers involved in the shooting testified that they had been under pressure to meet performance requirements of the APD, which led them to lie and falsify evidence, and that they had been inadequately trained. Police Chief Pennington denied the existence of quotas in the APD, but acknowledged the existence of "performance measures because if we don't have them, the officers would come in every day with nothing on their sheets." Other arrests by the discredited officers which led to convictions have come under review. The District Attorney for Fulton County announced that it was reviewing at least 100 cases in which the ex-officers had been involved earlier, as well as other cases with different officers who may have used similar tactics. In June 2007, one man who was serving prison time on drug charges based on testimony from Junnier and Smith was the first of these cases to be released from prison. Johnston's shooting, along with several others, brought police use of deadly force under increased scrutiny. A week after the shooting, over 200 people held a rally in Johnston's neighborhood to demand answers to questions surrounding the shooting. The shooting was highlighted by civil rights activists as an example of the police department's poor treatment of people living in low-income neighborhoods. In reference to this case, Gregory Jones, the Special Agent in Charge of the Atlanta FBI, said, "Few crimes are as reprehensible as those committed by police officers who violate the very laws they have sworn to uphold." In 2019, the Kathryn Johnston Memorial Park, named in honor of Johnston, was opened in English Avenue, near where Johnston had lived. Johnston's death inspired John Gordon, a businessman from the Buckhead community of Atlanta to found a nonprofit organization,Friends of English Avenue, which is dedicated to improve the quality of life of the residents through green-space development, public safety initiatives and mentoring programs in service of Johnston's legacy. As of 2019, both crime and the gap between the community and the police has been reduced with the city's initiative to have Atlanta Police officers live rent-free in homes in the area. Lawsuits One year after the shooting, Johnston's family sued the city of Atlanta, the police chief, and five other officers, accusing them of false imprisonment, civil rights violations, racketeering, and other violations. The suit claims that officers used unreasonable and deadly force and that Johnston's constitutional rights against unreasonable search and seizure were violated. A spokesperson for the family told the press that as part of the lawsuit the family might ask for the street on which Johnston had lived to be renamed to Kathryn Johnston street. Sarah Dozier, Johnston's niece, filed a motion asking a federal judge for sanctions against the city of Atlanta because she said it had withheld documents in a wrongful death lawsuit. Dozier's suit against the city had claimed that the incentives for the police to lie to obtain the warrant involved the quota system, which gives officers quotas for arrests and warrants. According to Dozier's motion, Lawyers for Johnston's family had asked the Atlanta Police Department for documents about the quotas before the trial began; the police chief had denied the existence of the quota system and the department indicated that there were no such documents. Dozier's motion claims that her lawyers obtained the documents another way and that APD officers had verified their authenticity during pretrial testimony. Alex White, the man the officers had used as their informant, also filed a lawsuit against Atlanta and police, claiming officers had held him against his will to pressure him to lie for the cover-up. In August 2010, Johnston's family was awarded $4.9 million in a settlement. Rev. Markel Hutchins, who according to pleadings filed, "served as the Estate/Family Spokesman; principal strategist and issue manager" during the pendency of the suit against the City of Atlanta, filed a lawsuit against Dozier in August 2011 in order to enforce a $490,000 consulting fee he claims he is owed for his efforts "that made the significant settlement possible." The lawsuit was settled in 2013 for an undisclosed amount with all parties agreeing to secrecy. In popular culture Ohio rappers Bone Thugs-n-Harmony featured audio footage from the scene of protests over the shooting in their song "My Street Blues". Shawn Mullins, a singer/songwriter from Atlanta, wrote and dedicated a song to Kathryn Johnston called "The Ballad of Kathryn Johnston" on his album Honeydew. Atlanta-based rapper Killer Mike referenced the killing in his 2008 song "Pressure", rapping: "If another old lady die in this city/swear to god we'll burn down the fuckin' city". He also cited again the incident alongside the Sean Bell shooting in his 2012 song "Anywhere But Here", rapping: "They raided a house, no drugs were ever found/But a black grandmother laid killed". California rapper Daz Dillinger of Tha Dogg Pound mentioned the shooting in their song "No Mo Police Brutality". David Banner, a rapper and producer from Mississippi, discusses the shooting in his song, "So Long." "Ms. Kathryn Johnston was murdered by police / In Northwest Atlanta, but I don't hear it in the streets." The full verse describes more details of the event. See also Obstruction of justice Police brutality Police corruption List of killings by law enforcement officers in the United States References 2006 deaths People from Atlanta Victims of police brutality No-knock warrant Deaths by firearm in Georgia (U.S. state) History of Atlanta Legal history of Georgia (U.S. state) Police brutality in the United States November 2006 crimes 2006 in Atlanta 2006 in Georgia (U.S. state) Crimes in Georgia (U.S. state) Atlanta Police Department

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killing%20of%20Julie%20Ward

Killing of Julie Ward

Julie Ward was a British woman who was killed whilst on safari in the Masai Mara game reserve in Kenya in September 1988. The subsequent investigation into her death was notable for the campaign by her father, John Ward; firstly to persuade the Kenyan authorities to recognise that his daughter was murdered, and secondly to try to identify the killer or killers. Three people were charged with her murder, although none have been convicted. Death Julie Ward was a publishing assistant and amateur wildlife photographer from Bury St Edmunds in England. At the beginning of September 1988 she had been in Africa for seven months photographing wildlife and was due to return to England in about a week. She was travelling to the Masai Mara game reserve with an Australian friend, Dr. Glen Burns. On 5 September 1988 the vehicle they were driving, a Suzuki jeep, broke down; Dr Burns returned to Nairobi while Ward spent the night alone at the Mara Serena lodge. On 6 September the vehicle was repaired and Ward left to drive to the nearby Sand River camp to recover some camping equipment. This was the last time she was seen alive. Ward was reported missing and her father John Ward flew to Kenya to find his daughter. He hired a plane to search the areas of the game reserve where his daughter was known to have camped alone. A pilot sighted the Suzuki Jeep in a gulley next to a river and Mr Ward went to investigate in person. Julie Ward's burned and dismembered body was found in the ashes of a fire by John Ward on 13 September. Investigation The original theory put forth by the Kenyan officials was that Ward had been eaten by lions and struck by lightning, however they later accepted that she was murdered after her father's efforts uncovered further evidence. The Kenyan coroner's report had been altered to disguise the fact that her bones had been cut by a sharp blade rather than gnawed by animals. A British pathologist found that Ward had been dismembered with a machete then doused in petrol and set alight. John Ward, a retired hotelier, spent nearly £2 million on the investigation and made over 100 visits to Kenya. He has accused the Kenyan government and former President Daniel arap Moi of trying to cover up Miss Ward's murder to prevent damage to the tourist industry. A former MI6 agent has admitted having a role in the case. Subsequent events In 1992, after the first of two trials, two junior park rangers were acquitted of her murder due to a lack of evidence. The presiding judge in the trial recommended the investigation of the head park ranger. In 1997, the case was re examined by a fresh team of Kenyan police. In July 1998, Simon Ole Makallah, who was the chief park warden at the time of the murder, was arrested following a two-year investigation. On 16 September 1999, Simon Ole Makallah was found not guilty at the second trial due to lack of evidence. In 2004, a British inquest, held at Ipswich, recorded a verdict of unlawful killing. In October 2009, the case was reopened after a secret visit, to Kenya, by John Yates, the head of the Metropolitan Police's anti-terrorism squad. In December 2009 Valentine Ohuru Kodipo, a key witness of the murder, died. Kodipo died in Denmark where he had lived in exile for more that 20 years. Ward's murder was so sensitive that Kodipo had fled Kenya following his testimony. In 2018, John Ward campaigned in the media for the authorities in Kenya to obtain a DNA sample from the person he suspected of the crime. See also List of unsolved murders References Further reading Musila, Grace A. A Death Retold in Truth and Rumour - Kenya, Britain and the Julie Ward Murder. Boydell & Brewer. Ward, John. The Animals Are Innocent – The Search for Julie's Killers (Headline 1991). 1980s murders in Kenya 1988 crimes in Kenya 1988 murders in Africa Female murder victims Tourism in Kenya Unsolved murders in Kenya Year of birth missing

8409020

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killing%20of%20Rachel%20Nickell

Killing of Rachel Nickell

Rachel Jane Nickell (23 November 1968 – 15 July 1992) was a British woman who was stabbed to death on Wimbledon Common in south-west London on 15 July 1992. The initial police investigation of the crime resulted in the arrest in controversial circumstances of an innocent man, who was acquitted. Her killer, Robert Napper, was identified by a later police investigation and convicted in 2008. Nickell was walking with her two-year-old son on Wimbledon Common when she was stabbed multiple times and died at the scene. A lengthy police investigation to find the perpetrator followed, during which a suspect was wrongfully charged and later acquitted – before the case went cold. In 2002, with more advanced forensic techniques, the case was reopened. On 18 December 2008, Robert Napper pleaded guilty to Nickell's manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility. Napper, who was already detained at Broadmoor High Security Hospital in Berkshire for a 1993 double murder, was ordered to be detained there indefinitely. Killing At the time of her death, Nickell was living near Wimbledon Common with partner André Hanscombe and their two-year-old son, Alexander Louis. Nickell was 23 years old at the time of her death. On the morning of 15 July 1992, she and Alexander were walking their dog on Wimbledon Common. Whilst passing through a secluded area of the common, Nickell was attacked. An assailant killed her by repeatedly stabbing and slashing her with a knife, then sexually assaulted her. The assailant fled the scene, leaving Alex physically unharmed in the vicinity. A passer-by found Alex clinging to his mother's body repeating the words "Wake up, Mummy". In a television interview on 7 September 2021 with Lorraine Kelly, discussing the documentary Death on the Common: My Mother’s Murder, Alex Hanscombe said after his mother had been attacked, he said to her three times "wake up Mummy" before realising she was "gone" and not playing. He then walked into a clearing on the common, where people saw that he was covered in blood and therefore discovered his mother's body. Investigation Officers of the Metropolitan Police undertook the investigation, under pressure to find the perpetrator by press coverage and public outrage at the circumstances of the homicide. Thirty-two men were questioned in connection with the killing; the investigation quickly targeted Colin Stagg, a man from Roehampton who was known to walk his dog on the Common. As there was no forensic evidence linking him to the scene, the police asked Paul Britton, a criminal psychologist, to create an offender profile of the killer. They decided that he fitted the profile and asked the psychologist to assist with designing a covert operation, code-named Operation Edzell, to see whether he would eliminate or implicate himself. This operation was later criticised by the media and the trial judge as effectively a "honeytrap". Operation Edzell An undercover policewoman from the Metropolitan Police Special Operations Group (SO10) contacted Stagg, posing as a friend of a woman with whom he used to be in contact via a lonely hearts' column. Over five months, she attempted to obtain information from him by feigning a romantic interest, meeting him, speaking to him on the telephone and exchanging letters containing sexual fantasies. During a meeting in Hyde Park, they spoke about the Nickell homicide, but he later claimed that he had only played along with the topic because he wanted to pursue the romance. Profiler Paul Britton later said that he disagreed with use of the fantasy-filled letters and knew nothing of them until after they had been sent. The undercover female police officer won his confidence and drew out fantasies from him that psychologist Paul Britton interpreted as "violent", but he did not admit to the killing. Police released a taped conversation between the police-officer and him in which she claimed to enjoy hurting people, to which he mumbled: "Please explain, as I live a quiet life. If I have disappointed you, please don't dump me. Nothing like this has happened to me before". When she went on to say, "If only you had done the Wimbledon Common murder, if only you had killed her, it would be all right", he replied: "I'm terribly sorry, but I haven't". Trial When the case reached the Old Bailey, Mr Justice Ognall ruled that the police had shown "excessive zeal” and had tried to incriminate Stagg by “deceptive conduct of the grossest kind". He excluded the entrapment evidence and the prosecution withdrew its case. The judge threw the case out and Stagg was acquitted in September 1994. Keith Pedder, the case's lead detective, received heavy public criticism. Even after Stagg was, rightfully as it turned out, cleared of the murder of Nickell, Pedder continued in subsequent years to wrongfully promote his theory that Stagg was guilty, telling an ITV Real Crime documentary in 2001: After Stagg's acquittal, Pedder took early retirement from the police and later faced corruption charges, although these were subsequently thrown out by the judge in the pre-trial hearing on the grounds of insufficient evidence. Reinvestigation and conviction Cold case review Every year on the anniversary of the killing Scotland Yard came under pressure for progress. Under new management, they began to collate evidence and files related to the case from 2000. In 2002, ten years after the killing, Scotland Yard used a cold case review team, which used refined DNA techniques only recently made available. A small team of officers and retired veteran investigators analysed statements from witnesses, reassessed files on a number of potential suspects and examined the possibility that the case was linked to other crimes. Officers compared the injuries suffered by Nickell with other attacks and consulted forensic scientists about improvements in DNA matching. In July 2003, reports surfaced that, after 18 months of tests on Nickell's clothes, police had found a male DNA sample which did not match her boyfriend or son. The sample at the time was insufficient to confirm an identity, but was large enough to rule out suspects. Robert Napper In July 2006, the Scotland Yard team interviewed convicted murderer Robert Napper for two days at Broadmoor. Napper, 40 years of age at that time, had been diagnosed as having paranoid schizophrenia and Asperger syndrome and had been held at the secure institution for more than ten years. He had been convicted of the murder of Samantha Bisset and her four-year-old daughter Jazmine in November 1993, 16 months after Nickell's homicide. On 28 November 2007, Napper was charged with Nickell's murder. He appeared at City of Westminster Magistrates' Court on 4 December 2007, where he was granted bail on condition he remained at Broadmoor psychiatric hospital until another hearing on 20 December 2007. On 24 January 2008, he pleaded not guilty to Nickell's murder and the trial started on 11 November 2008. On 18 December 2008, at the Old Bailey, Napper pleaded guilty to the manslaughter of Rachel Nickell on the grounds of diminished responsibility. Mr Justice Griffith Williams said that Napper would be detained indefinitely at Broadmoor because he was "a very dangerous man". It is unlikely he will ever be released. At the same time, Stagg received a public apology from the Metropolitan Police for their previous involvement and prosecution of him in regard to the Nickell murder investigation. Aftermath An internal review estimated that the pursuit had cost the public £3 million and that vital scientific information had been missed. Stagg sued the police for damages totalling £1 million following the 14 months he spent in custody. He has co-written and published two books about the case, Who Really Killed Rachel? (with novelist David Kessler) and more recently, Pariah (with journalist Ted Hynds), the latter being published on the same day as the real culprit's appearance in court to enter a plea. The undercover female police officer involved in the attempt to obtain evidence in the original investigation by befriending him, resigned from the Metropolitan Police force in 1998, taking early retirement. With the support of the Police Federation she too sued the Metropolitan Police for damages arising from the investigation. In 2001, shortly before it was due to be heard, her case was settled out of court and she received £125,000. Her solicitor said: "The willingness of the Metropolitan Police to pay substantial damages must indicate their recognition that she sustained serious psychiatric injury". The payout was widely criticised by various sources, particularly as Nickell's son had been granted £22,000 (less than a fifth of the amount paid to the undercover detective) from the Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority. The criminal psychologist involved with the investigation was charged with professional misconduct by the British Psychological Society, but in 2002, in lieu of any substantive hearings, further action was dismissed due to the time delay in bringing proceedings. André Hanscombe later wrote a book titled The Last Thursday in July, about his life with Nickell, coping with the homicide and life with their son afterwards. In 1996, he moved with their child to France, driven abroad, according to notes in his book, by media intrusion. He was strongly critical of some of the reporters who tracked him and his son down to his "sanctuary" in the French countryside. In January 2007, the Home Office confirmed that Stagg would receive compensation for wrongful prosecution, with the amount to be set by an independent assessor. On 13 August 2008, it was announced that the compensation was £706,000. IPCC findings Following an investigation, the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) released a report, dated 3 June 2010, into the actions of the Metropolitan Police Force and their handling of the murder investigation. It described a "catalogue of bad decisions and errors" by the Metropolitan Police which had resulted in Napper being free to kill Nickell. It said that officers missed a series of opportunities to take him off the streets and suggested the lives of Samantha Bisset and her four-year-old daughter Jazmine would also have been saved if police had acted on tip-offs, including one by Napper's mother. Rachel Cerfontyne, of the IPCC, said that police failed to investigate the 1989 report that he attacked a woman on Plumstead Common, in London and no record of the telephone call can be found. She said: "It is clear that throughout the investigations into the 'Green Chain' rapes and Rachel Nickell's death there was a catalogue of bad decisions and errors made by the Metropolitan Police. The police failed to sufficiently investigate after Napper's mother called police to report that he had confessed to her that he had raped a woman and, inconceivably, they eliminated Napper from inquiries into the Green Chain rapes because he was over 6ft tall. Without these errors, Robert Napper could have been off the streets before he killed Rachel Nickell and the Bissets, and before numerous women suffered violent sexual attacks at his hands". Detectives had decided to exclude anyone over 6' based on the description of a 5' 7" rapist; however, there were conflicting witness reports of the rapist's height and Napper walked with a stoop. The IPCC said no police officer would face disciplinary action because they had all retired and one key senior detective had died. Criminal prosecutions were not considered. References Further reading Laurence J. Alison, Marie Eyre: Killer in the Shadows: The Monstrous Crimes of Robert Napper. Pennant Books 2009, . Kevin Brewer: Psychology and Crime. Heinemann Educational Publishers 2000, . Paul Britton: The Jigsaw Man. Corgi Books 1998, . Colin Evans: A Question of Evidence: The Casebook of Great Forensic Controversies, from Napoleon to O.J. Wiley 2002, . Mike Fielder: The Murder of Rachel Nickell. John Blake 2000, . Alex Handscombe: Letting Go: A true story of murder, loss and survival by Rachel Nickell's son. Harper Element 2017, . André Handscombe: The Last Thursday in July. Century 1996 / Arrow 1997, . David Kessler: Rachel Nickell, House of Solomon Ltd, 2001, . Keith Pedder: The Rachel Files, John Blake 2002, . Keith Pedder: Murder on the Common: The Secret Story of the Murder That Shocked a Nation. John Blake 2003, . Colin Stagg, David Kessler: Who Really Killed Rachel? Greenzone Publishing 1999, . Colin Stagg, David Kessler: The Lizzie James Conspiracy. House of Solomon 2001, . Colin Stagg, Ted Hynds: Pariah: Colin Stagg. Pennant Publishing 2007, . Brent E. Turvey: Criminal Profiling: An Introduction to Behavioral Evidence Analysis Academic Press 2002, . External links The Rachel Nickell Case 1992 crimes in the United Kingdom 1992 in London 1990s crimes in London Deaths by stabbing in London Deaths by person in London History of mental health in the United Kingdom History of the London Borough of Merton Incidents of violence against women July 1992 crimes July 1992 events in the United Kingdom Manslaughter in London Violence against women in England Wimbledon, London

9982139

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killing%20of%20David%20Wilkie

Killing of David Wilkie

David James Wilkie (9 July 1949 – 30 November 1984) was a Welsh taxi driver who was killed during the miners' strike in the United Kingdom, when two striking miners dropped a concrete block from a footbridge onto his taxi whilst he was driving a strike-breaking miner to work. The attack caused a widespread revulsion at the extent of violence in the dispute. The two miners were convicted of murder but the charge was reduced to manslaughter on appeal, becoming a leading case on the issue of the difference between the two offences. Background Wilkie was working in Treforest, Mid Glamorgan as a taxi driver, driving a Ford Cortina for City Centre Cars, based in Bute Street, Cardiff. He was regularly engaged in driving non-striking miners to work, as the bitter industrial dispute had made them targets for physical retaliation by those miners who were on strike. The Merthyr Tydfil area was said to be the strongest in support of the strike of any mining area in Britain; it is situated in South Wales, where a large percentage of Britain's remaining coalmines were situated. There had not been much mass picketing in South Wales during the conflict, as there had been in many parts of England, because there had been so few strikebreakers. Killing On 30 November 1984, Wilkie's fare was David Williams, who lived in Rhymney and worked at the Merthyr Vale mine, six miles away. Wilkie was driving the same route as he had done for the previous ten days. He was accompanied by two police cars and a motorcycle outrider, and had just turned on to the A465 road north of Rhymney at the Rhymney Bridge roundabout, when two striking miners dropped a concrete block from a bridge 27 feet over the road. Wilkie died at the scene from multiple injuries; Williams escaped with minor injuries. Reaction The incident led to a decrease in public support for the striking miners, and to an increase in the number of workers in other industries who crossed miners' picket lines (e.g. at power plants). Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher said, "My reaction is one of anger at what this had done to a family of a person only doing his duty and taking someone to work who wanted to go to work." Kim Howells, speaking for the South Wales National Union of Mineworkers, blamed the attack on the attempts to persuade miners to return to work. Arthur Scargill said he had been "deeply shocked by the tragedy" of Wilkie's death. Labour Party leader Neil Kinnock was scheduled to appear at a Labour Party rally alongside Scargill in Stoke-on-Trent on the day of the tragedy. Kinnock's speech developed into an argument with some hecklers who saw him as having betrayed the NUM by failing to support the strike. Kinnock began by saying, "We meet here tonight in the shadow of an outrage." When interrupted, Kinnock accused the hecklers of "living like parasites off the struggle of the miners." As Kinnock went on to denounce the lack of the ballot, the violence against strikebreakers and the tactical approach of Scargill, he was asked by hecklers what he had done for the striking miners. Kinnock shouted back, "Well, I was not telling them lies. That's what I was not doing during that period." This was a thinly-veiled attack on Scargill, whom he later admitted that he detested. Wilkie lived with his fiancée Janice Reed, who was the mother of his two-year-old daughter and was pregnant with a baby who was born six weeks later. He also had a 12-year-old daughter and a five-year-old son by a previous partner. Funds were opened to help the family; among the donors was philanthropist Paul Getty. The Bishop of Llandaff led Wilkie's funeral service; he called for "some sort of moratorium" and a return to work by the miners in return for an impartial board to investigate conditions in the coal industry. Murder trial The two men who caused Wilkie's death, Dean Hancock and Russell Shankland, were found guilty of murder by a majority verdict on 16 May 1985 (by which time the strike had ended) and sentenced to life imprisonment. A third man, Anthony Williams, who had been present on the bridge but was found to have actively discouraged them from dropping the concrete block, was acquitted. The life sentences caused an outcry among the striking miners, who felt that the death of Wilkie was not a deliberate act; the strike had ended by the time the verdict was brought in, but 700 miners at Merthyr Vale walked out on hearing the news. Russell Shankland's solicitor was critical of Scargill's attitude. He referred to the strike as "a war" and said with regards to Scargill, "In that war there were generals, and they stood outside the law and they left Russell Shankland outside the law." On appeal, their convictions were reduced to manslaughter, and their life sentences were replaced with eight-year prison terms, of which they would serve just over half. The Lord Chief Justice, Lord Lane, explained that the crime would be murder if the death was a "natural consequence" of the miners' actions, but the legal phrase "natural consequence" was potentially misleading without further explanation. The appeal verdict of guilty to manslaughter was upheld in the House of Lords, in the case R v Hancock. Hancock and Shankland were released on 30 November 1989, which was coincidentally the fifth anniversary of Wilkie's death. Aftermath Kim Howells, the South Wales NUM official who commented on the killing of David Wilkie, later became a Member of Parliament for the Labour Party and served as a minister in the Blair government and later became chair of the Intelligence and Security Committee, a committee of parliamentarians that oversees the work of Britain's intelligence and security agencies. In 2004 he said that when he heard that a taxi driver had been killed, he thought "hang on, we've got all those records we've kept over in the NUM offices, there's all those maps on the wall, we're gonna get implicated in this". He then destroyed "everything", because he feared a police raid on the union offices. The killing is referenced in the Roger Waters songs, "Who Needs Information" and "Me or Him", on his 1987 Radio K.A.O.S. album. References 1984 crimes in the United Kingdom 1984 in Wales British manslaughter victims Coal in Wales Crime in Wales Deaths by person in the United Kingdom Miners' labor disputes Protest-related deaths Union violence UK miners' strike (1984–1985) Deaths by rocks thrown at cars November 1984 events in the United Kingdom British criminal case law 1984 in case law

12530342

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killing%20of%20Guin%20Richie%20Phillips

Killing of Guin Richie Phillips

Guin "Richie" Phillips (1967 – June 17, 2003) was a 36-year-old gay man in Elizabethtown, Kentucky. Phillips disappeared on June 17, 2003. His body was found on June 25, 2003, in a suitcase in Rough River Lake. Background On June 17, 2003, Phillips was seen having lunch at a restaurant in Elizabethtown, Kentucky, with a friend later identified by investigators as 21-year-old Joshua Cottrell. Several days later, his truck and other belongings were found abandoned in southern Indiana. A witness later told police she saw Phillips and Cottrell together in Phillips's truck the same day. That was the last time Phillips was seen alive. Phillips's mother – Marge Phillips – reported her son missing and told police she feared he had been harmed because he was gay. Discovery and arrest On Wednesday, June 25, 2003, two fishermen pulled a suitcase out of Rough River Lake, unzipped it and found Phillips's body inside. Phillips was identified by personal items found with the body and a Wildcat tattoo on the shoulder. On Friday, June 27, 2003, Cottrell, an acquaintance of Phillips's, was arrested and charged with Phillips's murder. Prosecutors announced that they would seek the death penalty in the case. Trial and testimony Cottrell was arraigned on June 28, 2005, at the Breckinridge County Courthouse, where he pleaded not guilty to charges of murdering Phillips. He was then held on $500,000 bond. In October 2003 Cottrell's trial was moved to Hardin County based on forensic evidence that showed Phillips was most likely killed in Cottrell's Elizabethtown hotel room. The change in jurisdiction delayed the start of the trial. A canceled check introduced into evidence showed that Cottrell purchased the suitcase six days before the murder. Drops of Phillips' blood were found on the bathroom tiles in the hotel. Cottrell's DNA was also found on a cigarette in Phillips' truck. Previously, investigators were unsure whether Phillips had been killed at Rough River Lake, where his body was found, or elsewhere. In May 2004, the trial was further delayed when Judge Henry Bland ordered a continuance after Cottrell's defense attorney filed new discovery documents. The trial got under way in January 2005, at the Hardin County courthouse. Friend and family testify Rob Dewitt, a friend who introduced Phillips to Cottrell three years earlier said that Cottrell bought a set of luggage at the Elizabethtown J. C. Penney. Cottrell told Dewitt that he was planning to travel. Dewitt testified in court that he told Cottrell that Phillips was attracted to him, and that Cottrell said he would "cold-cock" Phillips if he ever made a pass at him. Dewitt also testified that he had never seen Phillips act in an aggressive manner. Cottrell's aunt – Wendy McAnly – testified that Cottrell confessed to the crime more than a week earlier, but his family didn't believe him. Cottrell's aunt and cousin testified that he had planned to kill Phillips because he was gay, and had lured Phillips into his hotel room where he hit and strangled him. McAnly said that Cottrell invited Phillips to his Elizabethtown motel room. When Phillips arrived, Cottrell asked if Phillips liked him without his shirt, and when Phillips said yes and touched him, Cottrell put him in a headlock and choked him. Cottrell's cousin – Tara Gaddie – testified that Cottrell arrived at her home in Phillips' truck after disposing of his body in Rough River Lake, and answered "He's gone. He's dead," when she asked him what he'd done. Gaddie also said she never heard Cottrell talk about strangling Phillips or use derogatory terms to describe him. Cottrell's testimony In court, Cottrell testified that after he drove Phillips around Elizabethtown looking for a job, Phillips came into his motel room uninvited, tried to kiss him, and attempted to force him into oral sex. Cottrell then put Phillips in a headlock, pulled him to the floor and "started hitting him as hard as I could, as many times as I could." When he realized Phillips was dead, Cottrell says he panicked and put his body into the suitcase, which he said in court he'd brought to haul his belongings as he drifted between motel rooms and friends' houses. "Gay panic defense" Cottrell's defense attorney employed what is called a gay panic defense, arguing that Phillips's own actions "led to a chain of events that caused his death, " and that Cottrell was within his rights under Kentucky law to fight back to protect himself from being raped, including use of deadly force if necessary. "But what set it all in motion, he was privileged to do," Drabenstadt said. "What set it in motion were the actions of a 36-year-old man." Drabestadt may have been referring to a Kentucky "stand-your-ground" law permitting people to use deadly force to protect themselves against death, serious physical injury, kidnapping, and forced sexual intercourse. In February 2001, Kentucky Representative Bob Damron sponsored a bill that would have added "deviant sexual intercourse" to the existing law. The Kentucky House Judiciary Committee amended the measure to replace "deviant sexual intercourse" with "forced sodomy," and clarify its definitions of "force," "threat," and "attempt." Prosecuting attorney Chris Shaw argued in closing that Cottrell lured Phillips to his room in order to kill him, and then attempted to cover it up in a cold, calculated manner. Shaw added that Phillips's sexual orientation was immaterial in the case, except for Cottrell's "steaming anger" toward gay men. Shaw said that if Phillips made sexual advances Cottrell should have walked away. Verdict and sentencing After deliberating for nine hours, the jury returned with its verdict. The jury had the option of finding Cottrell guilty of murder, reckless homicide, or manslaughter. The jury rejected the murder charge and instead found Cottrell guilty of second degree manslaughter, theft by taking of more than 300 dollars, and tampering with physical evidence. Cottrell was sentenced on March 1, 2005. The jury recommended Cottrell be sentenced to 30 years; 20 for manslaughter, and another ten for theft and tampering with evidence. However, state law limited the judge to sentencing Cottrell to a maximum of 20 years. In Kentucky, committing a crime against someone because of the victim's sexual orientation is considered a hate crime. At sentencing, a judge may deny probation or parole if it is determined that the victim's race, color, national origin, sexual orientation, or religion was a "primary factor" in committing the offense. The prosecution in Cottrell's case did not pursue hate crime charges against him. Neither the defense nor the victim's family had immediate comment on the verdict or sentencing. One month later Greg Phillips, the victim's brother, told The Advocate, "I think they were looking at my brother being a homosexual when they made their decision to pick the lesser charge." Cottrell was eligible for parole in July, 2007—2½ years after his conviction. See also Violence against LGBT people References External links Richie Phillips Memorial Page 1967 births 2003 deaths American murder victims American victims of anti-LGBT hate crimes People murdered in Kentucky Deaths by strangulation in the United States Violence against gay men Violence against men in North America 2003 murders in the United States 20th-century LGBT people

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killing%20of%20Robert%20Dzieka%C5%84ski

Killing of Robert Dziekański

On October 14, 2007, Robert Dziekański ()—a Polish immigrant to Canada—was killed during an arrest at the Vancouver International Airport in Richmond, British Columbia. During customs processing, Dziekański began showing frustration and agitation towards airport staff. When members of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) encountered him in the International Reception Lounge at the airport, they pinned, handcuffed and used a Taser electroshock weapon on Dziekański multiple times—with accounts suggesting the weapon was used four or five times. Dziekański died at the scene from a heart attack induced by the electrical shocks. Video of the incident was recorded by an eyewitness, Paul Pritchard. The police initially took possession of the memory card containing the video as evidence, stating it would compromise the investigation if it were released to the public at that time. However, the following month, Pritchard was able to re-obtain the video, and sold it to the press—which brought additional prominence to the case. The final inquiry report, released on June 18, 2010, concluded that the RCMP were not justified in using a taser against Dziekański, and that the officers later deliberately misrepresented their actions to investigators. Incident Robert Dziekański was a construction worker by trade, but had also worked as a miner. He was in the process of emigrating from Gliwice, Poland, to live with his mother, Zofia Cisowski, in Kamloops, British Columbia. Dziekański's flight was two hours late, and arrived at about 3:15 pm on October 13, 2007. According to official sources, Dziekański required language support to complete initial customs formalities. After he completed initial immigration processing, his whereabouts between 4:00 p.m. and about 10:45 p.m. remain unclear, though at various points he was seen around the baggage carousels. Dziekański's mother, Zofia Cisowski, had told him to wait for her at the baggage claim area, but this was a secured area where she was not allowed to enter. At 10:45 p.m., when he attempted to leave the Customs hall, he was directed again to secondary immigration as the final processes of his new immigrant papers had not yet been processed. Dziekański's immigration procedures were completed at about 12:15 a.m. on October 14. After 30 minutes in an immigration waiting area, he was taken to the international arrivals reception area. Cisowski had been making enquiries of airport staff since the early afternoon. Airport staff told her Dziekański was not at the airport and she had returned to Kamloops at about 10 p.m., believing her son had missed his flight. When Dziekański left the Customs hall, he became visibly agitated. Bystanders and airport security guards were unable to communicate with him because he did not speak English. He used chairs to prop open the one-way doors between a Customs clearing area and a public lounge and at one point threw a computer and a small table to the floor before the police arrived. Four RCMP officers, Constables Gerry Rundel, Bill Bentley, Kwesi Millington, and supervisor Corporal Benjamin Robinson, arrived and entered the Customs room where Dziekański was pacing about. They apparently directed him to stand near a counter, to which Dziekański complied but then he picked up a stapler sometime after being told to place his hands on a counter. Shortly thereafter, about 25 seconds after arriving at the scene, Corporal Robinson ordered the Taser to be used. Constable Millington tasered Dziekański. He began to convulse and was tasered several more times after falling to the ground, where the four officers pinned, handcuffed, and continued to taser him. One eyewitness, who recorded the incident on her cellphone, told CBC News that Dziekański had been tasered four times. "The third and fourth ones were at the same time" delivered by the officers at Dziekański's right and left, just before Dziekański fell. According to B.C. Crown counsel spokesman Stan Lowe, Dziekański was tasered a total of five times. Constable Millington testified that he deployed the Taser four times, but he believed that in some of those instances the probes may not have contacted Dziekański's body. Dziekański writhed and screamed before he stopped moving. Cpl. Benjamin (Monty) Robinson stated he then checked for a pulse, but his heart had stopped. Testimony from the other RCMP officers state they never saw anyone including Robinson check for a pulse. Dziekański did not receive CPR until paramedics arrived on the scene approximately 15 minutes later. Paramedics attempted resuscitation for 20 minutes, however they were unable to revive him and he was pronounced dead at the scene. In 2013, the BC Coroners Service ruled the death to be a homicide, citing a heart attack caused by the repeated jolts. Controversy Video The entire event was recorded by Paul Pritchard, another traveler who was at the airport. Pritchard handed his camera and the video to police who told him that they would return the video within 48 hours. Instead, they returned the camera with a new memory card and kept the original with the video, saying they needed it to preserve the integrity of the investigation. They claimed witness statements would be tainted if they viewed the video evidence before being interviewed by police. Pritchard went to court to obtain the video, which he then released to the media on November 14, 2007; three television outlets paid fees to Pritchard for the right to broadcast the video. After the video was made available, an RCMP spokesperson cautioned the public to reserve judgment about the police because the video represented "just one small piece of evidence, one person's view." Before the video was released, the RCMP repeatedly claimed that only three officers were at the scene. There were actually four. The RCMP also said that they did not use pepper spray because of the risk it would have posed to bystanders. The video, however, suggested the incident occurred in an area separated from bystanders by a glass wall. The incident occurred inside the international arrivals area, which is separated by glass. Those waiting to greet arriving international passengers could view the area from the waiting lounge on the other side of the glass. An RCMP spokesperson stated that batons were not used, which was contradicted by the video. Criticism of the RCMP The RCMP officers involved in the Dziekański death, Constables Gerry Rundel, Bill Bentley, Kwesi Millington, and supervisor Corporal Benjamin Robinson, have been widely criticized for their handling of the incident. A retired Vancouver Police superintendent commented after viewing the video that Dziekański did not appear to be making "any threatening gestures" towards the police and he did not see why it became a police incident. Particularly contentious is that the RCMP officers made no attempt to defuse or gain control of the situation before resorting to the Taser. In August 2007, before Dziekański's death, RCMP changed its protocol on Taser use, suggesting that multiple Taser shocks may be appropriate under certain circumstances. The RCMP's handling of the incident led to charges that they misrepresented the facts. The BC Civil Liberties Association filed a complaint in 2007 arguing that the evidence shows that the Taser was not used as a last resort and condemning the RCMP for its attempt to suppress the video and for casting aspersions on the character of Dziekański. An RCMP spokesman, Sgt. Pierre Lemaitre, was heavily criticized for providing a false version of events prior to the public release of the video. He stated that Dziekański "continued to throw things around and yell and scream", after the arrival of the police officers, which was later revealed by the video to be false. Sgt. Lemaitre committed suicide in 2013 due to his involvement in the case, according to his wife, who alleged he was made a pariah and demoted by the RCMP. His wife said Lemaitre was merely providing the facts he was given, and was prevented from correcting his public statements after he found out the truth. On December 12, 2008, the Criminal Justice Branch of British Columbia issued a statement, finding that although the RCMP officers' efforts to restrain Dziekański were a contributing cause of his death, the force they used to subdue and restrain him was reasonable and necessary in all circumstances; thus there would not be a substantial likelihood of conviction of the officers in connection with the incident and accordingly criminal charges were not approved. Three of the officers remained on duty elsewhere in Canada, while the supervisor, Corporal Benjamin "Monty" Robinson, resigned from the force on July 20, 2012, prior to a sentencing hearing after being found guilty of obstruction of justice stemming from a vehicle collision that resulted in the death of a 21-year-old Vancouver man. The officers have been subject to criticism, both in the media and in formal proceedings before the Braidwood Commission of Inquiry. The officers were served notices of misconduct by the commission forewarning them the commissioner may include a finding of misconduct in its final report. The warnings allege specific but overlapping grounds for each of the four. The collective allegations are that they failed to properly assess and respond to the circumstances in which they found Mr. Dziekański. They repeatedly deployed the taser without justification and separately failed to adequately reassess the situation before further deploying it. The notices allege that afterwards they misrepresented facts in notes and statements, furthered the misrepresenting before the commission and provided further misleading information about other evidence before the commission. The four officers each sought judicial review to prevent the commission from making findings based on the notices. The petitions were dismissed. Three of the officers appealed and lost. In July 2013 one of the three officers was cleared of perjury. The remaining two officers stood trial in 2014. On February 20, 2015, Constable Kwesi Millington, the RCMP officer who fired the Taser on the night Robert Dziekański died eight years previously, was found guilty of perjury and colluding with his fellow officers before testifying at the inquiry into Dziekański's death, and on June 22, 2015, was sentenced to 30 months in prison. Taser debate The incident has revived debate concerning police use of Tasers. This was the 16th death following the police use of Tasers in Canada since 2003 and civil liberties groups have called for a moratorium on Tasers until training and procedures can be developed and implemented to minimize the risks. The human rights group Amnesty International repeated its call for Taser use to be suspended until an independent investigation into the medical and other effects has taken place. Meanwhile, Canada's seventeenth Taser-related death occurred less than a week later when Quilem Registre died after being tasered by police in Montreal. The police and the manufacturer have claimed that such deaths are the result of pre-existing medical conditions, not the electrical shock of the Taser. In the Vancouver case, police have suggested that Dziekański died from a condition described as “excited delirium.” A statement from TASER International, the company that makes the weapon, asserts that Dziekański's death "appears to follow the pattern of many in-custody deaths following a confrontation with the police. Historically, medical science and forensic analysis has shown that these deaths are attributable to other factors and not the low-energy electrical discharge of the Taser." Critics, however, point out that "excited delirium" is not recognized in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders and claim that police overuse such so-called conditions as a matter of convenience. While many psychologists argue that excited delirium is indeed a bona fide but rare condition that can cause sudden death, experts say that delirium (without the "excited" modifier) is a well-known condition, but that it is usually triggered by factors such as drugs or a pronounced mental or physical illness and that it is extremely rare for those afflicted to suddenly die. Toxicology tests found no drugs or alcohol in Dziekański's system. An autopsy for the British Columbia Coroner's Service did not determine the cause of death, citing no trauma or disease, but noted that Dziekański had signs of chronic alcohol abuse such as atrophy of a portion of the brain, cardiomyopathy and fatty liver. The report by forensic pathologist Charles Lee, of Vancouver General Hospital, listed the principal cause of death as "sudden death during restraint", with a contributory factor of "chronic alcoholism". Criticism of airport The airport has also been criticized over the incident, particularly regarding security cameras that were not functioning, no translation services available for communicating with non-English speakers, the airport supervisor's failure to call the airport's own paramedics resulting in a twelve-minute wait for city paramedics to arrive, and for staff not helping Dziekański's mother find her son. Airport security has been roundly criticized for not assisting Dziekański during his many hours in the airport. Once he became agitated, security guards made little attempt to communicate with him or defuse the situation. The Canada Border Services Agency reported it is reviewing its procedures at airports. Political reaction The incident has had significant coverage in Poland. The Polish consul general demanded answers about Dziekański's death. Piotr Ogrodziński, the Polish ambassador in Ottawa, stated: "The video does not give us a clear recording of what he was shouting but what I have heard in Polish is the beginning … Pol, which could be either policja — in other words calling for police — or pomocy, which in Polish means help". Canada's ambassador in Poland was invited to discuss the incident with officials in Warsaw, and one Polish official stated in the weeks after the incident that "we want the matter clarified and we want those guilty named and punished." On December 12, 2008, the Polish embassy in Ottawa issued a statement stating that the Crown's decision not to charge the RCMP officers was "most disappointing". In February 2009, it was reported that Canada had unilaterally suspended its mutual legal assistance treaty with Poland, thus blocking Poland's own investigation of the Dziekański Taser incident. Canada's Public Safety Minister, Stockwell Day, said that he has asked the RCMP for a review on Taser use and that a report is being prepared, and pointed out that several investigations of the incident are already underway. Liberal Public Safety Critic Ujjal Dosanjh said that what was needed was an independent body to conduct a national and public review of the issue, which would lead to national guidelines for Taser use by law enforcement officers. BC NDP Public Safety Critic and Port Coquitlam MLA Mike Farnworth called for a special prosecutor to be appointed to investigate the incident, citing concerns of police investigating themselves. Law enforcement response The response from law enforcement has been mixed. Law enforcement professionals have featured prominently in the media criticizing the RCMP's handling of the situation and the aftermath. The Ottawa Police, the first Ontario police force to adopt the Taser, held a Taser demonstration for reporters to illustrate their safety. Both the Toronto Police and the Royal Newfoundland Constabulary, meanwhile, have put large orders of Tasers for their front-line officers on hold. Investigation Braidwood Inquiry The Braidwood Inquiry was established by the Provincial Government of British Columbia and headed by retired Court of Appeal of British Columbia and Court of Appeal of the Yukon Territory Justice Thomas R. Braidwood to "inquire into and report on the use of conducted energy weapons" and to "inquire into and report on the death of Mr. Dziekanski." After two delays, the Braidwood Commission began proceedings on January 19, 2009, investigating the circumstances surrounding Dziekański's death. Commission counsel Art Vertlieb said that the involved RCMP officers, Constable Millington, Constable Bentley, Constable Rundel, and Corporal Robinson, will be summoned to appear before the inquiry and could face findings of misconduct. Constable Gerry Rundel and Constable Bill Bentley testified at the Inquiry the week of February 23, 2009, and Constable Kwesi Millington testified there the following week. The fourth and commanding RCMP officer, Corporal Benjamin Robinson, testified beginning March 23, 2009. The final inquiry report on the death of Robert Dziekański has concluded the RCMP were not justified in using the Taser, and that the officers later deliberately misrepresented their actions to investigators. The long-awaited report, by retired B.C. Court of Appeal justice Thomas Braidwood, was released Friday June 18, 2010 in Vancouver. Braidwood stated "This tragic case is at its heart a story of shameful conduct by a few officers. It ought not to reflect unfairly on the many thousands of RCMP and other police officers who have, through years of public service, protected our communities and earned a well-deserved reputation for doing so." Braidwood said he would leave any further questions about possible charges against the officers for the Crown to decide. As there had now been a public inquiry, the Chief Coroner for British Columbia decided against holding an inquest into Dziekański's death. On June 29, 2010, special prosecutor Richard Peck released an opinion there was sufficient new evidence to reopen the investigation into conduct of the four RCMP officers. The province's Criminal Justice Branch decided in December 2008 not to charge the officers, saying their use of force was reasonable in the circumstances, but Peck said the inquiry unearthed new evidence and he recommended that the decision not to lay charges should be revisited. All four Mounties were charged with perjury as a result of the Braidwood Inquiry. Their cases were held separately. On June 22, 2015, Constable Kwesi Millington was sentenced to 30 months for the crime of perjury in his testimony to the Braidwood Inquiry. Judge William Ehrcke said it was "preposterous" that the Mountie claimed Dziekański was standing while he was stunned a second time, when it's clear from bystander video that Dziekański was already on the ground. Said Ehrcke in his ruling, "The Crown has proven beyond a reasonable doubt that Const. Millington gave oral evidence under oath which he knew at the time to be false, and he did so with the intention to mislead the inquiry." Constable Bill Bentley was cleared of similar charges by judge Mark McEwan, but as of June 22, 2015 the Crown had appealed the verdict. Robinson was then awaiting the verdict in his case, while Rundel's trial was "almost finished" at that point in time. On October 30, 2017, The Canadian Supreme Court dismissed the appeals and affirmed the sentences of both Kwesi Millington and Benjamin Robinson who were convicted of perjury. Millington was sentenced to 30 months and Robinson to 2 years. Other Investigations Investigation completed A review of Taser use by police in Manitoba (November 15, 2007) Canada Border Services Agency (November 26, 2007) Vancouver International Airport Authority (December 7, 2007) Commission for Public Complaints Against the RCMP interim report (December 12, 2007) A review of Tasers by the Government of Nova Scotia after Halifax Regional Police tasered a man (March 5, 2008) RCMP’s Integrated Homicide Investigation Team (IHIT) (Internal Investigation June 18, 2008) The Commission for Public Complaints Against the RCMP Final Report concerning the RCMP's use of the Conducted Energy Weapon (CEW) (June 18, 2008) Standing Committee on Public Safety and National Security of the House of Commons (June 19, 2008) Compliance Strategy Group (Kiedrowski's Report) conducted an independent review of the adoption and use of Conducted Energy Weapons by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police in June 2008 and released under the Access to Information and Privacy Act. On November 8, 2007, the chair of the Commission for Public Complaints Against the RCMP initiated a complaint concerning the incident. In a subsequent report dated November 30, 2007, it was noted that the Commission for Public Complaints "will continue its review of the incident in accordance with the terms of the Chair-initiated complaint initiated on November 8, 2007". The CPC released its report on December 8, 2009, highlighting 23 findings and 16 recommendations. Among its findings were that while the officers were in the lawful execution of their duties, they failed to adopt an appropriate response. It deemed their use of tasers were "premature and inappropriate" with no warnings given prior to use and their versions of events given to investigators were "not deemed credible" by the CPC. Closing of investigations in Poland Ministry of Justice of the Republic of Poland Prosecution Service in Gliwice launched their own investigation while assisting Canadian police visiting Poland as part of the Canadian investigation. Polish criminal code allows for the pursuit of foreign nationals suspected of committing crime against the Polish citizens abroad; which could lead to an extradition request. The Prosecution Office forwarded a request for assistance from Canada. The request for documents from the Canadian investigation was denied with the rationale that forwarding them is not in the best interest of that country. Under the circumstances, in December 2011 the Polish investigation was terminated. Apology Almost two and a half years after the incident, the RCMP issued an apology to Dziekański's mother, Zofia Cisowski. Gary Bass, the RCMP deputy commissioner of the Pacific region formally apologized during a news conference at the Vancouver International Airport on April 1, 2010. Cisowski accepted the apology, confirmed she had accepted a financial settlement as compensation for her son's death and that she would drop the lawsuit she filed in 2009 against the federal and provincial governments, the airport and the four RCMP officers who fired the stun gun at her son. Prior to this apology, Sgt. Tim Shields who was at that time the head of the Communications Section for the BC RCMP, issued the RCMP's first apology on the case on April 21, 2009, for inaccuracies in the RCMP's public statements and communications and admitted that errors had been made. This was the first apology given by the RCMP. See also List of controversies involving the Royal Canadian Mounted Police List of incidents of police excessive use of force in Canada Taser safety issues Other incidents with Tasers Death of Jordan Begley Death of Kelly Thomas UCLA Taser incident University of Florida Taser incident References External links . Royal Canadian Mounted Police History of Vancouver Richmond, British Columbia Filmed killings by law enforcement 2007 in British Columbia Electroshock weapon controversies Taser Canada–Poland relations Killings by law enforcement officers in Canada Vancouver International Airport October 2007 events in Canada

14561867

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killing%20of%20Asel%20Asleh

Killing of Asel Asleh

The death of Asel Asleh occurred on 2 October 2000 when an Israeli-Arab (Arab citizen of Israel) and peace activist was killed at the onset of the Second Intifada by the Israel security forces. Asleh was 17 years old at the time of his death. Background Asel Asleh (, ; May 6, 1983 – October 2, 2000) was from the village of Arraba in the Lower Galilee. He had been a member of the international conflict resolution organization Seeds of Peace since 1997. Prior to his death, Asleh described himself as "a Palestinian-Israeli". He had many Jewish friends and was killed while wearing the Seeds of Peace T-shirt. Killing Asleh attended a protest in his village on 2 October. Trying to disperse the protest, an Israeli Security Forces unit shot tear-gas and live ammunition at the protesters. The precise actions which led to the death of Asleh were unclear; the police officers stated that they did not know how he was killed, while his cousin said that he had seen a gun pointed at Asleh and then he heard three shots. A physician who treated the youth commented that Asleh was shot in the neck at point-blank range, and that crucial time had been lost when the police delayed the arrival of an ambulance. Officers alleged that he was already shot when they found him lying in the olive grove. Eventually, Asleh died at Nahariya Hospital. The examination by the Or Commission reached a very advanced stage but ended when the Asleh family refused to allow the exhumation of Asel's body to extract the bullets which killed Asleh for tests. Or Commission, the October 2000 events and further investigations Including Asleh, 13 Arab citizens of Israels were killed. Asel's father successfully led a campaign to investigate killing of his son and others in October 2000. Subsequently, the October 2000 events were investigated by the Israeli-government appointed Or Commission. The Or Commission heavily condemned Israeli police for using excessive force to disperse the protesters. Asel's father, Hassan, is head of the Committee of the Victims' Families, which has sought to keep pressure on the official responsible for the death of Asleh and the other twelve killed in October 2000. In October 2006, Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported that the main suspect in Asleh's killing refused a lie detector test six times. On October 24, 2000, three weeks after Asleh's death, United Kingdom MP Richard Burden opened a debate on the Israeli–Palestinian conflict by noting Asleh's recent death and the lack of autopsy and investigation to that point. Further protests In February 2008, members of Seeds of Peace led a protest in front of Israel's Ministry of Justice demanding that it reopen the investigation into the October 2000 events, specifically the killing of Asleh. The protesters also sent letters to Attorney General Menahem Mazuz and Prime Minister Ehud Olmert asking if the case would have been reopened if the victims had been Jews. On September 30, 2010, 6,000 Arab citizens of Israel and supporters led a procession marking the 10 year anniversary of the 13 Arabs killed in October 2000. The protesters called on officials to try the police officers involved in the killings. Member of Knesset Ahmad Tibi said "These past 10 years have been filled with anger and pain for the victims' families, and for the general Arab public. They represent a black mark on the history of the State of Israel," On 1 October, the Arab Higher Monitoring Committee declared a one-day strike to commemorate the youth. References External links Israeli bullet ends a life in two worlds The Washington Post, October 5, 2000 Asel is gone Salon.com, 7 October 2000 'And then the night came down' Al Jazeera International, 6 October 2010 A Jewish American's Friendship With A Young Palestinian: Tragedy And Peace KUOW-FM, 21 May 2011 Seeds of Peace Asleh, Asel 2000 in Israel 2000 deaths 1983 births People from Arraba, Israel People killed by Israeli security forces Arab citizens of Israel Israeli casualties in the Second Intifada

18674724

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killing%20of%20Tim%20McLean

Killing of Tim McLean

The killing of Tim McLean occurred on the evening of July 30, 2008. McLean, a 22-year-old Canadian man, was stabbed, beheaded, and cannibalized while riding a Greyhound Canada bus along the Trans-Canada Highway, about west of Portage la Prairie, Manitoba. On March 5, 2009, McLean's killer, a 40-year-old Chinese-Canadian named Vince Li, was found not criminally responsible (NCR) for the murder, and was remanded to a high-security mental health facility in Selkirk, Manitoba, where he was detained until his release on May 8, 2015. Incident On July 30, 2008, Tim McLean, a carnival barker, was returning home to Winnipeg after working at a fair in Edmonton. He departed Edmonton on board Greyhound bus 1170 to Winnipeg, via the Yellowhead Highway through Saskatchewan. He sat at the rear, one row ahead of the toilet. At 6:55 p.m., the bus departed from a stop in Erickson, Manitoba, with a new passenger, Vince Weiguang Li. Li, described as a tall man in his 40s, with a shaved head and sunglasses, originally sat near the front of the bus, but moved to sit next to McLean following a scheduled rest stop. McLean "barely acknowledged" Li, then fell asleep against the window pane, headphones covering his ears. According to witnesses, McLean was sleeping with his headphones on when the man sitting next to him suddenly produced a large knife and began stabbing him in the neck and chest. After the attack began, the bus driver pulled to the side of the road, and he and all the other passengers fled the vehicle. The driver and two other men made an attempt to rescue McLean, but were chased away by Li, who slashed at them from behind the locked bus doors. Li ultimately decapitated McLean and displayed his severed head to those standing outside the bus, then returned to McLean's body and began severing other parts and consuming some of McLean's flesh. At 8:30 p.m., the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) in Portage la Prairie received a report of a stabbing on a Greyhound bus west of the city. They arrived to find the suspect still on board the bus, being prevented from escaping by another passenger, the bus driver, and a truck driver who had provided a crowbar and a hammer as weapons. The other passengers were huddled at the roadside, some of them crying and vomiting. As the suspect had earlier attempted to escape by driving the bus away, the driver had engaged the emergency immobiliser system, rendering the vehicle inoperable. Witnesses had observed the suspect stabbing and cutting McLean's body with a knife, and carrying McLean's severed head. By 9:00 p.m., police were in a standoff with the suspect and had summoned special negotiators and a heavily armed tactical unit. The suspect alternately paced the length of the bus and defiled the corpse. Police officers then observed Li eating parts of the body. Meanwhile, the stranded passengers were transported from the scene to be interviewed at the Brandon RCMP detachment. RCMP officers reportedly heard Li say, "I have to stay on the bus forever." On July 31, 2008, at 1:30 a.m., the suspect attempted to escape from the bus by breaking through a window. The RCMP arrested Li soon afterward. He was shot with a Taser twice, handcuffed and placed in the back of a police cruiser. Parts of the victim's body, placed in plastic bags, were retrieved from the bus, while his ear, nose and tongue were found in Li's pockets. The victim's eyes and a part of his heart were never recovered and are presumed to have been eaten by Li. At 10:00 a.m., Greyhound representatives took the other passengers to a local store to replace their clothes, which remained on the bus. They arrived in Winnipeg at 3:30 p.m. that day, to be reunited with family members and friends. Tim McLean Timothy Richard "Tim" McLean, Jr., was born on October 3, 1985, in Victoria, British Columbia. He grew up both in Winnipeg and in Elie, Manitoba. He was 22 years old when he was killed on July 30, 2008. At the time of his death, McLean had been working as a "carnie", specifically a carnival barker. Vince Li Background Vincent Weiguang "Vince" Li was born in Dandong, China, on April 30, 1968. In 1992, Li graduated from Wuhan Institute of Technology with a bachelor's degree in computing. From 1994 to 1998, Li worked in Beijing as a computer software engineer. Li immigrated to Canada on June 11, 2001 (though some newspapers mistakenly reported 2004), and became a Canadian citizen on November 7, 2006. The psychiatrist Stanley Yaren, who later examined Li, said Li was hospitalized in 2003 or 2004 after an incident with the Ontario Provincial Police. He worked in Winnipeg at menial jobs at Grant Memorial Church for six months to support his wife, Anna. Pastor Tom Castor, who employed Li, said he seemed happy to have a job and was committed to doing it well, despite a language barrier with other congregation members. "I think he would occasionally feel frustrated with not being able to communicate or understand," Castor told CTV Winnipeg. "But we have very patient staff members and he seemed to respond well." Castor also said Li did not show any signs of anger issues or any other trouble before he quit in the spring of 2005. He worked as a forklift operator in Winnipeg while his wife worked as a waitress. Li first moved to Edmonton in 2006, abruptly leaving his wife alone in Winnipeg until she joined him later. His jobs included service at a Wal-Mart, at a fast-food restaurant, and newspaper delivery. His delivery boss, Vincent Augert, described Li as reliable, hard-working and not showing any signs of trouble. Four weeks before the killing, he was fired from Wal-Mart following a "disagreement" with other employees. Shortly before the incident, Li asked for time off from his delivery job to go to Winnipeg for a job interview. July 29, 2008 At 12:05 p.m. on July 28 in Edmonton, Li boarded a Greyhound bus bound for Winnipeg. On July 29, around 6 p.m., Li got off the bus in Erickson, Manitoba, with at least three pieces of luggage, and stayed the night on a bench next to a grocery store. According to one witness, he was seen at 3 a.m. sitting bolt upright with eyes wide open. On the morning of July 30, still at the bench, he sold his new laptop computer to a 15-year-old boy for $60. The laptop was seized by the RCMP as evidence; the boy was subsequently given a new laptop for his honesty by an anonymous businessman. Witness Garnet Caton said the attacker seemed oblivious to others when the stabbing occurred, adding he was struck by Li's calm demeanour. "There was no rage or anything. He was like a robot, stabbing the guy," he said. When he appeared in a Portage la Prairie courthouse on charges of second-degree murder, the only words Li reportedly uttered were pleas for someone to kill him. Trial Li's trial commenced on March 3, 2009, with Li pleading not criminally responsible on account of mental disorder. This means he accepted that the offence occurred but claimed that he was unable to form the necessary mental element or mens rea. The psychiatrist said that Li performed the attack because he was hearing voices he believed were from God, telling him to destroy the demon sitting beside him, or he would be killed himself. The presiding judge, John Scurfield, accepted the diagnosis, and ruled that Li was not criminally responsible for the killing. Li was remanded to the Selkirk Mental Health Centre. Aftermath The week following the attack, Greyhound Canada announced it was pulling a series of nationwide advertisements which included the slogan, "There's a reason you've never heard of bus rage." The incident has led to numerous calls and petitions demanding increased security on intercity buses. The family of Tim McLean have brought a lawsuit of $150,000 against Greyhound, the Attorney General of Canada, and Vince Li. On June 3, 2010, Li was granted supervised outdoor walks within his mental health facility as voted by the provincial review board. On February 16, 2011, two passengers, Debra Tucker and Kayli Shaw, filed a lawsuit against Li, Greyhound, the RCMP, and the Canadian government for being exposed to the beheading. They were each seeking $3 million in damages. On July 14, 2015, the two women dropped their lawsuit. On May 30, 2011, CBC reported that Li was responding well to his psychiatric treatment and that his doctor had recommended that he receive more freedoms, phased in over several months. On May 17, 2012, the National Post reported that Li had been granted temporary passes that would allow him out of the Selkirk Mental Health Centre for visits to the town of Selkirk, supervised by a nurse and peace officer. In an interview, Li spoke for the first time, saying that he began hearing "the voice of God" in 2004 and that he wanted to save the people from an alien attack. On February 27, 2014, CBC reported that on March 6, Li would be allowed to have unsupervised visits to Selkirk, starting at 30 minutes and expanding to full-day trips. Since 2013, he had been allowed to have supervised visits to Lockport, Winnipeg, and nearby beaches. Those visits were then relaxed. On July 17, 2014, the Toronto Sun reported that one of the first officers on the scene, Corporal Ken Barker of the RCMP, had committed suicide. The family stated in his obituary that he was suffering from posttraumatic stress disorder. On February 27, 2015, CBC News reported that Li was given unsupervised day passes to visit Winnipeg so long as he carried a functioning cellular telephone while using them. On May 8, 2015, CTV News reported that Li would be granted passes to group homes in the community. In February 2016, it was reported that Li had legally changed his name to Will Baker and was seeking to leave his group home to live independently. He won the right to live alone on February 26 upon the recommendation of the Criminal Code Review Board. On February 10, 2017, the Manitoba Criminal Code Review Board ordered Li be discharged. Li was granted an absolute discharge. There will be no legal obligations or restrictions pertaining to Li's independent living. In media Vincent (Cider Press, 2015), a book-length poem by American poet Joseph Fasano, is a fictionalized work based loosely on the event. See also List of incidents of cannibalism 2001 Greyhound bus attack References Murder in Manitoba 2008 in Manitoba Incidents of cannibalism Intercity bus incidents Greyhound Lines Deaths by stabbing in Canada Deaths by decapitation 2008 crimes in Canada 2000s murders in Canada 2008 murders in North America

18917566

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killing%20of%20Azelle%20Rodney

Killing of Azelle Rodney

Azelle Rodney, from London, was a man who was shot dead by an armed officer of the Metropolitan Police on 30 April 2005. In July 2013 a public inquiry found that the Specialist Firearms Officer who fired the fatal shots, Anthony Long, had "no lawful justification" for killing Rodney. The case was referred to the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) to determine whether a prosecution should be launched. On 30 July 2014 the CPS announced that they had made the decision to charge the officer with murder. On 3 July 2015 the officer was cleared by a jury. Biography and background Azelle Rodney was born on 22 April 1981 and brought up in west London. He had two brothers. Rodney was known for his sporting abilities at school, his football and athletic development came to an end after a hip injury and two subsequent operations when he was 16. He also had an interest in music, and developed this and attended the local gymnasium. His mother stated after his death that her son barely knew the two men from whom he had accepted a lift, that he was not a gangster, and had only had a minor criminal record. A report compiled for the public inquiry later described Azelle Rodney as a mid-level career criminal at the time of the shooting and he was wanted by police in connection with two stabbings. His girlfriend gave birth to their daughter after he was killed. Death On the night of 30 April 2005, Rodney was driven by associates Wesley Lovell and Frank Graham in a hired silver Volkswagen Golf. The three drove across north London after they were observed by police to pick up three weapons, believed to be MAC-10 sub-machine guns. They were seemingly unaware that their car had been under surveillance for some time and that it was being followed by armed police in unmarked vehicles. It was later revealed at the trial of Lovell and Graham for drugs and firearms offences that they had been under police surveillance for two days and that the car had been tailed for several hours on 30 April. According to information later released to Rodney's family by the Independent Police Complaints Commission, the armed police following the VW Golf moved at some point to "State Red", meaning that the car was to be intercepted as soon as possible. This occurred as the car was passing the Railway Tavern on Hale Lane in the London Borough of Barnet at 7:43 pm, the police using a manoeuvre known as a "hard stop". An unmarked police Audi swerved in front of the VW Golf, a Vauxhall Omega halted alongside, and a third vehicle impacted the rear of the VW. Fourteen members of the Metropolitan Police's Specialist Firearms Command (CO19) emerged from the cars. Hatton rounds – a form of shotgun breaching round – were fired to puncture the VW Golf's tyres. During this, a CO19 officer later referred to by his call sign of E7, who had twenty years of firearms experience, leant across from the front passenger seat of the Vauxhall Omega and fired eight 5.56mm rounds from his Heckler & Koch G36 Compact semi-automatic carbine through the passenger window of the VW Golf at Rodney, six of which hit him in the face, head, neck and chest. An immediate police search of car found ammunition and three guns: a M1911 0.45 inch ACP Calibre self‐loading pistol; a Baikal pistol; and a smaller gun described as looking like a key fob. A later search of Lovell's flat revealed that it had been used to produce a "significant quantity" of crack cocaine. Before family liaison officers called on his family, Metropolitan Police officers had called at a neighbour's house to confirm Rodney's identity. That evening various news agencies reported that Rodney had been holding a gun when he was shot, and later described him as a "drugs baron" and a crack dealer. The Times mentioned after Lovell and Graham's trial that he had been "visiting a drug factory that he ran". Police called at his mother's house to inform her of his death on the afternoon of 1 May 2005, almost 24 hours later. Investigations and adjourned inquest IPCC The shooting was first investigated by the Independent Police Complaints Commission which passed its findings to the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) for consideration. The CPS concluded in July 2006 that there was insufficient evidence to convict any individual involved for Rodney's death. John Yates, the Metropolitan Police's Deputy Assistant Commissioner at the time, said that "The situation facing our officer that evening clearly left him with no option than to take the course of action he did." The officer responsible said: "Everything about his actions led me to believe that he was fully ready to fire with a fully automatic weapon." However, the Independent Police Complaints Commission confirmed that Rodney was not seen holding a gun when he was shot dead. Inquest (adjourned) On 2 August 2007, deputy coroner Andrew Walker, sitting at Hornsey North London, ruled that a full inquest into Rodney's death could not be held because of the large number of redactions in police officers' evidence statements. The redactions were made under the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000 which covers information obtained from covert surveillance including telephone taps and bugs. The Rodney family's solicitor, Daniel Machover, said that he had written to the Home Office and the Ministry of Justice asking that the law be changed to allow the coroner to proceed with the inquest. In May 2009 four years after his death, Rodney's mother, Susan Alexander, filed a case against the British government in the European Court of Human Rights, claiming that her human rights were breached by the failure to hold a "reasonably prompt" and public investigation into her son's death. The British government apologised to the European Court for the delay in holding a full investigation. Independent public inquiry On 30 March 2010, Justice Minister, Lord Bach announced in the UK House of Lords a public inquiry into Rodney's death. It was the first time in England that an inquiry under the Inquiries Act 2005 replaced the role of an inquest jury to investigate a death regarding state deprivation of life and use of force as defined by Article 2 of the European Convention on Human Rights. The inquiry began on 6 October 2010 chaired by a former high court judge, Sir Christopher Holland. The chair ruled that evidence previously kept secret could in fact be made public. The Chair sought assurance, which was given in writing, from the Attorney General that evidence provided by witnesses to the Inquiry would not be used in any criminal proceedings. On 3 September 2012, seven years after Azelle Rodney was killed, the inquiry into his death began hearing oral evidence. The identity of the officer who killed Rodney was protected and the officer was labelled, 'E7'. The inquiry heard that Rodney had been shot at eight times (six shots hit him) by 'E7' from an unmarked police car used, along with other unmarked police vehicles, to stop the car that Rodney was seated in the back of. 'E7' told the inquiry that he shot Rodney because Rodney's movements led him to believe Rodney had picked up a gun, possibly a machine gun, and he believed Azelle Rodney was about to open fire. He stated that at no point had he ever stated that he had seen a gun in Rodney's hands which had been obscured by the car door . The earlier IPCC inquiry established that Rodney was unarmed when he was shot and killed by 'E7'. In July 2013 the public inquiry concluded that the armed police officer who fired the fatal shots had "no lawful justification" for killing Rodney. The report of the inquiry noted that eight shots were fired from close range in 2.1 seconds, six of which hit Rodney. The first two shots that hit him had neutralised any threat from Rodney. Subsequent shots were unlawful, either causing death or being fired at "a dead or dying man". The inquiry found that 'E7', the officer who killed Rodney, "could not rationally be believed" and rejected his version of events which were contradicted by forensic evidence. The inquiry did not find that 'E7' was deliberately lying. The inquiry concluded that firing at Rodney to kill him "was disproportionate and therefore unreasonable and unlawful". Susan Alexander, Rodney's mother, said he should not have been, "summarily killed". "The police owe me an apology for the unlawful killing of my son", she said. 'E7', supported by the Metropolitan Police Commissioner, applied to the High Court for a judicial review of the public inquiry, claiming the Chair's conclusions were "irrational". In refusing the application Justice Sir Wyn Williams said he had "no doubt" there was "ample evidence to justify the finding" that 'E7' did not have an honest belief that Mr Rodney had picked up a gun. The case was referred to the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) to determine whether a prosecution should be launched. Criminal proceedings - murder trial In July 2014, based on new evidence from the public inquiry and its conclusion of unlawful killing, the Crown Prosecution Service charged the former police officer, who had by now left the Metropolitan Police Service, with Azelle Rodney's murder saying, "there is a realistic prospect of conviction and that a prosecution is in the public interest". Reporting restrictions were lifted allowing the charged officer formerly identified only as 'E7' to be properly named as PC Anthony Long. The conclusion of the public inquiry that Rodney's killing was unlawful was withheld from the jury at the murder trial. The trial started at the Old Bailey, the English Central Criminal Court, on 8 June 2015, some ten years after Rodney's death. On 3 July 2015 Anthony Long was found not guilty of murder by a majority verdict. After the trial Long said, "Police firearms officers do not go out intending to shoot people and, like me in this case, have to make split-second life or death decisions based on the information available to them at the time". Lovell and Graham trial Wesley Lovell and Frank Graham, who had been in the car with Rodney, were later sentenced to seven years and six years imprisonment respectively at Middlesex Guildhall Crown Court on 24 January 2006 for drugs and firearms offences. The court was told that three guns were found in the car and that Lovell's flat had been used to produce crack cocaine. The trial also revealed that there was some dispute regarding the guns present in the VW Golf at the time of Rodney's death. In a statement, Scotland Yard said that the guns were "loaded and fully operational", however evidence given by the prosecution differed; it was stated that a Colt .45 pistol which Graham admitted to owning was on the back seat but had been deactivated and could not fire, while Lovell's pistol – which had been converted from a tear gas gun – was found inside a rucksack along with a loaded double-barrelled handgun. See also List of people killed by law enforcement officers in the United Kingdom Police use of firearms in the United Kingdom Death of Mark Duggan Death of Anthony Grainger Deaths after contact with the police References External links Official website of the inquiry Coroner's ruling on Azelle Rodney The Report of The Azelle Rodney Inquiry - Sir Christopher Holland (Chairman) 2005 deaths 2000s crimes in London 21st-century British criminals Black British criminals Criminals from London Deaths by firearm in England Deaths by person in London Metropolitan Police operations People shot dead by law enforcement officers in the United Kingdom Year of birth missing 2005 in London

21074324

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killing%20of%20Robert%20Hamill

Killing of Robert Hamill

Robert Hamill was a Northern Irish Catholic man who was beaten to death by a loyalist mob in Portadown, County Armagh, Northern Ireland. Hamill and his friends were attacked on 27 April 1997 on the town's main street. It has been claimed that the local Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC), parked a short distance away, did nothing to stop the attack. At the time of the murder, tension between loyalists (mainly Protestants) and Irish nationalists (mainly Catholics) was high, mostly due to the ongoing Drumcree parade dispute. Death Hamill and his friends were attacked by a group of loyalists while walking home from St. Patrick's dance hall at about 1.30 a.m on 27 April 1997. After walking along Market Street from the dance hall, they came to the intersection of Market and Thomas Streets in Portadown, where they were attacked. Hamill and his friend, Gregory Girvan, were kicked by the crowd while their attackers shouted abuse at them and Robert Hamill was knocked unconscious almost immediately. Girvan's wife and sister, Joanne and Siobhán Garvin, respectively, called for help from four RUC officers sitting in a Land Rover about away from the attack, but they did not intervene to stop the attack. The assault lasted about ten minutes, leaving both men unconscious. Just before the ambulance arrived, one of the RUC men got out of the Land Rover and told Garvin to put Robert into the recovery position. Robert Hamill never regained consciousness and died of his injuries eleven days later on 8 May 1997, aged 25. The cause of his death was recorded as "Diffuse Brain Injury associated with Fracture of Skull due to Blows to the Head". Six people were arrested after Robert Hamill's death, but only one was eventually tried for his murder. Investigation Trial of Paul Hobson Paul R. Hobson was charged with murder, but found not guilty, though he was found guilty of unlawful fighting and causing an affray and sentenced to four years' imprisonment. The case under which Hobson was prosecuted is questionable as the main witness, Constable Atkinson of the then RUC, was at one stage a suspect in conspiracy to cause murder in the same case. His solicitor also did not use crucial evidence in the case to cross-examine witnesses. Mr. Justice McCollum said during his verdict that the killing was a sectarian act, with a very large number of loyalists attacking a small number of nationalists, but that he could not decide whether the RUC men had left their Land Rover or not during the attack. Allegations of police collusion The RUC have been criticised for initially claiming in press releases that there was a riot between two large groups; then afterwards claiming it was a large group attacking a group of four. Rosemary Nelson was solicitor for the Hamill family until she was assassinated by a loyalist car bomb in Lurgan. There have been allegations of collusion between the RUC and suspects. A public inquiry is currently being held on the recommendation of Cory Collusion Inquiry. New charges In December 2010 it was announced that three people, including a former RUC officer, were to be charged in relation to Robert Hamill's death. In September 2014 District Judge Peter King, sitting at Craigavon court, ruled that a key witness was entirely unreliable and utterly unconvincing. The case against the three, ex-policeman Robert Cecil Atkinson, his wife Eleanor Atkinson, and Kenneth Hanvey, was not sufficient to try. References See also The Troubles in Portadown Robert Hamill Inquiry 1997 murders in the United Kingdom 1997 in Northern Ireland 20th century in County Armagh Anti-Catholicism in Northern Ireland April 1997 crimes April 1997 events in the United Kingdom Hate crimes Police misconduct in Northern Ireland Deaths by person in Northern Ireland

23301691

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killing%20of%20Neda%20Agha-Soltan

Killing of Neda Agha-Soltan

The shooting of Neda Agha-Soltan ( – Nedâ Âghâ-Soltân; 23 January 1983 – 20 June 2009), which resulted in her death during the 2009 Iranian election protests, drew worldwide attention. Agha-Soltan, a student of philosophy, was participating in the protests with her music teacher, and was walking back to her car when she was fatally shot in the chest. Eyewitnesses are reported by western sources as saying Agha-Soltan was shot by a militiaman belonging to Basij paramilitary organization. Her death was captured on video by bystanders and broadcast over the Internet, and the video became a rallying point for the opposition. Agha-Soltan's death became iconic in the struggle of Iranian protesters against the disputed election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Etymology Nedā (ندا) is a word used in Classical Persian and modern Persian to mean "voice", "calling" (sometimes understood as a "divine message", but this is not the etymological sense of ندا), and she has been referred to as the "voice of Iran". Biography Agha-Soltan was the middle child of a middle-class family of three children, whose family resided in a fourth floor flat on Meshkini Street in the Tehranpars district of Tehran. Her father is a civil servant and her mother is a homemaker. She attended Islamic Azad University, where she had studied Islamic theology as well as secular philosophies, but she withdrew after two semesters of study for two reasons, one being a disagreement with her husband Amir and his family, and the other being the atmosphere and the pressure of the authorities towards her appearance and dress in the university. She was divorced, and according to her mother, had difficulty in finding work because of how employers perceived her. Agha-Soltan was an aspiring underground musician, who was studying her craft through private voice and music lessons. She had studied the violin and had an as-yet-undelivered piano on order at the time of her death. She worked for her family's travel agency. It was in Turkey, more than two months prior to her death, that she met her fiancé, 37-year-old Caspian Makan, who worked as a photojournalist and filmmaker in Tehran, and after that she changed her mind about becoming a tour guide and decided to start photography with him. Agha-Soltan enjoyed travelling. She had studied Turkish, hoping it would aid her as a guide for Iranians on foreign tours in Turkey. Those who knew her maintain that Agha-Soltan had not previously been very political – she had not supported any particular candidate in the 2009 Iran elections – but that anger over the election results prompted her to join the protest. Confusion regarding identity Her name is often miscited as "Neda Soltani". Neda Soltani is a different person, whose Facebook profile photo was mistakenly published in many articles about the incident. She tried in vain to remove her photo from the internet. Claims from both sides have been made, including claims from the Iranian government that she was the same person as Agha-Soltan and had faked her own death; and others who claimed that she was herself an agent of the Iranian government impersonating Agha-Soltan to sully her memory. Within two weeks, she had fled from Iran and was granted asylum in Germany in 2010. Circumstances of her death On 20 June 2009, at around 6:30 p.m., Neda Agha-Soltan was sitting in her Peugeot 206 in traffic on Kargar Avenue in Tehran. She was accompanied by her music teacher, Hamid Panahi. They were on their way to participate in the protests against the results of the 2009 Iranian presidential election. The car's air conditioner was not working well, so she stopped her car some distance from the main protests and got out on foot to escape the heat. She was standing and observing the sporadic protests in the area when she was shot in the chest. As captured on amateur video, she collapsed to the ground and was attended to by a doctor, her music teacher, and others from the crowd. Someone in the crowd around her shouted, "She has been shot! Someone, come and take her!" The videos were accompanied by a message from a doctor, later identified as Arash Hejazi, who said he had been present during the incident (but fled Iran out of fear of government reprisals): Her last words were, "I'm burning, I'm burning!" according to Panahi. She died en route to Tehran's Shariati hospital. However, the civilian physician who tended to Agha-Soltan in the video stated that she died on the scene. Hejazi, standing one metre away from her when she was shot, tried to stanch her wound with his hands. Hejazi said nearby members of the crowd pulled a man from his motorcycle while shouting: "We got him, we got him", disarmed him, obtained his identity card and identified him as a member of the Basij government militia. The militiaman was shouting, "I didn't want to kill her." The protesters let him go, but they kept the alleged killer's identity card and took many photographs of him. A recent documentary on the shooting contained a previously unseen clip of demonstrators capturing the militiaman seconds after the shooting. Iranian state TV alleged that Neda Agha-Soltan was carrying blood in a concealed vessel within her mouth, a common practice of the MKO, which she then broke to resemble internal bleeding. Videos The videos spread across the internet virally, quickly gaining the attention of international media and viewers. Discussions about the incident on Twitter, using a hashtag of #neda, became one of the "'trending topics'" by the end of the day on 20 June 2009. The incident was not originally reported by the state-controlled Iranian media, but was instead first reported on by international media. The video was shown on CNN and other news networks. Agha-Soltan's death was "probably the most widely witnessed death in human history", according to Time magazine. The videos were awarded the George Polk Award for Videography in 2009. Alleged killer The man accused by opposition sources of killing Agha-Soltan was identified as Abbas Kargar Javid, a Basij government militiaman, after photographs of the Basiji's ID cards appeared on the internet, according to The Times. Opposition critics and pro-government sources allege that Western intelligence agencies carried out the shooting. Aftermath After being pronounced dead at Shari'ati hospital, Agha-Soltan was buried at the Behesht-e Zahra cemetery in southern Tehran; she was denied a proper funeral by government authorities. Her family agreed to the removal of her organs for transplanting to medical patients. The Iranian government issued a ban on collective prayers in mosques for Agha-Soltan in the aftermath of the incident. Opposition figure Soona Samsami, the executive director of the Women's Freedom Forum, who was relaying information about the protests inside Iran to international media outlets, told the foreign press that Agha-Soltan's immediate family were threatened by authorities if they permitted a gathering to mourn her. Samsami stated, "They were threatened that if people wanted to gather there the family would be charged and punished." Caspian Makan (Agha-Soltan's fiancé) told the BBC: "Neda had said that even if she lost her life and got a bullet in her heart, she would carry on." Pro-government activists have cited this as contradictory to the claim of not being involved in the protests and simply being in the area due to the breakdown of the air conditioning in her car. Time and other news sources speculated that because of the widespread attention given to Agha-Soltan's story by social media networks and mainstream news organizations, she would be hailed as a martyr. There was also speculation that the Shi'ite cycle of mourning on the third, seventh, and 40th day after a person's death would give the protests sustained momentum, in similar fashion to the Iranian Revolution, where each commemoration of a demonstrator's death sparked renewed protests, resulting in more deaths, feeding a cycle that eventually resulted in the overthrowing of Iran's monarchy. On 22 June, Iranian presidential candidates Mehdi Karroubi and Mir-Hossein Mousavi, who were contesting the validity of the election of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, called upon Iranian citizens to commemorate Agha-Soltan. Karroubi announced his appeal on Facebook, asking demonstrators to gather in the center of the Iranian capital at 4:00p.m. local time. The chief of the Tehran Police announced that his department had no involvement in the fatal incident. Later that day, riot police armed with live ammunition and tear gas dispersed a crowd of between 200 and 1,000 protesters who had gathered in Tehran's Haft-e Tir Square. The protests followed online calls for tribute to Āghā-Soltān and others killed during the demonstrations. Cāspian Mākān, following Agha-Soltan's death, escaped to Canada. He visited Israel in March 2010 as a guest of Israel's Channel 2 and stated "I have come here out of the brotherhood of nations." Funeral About 70 mourners gathered outside Niloufar mosque in Abbas Abad, where the Agha-Soltan family attended services. A leaflet posted on the mosque's door read, "There is no commemoration here for Neda Agha-Soltan." Many in the crowd wore black. Some recited poems. After about ten minutes, paramilitary forces arrived on motorcycles and dispersed the attendees. On 23 June, it was reported that, to prevent Agha-Soltan's family's home from becoming a place of pilgrimage, government authorities told the family to remove the black mourning banners from outside the home. On 24 June, The Guardian reported the results of interviews of neighbours who said Agha-Soltan's family had been forced to vacate their apartment some days after her death. Reuters reported that supporters of presidential candidate Mir-Hossein Mousavi stated they would release thousands of balloons on 26 June 2009 with the message "Nedā you will always remain in our hearts" imprinted on them. On 31 July 2009, the fortieth day from the killings of such youth as Neda Agha-Soltan, Sohrab Aarabi and Āshkān Sohrābi, a ceremony was held in Tehran where thousands of Iranians mourned for the loss of the victims. Reports also came of gatherings in the thousands in cities of Rasht, Shiraz and Mashad. Grave desecration On 16 November 2009, supporters of the Iranian regime desecrated her grave and removed her gravestone. Later, on 31 December 2009, supporters of the Iranian government defaced the portrait on her grave by shooting at it multiple times. CIA conspiracy theory Iran's ambassador to Mexico, Mohammad Hassan Ghadiri, suggested in an interview on 25 June 2009 that the CIA could have been involved in Agha-Soltan's death. Ambassador Ghadiri questioned how the shooting was video taped so effectively, asserting that the incident occurred away from other demonstrations. He also stated that using a woman would be more effective in accomplishing the goals the CIA is purported to desire. Ambassador Ghadiri said "the bullet that was found in her head was not a bullet that you could find in Iran." (He thought she was shot in the head.) The account of Doctor Hejazi was that Agha-Soltan was shot in the chest from the front, as there was no exit wound, and the video evidence showed a wound to the chest. Hejāzi was the man seen in the video placing his hands on Agha-Soltan's chest to staunch her bleeding (as described above under section Circumstances of death). Wolf Blitzer was incredulous that Ghadiri would so boldly offer a conspiracy theory or obvious disinformation as an explanation: Claim of protester shooting During his Friday sermon on 26 June, the Supreme Leader's appointed speaker, Ayatollah Ahmad Khatami, said "evidence shows that [protesters] have done it themselves and have raised propaganda against the system." Eyewitnesses at the scene of the shooting said Agha-Soltan was shot by a member of the pro-government Basij militia. Some of the eyewitnesses say she was shot from the ground, some say from the rooftop. Arrest warrant for witness Iran's police chief, brigadier general Ahmadi-Moghaddam told the press on 30 June 2009 that the Iranian police and Ministry of Intelligence filed an arrest warrant for Interpol to arrest Ārash Hejāzi, an eyewitness of Agha-Soltan's death, for poisoning the international atmosphere against the Iranian government and spreading misinformation about Agha-Soltan's death in his account of the incident to foreign news media. Iranian government's claims of video fabrication Ezzatollah Zarghami, the head of Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting, told the press on 4 July 2009 that the videos of Nedā's death were all made by BBC and CNN. In December 2009, Iranian state television aired a report about Agha-Soltan's death, portraying it as a western plot. In the programme, it was argued that Agha-Soltan simulated her death with accomplices, and that she was killed afterwards, having no knowledge of her partners' intentions. Government pressure for confession According to The Times, quoted from Mākān and Agha-Soltan's parents, officials tried to get them to confess that it was opposition protestors that had killed Nedā, and not government militiamen. They were given incentives such as declaring her to be a martyr and giving the family a pension if they complied. Makan and Agha-Soltan's family refused the offer. Panāhi was later forced by the government to change his story. The new version of events were retold by Panāhi on state television. Accusation of security forces In December 2009, her family accused the security forces of killing her, although even most western press accounts so far have stopped short of calling it a targeted political assassination. This was the strongest statement the family of Neda Agha-Soltan made since her death. This accusation followed the spread of an Iranian government-proposed theory blaming a "conspiracy of western governments" for the killing. Her father told the BBC's Persian service by telephone from Iran: "I openly declare that no one, apart from the government, killed Nedā. Her killer can only be from the government." In Roger Waters: The Wall A picture of Neda was shown among many other people during the song "The Thin Ice", in Roger Waters' The Wall concert tour and later in the film. Scholarship The Neda Agha-Soltan Graduate Scholarship is a scholarship for post-graduate philosophy students at The Queen's College, Oxford, with preference given to students of Iranian citizenship or heritage. The college received offers from two anonymous donors to establish a scholarship, followed by many individual donations from members of the public, former students of Queen's and others to reach the £70,000 needed to establish the scholarship on a permanent basis. The first recipient of the scholarship was Arianne Shahvis, a philosophy student of Iranian descent, who described the award as "a great honour". In November 2009, Iran's embassy in London sent a letter of protest to the college about the scholarship. See also Chain murders of Iran – a series of murders of dissident voices made to appear as accidents and suicides Sohrab Aarabi Taraneh Mousavi Death of Khaled Mohamed Saeed Death of Hamza Ali Al-Khateeb References External links For Neda (2010); HBO Documentary Films – About Neda Agha-Soltan and her life story Video of her death wins prestigious 2009 George Polk Award for Videography Caspian Makan: 'I cannot believe it yet. I still think I will see Neda again'; The Guardian, 15 November 2009 Photos: Who Was Neda Agha-Soltan? – a photo essay by TIME Iran Bans Prayers for 'Angel of Freedom' Neda Agha Soltan; Damien McElroy, The Telegraph, 22 June 2009 Family, Friends Mourn 'Neda'; Borzou Daragahi, Los Angeles Times, 23 June 2009 Neda, an Opera by Nader Mashayekhi: Pathos without Kitsch Agha-Soltan, Neda 2009 Iranian presidential election protests Agha-Soltan, Neda Deaths by firearm in Iran History of the Islamic Republic of Iran Political repression in Iran Islamic Azad University alumni June 2009 events in Asia 2009 in Iran 2009 in women's history 21st century in Tehran

23533641

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killing%20of%20Marvin%20Gaye

Killing of Marvin Gaye

Marvin Gaye, an American musician who gained worldwide fame for his work with Motown Records, was shot and mortally wounded by his father, Marvin Gay Sr., on April 1, 1984, at their house in the Arlington Heights district of Los Angeles, California. Gaye was shot twice following an altercation with his father after he intervened in an argument between his parents. He was pronounced dead on arrival at the California Hospital Medical Center. Gaye's father later pleaded no contest to a charge of voluntary manslaughter. Gaye's death inspired several musical tributes over the years including recollections of the incidents leading to his death. Gaye was given a burial plot at Forest Lawn Cemetery and was later cremated and his ashes spread around the Pacific Ocean. Circumstances Marvin Gaye had a bitter relationship with his father, Marvin Gay Sr., since his childhood. Marvin Sr. was a Christian minister who was a strict disciplinarian and often physically punished his children. He was also a crossdresser, which was widely known in the family's Washington, D.C. neighborhood and made the younger Marvin a target of bullying. It was because of this, added with rumors of Gaye's own homosexuality, that he added an "e" to his last name when he became famous. Gaye's father never approved of his son's career in music, and gradually grew resentful that Gaye was closer to his mother, Alberta, and had become the breadwinner for the family. Despite a brief improvement in their relationship after Gaye found success with his album What's Going On, both father and son never found any lasting peace. By 1983, after a period as a European tax exile, Gaye had re-emerged in the public eye with the hit song "Sexual Healing" and its album, Midnight Love. For a time, he had also achieved sobriety during his extensive stay in Belgium. Returning to the U.S., he embarked on his final Sexual Healing Tour in April of that year. Gaye, who had a profound dislike for touring, returned to cocaine abuse to cope with the pressures of the road, and midway through the tour he developed paranoia over an alleged attempt on his life, wearing a bulletproof vest until he was on stage. In reality, there was little, if any, real danger, although while on the tour, road crew member Eric Sharpe died by suicide by hanging himself from a shower curtain rod in New Jersey. When the tour ended in August 1983, Gaye returned to the U.S. to nurse his mother, who was recovering from kidney surgery, and moved into his parents' residence at 2101 South Gramercy Place, a home which he bought for them in 1973. During his stay, Gaye's father was absent. That October, his father returned from a business trip in Washington during which he purchased insurance on his family's previous residence. Initially, Gaye's sisters Jeanne and Zeola lived in the house before Marvin Sr. returned to the property, and left shortly afterwards due to the growing conflict between father and son. For the next six months, the two men struggled to keep their distance from one another. During one quarrel at the house, the elder Gay called police to have his son leave the property. After staying with one of his sisters, however, Marvin returned to the property stating to a friend of his, "After all, I have just one father. I want to make peace with him." Jeanne Gaye later told David Ritz that her father had told her if Marvin ever touched him, he'd "kill him". On Christmas Day, 1983, Marvin gave his father a Smith & Wesson .38 Special pistol so that he could protect himself from intruders. Friends and family members contended that the younger Marvin was often suicidal and paranoid, and by now was afraid of leaving his room and spoke of little besides suicide and death. He sometimes wore three overcoats and put his shoes on the wrong feet. Four days before his death, according to his sister Jeanne, Gaye had tried to kill himself by jumping out of a speeding sports car, suffering only minor bruises. Jeanne contended that "there was no doubt Marvin wanted to die" and that he "couldn't take any more." Killing In the days prior to his death, Gaye's parents had arguments mainly over a misplaced insurance policy letter. The day before his death, the arguments spread to Gaye's bedroom. Angered by his father confronting his mother, Gaye commanded Marvin Sr. to leave her alone; Marvin Sr. complied without incident and there was no violence that night, but Marvin Sr. continued yelling throughout the house. At approximately 12:30 p.m. (PST; 20:30 UTC) on April 1, 1984, an impatient Marvin Sr. shouted at his wife about the document. Gaye, dressed in a maroon robe, shouted back downstairs, telling his father if he had something to say, he should do it in person. According to Alberta, when Marvin Sr. refused his son's request, Gaye warned him not to come to his room. Marvin Sr., however, instead charged upstairs to the bedroom to verbally attack Alberta over the document, causing Gaye to jump out of his bed and once again order his father out of the room. When ordering did not work, Gaye, enraged, reportedly shoved his father out of the room into the hallway then began kicking and punching him. Alberta later told Ritz: "Marvin hit him. I shouted for him to stop, but he paid no attention to me. He gave my husband some hard kicks." Jeanne later recalled that it was understood in the family that if one of the children ever dared to strike their father that he would "murder him or her", saying her father "made it very clear" and "said so publicly on more than one occasion." Gaye reportedly followed his father to the bedroom and, according to his mother, continued to kick him brutally. Eventually, Alberta separated Gaye from his father and returned him to his bedroom. Minutes later, at 12:38 p.m. (PST; 20:38 UTC), Marvin Sr. entered his bedroom, returning with the .38 pistol his son had earlier bought him, pointed it at Gaye and shot him directly in the heart, as Alberta later explained to police: The first shot, which proved to be fatal, entered the right side of Gaye's chest, perforating his right lung, heart, diaphragm, liver, stomach and left kidney before coming to rest against his left flank. Gaye's father stepped closer after the first shot and shot him a second time at point-blank range. In a 2018 episode of the Reelz TV series Autopsy: The Last Hours of..., forensic pathologist Michael Hunter expressed his belief that Gaye was initially shot nonfatally in the left shoulder by his father while the two men were standing two feet apart while facing each other. Hunter believed that this first shot "penetrated the left shoulder just below the clavicle and exited his back without causing any serious injury", the impact of which caused Gaye to fall down. Hunter also believed that Gaye was then shot fatally in the chest, which "had a very damaging and odd trajectory," traveling "diagonally down through the lung, heart, diaphragm, liver, and kidney, finally embedding itself on the left side of the torso." From Hunter's point of view, "the direction of the bullet's trajectory suggests Marvin was positioned toward his father, and that his father was likely to have been moving away at the time." Afraid of being shot next, Alberta screamed and ran out of the bedroom, all the while pleading in fear to her husband not to shoot her. According to reports, Gaye's father hid the gun underneath his pillow. In the meantime, Gaye's brother Frankie and his sister-in-law, Irene, heard the shots as they lived in a guest house on the property. After the first shot, Frankie initially thought it sounded like a car backfired. Afterwards, they heard screams from outside, rushed out, and saw Alberta who ran into Irene's arms, shouting, "He's shot Marvin. He's killed my boy." Frankie ran to the house and carefully walked into the hallway to his brother's room, not knowing if Marvin Sr. still had the gun, whether he was still in the room, or if his brother was dead. After walking into Gaye's bedroom, an emotional Frankie held him as Gaye bled rapidly. Frankie alleges that Marvin, barely speaking above a whisper, told him, "I got what I wanted... I couldn't do it myself, so I had him do it... it's good, I ran my race, there's no more left in me." After police arrived, Irene went to Marvin Sr. in his bedroom and asked him where the gun was. After searching over his bedroom, Irene located it under his pillow. Upon exiting the house, Irene dropped the gun on the lawn. Immediately following this, Marvin Sr., who had by now taken a seat on the front porch outside the house, was arrested. The police arrived twenty minutes after the shooting. Gaye's body was taken out of the house and sent to the California Hospital Medical Center. At approximately 1:01 p.m. (PST; 21:01 UTC), Gaye was pronounced dead on arrival. Gaye died on the day before his 45th birthday. As soon as his death was announced, several of Gaye's neighbors and onlookers paraded around the house, many in stunned shock and silence. Autopsy and funeral An autopsy was conducted on Gaye's body shortly after his death. Test results showed that he had elements of cocaine and PCP (or angel dust) in his system. After lawyers misread the coroner's report, Judge Ronald George determined later during preliminary hearings in the court case that PCP can often provoke violence. When told that the report had concluded only that Gaye had just cocaine traces in his system, the judge said PCP was not a major factor in his decision. During an interview with the police, Gaye's father contended that he was scared that something would happen to him and that he only meant to shoot in self-defense, stating he did not know the gun had any bullets in it, claiming he thought there were either "blanks or BBs." When asked if he loved his son, Marvin Sr. reportedly stated in a soft voice, "Let's say I didn't dislike him." Upon being told that his son had died from the shots, Marvin Sr. reportedly wept and sobbed after realizing he had killed him. Marvin Sr. was held on bond afterwards. It is believed by Gaye's siblings that his death was a "premeditated suicide". Jeanne later said that upon forcing his father's hand in the murder that he had "accomplished three things. He put himself out of his misery. He brought relief to Mother by finally getting her husband out of her life. And he punished Father, by making certain that the rest of his life would be miserable... my brother knew just what he was doing." On April 5, 1984, a star-studded funeral was held for Gaye at Forest Lawn Memorial Park, Glendale, attended by over 10,000 mourners, including his Motown colleagues; his two ex-wives, Anna Gaye and Janis Gaye; and his siblings, mother and three children. Smokey Robinson and Dick Gregory delivered eulogies, while Stevie Wonder performed "Lighting Up the Candles," which was later included on Wonder's soundtrack to the film Jungle Fever, and Cecil T. "Sesil J" Jenkins sang "The Lord's Prayer". At the open-casket funeral, Gaye was wearing one of his costumes from his final concert tour, a gold and white military style uniform, with an ermine wrap at his shoulders. The funeral was presided by the Chief Apostle of Gaye's family's old church, the House of God. Following the funeral, Gaye was given a burial plot. In accordance with the family's request, Gaye's body was cremated with half of his ashes spread near the Pacific Ocean by his three children and Anna Gaye. Anna and their adopted son, Marvin III, then kept a small portion of the ashes for themselves. Gaye left behind no will. As a result, his son Marvin III, aged 17 at the time, became co-administrator of his estate. At the time of his death, he was struggling financially, as the IRS had asked for $1 million (US$ in dollars) to pay back unpaid taxes of $600,000 (US$ in dollars) to the State of California and back alimony of $300,000 (US$ in dollars) to Anna and Janis Gaye. He was $1,900,000 (US$ in dollars) in debt at the time of his death, but royalties from Gaye's work eventually paid off those debts. Court case Marvin Sr. was held at the Los Angeles County Jail on $100,000 bail. His accounts of the shooting were printed in the Los Angeles Herald-Examiner, quoting his words: "I didn't mean to do it." During a check up at the County-USC Medical Center, a benign tumor was discovered at the base of Marvin Sr.'s brain. Doctors removed the tumor on May 17, 1984. On June 12, after reviewing a two-page report, including two psychiatric evaluations conducted by Ronald Markman, Judge Michael Pirosh ruled that Marvin Sr. was competent to stand trial. He appeared in court again on June 20, where he was ordered to return on July 16 for a preliminary hearing. His estranged wife, Alberta, posted the reduced bail of $30,000 via a bondsman to secure the ex-minister's release from jail. Two days earlier, she had filed for divorce, citing as grounds that she had officially separated from him following their son's fatal shooting on the same day. Looking over documents, the amount of drugs in Gaye's system, and pictures of Marvin Sr.'s injuries during his final fight with his son, Judge Ronald M. George agreed to grant Marvin Sr. a plea bargain. As a result, he pleaded no contest to a voluntary manslaughter charge on September 20, 1984. On November 2, 1984, Judge Gordon Ringer sentenced Marvin Sr. to a six-year suspended sentence and five years of probation. During the sentencing hearing, Marvin Sr. tearfully told the court: Aftermath Reactions News stations reported on Gaye's death almost immediately after it was announced, with one of the most prominent announcements coming from CBS anchor Dan Rather. Eulogies were delivered in American, Asian and European countries. The New York Times ran the story in its front page the day after his death. Many of Gaye's friends and peers were initially shocked to learn of Gaye’s death. Otis Williams, of the Motown group The Temptations, recalled receiving the news while touring with the Four Tops in Australia and said, "It was a very dark day that I will never forget as the day I lost a friend." Former Motown staffer Janie Bradford and her husband were driving home after listening to radio all day when the announcer announced Gaye's death. CBS Urban president Larkin Arnold was also reportedly stunned with the news as he had tried to get Gaye in the studio for his follow-up to Midnight Love. Smokey Robinson heard the news of Gaye's death on the radio. Feeling that his "innards wouldn't accept" the news, he called Gaye's ex-wife Anna to find out whether it was true, and she confirmed it before he could ask her, leaving Robinson in shock. Longtime Gaye admirer and former nephew-in-law Jermaine Jackson, brother of Michael Jackson, recalled sobbing uncontrollably once he heard the news and called Barry White to confirm the story. According to White, Gaye had agreed to do a series of duets with him. Ray Singleton, a former spouse of Berry Gordy's, received the news from Anna on the phone. Upon the arrival of her son and Gaye's adopted son, Marvin III, Singleton told Gaye III to go upstairs and talk to his mother, who then told him the news. VH1 listed Gaye's death as the eighth most shocking moment in rock and roll. Recollections of the death from admirers of Gaye included rapper Chuck D and Al Sharpton, who replied that the death came "like a sick, sad joke to all of us." Gordy, who was overcome with emotion and grief over Gaye's death, took out full-page ads following his funeral declaring that Gaye was "the greatest of his time" and the best recording artist he ever worked with. New wave group Duran Duran dedicated their hit ballad, "Save a Prayer", to Gaye the following afternoon during a performance in Oakland, California; their performance was later taped for the videotape, Arena. Immediately after his death, numerous fans of Gaye stood outside the house at Gramercy Place, placed memorabilia and other items on the lawn, and held vigils there, until the next day, Gaye's birthday. Memorials and tributes Gaye was placed on the cover of Rolling Stone for the third time in a posthumous cover in its May 10, 1984 issue. The issue discussed Gaye's personal life, his music, and his contributions to Motown and popular music. In November 1984, Diana Ross released the tribute song, "Missing You." It appeared on Ross' album, Swept Away, and later peaked at No. 1 on the Hot Black Singles chart and placed at No. 10 on the Billboard Hot 100. Later, a video of the song featured classic footage of Gaye, including footage of Gaye appearing at Ross' 1982 concert in Brussels. The following January while hosting the American Music Awards, Ross led an In Memoriam tribute to stars who died in 1984 with Gaye leading the tribute. Also in November 1984, Teena Marie released the tribute song, "My Dear Mr. Gaye" from her hit album, Starchild, the highest selling album of her career. The Commodores issued the song "Nightshift," which was dedicated to Gaye and fellow musician Jackie Wilson, who also died in 1984. The song, featured on their album of the same name, peaked at No. 1 on the rhythm and blues chart, reached the top ten on the Hot 100, and became a hit in other countries. Todd Rundgren's song "Lost Horizon" from his A Cappella album is said to be dedicated to Gaye. Rundgren later performed a medley of Gaye's hits during concerts and sometimes added "Lost Horizon" to the medley. In 1989, soul band Frankie Beverly & Maze produced the tribute song, "Silky Soul," taking its melody from "What's Going On." The song featured Nona Gaye in the video and later peaked at No. 5 on the R&B chart. At least two tribute albums of Gaye's have been released: 1995's Inner City Blues: The Music of Marvin Gaye and 1999's Marvin Is 60: A Tribute Album. Starting in 1985, there have been annual Marvin Gaye Day celebrations in the city of Washington, D.C., Gaye's hometown. The day was officiated by then-mayor Marion Barry on the day of Gaye's 46th birthday. Since then, a non-profit organization has helped to organize Marvin Gaye Day celebrations in the city. In 1986, Marvin's mother Alberta founded the Marvin P. Gaye Jr. Memorial Foundation, which is dedicated to those suffering from drug abuse and alcoholism. It opened a day after she died from complications of bone cancer in May 1987. In 1990, after years of petitions and letters, Gaye was given a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, with one of its most prominent letters written by longtime fan Eddie Murphy. Six years later, in 1996, Gaye posthumously received the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. In 2006, an old park that Gaye frequented as a teenager, the former Watts Branch Park, was renamed Marvin Gaye Park in his honor. Three years later, in 2009, the 5200 block of Foote Street NE in Deanwood, Washington, D.C., was renamed Marvin Gaye Way. On November 20, 2018, the United States Postal Service announced that Marvin Gaye would be featured on a first class postage stamp, as part of the Postal Service's Music Icons series (past honorees include Elvis Presley and John Lennon). See also Filicides in California: Judith Barsi (victim) Diane Downs (perpetrator) References Sources Further reading Marvin Gaye 1984 in California 1984 in music 1984 murders in the United States 1984 in Los Angeles Deaths by person in the United States Gaye Murder in Los Angeles Crimes in Los Angeles Deaths by firearm in California April 1984 events in the United States

24260903

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killing%20of%20Kevin%20McDaid

Killing of Kevin McDaid

Kevin Brendan McDaid was a community worker in Coleraine, Northern Ireland who was killed by a mob outside his home in May 2009. The Police Service of Northern Ireland said the attack was sectarian. His wife Evelyn was also attacked, as was a pregnant woman who pleaded with the attackers. Evelyn McDaid subsequently appealed for no retaliation to be taken, pointing out that her husband would not want this and that theirs was a mixed marriage – he was Catholic, she Protestant. Their neighbour Damien Fleming was also attacked and was hospitalised in a coma. Investigation In June 2009, police told the High Court that they suspected that members of the UDA were involved in the killing, with the judge concluding that there were "sectarian overtones" to the attack. Ten people have been arrested in connection with his death. A court was told that twenty people received death threats after the murder, half of those threatened being witnesses. Damien Fleming recovered sufficiently from his injuries to be allowed home, but was attacked again and is considering leaving Coleraine. In August 2009 the McDaid family home was one of two that were attacked. In February 2010 eleven people had been charged with Kevin McDaids' murder, all of them barred by court order from Coleraine. In April 2010 a man was charged with the murder of Kevin McDaid. The accused denied the charge, was released on bail of £500 and ordered to report to police twice a week. In January 2014 nine people were jailed for their involvement in the death of Kevin McDaid, although they eventually ended up being jailed for the lesser offences of manslaughter and attempted murder in June 2014. References 2009 murders in the United Kingdom 2009 in Northern Ireland 21st century in County Londonderry Anti-Catholicism in Northern Ireland Hate crimes People killed by the Ulster Defence Association People murdered in Northern Ireland Year of birth missing 2009 deaths People from Coleraine, County Londonderry May 2009 crimes

25573744

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killing%20of%20Rabbi%20Meir%20Hai

Killing of Rabbi Meir Hai

The killing of Rabbi Meir Hai was an attack carried out by Palestinian Fatah militants on 24 December 2009 in the West Bank. Background Rabbi Meir Avshalom Hai (alt. Chai) was a 45-year-old Israeli Rabbi and father of seven who lived in the Israeli settlement of Shavei Shomron located in the northern West Bank, where had resided for 14 years before his murder. Hai was a Torah teacher and principal at the Shavei Shomron school. Hai was the son-in-law of the former Emanuel mayor Eliyahu Merav and was also a well-known member of the Bratslav Hassidic community. The attack On Thursday, 24 December 2009, at around 16:30 pm Hai drove his minivan out of the village of Einav and headed towards his home at Shavei Shomron. While driving on Highway 57, a group of Palestinian militants driving a golf vehicle drove next to Hai's vehicle and opened fire at him, apparently with an automatic weapon. Hai was hit in the head from 10 bullets. As a result, Hai's vehicle swerved to the side of the road. After the attack the attackers fled the scene and abandoned their vehicle near the village Asira ash-Shamaliya after they set the vehicle on fire in order to conceal any evidence connecting the perpetrators to the event. A team of Magen David Adom paramedics was urged to the scene. They found Hai in his car, unconscious, bleeding massively, with no pulse and not breathing. After resuscitation efforts the paramedics team pronounced his death. According to an anonymous Israel Defense Forces officer, a week before the attack, Israel had removed a traffic-monitoring roadblock about from where Hai was shot. The attackers apparently fled through the point where the roadblock previously stood, to the village of Asira ash-Shamaliya. The militants The Imad Mughniyeh Group, a little-known affiliate of the Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, the armed wing of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah party, claimed responsibility for the attack. The group said its members "withdrew from the area safely." It also warned of "a series of attacks to come." The three militants involved in the killing were: Raed Sarkaji, a Tanzim operative who was released in January 2009 from an Israeli prison after serving a seven-year sentence on terror charges; Anan Subuh, an Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades operative pardoned by Israel as part of a 2007 deal, under which 400 Fatah militants handed in their weapons, promised to cease their terror activity, and in return were assured that the IDF would stop pursuing them; and Raghan Abu Sharah. Initial statements The Yesha Council stated that the murderous shooting attack in Samaria is a direct result of the policy of lifting restrictions on the Palestinians, removal of necessary road blocks in Judea and Samaria and the transfer of the responsibility for security to those whose ranks produced many terrorists who murdered Jews. As in the case of similar incidents in the past, once again the gestures aimed at [Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas] Abu Mazen carry a price tag of Jewish blood. Israeli Interior Minister Eli Yishai, Justice Minister Yaakov Neeman, and Members of Knesset Yaakov Katz and Uri Ariel attended Hai's funeral. Yishai stated that "Hundreds and thousands of children are crying over the loss of the rabbi," referring to the Jewish learning institutes Hai had set up. Israeli Member of Knesset Michael Ben-Ari, from the far-right National Union party, said that "the path of capitulation, the opening of arteries, the [settlement] freeze and the release of [Palestinian] prisoners that [Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu has brought down upon us signals to terrorists that Jewish blood is negligible. The terrorist probably thinks that he will be released in the next exchange." Response Israeli response On 26 December, IDF Duvdevan Unit and Nahshon Battalion troops conducted an operation in separate locations in Nablus to locate three of the Fatah Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades operatives who were determined by the Shin Bet to be behind the attack: Raghsan Abu Sharah, Raed a-Sarkaji and Anan Sabah. The fourth suspect reportedly turned himself in to Israeli authorities prior to the operation. Short confrontations took place at the homes of Abu Sharah and a-Sarkaji. IDF forces used different methods including shots in the air in order to make the two surrender. Both refused, though Abu Sharah sent out his wife. In the third location, where Sabah was staying, a several-hour-long standoff included the firing of an antitank missile toward the house, in an attempt to force Sabah out. All three were shot dead by Israeli troops following their refusal to surrender. An M16 rifle seized from Sabah was later identified by a police forensics lab as the weapon used in the attack. Sabah had been released from an Israeli prison as part of the amnesty deal with the Palestinian Authority in 2007, in which Israel agreed not to hunt down Palestinian gunmen who agreed to lay down their arms. Major Peter Lerner, spokesman for Israel's Central Command stated that all three had been involved in anti-Israel violence in the past through activities in the Aksa Martyrs Brigades. The following day, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stated at the start of the weekly cabinet meeting: I want to praise the Shin Bet and the IDF on the speedy operation against the cell which murdered Rabbi Meir Hai. Our policy against terrorism is clear. We will continue to respond aggressively – against any attack on Israeli citizens and against any firing of rockets or missiles at Israeli territory. Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad condemned the Israeli operation as an "assassination" and "an attempt to target the state of security and stability that the Palestinian Authority has been able to achieve." The Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades threatened a quick response to the operation, stating: "This is a despicable ... We will not stand idly by and the holy warriors' blood will not be shed in vain. The enemy will see nothing but the language of blood and fire. It [the enemy] will pay for the crime … the response will be quick." The shooting was cited in newspaper editorials demanding greater security for Israelis in the West Bank. Palestinian Authority response On 25 December, the Palestinian Authority stated that its security forces had rounded up, interrogated and released some 150 suspects in connection with the attack. According to an Israel Radio report, most of the suspects were residents of Tulkarem, and two of them were still being interrogated as of 25 December. Sources in the IDF lauded the conduct of the Palestinian security establishment in its response to the killing of Hai, calling it "determined and impressive." Fatah officials warned that the killing of its operatives could trigger a third intifada, which would be directed not against Israel but against the (Fatah-controlled) Palestinian Authority. During the funerals of the three men, thousands of Palestinians chanted slogans accusing the PA of collusion with Israel and calling for the dismantling of the PA. The funerals were described by a local journalist as "one of the biggest anti-Palestinian Authority demonstrations" in many years. In addition, the Fatah named a soccer tournament in honor of the militants, called the "Martyrs Raed Al-Sarkaji, Anan Subh, Ghassan Abu Sharakh, and Haitham Al-Naana Ramadan Football Championship" as reported in the Palestinian newspaper Al-Hayat Al-Jadida. See also Palestinian political violence Tapuah Junction stabbing (2010) External links Murder of Rabbi Meir Avshalom Chai - published at the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs Jewish settler shot by Palestinian in the West Bank - published on The Daily Telegraph on 24 December 2009 Gunmen kill Israeli in West Bank shooting attack - published on The Seattle Times on 24 December 2009 Israeli killed in West Bank shooting attack - published on Reuters on 24 December 2009 Israeli settler killed in West Bank shooting - published on BBC News on 24 December 2009 West Bank: Israeli Settler Killed - published on The New York Times on 24 December 2009 References People of the Israeli–Palestinian conflict 2009 crimes in the Palestinian territories Israeli murder victims Murder in 2009 Drive-by shootings Deaths by firearm in the West Bank

26322477

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killing%20of%20Joseph%20Erin%20Hamley

Killing of Joseph Erin Hamley

On March 7, 2006, Joseph Erin Hamley (February 3, 1985 – March 7, 2006), an unarmed man, was fatally shot by Arkansas State Trooper Larry P. Norman of West Fork, Arkansas. At 7 a.m. on March 7, 2006, Hamley, who suffered from cerebral palsy, was walking alone on U.S. Route 412, just outside the community of Tontitown along the Benton-Washington county line when several Washington County deputies surrounded him. Four minutes later, before being identified, and while lying on the ground, a shotgun slug fired by Norman, an Arkansas State Trooper breaking police protocol and procedure killed Hamley. The fatal shooting was recorded from multiple vantage points on dashboard cameras of the various police cruisers present. Norman was indicted on and pled guilty to negligent homicide. Mistaken identity with Adam Lee Leadford After the negligent homicide, the Washington County Sheriffs Department and Arkansas State Police stated they believed the mentally disabled Joseph Erin Hamley to be Adam Lee Leadford whom they described as an escaped convict. Joseph Erin Hamley stood and weighed . Leadford was and . Leadford, then 18, was a Michigan teenager who ran away from a court-sponsored boot camp, where he was sentenced for vandalizing school buses and then struggling with an officer while resisting arrest. An unarmed Leadford was later shot in the throat by Springdale Police and arrested in a parking lot of a Wal-Mart on the evening of Joseph Erin Hamley's shooting death. Director of Arkansas State Police Col. Steve Dozier stated at a press conference in Springdale, Arkansas on March 10, 2006 "Leadford had a .22 caliber rifle when he was stopped." Leadford had abandoned the weapon in a vehicle, and it was not on his person when he was shot by Springdale police after walking through a Wal-Mart. He is now serving 30 years in an Arkansas state prison. Response The Washington County Deputies and Arkansas State Troopers present at the scene remained silent concerning the shooting for the first three days, until the head of Arkansas State Police Col. Steve Dozier traveled to Springdale, Arkansas, on March 10, 2006, to give a rare press conference. Dozier stated that he wanted to "reassure the public that a thorough investigation was under way" into the shooting that left a 21-year-old disabled man dead. The director of Arkansas State Police addressed the media on the fatal police shooting with members of the Joseph Erin Hamley family in attendance. Col. Steve Dozier stated that the Arkansas State Trooper Larry Norman "'likely had memories of a recent police killing' when he shot and killed a mentally handicapped man mistaken for a Michigan 'jail escapee' known to be in the area." Dozier said officers likely remembered Gassville policeman Jim Sell, who was shot and killed February 4, by a teenager (Jacob D. Robida) wanted in a hatchet-and-gun attack on a Massachusetts gay bar. "We also feel like, in the back of these officers' minds, was the Mountain Home incident," Dozier said. Dozier stated, "Hamley was built like, and looked like, Leadford." He stated that "the officers ordered Hamley to lie down, and Hamley instead responded by putting his hands in his pockets and taking them out." Colonel Steve Dozier stated, Hamley "began moving in a manner that these officers, at that point, interpreted as movement toward a weapon that they thought was likely concealed in his waist." When Joseph Erin Hamley's family started to ask questions concerning the length of time Larry Norman had been at the scene and if Joseph was asked his identity, officers at the news conference deflected the questions saying there would be a more appropriate time to discuss the matter with the Hamley family. Head of Arkansas State Police Col. Steve Dozier resigned at the end of May 2007 stating he was stepping down to go to work as vice president of corporate services for Wal-Mart Stores Inc. He retired one month before the final sentencing of Arkansas State Trooper Larry Norman for negligent homicide and the release of the Benton County special grand jury report with the police cruiser dash camera videos that followed. Aftermath Dashcam videos The Arkansas State Police and Washington County Sheriff departments refused to release the dash cam videos of the incident until after Arkansas State Trooper Larry Norman was sentenced. The trial date was postponed twice, before Norman finally pleaded guilty. When released the video recordings from inside Norman's cruiser clearly show he sped to the site, sometimes going over 100 mph, with his AM/FM radio blasting so loud he could not hear his police radio. By the time Norman arrived at the scene, Arkansas State Trooper Short and four Washington County Sheriff's deputies had surrounded Hamley. They had their guns drawn and were taking defensive positions behind their cars. One officer mentioned that if he could get close enough to Hamley, he would use his Taser stun gun. Instead of blocking traffic as he was instructed to do, Arkansas State Trooper Larry Norman did a U-turn and pulled up about 25 yards from the young man and pulled out his shotgun. Grand jury Before making its decision, the panel of 16 jurors viewed videotaped interviews with officers who were at the scene of the shooting, including Norman, and viewed recordings from cameras installed on the squad cars. They also went to the site itself, along Highway 412, where cars were placed in the same positions and locations as the patrol cars were at the time of the shooting. A mannequin placed at the site represented Hamley's body. They determined Hamley, who had cerebral palsy, followed officers' instructions to get down on the ground, but laid down on his back instead of his abdomen. The Benton County Special Grand Jury found that possibly in an effort to comply with the trooper's instructions to roll over, when Larry Norman directed Joseph Erin Hamley to turn over, Hamley reached across his body. That's when Norman shot one time, the slug hitting the pavement, then striking Hamley's arm and going into his body. When officers approached him, Hamley moaned, saying, "I'm sorry". He then asked, "Why did you shoot me?" The grand jury noted that Trooper Norman was on the scene for less than one minute when he shot Hamley, and that he "made no attempt to communicate with State Trooper Wilson Short or the Washington County Sheriff's deputies" that had the situation under control. "We will note that we are extremely troubled by the lack of communication between the officers from the Arkansas State Police themselves and, too, with the Washington County Sheriff's Deputies, who were on a scrambled radio frequency," the grand jury concluded "as a result of their lack of communication, there was no coordinated plan of action between them. … We will also note that we are disturbed by the fact that there was no attempt to positively identify the subject prior to the shooting," stated the grand jury, and they were "concerned that the officers' microphones were either turned off or nonexistent, preventing recordings to be made of their conversations during and after the incident." Several toy balls that were taken from Hamley's pockets after he was fatally shot were also viewed by the grand jury. On April 13, 2006, Norman was indicted by the grand jury on a charge of negligent homicide. On June 28, 2007, Norman pleaded guilty to the charge and was sentenced to 90 days in jail, 30 days of community service, one year of probation, and a $1,000 fine. Norman served 54 days of his jail sentence. The Arkansas State Police settled a lawsuit on March 5, 2007 with the victim's family for one million dollars. Norman was later granted a full early medical retirement from the Arkansas State Police at the age of 40. Conflict of interest accusations In May 2006, Arkansas State Police Sergeant and investigator in the fatal police shooting of Joseph Erin Hamley, Steve Coppinger stated that he saw no problem with sending an email to fellow troopers asking for donations to the legal defense fund of Arkansas State Trooper Larry Norman after he was appointed as the lead investigator in the case. Sergeant Coppinger told the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, "I don't see a conflict at all." Later that month, a department spokesperson with the Arkansas State Police said that "Coppinger is now being investigated to determine whether he violated department policy by sending the email on his police computer and workplace email account." Proposed rename After the shooting death, the Springdale City Council received a proposal to rename Grove Street Park the Joseph Erin Hamley Memorial Park in honor of Hamley, who spent a lot of time on a swing set in the park. The Arkansas State Police contacted the City Council stating that it would not be proper to rename the park while the investigation was still on-going. The Arkansas State Police later settled out of court with the victim's family, and the Grove Street Park was not renamed. Sealed records The probate case files concerning the terms of the Arkansas State Police settlement with the Joseph Erin Hamley estate, which are normally open to the public, were sealed from the public by a judge in Washington County on February 15, 2007. See also List of cases of police brutality List of killings by law enforcement officers in the United States References 2006 deaths Deaths by firearm in Arkansas Police brutality in the United States Police misconduct in the United States Filmed killings by law enforcement People shot dead by law enforcement officers in the United States 2006 in Arkansas 1985 births Crimes in Arkansas Law enforcement in Arkansas History of Washington County, Arkansas Disability in the United States Arkansas State Police

27389500

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killing%20of%20Aiyana%20Jones

Killing of Aiyana Jones

Aiyana Mo'Nay Stanley-Jones (July 20, 2002 – May 16, 2010) was a seven-year-old African-American girl from Detroit's East Side who was shot in the head and killed by police officer Joseph Weekley during a raid conducted by the Detroit Police Department's Special Response Team targeting a suspect in the apartment a floor above Jones' on May 16, 2010. Her death drew national media attention and led U.S. Representative John Conyers to ask U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder for a federal investigation into the incident. Officer Joseph Weekley was charged in connection with Jones' killing. In October 2011, he was charged with involuntary manslaughter and reckless endangerment with a gun. Weekley's first trial ended in a mistrial in June 2013. His retrial began in September 2014. On October 3, the judge, Cynthia Gray Hathaway, dismissed the involuntary manslaughter charge against Weekley, leaving him on trial for only one charge: recklessly discharging a firearm. On October 10, the second trial ended in another mistrial. On January 28, 2015, a prosecutor cleared Weekley of the last remaining charge against him, ensuring there would not be a third trial. Context On May 14, 2010, Southeastern High School senior Je'Rean Blake was shot and killed near the intersection of Mack and Beniteau streets on Detroit's east side. By the end of the following day, police had identified Chauncey Owens as a suspect in Blake's death and obtained a warrant to search 4054 Lillibridge St, where Owens was believed to be hiding. The building was a duplex; Owens's girlfriend LaKrysta Sanders lived in the upstairs apartment, while her mother and Aiyana Jones' grandmother, Mertilla Jones, lived in the downstairs apartment. At the time of the incident Aiyana Jones was asleep on the couch in front room of the downstairs apartment. Owens was in the upstairs apartment. An A&E reality TV television crew was accompanying the police Special Response Team gathering footage for The First 48. Weekley had been featured on another A&E police reality show, Detroit SWAT. Two weeks prior to the incident, a Detroit police officer had been killed in the line of duty while attempting to arrest a suspect. Owens was later found guilty of Blake's murder. People involved Aiyana Jones was the daughter of Charles Jones and Dominika Stanley. She was one of three children of the couple and had four stepsiblings. Death According to press reports, police were on the scene by 12:40 a.m. on Sunday, May 16, 2010. In an attempt to distract the occupants, police fired a flash grenade through the front window of the lower apartment, where Aiyana Jones was sleeping. Officer Weekley claimed that the flash grenade subsequently blinded his view of the person on the couch in the living room. Police officers, bystanders, and residents of the home disagreed about the events that followed. According to reports, seconds after entering the house, Weekley fired the fatal shot. He pushed his way inside, protected by a ballistic shield. Weekley claimed Aiyana Jones' paternal grandmother, Mertilla Jones, attempted to slap his MP5 submachine gun, causing it to fire. The bullet struck Aiyana killing her. Weekley stated, "A woman inside grabbed my gun. It fired. The bullet hit a child." Mertilla Jones said she reached for her granddaughter when the grenade came through the window, not for the officer's gun, because the flash grenade had set the child on fire. She said she made no contact with any officers. After the shot was fired, Weekley reported to his sergeant that a woman inside had grabbed for his gun. Police arrested Mertilla, administered tests for drugs and gunpowder, and released her Sunday morning. At Weekley's retrial in 2014, it was disclosed that Mertilla's fingerprints were not found on Weekley's gun. Geoffrey Fieger, the family's lawyer, said the police fired the shot that struck Aiyana from outside the home, possibly through the open front door. Weekley was a member of Detroit's SWAT team and a frequent subject on the A&E Network (A&E), whose film crews were also filming the investigation for the documentary TV series The First 48. Chauncey Owens, the suspect who the raid was intended to apprehend and boyfriend of Aiyana's aunt LaKrystal Sanders, was found in the upper-floor apartment of the duplex and surrendered without incident. Aftermath After a one-year internal and federal investigation, on October 4, 2011, a grand jury indicted Weekley on involuntary manslaughter and reckless endangerment with a gun. He admitted in his first trial that, "It's my gun that shot and killed a 7-year-old girl." His trial was scheduled for October and finally took place in June 2013 but resulted in a deadlocked jury. A fresh trial was scheduled for December 2013, but actually began in September 2014. Allison Howard, a videographer and photographer with A&E who was also present at the raid, was indicted on obstruction of justice and perjury for allegedly "copying, showing or giving video footage that she shot of the raid to third parties". In June 2013, Howard pleaded "no contest" to the obstruction of justice charge, and the perjury charge was dismissed. Allison Howard was sentenced to two years of probation in July 2013, and fined $2,000. Trial Weekley's first trial ended in a mistrial in June 2013. Wayne County Circuit Judge Cynthia Gray Hathaway presided over the case. Aiyana's case would be the longest presiding case that Hathaway had in more than 20 years of being on the bench. Retrial Weekley's retrial started in September 2014. He was charged with involuntary manslaughter and "negligent firing of a weapon causing death". On the second day of trial, September 24, LaKrystal Sanders, who lived on the upper floor of the house where Aiyana was killed, testified. Sanders was Aiyana Jones's paternal aunt, the girlfriend of Chauncey Owens, and the daughter of Mertilla Jones. While Sanders was on the stand, Judge Cynthia Hathaway told her that she (Sanders) was being "disrespectful." Aiyana's mother Dominika Stanley, and paternal grandmother Mertilla testified, and both had "emotional outbursts." After the grandmother's outburst, the judge ordered the jury out of the room and the grandmother was escorted from the court room screaming. Because of Mertilla Jones's outburst, the judge stopped the trial until September 29. On September 29, Weekley's lawyer asked the judge for a mistrial, citing Mertilla Jones's conduct on the stand the week before. The judge denied the motion for mistrial, saying she believed the jury could still be "impartial." However, the judge also said if Mertilla Jones and the other relatives continued to have outbursts on the stand, then she would declare a mistrial. On October 3, the judge dismissed the involuntary manslaughter charge against Weekley. On October 10, the judge declared a mistrial due to jury deadlock. On January 28, 2015, county prosecutor Kym Worthy dismissed the last remaining charge against Weekley, the misdemeanor of 'careless discharge of a firearm causing death'. Weekley will not go to a third trial. Jurors The jury claimed that race did not affect the decision of their verdict. The jury stall resulted in seven voting "not guilty" and five voting "guilty". Funeral Aiyana Jones' funeral was held in the Second Ebenezer Church on May 22, 2010 in Detroit. Reverend Al Sharpton gave the eulogy. Charles Jones, Aiyana's father, wore a black suit, pink tie and pink handkerchief in remembrance of his daughter as pink was her favorite color. The casket was white and was afterwards driven to the grave by horse-drawn carriage. She was buried on the grounds. Controversy Lawsuits A civil rights lawsuit questioned Weekley's account of the incident, claiming the grenade had gone through the window and struck Aiyana. The lawsuit asserts that police were outside of the home where they "blindly fired random shots," and one of the bullets fatally struck the 7-year-old child in the neck. The lawsuit charges Rowe and Weekley for the unlawful use of excessive force. Furthermore, the police department and unnamed supervisors of the Special Response Team in the city of Detroit were being sued for violating the civil rights of Aiyana Jones through their training and policy procedure. The family is seeking $7.5 million in damages and a jury trial conceded by the court filing. Two days after Jones's death, on May 18, 2010, attorney Geoffrey Fieger filed lawsuits on behalf of her family against A&E and the police. Fieger video claim Attorney Fieger claimed that footage, from an undisclosed source, showed that the lethal bullet came from outside the home, rather than inside, as police said. A spokesman for city police demanded that Fieger share the tape's contents with Michigan State Police investigators. Fieger responded by saying he does not have the supposed video, which he claims was made by the A&E Network reality show The First 48. Michigan State Police Detective Tawana Powell testified during the 2014 trial that the investigation discovered that the video Fieger was talking about did not exist. John Weekley Follow-Up On April 2, 2015, nearly five years following Jones's death, Officer Weekley was returned to active duty as a Detroit police officer. The department decided to withdraw him from active duty shortly after the shooting on May 16, 2010. Weekley was transferred from the Special Response Team to the Criminal Investigations Bureau. Police Chief James Craig stated, "He'll be in a limited duty capacity. He won't be in the field." Popular media In September 2013, J. Cole published a music video dedicated to Jones for his song Crooked Smile, featuring TLC on YouTube. Rally In May 2016, BlackMattersUS held a small rally in memory of Jones. Families of people killed by police officers and activists gathered at the feet of the Spirit of Detroit statue in front of the Coleman A. Young Municipal Center in Detroit. On July 20, 2016 Detroit police arrested six unknown individuals for chaining themselves to a precinct of the Detroit Police Department, their protest honoring Jones. The Detroit chapter of the Black Youth Project 100 (BYP100) and Black Lives Matter Detroit organized the rally on what would have been her 14th birthday. Protestors pleaded for the termination of Officer Weekley as he had been selected to co-chair the Detroit Police Department's Committee on Race and Equality. Grandmother Mertilla Jones said, "Accountability needs to be expected from cases like this, because cops can't keep killing people and getting away with it." See also Lists of killings by law enforcement officers in the United States References External links Joe "Brain" Weekley's webpage at A&E: Meet the SWAT Teams 2010 controversies 2010 crimes in the United States 2010 in Michigan 2010 in Detroit Child deaths Crimes in Detroit Police brutality in the United States Black Lives Matter African-American-related controversies May 2010 events in the United States Law enforcement controversies in the United States Detroit Police Department Filmed killings by law enforcement African Americans shot dead by law enforcement officers in the United States Deaths by person in the United States

28923408

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killing%20of%20Raymond%20Yellow%20Thunder

Killing of Raymond Yellow Thunder

Raymond Yellow Thunder (January 1, 1921 – February 13, 1972) was an Oglala Lakota, born in Kyle, South Dakota, on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. He was killed in Gordon, Nebraska. His death became notable as an example of a racial assault, as he was murdered by four white men who had bragged earlier that evening about beating an Indian. The case proved that he had been tortured and mutilated prior to his death, and members of the American Indian Movement went to Gordon in search of justice in the case. The prosecution of his killers aroused much controversy, as the two brothers, convicted of manslaughter, were given light sentences. Early life and education Yellow Thunder was one of seven children of Jennie and Andrew Yellow Thunder and the grandson of Chief American Horse. He was noted in his reservation school to be an average student, a good athlete, and the best artist in the school. He was gifted in taming horses, which allowed him to work as a ranch hand in his adult years. Marriage and family He married Dora Cutgrass when they were young. They divorced and did not have children. Career Yellow Thunder eventually pursued work in Gordon as a ranch hand. As an employee, he was "so reliable that Harold Rucker, who employed Yellow Thunder for many years, was immediately alarmed when he wasn't at the appointed spot in Gordon where he picked him up to take him back to the ranch on Sunday evenings." Death On February 12, 1972, Yellow Thunder was walking down the street in Gordon. The brothers Leslie and Melvin Hare along with friends Bernard Lutter, and Robert Bayliss, found him by a used-car lot. The Hares and Bayliss assaulted Yellow Thunder. They had been heard earlier that night talking about "busting an Indian". They stripped Yellow Thunder of his pants and undergarments and shoved him into the trunk of their car. Jeanette Thompson was present, but reportedly did not participate in the assault or kidnapping. The Hares, Lutter, and Bayliss took Yellow Thunder to the American Legion club. There, they shoved the half-naked Yellow Thunder into the hall, where patrons briefly gawked at the spectacle. Though offered help by employees of the club, Yellow Thunder rejected assistance and left the club alone. The following day, February 13, 1972, Yellow Thunder was found by George Ghost Dog, an Oglala Lakota boy. Yellow Thunder told him, "I got beat up by some white guys", and Ghost Dog left him. This was the last time Yellow Thunder was seen alive. It is believed that he took shelter in a car in the used-car lot and died a few days later of his injuries. This is where he was found eight days after Ghost Dog had seen him. The autopsy showed that he had died of subdural hematoma, caused by blunt trauma to his forehead above his right eye. Prosecution Leslie and Melvin Hare, Robert Bayliss, Bernard Lutter, and Jeanette Thompson were arrested as suspects for the death of Yellow Thunder, as numerous witnesses had seen them with the man before his death. The Hares, Bayliss, and Lutter were charged with manslaughter and false imprisonment. Thompson was also charged with false imprisonment. Lutter's charges of manslaughter were eventually dropped in exchange for testimony against the other defendants. All five defendants posted their bail. Thompson's charges were later dropped as the prosecution decided that she did not participate in the crimes. Upon hearing rumors perpetuated by newspapers and suspicious Indians that Yellow Thunder had been forced to dance naked at the American Legion Club, tortured and castrated before being killed, members of the American Indian Movement entered the case to protest for justice. The AIM vowed to pursue justice and demonstrated in Gordon against the brutalization of Native Americans, with Yellow Thunder's death at the center of the demonstrations. The police conducted a second autopsy, whose results dispelled the rumors of torture and mutilation. Leslie and Melvin Hare were eventually convicted of manslaughter and sentenced to six years with a $500 fine, and two years with a $500 fine, respectively. Incensed by the meager sentences, the AIM started a protest against the decision. The AIM's involvement in the Yellow Thunder case contributed to its gaining members for a chapter at Pine Ridge Reservation, and led to its involvement in the Wounded Knee Incident, as well as gaining national media attention. See also List of people from Nebraska List of people from South Dakota References Further reading "2d Autopsy of Dead Sioux Finds No Torture Evidence," The Washington Post [Washington D.C.] 10 Mar 1972: 12. Proquest. Web. 18 Sept. 2010. "Death of Indian Sparks Protest," New York Times 8 May 1972: 37. Proquest. Web. 15 Sept. 2010. Engle, Michael J. Thunder On the Prairie: The Raymond Yellow Thunder Case and the Rise of the American Indian Movement, PhD Diss., The University of Texas El Paso, 1997. ELibrary. Web. 15 Sept. 2010. "Jury in Nebraska Convicts 2 Brothers in Death of Indian," New York Times, 27 May 1972: 60. Proquest. Web. 15 Sept. 2010. Magnuson, Stew. The Death of Raymond Yellow Thunder: and Other True Stories from the Nebraska-Pine Ridge Border Towns, Lubbock, TX: Texas Tech UP, 2008. Print.'' Murdered Native American people People murdered in Nebraska 1972 murders in the United States 20th-century Native Americans Killing Lakota people People from the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, South Dakota People from Oglala Lakota County, South Dakota People from Gordon, Nebraska 1972 deaths Racially motivated violence in the United States

30871914

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killing%20of%20Latasha%20Harlins

Killing of Latasha Harlins

Latasha Harlins (January 1, 1976 – March 16, 1991) was an African-American girl who was fatally shot at age 15 by Soon Ja Du (), a 51-year-old Korean-American convenience store owner. Du was tried and convicted of voluntary manslaughter in Harlins' death, based in part on security camera footage. The judge sentenced Du to 10 years in state prison but the sentence was suspended and the defendant was instead placed on five years' probation with 400 hours of community service, a $500 restitution, and funeral expenses. The sentencing was widely regarded as an extremely light sentence, and a failed appeal contributed to the 1992 Los Angeles riots, especially the targeting of Koreatown, Los Angeles. Harlins' death came 13 days after the videotaped beating of Rodney King. Life Latasha Harlins was born January 1, 1976, in East St. Louis, Illinois, to Crystal Harlins and Sylvester "Vester" Acoff Sr. Latasha had one younger brother, Vester Acoff Jr., and one younger sister, Christina. The family moved from Illinois to south-central Los Angeles in 1981. In 1982, when Latasha was six years old, her father took a job in a steel foundry while her mother worked as a waitress in a local tavern. They lived near 89th St. and Broadway, just a few blocks from where Latasha would be killed ten years later. Acoff Sr. was known to be abusive towards Crystal, attacking and beating her in front of Latasha and her younger siblings. Their unstable marriage eventually ended in 1983. On November 27, 1985, Crystal was brutally shot dead outside a Los Angeles nightclub by Cora Mae Anderson, Acoff's new girlfriend, leaving Latasha and her younger siblings in the care of their maternal grandmother, Ruth Harlins. The death of her mother had a devastating impact on Latasha, who began to rebel and argue with her maternal grandmother and her maternal aunt Denise. At the time of her own death in 1991, Latasha was a student at Westchester High School. She was buried next to her mother in Paradise Memorial Park, Santa Fe Springs, California. Death Soon Ja Du's store, Empire Liquor, was located at the intersection of West 91st Street and South Figueroa Street, Vermont Vista, Los Angeles, and was normally staffed by Du's husband and son. However, on the morning of the shooting, Du was working behind the counter, and her husband was outside resting in the family van. Shortly before 10:00 am on Saturday, March 16, Harlins entered the store. Du observed Harlins putting a $1.79 bottle of orange juice in her backpack. Du concluded Harlins was attempting to steal, and did not see the money Harlins held in her hand. Du claimed to have asked Harlins if she intended to pay for the orange juice, to which Du claimed Harlins responded, "What orange juice?" Two eyewitnesses—9-year-old Ismail Ali and his 13-year-old sister Lakeshia Combs—disputed that claim, saying that Du called Harlins a "bitch" and accused her of trying to steal, to which they claimed Harlins replied that she intended to pay for the orange juice. After speaking with the two eyewitnesses present and viewing the videotape of the incident, recorded by a store security camera, the police concluded that Harlins intended to pay for the beverage with money in hand. The videotape showed that Du grabbed Harlins by her sweater and snatched her backpack. Harlins then struck Du with her fist twice, knocking Du to the ground. After Harlins backed away, Du angrily threw a stool at her. Harlins then picked up the orange juice bottle that dropped during the scuffle and handed it to Du, who snatched the bottle from her, and Harlins turned to leave. Du reached under the counter, retrieved a revolver, and fired at Harlins from behind at a distance of about . The gunshot struck Harlins in the back of the head, killing her instantly. Du's husband, Billy Heung Ki Du, heard the gunshot and rushed into the store. After speaking to his wife, who asked for the whereabouts of Harlins before fainting, he dialed 9-1-1 to report an attempted holdup. Trial Soon Ja Du testified on her own behalf, claiming that the shooting was in self-defense and that she believed her life was in danger. But her testimony was contradicted by the statements of the two witnesses present at the time, as well as the store's security camera video, which showed Du shooting Harlins in the back of the head as she turned away from Du and attempted to leave the store. The Los Angeles Police Department ballistics report also found that the handgun Du used was altered in such a way that it required much less pressure on the trigger to fire than an ordinary handgun. Decision and sentence On November 15, 1991, a jury found that Du's decision to fire the gun was fully within her control and that she fired the gun voluntarily. The jury found Du guilty of voluntary manslaughter, an offense that carries a maximum prison sentence of 16 years. However, the trial judge, Joyce Karlin, sentenced Du to five years of probation, 10 years of suspended prison, 400 hours of community service, and a $500 fine. Judge Karlin suggested that there were mitigating circumstances in Harlins' death. She stated, "Did Mrs. Du react inappropriately? Absolutely. But was that reaction understandable? I think that it was." Karlin added, "this is not a time for revenge...and no matter what sentence this court imposes Mrs. Du will be punished every day for the rest of her life." The court also stated that Du shot Harlins under extreme provocation and duress and deemed it unlikely that Du would ever commit a serious crime again. Furthermore, Karlin deemed that Du's capacity to act rationally in the situation was undermined by her experience with past robberies. California Court of Appeal A state appeals court later unanimously upheld Judge Karlin's sentencing decision, 3–0, on April 21, 1992, about a week before the LA riots. In July 1992, the Harlins family was awarded $300,000 in settlement. Effects The incident and reduced sentencing by the court exacerbated the existing tensions between African-American residents and Asian-American merchants in south-central Los Angeles. Those tensions were later interpreted by some members of the public and activists as being one of the catalysts for the 1992 Los Angeles riots. The Los Angeles mayor's office estimated that 65 percent of all businesses vandalized during the riots were Korean-owned. On August 17, 1991, while Du was awaiting trial, a small fire occurred at her store. During the 1992 riots, Du's store was looted and burned down, and it never reopened. The property later became a market under different ownership. Effect on black and Korean relations After the widely publicized shooting of Latasha Harlins, relations between the black and Korean communities continued to deteriorate rapidly. Despite intervention from leaders of both communities, the time after the death of Latasha Harlins was categorized by boycotts, tense debate, bitterness, Molotov cocktails, and more convenience store murders. However, while tensions had exponentially increased because of the killing of Harlins, they were built on existing conflict that had been present in the community. Korean immigrant shop-owners had a growing presence in black communities since before the 1970s. Since then, they had been a target of anger from both black shop-owners and black customers, with incompatible claims from either group that say Korean shop-owners "undercut prices" by the shop-owners and that they overcharged customers. In 1984, seven years before Harlins was shot, an editorial was posted in a black community newspaper urging a boycott of Korean stores, saying that any black person who went to their stores was a 'traitor'. Korean immigrants bought their storefronts in black neighborhoods, specifically South Los Angeles, because the real estate was significantly cheaper than other neighborhoods. The distrust ran possibly even further, because in the same editorial the writer exclaims, "The real question is, why was my brother's brains blown out fighting for those Koreans?" in reference to the Korean War. Further, the stereotypes of the two groups were a source of contention, with black people often being labeled as economically "dependent", with Koreans and other Asians often labeled economically self-sufficient. Tensions only continued to mount, particularly after police officers were found not guilty of beating Rodney King. These events were considered factors in deadly and destructive riots which began on April 29, 1992, and continued through May 4, 1992. Many of the targets of looting and destruction were Korean stores; more than two-thousand Korean stores burned or looted. Though these ethnic tensions have not resulted in wide-scale violence since 1992, the relationship between Koreans and the black community was still strained as of 1996. Recent years have seen improved relations between the two communities, as a younger generation of Korean American LA residents showed up in great numbers—in some cases even organizing protests—to support the Black Lives Matter movement during the summer of 2020. Los Angeles riots in 1992 Latasha Harlins' murder was one of many events in Los Angeles that may have led to the riots in 1992. In the eyes of many in the black community, it was tragic that Soon Ja Du did not receive any jail time for her crime. While the jury convicted Du of manslaughter, which normally carries a maximum of 16 years in prison, the judge, Joyce Karlins, commuted her sentence to probation and a $500 fine—this angered many in the black community, as well as other community members, who felt that the sentencing set a dangerous precedent. The sentencing of Soon Ja Du reflected that of the police officers who beat Rodney King. In both cases, there was video evidence depicting wrongdoing and in both cases, the defendants did not serve any jail time. After the verdict in King's case was delivered, massive riots ensued in Los Angeles, protesting the miscarriage of justice for black victims and racial inequality. While King's case was the immediate catalyst to the violence, cases like Harlins' fueled anger and demonstrated injustices against black people, which ultimately led to the riots. Judge Joyce Karlin Fahey Karlin's rulings in the case prompted Los Angeles County District Attorney Ira Reiner to instruct his deputies to effectively bar Judge Karlin from trying cases by invoking a statute to remove a judge for any reason. In justifying his directive, he said "[t]his was such a stunning miscarriage of justice that Judge Karlin cannot continue to hear criminal cases with any public credibility." Karlin became the target of protests and an unsuccessful recall campaign. Denise Harlins, Latasha Harlins' maternal aunt, led protests outside Karlin's home and the Compton courthouse. Protesters noted that a week after Latasha Harlins' death, a Glendale man received a more severe sentence than Du for kicking a dog. After the Los Angeles Times endorsed one of her opponents in her re-election campaign, she wrote a letter to the newspaper, saying "[I]f judges have to look over their shoulders as they decide a case; if they have to test the political winds in order to arrive at a politically correct verdict—then the judicial system and the freedoms it guarantees will be destroyed." The Harlins family held vigils outside the Du residence every year on the anniversary of her sentencing. Denise Harlins interrupted an awards ceremony at the Biltmore Hotel for Du defense attorney Charles Lloyd. Karlin and Du's son also attended that ceremony. "All you people sitting, applauding over a child killer," Harlins yelled. "Latasha was defenseless. She didn't do nothing!" After Denise Harlins was removed from the ballroom, Karlin gave a speech, stating "There are those in the community who demand that we define justice by what is politically correct. I think that we must unanimously reject such demands ... What's politically correct today may not be politically correct tomorrow or the next day. But what is justice today is justice always. ... I for one am sick and tired of less than five percent of this community trying to tell the rest of us what to do, what to think, and what to say." Karlin was re-elected to the Superior Court bench. She then moved to Juvenile Dependency Court, a transfer she had requested before the Du case. "I have been honored to spend the last 20 years serving the public but now I want to devote time to my family," Karlin wrote. Karlin resigned from the bench in 1997. Upon hearing of retirement, Harlins' maternal aunt Denise stated, "I'm glad to hear that she's removed herself from the bench and that she's retired. But she didn't belong [on the bench] anyway." Since retiring from the bench Karlin has used her husband's surname Fahey. Representation in culture In music Hip-hop artist 2Pac took particular note of Harlins' death and in 1993 released a song entitled "Keep Ya Head Up" which was dedicated to Latasha Harlins. Thereafter, Shakur made frequent mention of Harlins in his songs, including in tracks like "Something 2 Die 4 (Interlude)" ("Latasha Harlins, remember that name... 'Cause a bottle of juice is not something to die for"), "Thugz Mansion" ("Little Latasha, sho' grown/Tell the lady in the liquor store that she's forgiven/So come home"), "I Wonder If Heaven Got a Ghetto" ("Tell me what's a black life worth/A bottle of juice is no excuse, the truth hurts/And even when you take the shit/Move counties get a lawyer, you can shake the shit/Ask Rodney, Latasha, and many more"), "White Mans World" ("Rest in Peace to Latasha, Little Yummy, and Kato"), "Hellrazor" ("Dear Lord if ya hear me, tell me why/Little girl like Latasha, had to die") and "N.I.G.G.A" ("Korean motherfuckers was crooked/So niggas had to burn and loot 'em [...] Lickin' off shots for Latasha, that's proper"). Rapper Ice Cube composed a song about the incident for his album Death Certificate titled "Black Korea". Gabriel Kahane composed a song about the incident titled "Empire Liquor Mart (9127 S. Figueroa St.)". In literature Steph Cha's novel Your House Will Pay centers on the aftermath of the murder of a 16-year-old African-American girl in south-central Los Angeles. It is a fictionalized account of Latasha Harlins' death and the effects on both her family and the family of the shooter. In her book American Dream, Sapphire wrote the poem Strange Juice (or the murder of Latasha Harlins) giving voice to the murdered girl. Adaeze Nkechi Nwosu's debut novel, Heal the Hood, is about the 1992 Los Angeles riots. Latasha Harlins' murder is mentioned and referenced several times in the novel since it was one of the causes of the LA riots. In film and television The short documentary film A Love Song for Latasha (2019) gives some biographical background on Latasha Harlins' life, drawing on memories from her cousin and her best friend. Directed by Sophia Nahli Allison, it was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Documentary Short Subject at the 93rd Academy Awards in 2021. In memorial In 1998, the California State Assembly named April 29 as Latasha Harlins Day. In early 2021, a mural celebrating Latasha Harlins was unveiled in front of Algin Sutton Recreation Center. The mural was created by visual artist Victoria Cassinova. See also Murder of Vincent Chin Emmett Till References 1991 crimes in the United States African-American–Asian-American relations Deaths by person in the United States Filmed killings 1992 Los Angeles riots 1991 in California March 1991 events in the United States Murdered American children Murder in Los Angeles Deaths by firearm in California Filmed deaths in the United States Incidents of violence against girls

34926934

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killing%20of%20Tyler%20Cassidy

Killing of Tyler Cassidy

Tyler Jordan Cassidy was a 15-year-old boy who was killed by Victoria Police officers in Australia. His death influenced changes in the way Victoria Police respond to people presenting as mentally ill, and in the use of tasers. Shooting Tyler Jordan Cassidy was shot by police and died on 11 December 2008 at All Nations Park in Northcote, Victoria. Before the shooting, Cassidy had armed himself with two large knives which he had stolen from a nearby shopping centre and threatened members of the public, insisting that they call the police. In the park, police demanded that Cassidy drop the knives, but he did not. After attempting to subdue Cassidy twice with OC spray, three officers fired ten shots from their Smith & Wesson Model 10 .38 Special revolvers, with five of these striking Cassidy. Investigations The Coroners Court of Victoria found that there was much public commentary of the incident and that the death of "a 15-year-old boy at the hands of the Victoria Police both shocked and bewildered us as a community." The competence and impartiality of the internal police investigation was questioned. The Coroner's Inquest heard 34 days of evidence from 63 witnesses and the brief of evidence was 3,710 pages long. From the inquest: "He [Cassidy] had been capsicum-sprayed twice without effect and advanced on an officer who became trapped at the top of a skate park bowl, the coroner found. Three of the police fired at him after a warning shot and several shots at his legs failed to stop Tyler moving forward with the knives towards [Leading Senior Constable Colin Dods]. Tyler had been drinking excessively during the night and was found to have a post mortem blood alcohol level of between 0.09g/100ml and 0.11g/100ml." State Coroner Jennifer Coate rejected a submission from Cassidy's family that the officers used disproportionate force worthy of criminal charges, or that Cassidy had been standing still when he was fatally shot. The incident was blamed on a lack of training and information gathering performed by Victoria Police. Subsequently, all police officers who might come into contact with individuals who appear to be mentally ill in the course of duty are required to undergo a two-day training course twice a year. Family's appeal to the UN Following the closing of the case by Australian police and determining that the officers acted within the bounds of their duty, Cassidy's mother, Shani Cassidy, appealed to the United Nations for a review of the process by which fatal police shootings are investigated by the Victoria Police Homicide Squad. The author of the UN submission, Anna Brown, expected no additional evidence regarding the investigation to be elicited. Among the complaints were allegations of poor investigative police work. Three of the four police officers involved attended a police function where alcohol was served the night before the fatal shooting occurred, but no alcohol or drug testing was administered at the time of the incident. Ten shots were fired but no bullets were recovered from the crime scene. Dods received a private phone call from his commanding officer immediately after the event; an issue Dods himself was highly critical about when cross examined. Gunshot residue testing was significantly delayed, possibly leading to inconclusive results. No reconstruction was requested of the officers. Police integrity Shani Cassidy made complaints over the integrity of Victoria Police. She alleged that her son's name was disclosed to the media as well as a "demonising" report of the incident after less than three hours of it occurring. Assistant Commissioner Cartwright, then the appointed officer for communicating with the media regarding the event, was accused of disclosing Cassidy's name by the family's counsel, but Victoria Police has strongly denied these accusations. At one time Shani Cassidy was secretly recorded by homicide detectives during an interview. Her appeal to the UN raised her complaint that following the incident Victoria Police attempted to exculpate themselves. In June 2015, The Age reported that this Wikipedia page had been edited by Victoria Police at least 17 times up until November 2014, apparently to give a more favourable impression of the officers' conduct and the subsequent investigation. Debate over use of Tasers Former chief commissioner of Victoria Police Christine Nixon has suggested that Cassidy's death prompted further community debate about the use of Tasers by Victoria Police. In 2010 Tasers were trialed in Bendigo and Morwell "because of the high use of OC spray, incidents involving people with a mental illness, sieges and instances where offenders have used weapons." In 2016 Tasers were made more widely available to Victoria Police. Deputy Commissioner Wendy Steendam said "What Tasers do for our members is to actually offer them another option in resolutions of incidents where they're having violent confrontations or where people are attempting to self-harm." Defamation case of 2016 In May 2016, lawyer Michael McDonald was found to have defamed Sergeant Colin Dods and ordered to pay damages. Justice Kevin Bell described the defamatory comments, made online, as "very grave. The publication caused (Sergeant Dods) to suffer continuing intense distress, humiliation and embarrassment and thereby great harm in his reputation," the judge said. See also Death of Adam Salter Death of Beto Laudisio Death of Michael Capel Rodney Ansell Luke Batty References External links Coroner's Report, Inquest into the death of Tyler Jordan Cassidy, November 23, 2011 Deaths by firearm in Victoria (Australia) Deaths by person in Australia Mental health law in Australia People shot dead by law enforcement officers in Australia Suicides in Victoria (Australia)

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killing%20of%20Trayvon%20Martin

Killing of Trayvon Martin

On the night of February 26, 2012, in Sanford, Florida, United States, George Zimmerman fatally shot Trayvon Martin, a 17-year-old African-American high school student. Zimmerman, a 28-year-old man of mixed race, was the neighborhood watch coordinator for his gated community where Martin was visiting his relatives at the time of the shooting. Zimmerman shot Martin, who was unarmed, during a physical altercation between the two. Zimmerman, injured during the encounter, claimed self-defense at his trial. In a widely reported trial, Zimmerman was charged with murder for Martin's death, but acquitted at trial after claiming self-defense. The incident was reviewed by the Department of Justice for potential civil rights violations, but no additional charges were filed, citing insufficient evidence. Parties involved Trayvon Martin Trayvon Benjamin Martin was the son of Sybrina Fulton and Tracy Martin, who were divorced in 1999. He was a junior at Dr. Michael M. Krop High School and lived with his mother and older brother in Miami Gardens, Florida. On the day he was fatally shot, he and his father were visiting his father's fiancée and her son at her town home in Sanford, Florida. She lived in The Retreat at Twin Lakes, a gated community Martin had visited several times before. According to his autopsy, Martin was tall and weighed at the time of his death. George Zimmerman George Michael Zimmerman was born in Manassas, Virginia and is the son of Gladys (née Mesa) Zimmerman, born in Peru, and Robert Zimmerman Sr., a retired Virginia magistrate. At the time of the shooting, Zimmerman was employed as an insurance fraud investigator. He had been working toward an associate degree in criminal justice at Seminole State College. In one of his interviews with the police, he said his goal was to become a judge. At the time of his arrest on April 11, 2012, Zimmerman's height was reportedly 5 feet 7 inches and his weight , according to the Seminole County Sheriff's Office Inmate Booking record. Zimmerman's height was shown as 5 feet 8 inches and his weight at on the Sanford Police Department Offense Report for February 26, 2012, the night of the shooting. Zimmerman and his wife moved to The Retreat at Twin Lakes in 2009. Sanford Police Department Bill Lee had been chief of the Sanford Police Department for ten months when the shooting of Martin occurred. Prior to Lee becoming chief, the department had been accused of protecting relatives of police officers involved in violent incidents with black people. Trayvon Martin's case resulted in increased distrust between the police and Sanford's black community. On March 22, Chief Lee temporarily stepped down from his position because of public criticism over his handling of the Trayvon Martin shooting. In April, the Sanford City Commission refused to accept Lee's resignation and stated that "Lee's spotless record showed there needed to be further review to determine if he failed in his duties." Lee was fired on June 20, 2012, by Sanford City Manager Norton Bonaparte. Lee responded by saying, "I continue to stand by the work performed by the Sanford Police Department in this tragic shooting, which has been plagued by misrepresentations and false statements for interests other than justice." On June 26, 2012, the lead investigator of the case, Christopher Serino, was transferred from the Sanford Police Department's investigative unit and reassigned to the patrol division at his own request. Serino said he felt pressured by several of his fellow police officers to press charges against Zimmerman, although he believed there was not enough evidence to do so. One of the officers pressuring him was a friend of Martin's father. In September 2012, Orlando TV station WFTV released a leaked memo in which interim police chief Richard Myers blamed the police department spokesperson, Sgt. David Morgenstern, for having mishandled the Trayvon Martin case. Myers removed Morgenstern from that position. Martin family attorneys Benjamin Crump, the lawyer representing the interests of the Martin family, operates a law firm in Tallahassee, Florida, with his partner Daryl Parks. The firm has eight lawyers who focus on wrongful death, malpractice, personal injury and civil rights. The Martin family was also represented by Natalie Jackson, an Orlando civil rights attorney. Background of the shooting The Retreat at Twin Lakes is a 260-unit, gated, townhome community in Sanford, Florida. The population of the development at the time of the shooting was about 49% non-Hispanic white, 23% Hispanic (of any race), 20% black, and 5% Asian, according to Census figures. Both George Zimmerman and Tracy Martin's fiancée were renting homes in the development at the time of the shooting. Martin had been staying with his father's fiancée at The Retreat. From January 1, 2011, through February 26, 2012, police were called to The Retreat at Twin Lakes 402 times. Crimes committed at The Retreat in the year prior to Martin's death had included eight burglaries, nine thefts, and one shooting. Twin Lakes residents said there were dozens of reports of attempted break-ins, which had created an atmosphere of fear in their neighborhood. In September 2011, the Twin Lakes residents held an organizational meeting to create a neighborhood watch program. Zimmerman was selected by neighbors as the program's coordinator, according to Wendy Dorival, Neighborhood Watch organizer for the Sanford Police Department. Zimmerman had made nearly 50 calls to police between 2004 and 2012 to report various local disturbances, such as loud parties, open garage doors, potholes, and children playing in the street. Following break-ins in the neighborhood in 2011, Zimmerman's calls to police increasingly focused on reporting people he suspected of criminal activity. During the months leading up to the February 26, 2012, shooting, Zimmerman called the police several times to report people he believed to be suspicious. On each of the calls, Zimmerman offered information about the race of the suspects only when specifically asked by the dispatcher to do so; his reports said that all were black males. According to friends and neighbors of Zimmerman, three weeks prior to the shooting on February 26, Zimmerman called police to report a young man peering into the windows of an empty Twin Lakes home. By the time police arrived, the suspect had fled. On February 6, workers witnessed two young black men lingering in the yard of a Twin Lakes resident around the same time a new laptop and some gold jewelry was stolen from her home. The next day police discovered the stolen laptop in the backpack of a young black man whom Zimmerman identified as the same person he had spotted peering into windows on February 2. Zimmerman had been licensed to carry a firearm since November 2009. Shooting On the evening of February 26, 2012, Zimmerman observed Martin as he returned to the Twin Lakes housing community after having walked to a nearby convenience store. At the time, Zimmerman was driving through the neighborhood on a personal errand. At approximately 7:09 p.m., Zimmerman called the Sanford police non-emergency number to report a suspicious person in the Twin Lakes community. Zimmerman said, "We've had some break-ins in my neighborhood, and there's a real suspicious guy⁠ …". He described an unknown male "just walking around looking about" in the rain and said, "This guy looks like he is up to no good or he is on drugs or something." Zimmerman reported that the person had his hand in his waistband and was walking around looking at homes. He also mentioned that Martin was wearing a "dark hoodie, like a grey hoodie." On the recording, Zimmerman is heard saying, "these assholes, they always get away." About two minutes into the call, Zimmerman said, "he's running". The dispatcher asked, "He's running? Which way is he running?" Noises on the tape at this point have been interpreted by some media outlets as the sound of a car door chime, possibly indicating Zimmerman opened his car door. Zimmerman followed Martin, eventually losing sight of him. The dispatcher asked Zimmerman if he was following him. When Zimmerman answered, "yeah", the dispatcher said, "We don't need you to do that." Zimmerman responded, "Okay." Zimmerman asked that police call him upon their arrival so he could provide his location. Zimmerman ended the call at 7:15 p.m. After Zimmerman ended his call with police, a violent encounter took place between him and Martin. It ended with Zimmerman fatally shooting Martin from the rear door of the townhouse where Martin was staying. Investigations Zimmerman arrested and released Sanford Police Officer Timothy Smith arrived at the scene at approximately 7:17 p.m., between 5 and 65 seconds after the fatal shot was fired. He reported finding Zimmerman standing near Martin, who was lying face down in the grass and unresponsive. At that time, Zimmerman stated to Smith that he had shot Martin and was still armed. Smith handcuffed Zimmerman and confiscated his black Kel-Tec PF-9 9mm semi-automatic pistol. Smith observed that Zimmerman's back was wet and covered with grass, and he was bleeding from the nose and the back of his head. Ricardo Ayala, the second officer to arrive that night, noticed Officer Smith had Zimmerman in custody, then observed Martin lying face down in the grass and attempted to get a response from him. At this time, Sgt. Anthony Raimondo arrived and together with Ayala began CPR. Paramedics from Sanford Fire and Rescue arrived and continued CPR, finally declaring Martin dead at 7:30 p.m. Other officers who had arrived by this time secured the area and made contact with neighbors in the area and obtained statements from witnesses at the scene. The officers, who believed Zimmerman proceeded solely on foot before the attack, did not seize Zimmerman's vehicle until after his wife had moved it. Zimmerman was treated and released by paramedics while still at the scene of the incident. After placing Zimmerman in his police vehicle, Officer Smith heard Zimmerman say, "I was yelling for someone to help me, but no one would help me." Zimmerman was then transported to the Sanford Police Department where he was questioned by investigators for approximately five hours. The police determined that Zimmerman yelled for help at least 14 times in a 38-second span. The question of who was calling for help has been disputed since then by others and remains inconclusive. (See § Background yells for help in 9-1-1 calls) On the night of the shooting, Zimmerman was taken in for questioning. He arrived to the police station at 7:52 p.m., according to a police video. Zimmerman was interviewed by Investigator D. Singleton and by Detective Chris Serino. Crime Scene Tech D. Smith photographed his injuries and hands and collected gunshot residue. Zimmerman's weapon was placed into evidence. His clothes were also taken as evidence after his wife arrived with a change of clothes. During the interview, detectives falsely told Zimmerman that surveillance camera footage had captured the entire incident and Zimmerman appeared relieved at this news. Five hours later, Zimmerman was released. The police chief said that there was no evidence to refute Zimmerman's claim of having acted in self-defense, and that under Florida's Stand Your Ground statute, the police were prohibited by law from making an arrest. The police chief also said that Zimmerman had a right to defend himself with lethal force. The day after the shooting, Zimmerman performed a videotaped reenactment of the incident for police. Some observers, such as University of Florida law professor and defense attorney Michelle Jacobs and Columbia University law professor Patricia Williams, said that the police failed to fully investigate the shooting when they did not test Zimmerman for drugs or alcohol intoxication. However, Miami, Florida police experts told the Miami Herald that homicide suspects are not typically tested for drugs or alcohol unless the suspect has been accused of having been driving while intoxicated. Martin's body identified Martin's body was taken to the morgue, where he was tagged as a John Doe, as he was not carrying any identification. The mobile phone found at the shooting scene was malfunctioning to the point that the police Cellebrite data recovery device could not access it. Martin's father, Tracy Martin, called to file a Missing Persons report early on February 28, and police officers arrived at his fiancée's condo with photographs of his dead son about 9:20 a.m. The Martin family alleged that Seminole County Attorney Wolfinger met personally with Sanford Chief Lee on the night of the shooting and instructed Lee not to make an arrest. Based on their accusation, the Martin family requested that the Justice Department investigate the State prosecutor's office. Wolfinger responded that the family's accusations were "outright lies" and denied that any such meeting or communication took place. Wolfinger's office reported that the Sanford police consulted with Kelly Jo Hines, the prosecutor on call the night of the shooting, but it has not been disclosed what was talked about. State Attorney's investigation On March 12, 2012, Police Chief Lee turned the investigation over to the State Attorney's office for review. Lee said there was not enough evidence to arrest Zimmerman. "In this case Mr. Zimmerman has made the statement of self-defense," Lee said. "Until we can establish probable cause to dispute that, we don't have the grounds to arrest him." In response to criticisms of the investigation, Lee responded that "We are taking a beating over this" and defended the investigation. "This is all very unsettling. I'm sure if George Zimmerman had the opportunity to relive Sunday, February 26, he'd probably do things differently. I'm sure Trayvon would, too." On March 13, 2012, Detective Chris Serino sent a capias request to the state's attorney recommending charges of negligent manslaughter against Zimmerman, though Serino maintains he did not believe they had the evidence to support those charges and that manslaughter was only included in the capias in order for the prosecutor's office to continue with their own investigation. The capias states, "the encounter between George Zimmerman and Trayvon Martin was ultimately avoidable by Zimmerman, if Zimmerman had remained in his vehicle and waited the arrival of law enforcement or conversely if he had identified himself to Martin as a concerned citizen and initiated dialog in an effort to dispel each party's concern.... There is no indication that Trayvon Martin was involved in any criminal activity at the time of the encounter." The State Attorney's office initially determined there was insufficient evidence to charge Zimmerman and did not file charges based on the capias request. On March 16, Serino told the Orlando Sentinel that his investigation had turned up no reliable evidence that cast doubt on Zimmerman's account; that he had acted in self-defense. "The best evidence we have is the testimony of George Zimmerman, and he says the decedent was the primary aggressor in the whole event, everything I have is adding up to what he says." FDLE and FBI investigations On March 20, 2012, State attorney Norm Wolfinger announced that a Seminole County grand jury would be convened on April 10 to investigate the death of Martin. However, after State Attorney Angela Corey was assigned to the case by Florida Governor Rick Scott on March 22, she decided that her office would decide whether to press charges. She commented: "I always lean towards moving forward without needing the grand jury in a case like this, I foresee us being able to make a decision, and move on it on our own." Governor Scott asked the Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE) to investigate the shooting and Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi confirmed that the FDLE was involved and stated "no stone will be left unturned in this investigation". On March 20, 2012, the Justice Department announced that it was opening investigations into the incident. The FBI opened a parallel investigation into whether Martin's civil rights were violated, interviewed witnesses, and looked into Zimmerman's background. On July 12, 2012, reports of some of the more than 30 interviews conducted by the FBI were released by Special Prosecutor Angela Corey to Zimmerman's attorney, who released them to the public. The released reports do not draw any conclusions in the DOJ investigation. The Sanford Police Department's lead investigator, Chris Serino, told FBI agents that he believed Zimmerman's actions were not based on Martin's race, but instead on Martin's attire, the circumstances of the encounter, and previous burglaries in the neighborhood. Zimmerman's neighbors and co-workers were interviewed as well. Neighbors who knew Zimmerman had nothing derogatory to say about him and his co-workers were complimentary of him. Serino also told the FBI that he had felt pressure from three officers within the department to charge Zimmerman although he "did not believe he had enough evidence at the time to file charges", and accused one of these officers of being friendly with Martin's father. He also expressed concern to the FBI about possible leaks of evidence to the media from within the department. On July 13, 2013, shortly after the trial verdict, the U.S. Justice Department issued a statement saying its investigation into the civil rights aspects of the case was continuing. On February 24, 2015, 35 months after it began, the civil rights investigation of the Justice Department was terminated for lack of evidence. The FBI investigation was concurrently terminated for the same reason. County medical examiner's autopsy report The Volusia County medical examiner found that Martin was killed by an injury resulting from a single gunshot to the chest, fired at "intermediate range" between , according to a forensic expert. An FDLE analysis of Martin's body and clothes described the distance as "a contact shot". The autopsy also found that Martin had one small abrasion on his left ring finger below the knuckle. No other injuries were found on Martin's body at the time of his death. Physicians who reviewed the official autopsy report for the Orlando Sentinel stated in their opinion that Martin lived from 20 seconds to several minutes after he was shot, and that Martin likely remained conscious "for a little time, anyway". The autopsy report stated that Martin had trace levels of THC, the active ingredient in marijuana, in his blood and urine. The toxicology report found the levels to be 1.5 nanograms/ml of THC and 7.3 nanograms/ml of THC-COOH, the main secondary metabolite of THC which stays in the system for weeks after cannabis has been smoked. Larry Kobilinsky, a professor of forensic science, stated that the THC amount was so low that it may have been ingested days earlier and played no role in Martin's behavior. While under oath, the medical examiner who performed the autopsy testified that "marijuana could have no effect or some effect" on Martin's behavior. Witness accounts Recordings of eight calls to the police made on the night of the shooting were released by the Sanford police on March 17, 2012. The only eyewitness to the end of the confrontation stated that Martin was on top of Zimmerman and punching him, while Zimmerman was yelling for help. This witness, who identified himself as "John", stated that "the guy on the bottom, who had a red sweater on, was yelling to me, 'Help! Help!' and I told him to stop, and I was calling 911". He went on to say that when he got upstairs and looked down, "the guy who was on the top beating up the other guy, was the one laying in the grass, and I believe he was dead at that point." A 13-year-old boy walking his dog saw a man on the ground shortly before the shooting and identified him as wearing red. His mother later disputed the testimony and claimed that the police pressured him into choosing the color that the man was wearing and that her son could not see any details in the dark. She also stated that the police waited five days before requesting to even question her son and said that the lead homicide investigator told her that he did not believe the shooting was self-defense. Mary Cutcher and her roommate, Selma Mora Lamilla, appeared on AC 360, and Cutcher stated that she believes that "there was no punching, no hitting going on at the time, no wrestling" just prior to the shooting but admitted that she neither saw the shooting nor the preceding altercation. Cutcher and her roommate heard the pair in their backyard and a "very young voice" whining, with no sounds of a fight. They heard a gunshot; the crying stopped immediately, and they saw Zimmerman on his knees straddling Martin on the ground. Mary Cutcher phoned police after the fatal shooting and said the black man was standing over another man, although Trayvon Martin was already dead. According to the Orlando Sentinel article, "Police spokesman Sgt. Dave Morgenstern [on March 15] issued a statement disputing Cutcher's version of events, calling her statements to WFTV 'inconsistent with her sworn testimony to police'". However, Cutcher and her roommate maintain that their account of the incident to the police did not agree with Zimmerman's, and they demanded the police issue a retraction. On March 29, 2012, an eyewitness, referred to as a male, said that he saw two men on the ground scuffling, then heard the shooting and saw Zimmerman walk away with no blood on him. The witness later appeared on AC360, referred to as a female, giving more details on her account. She pointed out that she heard an argument between a younger and an older voice. During the time that she witnessed the incident, the scuffling happened on the grass. She said that the larger man, who walked away after the gunshot, was on top and that it was too dark to see blood on his face. A witness who arrived shortly after the shooting revealed photos that he took that night that showed "blood trickling down the back of Zimmerman's head from two cuts. It also shows a possible contusion forming on the crown of his head". In revealing the photo to ABC News in mid-April, he noted that he had heard but had not seen the scuffle, had been the first to arrive, and had been the first to talk to Zimmerman after the shooting. One eyewitness statement given the night of the shooting describes "a black male, wearing a dark colored 'hoodie' on top of a white or Hispanic male who was yelling for help." The witness said that the black male was throwing punches "MMA [mixed martial arts] style". After hearing a "pop", he saw the black male "laid out on the grass". When the witness was subsequently interviewed weeks later by a different agency, the witness said he thought that the black male was either punching or pinning the lighter skinned male underneath him. He was no longer certain who was calling for help, having not seen their mouths in the dark. He was still certain that the black male had been on top of the lighter-skinned male. On March 20, 2012, Martin family attorney Benjamin Crump revealed that Martin had been on the phone with a friend moments before he was shot. This friend later identified Zimmerman as the aggressor in the deadly confrontation. At Zimmerman's trial, this friend testified that she did not know whether Zimmerman or Martin started the fight. During an ABC News exclusive report, Crump allowed portions of his recorded interview with Martin's friend to be aired. She said that Martin told her that a man was watching him from his vehicle while talking on the phone before the man started following Martin. Martin told his friend at one point that he had lost the man but the man suddenly appeared again. The friend, originally known only as "Witness 8" (now known as Rachel Jeantel), said that she told Martin to run to the townhouse where he was staying with his father and his father's fiancée. She then heard Martin say, "What are you following me for?" followed by a man's voice responding, "What are you doing around here?" She testified that she then heard what sounded like Martin's phone earpiece dropping into wet grass, and she heard the sound of Martin's voice saying "Get off! Get off!" The phone then went dead, she said: "I was trying to say, 'Trayvon, Trayvon, what's going on'", Jeantel testified, "I started hearing a little of Trayvon saying 'Get off, get off', when the phone went silent". She immediately attempted to call him back, but was unable to reach him. Crump stated that he would turn the information over to the Justice Department because "the family does not trust the Sanford Police Department to have anything to do with the investigation." Martin's friend was subsequently interviewed by state prosecutors on April 2, 2012. During her interview with the prosecutor, Martin's friend recounted her last phone call with Martin and added that Martin had described the man as "crazy and creepy", watching him from a vehicle while the man was talking on the phone. She also testified that Martin referred to Zimmerman as a "creepy ass cracker" and "nigga" during their telephone conversation. On March 6, 2013, prosecutors admitted that she had lied under oath, when she falsely testified that she had been in the hospital on the day of Martin's funeral. She later admitted being embarrassed about lying and that she felt guilty about Martin's death and not doing more to help. Crump had refused to disclose the identity of Witness 8, stating that she was only 16, a minor at the time of the shooting, and asked the media to respect her privacy. It was subsequently revealed that she was actually 18 at the time when she said she was on the phone with Martin. According to the defense, her actual age had been edited out of previously released disclosures. Crump has denied intentionally giving any misleading statements about her age. Witness 8 was subsequently identified as Rachel Jeantel, a friend with whom Martin had attended elementary school and high school. George Zimmerman's account of events On the advice of his legal counsel, Zimmerman did not speak to the media after the shooting. The statements he gave to police investigators were publicly released on June 21, 2012, when Zimmerman's attorney, Mark O'Mara, published his written and recorded statements on Zimmerman's legal defense web site. Prior to the release of the statements, the only publicly available information about Zimmerman's version of the incident came from interviews with some of his family members and friends and from leaks to the news media by sources inside the investigation and his recorded phone call to 9-1-1. Zimmerman maintained his public silence until he was interviewed by Sean Hannity of Fox News on July 18, 2012. According to early news reports on the incident, on the night of the shooting and afterwards, Zimmerman described in detail for investigators what took place. Zimmerman said he was driving to the grocery store when he spotted Trayvon Martin walking through the neighborhood. Zimmerman's father said that, while his son was not on duty that night as Neighborhood Watch captain, there had been many break-ins and he thought it suspicious that someone he did not recognize was walking behind the town homes instead of on the street or the sidewalk. Zimmerman therefore called a non-emergency police line to report Martin's behavior and summon police. During the call, Zimmerman told the dispatcher that Martin was "coming to check me out." A source to the Orlando Sentinel said in May that Zimmerman told investigators that at one point Martin circled his vehicle, and he rolled up his window to avoid a confrontation. After telling the police dispatcher that Martin "ran", Zimmerman left his vehicle on Twin Trees and walked down the sidewalk between Twin Trees and Retreat View Circle to determine his location and ascertain in which direction Martin had fled. The dispatcher asked if Zimmerman was following Martin, and Zimmerman replied "Yeah." Then the dispatcher said, "OK, we don't need you to do that." Zimmerman replied with "OK" and stated that Martin got away. After a discussion about where Zimmerman would meet police, the call ended, and Zimmerman told investigators he was returning to his vehicle after locating an address on Retreat View Circle when Martin approached him from his left rear and confronted him. According to Zimmerman, Martin then punched him in the face, knocking him down, and began beating his head against the sidewalk. Zimmerman said he called out for help while being beaten, and at one point Martin covered his mouth to muffle the screams. According to Zimmerman's father, during the struggle while Martin was on top of Zimmerman, Martin saw the gun Zimmerman was carrying and said something to the effect of "You're gonna die now" or "You're gonna die tonight" and continued to beat Zimmerman. Zimmerman and Martin struggled over the gun, and Zimmerman shot Martin once in the chest at close range. Zimmerman told police he shot Martin in self-defense. On June 21, 2012, Zimmerman's attorneys released audiotapes of several interviews he had with police shortly after the shooting. Also included were Zimmerman's written statement of February 26, 2012, and video recordings of his reenactment of the incident and a voice stress test that he passed. In the interviews, Zimmerman says he took note of Martin because he was near a home that he had previously called police about. He also said "he was just walking casually, not like he was trying to get out of the rain" and he felt "something was off" about Martin. In a reconstruction video-recorded by police the next day, Zimmerman said that after he initially saw Martin on Retreat View Circle he parked his vehicle in front of the club house at the corner of Retreat View Circle and Twin Trees Lane and observed Martin go past him and onto Twin Trees Lane where he lost sight of Martin. He stated the dispatcher asked "can you get to somewhere where you can see him?" and that he then left the club house parking lot and drove onto Twin Trees Lane where he parked. He further stated that at one point Martin circled his truck while he was parked on Twin Trees Lane. Zimmerman eventually left his truck and walked down the sidewalk between Twin Trees Lane to Retreat View Circle and gave police an address on Retreat View Circle. He told investigators that he was not following Martin but was "just going in the same direction he was" to find an address, but admitted that he had also left his truck to try to see in which direction Martin had gone. The altercation began, he said, when Martin suddenly appeared while Zimmerman was walking back to his vehicle. He described Martin at different points in the interviews as appearing "out of nowhere", "from the darkness", and as "jump[ing] out of the bushes". Zimmerman said that Martin asked, "You got a fucking problem, homie?" Zimmerman replied no, then Martin said "You got a problem now" and punched Zimmerman. As they struggled on the ground, Zimmerman on his back with Martin on top of him, Zimmerman yelled for help "probably 50 times". (See Background yells for help in 9-1-1 calls) Martin told him to "Shut the fuck up" as he hit him in the face and pounded his head on a concrete sidewalk. When Zimmerman tried to move off the concrete, Martin saw his gun and said "You're going to die tonight motherfucker!" Martin grabbed for the gun, but Zimmerman grabbed it first. He said after firing his weapon at Martin, he was not sure at first that he had hit him, so he got on top of him in order to subdue him. Bystanders and police arrived shortly after Martin was shot. Police reports state Zimmerman "appeared to have a broken and a bloody nose and swelling of his face". Zimmerman was offered three chances to be taken to the hospital, but declined each time, according to police reports released by the prosecution. ABC News reported that a medical report compiled by Zimmerman's family physician showed that, following the altercation with Martin, Zimmerman was diagnosed with a closed fracture of his nose, two black eyes, lacerations to the back of his head, a minor back injury, and bruising in his upper lip and cheek. In the course of Zimmerman's recorded interviews, Detective Chris Serino questioned aspects of Zimmerman's account, such as Zimmerman's statement that he didn't know the name of a street in the Twin Lakes community where he had lived for three years. Zimmerman said in response that he had a bad memory and takes medication for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. Investigators also questioned the extent of his injuries and why he didn't identify himself to Martin as a Neighborhood Watch coordinator. Zimmerman said he didn't want to confront Martin. On June 26, 2012, the prosecution released the results of a voice stress test performed on George Zimmerman the day after the shooting. Zimmerman was asked, "Did you confront the guy you shot?", to which Zimmerman answered, "No." Zimmerman was asked, "Were you in fear for your life, when you shot the guy?", to which Zimmerman answered, "Yes." The examiner concluded that Zimmerman "told substantially the complete truth" in the examination, and Zimmerman was classified as "No Deception Indicated (NDI)" according to the report. Voice stress analysis is a controversial product because of the "scientific implausibility" of its principles and "ungrounded claims of the aggressive propaganda from sellers of voice stress analysis gadgets". During a bond hearing on April 20, 2012, Investigator Dale Gilbreath testified under oath that he did not know whether Zimmerman or Martin started the fight and that there is no evidence to contradict Zimmerman's claim that he was walking back to his vehicle when Martin confronted him. Gilbreath, however, questioned Zimmerman's statement that Martin was slamming his head against the sidewalk just before he shot the teenager, saying it was "not consistent with the evidence we found." Gilbreath was one of two investigators who attested to the facts stated in the probable cause affidavit. Zimmerman's first media interview On July 18, 2012, Zimmerman, accompanied by his attorney Mark O'Mara, gave his first long media interview to Sean Hannity, and part of the interview appeared on Hannity that evening. During the interview, Zimmerman said that he did not regret his actions on the night of the shooting and that he felt that what had happened "was all God's plan". He also said, "I do wish there was something, anything I could have done that wouldn't have put me in the position where I had to take his life. I want to tell everyone, my wife, my family, my parents, grandmother, the Martins, the city of Sanford and America: I'm sorry that this happened. I'm truly sorry." When Hannity asked Zimmerman why his suspicions were aroused when he noticed Martin, Zimmerman replied in part: I felt he was suspicious because it was raining. He was in-between houses, cutting in-between houses, and he was walking very leisurely for the weather.... It didn't look like he was a resident that went to check their mail and got caught in the rain and was hurrying back home. He didn't look like a fitness fanatic that would train in the rain. Following the interview with Hannity, Special Prosecutor Angela Corey filed formal notice that she intended to use the interview as evidence against Zimmerman. According to an article in the Orlando Sentinel, Zimmerman's story differed in at least two details from previous versions of what he said happened the night he shot Martin—specifically, that he told Hannity he had walked toward Martin because he was trying to find a street address to provide the police, but during the police's investigation he had said that the reason he approached Martin was that he was looking for the name of the street, which he had forgotten; and that he told Hannity that Martin had been "skipping, going away quickly", not running away out of fear, but he had previously told Sanford police that Martin had run away as Zimmerman was reporting him. Florida defense lawyers said it was a mistake for Zimmerman to do a television interview and discuss what happened that night. One of them said, "It's really baffling what he thought he'd gain from it. I question who's in charge of the defense strategy, Zimmerman or O'Mara". O'Mara told reporters that the interview was intended to help increase the number of donations to Zimmerman's nearly exhausted legal defense fund, which would pay the costs for Zimmerman's legal defense as well as for shelter and security. O'Mara said that Zimmerman had promised Hannity three months earlier that he would give his first interview to Hannity, and that Hannity had agreed to promote Zimmerman's website during the interview, although he said Hannity did not. ABC News' Barbara Walters also said that Zimmerman was in desperate need of money and was worried about the safety of his family. She had flown from New York to Florida to record a television interview with Zimmerman that was to be shown following the Hannity interview, but the television network refused to meet Zimmerman's request that they pay for a month's hotel stay and security for his wife. Martin's parents said they did not accept Zimmerman's apology for killing their son. Martin's mother, Sybrina Fulton, said she doubted that Zimmerman's apology was sincere. "I have a hard time accepting it because he also said that he doesn't regret anything that he did that night" Fulton stated. Affidavit of probable cause On April 11, 2012, an affidavit of probable cause was filed in support of second-degree murder charges against Zimmerman. The affidavit described what investigators alleged took place between Zimmerman and Martin on the night of the shooting. Prosecutors alleged that Zimmerman profiled Martin as he was walking back from a nearby 7-Eleven store to the townhouse where he was temporarily living. Prosecutors said Zimmerman was driving in his vehicle when he saw Martin and assumed he was a criminal and perceived that Martin was acting suspicious and felt that he did not belong in the gated community. Zimmerman called the police, and prosecutors said the dispatcher told Zimmerman an officer was on the way and to wait for him. In the call, Zimmerman made reference to people he felt had gotten away with break-ins in the neighborhood. Investigators alleged that while Zimmerman was talking to the dispatcher, Martin was on the phone with a friend and she said that Martin was scared because he was being followed by an unknown man. Investigators said that Martin attempted to run home, but Zimmerman followed him because he didn't want Martin to get away. When the police dispatcher realized Zimmerman was following Martin, he told Zimmerman that was unnecessary and that police would meet him there. Prosecutors alleged that Zimmerman ignored the dispatcher and continued following Martin and confronted him and a struggle ensued. When police arrived at the scene, Zimmerman admitted to shooting Martin in the chest. Analysis of charges Legal analysts criticized the prosecution for over-charging Zimmerman, claiming that the probable cause affidavit did not support a charge of second-degree murder. Harvard Law Professor Alan Dershowitz claimed the affidavit may have been perjurious if Special Prosecutor Angela Corey knowingly omitted facts favorable to Zimmerman's self-defense claim. Richard Kuritz, a former prosecutor who worked with Angela Corey, said the state attorney had no obligation to include exculpatory evidence in the affidavit. He stated that Dershowitz could face civil action for making accusations that Corey committed a crime. "To suggest that she's committing any crime, Dershowitz is way off on that", Kuritz said. Background yells for help in 9-1-1 calls In recordings of the 9-1-1 calls, yells for help are audible in the background. Zimmerman's family says it was Zimmerman yelling for help, Martin's family says it was Martin yelling for help, and independent audio analysts offer differing opinions as to who was yelling for help. During the trial, friends and family members of both Zimmerman and Martin testified as to who they thought the voice was, but expert testimony regarding voice identification was not allowed. In an interview with prosecutors on March 19, Zimmerman's father identified the yells as George Zimmerman's, stating, "There is no doubt who is yelling for help. It is absolutely my son." Other relatives of Zimmerman, including his brother, concur and are equally adamant. During a bond hearing on June 29, the 9-1-1 recording was played in court, and Zimmerman's father testified that "it was definitely George's" voice heard yelling for help in the recorded 9-1-1 call. According to police reports, after listening to audio recordings of the 9-1-1 calls, Martin's father, Tracy Martin, told police investigators that it was not Trayvon Martin's voice yelling for help. Martin has since told reporters he was uncertain at that time, but that when he heard an enhanced recording on March 16 he was convinced it was his son yelling for help. Investigators interviewed Martin's mother, Sybrina Fulton, who reviewed the 9-1-1 calls to police and identified the voice crying for help as her son. Investigators also interviewed Martin's cousin who stated that without a doubt "on a stack of bibles" it was Martin yelling for help on the 9-1-1 tape. Zimmerman's attorneys requested a Frye hearing regarding the admissibility of the testimony of the audio analysts, to determine if the methods used by them are generally accepted by the scientific community. The judge said in her ruling that, "There is no evidence to establish that their scientific techniques have been tested and found reliable." Her ruling did not prevent the 9-1-1 calls from being played at trial. Shooting aftermath Martin family response Tracy Martin doubted the account of his son's death told to him by Sanford police investigators and believed Zimmerman did not act in self-defense. Two days after the shooting, he was referred to civil rights attorney Benjamin Crump, who was retained to pursue legal action and to persuade the news media to cover the case. Attorney Natalie Jackson and publicist Ryan Julison, both of Orlando, also joined the Martin team. Due to their efforts, the case started to receive national attention on March 7. On March 9, Crump announced he was suing to have 911 calls from the night of the shooting made public. They were released by the Sanford mayor on March 16. As attention to the case grew, Tracy Martin and Sybrina Fulton gave media interviews and appeared at some of the protests being held which called for Zimmerman's arrest. On April 5, 2013, more than a year after the shooting, it was reported that the Martin family had settled a wrongful death claim against the Retreat at Twin Lakes Homeowners Association. The details of the agreement were sealed under court order, and the amount of the settlement was not disclosed, but the Orlando Sentinel claimed that the sum was thought to be more than $1 million. On June 28, in an interview with CNN conducted during the trial of George Zimmerman, Alicia Stanley, Trayvon Martin's step-mother (Trayvon's father's former wife), stated that she believed Zimmerman had profiled Trayvon as a criminal, although she was not convinced that the profiling was based on race. She said that she had no doubt that Zimmerman had started the fight and that Martin had reacted only in self-defense. Zimmerman and family While the shooting was being investigated, Zimmerman, his wife, and his parents went into hiding due to threats they were receiving as the case gained more attention. Zimmerman left his job, and his school expelled him, citing safety concerns. On April 9, Zimmerman placed a self-created web site on the internet, which included some brief statements, but no information about the shooting, since he had been advised by legal counsel not to discuss it. He also solicited donations for living expenses and legal defense costs. After taking over as Zimmerman's defense counsel on April 11, Mark O'Mara took down Zimmerman's self-created web site and replaced it with a professional information site. He arranged for a second web site to be set up to collect donations overseen by an independent third party. Following Zimmerman's April 20 bond hearing, he and his wife were accused by prosecutors of not disclosing the funds raised through the original web site; as a result of these allegations, Zimmerman's original bail was revoked. He was subsequently released again with a higher bail amount. Zimmerman's wife, Shellie Zimmerman, was charged with felony perjury in June 2012. She pleaded guilty to misdemeanor perjury on August 28, 2013, as part of a plea deal and was sentenced to 100 hours of community service and one year of probation, as well as writing a letter of apology to Judge Kenneth Lester Jr. The conviction will be expunged at the end of her probation period. George Zimmerman's defense team had set up a Twitter account, a Facebook page and a website with a defense fund registered with the Florida Division of Consumer Services. After three months, the Facebook page was shut down by O'Mara, because he said it was leading to unhelpful discussions. In July 2012, Zimmerman reactivated his original website, and his parents also created their own website. Both sites discuss how the case has changed the Zimmermans' lives and seek donations for living expenses. On January 30, 2013, Zimmerman's attorney, Mark O'Mara, asked on Zimmerman's defense fund website for the public to donate more money. O'Mara stated that Zimmerman's legal defense could cost up to $1 million. Public response After the shooting, Zimmerman was criticized by the Martin family and in the media for following Martin and for carrying a weapon. Sanford police chief Bill Lee stated that neighborhood watch volunteers are not encouraged to carry a gun but have a Constitutional right to do so. Lee further stated, "Mr. Zimmerman was not acting outside the legal boundaries of Florida Statute by carrying his weapon when this incident occurred." Sanford Police volunteer program coordinator Wendy Dorival told the Miami Herald that she met Zimmerman in September 2011 at a community neighborhood watch presentation, and recalls advising: "If it's someone you don't recognize, call us. We'll figure it out.... Observe from a safe location". The director of the National Sheriffs' Association (NSA) said Zimmerman's "alleged action ... significantly contradicts the principles of the Neighborhood Watch Program". The Neighborhood Watch program that employed Zimmerman was overseen by the local police department rather than the NSA. Protests were staged around the U.S. prior to Zimmerman's April 11 indictment on murder charges. Over 2.2 million signatures were collected on a Change.org petition, created by Martin's mother, calling for Zimmerman's arrest. It was the website's largest petition ever. Since Martin was killed while wearing a hoodie, hoodies were used as a sign of protest over the handling of the case. Additionally, some professional athletes, including Carmelo Anthony, Dwyane Wade, LeBron James, and the entire Miami Heat roster, donned hoodies in Martin's honor. Bags of Skittles candy and cans of Arizona Iced Tea were also used as protest symbols. Martin was reported to be returning from a 7-Eleven convenience store with these items when he was shot, although the beverage he purchased was actually a can of Arizona Watermelon Fruit Juice Cocktail. Walkouts were staged by students at over a dozen Florida high schools, and thousands of people attended rallies around the country to demand Zimmerman's arrest. Members of the Occupy movement marched in solidarity during the "Million Hoodie March". A number of high-profile citizens made public comments or released statements calling for a full investigation, including Reverend Al Sharpton, Reverend Jesse Jackson, and President Barack Obama. Speaking on the day of Zimmerman's arrest, Al Sharpton said, "Forty-five days ago, Trayvon Martin was murdered. No arrest was made. The Chief of Police in Sanford announced after his review of the evidence there would be no arrest. An outcry from all over this country came because his parents refused to leave it there." Jesse Jackson also referred to Martin as "murdered and martyred". And U.S. Rep. Frederica Wilson (Dem.), who represents Martin's hometown of Miami, used the word "murdered" when she referred to Martin's fatal shooting. President Obama, speaking to reporters on March 23 after federal investigators were deployed to Sanford, said, "When I think about this boy, I think about my own kids, and I think every parent in America should be able to understand why it is absolutely imperative that we investigate every aspect of this.... If I had a son, he would look like Trayvon." Former education secretary William Bennett criticized what he called a "mob mentality", saying that "... the tendency in the first days by some, including Al Sharpton, Jesse Jackson and an angry chorus of followers, was to rush to judgment with little regard for fairness, due process, or respect for the terrible death of a young man". According to Zimmerman's father, George Zimmerman received death threats after the shooting and was forced to move out of his home. The New Black Panther Party offered a $10,000 reward for the "capture" of George Zimmerman; this was condemned by the city of Sanford. In parts of the U.S., various acts of vandalism, assaults and crimes were connected in part to alleged revenge for the shooting of Trayvon Martin. Professor Alan Dershowitz criticized the probable cause affidavit against Zimmerman as "so thin that it won't make it past the judge", calling it "irresponsible and unethical", and opined that the charges were motivated by prosecutor Corey's desire to be re-elected. The deadline for qualifying to run against Corey was 9 days after she filed charges, and no one stepped forward to challenge her, so she won re-election. In June, Dershowitz said that Corey had contacted the dean of Harvard Law School about his remarks, threatening to sue Dershowitz for libel and slander, and the school too, and saying she wanted him to be disciplined by the American Bar Association. Dershowitz said the dean defended his remarks under academic freedom, and he commented that "[e]ven if Angela Corey's actions were debatable, which I believe they were not, I certainly have the right, as a professor who has taught and practiced criminal law nearly 50 years, to express a contrary view." CNN legal analyst Mark NeJame expressed concern over Corey's threats and questioned if the prosecution of Zimmerman was for political reasons. Fox News Channel host Geraldo Rivera claimed that Martin's "gangsta style clothing" was "as much responsible for Trayvon Martin's death as George Zimmerman was". Rivera was quoted saying, "I am urging the parents of black and Latino youngsters particularly to not let their children go out wearing hoodies." Faced with outrage over his statements, Rivera apologized, saying that he had "obscured the main point that someone shot and killed an unarmed teenager". When a 7-Eleven surveillance video showing Martin making a purchase on the night of the shooting was released two months later, however, Rivera referred to the clothes he had been wearing as "thug wear". His comments were criticized by the Martin family attorney, Benjamin Crump, who compared them to people blaming rape victims for wearing short skirts. Bill O'Reilly of Fox News called for restraint and urged other pundits to stop trying the case in the media. He said that the case is a "tragedy" but should not be tried in the media. After Zimmerman's bond was revoked for misrepresenting how much money he had when his bond was set, Martin family attorney Benjamin Crump said he expected the prosecution to bring Zimmerman's credibility "front and center in this entire case". Zimmerman's attorney, Mark O'Mara stated that it was a "mistake" that had "undermined his credibility, which he will have to work to repair". Alleged race issues Allegations against Zimmerman Zimmerman was accused of being motivated by racism and of having racially profiled Martin. During early media coverage of the incident, Zimmerman's call to the police dispatcher was deceptively edited by NBC making it appear Zimmerman had volunteered Martin's race. The unedited audio recording proved that the police dispatcher asked about Martin's race, and only then did Zimmerman reveal that Martin was black. NBC apologized for the misleading edit and disciplined those involved, including firing the producer who was responsible for the deceptive edit to the 911 call. Other reproaches to Zimmerman include his extensive history of 911 calls and an alleged obsession with law and order and the minutiae of suburban life. Defense of Zimmerman's character In an open letter on March 15, 2012, Zimmerman's father, Robert Zimmerman, defended his son against allegations that his actions were racially motivated, stating that Zimmerman was Hispanic, was raised in a multiracial family, and "would be the last to discriminate for any reason whatsoever", saying that the portrayal of his son as a racist "could not be further from the truth". Just as George Zimmerman's trial was set to begin, Robert Zimmerman published an e-book about the case in which he said that prior to the shooting, he had generally believed racism was no longer much of a problem and that he had personally not experienced much racism, despite being married to a Hispanic woman, but that since the shooting he had found that racism is "flourishing at the insistence of some in the African American Community". In a chapter called "Who are the True Racists", Robert Zimmerman listed a host of African Americans he says are racist, including the Congressional Black Caucus, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, the National Basketball Players Association, the National Organization of Black Law Enforcement Executives, the National Black Chamber of Commerce, and the United Negro College Fund, among others. According to George Zimmerman's family, some of Zimmerman's relatives are black. Zimmerman's former lawyer Craig Sonner stated that Zimmerman is not a racist, and that he had mentored black youths in the past. Joe Oliver, a former television news reporter who is acquainted with Zimmerman, noted "I'm a black male and all that I know is that George has never given me any reason whatsoever to believe he has anything against people of color." In early April, an anonymous letter to the NAACP, which was signed "A Concerned Zimmerman Family Member" said Zimmerman had been one of the few to take any action to protest the 2010 beating of Sherman Ware, a black homeless man, by the son of a Sanford police officer. Zimmerman's father confirmed his son's efforts on Ware's behalf. In May, the Miami Herald secured an audiotape of the January 8, 2011, Sanford City Hall community forum. On the audiotape, Zimmerman was heard criticizing the conduct of the Sanford Police Department in the Ware case. Zimmerman criticized former chief, Brian Tooley, and said Tooley had engaged in a "cover-up" and that he should lose his pension. He also said he'd been on ride-alongs with Sanford police where he found them to be lazy. The Herald also reported that it had contacted five out of six black churches where Zimmerman was reported to have distributed fliers on the Ware beating, however no one recalled receiving them. On July 12, 2012, reports of some of the more than 30 interviews conducted by the FBI were publicly released. Sanford Police investigator Chris Serino told FBI agents that he believed Zimmerman's actions were not based on Martin's race. Zimmerman's neighbors had nothing derogatory to say about him, and his co-workers were complimentary. CNN headlined its article on the FBI interviews "Witnesses tell FBI that George Zimmerman is no racist". Allegations against Martin During the trial, defense attorney Don West implied that the language Martin had allegedly used was evidence that Martin had introduced race into the confrontation. State's Witness 8, Rachel Jeantel, testified that Martin, during his telephone conversation with her just prior to the shooting, had referred to Zimmerman as a "creepy-ass cracker". On cross-examination, West asked Jeantel, "So it was racial, but it was because Trayvon Martin put race in this?" and "You don't think that 'creepy ass cracker' is a racial comment?" Jeantel replied that she believed race was involved because Martin was being followed by a white man, not because Martin had called Zimmerman a "creepy-ass cracker." She said that people in her community call white people "cracker" and she did not find the term offensive. Jeantel also testified that Martin, during his telephone conversation, referred to Zimmerman as a "nigga." Jeantel said that Martin's use of the word "nigga" to describe Zimmerman was "slang" when asked by lead prosecutor Bernie De La Rionda. Allegations against the Sanford police For not arresting Zimmerman, the Sanford police faced heavy criticism, protests, and allegations of racial bias. The NAACP wrote U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder expressing "no confidence that, absent federal oversight, the Sanford Police Department will devote the necessary degree of care to its investigation" and requesting that personnel be detailed to Sanford to review the case without bias. Lee repeatedly defended the investigation, stating that the Sanford police did not feel they had conducted a racially biased investigation and welcomed a review of their efforts. Allegations were also made that the Sanford police were protecting Zimmerman. Lee told reporters that they could not arrest Zimmerman because no evidence contradicted his story, and that to do so would leave the police open to litigation. In regards to the 9-1-1 dispatcher telling Zimmerman that "We don't need you to [follow him]", Lee said "That is a call taker making a recommendation to him. He's not under a legal obligation to do that, so that is not something we can charge him with." On March 21, 2012, three out of the five members of the Sanford City Commission, including the mayor, passed a motion of no confidence in regards to the Police Chief Bill Lee, and his handling of the case; however, the vote was advisory only. The following day, Lee announced that he had temporarily stepped down from his position as chief of police, stating "my involvement in this matter is overshadowing the process." Lee further stated, "I do this in the hopes of restoring some semblance of calm to a city which has been in turmoil for several weeks." On April 23, 2012, the city of Sanford announced that Police Chief Bill Lee would resign but city commissioners voted to reject the resignation. Some commissioners had concerns about the fairness of Lee losing his job and the mayor stated he preferred to wait for the results of an investigation. Lee was to remain on paid leave. In an interview with CNN, following his testimony at Zimmerman's trial, Bill Lee said that he felt pressure from city officials to arrest Zimmerman to placate the public rather than as a matter of justice. Lee said, "It was relayed to me that they just wanted an arrest. They didn't care if it got dismissed later." Lee further stated in the interview that the Sanford Police conducted a "sound" investigation, and the evidence provided no probable cause to arrest Zimmerman at the scene. Lee said that the police needed to do a job, and there was some outside, and inside influence, that "forced a change in the course of the normal criminal justice process." The former police chief said the investigation was taken away from us and "we weren't able to complete it." Lee also said that his lead investigator made a recommendation that Zimmerman be charged with manslaughter, as a matter of protocol. The Sanford police presented a "capias request" to the state's attorney, asking that they determine whether it was a "justifiable homicide". "Stand your ground" laws The Zimmerman defense team initially planned to seek to dismiss the case against Zimmerman under the protection afforded by Florida's "stand your ground" self-defense law. The controversial law, passed in 2005, permits the use of deadly force when someone reasonably feels they are at risk of great bodily harm in a confrontation. Zimmerman's defense team ultimately did not seek a pretrial hearing for immunity from prosecution based on the stand your ground law. However, as required by the stand your ground provision of the law, during the trial the judge instructed the jurors that Zimmerman had had no duty to retreat and had had a right to stand his ground and use deadly force if he reasonably believed doing so was necessary to defend himself. Prior to the passage of Florida's stand your ground law, the standard jury instructions from the judge would have included a statement that a person had a duty to attempt to retreat using "every reasonable means" before using deadly force. Self-defense laws in the United States, particularly regarding justifiable homicide, vary by state. In many states, such laws exempt people in their own homes from the common-law requirement that one first attempt to retreat, if one can safely do so, before resorting to the use of deadly force (the so-called "castle doctrine", based on the notion that "a person's home is his castle"). Florida's stand your ground law extends the no-retreat doctrine to vehicles and public places. At the time of Martin's shooting, 22 other states had adopted similar stand your ground laws. Three weeks after the shooting, Florida Governor Rick Scott commissioned a 19-member task force to review the Florida statute that deals with justifiable use of force, including the Stand Your Ground provision. After holding seven public hearings around the state, and reviewing more than 11,000 comments submitted by the public—nearly three times as many of which were opposed to the law as were in support of it, the task force recommended against repealing the statute, saying that Florida residents have a right to defend themselves with deadly force without a duty to retreat if they feel threatened. Critics said that the members appointed to the task force had been chosen to heavily bias the panel against any significant changes in the law, and that, as a result, the panel's conclusions were no surprise. The task force did suggest that law enforcement agencies and the courts increase training on the self-defense law to ensure the law is applied fairly, and that the legislature more clearly define the role of neighborhood watch participants to avoid vigilantism and fund a study of how the law had been applied, examining effects such as race, ethnicity, and gender. However, the task force largely rejected recommendations of Miami-Dade County State Attorney Katherine Fernandez-Rundle (one of the task force members) that would have restricted the law, including a recommendation to limit immunity from prosecution to defendants who have not provoked a confrontation. In January 2013, Martin's mother joined two Democratic lawmakers in Florida and called for the repeal of the state's "stand your ground" law. Several bills subsequently introduced in the Republican-controlled legislature's 2013 session proposing to repeal or revise the Stand Your Ground provisions of the law died without committee hearings. Several months following Zimmerman's acquittal, in October 2013 bills to revise Florida's Stand Your Ground law provisions in accordance with several of the suggestions offered in 2012 by the governor's task force began advancing through the Florida legislature with bipartisan support. A proposal offered by State Senator David Simmons, a Republican who had served on the governor's task force and who had been a principal author of the original law, and State Senator Chris Smith, the Democratic senate minority leader, would clarify language in the law to deny aggressors in a confrontation from being able to claim immunity under the law, would allow innocent bystanders harmed by a person standing their ground to sue for negligence, and would require the establishment of guidelines and training protocols for neighborhood watch programs that would restrict neighborhood watch volunteers to only observing and reporting. The proposal was received favorably by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, the Florida Sheriffs Association, the state public defenders association, and the NAACP, although several Republican state legislators voted to block the bill's passage and gun rights advocates expressed opposition to several of the proposals. The Dream Defenders, who several weeks earlier had occupied the state capitol demanding that the legislature take up debate on the Stand Your Ground law, said the bill did not go far enough and urged the legislature to repeal the law entirely. Media coverage For the first 10 days after Martin's death, the story was covered only by local media outlets in Florida. In order to bring more attention to the case, Martin family attorney Natalie Jackson sought the assistance of publicist Ryan Julison on March 5. On March 7, 2012, Reuters covered the story, and the following day, CBS News, acting on a tip it received from the network's local bureau in Atlanta, Georgia, obtained an exclusive interview with Tracy Martin and Sybrina Fulton that was broadcast on CBS This Morning. Also on March 8, The Huffington Post, The Young Turks, and TheGrio.com, which is affiliated with NBC News, started to cover the case. On March 9, 2012, ABC World News featured the story on their nightly broadcast. CNN first reported on the case on March 12, 2012, and by the end of that week, radio hosts and bloggers were also reporting on the story. National coverage started to increase the week of March 12 and intensified after March 16, when tapes of 9-1-1 calls were released to the public. Having the 9-1-1 calls, which the police had previously declined to release, gave radio and TV reporters more material on which to report. The Project for Excellence in Journalism reported that media coverage of the Trayvon Martin case became the first story in 2012 to be featured more than the presidential race. According to the Project, the varying types of media have focused on the case in different ways. An article in the Tampa Bay Times wrote that, "on Twitter, people are outraged at Zimmerman and want justice, while on cable news and talk radio people are discussing the state's laws for self-defense and gun control and on blogs the focus has been on race." Fox News host Geraldo Rivera, a former NBC employee, asserted that MSNBC "made an ideological decision that... they would argue strenuously for the prosecution of George Zimmerman and the ultimate conviction of George Zimmerman... [T]hey are cheerleading for the conviction of George Zimmerman." Portrayals of Martin and Zimmerman The contrast in the photos of Martin and of Zimmerman which were most widely used in early media reports of the shooting may have influenced initial public perceptions of the case. The most commonly published image of Martin, provided to media by his family, showed a smiling baby-faced teen. The only image of Zimmerman initially available to news media was a 7-year-old police booking photograph released by law enforcement officials after the shooting. The image showed a heavy-set Zimmerman who appeared to be unhappy or angry, with an imposing stare. The AP quoted academic Kenny Irby on the expected effect, "When you have such a lopsided visual comparison, it just stands to reason that people would rush to judgment," and another academic, Betsi Grabe, as saying that journalists will present stories as a struggle between good and evil "[i]f the ingredients are there." Zimmerman's ethnicity The initial police report on the shooting described Zimmerman as white. Early news media reports which mentioned Zimmerman's race also referred to him as white. Although Zimmerman had personally identified as Hispanic on his voting records and driver's license, this information was not revealed to the public in early media reports, when Zimmerman had gone into hiding and no one was speaking to the media on his behalf. That changed when Zimmerman's father delivered a statement to the Orlando Sentinel calling Zimmerman "a Spanish speaking minority." Several media outlets, such as CNN and The New York Times, subsequently began describing Zimmerman as a "white Hispanic" in their reports on the case, prompting discussion, and some criticism, of the choice of that term. Conservative commentators, including Rush Limbaugh and Bernard Goldberg, accused the media of misrepresenting Zimmerman's race to fit a political narrative of a racially motivated killing. Goldberg opined that "if George Zimmerman did something good ... they wouldn't refer to him as white Hispanic, he'd just be Hispanic." Other commentators remarked on the difficulty of deciding how best to describe Zimmerman's race in media reports intended for audiences largely unfamiliar with the complexity of Hispanic identity in contemporary America. Michael Getler, the ombudsman for PBS, said that after reviewing viewers' criticism of the PBS NewsHour's having called Zimmerman "white" in an April 2012 broadcast, the NewsHour staff suggested that it might be best in future reports to simply show an image of Zimmerman and not try to describe him. Zimmerman's call to police Economist and commentator Thomas Sowell criticized the national media for implying that Zimmerman had continued to follow Martin after the police dispatcher said, "We don't need you to do that." He said that they mostly left out Zimmerman's answer, "O.K." because "too many people in the media see their role as filtering and slanting the news." After the audio of the call was released, reports by CNN and other news outlets alleged that Zimmerman had said "fucking coons" two minutes and twenty-one seconds (2:21) into the call. Two weeks later on April 4, 2012, CNN claimed that enhanced audio revealed that Zimmerman had said "fucking cold" (alluding to ongoing rain in February). The following day, April 5, 2012, CNN's Martin Savidge reported that forensic audio expert Tom Owen claimed it was "fucking punks." It is said to be "fucking punks" in the affidavit of probable cause, dated April 11, 2012. Other reviewers of the call have offered alternate interpretations of what was said, some labeling it "unintelligible." According to the Associated Press, the alleged racial slur "fed growing outrage over the police department's initial decision not to arrest Zimmerman." Audio editing by NBC Between March 19 and 27, 2012, the NBC Nightly News, NBC's Today show, and NBC's network-owned Miami affiliate WTVJ ran segments which misleadingly merged parts of Zimmerman's call. On one version of the recording played by NBC, Zimmerman was heard saying, "This guy looks like he's up to no good or he's on drugs or something... He's got his hand in his waistband, and he's a black male." In another, Zimmerman's voice was spliced to say "This guy looks like he's up to no good. He looks black." In the original 9-1-1 recording, Zimmerman said: "This guy looks like he's up to no good. Or he's on drugs or something. It's raining and he's just walking around, looking about." The 9-1-1 operator then asked: "OK, and this guy, is he black, white or Hispanic?", and Zimmerman answered, "He looks black." The phrase, "He's got his hand in his waistband, and he's a black male" came several exchanges after that point in the conversation. Erik Wemple of The Washington Post wrote that NBC's alterations "would more readily paint Zimmerman as a racial profiler. In reality... Zimmerman simply answered a question... Nothing prejudicial at all in responding to such an inquiry... To portray that exchange in a way that wrongs Zimmerman is high editorial malpractice..." NBC issued an apology for "an error made in the production process that we deeply regret," but never apologized on the air. The network said that the Today show and Miami edits took place in two separate incidents involving different people. A Miami-based NBC News producer lost her job, WTVJ reporter Jeff Burnside was fired, and two other employees were disciplined. Lilia Luciano, who was the reporter on broadcasts containing both edited versions of the audio, was also fired, and some of her aired reports on the Trayvon Martin story, along with the misleading audio, were removed from the NBC News website. On December 6, 2012, Zimmerman filed a defamation lawsuit against NBC alleging that they intentionally edited the phone call so that Zimmerman would sound racist. The lawsuit said, "NBC saw the death of Trayvon Martin not as a tragedy but as an opportunity to increase ratings, and so set about to create the myth that George Zimmerman was a racist and predatory villain." A NBC spokeswoman said the network strongly disagreed with the accusations that Zimmerman made in the complaint, stating, "There was no intent to portray Mr. Zimmerman unfairly and we intend to vigorously defend our position in court." In June 2014, a summary judgment was issued in the network's favor which ended the lawsuit filed by Zimmerman. In the ruling, the judge wrote that there was "no clear and convincing evidence that defendants knew that the information published was false at the time it was published, or recklessly disregarded the truth or falsity of those statements". Surveillance video mistake ABC News obtained a surveillance video of Zimmerman walking unassisted into the Sanford police station after the shooting. An officer is seen pausing to look at the back of Zimmerman's head, but ABC originally said that no abrasions or blood can be seen in the video. ABC later reported that it had "re-digitized" the video, and said that this version showed "what appear to be a pair of gashes or welts on George Zimmerman's head," but the story's main focus was on a doctor who claimed it was unlikely that Zimmerman's nose had been broken. Juror B29 controversy In his July 26, 2013, column, Slate journalist William Saletan accused several major news organizations of editing interviews with "Juror B29" to make it appear that she maintained Zimmerman had gotten away with murder when, according to Saletan, she had not actually done so. Trial and verdict As news of the case spread, thousands of protesters across the country called for Zimmerman's arrest and a full investigation. On April 11, 2012, amid widespread, intense, and in some cases misleading media coverage, Zimmerman was charged with second-degree murder by a special prosecutor appointed by Governor Rick Scott. Zimmerman's trial began on June 10, 2013, in Sanford. Opening statements took place on June 24, 2013. Jury deliberations began on July 12. On July 13, 2013, the jury found him not guilty. On February 24, 2015, the United States Department of Justice announced that "there was not enough evidence for a federal hate crime prosecution." Aftermath Some legal scholars, including Charles Rose of Stetson University and Jonathan Turley of George Washington University, were not surprised by the verdict and said the prosecution had tactically erred by charging Zimmerman with second-degree murder, which, given Florida's laws on self-defense, made it almost impossible for the prosecution to prove their case beyond a reasonable doubt with the evidence at their disposal. Several attorneys commenting on the case, such as Paul Butler of Georgetown University, said that the prosecution had failed to adequately prepare their witnesses for trial and had been out-maneuvered by the defense attorneys. Harvard Law Professor Alan Dershowitz remained extremely critical of State Attorney Angela Corey's actions in the case, charging that "her conduct bordered on criminal conduct" and "in 50 years of litigating cases ... rarely have I seen [a prosecutor] as bad as this prosecutor". George Zimmerman remained in hiding after the verdict, although it was reported that on July 17, four days after the verdict, Zimmerman helped rescue several people from an overturned vehicle in Sanford, Florida. The family rescued by Zimmerman had planned a press conference but later dropped the plan because they were worried about adverse public reaction to saying anything positive about Zimmerman. A month later, Zimmerman was seen in Cocoa, Florida, touring a factory of the company that manufactured the gun he had used in the shooting. Zimmerman was said to have asked about the legality of buying a 12-gauge shotgun. Zimmerman's parents claimed that they too had received a large number of death threats and that they were still afraid to return to their home after the verdict. A Winter Park, Florida, woman, whose phone number was posted online by a website that mistakenly identified the number as George Zimmerman's said she also received death threats. The woman said that when she reported the calls to the Seminole County Sheriff's Department, she was told that the sheriff's office was receiving 400 death threats per minute on social media websites. The day after the verdict was delivered, the NAACP posted a petition formally requesting the Justice Department to open a civil rights case against George Zimmerman. Within hours, 130,000 people had signed the petition. During a speech to the NAACP, Attorney General Eric Holder stated that the Department of Justice was continuing to investigate Zimmerman for civil rights violations after the verdict, and also criticized existing "stand-your-ground" laws. Holder's speech was denounced by the NRA and Florida Governor Rick Scott. Although there were scattered incidents of disturbances and vandalism following the not-guilty ruling, fears of widespread civil unrest (as per the Rodney King verdict in 1992) were unrealized. A Hispanic man in Baltimore was reportedly beaten by a group of youths–one of whom armed with a handgun–who allegedly chanted "This is for Trayvon!" A white man in Wauwatosa, Wisconsin said he was beaten by a group of African-American youth who were yelling "this is for Trayvon Martin!" The man said he was saved from the assailants by a young African-American couple who came to his rescue. In Washington, D.C., an adult white male was kicked by three African-American men, and robbed of his phone and wallet. The man said the three assailants yelled out "This is for Trayvon!" Police investigated the incident as a hate crime. On the night of the trial, a protest in the Crenshaw neighborhood of Los Angeles turned violent as the protesters began attacking bystanders, setting objects ablaze, and began looting and vandalizing stores including a Wal-Mart and the Baldwin Hills Crenshaw Plaza before Los Angeles Police were able disperse the crowd by blocking traffic on Crenshaw Boulevard. Days after the Zimmerman trial verdict had been announced, several dozen activists known as the Dream Defenders began to camp outside Governor Rick Scott's office in the Capitol, demanding that the governor call the legislature into special session to pass what the activists called The Trayvon Martin Civil Rights Act, which would repeal the Stand Your Ground law, outlaw racial profiling, and discourage the use of zero tolerance policies in schools. As the occupation entered its second week, Governor Scott maintained that he would not order a special session of the legislature. Democratic leaders in the Florida legislature, Senate Minority Leader Chris Smith and House Minority Leader Perry Thurston also called on the governor to convene a special session of the legislature, in order to overhaul or possibly repeal the Stand Your Ground provisions of Florida's self-defense laws. Senator Smith said that the verdict in the Zimmerman trial showed the adverse effect of the Stand Your Ground law. On July 19, six days after the verdict, President Barack Obama gave an impromptu 20-minute speech in the White House Press Room, in which he spoke about the trial and about race relations in the United States. Obama said that he identified with Trayvon, that "Trayvon Martin could have been me, 35 years ago." He also said that black men in the United States, including himself, commonly suffered racial profiling. A week after the verdict, peaceful rallies and vigils were held in more than 100 cities nationwide to protest racial profiling, demand the repeal of Stand Your Ground laws, and call for a federal trial of Zimmerman for violations of civil rights laws. A nationwide poll conducted for The Washington Post and ABC News found sharp divisions along racial and political lines over the shooting and over the jury's verdict. Nearly 90% of African Americans called the shooting unjustified, compared to 33% of whites; and some 62% of Democrats disapproved of the verdict, compared to 20% of Republicans. Gallup reported that the reaction was "almost exactly the opposite" of that following the O. J. Simpson murder case, when 89% of African Americans agreed with the jury decision, compared to 36% of whites. A Pew Research Center poll found similar divisions along racial lines in the Zimmerman case. The Pew poll also found large differences in reactions to the trial verdict according to age. The majority of Americans younger than 30 expressed dissatisfaction with the verdict (53% to 29%), while the reaction was reversed for those age 65 and older (50% satisfied versus 33% dissatisfied). During and following the trial, Facebook users started posting the phrase "black lives matter," which would inspire the Black Lives Matter movement. In December 2019, George Zimmerman filed a lawsuit against Trayvon Martin's family, their attorneys, the prosecutors in the trial, and others. The suit alleges a civil conspiracy by the Martin family and their lawyers, malicious prosecution by the prosecutors, and defamation by several parties. The suit asks for more than $100 million in damages. See also List of solved missing person cases Notes References External links Zimmerman Defense websites: George Zimmerman's defense team website Other George Zimmerman legal websites: Official website for George Zimmerman's complaint against NBC Collected news and commentary Justice for Trayvon website maintained by GlobalGrind.com Trayvon Martin collected news and commentary at Orlando Sentinel Trayvon Martin collected news and commentary at Miami Herald (as archived on May 14, 2013) Walk throughs and graphics of events leading up to the shooting: Map showing one version of events from Wagist.com Trayvon Martin: a walk-through of the shooting scene from The Reid Report The Events Leading to the Shooting of Trayvon Martin Trayvon Martin George Zimmerman Crime Scene Map Analyzed from BCCList.com Other: Exclusive: George Zimmerman breaks silence on 'Hannity': Video and transcript George Zimmerman Trial and Trayvon Martin Case Statement by the President, Barack Obama, July 14, 2013 (day after the verdict) 2010s missing person cases 2012 controversies in the United States 2012 deaths 2012 in Florida African-American history of Florida African-American-related controversies Crime in Florida Crimes in Florida Deaths by firearm in Florida February 2012 events in the United States Formerly missing people History of African-American civil rights History of racism in Florida Incidents of violence against boys Male murder victims Mass media-related controversies in the United States Missing person cases in Florida Race and crime in the United States Sanford, Florida Stand-your-ground law Trials in the United States

35721418

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killing%20of%20Kenneth%20Chamberlain%20Sr.

Killing of Kenneth Chamberlain Sr.

Kenneth Chamberlain Sr. was fatally shot on November 19, 2011, in White Plains, New York. After his LifeAid medical alert necklace was inadvertently triggered, police came to his home and demanded that he open his front door. Despite his objections and statements that he did not need help, the police broke down Chamberlain's door. According to police, Chamberlain charged at them with a knife and he was tasered, and then fatally shot. Chamberlain was a 68-year-old, black, retired Marine, and a 20-year veteran of the Westchester County Department of Corrections. He wore the medical alert pendant due to a chronic heart problem. The shooting was the topic of the 2019 film The Killing of Kenneth Chamberlain. Shooting At approximately 5:22 a.m., on November 19, 2011, Chamberlain was at home in the Winbrook Public Housing at 135 S. Lexington Avenue in White Plains, New York. His LifeAid medical alert necklace was triggered, sending an alert to a LifeAid customer service operator, who in turn called the City of White Plains Department of Public Safety. In response, police officers, firefighters, and emergency medical technicians were dispatched. At Chamberlain's home, police knocked on his door. Chamberlain told them through the door, he did not call them, did not require assistance, was not having a medical emergency, and asked them to leave. Police refused to leave his home, and insisted that Chamberlain open the door. Throughout the entire incident, an audio recording was made by a LifeAid device in the home. The police became more insistent, and began banging on the door. Chamberlain then contacted the LifeAid operator asking them for help. He stated that the White Plains Police employees were going to enter his home and kill him. The police continued to bang on the door, and then attempted to force it open for approximately one hour. Upon breaking down his door, they entered Chamberlain's apartment. Police alleged Chamberlain came at them with a butcher knife when they broke down the door. Chamberlain's family claims the elderly Chamberlain was unarmed, and did not resist. Police tased him, and then shot him with a bean bag round fired from a shotgun. Chamberlain allegedly continued to charge at officers with the knife when Officer Anthony Carelli (whose name was withheld for over four months after the incident) shot him twice in the chest with live ammunition. A camera mounted on the taser captured the tasing, but was not functioning during the shooting. Chamberlain later died in surgery at White Plains Hospital. Autopsy An autopsy conducted on November 21, 2011, revealed that one bullet hit Chamberlain sideways, passing through his right arm and then both lungs. The other bullet seems to have missed. The autopsy, performed by Westchester County Chief Medical Examiner Kunjlata Ashar, also revealed taser burns on Chamberlain's neck and abdomen. Chamberlain's blood contained alcohol content of 0.11, and the muscle-relaxant cyclobenzaprine. The autopsy found "no drugs of abuse" in Chamberlain's system. Kenneth Chamberlain Jr. responded, "I'm glad the autopsy is out and shows that my father's hands were at his sides. It absolutely shows that my father wasn't the aggressor and that deadly force was not necessary." Consequences District Attorney and Grand jury inactions In 2012, a grand jury reviewed the case and decided that no criminal charge would be made against police officers involved in the killing. Westchester District Attorney Janet DiFiore (now New York's Chief Judge) defended her decision not to prosecute Carelli and his colleagues on the grounds that they “acted appropriately,” and that “there was no reasonable cause” to indict Carelli for murder. DiFiore also neglected to take any disciplinary action against officer Steven Hart for calling Chamberlain a “nigger”. Police department review In May 2012, White Plains mayor Thomas Roach announced that he would bring in "outside experts to do a broad review of" policy for the city's police department. The commission's chair was Dr. Maria Haberfeld, a political science professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice and the academic coordinator for New York's Executive Police Institute. After a four-month investigation, the report concluded that Chamberlain's shooting was justifiable because it happened "after negotiations and when all non-lethal means were unsuccessful." The family's lawyers and groups such as Blacks in Law Enforcement of America (BLEA) have criticized the report for failing to consider and address various issues. Federal investigation Chamberlain's family asked U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder and U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara for a "criminal investigation," and in May 2012 the U.S. Attorney's Office announced that it would investigate whether federal civil rights law was violated. In January 2018, federal prosecutors decided not to bring any charges. Petition An online petition was created by the son of Kenneth Chamberlain Sr. By April 6, 2012, it had received nearly 199,900 signatures. It asks for an end to police misconduct and brutality, and for the officers involved to be "indicted and charged with murder and civil rights violations." The petition will be delivered to the County District Attorney for Westchester, Janet DiFiore. Chamberlain Jr. said he was inspired by the petition circulated online by the parents of shooting victim Trayvon Martin, saying, "I signed Trayvon's petition, sat back and thought, 'Well, maybe I should do a petition.'" As of May 3, 2012, the petition had received at least 208,000 signatures. Civil suit On July 2, 2012, a federal civil suit for $21 million was filed by the victim's son, Kenneth Chamberlain Jr., against the City of White Plains and the White Plains Police Department. In November 2012, the Chamberlain family amended their lawsuit to require the city to modify police procedures with the mentally ill. The case went to trial on November 7, 2016. The jury found neither the police nor the city liable. The family has appealed, arguing that the judge improperly excluded evidence. The appellate court heard argument on March 22, 2018. Appeals court decision In June 2020, an appellate court ruled that the federal judge erred when she dismissed some of the claims in the lawsuit filed in 2011. The ruling restores claims of non-lethal excessive force and unlawful entry in the killing of Chamberlain. The court found that the lawsuit presented sufficient allegations that "a reasonable, experienced officer would not be justified in believing that entry into the apartment was necessary." Chamberlain's son expressed joy upon hearing the ruling saying, "The appeals court has confirmed what we knew all along: That they violated my father's 4th Amendment rights." Chamberlain Jr. and his lawyers noted and found it appropriate that the ruling came at a time of nationwide protests following the murder of George Floyd. Accusations of racism Accusations of racism have been leveled at the police officers involved, at DA Janet DiFiore, and at law enforcement and justice systems that were reluctant to react. Chamberlain's son, Kenneth Chamberlain Jr., discussed these issues with lawyer Mayo Bartlett on Democracy Now, highlighting the absurdity of the police shooting a person they were summoned to help, as well as the unusual delay in the grand jury investigation. Chamberlain Jr. said "I wasn't trying to turn this into any type of racially motivated killing, until we heard the audio"—in particular, Hart's use of the word "nigger." On February 15, 2012, Kenneth Chamberlain Jr. said his lawyers had filed a notice of claim informing the city, White Plains Public Safety Department, and White Plains Housing Authority to expect the wrongful death lawsuit. Demonstrations were held to protest racism and dereliction of duty by District Attorney Janet DiFiore. Damon K. Jones, representing Blacks in Law Enforcement of America, demanded that DiFiore be investigated by Preet Bharara's office. White Plains Police Department Lawyer Mayo Bartlett points out that the White Plains police system wrote their reports to cover up racism and wrongdoing by the officers. Their transcript of the incident omitted Hart's use of the word "nigger," as well as the information that the original call had been for a medical emergency. Public Safety Commissioner David Chong said in a May 3, 2012 statement that the Police Department would conduct an internal review of the incident and fully cooperate with an independent study to be done by a panel of experts to review the department's policies and procedures and recommend any improvements. References External links Democracy Now! news video: Kenneth Chamberlain's Family Seeks Lawsuit, Federal Probe as Grand Jury Rejects Charging Officers, Friday, May 4, 2012 Democracy Now! news video: Kenneth Chamberlain's Family Files Suit After White Plains Police Evade Charges for Slaying, Slurs, Monday, July 2, 2012 2011 in New York (state) Death in New York (state) White Plains, New York African-American-related controversies Black Lives Matter November 2011 events in the United States Deaths by person in the United States Law enforcement in New York (state)

36502535

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killing%20of%20Adam%20Salter

Killing of Adam Salter

Adam Salter was shot and killed in his Sydney home in November 2009 after police responded to a call that the 36-year-old was stabbing himself with a knife. He was shot in the back by a New South Wales Police Sergeant Sheree Bissett who yelled "Taser, Taser, Taser" before discharging her gun. The shooter later claimed that Mr Salter was threatening another officer with the knife and that lethal force was her only option. However, the coroner found that there was strong evidence that the policewoman mistakenly used her gun instead of her taser. The police actions on the day, and the Critical Incident Investigation which followed, were sharply criticised by Scott Mitchell, the NSW deputy state coroner, at the 2011 inquest. Mental health advocates say that Salter's case was a "failure of care". Psychiatric experts say that such tragedies will happen again without systemic change to Australia's mental health system. "The high-ranking homicide detective, [Detective Inspector Russell Oxford] who led the investigation into the 2009 police shooting of mentally ill man Adam Salter has admitted that a report he gave to senior police soon after the incident contained false information." ... "The commission heard that, at the time of writing the report, Inspector Oxford had neither been present at any of the seven interviews police had conducted with witnesses, nor had he read any written transcripts of these interviews." The Adam Salter shooting was the subject of an episode of the investigative journalism TV program Four Corners. In October 2014, four officers were charged for giving false evidence and have been ordered to stand trial on 26 April 2016. All four officers were acquitted of all charges in the Downing Centre District Court on June 22, 2016. In New South Wales, other police shooting fatalities related to mentally-ill people included Elijah Holcombe (shot dead in Armidale in 2009), Michael Capel (shot dead in the Hunter Region in 2008), and Roni Levi (shot dead on Bondi Beach in 1997). In Victoria, the fatalities included the 2008 shooting death of Tyler Cassidy. See also Death of Beto Laudisio Death of Tyler Cassidy Michael Capel Rodney Ansell Slips and capture, an alleged phenomenon in which a person inadvertently performs one action while intending to do another Shooting of Oscar Grant, a shooting that was asserted to have been intended as a taser firing 2015 shooting of Eric Harris, a shooting that was asserted to have been intended as a taser firing References People shot dead by law enforcement officers in Australia Mental health law in Australia Deaths by firearm in New South Wales 2009 deaths 1970s births

36506347

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killing%20of%20Michael%20Capel

Killing of Michael Capel

Michael Capel, 43, a schizophrenia sufferer, died on 10 October 2008, from multiple gunshot wounds during a confrontation with police at Belmont, near Newcastle, New South Wales. The shooting followed reports that Capel had assaulted his mother and a local worker. Apparently Capel had come off his medication and become violent. A coronial inquest into Capel's death heard that he had "opened the door to police while holding a large knife and began walking towards officers". Following the death, a coroner has recommended special training for frontline police dealing with the mentally ill. In New South Wales, other police shooting fatalities related to mentally-ill people have included Adam Salter (shot dead in Sydney in 2009), Elijah Holcombe (shot dead in Armidale in 2009), and Roni Levi (shot dead on Bondi Beach in 1997). In Victoria, the fatalities included the 2008 shooting death of Tyler Cassidy. See also Adam Salter Death of Beto Laudisio Death of Tyler Cassidy Rodney Ansell References People shot dead by law enforcement officers in Australia People with schizophrenia Mental health law in Australia Deaths by firearm in New South Wales 2008 deaths 1960s births

36665111

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killing%20of%20Yehuda%20Shoham

Killing of Yehuda Shoham

The killing of Yehuda Shoham occurred as a consequence of a 5 June 2001 stoning attack attributed to Palestinians on the civilian vehicle, from the Israeli settlement of Shilo, in which the five-month-old American-Israeli Yehuda Shoham was seated. Rocks crashed through the car's windscreen and crushed the infant's skull. Shoham died of severe brain damage on 11 June 2001. This stoning attack and the infant's death, six days later, made headlines in Israel. Both incidents were part of a Second Intifada that started in September, 2000 and by 12 June 2001 had claimed the lives of 489 Palestinians and 109 Israelis. The attack The incident occurred as Benny and Batsheva Shoham and their only child Yehuda approached Eli after paying a shiva call in Ra'anana. Near Eli, Palestinians hiding at the roadside hurled rocks at the car which broke through the car's windscreen and crushed the infant's skull. The father continued driving, worried about an ambush, and at a nearby intersection, the couple noticed their baby's head injuries. Batsheva performed mouth-to-mouth resuscitation on Yehuda until the arrival of paramedics. Yehuda was taken to an intensive care unit at the Hadassah Hospital in Jerusalem, where he lay unconscious and with severe head injuries. He was attached to a respirator for nearly a week before dying of severe brain damage on 11 July. During his time in the hospital, Yehuda's parents gave him a second name, "Chaim," which means life, hoping that he would live. While in the hospital, Yehuda was visited by then Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. Background The Second Intifada, which began 8 months earlier, marked a period of intensified Palestinian-Israeli violence. On 22 May, Sharon declared a unilateral ceasefire and refrained from retaliating against Palestinian attacks. On Friday, 1 June, a suicide bombing outside a Tel Aviv disco occurred which killed 21 people, mainly Israeli teenagers who had immigrated from Russia. The day after, Saturday, June 2, Yasser Arafat's call for a cease-fire staved off Israeli retaliation. Aftermath In the meantime, Israel took a variety of measures to reduce tension, with Defense Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer citing a "significant reduction in the number of attacks". Though Palestinians would be subject to strict closure confining them to their towns, Israel eased some travel restrictions and Palestinians were to be allowed to return from Jordan and Egypt, raw materials would be permitted to enter and exit the Palestinian territories, and Palestinians would be allowed to return to their jobs in an industrial zone near the Erez crossing point. Palestinian security commanders traveled to trouble spots in the Gaza Strip to consult with local officers over the cease-fire enforcement. When news of Yehuda's wounding spread on Tuesday, 5 June, far-right settlers urged Ariel Sharon to retaliate. The incident angered Israel's 200,000 settlers who urged Ariel Sharon to end Israel's "policy of restraint", and abandon the ceasefire. The Independent suggested that the incident would be cited by many Israelis as reason for stepping up military measures. The morning after Yehuda's wounding, at least 300 settlers, arriving in buses, assailed two villages adjacent to Shiloh, Assawiya, and Luban al-Sharkiya, which lay under curfew and within Israel's security responsibility, and, according to B'tselem, in the presence of, and according to local testimony, with the assistance of the IDF, fired a wheat harvest, a hothouse, a carpentry shop and a school, stole tools and shot a Palestinian youth in the stomach or the leg. There were rock-throwing battles between settlers and Palestinians at the site of the attack on the Shohams' car during which one Israeli and seven Palestinians were injured. In addition, settlers in Hebron also attacked local Palestinian shopkeepers. The settlers had been a focal target of Palestinian militancy during an eight-month uprising. Two settlers were arrested by Israeli police as a result of the riots. Though reluctant to become involved in the conflict, the U.S. dispatched C.I.A. director George Tenet, who was scheduled to meet separately with the Israeli and Palestinian sides on Thursday, June 7, in order to re-establish co-operation on security issues between the two parties, which had broken down after the IDF had shot at the car of the Gaza Strip security chief Mohammad Dahlan in mid-April, and had fired on the home of their West Bank security chief Jibril Rajoub in late May. Tenet's visit backed up an effort by the European Union to seize on Arafat's declaration in order to transform the ceasefire into a genuine halt to the reciprocal blood-letting. On Wednesday, 6 June, the eve of Tenet's scheduled visit, the IDF announced it would award medals to the commanders and troops serving at Netzarim Junction, where the child, Mohammed al-Dura had been shot dead. The news was seen as a blow to the restoration of trust. Thousands of demonstrators protested in Jerusalem against what they termed Sharon's "restraint policy". That same evening, Palestinians were outraged when Sharon called Arafat a "murderer" and "pathological liar" in an interview addressing the Russian community that had been angered at his failure to retaliate for the disco bombing. The broadcast was carried on Israeli television. Though given the red-carpet treatment abroad, he added, Arafat did not act like a head of state but rather like the chief of terrorists and murderers. On Thursday, 7 June, speaking to reporters at a rally urging Ariel Sharon to retaliate for the attack on Yehuda and other recent attacks, Yehuda's father said "Unfortunately, our government is showing a lot of weakness in its response to terrorism". He also declared:This is our land, these are our roads, and if we are afraid of driving to Tel Aviv [Tel Aviv] and Netanya [Netanya] also. Negotiations, funeral and reactions Tenet's meeting with both sides was postponed until Sunday, June 10, after the Americans realized the extent of their differences. Matters were buffeted by the killing of three Bedouin women, struck by Israeli tank shells while in their tents in the Gaza Strip over the weekend, and the critical injuries sustained by an Islamic Jihad member in a car-bombing, which the group suspected as being the work of Israel. He proposed that Israel desist from attacking Palestinian targets and withdraw to the positions they held on 28 September 2000. He asked Palestinians to thwart attacks on Israeli positions, to end what Israelis view as incitement in the media, and to proceed to arrest militant gunmen. On Monday, 11 June, the day Yehuda died, Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres met the Palestinian minister for international co-operation, Nabil Shaath in Luxembourg to explore a compromise. Tenet eventually presided over a tense 4-hour meeting the following day, which was broken off after the gaps failed to be bridged. The Israelis insisted on the arrest of people they suspected of terrorism before they would allow a cooling-off period, while the Palestinians demanded that security arrangements be followed by an Israeli pledge to freeze to all construction in settlements in the occupied territories. The Palestinians refused to conduct what they called arbitrary arrests. The chief of staff of the Israeli army, General Shaul Mofaz, called the truce itself an optical illusion. The funeral procession for Yehuda began with settlers gathering in front of Ariel Sharon's office in Jerusalem with the child's body carried before them. As Sharon stepped up to a podium to address them, settlers shouted "Vengeance!" and "Go to war". Prime Minister Sharon spoke to the funeral procession outside his office, and, acknowledging the settlers' impatience with a ceasefire, said:If we stand firm and grit our teeth, and carry on even when the tears are choking us, we will win... I am not here to make a speech, but to weep, to weep together with you. May the memory of Yehuda be blessed. Sharon also asked for prayers for the infant, and accused the Palestinian Authority of inciting violence. From there the procession walked to the northern West Bank settlement of Shilo where Yehuda was buried. One of Yehuda's cousins said, "Yehuda was just a baby, without sin or enemy, yet he was killed for one reason only, he was a Jew on his way home in Eretz Yisrael [Eretz Yisrael]." In a letter to the United Nations, Permanent Representative of Israel to the United Nations Yehuda Lancry outlined Israel's position, which affirmed that the death of Yehuda Shoham constituted a "reprehensible act of terrorism" that took place just over two weeks after Israel had declared that it would refrain from initiating military action against Palestinians, and barely a week after Yassir Arafat had undertaken to fight violence and terrorism. In Yehuda's memory, his parents decided to collect donations for dormitories at the yeshiva in Shiloh. His parents also established the Yehuda Fund in January 2002 "in their son's memory." See also Murder of Helena Rapp Murder of Shalhevet Pass Murder of Tali Hatuel and her four daughters Murder of Ofir Rahum Death of Asher and Yonatan Palmer Children in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict References Terrorism deaths in the West Bank People murdered in the Palestinian territories Murdered Israeli children Children in war Deaths by person in Asia Israeli terrorism victims Deaths by rocks thrown at cars Palestinian stone-throwing

40125178

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killing%20of%20Sammy%20Yatim

Killing of Sammy Yatim

The death of Sammy Yatim occurred early in the morning of July 27, 2013, in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Yatim, an 18-year-old Toronto male armed with a switchblade knife, was shot at nine times, and was hit by eight of the shots fired by 30-year-old Toronto Police Service (TPS) officer James Forcillo. After being shot, while lying on the floor of the streetcar he was tasered. He later died from the injuries. The incident occurred after Yatim, brandishing a switchblade knife in a Toronto streetcar, advanced on a passenger, threatened other passengers, and exposed himself. The confrontation between Yatim and the police was recorded and footage of it was released publicly, prompting strong reactions across Canada. On August 19, 2013, Forcillo was charged with second-degree murder. On July 30, 2014, he was also charged with attempted murder. On January 25, 2016, he was found not guilty of second-degree murder and manslaughter, but guilty of attempted murder. On July 28, he was sentenced to six years in prison. The next day, he was granted bail pending an appeal of the court's sentence. His appeal was denied and he was granted parole after serving 2 years in prison. This incident was the only time an on-duty Ontario officer was charged and convicted in the death of a person since the inception of the Special Investigations Unit (SIU) in 1990. Shooting At 10:30 pm on July 26, Sammy Yatim boarded a Toronto subway train and transferred to a streetcar on route 505 Dundas around 11:45 pm. Sometime afterwards, he drew his switchblade knife, approached a passenger, and told other passengers to remain on the streetcar, reportedly acting aggressively towards other passengers. Frightened, the passengers promptly tried to escape. Yatim then revised his demands, ordering everyone off the streetcar. He began to approach the driver of the vehicle but stopped to shout obscenities at the crowd gathering outside. The driver of the streetcar remained at the controls until shortly before police arrived. A passenger and witness said that upon boarding the streetcar he initially noticed Yatim sitting at the back, across from a group of teenage girls. He later heard giggling from the back of the streetcar followed by a scream, then saw Yatim brandishing a knife as the girls ran past him toward the front doors. According to two other witnesses, Yatim seemed irate, mentally unstable, and oblivious to others' presence, holding his exposed genitals in one hand and a knife in the other. Police arrived at the scene. At the front of the vehicle, Constable James Forcillo of the Toronto Police Service called for a Taser, believing the situation "could be contained". According to videos of the incident, police ordered Yatim to drop the knife several times and warned him not to "take one step in this direction". After Yatim started advancing from the middle towards the front of the streetcar, Forcillo fired three shots, forcing Yatim to the ground. Forcillo claimed Yatim started to get up several seconds later but subsequent autopsy showed the initial volley had severed Yatim's spine, rendering him immobile and unable to get up. Forcillo fired six more shots. Approximately 30 seconds later, Forcillo's Sergeant, Dan Pravica tasered Yatim. It was later determined that eight of the nine shots fired hit Yatim, and the initial salvo of three shots had killed Yatim almost instantly. Surveillance video indicates that Yatim was lying on the deck when the last six shots were fired. Yatim was transported and later pronounced dead at St. Michael's Hospital. Backgrounds James Forcillo James Forcillo was born December 30, 1982, in Montreal, Quebec. He is a second-generation Italian Canadian. He was a constable with six years on the force at the time of the shooting. He graduated from a justice program at East Los Angeles College in Monterey Park, California, United States, and received a psychology degree from York University in Toronto. He worked as a security guard in Toronto, and then was employed as a court services officer for three years. Up until Yatim's death, he worked as a patrol officer for three years. Sammy Yatim Sammy Adib Yatim was an ethnic Aramean born on November 5, 1994, in Aleppo, Syria. He emigrated to Toronto from Aleppo, Syria, with his family in 2008. He had recently graduated from Brebeuf College School in North York, Toronto and had told a friend he intended to focus on his education. It is unclear what provoked Yatim's behaviour the night he was shot. His family said that he had no history of mental illness or violence. He had "moderate to moderately high levels of ecstasy in his system at the time of his death, as well as marijuana and a trace amount of cocaine" according to the autopsy report. Aftermath In July 2014, an $8-million lawsuit was filed against Toronto Police Service by Yatim's family. The shooting and subsequent investigation and trial raised questions about police accountability in Toronto. SIU response and criminal trial As the event was recorded on cellphone camera and posted on YouTube by Markus Grupp and Martin Baron, it received international coverage and attention as a potential use of excessive force by the Toronto Police. It also triggered protests, with one temporarily blocking traffic on Dundas street downtown. On August 8, the Ontario Ombudsman, André Marin, launched a review of police tactics for defusing heated situations, in the wake of public outcry over Yatim's death. The decision was criticized by the Toronto Police Association as a grandstanding political move, and the review as too vague in its goals. Internal review On August 12, former Toronto police chief Bill Blair announced he had enlisted former Associate Chief Justice of Ontario, Dennis O'Connor, to conduct an internal review of the use of force by police, and recommend ways police can better respond to situations involving the mentally unstable. On August 28, however, O'Connor withdrew from the police probe due to a potential conflict of interest. There is no known investigation into the use of the Taser in the incident or into videos which allegedly show a police officer kicking shell casings inside the yellow police tape at the scene of the shooting. Arrest On August 19, the Ontario Special Investigations Unit (SIU) announced that an arrest warrant had been issued for Forcillo. He was charged with second-degree murder. Forcillo surrendered on August 20. If convicted, the minimum sentence is life imprisonment without parole eligibility for at least ten years. Free on $510,000 bail, Forcillo was not required to appear at the next stage of his preliminary hearing on December 11. Toronto police stayed a disciplinary charge of discreditable conduct under the Police Services Act of Ontario until the criminal trial has finished. Despite this, Forcillo returned to work, but he did not have a firearm nor did he wear a TPS uniform. Michael McCormack responded by saying "the situation is not unusual for officers who have been suspended." On June 17, 2014, the preliminary inquiry ended with judge Richard LeDressay ordering Forcillo to stand trial in 2015. Evidence presented in the inquiry is under a publication ban. Forcillo continued to serve as a Toronto Crime Stoppers administrator. On July 30, 2014, Crown prosecutors added the charge of attempted murder "by shooting [Yatim] with a firearm and thereby wounding him." Legal experts said the second charge was a highly unusual strategy. Trial Lawyers on both sides of Forcillo's trial began making pre-trial motions in the Toronto Courthouse on September 14, 2015. Jury selection began on September 30, 2015. Prosecution During the trial, presided over by Justice Edward Then, the prosecution put forward the theory that Forcillo had over-reacted and "lost his cool" in his decision to fire at Yatim. A former police chief testifying as a use of force expert said he believed Yatim provided no imminent threat requiring the use of deadly force by Forcillo. In cross examination, the prosecution asked Forcillo why he had not put more effort into de-escalating the situation to avoid violence. Forcillo responded that pulling out his firearm in response to Yatim's knife was "a form of de-escalation". Defence Forcillo argued that he was acting in self-defence both times he fired his weapon. In testifying in his own defense, Forcillo explained that he followed standard police procedure, and believed Yatim to be a threat when he repeatedly ignored his orders to "drop the knife" and instead proceeded to advance towards him. In support of the defense, a police college instructor testified that Forcillo was out of options the night he shot Yatim. Passengers on the streetcar also testified their experiences of fear, terror and chaos when Yatim threatened them with his knife. Verdict and sentence On January 25, 2016, the jury found Forcillo not guilty of second degree murder and manslaughter, but guilty of attempted murder. The jury accepted the defence's argument that Forcillo was justified in firing the first three shots, but found him not justified in the second round of shots, thus guilty of attempted murder. The verdict meant Forcillo faced a four-year minimum sentence. Forcillo challenged the minimum sentence law and his conviction, in arguments heard in May 2016. After the defence was granted a postponement to prepare on May 16, the legal challenge began May 18, expected to last two or three days, followed by the sentencing hearing over another two. The defence sought house arrest, and the Crown sought eight to ten years in prison. The hearing concluded on May 26, and on July 28, 2016, Forcillo was sentenced to six years in prison. The TPS also suspended him without pay. Appeal and bail After one night in jail, Forcillo was granted bail pending an appeal of the court's decision to the Court of Appeal for Ontario. His lawyers were ordered to provide the court with an update on this process by November 9. Forcillo's bail conditions required him to stay at the home of his then-wife and her parents. Because Forcillo was deemed unlikely to commit further offences, his bail was extended in November 2016. In early November 2017, Forcillo applied for his bail to be modified so he could live with his new fiancée instead of at the home of his now ex-wife, and have his new fiancée added as a surety. Two days before the hearing for the bail modification was to be heard, provincial investigators found Forcillo at the residence of his fiancée in violation of his bail conditions. Forcillo was arrested the next day and charged with failing to comply with his recognizance, which has a maximum sentence of two years imprisonment. The attorney general filed an application with the Court of Appeal to revoke Forcillo's bail. Forcillo's bail hearing for the charge of failing to comply with his bail conditions was delayed pending the result of the application to revoke his bail, which was scheduled to be heard in court on November 30. In the meantime, Forcillo was remanded in custody and was in protective custody because he is a police officer. The Court of Appeal for Ontario subsequently dismissed Forcillo's appeal on April 30, 2018, and upheld the original trial-imposed six-year sentence. On December 6, 2018, the Supreme Court of Canada denied Forcillo's application for leave to appeal his conviction. New charges In November 2017, Forcillo was charged with breaching his bail conditions and then in December 2017, also faced one additional obstruction of justice charge related to allegedly committing perjury when signing an affidavit under oath. The affidavit had been filed in court when Forcillo was seeking a variance in his bail terms and was awaiting a hearing to address the variance request when he was found to be living in violation of his current bail terms by police investigators in November. According to documents filed with the court, Forcillo is alleged to have made "false statements under oath" when he stated in the affidavit that he was in full compliance with the terms of his bail and related house arrest. Forcillo was scheduled to appear in court on December 29. On December 29, 2017, Forcillo attended a bail hearing on the new charges of obstructing and perjury relating to his allegedly lying under oath in the signing of his affidavit. Again, his bail was revoked. In August 2019, Forcillo was granted day parole after serving 21 months of his six-year sentence. He was granted full parole on January 17, 2020. References 2013 crimes in Canada 2013 in Toronto July 2013 crimes in North America Crime in Toronto Deaths by firearm in Ontario Deaths by person in Canada Filmed killings by law enforcement Police brutality in North America Taser Toronto Police Service Police brutality in the 2010s

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killing%20of%20Miriam%20Carey

Killing of Miriam Carey

On October 3, 2013, in Washington, D.C., Miriam Carey, a dental hygienist from Stamford, Connecticut, was shot and killed by law enforcement officers. She had attempted to drive through a White House security checkpoint in her black Infiniti G37 coupe, struck a U.S. Secret Service officer, and was chased by the Secret Service to the United States Capitol where she was shot five times in the back, including one shot which hit the left side of the back of her head. A young child, Carey's daughter, was found unharmed in the car. Miriam Carey Miriam Iris Carey (August 12, 1979 October 3, 2013), of Stamford, Connecticut, was a dental hygienist licensed to practice in New York and Connecticut. She was born and raised in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, New York. She obtained an associate degree in dental hygiene from Hostos Community College and graduated from Brooklyn College in 2007 with a degree in health nutrition science. According to a family spokesman, Carey had previously been hospitalized for postpartum depression. Carey's mother told ABC News that Carey had been depressed since giving birth. Carey's sister attested that she was "not delusional" and had been placed on a one-year medicated treatment plan for her postpartum depression. Dr. Steven Oken, her employer for eight years, described Carey as a "non-political person" who was "always happy". On the day of the incident, Carey was supposed to be taking her daughter to a doctor's appointment in Connecticut. The FBI found two medications in her apartment, as well as a laptop, a flash drive and three nonfunctional cell phones. Federal officials said she may have suffered from schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. Federal officials said no weapons were found in the car. Carey's boyfriend reported concerns about her mental health and delusions to the Stamford, Connecticut Police Department. On December 10, 2012 Stamford police investigated the complaint and noted that Carey believed herself to be the "Prophet of Stamford" and insisted that Barack Obama had her house under electronic surveillance. These police records were released after several media outlets made a Freedom of Information Act (United States) request. Incident At about 2:12 p.m., an Infiniti G37 driven by Carey allegedly struck one of the White House barriers at the intersection of 15th St. NW and Pennsylvania Avenue NW. At 2:13 p.m. she drove into a restricted White House checkpoint at 15th and E Streets NW, without authorization and without stopping. When an off-duty U.S. Secret Service officer placed himself and a metal bike rack in her path to block her exit, she struck the bike rack and the off-duty Secret Service officer who was standing behind it with her car, knocking both the bike rack and the officer onto the ground. Secret Service attempted to arrest the suspect but she continued to drive the car evasively, colliding with one officer who fell on the hood of the car and rolled off. Carey then drove 40–80 mph down Pennsylvania Avenue, weaving through traffic and ignoring red lights. Police gave chase east on Pennsylvania Avenue for a dozen blocks. The chase then proceeded south on 1st St. NW/SW between Peace Circle and Garfield traffic circle. At Garfield Circle, uniformed and plain clothes Secret Service officers attempted to box the car in with at least five marked vehicles and one unmarked cruiser, on United States Capitol grounds, on the sidewalk on the east side of the circle. Four uniformed and two plainclothes officers proceeded to surround the car on foot with guns drawn, shouting orders. Carey eluded the box-in by backing into the Secret Service cruiser behind her and driving away, striking a Secret Service officer in the process. The suspect proceeded north at high speed, circling Peace Circle twice and then proceeding east on Constitution Avenue. She got as far as the northeast corner of the Capitol grounds, in the vicinity of the Hart Senate Office Building and came upon U.S Capitol Police Truck Interdiction Point at 2nd St and Maryland Ave NE with raised barriers blocking her path. She then made a sharp left and crossed over the median and struck an unmarked police officer's vehicle that had stopped in front of the Hart Senate Office Building. After ignoring multiple police commands, she revved her engine in reverse at a U.S. Capitol Police Officer who was approaching the vehicle from behind. As the officer ran towards the median to avoid being struck by Carey's vehicle, he and another officer from the U.S. Secret Service started firing. The two officers fired nine rounds each at the vehicle. The vehicle crashed into the kiosk and came to a rest. She was unconscious and did not get out of the vehicle. No officers fired after the vehicle crashed. It was at that time that officers discovered there was a young child in the vehicle and they safely removed the child from the vehicle. A shelter in place order was issued for the Capitol building during the incident. A Capitol Police officer was injured when his car hit a barricade during the chase near 1st and Constitution Avenue, and was medevaced by a U.S. Park Police helicopter, call sign "Eagle One" (N22PP), to MedStar Washington Hospital Center with non life-threatening injuries. A U.S. Secret Service officer was struck by Carey's car on the White House grounds. Aftermath Carey was brought to MedStar Washington Hospital Center and pronounced dead. There was an 18-month-old child, believed to be the victim’s daughter, in the back seat of the car. The child was unharmed and taken to a children's hospital. The FBI obtained a search warrant and conducted a search of the woman's home in Stamford, Connecticut to try to determine the possible motivation of her actions. As a precaution, a bomb squad robot was used to enter inside Carey's house at 114 Woodside Green. Both U.S. Capitol Police and Washington, D.C. Metropolitan Police revealed that they believed that the incident was isolated and not part of a terrorist plot. Miriam Carey's sisters have questioned police actions in this chase. In February 2014, Carey's family officially announced a wrongful death claim against the US Capitol Police and the Secret Service. The Secret Service has been criticized by various organizations for its handling of the incident, questioning the use of lethal force for a traffic mixup, citing at least 22 instances in which intruders have successfully breached the White House itself without resulting in a fatality. Carey's U-Turn at the White House check point and her subsequent path away from the building was captured on video by Al Hurra TV videographer Danny Farkas which was used during the news cycle following her death, as well as evidence in the US Attorney’s Office investigation. Footage from this video has been used to justify claims that Secret Service used excessive force on Carey. The Secret Service has since refused to release the video of Carey's death. An autopsy by the DC medical examiner was released in April 2014 and indicated that Carey was shot five times in the back, including one shot which hit the left side of the back of her head. The autopsy listed the manner of death as homicide. On July 10, 2014, the U.S. Attorney's Office announced that no charges would be filed against the federal officers and agents, stating, "After a thorough review of all the evidence, the U.S. Attorney's Office concluded that the evidence was insufficient to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the officers who were involved in the shooting used excessive force or possessed the requisite criminal intent at the time of the events." On May 20, 2015 a vigil was held in Union Square, Manhattan as part of the Say Her Name campaign to recognize the lives and deaths of black women killed or injured by police. Miriam Carey's family attended the vigil and her name was highlighted as one of the women to be recognized. Carey's name and story has also been featured in the Say Her Name publication "Resisting Police Brutality Against Black Women". Carey has been mentioned by critics of the Black Lives Matter movement as an example of the perceived lack of intersectionality within the movement, citing the lack of coverage and continued discussion of her death. See also 1954 United States Capitol shooting 1998 United States Capitol shooting Congressional baseball shooting 2021 storming of the United States Capitol April 2021 United States Capitol car attack References United States Capitol Police United States Capitol Shooting United States Capitol Shooting Crimes in Washington, D.C. Deaths by firearm in Washington, D.C. United States Capitol Shooting October 2013 crimes in the United States

40802248

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killing%20of%20Lasa%20and%20Zabala

Killing of Lasa and Zabala

The murder of Lasa and Zabala was one of the first acts carried out by the GAL, a state sponsored death squad, Basques José Antonio Lasa and José Ignacio Zabala were kidnapped, tortured and executed in 1983. This action was organized by a paramilitary group called GAL which subsequent trials found to have been established by figures within the PSOE government. Alleged ETA militants Joxean Lasa and Joxi Zabala, while getting into a friend's car, were kidnapped by non-uniformed members of the Spanish police in Bayonne (Labourd-French Basque Country). They were secretly taken to San Sebastián, and locked up in a house property of the government always in Spanish Police's (Guardia Civil) hands. For a long time, these two men from the municipality of Tolosa, were interrogated under severe conditions The organizers of the operation, provided they complied with the objectives of extracting information, ordered the murder of Lasa and Zabala. In order to accomplish this, the hostages were transferred to Alicante. There, they were forced to dig their own graves, and then, they were shot dead. Finally, the executors covered the dead bodies with quicklime to accelerate their decomposition, and eliminate or minimize any evidence of the crime. Trial and Sentence Enrique Rodríguez Galindo, General of the Guardia Civil (Spanish Police) stationed in Inchaurrondo, Angel Vaquero, lieutenant colonel in the same barracks, and Julen Elgorriaga the then civil governor of Gipuzkoa were found guilty. In total they were sentenced to 365 years in prison, but after serving some years in prison (5 in the case of General Galindo) were eventually granted a pardon by the government. In popular culture Pablo Malo directed the 2014 film Lasa eta Zabala about this case. References Terrorism victims 1983 in Spain 1983 in France Grupos Antiterroristas de Liberación

40901659

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killing%20of%20Andy%20Lopez

Killing of Andy Lopez

The fatal shooting of Andy Lopez by Sonoma County sheriff's deputy Erick Gelhaus took place on October 22, 2013, in Santa Rosa, California. 13-year-old Lopez was walking through a vacant lot and carrying an airsoft gun that was designed to resemble an AK-47 assault rifle. Gelhaus opened fire on Lopez, presumably mistaking the airsoft gun for a real firearm. The shooting prompted many protests in Santa Rosa, and throughout California. On November 4, 2013, the Lopez family filed a federal civil rights lawsuit at the U.S. District Court. On July 7, 2014, District Attorney Jill Ravitch announced no charges would be filed against Gelhaus. On July 1, 2015, the FBI announced no criminal charges would be filed against Gelhaus, due to lack of evidence to prove that he violated Lopez's civil rights. Backgrounds Andy Lopez (June 2, 2000 – October 22, 2013) was a 13-year-old boy who attended Cook Middle School in Santa Rosa. He was raised in the Moorland Avenue neighborhood in southwest Santa Rosa. He transferred to Lewis Opportunity School from Cook Middle School one week prior to his death. Erick Gelhaus is a Sonoma County sheriff's deputy, and has worked with the agency for 24 years. He is also an Iraq War veteran. Gelhaus is a firearms instructor and is a contributing writer to gun publications. He was an instructor for ten years at Gunsite Academy, an Arizona-based company that teaches gun-handling, marksmanship, and law enforcement to "elite military personnel, law enforcement officers and free citizens of the U.S." He specialized in teaching pistol, carbine, shotgun and rifle lessons. He accidentally shot himself in the leg in 1995 while on duty with the sheriff's office, reportedly while holstering a gun during an attempt at searching a teenager for weapons. In his 24 years in law enforcement, he had never shot a suspect until the shooting of Lopez. Shooting According to Santa Rosa Police Lieutenant Paul Henry, two Sonoma County sheriff's deputies (Gelhaus and Michael Schemmel; Schemmel was driving the patrol car) were patrolling the Moorland Avenue neighborhood when they spotted Andy Lopez approximately ahead carrying an airsoft replica of an AK-47 assault rifle while he was walking on Moorland, just past the corner of West Robles Avenue. The rifle appeared to be a real weapon, since its orange tip has been previously broken off. As the sheriff's deputies approached the child from behind, Gelhaus radioed an observation of "Code 20, two units" at 3:13:58 p.m. Schemmel activated the light bar and briefly sounded the siren as he parked the patrol vehicle, and Gelhaus exited the passenger's side, calling out to demand that Lopez drop the weapon. Lopez turned to his right, towards the deputies and the barrel allegedly began to ascend. At 3:14 p.m., Gelhaus fired eight shots at Lopez from his department-issued 9mm handgun. The deputies broadcast "shots fired" to dispatch at 3:14:17 p.m., indicating the total time from initial contact to the shooting was seventeen seconds. By Gelhaus's own testimony, he opened fire "a couple seconds" after issuing the command for Lopez to drop the airsoft gun. Seven bullets hit Andy within six seconds. Two of the shots delivered fatal wounds, with one round hitting Lopez on his side while he was turning to face the police, at least four entering from the rear, according to an autopsy. The deputies remained in defensive position until backups arrived, then approached Lopez with guns drawn; after separating the airsoft gun from Lopez he was handcuffed. He was pronounced dead by medical personnel on the scene. Lopez was found to be under the influence of marijuana after an autopsy. The missing orange tip is a US legal requirement for all toy guns for import. However, airsoft and pellet rifles are exempted from the marking requirements. It is also a violation of California law to "openly display or expose any imitation firearm in a public place unless the entire exterior surface of the imitation firearm is painted with a specified color". The 13 year old friend from whom Andy had borrowed the replica later reported that he felt responsible "because he allowed Andy to borrow the gun even though the orange tip of the barrel was broken off making it look real, although he'd told his friend not to take it since it was broken." Investigation On October 26, 2013, the Federal Bureau of Investigation started to conduct an independent investigation in Lopez's death. Sonoma County Sheriff Steve Freitas announced in a statement on October 25 that he will cooperate fully with federal investigators. It is the first time the FBI has investigated an officer-involved shooting in Sonoma County since the 1997 shooting death of Kuanchung Kao in Rohnert Park. Investigators said Gelhaus feared for the safety of himself and his partner, and had to make an immediate decision to shoot when Lopez turned around and allegedly began raising the apparent assault weapon in their direction. The gun was later found to be an AK-47 replica air-soft pellet gun with the orange barrel tip marking, required to help distinguish it from a real weapon, broken off, and most witnesses believed it was real or might be real. Witnesses testified that Gelhaus had by then once or twice loudly called upon Lopez to drop the weapon. Gelhaus was in a deputy sheriff's uniform and marked sheriff's patrol car; however, Lopez would not have seen the uniform or patrol car since the officers approached him from behind; In the autopsy, Lopez was found to have significant levels of THC in his blood, consistent with smoking marijuana 60 to 75 minutes previously; he was also found to have a joint in his pocket. 'A 13-year-old boy high on marijuana would likely have suffered "impaired judgment, slowed decision making and increased mental processing time, particularly when having to deal with performance of a sudden, unanticipated tasks, including decisions that needed to be quickly responded to.'" Gelhaus was cleared to return to duty on December 9, 2013, but was able to work at his desk and not on patrol. On July 7, 2014, District Attorney Jill Ravitch announced no charges would be filed against Gelhaus. In August 2014, Gelhaus was allowed to return to patrolling the streets. The district attorney, Jill Ravich, referred the completed investigative report to the Sonoma County Grand Jury, but the civil Grand Jury declined to review it, citing lack of expertise. On July 1, 2015, the U.S. Department of Justice announced that it would not file criminal charges of violating one's civil rights against Gelhaus. According to a Justice Department spokesman, the decision to not file charges against Gelhaus was due to insufficient evidence that he willfully used excessive force that resulted in Lopez's death. A group of federal prosecutors and FBI agents reviewed the case and determine there was a lack of evidence Gelhaus violated Andy Lopez's civil rights. Aftermath Civil action Arnoldo Casillas, the lawyer representing Lopez's family, said that the shooting was unconstitutional because it violated the Fourth Amendment's limits on police authority. On November 4, the Lopez family filed a lawsuit at the U.S. District Court in San Francisco, claiming that Deputy Erick Gelhaus shot Lopez "without reasonable cause." The civil action trial was initially scheduled to start in April 2016. In February 2016, the trial was delayed by Sonoma County's challenge to the January ruling by U.S. District Court Judge Phyllis Jean Hamilton that allowed the case brought by the parents of Andy Lopez to go forward. Hamilton had dismissed three of the five claims that Gelhaus violated Lopez's civil rights but said she would leave it to a jury to decide whether he acted unreasonably. Steven Mitchell, the attorney who would have defended Sonoma County in the federal lawsuit filed by Lopez's parents, committed suicide two weeks after the decision to delay the case was made. On June 25, 2018, the U.S. Supreme Court denied Sonoma County's petition, clearing the way for the case against the Sonoma County sheriff's deputy to proceed toward a trial. In December 2018, the lawsuit was settled for $3 million. Protests A series of protests were organized and held following Lopez's death. The protests were mainly organized by immigrant, religious and community groups and activists. Many protesters have stated that Lopez's shooting was a case of police brutality, and that Lopez, who was Latino, was a victim of racial profiling by the deputies. On October 25, 2013, more than 100 people, consisting mostly of middle school and high school students, protested at the Santa Rosa City Hall. On October 29, over 1,000 people attended a protest in downtown Santa Rosa, in the form of a mass march. The march initiated in the Courthouse Square in downtown Santa Rosa, and ended at the Sonoma County Sheriff's Office. Lawyer John Burris, who represented the family of police shooting victim Oscar Grant, gave a speech at the rally. Attendees traveled from all over the San Francisco Bay Area to attend the event. Many protesters held picket signs demanding justice. Up to 200 people attended a march in Santa Rosa on November 5, 2013, including activist Cindy Sheehan. They also demanded that District Attorney Jill Ravitch issue an arrest warrant for Gelhaus or put together a grand jury, but she declined to do either until the fact gathering investigation was complete, stating that the investigation would take time. Rallies were held statewide on November 9, 2013, in Santa Rosa, Oakland, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Sacramento, and Merced. On November 26, 2013, several people were detained during protests in Santa Rosa. A dozen demonstrators were cited for blocking traffic, and one demonstrator was arrested and booked for resisting arrest. There were 80 people attending that protest, consisting of local middle and high-school students, and several members of By Any Means Necessary (BAMN), a Bay Area-based civil rights group. On December 3, 2013, protesters targeted Ravitch at her re-election fundraiser. On December 9, 2013, Gelhaus was cleared to return to duty, which resulted in additional protests. A 31-year-old man was arrested for battery on a police officer for allegedly punching a police officer and hitting another officer with a picket sign during a protest at the Santa Rosa City Hall on December 10, 2013. Charges were dropped against him in May 2014. A second person was arrested for obstructing a police officer and violating probation. Multiple protesters vandalized the front door of the Sonoma County Jail, breaking its glass. On February 17, 2014, protesters for Andy Lopez gathered at the Santa Rosa Plaza food court to eat lunch while wearing shirts displaying "RIP Andy Lopez". Several mall security guards came up to them and asked them to remove their T-shirts or leave the mall. The attorney for Simon Malls, owner of Santa Rosa Plaza, apologized in a letter issued to relatives of Andy Lopez, stating that they were disappointed that the security guards did not comply with the mall's policies and procedures. The head of security for Santa Rosa Plaza was fired one month later in connection with the incident. On July 12, 2014, more than 100 protesters held a rally at the Old Courthouse Square in Santa Rosa, demonstrating their disapproval with prosecutors' decision to not file charges against Erick Gelhaus. A small group of protesters marched onto northbound Highway 101, blocking traffic. On June 2, 2020, a memorial and march was held in Santa Rosa in Lopez’s honor, on what would have been his 20th birthday, and coinciding with the George Floyd protests. Tributes A memorial park was created for Lopez in December 2013, located near the site of his death. In March 2016, the Sonoma County Board of Supervisors approved an additional $1.2 million of fund money for the park and a name for it. The park is named "Andy's Unity Park" and encompasses 4.22 acres. The park's estimated cost was $4 million, with $3 million for the construction. The park was opened in June 2018 with a final cost of $3.7 million. LandPaths, a Sonoma county non-profit, helped create Andy’s Unity Park Community Garden and maintains the park along with community involvement. See also List of killings by law enforcement officers in the United States, October 2013 Police misconduct Shooting of Michael Brown and the subsequent 2014 Ferguson unrest Shooting of Tamir Rice Shooting of Akai Gurley Shooting of John Crawford III Shooting of Ezell Ford Death of William Corey Jackson Shooting of Kuanchung Kao Death of Eric Garner Entertech shooting deaths Emmett Till References External links 2013 in California Deaths by firearm in California History of Santa Rosa, California History of Sonoma County, California Latino people shot dead by law enforcement officers in the United States Incidents of violence against boys Protests in the United States Law enforcement in California

41659351

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killing%20of%20Anthony%20Grainger

Killing of Anthony Grainger

Anthony Grainger was shot and killed by an armed Greater Manchester Police officer in Culcheth, Cheshire, England, on 3 March 2012. At the time, Grainger was unarmed. In January 2014 the Crown Prosecution Service announced that they would be prosecuting Chief Constable Peter Fahy under health and safety legislation over the shooting, and a full public inquiry into Grainger's death was concluded July 2019, blaming the police. The Report found that Grainger was a career criminal who posed a potential threat to the police. Background In September 2011, Grainger had been arrested and questioned regarding the suspected theft from a police officer of a memory stick containing unencrypted details of 1,075 police informants. Grainger was formally cleared in early January 2012 after police found no evidence connecting him to the memory stick. Despite this, several days after officially clearing him of suspicion, Greater Manchester Police launched Operation Shire, a covert surveillance operation monitoring Grainger and two associates. Death Grainger was shot in the chest whilst sitting in a stolen Audi with two other occupants. An armed policeman fired a single shot from a Heckler & Koch MP5 semi-automatic carbine. The bullet went through the windscreen, and entered Grainger's heart and both his lungs. The other two occupants, along with a third person, were tried and cleared of plotting a robbery. Investigation An inquest into the death was opened by Nicholas Rheinberg at Warrington Coroner's Court on 5 March 2012. The inquest was adjourned until an IPCC investigation was completed. The IPCC finished its investigation in July 2013, finding that the intelligence gathering under Operation Shire had been 'flawed', criticising the management of the armed police team sent in to apprehend Grainger, and concluding that the officer responsible for shooting Grainger 'may have a case to answer for regarding possible manslaughter'. These results were forwarded to the Crown Prosecution Service, who have the authority to decide whether or not to pursue a case, and the coroner. Jonathan Bridge, solicitor for Grainger's family, complained that the investigation had been leaked, without being shown to the family. The CPS decided that the armed policeman who fired the shot would not be prosecuted. They decided that it would be unlikely a jury would find him guilty due to perceived threat. A CPS spokesman alleged that Greater Manchester Police failed to prepare properly for the operation, which left people at risk. Chief Constable Peter Fahy was charged under Health and Safety at Work Act as he was the corporation sole for Greater Manchester Police. The police force faced an unlimited fine if found guilty. However, in January 2015, William Boyce QC, at Liverpool Crown Court accepted an 'abuse of process' argument from the defence, who had argued that evidence which needed to be disclosed in open court in order for the defendant (Fahy) to have a fair trial would not be in the public interest and it would prejudice future Greater Manchester Police operations. The CPS had no choice but to accept the judge's decision and drop the case against the Greater Manchester Police. Public inquiry In March 2016, then-Home Secretary Theresa May announced that the inquest into Grainger's death would be converted into a statutory public inquiry with greater investigative and legal powers. The public inquiry, officially opening in January 2017 with a preliminary hearing in November 2016, was led by Judge Teague, who was appointed coroner of the original inquest. The conversion from inquest to inquiry enables all relevant evidence, including confidential police documents previously deemed too sensitive, to be considered. The public inquiry issued a report in July 2019, which blamed the police for the shooting and criticised the Greater Manchester force for serious deficiencies in its firearms unit. Anthony Grainger's family have been represented by Jonathan Bridge and David Corrigan of Farleys Solicitors throughout the legal proceedings. Aftermath The shooting was the subject of a BBC Radio 4 documentary, One Night in March, in May 2021. See also List of people killed by law enforcement officers in the United Kingdom Police use of firearms in the United Kingdom Death of Jean Charles de Menezes Death of Mark Duggan Death of Azelle Rodney Deaths after contact with the police References Police misconduct in England March 2012 events in the United Kingdom Greater Manchester Police

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killing%20of%20Alfred%20Redwine

Killing of Alfred Redwine

On March 25, 2014, Albuquerque Police officers shot and killed Alfred Redwine. APD was called around 9pm to the location, a public housing complex at 60th and Central, after Redwine allegedly pointed a gun at two girls then went back into his apartment next door. APD officers shot and killed Alfred Redwine, saying that he had discharged a firearm, hours after a protest over the shooting of James Boyd. The new shooting led to more protests. Shooting Redwine left the apartment with an object held to his head, possibly a cell phone or a firearm. It is unclear if the first shot fired was by Redwine or an APD officer, however, APD said that Redwine fired, at which point they returned fire. APD says a revolver was found at the scene. A neighbor who said she saw the entire incident told a reporter that she "didn't see a gun on Redwine and that he had his arms down, with his palms out" when he was shot. Witnesses said he only had pointed the gun at his own head. Other witnesses said the "gun" was actually a cellphone. His sister, Tammy Redwine said "Then he was dropping his other hand to drop the gun that he had to his head, and when he dropped everything to his sides, that’s when they opened fire and shot him." She said told police officers she was on the phone with her brother and he wanted to come out. A neighbor said he heard a man shout "Just do it!" the moment before shots were fired. A KOAT 7 reporter, Mike Springer, narrates a video tape showing the scene as he says, "In this video that was taken by a viewer, you can see Redwine lower his arm. You hear a gunshot and see smoke rise from the ground." It appears as if Redwine fired his gun into the ground. Protests In the wake of the Redwine shooting, a second peaceful protest was organized against APD police shootings. Additionally, a video, reportedly released by "Anonymous", called for its members to aim "their canons" at the Albuquerque Police Department's website, and called for Albuquerque citizens to rise up and protest at APD headquarters on March 30, 2014. Hundreds of demonstrators took to the streets of Albuquerque, marching past police officers in riot gear to protest the spate of police-involved shootings. The Albuquerque Police Department reported their website had been down throughout the day due to a denial-of-service attack. Mayor Richard Berry reported that the peaceful protest had turned to mayhem, responding to the arrest of an unknown number of citizens. See also List of Albuquerque police shootings Parrish Dennison Kendall Carroll References 2014 in New Mexico Deaths by firearm in New Mexico 2014 deaths Year of birth missing History of Albuquerque, New Mexico Law enforcement in New Mexico People shot dead by law enforcement officers in the United States Albuquerque Police Department Law enforcement controversies in the United States

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killing%20of%20Eric%20Garner

Killing of Eric Garner

On July 17, 2014, Eric Garner was killed in the New York City borough of Staten Island after Daniel Pantaleo, a New York City Police Department (NYPD) officer, put him in a prohibited chokehold while arresting him. Video footage of the incident generated widespread national attention and raised questions about the use of force by law enforcement. NYPD officers approached Garner on July 17 on suspicion of selling single cigarettes from packs without tax stamps. After Garner told the police that he was tired of being harassed and that he was not selling cigarettes, the officers attempted to arrest Garner. When Pantaleo placed his hands on Garner, Garner pulled his arms away. Pantaleo then placed his arm around Garner's neck and wrestled him to the ground. With multiple officers pinning him down, Garner repeated the words "I can't breathe" 11 times while lying face down on the sidewalk. After Garner lost consciousness, he remained lying on the sidewalk for seven minutes while the officers waited for an ambulance to arrive. Garner was pronounced dead at an area hospital approximately one hour later. The medical examiner ruled Garner's death a homicide. According to the medical examiner's definition, a homicide is a death caused by the intentional actions of another person or persons. Specifically, an autopsy indicated that Garner's death resulted from "[compression] of neck, compression of chest and prone positioning during physical restraint by police". Asthma, heart disease, and obesity were cited as contributing factors. On December 4, 2014, a Richmond County grand jury decided not to indict Pantaleo. This decision stirred public protests and rallies, with charges of police brutality made by protesters. By December 28, 2014, at least 50 demonstrations had been held nationwide in response to the Garner case, while hundreds of demonstrations against general police brutality counted Garner as a focal point. On July 13, 2015, an out-of-court settlement was reached, under which the City of New York would pay the Garner family $5.9 million. In 2019, the U.S. Department of Justice declined to bring criminal charges against Pantaleo under federal civil rights laws. A New York Police Department disciplinary hearing regarding Pantaleo's treatment of Garner was held in the summer of 2019; on August 2, 2019, an administrative judge recommended that Pantaleo's employment be terminated. Pantaleo was fired on August 19, 2019, more than five years after Garner's death. People involved Eric Garner Eric Garner (September 15, 1970 – July 17, 2014) was an African-American man. He was a horticulturist at the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation before quitting for health reasons. Garner, who was married to Esaw Garner, has been described by his friends as a "neighborhood peacemaker" and as a generous, congenial person. He was the father of six children, had three grandchildren, and at the time of his death had a 3-month-old child. Garner had been arrested by the NYPD more than 30 times since 1980 on charges such as assault, resisting arrest, and grand larceny. According to an article in The New York Times many of these arrests had been for allegedly selling unlicensed cigarettes. In 2007, he filed a handwritten complaint in federal court accusing a police officer of conducting a cavity search of him on the street, "digging his fingers in my rectum in the middle of the street" while people passed by. Garner had, according to The New York Times, "recently ... told lawyers at Legal Aid that he intended to take all the cases against him to trial". At the time of the incident, he was out on bail for allegedly selling untaxed cigarettes, driving without a license, marijuana possession, and false personation. Daniel Pantaleo At the time of Garner's death, Daniel Pantaleo was a 29-year-old New York City Police Department officer living in Eltingville, Staten Island. He joined the NYPD in 2006 after graduating from Monsignor Farrell High School, and with a bachelor's degree from the College of Staten Island. Pantaleo was the subject of two civil rights lawsuits in 2013 where plaintiffs accused him of falsely arresting them and abusing them. In one of the cases, he and other officers allegedly ordered two black men to strip naked on the street for a search and the charges against the men were dismissed. Ramsey Orta Ramsey Orta is a member of Copwatch in New York City who filmed the incident. Following a campaign of alleged police harassment after the video went viral, he was arrested on weapons charges. Al Sharpton made a statement that prosecuting Orta while also calling him as a witness could constitute a conflict of interest. In February 2015, Orta was incarcerated on Rikers Island. In March 2015, a lockdown was initiated, and Orta was not permitted to prepare his own food. The prisoners were served meatloaf by the prison officers. After falling ill multiple times after eating food on Rikers, Orta believed he had been deliberately poisoned. Orta describes that the other prisoners fell ill, vomiting blood, but the guards reportedly laughed and no prisoners were brought to the infirmary. Court documents stated that the prisoners had suffered from various ailments after eating the food. Blue-green pellets were found in the meatloaf, and determined to be brodifacoum, the main ingredient of rat poison. As a result, Orta stopped eating the prison food, only taking food passed to him from his visiting wife. Orta has alleged that prison officers booked him on false or trivial offences in a biased manner, resulting in him not being able to receive food from his wife. Orta also claimed that the prison officers have threatened him, insulted him, beaten him, and deliberately crushed the food from Orta's wife. Orta stated that when he was initially arrested, a police officer told him it would be better for Orta to kill himself before he was jailed. After prosecutors questioned whether the money raised for his bail was crowd-sourced legally, Orta was released on bail on April 10, 2015. In 2016, he was sentenced to four years in prison for weapons and drug charges after accepting a plea deal for which the prosecutor agreed to drop charges against his mother. In May 2020, he was released from Groveland Correctional Facility. His release was in relation to the COVID-19 pandemic. Events of July 17, 2014 On July 17, 2014, at approximately 3:30 p.m., Garner was approached by a plainclothes police officer, Justin D'Amico, in front of a beauty supply store at 202 Bay Street in Tompkinsville, Staten Island. According to bystanders (including a friend of Garner, Ramsey Orta, who recorded the incident on his cell phone) Garner had just broken up a fight, which may have drawn the attention of the police. Officers confronted Garner and accused him of selling "loosies" (single cigarettes without a tax stamp) in violation of New York state law. Garner is heard on the video saying the following: When Pantaleo approached Garner from behind and attempted to handcuff him, Garner pulled his arms away, saying, "Don't touch me, please." Pantaleo then placed his arm around Garner's neck and pulled him backward in an attempt to bring him to the ground; in the process, Pantaleo and Garner slammed into a glass window, which did not break. Garner went to his knees and forearms and did not say anything for a few seconds. At that point, three uniformed officers and the two plainclothes officers had surrounded him. After 15 seconds, the video shows Pantaleo removing his arm from around Garner's neck; Pantaleo then used his hands to push Garner's face into the sidewalk while pinning him down.. Garner is heard saying "I can't breathe" eleven times while lying face down on the sidewalk. The arrest was supervised by a female African-American NYPD sergeant, Kizzy Adonis, who did not intercede. Adonis was quoted in the original police report as stating, "The perpetrator's condition did not seem serious and he did not appear to get worse." A police sergeant called an ambulance and indicated that Mr. Garner was having trouble breathing, but reportedly added that he "did not appear to be in great distress". Garner lay motionless, handcuffed, and unresponsive for several minutes before an ambulance arrived, as shown in a second video. After Garner lost consciousness, officers turned him onto his side to ease his breathing. Garner remained lying on the sidewalk for seven minutes. When an ambulance arrived, EMTs checked his pulse but did little else for about two minutes before lifting him onto a stretcher. According to police, Garner had a heart attack while being transported to Richmond University Medical Center. He was pronounced dead at the hospital one hour later. A funeral was held for Garner on July 23, 2014, at Bethel Baptist Church in Brooklyn. At the funeral, Al Sharpton gave a speech calling for harsher punitive measures to be taken against the officers responsible for the incident. Immediate aftermath On July 20, Pantaleo was put on desk duty and stripped of his service handgun and badge. Justin D'Amico was allowed to keep his badge and handgun, but was also placed on desk duty. Four of the EMTs and paramedics who took Garner to the hospital were suspended on July 21. Two of the paramedics were soon returned to their duties, and the remaining two EMTs were doing non-medical work at the hospital pending the Richmond University Medical Center's own investigation into the incident. Medical examiner's report and autopsy On August 1, 2014, the New York City Medical Examiner's Office ruled Garner's death a homicide. According to the medical examiner's definition, a homicide is a death caused by the intentional actions of another person or persons, which is not necessarily an intentional death or a criminal death. Garner's death was also found by the medical examiner to have resulted from "compression of neck (choke hold), compression of chest and prone positioning during physical restraint by police". Asthma and heart disease were cited as contributing factors. Prior to that, on July 19, 2014, The New York Post published a report, citing unnamed sources, claiming the medical examiner had found no damage to Garner's "windpipe or neckbones" during a preliminary autopsy. Garner's family hired Michael Baden, a former New York City medical examiner, to perform an independent autopsy. Baden agreed with the findings of the Medical Examiner's Office and concluded that Garner's death was primarily caused by "compression of the neck". Baden reported finding hemorrhaging around Garner's neck, which was indicative of neck compression. Pantaleo's union, the Patrolmen's Benevolent Association, noted that Garner's hyoid bone was not fractured. Barbara Sampson, the New York City medical examiner, said that "It is false that crushing of the windpipe and fracture of the hyoid bone would necessarily be seen at autopsy as the result of a chokehold." Protests Sharpton organized a protest in Staten Island on the afternoon of July 19; he condemned the use of a chokehold on Garner, saying that "there is no justification" for it. On July 28, a protest organized by WalkRunFly Productions and poet Daniel J. Watts was held in Times Square. The protest was in the form of poetry and many Broadway entertainers participated in the event. Al Sharpton originally planned to lead a protest on August 23 in which participants would drive over the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge, then travel to the site of the altercation and the office of District Attorney Daniel M. Donovan, Jr. This idea was scrapped in favor of Sharpton's leading a march along Bay Street in Staten Island, where Garner died; police estimated that over 2,500 people participated in the march. In March 2015, Assata's Daughters, a Chicago-based black activist group, formed because they saw a lack of response by public officials to Eric Garner's death. Grand jury Grand jury deliberation On August 19, Richmond County (Staten Island) District Attorney Daniel M. Donovan, Jr. brought against Pantaleo to a grand jury, saying that after considering the medical examiner's findings, his office decided "it is appropriate to present evidence regarding circumstances of his death to a Richmond County Grand Jury." On September 29, the grand jury began hearing evidence in the Garner case. On November 21, Pantaleo testified before the grand jury for about two hours. After considering the case for two months, the grand jury decided on December 3 not to indict Pantaleo. Under New York law, most of the grand jury proceedings were kept secret, including the exact charges sought by the prosecutor, the autopsy report, and transcripts of testimony. Attempts by the New York Civil Liberties Union and others to gain release of that information have been unsuccessful. Reaction Public After the Staten Island grand jury did not indict Pantaleo on December 3, citizens in New York City and San Francisco gathered in protest, demonstrating with several die-ins, making speeches and rallies against the lack of indictment. On December 5, thousands gathered in protest on the Boston Common in Boston, and then marched in the downtown area, blocking traffic, especially on I-90, in addition to staging "die-ins." Protests also occurred in Chicago, Washington, D.C., Baltimore, Minneapolis, and Atlanta. At least 300 people were arrested at the New York City protests on December 4 and 5, most of them for charges of disorderly conduct or refusal to clear the streets, but two for assault on a police officer. On December 6, 300 protesters marched in Berkeley, California as well. On December 10, 76 protesters were arrested at Westfield shopping centre in Shepherd's Bush in west London, England, during a rally to show solidarity with rallies in the United States. Protesters have made use of Garner's last words, "I can't breathe", as a slogan and chant against police brutality since Garner's death and Pantaleo's grand jury decision. By December 28, at least 50 protests in support of Garner had occurred globally, and many other Black Lives Matter-related demonstrations had occurred. Counter-protests were also launched in support of police, specifically for the NYPD. On December 19, during a New York City protest about the grand jury decision, supporters of the NYPD held a counter-demonstration, wearing shirts with the phrase, "I can breathe, thanks to the NYPD", on them, holding signs with phrases like "Bluelivesmatter", and chanting, "Don't resist arrest." On December 20, two NYPD officers were killed in an ambush in Bedford–Stuyvesant, Brooklyn. The suspected gunman, Ismaaiyl Brinsley, cited Garner's death at the hands of police (as well as that of Michael Brown) as reasons to kill police officers. Brinsley then entered the New York City Subway and committed suicide. Garner's death has been cited as one of several police killings of African Americans protested by the Black Lives Matter movement. Police As a result of Garner's death, Police Commissioner William Bratton ordered an extensive review of the NYPD's training procedures, specifically focusing on the appropriate amount of force that can be used while detaining a suspect. Patrick Lynch, leader of the police union Patrolmen's Benevolent Association, challenged the claim that a chokehold was used, further stating that the union would be able to find many use-of-force experts who would also challenge the claim that a chokehold was used. Lynch also attributed Garner's death to resisting arrest and, "a lack of the respect for law enforcement, resulting from the slanderous, insulting, and unjust manner in which police officers are being portrayed." Edward D. Mullins, the head of the union representing police sergeants, called on members not to slow down police response across the city by supervising every arrest. He also commented saying that the use of the term "chokehold" by the chief medical examiner's office was political. Police union officials and Pantaleo's lawyer argued that Pantaleo did not use the chokehold, but instead used a NYPD-taught takedown move because Garner was resisting arrest. Police also defended the decision not to perform CPR on Garner on the grounds that he was still breathing on his own. An Indiana police officer sold T-shirts saying "Breathe Easy. Don't Break the Law." A veteran San Jose Police Officer, Phillip White, tweeted: "Threaten me or my family and I will use my God given and law appointed right and duty to kill you. #CopsLivesMatter," which sparked controversy. Family In an interview with CNN, Garner's daughter Erica felt that it was pride and not racism that led to the officer choking her father. Erica held a vigil and "die-in" on December 11, 2014, on Staten Island in memory of her father, near where he died. On her Twitter account, she vowed to continue to lead protests in Staten Island twice a week, lying down in the spot where her father collapsed and died. Erica Garner died on December 30, 2017, after suffering a heart attack at the age of 27. One of Garner's daughters, Emerald Snipes, created a fund for his kids for Christmas, as Garner used to play Santa Claus. Garner's daughters Erica and Emerald, his widow Esaw, and his stepfather Ben Carr all went to the Justice for All March in Washington, D.C. After the grand jury decision, when asked whether she accepted Pantaleo's condolences, Garner's widow angrily answered, "Hell, no! The time for remorse would have been when my husband was yelling to breathe." She added, "No, I don't accept his apology. No, I could care less about his condolences ... He's still working. He's still getting a paycheck. He's still feeding his kids, when my husband is six feet under and I'm looking for a way to feed my kids now." Garner's mother, Gwen Carr, expressed surprise and disappointment at the grand jury decision. Politicians New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio called Garner's death a "terrible tragedy." De Blasio, at a July 31 roundtable meeting in response to the death, convened with police officers and political activists, called upon mutual respect and understanding. On August 1, in a statement, the mayor urged all parties involved to create a dialogue, and find a path "to heal the wounds from decades of mistrust and create a culture where the police department and the communities they protect respect each other." Mayor de Blasio has been criticized by activists for not firing the officers involved in Garner's death. New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said that New York State should consider appointing a special prosecutor to handle cases of alleged police brutality. He told CNN: "We have a problem. Let's acknowledge it." U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder said that the Department of Justice was "closely monitoring" investigations into Garner's death. Two U.S. Presidents have expressed thoughts about Garner's death. Barack Obama addressed the grand jury's decision by making a speech, stating that Garner's death and the legal outcome of it is an "American problem". Obama also reacted by saying that Garner's death "speaks to the larger issues" of trust between police and civilians. Former U.S. President George W. Bush said he found the grand jury outcome "hard to understand" and "very sad" in an interview. Rep. Peter King (R-NY) stated that, if Garner had been healthier, he would not have died after a police officer placed him in a chokehold. "If he had not had asthma, and a heart condition, and was so obese, almost definitely he would not have died from this." King added that there "was not a hint" that anyone used any racial epithets, and that if Garner were a "350-pound white guy, he would have been treated the same." Celebrities Shady Records recording artist Kxng Crooked aka Crooked I of Slaughterhouse recorded a tribute song for Garner titled "I Can't Breathe". The song was released exclusively through MTV News. Crooked used the same instrumental that was used for 2Pac's "Pain", with additional production added by Jonathan Hay. The cover art features an image of Garner being held in a chokehold by law enforcement officials. After the grand jury declined to indict Pantaleo, professional athletes such as NFL players Reggie Bush, Ryan Davis, Cecil Shorts III, Marqise Lee, Ace Sanders, and Allen Hurns; and NBA players LeBron James, Kobe Bryant and the Los Angeles Lakers, Kyrie Irving, Kevin Garnett, Derrick Rose, Jarrett Jack, and Deron Williams, wore T-shirts bearing the phrase "I can't breathe" during pregame warmups. The Phoenix Suns also wore the shirts. President Obama and Attorney General Holder applauded James for wearing the shirt. The Georgetown University men's basketball team wore "I can't breathe" shirts, as did the University of Notre Dame Women's Basketball team. Realizing that Garner died the same way as Radio Raheem, a character from the film Do the Right Thing, film director Spike Lee also paid tribute to Garner by splicing footage of Garner's death with a clip from the film showing several police officers putting the character in a chokehold. The title of Terence Blanchard's 2015 album Breathless was inspired by Garner's last words ("I can't breathe"). Matt Taibbi wrote the 2017 book I Can't Breathe: A Killing on Bay Street. Civil lawsuit In October 2014, Garner's family stated their intent to file a wrongful death lawsuit against the City of New York, the police department, and several police officers, seeking $75 million in damages. The parties reached a $5.9 million out-of-court settlement on July 13, 2015. Garner's widow had previously rejected a $5 million settlement offer. Department of Justice investigation On December 3, 2014, after the grand jury decided not to indict Pantaleo, the Department of Justice started an independent investigation. In January 2015 it was reported that the FBI's New York Field Office was reviewing the incident and events thereafter. The investigation was overseen by local United States Attorney Loretta Lynch until she became the US Attorney General. The local FBI investigators and federal prosecutors determined that charges should not be brought in the case, prompting strong disagreement from attorneys in the Washington, D.C. office of the United States Department of Justice Civil Rights Division. In October 2016, Attorney General Lynch removed the local FBI agents and federal prosecutors from the case, replacing them with agents from outside New York. Lynch's intervention has been called "highly unusual". In 2017, ThinkProgress obtained anonymously and published Pantaleo's police department disciplinary records, showing that Pantaleo had "seven disciplinary complaints and 14 individual allegations lodged against him. Four of those allegations were substantiated by an independent review board." He was found guilty of one of those fourteen allegations, and was disciplined by the loss of two vacation days. On July 16, 2019, Attorney General William Barr decided that the officers involved in Garner's death would not face federal charges. Disciplinary hearing and termination of Pantaleo An internal affairs inquiry by the NYPD determined that Pantaleo used a chokehold and recommended disciplinary charges. Chokeholds are prohibited by NYPD regulations, though are not illegal, unless constituting assault or criminal homicide. In 2015, the Department of Justice asked the NYPD to delay pursuing disciplinary charges pending a federal investigation. On July 16, 2018, NYPD Deputy Commissioner Lawrence Byrne wrote a letter to the Justice Department stating that the NYPD would pursue disciplinary actions against officers involved in Garner's death if the Justice Department did not file charges by the end of August. During an April 4, 2019, disciplinary hearing Pantaleo's attorneys argued that in an internal report dated December 10, 2014, NYPD Chief Surgeon Eli Kleinman concluded Pantaleo did not use a chokehold on Garner and Garner had suffered no chokehold associated injuries. According to Pantaleo's lawyer, Kleinman found that Garner's pre-existing health conditions contributed to his death. The report was completed at the request of NYPD Internal Affairs Bureau. Kleinman did not personally examine Garner and based his conclusions on a review of two videos of the incident and Garner's autopsy. At a May 2019 disciplinary hearing for Pantaleo, Dr. Floriana Persechino, who performed Garner's autopsy, testified that Pantaleo's use of a chokehold on Garner "set into motion a lethal sequence" that led to a fatal asthma attack. However, the examiner conceded that even "a bear hug" could have had the same effect as the chokehold, given that Garner weighed 395 pounds (179 kg), suffered from asthma and diabetes, and had a heart twice the size of a healthy person's heart. Moreover, during the trial at a hearing in June 2019, a defense witness, Dr. Michael Graham, St. Louis, Missouri's chief medical examiner, testified Garner's death couldn't have been caused by a chokehold because, Graham said, Garner was never actually choked or unable to breathe during the arrest. Graham attributed Garner's death to heart disease exacerbated by the stress of the arrest. During this same trial, Pantaleo's partner, Justin D'Amico, admitted that he exaggerated Garner's charges. D'Amico claimed Garner had been selling 10,000 untaxed cigarettes, which was a felony. However, Garner had fewer than 100 cigarettes in his possession at the time of his death. Pantaleo's disciplinary hearing concluded on June 6, 2019. Two months later, it was reported that the administrative judge presiding over the disciplinary hearing recommended to New York Police Department Commissioner James O’Neill that Pantaleo be fired. According to New York Police Department Administrative Judge Rosemarie Maldonado, video evidence and autopsy results provided "'overwhelming'" evidence that Pantaleo had placed Garner in a chokehold. In her recommendation to the Commissioner, Judge Maldonado found that Pantaleo's "'use of a chokehold fell so far short of objective reasonableness that this tribunal found it to be reckless — a gross deviation from the standard of conduct established for a New York City police officer.'" On August 19, 2019, O'Neill terminated Pantaleo's employment with the New York Police Department, stating that it would not be possible for Pantaleo to serve effectively, and that Pantaleo's decision to maintain the chokehold on the ground is what led to his firing. Pantaleo's attorney, Stuart London, told reporters that his client planned to sue in state court for his reinstatement. State legislation On June 8, 2020, both houses of the New York state assembly passed the Eric Garner Anti-Chokehold Act, which stipulates that any police officer in the state of New York who injures or kills somebody through the use of "a chokehold or similar restraint" can be charged with a class C felony, punishable by up to 15 years in prison. New York Governor Andrew Cuomo signed the police reforms, which he described as "long overdue", into law on June 12, 2020. Popular culture The single Loyal Like Sid & Nancy by Foster the People, released in 2017, includes the lyric "I can't breathe" and is partly a commentary about Garner's killing and Black Lives Matter. In 2018, a crime-drama film was released under the title of Monsters and Men, whose main plotline depicts the death of a cigarette-selling black man at the hands of the police being filmed by an onlooker and grabbing wide attention upon release. Being inspired by a real story, and given the striking similarity with the incident, multiple film reviews considered the movie to be based on the death of Eric Garner. See also Murder of George Floyd Killing of Jonny Gammage Death of Jonathan Sanders Death of Sandra Bland Hands up, don't shoot List of killings by law enforcement officers in the United States, July 2014 Mothers of the Movement New York City Police Department corruption and misconduct Shooting of Andy Lopez Shooting of Alton Sterling Shooting of Jeremy McDole Killing of Tamir Rice Shooting of Philando Castile Murder of Ahmaud Arbery Killing of Breonna Taylor References External links 2014 controversies in the United States 2014 deaths 2014 in New York City African-American history in New York City African-American-related controversies Black Lives Matter Civil rights protests in the United States Crimes in New York City Deaths by person in New York City Deaths by strangulation in the United States Deaths from asthma Deaths in police custody in the United States Filmed killings by law enforcement Filmed deaths in the United States Filmed police brutality History of African-American civil rights History of Staten Island July 2014 events in the United States Law enforcement controversies in the United States New York City Police Department corruption and misconduct Protests in the United States Race and crime in the United States Asphyxia-related deaths by law enforcement in the United States Police brutality in the United States Protest marches

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killing%20of%20Jennifer%20Laude

Killing of Jennifer Laude

The death of Jennifer Laude () occurred on October 11, 2014, in Olongapo, Philippines, when the 26-year-old Filipina trans woman was killed by Joseph Scott Pemberton, a 19-year-old Lance Corporal in the United States Marine Corps. Pemberton admitted assaulting Laude and deployed a trans panic defense in his 2015 trial. His charge was downgraded from murder to homicide by a judge in 2015, and he was convicted on December 1, 2015. Philippines president Rodrigo Duterte granted an absolute pardon to Pemberton in September 2020. This was the second reported criminal case involving a United States Marine in the Philippines under the Philippines–United States Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA) and the first since the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement (EDCA). The killing spawned protests in the Philippines by transgender rights groups and other activists. Incident Laude, a trans woman, met Pemberton, a United States Marine from New Bedford, Massachusetts, at the Ambyanz disco bar in Olongapo on the evening of October 11, 2014. According to police and witnesses, they subsequently went to Celzone Lodge, a nearby motel. Thirty minutes after checking in, Pemberton left the motel, leaving the door to the room ajar. Staff found Laude's naked body, partially covered from the waist down, with her neck blackened with strangulation marks and her head in a toilet bowl. Condoms recovered from the bathroom were subjected to DNA testing to determine if the semen it contained matched that of Pemberton. Forensic experts from the U.S. Army Criminal Investigation Laboratory determined that one of the three condoms and a condom wrapper recovered from the motel room had Pemberton's fingerprints. The DNA within the condoms also did not match Laude's DNA. The cause of death was reported as "asphyxiation by drowning". Pemberton was reported to have later admitted that he murdered Laude after he found out she was transgender and had been born a male. Pemberton was in the Philippines to take part in regular military exercises. His ship was docked at Subic Bay Freeport, former home of the Subic Bay Naval Base, once the largest US Navy base outside the United States. Victim Jennifer Laude was born on November 4, 1987. At the time of her death at the age of 26, she was engaged to a German national. While having a drink with her friend Barbie Gelviro at the Ambyanz Disco in Olongapo, on October 11, 2014, she met an American military foreigner and agreed to go with him to a "short time" hotel called the Celzone Lodge. Gelviro went also with her own companion, and the couples went to different rooms. Later that night Laude was found dead. Arrest and trial Following the death of Laude, Pemberton was detained by the U.S. Navy, first on board his ship and then inside Camp Aguinaldo, the headquarters of the Armed Forces of the Philippines, located in Quezon City, Metro Manila. On December 15, 2014, the Olongapo City Prosecutor's Office of the Philippine Department of Justice found probable cause to charge Pemberton with murder and that day he was charged with murder in front of the Olongapo City Regional Trial Court Branch 74. The prosecutor decided to pursue murder charges because of the "presence of treachery, cruelty, and abuse of superior strength". Pemberton appealed the prosecutor's decision to the Secretary of Justice but that appeal was denied. On February 23, 2015, Pemberton was brought to court in Olongapo and the court entered a not-guilty plea on his behalf. The pre-trial hearings began February 27, 2015. The murder trial began on March 16. Under the VFA, the local courts have one year to complete any legal proceedings. Pemberton was represented by Rowena Flores, and the trial was heard by Judge Roline Ginez-Jabalde. Reporters were banned from the courtroom and relied upon second-hand reports from the Laude family's lawyers for their news articles. Laude's relatives said they had been offered 21 million Philippine pesos (US$468,000) if they agreed to lower the charge from murder to homicide. Julita Cabillan, Laude's mother, said they had rejected the offer, since "No amount of money could pay for the years I spent raising my child". One of Pemberton's lawyers, Benjamin Tolosa, insisted that Pemberton's legal team had not offered any money, saying "It has been insinuated the demand came from us and that's absolutely false. It's contrary to what happened". Lawyers for the Laude family claimed that prosecutor Emilie Fe de los Santos had taken a statement by Laude's mother that she would not drop the case even if offered a million dollars as a sign that the family was open to a plea bargain, insisting the prosecutor had promoted that idea with defense attorneys. One of the Laude family's attorneys, Harry Roque, told the press that he had been barred by Prosecutor de los Santos from the trial. Laude's family submitted a letter to Department of Justice Secretary Leila De Lima requesting that a new prosecutor be assigned, citing the refusal of de los Santos to work with the family's private lawyers. The prosecution rested on June 30, 2015. Pemberton admitted in court to fighting with Laude, but not to killing her. He claimed he acted in "self-defense" after he discovered Laude was transgender. Court decision On December 1, 2015, the Olongapo Regional Trial Court found Pemberton guilty of homicide, citing mitigating circumstances including Laude not revealing her gender identity, and sentenced him to 6 to 12 years in jail. The court said, "The killing of Laude amounted only to homicide" and did not meet the standards for murder. Pemberton, in the court's view, acted out of "passion and obfuscation". The court ruled Pemberton that "in the heat of passion, he arm-locked the deceased, and dunked her head in the toilet." Harry Roque, the family's attorney, disagreed, saying "It is not right that these mitigating circumstances showed his bigotry towards a transgender woman and that the bigotry itself was the reason he killed her." Laude's mother, Julita Laude, also was not happy, saying she believed Pemberton was guilty of murder. Still, she added, "But the important thing is he will be jailed. My daughter's life is not wasted." Pemberton remained at Camp Aguinaldo and under the Bureau of Corrections control until the appeals were heard. Pemberton was ordered to pay fines to the Laude family totaling over 4.5 million Philippine pesos: 50,000 pesos for civil indemnities, 4,320,000 pesos for loss of earning capacity, 155,250 pesos for funeral and burial expenses, 50,000 pesos for moral damages, and 30,000 pesos for exemplary damages. In a ruling issued by the Olongapo RTC Branch 74 on March 30, 2016, the court affirmed the conviction of Pemberton, while reducing the maximum sentence to 10 years from the original 12 years and also denying him bail. Early release and absolute pardon On September 2, 2020, Branch 74 of the Olongapo City Regional Trial Court granted Pemberton's partial motion of reconsideration, thereby releasing him from prison. Judge Roline Ginez-Abalde said that Pemberton, then confined at the Armed Forces of the Philippines Custodial Center in Camp Aguinaldo, Quezon City, had already served a jail sentence of ten years, one month, and ten days on account of his accumulated Good Conduct Time Allowance (GCTA). The Laude camp opposed the decision, saying, "Pemberton, who lives comfortably and only his liberty is restricted—cannot reasonably and justifiably claim good conduct”. On September 7, 2020, President Rodrigo Duterte granted an absolute pardon to Pemberton, which was justified by his spokesman Harry Roque, who was once a legal counsel for the Laude family. Prior to this, Duterte himself promised to the Laude family that he will not release Pemberton during his presidency. The pardon, which was condemned by the Laude family, sparked outrage in the LGBT community, as well as high-profile personalities from senators to celebrities. The hashtag #JusticeForJenniferLaude landed on the top trending spot in social media, where majority of the posts were critical of Duterte. The absolute pardon given by Duterte has been called as "a grave injustice to the Filipino people", "a travesty of Philippine sovereignty and democracy", "a mockery of [the] judiciary and legal system", and "a shameless sell-out". The pardon has also been analyzed as an act that "plac[es] the interests of the US government above the Filipino people’s demands for justice and accountability". The lawyer of Pemberton later claimed that her client "always wanted to apologize" to Laude's family. The claims were afterwards debunked by the lawyer of the Laude family, who stated that since 2014, Pemberton never initiated any form of an apology. Pemberton's lawyer has stated that her client's reaction to the pardon was "very happy", and that she advised Pemberton to apologize through letter, instead of speaking personally with the Laude family. On September 13, 2020, Pemberton was deported to the United States, after he had allegedly apologized to the victim's family and thanked Duterte for the pardon. He is expected to enroll in a college in the United States. On September 14, 2020, during the daily COVID-19 press briefing, Philippine presidential spokesman Harry Roque claimed that according to US authorities and the American Marine Corps, Pemberton would be facing a 'court martial' upon his return in the United States. The court martial would determine additional punishment for Pemberton and whether he is qualified to remain in service. Reactions The case has the potential to damage Philippines–United States relations. The VFA, complemented by the EDCA and by annual military exercises known as Balikatan, were put under greater scrutiny as several protests were organized in the Philippines and the United States calling for the Philippines to cancel both agreements. This is the second reported criminal case involving a United States Marine in the Philippines under the VFA. In 2005, four Marines were tried in the Philippines for rape in what became known as the Subic rape case. Three were acquitted at trial and the fourth was convicted at trial but later acquitted on appeal after victim "Nicole" recanted her testimony by saying the rape never happened and immediately emigrated to the United States. Transgender rights activists and the left-wing Bagong Alyansang Makabayan have protested what they see as the "special treatment" of U.S. troops, such as Pemberton, in the Philippines, compared to the second-class citizen treatment of Filipinos, such as Laude, in their own land, which they characterize as neo-colonialism. The Communist Party of the Philippines condemned the United States' refusal to turn over full custody of Pemberton to Philippine authorities and called for the abolition of the VFA, which the party views as lopsided to US military interests and as violative of Philippine sovereignty. The communist group also views that the Philippine government refuses to fully assert full jurisdiction on the case. The Philippines was a territory of the United States from 1898 to 1946. The case has also prompted a discussion on transgender rights. A columnist for The Philippine Star wrote that the case provides for an "opportunity to further gender sensitivity, promote LGBT rights, and encourage tolerance and acceptance." In 2018, director PJ Raval released the documentary Call Her Ganda, following the three women intimately invested in the case: an activist attorney, a transgender journalist and Laude's mother. See also LGBT culture in the Philippines References 2014 in international relations 2014 crimes in the Philippines 2015 in international relations 2015 in the Philippines 2010s trials Deaths by drowning Deaths by person in the Philippines United States Marine Corps in the 21st century History of Zambales Murder trials October 2014 crimes in Asia October 2014 events in the Philippines Philippines–United States relations Trials in the Philippines United States military in the Philippines Violence against women in the Philippines Violence against trans women

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killing%20of%20Sergeant%20Almog%20Shiloni

Killing of Sergeant Almog Shiloni

Sergeant Almog Shiloni of the Israeli Defense Force was killed on 10 November 2014 after he was stabbed multiple times at Tel Aviv HaHagana Railway Station. He died in hospital from his wounds. Shiloni was off-duty, but in uniform and armed at the time. The attack was one of a spate of attacks on Israelis during 2014 often cited as a series, and sometimes regarded as an incipient intifada. Attack Shiloni, aged 20, from Modi'in, was stabbed at the Haganah Railway Station in southern Tel Aviv, after a struggle with a Palestinian who attempted to grab his rifle. Passerby Gilad Goldman intervened, attacking the assailant and stopping him from grabbing the rifle. Shiloni was on the phone with his girlfriend when he was attacked and stabbed in the stomach and chest several times. Shiloni sustained massive blood loss and succumbed to his wounds at the Tel HaShomer Medical Center in Ramat Gan. A bystander punched the attacker. The attacker was chased and eventually taken into custody by Israeli police. Nur al-Din Abu Khashiyeh was indicted on charges of entering Israel illegally on 9 November, the day before the attack, and of having intended to kill Shiloni, take his gun, and use the weapon to kill more Jews. Some days after the attack, the suspect walked with police investigators along the route he took on the day of the attack, showing them where he purchased a knife in a flea market, and the route to the site of the murder. The attack was referenced in news reports as part of a series of attacks on Israelis, that, following years of relative calm, included the murder of Shelly Dadon in May, the June kidnapping and murder of 3 teenage boys, a vehicular attack in August, another vehicle attack in October and a third in November, the attempted assassination of an Israeli political activist, a combined ramming/stabbing attack that took place on the same day as Shilonis' murder, and a massacre in a synagogue November 18 in Jerusalem. Victim Shiloni was serving in the Netzah Yehuda Battalion; he was a graduate of the Battalion's first Platoon Commanders' Course, and served in the Battalion's Negev Defenders' section. He was a member of a Nahal Haredi נחל החרדי unit. Shiloni had a twin brother, Sahar. Over 1,000 people attended Almog Shiloni's funeral at Jerusalem's Mount Herzl military cemetery. Suspected perpetrator The perpetrator, was 18-year-old Nur al-Din Abu Khashiyeh, a resident of Askar refugee camp in the West Bank and an illegal immigrant to Israel from the Palestinian territories. Described by a witness as a "big man," Khashiyeh had been working "for months" on a Tel Aviv construction project near the scene of the killing. He was captured after bystanders directed police to a nearby apartment building where he was hiding; he was transferred to the Shin Bet security services for interrogation. According to the text of the indictment, the attacker entered Israel intending to kill a soldier so that he could "become a martyr." He was sentenced to life in prison. Reaction Husam Badran, a senior Hamas leader based in Doha, Qatar, lauded the attack saying "(It) is part of a welcome plan that reflects the tenacity of our people to resist the occupation and move against the crimes (committed) in al-Aqsa and in Jerusalem." Islamic Jihad also lauded the attack. According to CNN, the attack came "amid simmering tensions... between rival Palestinian factions Fatah and Hamas". According to The New York Times, the attack, which followed a series of Palestinian riots and attacks, "shook Israelis’ sense of security and heightened concern about a new Palestinian intifada". Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu immediately convened the Security Cabinet, ordering some troops to switch from training maneuvers to active duty protecting roads from rioters and "terrorists". In it, he accused Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas of inciting Palestinian and Israeli Arabs by spreading lies. The stabbing prompted calls to crack down on illegal immigration from the Palestinian Authority to Israel. MK Moti Yogev called on the government to prevent illegal Arab migrants from receiving work permits, and to pass a bill monitoring employers and punishing them if they hire illegal immigrant workers. The United States condemned the stabbing. See also 2014 Jerusalem tractor attack October 2014 Jerusalem vehicular attack November 2014 Jerusalem vehicular attack Assassination attempt on Yehuda Glick References November 2014 crimes in Asia 2010s in Tel Aviv Stabbing attacks in Israel

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killing%20of%20Tamir%20Rice

Killing of Tamir Rice

On November 22, 2014, Tamir E. Rice, a 12-year-old African-American boy, was killed in Cleveland, Ohio, by Timothy Loehmann, a 26-year-old white police officer. Rice was carrying a replica toy gun; Loehmann shot him almost immediately after arriving on the scene. Two officers, Loehmann and 46-year-old Frank Garmback, were responding to a police dispatch call regarding a male who had a gun. A caller reported that a male was pointing "a pistol" at random people at the Cudell Recreation Center, a park in the City of Cleveland's Public Works Department. At the beginning of the call and again in the middle, he says of the pistol "it's probably fake." Toward the end of the two-minute call, the caller states that "he is probably a juvenile", but this information was not relayed to officers Loehmann and Garmback on the initial dispatch. The officers reported that when they arrived at the scene, they both continuously yelled "show me your hands" through the open patrol car window. Loehmann further stated that instead of showing his hands, it appeared as if Rice was trying to draw: "I knew it was a gun and I knew it was coming out." The officer shot twice, hitting Rice once in the torso. According to Judge Ronald B. Adrine, "...On the video the zone car containing Patrol Officers Loehmann and Garmback is still in the process of stopping when Rice is shot." Rice died the following day. Rice's gun was found to be an airsoft replica; it lacked the orange-tipped barrel that would have indicated it was a toy gun. A surveillance video of the incident was released by the police four days after the shooting, on 26 November. On 3 June 2015, the Cuyahoga County Sheriff's Office declared that their investigation had been completed and that they had turned their findings over to the county prosecutor. Several months later the prosecution presented evidence to a grand jury, which declined to indict, primarily on the basis that Rice was drawing what appears to be an actual firearm from his waist as the police arrived. A lawsuit brought against the city of Cleveland by Rice's family was subsequently settled for $6 million. In the aftermath of the shooting it was revealed that Loehmann, in his previous job as a police officer in the Cleveland suburb of Independence, Ohio, had been deemed an emotionally unstable recruit and unfit for duty. Loehmann did not disclose this fact on his application to join the Cleveland police, and the Cleveland Police Department did not review his previous personnel file before hiring him. In 2017, following an investigation, Loehmann was fired for withholding this information on his application. A review by retired FBI agent Kimberly Crawford found that Rice's death was justified and Loehmann's "response was a reasonable one". The incident received both national and international coverage. It occurred on the heels of several other high-profile shootings of African-American males by police officers. Biography Tamir Elijah Rice (June 25, 2002 – November 23, 2014) was born in Cleveland, Ohio, on June 25, 2002, to Samaria Rice and Leonard Warner. His family described him as athletic, excelling at various sports—including football, basketball, swimming, and soccer—and often competing with kids older than him. As a 12-years-old, he stood 5’7” and 195 lbs. He was involved in arts programs at his community recreation center, sculpting pottery and crocheting embroidery for his mother. At the time of his death, Rice attended Marion-Seltzer Elementary School in Cleveland, where he was described as a "pleasant young man". He had an older sister, Tajai, and an older brother. Shooting A 9-1-1 caller, who was sitting in a nearby gazebo, reported that someone, possibly a juvenile, was pointing "a pistol" at random people at the Cudell Recreation Center. The caller twice said that the gun was "probably fake". According to police spokesmen, it was initially unclear whether or not that information had been relayed to the dispatched officers, Loehmann and Garmback; it was later revealed that the dispatcher had not elaborated beyond referencing "a gun". According to one report, the 9-1-1 responder twice asked whether the boy was black or white before dispatching officers to the park at around 3:30 p.m. The actual recording of the phone call reveals that the 9-1-1 responder asked whether the boy was black or white three times. The question was repeated after the caller continued describing the color of Rice's clothing. The caller then left the gazebo, and Rice sat down in it sometime later. According to information reported to the press on the day of the shooting by Cleveland Police Patrolmen's Association President Jeffrey Follmer, "[Loehmann and Garmback] pulled into the parking lot and saw a few people sitting underneath a pavilion next to the center. [Loehmann] saw a black gun sitting on the table, and he saw the boy pick up the gun and put it in his waistband." Also on that date, Cleveland Deputy Chief Tomba stated, "The officer got out of the car and told the boy to put his hands up. The boy reached into his waistband, pulled out the gun and [Loehmann] fired two shots." According to Chief Tomba, "the child did not threaten the officer verbally or physically." On November 26, the day a video of the shooting was released, Chief Tomba is quoted as saying, "Loehmann shouted from the car three times at Tamir to show his hands as he approached the car." The entire incident happened in less than two seconds. Rice died the following day at MetroHealth Medical Center. The medical examiner stated that the cause of death was a gunshot wound to the torso, with injuries to major vessels, the intestines, and the pelvis. A surveillance video without audio of the shooting was released by police on November 26 after pressure from the public and Rice's family. It showed Rice pacing around the park, occasionally extending his right arm. The video briefly shows Rice talking on a cellphone, and sitting at a picnic table in a gazebo. A patrol car moves at high speed across the park lawn and then stops abruptly by the gazebo. Rice appears to move his hand, an action police experts concluded was Rice reaching for his waist band but disputed by expert reports released by Rice family attorneys, before Loehmann jumps out of the car and immediately shoots Rice from a distance of less than . According to Judge Ronald B. Adrine in a judgement entry on the case "this court is still thunderstruck by how quickly this event turned deadly.... On the video the zone car containing Patrol Officers Loehmann and Garmback is still in the process of stopping when Rice is shot." Almost four minutes later, a police detective and an agent from the Federal Bureau of Investigation who had been working a bank robbery detail nearby arrived on the scene and treated the boy. Three minutes after that, paramedics arrived and took him to MetroHealth Medical Center. Rice's mother said that the toy gun had been given to him by a friend minutes before the police arrived, that police tackled and put her 14-year-old daughter in handcuffs after the incident, and that police threatened her with arrest if she did not calm down after being told about her son's shooting. A second video obtained by the Northeast Ohio Media Group and released on January 7, 2015, shows Rice's 14-year-old sister being forced to the ground, handcuffed and placed in a patrol car after she ran toward her brother about two minutes after the shooting. Furthermore, no aid was administered to Rice for four minutes until an FBI agent arrived; which the agent later attributed to how the Cleveland Police officers "didn't know what to do" as Rice's wound required a more advanced level of first aid in which the officers were not trained. Police officers involved In the aftermath of the shooting, media outlets reported on the background of the police officers involved. Both officers were placed on paid administrative leave. On December 28, 2015, the grand jury returned its decision declining to indict the police officers. Timothy Loehmann Loehmann, the officer who killed Rice, joined Cleveland's police force in March 2013. From July to December 2012, he worked with the police department in Independence, about south of Cleveland, with four of those months spent in the police academy. In a memo to Independence's human resources manager, released by the city in the aftermath of the shooting, Independence deputy police chief Jim Polak wrote that Loehmann had resigned rather than face certain termination due to the concern that he lacked the emotional stability to be a police officer. Polak said that Loehmann was unable to follow "basic functions as instructed" and specifically cited a "dangerous loss of composure" that occurred in a weapons training exercise. Polak said that Loehmann's weapons handling was "dismal" and he became visibly "distracted and weepy" as a result of relationship problems. The memo concluded, "Individually, these events would not be considered major situations, but when taken together they show a pattern of a lack of maturity, indiscretion and not following instructions, I do not believe time, nor training, will be able to change or correct these deficiencies." It was subsequently revealed that Cleveland police officials never reviewed Loehmann's personnel file from Independence prior to hiring him. He had been hired in Cleveland despite listing his primary source of income for the prior six months having been derived from "under-the-table jobs". On May 30, 2017, the mayor of Cleveland announced that Loehmann had been fired for concealing details about his past employment in his job application. On his application, Loehmann said that he had left the Independence Police Department for "personal reasons" and did not reveal the Independence police's determination that he had "an inability to emotionally function" as an officer. On October 5, 2018, the city of Bellaire, Ohio, hired Loehmann as a part-time officer. Five days later, Loehmann withdrew his application to the Bellaire police department, and his training ceased. Frank Garmback Garmback, who was driving the police cruiser, has been a police officer in Cleveland since 2008. In 2014, the City of Cleveland paid 100,000 to settle an excessive force lawsuit brought against him by a local woman; according to her lawsuit, Garmback "rushed and placed her in a chokehold, tackled her to the ground, twisted her wrist and began hitting her body" and "such reckless, wanton and willful excessive use of force proximately caused bodily injury." The woman had called the police to report a car blocking her driveway. The settlement does not appear in Garmback's personnel file. Aftermath Investigation The Cleveland Police Department received statements from both Loehmann and Garmback. They announced they were looking for additional witnesses to the shooting, including a man who was recorded walking with Rice in the park before the shooting. Their results would be presented to a grand jury for possible charges. On January 1, 2015, the Associated Press reported that Cleveland police department officials were looking for an outside agency to investigate the Rice shooting, as well as handle all future investigations related to deadly use-of-force incidents. On May 15, Mother Jones magazine reported that, six months after the shooting, while the sheriff's department announced that it had almost concluded its investigation of the shooting, neither of the two officers involved had yet been interviewed by investigators from the Cuyahoga County Sheriff's Office. It also reported that as of that time Frank Garmback, the officer who drove the police car, was not under criminal investigation. On June 3, the Cuyahoga County Sheriff's Office released a statement in which they declared their investigation to be completed and that they turned their findings over to prosecutor Tim McGinty, who was expected to review the report and decide whether to present evidence to a grand jury. In response to a petition from citizens, on June 11 Municipal Court Judge Ronald Adrine agreed that "Officer Timothy Loehmann should be charged with several crimes, the most serious of them being murder but also including involuntary manslaughter, reckless homicide, negligent homicide and dereliction of duty." Judge Adrine also found probable cause to charge Officer Frank Garmback with negligent homicide and dereliction of duty. Because Ohio judges lack the legal authority to issue arrest warrants in such cases, his opinion was forwarded to city prosecutors and Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Timothy McGinty who, as of that date, had not yet come to a decision on whether to present the evidence to a grand jury. Report On June 13, Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Tim McGinty released a redacted 224-page report of the investigation. The report included interviews with at least 27 people, including teachers, friends, and the person that called 911. Loehmann and Garmback declined to be interviewed. Contradicting statements made by police that Loehmann shouted "show your hands" three times before firing, the report included accounts from several witnesses who claimed to have not heard officers issue any verbal warning to Rice. Grand jury investigation and decision On October 10, the Cuyahoga County prosecutor's office released two reports that McGinty had sought from outside experts about the use of force, one by retired FBI agent Kimberly Crawford, a second by Colorado prosecutor S. Lamar Sims; both reports concluded that the shooting of Tamir Rice was reasonable under the circumstances. However, amid accusations from lawyers representing the Rice family that McGinty had deliberately chosen Crawford and Sims because of their "pro-police bias" in order to cover for Loehmann and Garmback, McGinty convened a grand jury to consider whether or not criminal charges should be brought against the officers. On December 28, McGinty reported that the grand jury had declined to indict Loehmann or Garmback, saying, "Given this perfect storm of human error, mistakes, and communications by all involved that day, the evidence did not indicate criminal conduct by police." The announcement prompted Rice's mother to release a statement accusing McGinty of mishandling the investigation, stating in part, "Prosecutor McGinty deliberately sabotaged the case, never advocating for my son, and acting instead like the police officers' defense attorney." Three expert witnesses who testified before the grand jury criticized the prosecutors' behavior during the grand jury. Roger Clark, a retired LASD officer with expertise in police shootings, said that prosecutors at the hearing treated him with hostility and "disdain" for concluding that Loehmann and Garmback had acted recklessly; he also described the prosecutors as using theatrics, like none he'd ever seen in previous grand jury proceedings, which he believed were intended to lead the grand jurors to the conclusion that the prosecutors wanted them to reach. Jeffrey Noble, another retired police officer and expert in use-of-force cases (who had himself used deadly force on the job), said he was attacked by prosecutors for saying that the officers never should have escalated the situation by rushing Rice, adding, "I've definitely never seen two prosecutors play defense attorney so well." And Jesse Wobrock, a biomechanics expert hired by the Rice family's lawyers, also described the prosecutors as "acting in a way like they were defense attorneys for the cops". and as having attacked him professionally for his testimony regarding the timing and significance of body movements by Loehmann and Rice, as seen on video footage of the shooting. (A spokesman for McGinty's office said the three experts were only presenting "one side" of the story, but he could not elaborate because prosecutors are bound by grand jury secrecy laws.) In the next Democratic primary for Cuyahoga County district attorney, in March 2016, McGinty lost to challenger Michael O'Malley, who received 55.8 percent of the vote. An analysis by cleveland.com claimed that of 282 majority African-American precincts in the election, McGinty won none. Department of Justice The United States Department of Justice decided on December 29, 2020, that it would not bring criminal charges against the two officers involved in the shooting. The Department said it did not condone the officers' actions, but there was not enough evidence to charge them with a crime. In particular, they pointed to the poor quality of the grainy video, which has no audio and is partially obstructed by a police car, as a reason for the decision not to prosecute. Death suit and settlement On December 5, 2014, Rice's family filed a wrongful death suit against Loehmann, Garmback, and the City of Cleveland in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Ohio. The eight-page complaint accused Loehmann and Garmback of acting "unreasonably, negligently [and] recklessly" and that "[h]ad the defendant officers properly approached Tamir and properly investigated his possession of the replica gun they would undoubtedly have determined ... that the gun was fake and that the subject was a juvenile." It also accused the City of Cleveland for failing to properly train both officers, as well as failing to learn about the Independence police department's internal memo about Loehmann. On April 25, 2016, the lawsuit was settled in an effort to reduce taxpayer liabilities, with the City of Cleveland agreeing to pay Tamir Rice's family $6 million ($5.5 million to Tamir Rice's estate, $250,000 to the child's mother, and $250,000 to the child's sister). Protests In the wake of the shooting, protests and public outcry broke out in Cleveland, although they were relatively minor. However, on November 25, 2014, a day after a grand jury decision not to indict the police officer who fatally shot Michael Brown, the Cleveland protests became more prominent. That day, about 200 protesters marched from Public Square to the Cleveland Memorial Shoreway, causing the latter to be shut down temporarily. Rice's family pleaded with the protesters to remain peaceful in their activities, saying, "Again, we ask for the community to remain calm. Please protest peacefully and responsibly." On December 5, Ohio Governor John Kasich established a task force to address community-police relations in response to Rice's shooting and other similar incidents. Rice's death has been cited as one of several police killings which sparked the nationwide Black Lives Matter movement. Media coverage The incident received national and international coverage, in part due to the time of its occurrence, coming shortly after the recent police shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri; the death of Eric Garner in Staten Island, New York; the police shooting of Akai Gurley in Brooklyn, New York just two days before; the shooting of John Crawford III in Dayton, Ohio; and the subsequent unrest following these incidents had attracted worldwide attention. The Northeast Ohio Media Group was criticized for publishing a news story on Rice's parents' criminal records. Funeral service A funeral service for Rice was held at the Mount Sinai Baptist Church on December 3, 2014, with about 250 people in attendance. He was remembered "for his budding talents and described as a popular child who liked to draw, play basketball and perform in the school's drum line". Family members criticized Loehmann for acting too quickly in Rice's shooting. Suspension of 911 dispatcher On March 15, 2017, 911 dispatcher Constance Hollinger was suspended for eight days for failing to inform the responding officers that Rice was "probably a juvenile" and that the gun he had was "probably fake". See also Shooting of Michael Brown Shooting of John Crawford III Murder of George Floyd Shooting of Ezell Ford Death of Eric Garner Shooting of Andy Lopez Shooting of Timothy Russell and Malissa Williams Shooting bias Entertech shooting deaths Black Lives Matter References External links Video footage of the shooting Use of Deadly Force by Law Enforcement Officers (Connecticut) Memorial to Tamir Rice 2014 deaths 2014 in Ohio Deaths by firearm in Ohio Defensive gun use 2010s in Cleveland Law enforcement in Ohio African Americans shot dead by law enforcement officers in the United States Cleveland Division of Police Child deaths African-American-related controversies Filmed killings by law enforcement Black Lives Matter November 2014 events in the United States Incidents of violence against boys

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killing%20of%20Akai%20Gurley

Killing of Akai Gurley

Akai Gurley, a 28-year-old man, was fatally shot on November 20, 2014, in Brooklyn, New York City, United States, by a New York City Police Department officer. Two police officers, patrolling stairwells in the New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA)'s Louis H. Pink Houses in East New York, Brooklyn, entered a pitch-dark, unlit stairwell. Officer Peter Liang, 27, had his firearm drawn. Gurley and his girlfriend entered the seventh-floor stairwell, fourteen steps below them. Liang fired his weapon; the shot ricocheted off a wall and fatally struck Gurley in the chest. A jury convicted Liang of manslaughter, which a court later reduced to criminally negligent homicide. On February 10, 2015, Liang was indicted by a grand jury (seven men and five women) for manslaughter, assault, and other criminal charges (five counts total) after members were shown footage of the unlit house and the 9mm Glock used in the shooting. In evaluating the possibility of equipment failure, they concluded that the 11.5-pound (51-newton) trigger could not have been fired unintentionally. Liang turned himself in to authorities the next day and was arraigned. He was convicted of manslaughter and official misconduct on February 11, 2016, facing up to 15 years of prison time. The conviction galvanized the Chinese community in New York City and across the United States. Many felt that Liang (an Asian American) was being used as a scapegoat; Chinese Americans organized rallies in major cities via WeChat, Facebook, Twitter, and email. On March 28, 2016, prosecuting Brooklyn District Attorney Kenneth P. Thompson recommended to Kings County Supreme Court Judge Danny Chun that Liang serve only house arrest and community service for his sentence. On April 19, 2016, Justice Chun sentenced Liang to five years probation and 800 hours community service after downgrading his manslaughter conviction to criminally negligent homicide. Background Akai Gurley Akai Kareem Gurley ( – November 20, 2014) was born in Saint Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands, and moved to New York as a child. He was not a resident of the Pink Houses but lived in nearby Brownsville with his domestic partner, her daughter, and their two-year-old daughter. According to police, Gurley had 24 prior arrests on his record, mostly on drug possession charges and often executed by officers with histories of civil rights violations. Officer Peter Liang Peter Liang (born ), a Hong Kong American, had less than 18 months of experience with the New York City Police Department (NYPD) at the time of the shooting. Liang emigrated to the United States as a child to Bensonhurst, Brooklyn, with his parents and grandmother; he also has a younger brother in college. Liang had aspired to become a police officer since he was a child. Location The Pink Houses are considered to be among the worst housing developments in New York. Patrick Lynch, head of the Patrolmen's Benevolent Association of the City of New York, characterizes them as "among the most dangerous projects in the city" with dimly lit stairwells presenting a particular danger. Police Commissioner Bill Bratton reported that there had been a spike in violence in the neighborhood over the preceding months with two homicides, two robberies, and four assaults. Two rookie police officers were assigned to the Pink Houses where they were conducting routine vertical patrols, in which officers scan a public housing complex from the roof to the ground floor, stopping on each level. The New York Daily News initiated rumors that their commander had instructed officers in the area not to carry out vertical patrols and instead to conduct exterior policing in the East New York housing project, and that the officers were texting their union representative as Gurley lay dying. The rumors were later debunked by the District Attorney's office but the Daily News did not issue a retraction or apology. The NYPD's policy on whether an officer should keep a weapon holstered on such patrols is purposely vague and the decision as to when to take out a firearm is left to the discretion of the officers, according to Police Commissioner Bill Bratton. The department also insists that officers place their fingers on the trigger only upon encountering extreme and particularized danger. During trial testimony, officers testified that they were taught during academy training to have their guns out at times for fear of possible ambush or when they felt unsafe, and that they were specifically trained to take out their firearm as they approached a roof landing because it was considered dangerous. One officer testified that cops are taught to beware of a possible ambush on vertical patrols specifically. She also testified of being trained to have her firearm out when approaching a roof landing, finger alongside the trigger. At the time the gun was discharged, the stairwell on the 8th floor was pitch black due to a broken light bulb. Shooting Gurley was visiting his girlfriend and getting his hair braided before Thanksgiving. He entered the stairwell on the 7th floor, below Officers Landau and Liang. According to the prosecutors, seconds earlier, Liang, who is left-handed, pulled out his flashlight with his right hand and unholstered his 9mm Glock with his left. He then shoved open the stairwell door with his right shoulder with his gun pointed downwards. It appeared neither side knew the other was there and no words were exchanged, according to authorities. Liang's gun discharged as he opened the door and the bullet ricocheted off the wall and struck Gurley once in the chest. He died within a few minutes. Upon entering, Liang said he heard "a quick sound" to his left which startled him. He turned left and "it just went off when my whole body tensed up," Liang testified. It was reported that Gurley actually ran after hearing the gunshot and collapsed on the fifth floor. Similarity to the shooting of Timothy Stansbury Jr. The fatal shooting of Gurley is notably similar to the shooting death of Timothy Stansbury Jr. that occurred in January 2004. Officer Richard Neri killed Stansbury, 19, on a roof of the Louis Armstrong Houses in Brooklyn at about 1 am. He had approached the rooftop door with his gun drawn. A grand jury declined to indict Neri on charges of criminally negligent homicide, declaring the event an accident based on testimony that he had unintentionally fired. He asserted to have been startled when Stansbury pushed open a rooftop door in a place where drug dealing was rampant. Aftermath New York City Police Commissioner Bill Bratton declared the shooting to be an accident and that Gurley was a "total innocent." Kings County District Attorney Kenneth P. Thompson said that he planned to impanel a grand jury to look into the shooting. Media initially reported that both officers had text-messaged their union representatives before calling for help; the claim was refuted as being false by both the police union and the District Attorney's office. When asked by reporters, Mayor Bill De Blasio did not take any sides in this issue, commenting that it was a "tragedy" to Gurley's family and requesting respect to the court's verdict. On the issue of NYPD patrolling, he considered it essential to public safety; he also characterized the notions of Liang being a scapegoat [16] and police brutality cases somehow being linked together to be non-existent. Gurley's funeral was conducted December 6 at the Brown Memorial Baptist Church in Fort Greene. Initially Al Sharpton offered to speak at the service but stepped down after a dispute within the family. Instead, activist Kevin Powell spoke at the service. Gurley is interred at Rosedale Memorial Park in Linden, New Jersey. The continued conduct of vertical patrols has also been scrutinized in the wake of Gurley's shooting. Police Commissioner William Bratton has said that the patrols are needed to reduce crime and vertical patrols continue to be conducted in the Pink Houses. On February 5, 2016, while Liang's trial was underway, two NYPD officers were wounded while conducting vertical patrols at a housing development in the Bronx. Reactions Chinese-Americans More than 3,000 protesters, mostly of Chinese American descent, showed up at New York City Hall in March 2015 to support Liang. Thousands walked across the Brooklyn Bridge to Manhattan's Chinatown in April to demand the charges to be dropped, as had been done in the past with white officers. Following his conviction, Asian Americans denounced the verdict at various gatherings across the country. There were differing opinions among Liang's supporters, with some feeling he should not have been prosecuted at all while others felt he should have been given a lesser charge—but all agreed the system needed to change. State Assemblyman Ron Kim stated, "I do not believe true justice prevailed. Our system failed Gurley and it failed Liang. It pitted the unjust death of an innocent young black man against the unjust scapegoating of a young Asian police officer who was frightened, poorly trained, and who committed a terrible accident." Nearly 15,000 people protested on behalf of Liang in New York on February 20, 2016, with similar turnouts across the United States that day. Many of Liang's supporters demanded that all killers should be prosecuted and that there should be no such thing as selective prosecution, scapegoating, or racism. Joseph Lin, a real estate agent and activist, had helped to organize the protests due to feeling that Asian Americans had been too passive with no political voice, saying that, "If he's a black officer, I guarantee you Al Sharpton will come out. If he's Hispanic, all the congressmen will come out. But no, he's a Chinese, so no one is coming out." New York City councilwoman Margaret Chin stated that she was satisfied with the grand jury indicting Liang but had also asked for leniency in Liang's sentencing. Senators Mark Treyger and William Colton had always spoken on the behalf of Chinese. Black Lives Matter movement Gurley's death was one of several police killings of African Americans protested by the Black Lives Matter movement. On December 27, 2014, 200 people marched in Brooklyn to protest the fatal shooting of Gurley on the same day as the funeral for slain NYPD Officer Rafael Ramos, who was a victim of the 2014 killings of NYPD officers, despite calls from the mayor to postpone demonstrations. Legal proceedings On February 10, 2015, Officer Liang was indicted by a grand jury for the shooting death of Gurley. He was charged with second-degree manslaughter, criminally negligent homicide, second-degree assault, reckless endangerment, and two counts of official misconduct. Liang had a court date on February 11, and turned himself in that day. He pleaded not guilty to the charges and was released without having to post bond, and suspended from his job without pay. His trial started on January 25, 2016. Liang was convicted of manslaughter and official misconduct on February 11, 2016, and he was immediately dismissed by the Police Department. Liang faced anywhere from no jail to a maximum of 15 years of prison when sentenced in April. His lawyers submitted an appeal to Judge Danny Chun while Liang remained free without bail. Delores Jones-Brown, a professor at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice, speculated to The Atlantic that Liang would have avoided conviction had he rendered aid to Gurley, while jurors later reported that the effort required for them to pull the trigger on a police-issued pistol led them to disbelieve that Liang's testimony was completely true. Landau, the other officer involved, was not criminally implicated in Gurley's death. However, he was fired from the NYPD the day after his partner was convicted. Landau, like Liang, was also within his two-year probationary period and his firing after the trial was permitted by his contract. Landau testified at the trial of his former partner under immunity from prosecution, describing Liang as having been in shock. He said that neither of them tried to revive Gurley, with both of them saying they did not feel qualified to perform CPR. According to Landau's words, his instructor at the police academy helped them to cheat on the exams. Both radioed for an ambulance as Gurley's girlfriend performed CPR. On April 19, 2016, Justice Chun reduced Liang's conviction from manslaughter to criminally negligent homicide then sentenced Liang to five years of probation and 800 hours community service. He believed Liang would be much more productive spending time in community service. Arguments used in court Assistant District Attorney Joseph Alexis claimed the killing wasn't an accident and that Liang chose to place the finger on the trigger. However, one of Liang's defense attorneys, Rae Koshetz, argued that what had happened was a tragedy, not a crime, because the bullet bounced off the wall and coincidentally hit Gurley. Liang's attorneys, Robert Brown and Rae Koshetz, argued that Liang was in a state of shock after his gun went off and did not realize that he hit anyone. The defendants also argued that Liang pulling out his gun was still considered in line with protocol because the "lack of lighting is commonly perceived as a sign of criminal activity." Furthermore, the light had been out of service for a number of days without repair. After Liang's bullet ricocheted off the wall and struck Gurley in the chest, the officers did not render CPR. Ending In August 2016, New York City reached an agreement with Gurley's family for $4.1 million, settling a lawsuit brought by Kimberley Ballinger, Akaila's mother. The New York Housing Authority paid $400,000 and Liang paid $25,000. The money went into a fund for Akaila, Gurley's then two-year-old daughter, who would have access after turning 18 with the court's approval. After the settlement of Liang's trial, about $260,000 were returned to the donors. About $325,000 dollars were given to Liang's family and $80,000 would be used for Chinese communities. Media coverage The incident received national and international coverage, in part due to the recent police shootings of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, and Eric Garner in Staten Island. The New York City Police Department's practice of vertical patrols was also criticized. The Village Voice described the incident as part of a year of public relations disasters for the NYPD. Other coverage has focused on the maintenance and public safety issues that led to the death. The incident is the subject of the 2020 feature documentary Down a Dark Stairwell. A Shot Through the Wall, a 2021 independent film, was based on the incident. Other influence On February 12, 2016, Gurley's family demanded the NYPD permanently end all vertical patrols. They requested Landau be fired from the department and for the city to invest in programs like affordable housing, community centers, and after-school programs, instead of hiring more NYPD officers. See also Death of Latasha Harlins List of killings by law enforcement officers in the United States References 2014 crimes in New York (state) 2014 in New York City African-American–Asian-American relations Black Lives Matter African Americans shot dead by law enforcement officers in the United States Crimes in New York City Deaths by firearm in Brooklyn Deaths by person in New York City East New York, Brooklyn New York City Police Department corruption and misconduct November 2014 events in the United States November 2014 crimes in the United States

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killing%20of%20Antonio%20Martin

Killing of Antonio Martin

The shooting of Antonio Martin occurred on December 23, 2014, in Berkeley, Missouri, a suburb of St. Louis. Martin, an 18-year-old black male, was fatally shot by a white Berkeley police officer when Martin pulled a gun on him. The shooting sparked protests in the St. Louis area and other cities in the U.S. The shooting elicited comparison to the earlier shooting death of Michael Brown two miles away in Ferguson, Missouri. Incident On the night of December 23, 2014, a Berkeley Police Department officer responded to an employee's emergency phone call report at 11:11 pm of shoplifting by two men at a Mobil On the Run convenience store along the 6800 block of North Hanley Road. An unidentified officer arrived at 11:15 p.m. in his police cruiser and saw two men just outside the store who matched the description of the suspects. The shooting happened in a parking lot outside a Mobil gas station. The police officer was not wearing a body camera and there were no shots fired by the teen's gun. As the officer fired, he fell to the ground while running away, which was caught on video by the store's security cameras. One of the shots fired by the officer struck Martin, another struck the tire of the officer's vehicle, and the third is unaccounted for. Evidence Police recovered a Hi-Point 9mm handgun from the scene, said to be Martin's, with five rounds in the magazine and one round in the chamber. In an episode of his podcast "Death Is Just Around the Corner," Michael S. Judge claims that he was watching a live stream of the scene as it unfolded and that he saw the police plant a gun on Martin. Footage of the incident was captured by surveillance cameras outside the convenience store. According to police, several witness' accounts back up the officer's story that Martin was first to draw his weapon. The officer said he was not wearing the body camera he had been issued earlier that day. The police car's dash-camera was likely not recording at the time. Investigation The officer is identified as a 34-year-old white male, and a six-year veteran of the department. He had previously Served with the Country Club Hills, Missouri Police Department. He is represented by attorney Brian Millikan who also represents St. Louis police officer Jason Flanery in the October killing of VonDeritt Myers. St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney Robert McCulloch assigned a prosecutor to the county's investigation. The City of Berkeley will conduct its own independent investigation. Aftermath Despite complaints about the timeliness of medical attention to arrive, paramedics arrived six minutes after the shooting. Martin was declared dead, and his body covered, by 11:28 p.m. A crowd of onlookers and protesters gathered at the scene within 20 minutes of the shooting. The county crimes against persons unit arrived at 12:15 a.m. As the crowd grew angry, protesters clashed with law enforcement working to protect the scene for investigators collecting evidence. The crowd grew to an estimated 300 people as tensions escalated. Some threw rocks and other projectiles at them. Media crews and surveillance video recorded an individual lighting fires with lighter fluid inside and outside the same store when looters broke in. Police say 19-year-old Joshua Williams of St. Louis was the individual. Williams, a frequently quoted advocate for peace in the aftermath of the Michael Brown shooting, was charged days later with arson in the first degree, a felony; felony burglary and misdemeanor stealing. On video Williams confessed to police of lighting the fires. Four others were arrested for assault-related offenses. Martin's body was removed from the crime scene at around 1:40 a.m. Several protesters lingered at the site throughout the night. Police were seeking the unidentified second suspect who fled the scene as a "person of interest". Two other bystanders at the scene were identified as witnesses. Martin's girlfriend was among those at the scene at the time of the shooting. The night after the incident, dozens of people, including Martin's mother and stepfather, gathered near the scene where Martin was killed to chant and protest. Some in the group broke away to block traffic on the nearby Interstate 170. Law enforcement attempted to subdue the protesters with pepper spray. At least two were arrested. Outside the Cathedral Basilica of Saint Louis about 75 vigilers held a moment of silence for Martin and others. St. Louis Police officers in riot gear stood ready in front of the cathedral. References 2014 in Missouri Berkeley, Missouri 2014 riots African-American history of Missouri Civil rights protests in the United States Crimes in Missouri Deaths by firearm in Missouri Defensive gun use History of St. Louis County, Missouri Law enforcement in Missouri African Americans shot dead by law enforcement officers in the United States Race and crime in the United States Riots and civil disorder in Missouri Black Lives Matter December 2014 events in the United States 2014 deaths History of racism in Missouri

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killing%20of%20Antonio%20Zambrano-Montes

Killing of Antonio Zambrano-Montes

The shooting of Antonio Zambrano-Montes occurred on February 10, 2015, in Pasco, Washington, United States. Zambrano, a 35-year-old man originally from Michoacán, Mexico, was shot and killed by three police officers after allegedly throwing rocks at cars and police officers. His hands were in the air when the police fired the shots. Police officers said one of the rocks was as large as a softball. A toxicology report conducted by police found Zambrano's blood tested positive for methamphetamine. Zambrano-Montes' family initially filed a $4.8 million claim against the city of Pasco for the shooting, which they called an "execution", saying he "did not represent a threat of grievous bodily harm to anyone" at the time of his death. Two of the officers involved in the shooting were white, and one was Hispanic. The killing led to criticism by the Mexican government. with the country's President, Enrique Peña Nieto, condemning the officers' "disproportionate use of lethal force." Background Zambrano-Montes was raised in Michoacán, Mexico, the third of sixteen children born to Jesús Montes and Agapita Montes-Rivera. In 2004, he immigrated to the United States to work in the orchards. He was married with two daughters. His wife had previously obtained a protection order against him alleging abuse. Zambrano-Montes was in the country illegally and did not speak English. He was arrested for assaulting a police officer in January 2014. The police stated that he had tried to grab an officer's pistol in the officer's holster as well as throwing objects at the officers and trying to strike them with a mailbox. He pleaded guilty in June 2014. Prior to the incident, he had spent some time in a homeless shelter and was "struggling emotionally" after being unable to work after an injury. According to police reports, the officers first tried to subdue him with voice commands and then with a Taser. Shooting Three officers—Ryan Flanagan, Adam Wright and Adrian Alaniz—fired on Zambrano-Montes. Flanagan and Wright are white, and Alaniz is Hispanic. None of them were wearing body cameras. The shooting was caught on video by a civilian who recorded the incident from about 50 feet away showing Zambrano-Montes was running away from police, either with a rock in his hand or unarmed, and turned to face the officers before he was shot by them. Several weeks prior to the shooting, one of the officers, Adam Wright, had dragged Zambrano-Montes away from his burning rental home. Aftermath The death of Zambrano-Montes led to criticism by the Mexican government with Mexico's Congress calling the shooting an "act that outrages all Mexicans" and the country's President, Enrique Peña Nieto, condemning the officers' "disproportionate use of lethal force." There were also mass protests in Pasco, with many protesters attending from outside the local community. The Tri-City Herald reported that "turmoil continued in Pasco nearly two weeks after the controversial shooting of Antonio Zambrano-Montes," as protests are not typically of this size in this town. A small ongoing presence of activists was present at the Pasco City Hall. The three officers involved in the shooting were placed on paid administrative leave. As of February 16, "a multiagency investigation was underway". A local group, Consejo Latino, called for an additional investigation by the United States Department of Justice. There are 68 officers on the police force in Pasco, of whom 14 (21%) are Hispanic. Pasco is 56% Hispanic. On February 26, a report indicated "The U.S. Attorney's office for Eastern Washington ... [had joined] the FBI in keeping track of the investigation." As of February 27, 2015, reports indicated that seventeen shots had been fired; there were conflicting reports regarding as to whether autopsy results indicated the victim had been shot in the back. The medical examiner's analysis was expected to be complete in about a month's time; transcripts of witness statements were not expected to be available for several weeks. Zambrano-Montes's family commissioned a third autopsy conducted by forensic pathologist Werner Spitz. A federal mediator from the US Justice Department was dispatched in late March to help to mediate talks between the Pasco police department and local community groups who believe the shooting was unjustified while Zambrano-Montes' widow has called for the three officers to be charged with murder. A request to Governor Jay Inslee by Latino advocacy group Consejo Latino to remove Franklin County Prosecutor Shawn Sant from the investigation was refused, on the basis that prosecutors were obligated to fully investigate and prosecute crimes absent "very specific, tangible, and compelling reasons." Shawn Sant—along with Michael C. Ormsby, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Washington—declined to file charges against the three officers, stating that the officers acted in good faith and without malice. Ryan Flanagan left the police department in July 2015 while on administrative leave. The other two officers, Adam Wright and Adrian Alaniz, eventually returned to duty. Civil lawsuit In 2015, the family of Zambrano filed a $25 million claim in federal court against the city of Pasco claiming excessive force led to his death. The family hired civil rights attorney Benjamin Crump who also represented the family of Trayvon Martin in Sanford, Florida and the family of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri; and Jose Baez, who represented Casey Anthony. The family later accepted a $700,000 settlement which was divided among Zambrano's two daughters, parents and widow. References 2015 in Washington (state) Deaths by firearm in Washington (state) Latino people shot dead by law enforcement officers in the United States Protests in the United States Filmed killings by law enforcement Criminal rock-throwing

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killing%20of%20Walter%20Scott

Killing of Walter Scott

On April 4, 2015, Walter Scott, a 50-year old black man, was fatally shot by Michael Slager, a local police officer in North Charleston, South Carolina. Slager had stopped Scott for a non-functioning brake light. Slager was charged with murder after a video surfaced showing him shooting Scott from behind while Scott was fleeing, which contradicted Slager's report of the incident. The racial difference led many to believe that the shooting was racially motivated, generating a widespread controversy. The case was independently investigated by the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division (SLED). The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the Office of the U.S. Attorney for the District of South Carolina, and the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division conducted their own investigations. In June 2015, a South Carolina grand jury indicted Slager on a charge of murder. He was released on bond in January 2016. In late 2016, a five-week trial ended in a mistrial due to a hung jury. In May 2016, Slager was indicted on federal charges including violation of Scott's civil rights and obstruction of justice. In a May 2017 plea agreement, Slager pleaded guilty to federal charges of civil rights violations, and he was returned to jail pending sentencing. In return for his guilty plea, the state's murder charges were dropped. In December 2017, Slager was sentenced to 20 years in prison, with the judge determining the underlying offense was second-degree murder. Persons involved Walter Lamar Scott was a 50-year-old forklift operator, studying massage therapy. An arrest warrant had been issued since a , 2013, court hearing regarding his child support payments, for which he had previously been jailed three times. Scott previously served two years in the U.S. Coast Guard before being given a general discharge in 1986 for a drug-related offense. Michael Thomas Slager, 33 years old at the time of the incident, served in the North Charleston Police Department (NCPD) for five years and five months prior to the shooting. Before becoming a police officer, he served in the U.S. Coast Guard. Slager was named in a police complaint in 2013 for allegedly using a Taser on a man without cause. Slager was cleared by the police department over the incident; the victim and several witnesses said they were not interviewed. Following the Scott killing, North Charleston police stated they would re-review the 2013 complaint. Slager was named in a second tasing-without-cause complaint following an August 2014 police stop. A complaint filed in January 2015 resulted in Slager being cited for failing to file a report. Personnel documents describe Slager as having demonstrated "great officer safety tactics" in dealing with suspects, and note his proficiency with a Taser. Shooting At , , 2015, in the parking lot of an auto parts store at 1945 Remount Road, Slager stopped Scott for a non-functioning third brake light. Scott was driving a 1991 Mercedes, and, according to his brother, was headed to the auto parts store when he was stopped. The video from Slager's dashcam shows him approaching Scott's car, speaking to Scott, and then returning to his patrol car. Scott exited his car and fled with Slager giving chase on foot. Slager pursued Scott into a lot behind a pawn shop at 5654 Rivers Avenue, and the two became involved in a physical altercation. At some point before or during the struggle, Slager fired his Taser, hitting Scott. Scott fled, and Slager drew his .45-caliber Glock 21 handgun, firing eight rounds at him from behind. The coroner's report stated that Scott was struck a total of five times: three times in the back, once in the upper buttocks, and once on an ear. During Slager's state trial, forensic pathologist Lee Marie Tormos testified that the fatal wound was caused by a bullet that entered Scott's back and struck his lungs and heart. Immediately following the shooting, Slager radioed a dispatcher, stating, "Shots fired and the subject is down. He grabbed my Taser." When Slager fired his gun, Scott was approximately away and fleeing. In the report of the shooting filed before the video surfaced, Slager said he had feared for his life because Scott had taken his Taser, and that he shot Scott because he "felt threatened". A passenger in Scott's car, reported to be a male co-worker and friend, was later placed in the back of a police vehicle and briefly detained. A toxicology report showed that Scott had cocaine and alcohol in his system at the time of his death. The level of cocaine was less than half the average amount for "typical impaired drivers", according to the report. Tormos testified that Scott did not test positive for alcohol. Eyewitness video An eyewitness to the shooting, Feidin Santana, recorded video of the incident on his phone. At first Santana did not share the video out of fear of retribution, but he became angered when the police report differed from his view of the events. In an interview on MSNBC, Santana said, "I felt that my life, with this information, might be in danger. I thought about erasing the video and just getting out of the community, you know Charleston, and living some place else." The video was subsequently shared with Scott's family through an activist of Black Lives Matter, and later with the news media. Santana said that after a struggle in which Slager deployed his Taser, Scott was "just trying to get away from the Taser," and that before he started recording, he observed that Slager "had control of the situation". In an interview on The Today Show, Santana said Scott "never grabbed the Taser of the police. He never got the Taser." After Scott was shot and had dropped to the ground, Slager approached him, repeatedly instructed him to place his hands behind his back, and handcuffed him, leaving him face down on the ground. Although police reports stated that officers performed CPR on Scott, no such action is visible on the video. The video shows that Slager ran back toward where the initial scuffle occurred and picked something up off the ground. Moments later, he dropped the object, possibly the Taser, beside Scott's body. Another officer, Clarence W. Habersham Jr., is seen in the video; he puts on medical gloves and appears to examine Scott. Aftermath Critics, such as the Reverend Al Sharpton and the predominantly African-American National Bar Association, called for the prosecution of Clarence Habersham, the second officer seen in the video, alleging an attempted cover-up and questioning "whether Habersham omitted significant information from his report." Critics also questioned Habersham's statement in his report that he "attempted to render aid to the victim by applying pressure to the gunshot wounds," saying that the videotape shows little attempt to aid Scott after the shooting. Slager's original lawyer, David Aylor, withdrew as counsel within hours of the release of the video; he did not publicly give a reason for his withdrawal, citing attorney–client privilege. On , the North Charleston city manager announced that the NCPD had fired Slager but would continue to pay for his health insurance because his wife was pregnant. The town's mayor, Keith Summey, said they had ordered an additional 150 body cameras, enough that one could be worn by every police officer. A GoFundMe campaign was started to raise money for Slager's defense, but it was quickly shut down by the site. Citing privacy concerns, they declined to go into detail about why the campaign was canceled, saying only that it was "due to a violation of our terms and conditions". Scott's funeral took place on , at the W.O.R.D. Ministries Christian Center in Summerville, about 20 miles from North Charleston. Scott's killing further fueled a national conversation around race and policing. It has been connected to similar controversial police shootings of black men in Missouri, New York, and elsewhere. The Black Lives Matter movement protested Scott's death. A bill in the South Carolina state house, designed to equip more police officers with body cameras, was renamed for Scott. The Senate set aside to fund it, enough to buy 2,000 cameras for South Carolina officers. In May 2016, a short documentary film about the shooting called Frame 394 was released by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. The documentary is about Daniel Voshart, a Canadian cinematographer and image stabilization specialist, who claims to have discovered evidence in frame 394 of the shooting video "that challenged the accepted narrative of what transpired between Slager and Scott"; and it follows his "moral dilemma of what to do with this potential key evidence". Initially, Voshart examined the footage to help indict Slager, having been convinced by the footage that it "was an example of police corruption at its worst". After clarifying the video and inspecting frame 394, however, he noticed that as Slager began reaching to draw his firearm, it appeared that Scott was still holding Slager's Taser, "potentially enough to make Slager fear for his life and maybe meet the grounds needed to use lethal force." It was impactful in Slager's trial after Voshart showed Slager's lawyer, Andy Savage, the stabilized video. During the trial, the officer "testified that he did not realize the Taser had fallen behind him when he fired the fatal shots." Investigation Separate investigations were conducted by the FBI, the U.S. Attorney in South Carolina, the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division, and the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division (SLED). An autopsy was performed by the Charleston County coroner on April 4, 2015, which showed that Scott had been shot in the back multiple times. The coroner ruled the death a homicide. Prosecution of Slager After the police department reviewed the video, Slager was arrested on and charged with murder. On , a South Carolina grand jury indicted Slager on the murder charge. The murder charge was the only charge presented to the grand jury. On , 2016, after being held without bail for almost nine months, Slager was released on $500,000 bond. He was confined to house arrest until the trial, which began , 2016. On , the judge declared a mistrial after the jury became deadlocked with 11 of the 12 jurors favoring a conviction. A retrial was scheduled for August 2017. However, the state charges were dropped as a result of Slager pleading guilty to a federal charge. On , 2016, Slager was indicted on federal charges of violating Scott's civil rights and unlawfully using a weapon during the commission of a crime. In addition, he was charged with obstruction of justice as a result of his statement to state investigators that Scott was moving toward him with the Taser when he shot him. Slager pleaded not guilty, and a trial was scheduled to begin in May 2017. Slager faced up to life in prison if convicted. On , 2017, as part of a plea agreement, Slager pleaded guilty to deprivation of rights under color of law (18 USC § 242). In return for the guilty plea, the charges of obstructing justice and use of a firearm during a crime of violence were dismissed. On , 2017, U.S. District Judge David C. Norton sentenced Slager to 20 years in prison. Although defense attorneys had argued for voluntary manslaughter, the judge agreed with prosecutors that the "appropriate underlying offense" was second-degree murder. Because there is no parole in the federal justice system, Slager will likely remain in prison about 18 years after credit for time served in jail. He began serving his sentence in Colorado's Federal Correctional Institution, Englewood in February 2018. An appeal for reduction of sentence was denied in January 2019. As of 2020, Slager, Federal Bureau of Prisons #31292-171, is still at FCI Englewood; his earliest possible release is August 16, 2033. In mid 2021, Slager went back to court asking for a reduction of his sentence. He claimed his defense was incompetent and that he was not involved in the negotiations over the plea deal. The court ruled against Slager and upheld the sentence. Civil settlement In an out-of-court settlement, the City of North Charleston agreed in October 2015 to pay to Scott's family. Walter Scott Notification Act The Walter Scott Notification Act is proposed federal legislation by U.S. Senator Tim Scott of South Carolina to require the reporting of police shootings by any state receiving federal funding for law enforcement. See also Lists of killings by law enforcement officers in the United States Shooting of Alton Sterling Shooting of Michael Brown Shooting of Philando Castile Shooting of Tamir Rice Murder of Botham Jean Notes References External links (with annotations and enhanced close up of a dropped object) (Entire video with annotations) 2015 in South Carolina African-American-related controversies April 2015 events in the United States Filmed killings by law enforcement Law enforcement in South Carolina North Charleston, South Carolina Protests in the United States Deaths by firearm in South Carolina Deaths by person in the United States People murdered by law enforcement officers in the United States

46767376

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killing%20of%20Meagan%20Hockaday

Killing of Meagan Hockaday

Meagan Hockaday was a 26-year-old African American resident of Oxnard, California who was shot and killed by police officer Roger Garcia in the early hours of Saturday, March 28, 2015. Garcia responded to a 911 call made by Hockaday's fiancé, Luis Morado, reporting a domestic dispute at The Timbers, an apartment complex in Oxnard. Within twenty seconds of officers arriving at the family's apartment, Hockaday, who was wielding a knife and apparently advanced at the officers, was fatally shot by Garcia. The couple's three children were in the apartment at the time. They were subsequently evaluated by Child Protective Services and released to family. Aftermath Investigation While the case remains under investigation, Roger Garcia has been placed on administrative leave. As is standard with officer-involved shootings, the Oxnard Police Department will complete an investigation that will then be submitted to Ventura County District Attorney's Office. Following this, the District Attorney's Office will conduct its own investigation. A second officer who responded to the call with Garcia remains on duty. Garcia's name was released the Tuesday following the shooting, along with the 911 call made by Morado. Roger Garcia was involved in another, non-fatal, shooting of an Oxnard resident in February 2014. He had reportedly completed Crisis Intervention Team training after the February shooting. It was reported that August 18th The D.A.'s office found the shooting justified as Hockaday was charging at both the officer and her husband Luis Morado. News coverage The case was covered by local newspapers, and national magazines and entertainment outlets that are directed toward African American markets, such as Ebony and BET. The #SayHerName protest, created to raise awareness about police shootings of African American women and girls, renewed interest in Hockaday's case. Her death was mentioned in The Nation, Boing Boing, and The Independent. Protests On April 11, 2015, a peaceful march in honor of Meagan Hockaday took place primarily on Oxnard Boulevard. The march was broken up by police for disrupting traffic at the intersection of Oxnard Boulevard and Vineyard Avenue. A vigil was also held to commemorate Hockaday on the one-month anniversary of her death on April 28, 2015. It coincided with an Oxnard City Council meeting where supporters of Hockaday spoke out against police brutality in Oxnard. Speakers included Meagan Hockaday's sister. A benefit concert for Hockaday's family was held in Oxnard on May 9, 2015. Meagan Hockaday's name has also been included in lists of black women killed by police, read out during protests connected to the Black Lives Matter movement in 2015. References External links Oxnard Police press release 2015 deaths 2015 controversies in the United States African Americans shot dead by law enforcement officers in the United States Deaths by firearm in California 2015 in California African-American-related controversies Law enforcement in California Law enforcement controversies in the United States Deaths by person in the United States Black Lives Matter Oxnard, California African-American history of California

46787979

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killing%20of%20Timothy%20Russell%20and%20Malissa%20Williams

Killing of Timothy Russell and Malissa Williams

The shooting deaths of Timothy Russell and Malissa Williams, two Black American individuals, occurred in East Cleveland, Ohio on November 29, 2012, at the conclusion of a 22-minute police chase which started in downtown Cleveland. Police claimed shots were fired at them as Russell and Williams drove by a squad car; however, this was their vehicle backfiring. Over 60 officers participated in a 23-mile police chase that ended in Russell and Williams' vehicles being surrounded. The victims had no weapon on them and police claimed they fired due to being fired at. Thirteen police officers fired at Russell and Williams 137 times while they were in their car at a parking lot of a middle school, killing both. In May 2014, one of the officers involved, Michael Brelo, was charged with two counts of voluntary manslaughter, and was acquitted by a Cuyahoga County judge of the charges on May 23, 2015. Five police supervisors were also charged with dereliction of duty, a misdemeanor. Their trial was set on July 27, 2015. The families of Russell and Williams filed a lawsuit against the city of Cleveland, and received a settlement of $3 million in November 2014. On January 26, 2016, it was reported that six Cleveland police officers were fired due to their connection with the car chase. They were identified as Michael Brelo, Wilfredo Diaz, Brian Sabolik, Erin O'Donnell, Michael Farley, and Chris Ereg. Backgrounds Michael Brelo Michael Brelo (born 1983–84) is an Iraq War veteran. When he returned home, he became a correctional officer in Bedford Heights, Ohio. He then joined the Cleveland Police Department in 2007. Timothy Russell and Malissa Williams Russell had met Williams at the Bishop Cosgrove Center, where they both received free meals. He was living at the Metropolitan Ministry Center prior to his death. Malissa Williams lived at the Norma Herr's Women Center on Payne Avenue in Cleveland. Shooting Russell was driving his 1979 light-blue Chevrolet Malibu and Williams was seated in the passenger seat. A plainclothes police officer spotted Russell's car in an area known for drug deals. The officer checked the license plate which uncovered nothing notable. He then pulled the car over for a turn signal violation. Russell pulled over but the car was not searched and the plain clothes officer realizing he did not have on a vest and the stop was unauthorized the officer let them go. There is camera footage showing both cars pull off. Russell proceeded to speed by two officers, they believed that they heard shots being fired. As no firearm was found in the vehicle, the sound was caused by the car backfiring. According to The Plain Dealer, the chase went up to speeds of 100 mph and a total of 62 police cars were involved at one point. Officers from Cleveland, East Cleveland, Bratenahl, the Cuyahoga County Sheriff's Department, the Ohio State Highway Patrol, and the Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority participated in the chase. After a 22-mile chase, Russell turned into Heritage Middle School, located in East Cleveland. Police officers later said they believed they saw a firearm in the car and that Russell was planning on running them over. One officer subsequently opened fire, followed by others, killing both occupants. The amount of gunfire confused the officers into thinking they were being fired at from the vehicle . In the end, thirteen officers fired a total of 137 bullets into the car, with Officer Michael Brelo firing 49 of those shots. Russell was struck 23 times, and Williams was struck 24 times. No weapons were recovered from the vehicle. Legal proceedings On May 30, 2014, only one officer of the thirteen who fired at the car, Michael Brelo, was indicted on two counts of voluntary manslaughter in connection with the shooting. He was the only officer who continued to shoot even after the others stopped firing, and was said to have actually moved forward and jumped onto the hood of Russel's car, after which he reportedly shot approximately fifteen rounds. The two counts of voluntary manslaughter carried a maximum penalty of 22 years of prison if convicted. Five police supervisors were also indicted for dereliction of duty. According to Cuyahoga County prosecutors, Brelo stood on the hood of Russell and Williams' car and fired straight down at them through their windshield after the twelve other officers stopped firing. Prosecutors said that the actions were unreasonable and went past his duties as a police officer. On May 23, 2015, Cuyahoga Common Pleas Judge John P. O'Donnell found Brelo not guilty of the charges. O'Donnell stated that while Brelo fired lethal shots at Russell and Williams, other officers did as well. O'Donnell also found Brelo not guilty of a lesser included charge of felonious assault, asserting that Brelo was legally justified in his use of deadly force. O'Donnell read his 35-page verdict in court, and said there was "beyond reasonable doubt" that the prosecution had to meet to get Brelo convicted. On June 3, 2015, it was announced that an arrest warrant was filed against Brelo for an alleged assault on his twin brother, Mark R. Brelo, on May 27, in Bay Village, Ohio. The brothers turned themselves in on June 3, after Brelo's intoxicated brother had run to a neighbor's home to ask them to call 911 on his brother, Michael Brelo, by whom he was being chased and allegedly assaulted. They were released on their own recognizance. On January 26, 2016 the six officers (Wilfredo Diaz, Brian Sabolik, Erin O'Donnell, Michael Farley, Chris Ereg and Michael Brelo) were fired from their jobs at the Cleveland Police. The Cleveland Police Patrolmen's Association said that they would work to get the six reinstated to their positions. Five of the six officers were reinstated in October 2017 as required by the ruling of an arbitrator. Federal investigation The U.S. Department of Justice announced on May 24, 2015, that they would open an investigation in the deaths of Russell and Williams, and would review the testimony and evidence presented at Brelo's trial. This investigation was closed in January 2017. Trial on dereliction charge Trial for the five police officers that Cuyahoga County charged with misdemeanor dereliction of duty was set for July 27, 2015. On July 2, 2015, the East Cleveland prosecutor filed its own dereliction of duty charges against the same five officers, and the County dismissed its charges on July 24, 2015. The officers objected to moving the trial to East Cleveland, and appealed the dismissal. In May 2016 an Ohio appeals court held that the dismissal was improper, but in April 2017 the Ohio Supreme Court reversed and left it up to the trial court judge, William Dawson, to decide where the trial would go forward. By October 2017, Judge Dawson had not yet put the case on the docket. In March 2018, two defense attorneys reported that prosecutors had offered to drop all charges against the officers if they paid fines of $5,000 each. They declined the offer. On March 22, 2018, prosecutors filed a formal motion asking the court to set a trial date. All five officers pleaded not guilty. In July 2018, the defendants asked the court to dismiss the charges, arguing that the more than 5½ years that had passed since the 2012 shooting violated their constitutional right to a speedy trial. The court denied the motion on September 20; the defense attorneys announced their intent to appeal this ruling. In January 2019, the prosecutors dismissed all charges against three of the five supervising officers. In July 2019, the case concluded with the police supervisor in charge of the officers involved in the '137 shots' case not guilty. East Cleveland Municipal Court confirmed Sgt. Patricia Coleman not guilty after a 3-day long trial, ending a year-long battle. The Cleveland Division of Police continues to receive criticism from the public about the misdemeanor, claiming the actions were due to racism, as both fatalities were African-American. Only one member of the division, Officer Michael Brelo, was charged after the incident. Brelo fired 49 of the shots but was not found guilty of voluntary manslaughter. Brelo was the only officer to lose his job following the shooting. Protests After Brelo was acquitted, violent—followed by peaceful protests and unrest ensued in downtown Cleveland, which led to the arrests of at least 71 people as of May 25. Among those arrested were charged with felonious assault, rioting, and failure to disperse. At least 15 people were apprehended by riot police officers. The deaths of Russell and Williams were two of several killings of unarmed African Americans protested by the Black Lives Matter movement. Lawsuit The families of Russell and Williams filed a lawsuit against the city of Cleveland, claiming they were liable for the wrongful deaths of the two. In November 2014, Cleveland paid $3 million to the two families, which was split evenly. See also Black Lives Matter Death of Sandra Bland Death of Jonny Gammage Hands up, don't shoot Shooting of Andy Lopez Shooting of Jeremy McDole Death of Jonathan Sanders Shooting of Alton Sterling Shooting of Tamir Rice Emmett Till References 2012 deaths 2012 in Ohio Deaths by firearm in Ohio 2010s in Cleveland African Americans shot dead by law enforcement officers in the United States Police brutality in the United States African-American-related controversies Criminal trials that ended in acquittal Protests in the United States Filmed killings by law enforcement Black Lives Matter November 2012 events in the United States Victims of police brutality East Cleveland, Ohio Cleveland Division of Police

47330915

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killing%20of%20Palmira%20Silva

Killing of Palmira Silva

On 4 September 2014, 82-year-old Palmira Silva was beheaded in her back garden in Edmonton, London, by 25-year-old Nicholas Salvador, who was on a rampage. Friends of Salvador had recently noticed odd behaviour by him, including drug and alcohol abuse and an obsession with videos of beheadings. Psychiatrists found evidence that Salvador had paranoid schizophrenia. On 23 June 2015, he was found not guilty of murder on basis of insanity, and was detained indefinitely in a psychiatric hospital. Victim Palmira Silva, aged 82, emigrated to London in the 1950s from Southern Italy with her husband Domenico, and was a widow. She was the proprietor of a café, and a great-grandmother with two children, six grandchildren and a great-grandchild. Her daughter, Celestina, claimed that her mother wished to stay in Edmonton although "the area was changing". Silva's funeral was held on 24 September. Her granddaughter Christina ran the 2015 London Marathon to raise money for Victim Support. Perpetrator Nicholas Salvador, aged 25 at the time of the killing, was staying with friends three doors from Silva's house. He is an only child who came to the United Kingdom from Nigeria with his parents in his early teenage years. After finishing a college course in Media, he had spells as manual labourer, losing his job as a billboard paster three days before the killing due to concerns surrounding his behaviour. He was active in cage fighting, and known as "Fat Nick" for his stature. Acquaintances said that he had issues with drug and alcohol abuse, and was a drug dealer. His friends told the police that Salvador used cocaine and skunk cannabis, and would drink a bottle of whisky or brandy per day. Contacts also revealed that he was obsessed with watching videos of beheadings and searching the Internet for Jihadist material. He was also obsessed with the idea of shapeshifters. Religion controversy According to different witnesses, Salvador is either from a Muslim background, or a convert to the religion five years beforehand. His former employer, who claimed Salvador to be a convert, said that he never discussed religion or politics. According to others, Salvador converted from Islam to Buddhism in 2014. Public speculation linked the killing to the recent beheadings of two American journalists by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant. The day following the killing, tabloid The Sun ran the front page headline "'Muslim convert' beheads woman in garden", which received a mixed reception from the public due to the conflicting accounts of Salvador's beliefs or motive. Head of PR Dylan Sharpe defended his newspaper's printing of the headline, on the basis that other publications were also reporting on the murder with similar headlines. Attack Two hours before the killing, Salvador ate at a café and left without paying. A staff member, who followed him out and successfully got him to pay, noted that "he seemed a bit depressed or upset about something". Shirtless, and armed with a knife and a broom handle, Salvador began to rampage, knocking down his neighbours' fences and beheading two cats. He broke into Silva's garden and she walked up to him, then he beheaded her. Police evacuated children in the area, and an officer gave the order "He's agitated and lethal... he needs taking out". After the police cornered Salvador, they struggled to arrest him, with one officer being assaulted by him. He had to be tasered six times. Salvador's rampage lasted for 45 minutes. Trial Following Salvador's arrest, the Metropolitan Police reacted to speculation by stating that there were no links between his rampage and terrorism. He was sent to Broadmoor Hospital, where psychiatrists found him to have paranoid schizophrenia. Salvador believed Silva to be a reincarnation of Adolf Hitler or a shapeshifting demon, and admitted to her killing. He was tried at the Old Bailey, where a 14-minute recording of his rampage was shown. On medical reports, he was found not guilty of murder by reason of insanity, but ordered to remain indefinitely in Broadmoor. The judge, Recorder of London Nicholas Hilliard, concluded: References 2014 crimes in the United Kingdom 2014 in London 2010s trials Attacks in 2014 2010s crimes in London Deaths by decapitation Deaths by stabbing in London Deaths by person in London Edmonton, London Italian people murdered abroad History of mental health in the United Kingdom Murder in London People with schizophrenia September 2014 crimes in Europe September 2014 events in the United Kingdom Stabbing attacks in 2014 Stabbing attacks in England Trials in London

47373041

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killing%20of%20Cecil%20the%20lion

Killing of Cecil the lion

Cecil ( 2002 – 2 July 2015) was a male African lion who lived primarily in the Hwange National Park in Matabeleland North, Zimbabwe. He was being studied and tracked by a research team of the University of Oxford as part of a long-term study. On the night of July 1, 2015, Cecil was lured out of the protected area and wounded with an arrow by Walter Palmer, an American recreational big-game trophy hunter, then tracked and killed with a compound bow the following morning, between 10 and 12 hours later. Cecil was 13 years old when killed. Palmer had purchased a hunting permit and was not charged legally with any crime; authorities in Zimbabwe have said he is still free to visit the country as a tourist, but not as a hunter. Two Zimbabweans, the hunting guide and the owner of the farm where the hunt took place, were briefly arrested but the charges were eventually dismissed by courts. The killing resulted in international media attention, caused outrage among animal conservationists, criticism by politicians and celebrities and a strong negative response against Palmer. Five months after the killing of Cecil, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service added lions in India and West and Central Africa to the endangered species list, making it more difficult for United States citizens to legally kill lions on safaris. According to Wayne Pacelle, then President of the Humane Society, Cecil had "changed the atmospherics on the issue of trophy hunting around the world", adding, "I think it gave less wiggle room to regulators." Background Cecil was named after the British businessman, politician and mining magnate Cecil Rhodes, as was the namesake country of Rhodesia, now Zimbabwe. Another lion thought to be Cecil's brother was noticed in Hwange National Park in 2008. During 2009, the two lions encountered an established pride, which resulted in a fight in which Cecil's brother was killed, and both Cecil and the pride leader were seriously wounded; the previous leader was subsequently mercy-killed by park rangers because of the wounds sustained during the fight with Cecil. Cecil retreated to another part of the park where he eventually established his own pride with as many as 22 members. During 2013, Cecil was forced out from the area by two young male lions and into the eastern border of the park. There, he created a coalition with another male lion named Jericho to establish two prides that consisted of Cecil, Jericho, half a dozen females and up to a dozen cubs sired by either Cecil or Jericho. The lions in the park, including Cecil, have been studied by scientists from the Wildlife Conservation Research Unit at the University of Oxford as part of a scientific project that has run since 1999, and his movements had been followed since 2008. Of the 62 lions tagged during the study period, 34 have died, including 24 through sport hunting. Of adult male lions that were tagged inside the park, 72% were killed through sport hunting on areas near the park. During 2013, 49 hunted lion carcasses were exported from Zimbabwe as trophies; the 2005–2008 Zimbabwe hunt "off-take" (licensed kills) average was 42 lions per year. Cecil was identifiable by his black-fringed mane and a GPS tracking collar, and was Hwange Park's main attraction. One of the researchers on the project suggested that Cecil had become so popular because he was accustomed to people, allowing vehicles to approach sometimes as close as , making it easy for tourists and researchers to photograph and observe him. According to Alex Magaisa, an advisor to Zimbabwean Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai, Cecil was known to "a segment of society, a privileged segment — both local and international", and some sources claim "99.99 percent of Zimbabweans" had never heard of Cecil. Death During June 2015, Walter J. Palmer, an American dentist and recreational game hunter, reportedly paid to a Zimbabwean professional hunter-guide, Theo Bronkhorst, to enable him to kill a lion. In the late afternoon of 1 July, Bronkhorst and wildlife tracker Cornelius Ncube built a hunting blind in Atoinette Farm, a private property owned by Honest Ndlovu just across a railway track from the park. Between 9 pm and 11 pm, Palmer shot from concealment and critically wounded Cecil with an arrow from his compound bow. The hunters tracked the wounded lion and killed him with a second arrow the next morning (about 10 to 12 hours later) at a location less than from the initial shot. Cecil's body was then skinned and his head was removed. When the lion's headless skeleton, already scavenged by vultures, was eventually found by park investigators, his tracking collar was also missing and later found dumped kilometers away. The hunt took place outside the protected Hwange National Park, but within the lion's normal home range. Biologist Andrew Loveridge alleged that Palmer's companions (Bronkhorst and Ncube) dragged the carcass of an African elephant killed earlier in the week to roughly from the park to bait Cecil out of the protected area. The lion was equipped with a satellite tracking device from which locational data were recorded every 2 hours. Subsequently, location data was pieced together (depicted in the map herein on the right). This interpretation of events was corroborated by the subsequent investigation by Zimbabwe National Parks and wildlife management and is consistent with the satellite data. Two Zimbabweans (Bronkhorst and Ndlovu) were later arrested by Zimbabwe police. Bronkhorst said during July, 2015, "We had obtained the permit for bowhunting, we had obtained the permit for the lion from the council." Palmer had already returned to the United States, where he issued a statement that he had "relied on the expertise of my local professional guides to ensure a legal hunt" and "deeply regret that my pursuit of an activity I love and practice responsibly and legally resulted in the taking of this lion". Reactions In Zimbabwe Cecil's killing went largely unnoticed in the animal's native Zimbabwe. The country's The Chronicle newspaper wrote: "It is not an overstatement that almost 99.99 percent of Zimbabweans didn’t know about this animal until Monday. Now we have just learnt, thanks to the British media, that we had Africa’s most famous lion all along, an icon!" The BBC's Farai Sevenzo wrote: "The lion's death has not registered much with the locals". On the other hand, Zimbabwean officials stated that the killing of Cecil had already caused a decrease in tourism revenues. A significant decrease was noted in Hwange, where the lion had lived. Many international tourists, who had planned to see the lion, had cancelled their trips. "This killing is a huge loss to our tourism sector that was contributing immensely to the national wealth", said Emanuel Fundira, the president of the Safari Operators Association of Zimbabwe. "We had a lot of people, in terms of visitors, coming in to the country to enjoy and view Cecil, so really this was a great loss," Fundira said, and that Cecil's presence was "a draw card," and compared his death to "the demise of an icon". The director of the Zimbabwe Tourism Authority, Karikoga Kaseke, said that tourism had been booming, but that Zimbabwe was now perceived as a country which was not interested in protecting and promoting animal rights, and this had also had a negative effect on the tourism sector. Bryan Orford, a professional wildlife guide who worked in Hwange, calculates that with tourists from a single nearby lodge collectively paying per day, the revenue generated by having Cecil's photograph taken during five days would have been greater than someone paying a one-off fee of to hunt and kill the lion, with no hope of future revenue. On 1 August 2015, in response to Cecil's killing, the hunting of lions, leopards and elephants along with all bow-hunting was immediately suspended in areas outside of Hwange National Park by Zimbabwe's environment minister, Opa Muchinguri, who said, "All such hunts will only be conducted if confirmed and authorized in writing by the Director-general of the Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Management Authority, and only if accompanied by parks staff whose costs will be met by the landowner". The moratorium was lifted after 10 days. Zimbabwe's acting information minister, Prisca Mupfumira, when questioned about Cecil's killing, asked, "What lion?" At a press conference on 31 July 2015, Zimbabwe's environment minister, Opa Muchinguri, said the hunter violated Zimbabwean law and needs to be held accountable. "We are appealing to the responsible authorities for his extradition to Zimbabwe". Muchinguri said in a press release that Palmer's actions had tarnished the image of Zimbabwe and placed further strain on the relationship between Zimbabwe and the U.S. She suggested conservationists and animal lovers provide resources to help decrease poaching and other environmental concerns in Zimbabwe. In Africa Under the premise that profits from trophy hunts help animal conservation efforts, Pohamba Shifeta, the Namibian environment and tourism minister, said that these measures by foreigners to curtail prize hunting would "be the end of conservation in Namibia." Jacob Zuma, the president of South Africa at the time, declared on 11 August 2015: "What it sounds like from a distance [is] that the hunter did not know that Cecil was so popular, just saw a lion, and killed a lion, and it's Cecil, and Cecil is very well loved and it caused a problem, because everyone wants to go and see Cecil. I think it's just an incident." Jean Kapata, Zambia's minister of tourism, said "the West seemed more concerned with the welfare of a lion in Zimbabwe than of Africans themselves", and added that "In Africa, a human being is more important than an animal. I don't know about the Western world." Overseas Non-governmental Cecil's killing created an outrage among animal conservationists, and prompted responses from politicians and many other people. A number of celebrities publicly condemned Cecil's killing. Palmer received a large number of death threats and hate messages, and activists posted his private details online. The words "Lion Killer" were also spray-painted on the garage door at Palmer's Florida vacation home. In addition, at least seven pickled pigs feet were left at the residence. Artists from around the world dedicated art to Cecil, including Aaron Blaise, a former artist of Walt Disney Feature Animation. Musicians composed original works to honor Cecil. After Mia Farrow received criticism for tweeting Palmer's office address, Bob Barker defended her action, saying, "The animal rights movement has just made humongous strides. Why? Awareness. That is what it takes, we have to make people aware," he told ET. "They don't realize how much suffering is going on in the animal world." Not all overseas reactions were sympathetic to Cecil. Goodwell Nzou, an African PhD student in the U.S., wrote in The New York Times: "In my village in Zimbabwe, surrounded by wildlife conservation areas, no lion has ever been beloved, or granted an affectionate nickname. They are objects of terror [...] Americans care more about African animals than about African people." The killing of Cecil sparked a discussion among conservation organisations about the ethics and business of big-game hunting and a proposal for bills banning imports of lion trophies to the U.S. and European Union. These discussions convinced three of the largest airlines in the U.S., American, Delta and United, to voluntarily ban the transport of hunting trophies. Activists also asked African countries to ban bow hunting, lion baiting, and hunting from hunting blinds. Global media and social media reaction resulted in close to 1.2 million people signing the online petition "Justice for Cecil", which asked Zimbabwe's government to stop issuing hunting permits for endangered animals. Safari Club International responded by suspending both Palmer's and Bronkhorst's memberships, stating: "those who intentionally take wildlife illegally should be prosecuted and punished to the maximum extent allowed by law." Late-night talk-show host Jimmy Kimmel, choking up as he described the incident, helped raise in donations in less than 24 hours for Oxford's Wildlife Conservation Research Unit, which had long been "responsible for tracking Cecil's activity and location". Government officials Some government officials publicly condemned the killing of Cecil. David Cameron, then Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, told reporters that the United Kingdom plays "a leading role in preventing illegal wildlife trade", when he was asked about Cecil's death. Grant Shapps, his Minister of State at the Department for International Development, described the incident as "barbaric hunting". U.S. Congresswoman Betty McCollum, co-chair of the United States Congressional International Conservation Caucus, suggested an investigation of Palmer and the killing. U.S. Senator Bob Menendez introduced the Conserving Ecosystems by Ceasing the Importation of Large (CECIL) Animal Trophies Act, which "extend[s] the import and export protections for a species listed under the Endangered Species Act to those that have been proposed for listing, thereby prohibiting the import of any trophies gleaned from Cecil's killing without explicitly obtaining a permit from the Secretary of the Interior." The bill was cosponsored by Senators Cory Booker, Richard Blumenthal, and Ben Cardin. On 30 July 2015, the United Nations General Assembly in New York adopted a non-binding resolution to strengthen the efforts to address illicit wildlife poaching and trafficking. Germany and Gabon were the sponsors of the resolution. Harald Braun, Germany's U.N. Ambassador, and Gabon's Foreign Minister Emmanuel Issoze-Ngondet associated the resolution with the killing. Said Braun: "Like most people in the world we are outraged at what happened to this poor lion;" Issoze-Ngondet added that Cecil's killing was "a matter of deep concern for all countries in Africa". Criminal investigations On 7 July 2015, law enforcement officers of the Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Management Authority commenced an investigation after receiving information that a lion had been killed illegally on a farm near Hwange National Park. The Authority charged that a lion had been killed illegally on the farm on 1 July 2015. On 29 July 2015, Bronkhorst appeared in court at Victoria Falls and pleaded not guilty to a charge of "failing to prevent an unlawful hunt". He was granted bail at and was ordered to appear back in court on 5 August. Bronkhorst stated: "Palmer is a totally innocent party to this whole thing, and he has conducted and bought a hunt from me that was legitimate." Zimbabwe National Parks said in a statement that quotas are assigned to given areas and that Cecil was shot in an area without a quota for lion kills. On 5 August 2015, the case was adjourned until 28 September, when Bronkhorst's barrister was next available. On 11 November 2016, the High Court in the city of Bulawayo threw out the charges against Bronkhorst, agreeing with the defense that it could not have been a crime under the country's wildlife laws if Palmer had a legal permit to hunt. While one account said Honest Ndlovu, who occupies the land on which Cecil was killed, was charged on 29 July 2015 with allowing an illegal hunt on his land, his attorney said two days later that Ndlovu had not been, with parks officials saying days afterward that he would be charged after first testifying for the state. On 18 August 2015, prosecutors brought an illegal-hunting charge against Ndlovu. The charges against Ndlovu were dismissed. Palmer left Zimbabwe for the United States after the hunt. He indicated that he would cooperate with authorities in the investigation. On 30 July 2015, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service was searching for Palmer as part of its investigation. He contacted them voluntarily through a representative on the same day. On 6 September 2015, Palmer said he would return to his dentist practice on 9 September, and that he had not been charged in the United States nor Zimbabwe with any crime related to Cecil's killing nor had he been contacted by authorities. However, he had previously been convicted of fish and game violations in Minnesota. On 12 October, Zimbabwe government officials said Palmer's papers were in order and Palmer would not be charged with any crime. They said he was free to return to Zimbabwe as a tourist but not as a hunter. Consequences for the pride When one or more new male lions oust or replace a previous male(s) associated with a pride, they often kill any existing young cubs, a form of infanticide. Initially, both the University of Oxford study and Johnny Rodrigues, head of the Zimbabwe Conservation Task Force, indicated that they believed Cecil's six cubs could be killed by the new dominant male in the pride. In a later interview, however, Rodrigues said Jericho had assumed control of the pride but had not killed Cecil's cubs, and that he was also keeping the cubs safe from any rivals. Reactions to the killing of Xanda Xanda, a son of Cecil's, was legally shot by trophy hunters in Zimbabwe on 20 July 2017. He was six years old and the father of several young cubs. Despite this being termed a "legal" act of killing, it provoked reactions, not just amongst advocates of animal rights. The BBC termed it a "sad" inheritance from Cecil. Andrew Loveridge, from the Department of Zoology at Oxford University, said the hunter was "one of the ‘good’ guys. He is ethical", adding that Xanda's hunt "was legal and Xanda was over 6 years old so it is all within the stipulated regulations". University of Oxford's Department of Zoology called for a "no-hunting zone" around Hwange Park, spanning . Subsequent conservation measures Five months after the killing of Cecil, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service added the Panthera leo leo subspecies of lions, in India and western and central Africa, to the endangered species list. The listings would make it more difficult (though not impossible) for US citizen hunters to kill these protected lions. According to Wayne Pacelle, president of the Humane Society of the United States and who petitioned for the new listing, Cecil had "changed the atmospherics on the issue of trophy hunting around the world," adding "I think it gave less wiggle room to regulators." Wayne added that he thought the killing of Cecil was "a defining moment" resulting in the new protections. Jeff Flocken, regional director of the International Fund for Animal Welfare, said that while the U.S.F.W.S. decision was not the direct result of the death of Cecil, "it would be impossible to ignore the public outcry" and its effect on worldwide opinion. The New York Times, writing about the new regulations, said "the killing of Cecil .. seemed to galvanize public attention." Other countries and companies have also taken action. After Cecil's killing, France banned the importation of lion trophies. The Netherlands did so in 2016. A British ban was still stalled in 2020, with more than 150 trophies imported since 2015. The investigative journalist George Knapp noted Cecil's case on the approach of the incident's one-year anniversary during an annual animal-welfare broadcast concerning issues, the development of law, animal cruelty, and remediation efforts in June 2016. The 2016 broadcast covered various issues, including horses and trophy hunting, noting Cecil and the effect the incident was still causing at the date of the show. Money raised in response to Cecil's death has been used by researchers to reduce conflicts between people and lions by paying for lion protectors and other methods. Cecil effect The "Cecil effect" is a term used by some to express the belief that after the killing of Cecil, there was a reduction in the number of hunters coming to Zimbabwe and a subsequent increase in lion populations in certain areas. Byron du Preez, project leader at the Bubye Valley Conservancy, believes the effect does not exist, saying, "Hunters are not coming because there is a massive recession [in the U.S.]." Those who believe in the effect say hunters are staying away from Zimbabwe due to fear of negative publicity. About a month after Cecil was killed, when international uproar was at its peak, Zimbabwean hunting guide Quinn Swales was killed by a lion on a hunt. Some of his fellow guides speculated that he was afraid of shooting the animal out of fear of the possible backlash due to Cecil. According to guide Steve Taylor, "This guy was a really successful guide, and he died by a lion. And I think that's the Cecil Effect. Guides in Zimbabwe are petrified of having the world turn on them." Some attribute the Cecil effect as being responsible for an unsustainably high lion population in the Bubye Valley Conservancy, which negatively affects the conservancy's population of the park's wildlife such as antelopes, giraffes, cheetahs, rhinos, leopards, and painted dogs; and possibly requiring a lion cull of up to 200 felines. Others noted that 2015 was the driest summer on record, which kept grass low and made game animals easy targets for lions. Books and other media In the children's book Cecil's Pride (2016), author Craig Hatkoff and his daughters sought to shed light on Cecil's life and how he lived prior to his death. He reached out to those who studied Cecil's pride at Zimbabwe's Hwange National Park and got into contact with Cecil's 'biographer', researcher Brent Stapelkamp. Stapelkamp had studied Cecil for over 9 years and had accumulated photographs that were used as illustrations in the book that capture the complexities of the pride. The book highlights the relationship of Cecil and an unrelated male named Jericho who becomes co-leader with Cecil and then leader after Cecil's death. Andrew Loveridge, in his book Lion Hearted: The Life and Death of Cecil & the Future of Africa's Iconic Cats (2018), suggests that the hunters allowed Cecil to suffer for more than 10 hours, without hastening his death with a firearm, possibly to allow Palmer to submit the game to a hunting record book as an archery-hunted animal. Loveridge further suggests that Bronkhost, knowing that he had no quota to hunt in the area, attempted to deliberately conceal the hunt by removing Cecil's skinned carcass and disabling his collar. However, the High Court set aside the charges against Bronkhorst. In 2021, National Geographic Channels aired the documentary produced by wildlife filmmaker Peter Lamberti from Lion Mountain Media, Cecil: The Legacy of a King. See also References External links . Uploaded by YouTube user Pamela Robinson on 14 September 2014. Cecil the Lion, site honoring Cecil the Lion by Charles Elias Disney (nephew of Walt Disney) Wildlife Conservation Research Unit, Department of Zoology, University of Oxford. An academic unit that was tracking Cecil the lion. Cecil 2015 controversies 2015 in Zimbabwe Hunting Hwange District Cecil Cecil Individual wild animals July 2015 events in Africa United States–Zimbabwe relations

47459958

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killing%20of%20Zachary%20Hammond

Killing of Zachary Hammond

The shooting of Zachary Hammond occurred on July 26, 2015, in Seneca, South Carolina. Hammond, age 19, was shot in his car during an undercover narcotics operation that targeted his passenger. Hammond, who was unarmed, was shot twice by 32-year-old police lieutenant Mark Tiller. Hammond's death was being investigated by the U.S. Department of Justice Civil Rights Division, Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the U.S. Attorney for South Carolina, and the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division (SLED). SLED completed its investigation on August 31, turning its findings over to 10th Circuit Solicitor Chrissy Adams who, eight weeks later, declined to bring criminal charges against Tiller. On October 27, the dashcam video of the shooting was released. Backgrounds Zachary Hammond Zachary Richard Thomas Hammond (May 5, 1996 – July 26, 2015), son of Paul and Angie Hammond, was a 19-year-old white male. He was born in Greenville, South Carolina, and graduated from Seneca High School in 2014. Hammond had used cannabis recreationally and was driving under the influence of cocaine when he died. Previous text messages revealed a prior unwillingness to submit to law enforcement authority, and he had previously run through several police checkpoints in order to evade arrest, but charges were never filed in those cases. Mark Tiller Mark Tiller is a lieutenant in the Seneca Police Department. An officer since 2006 previously employed at West Pelzer police department. Before joining the Seneca Police Department in 2010, he worked at the Clemson Police Department. according to Seneca police chief John Covington, however Tiller does have some missing records, including "written reports about a missed court date and mishandling of a gun" and has changed police departments for unknown reasons in the last few years. He was 32 years old at the time of the shooting. The city released Lt. Mark Tiller's file to media outlets. The documents show one performance review from June 29 in which the officer received ratings of "excellent" in five of six categories and was rated "good" in job knowledge. The personnel file released to the media was subsequently found to be incomplete. A total of eight infractions had been omitted--infractions which should have resulted in disciplinary action and which may have reflected upon his fitness to be an officer. Had Tiller been properly disciplined, his behavior may have been corrected. Seneca police chief John Covington fired Tiller in September 2016 calling it a "personnel matter". Shooting According to police, Tori Morton, a 23-year-old female who was on her first date with Hammond, used Hammond's cell phone to text someone she was trying to sell marijuana to, but inadvertently texted a state trooper with a similar phone number. The state trooper contacted Seneca police, who sent an undercover police officer to meet with Morton and Hammond. At around 8:20 p.m. on July 26, 2015, Hammond, with Morton as his passenger, drove his 2001 Honda Civic through a parking lot of a Hardee's restaurant, where the pair were texted by the undercover officer. Tiller was sent as backup for the undercover officer, and when Tiller arrived, he pulled his vehicle in behind Hammond's car in an attempt to block Hammond's escape. According to Tiller's account, Tiller approached Hammond's car, ordering him to show his hands. Hammond (who was 19 years old and weighed 121 pounds at the time of his death) panicked and began to drive away from the scene. Tiller claims that Hammond accelerated turning toward the officer, although this is not supported by the dashcam video. Tiller then fired two rounds from his .45 caliber handgun at close range through the open driver's side window of Hammond's car as Hammond tried to flee. Bullets struck Hammond in the left chest and left front shoulder. According to a police report, Tiller feared being run over by Hammond's vehicle when he backed it up and then pulled forward toward the officer. As seen in the dashcam video, Tiller was never in the path of Hammond's vehicle. Police contend that Hammond was under the influence of cocaine at the time of his death. However, in a lawsuit filed against Tiller and the Seneca Police Department, testimony suggests that cocaine was planted on Hammond's body after he had been shot and dragged from his car. Following the shooting, Hammond's passenger was issued a summons for possession of of marijuana. Police allege that she had planned to sell it to an undercover officer who had set up the deal. Seneca police chief John Covington initially refused to release Tiller's name in violation of South Carolina's sunshine law, but did finally release it 12 days after the shooting in response to freedom of information requests. Covington referred to Tiller as a "victim" of "attempted murder" in an incident report, and stated that Tiller fired his weapon in self-defense because Hammond "drove his vehicle directly at the officer". Investigation Hammond's death was ruled a homicide by the Oconee County coroner. An independent autopsy commissioned by Hammond's family indicated that the bullets penetrated from the back of Hammond's left shoulder and the left side of his torso. The shooting is under investigation by the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division (SLED). Dash camera video footage of the shooting was turned over to the agency for analysis. Another police officer who had arrived at the scene after the shooting, resigned during an internal affairs investigation on August 7. Seneca police chief John Covington stated that the investigation was a "personnel matter" and no additional information about it would be released. Eric Bland, the attorney representing Hammond's family, requested intervention from the U.S. Attorney General, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) because of alleged civil rights violations. On August 9, the U.S. Department of Justice Civil Rights Division announced that they would conduct an investigation into Hammond's death. The investigation will be joined by the FBI Columbia Field Office and the U.S. Attorney for South Carolina. SLED investigation SLED formally denied a request by The Post and Courier to release video footage from the police dashcam, citing the ongoing investigation. SLED completed its investigation on August 31, turning its findings over to Chrissy Adams, the 10th Circuit court Solicitor. Adams declined to release the dashcam video stating that it would take "several more weeks" before she would decide whether to charge Tiller for the shooting. On October 27, Solicitor Adams announced that no criminal charges against Tiller would be sought and that further information would not be released until the U.S. Attorney's completes its investigation. The dashcam video of the shooting was released on the same day. Witness accounts According to attorneys for the Hammond family in a letter to the FBI, a witness saw Hammond's body pulled from the car. An officer then removed an object from the trunk of the police vehicle and placed it under Hammond's body. The witness also stated, "After Zachary had been shot and killed, members of the Seneca Police Department lifted his dead hand and 'high fived' Zachary Hammond." The solicitor's report dismissed the claims of wrongdoing on the part of police officers, noting that the officer who claimed to have high-fived Hammond's corpse was on the periphery of the scene and that the dash cams which captured the scene showed no malfeasance on the part of police. Hammond's passenger Tori Morton gave her account of the shooting in a sworn affidavit: Zach and I are sharing a chocolate dipped ice cream cone from McDonalds, and as we were pulling into a parking spot the police SUV was lighted (sic) up in blue flashing lights. The two officers got out and had they're (sic) guns drawn, telling that he would blow our (expletive deleted) off and immediately started firing. As the shots rang the car moved/rolled forward and along the curb until another cop car smashed into the back of Zach's car to stop us. As they surrounded the car they started yelling "where's the gun get the gun." Zach was already dead and then they drug (sic) us out of the car onto the pavement. After I was handcuffed onto the ground and the officer that stood me up-he put the car in park. Reaction Hammond's family criticized the media for their hypocrisy for treating his death differently than similar police officer shootings of unarmed citizens such as Walter Scott and Samuel DuBose. On August 6, a candlelight vigil organized by the Facebook group "Remember Zach" was held at the Hardee's restaurant where Hammond was shot. More than 100 people attended a rally organized by an anti-gun violence group, Put Down The Guns Now Young People, on August 15 in Seneca. Demands for all law enforcement officers to wear body cameras were seen on social media in the wake of Hammond's death. Lawsuits On September 28, 2015, Eric Bland, the attorney representing Hammond's family, filed a federal lawsuit calling for evidence in the shooting to be released and for "unspecified damages". Eleven weeks after the shooting, three local newspapers and the South Carolina Press Association filed a lawsuit against SLED seeking release of the dash camera video under the Freedom of Information Act. In March 2016, Hammond's family received $2.15 million from a settlement against the city of Seneca. See also List of killings by law enforcement officers in the United States Shooting of Walter Scott War on Drugs References External links Dashcam video of the shooting 2nd Dashcam video after shooting Statement from Hammond's family's attorneys Zachary Hammond autopsy (redacted) Letter from Hammond's family's attorneys to the DOJ and FBI Lawsuit complaint: Angela Hammond and Paul Hammond vs. City of Seneca Police Department, Mark Tiller and John Covington 2015 in South Carolina Hammond, Zachary Filmed killings by law enforcement Law enforcement in South Carolina Hammond, Zachary Seneca, South Carolina

48337957

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killing%20of%20Larry%20Payne

Killing of Larry Payne

Larry Payne was a sixteen-year old African American teenager who was killed following a march in support of the Memphis sanitation strike on Thursday, March 28, 1968, in Memphis, Tennessee. He was the only fatality on that day although the New Pittsburgh Courier reported 60 injured and 276 arrested. Martin Luther King Jr. called Payne's mother, Lizzie Payne, on the phone to console her after her son's killing by Patrolman Leslie Dean Jones. Events leading up to Payne's death Conflicting accounts describe the looting that occurred in tandem with the march on Thursday March 28, 1968 that led to a city-wide curfew and Mayor Loeb calling the Tennessese National Guard. According to multiple witnesses, as Payne emerged from a basement in the Fowler Homes housing development, police officer Leslie Dean Jones pressed the barrel of a sawed-off shotgun into Payne's stomach and fired, killing him. Payne reportedly had his hands up prior to his killing and had asked the officer not to shoot. Jones later claimed that Payne was holding a large butcher knife when he emerged from the basement, a statement denied by witnesses to the killing. The Shelby County grand jury did not press charges, and the Department of Justice declared that there was insufficient evidence to prosecute Jones when investigating him for civil rights abuses. Payne's funeral There was a five-hour wake the day before the funeral on Monday, April 1, 1968. Six hundred attended his funeral at Clayborn Temple on Tuesday, April 2, 1968. Striking sanitation workers, clergy members who supported the strike, and national television representatives were all in attendance, as well as the students and faculty of Mitchell Road High School where Payne was enrolled prior to his death. Rev. B.T. Dumas, pastor of New Philadelphia Baptist Church gave the eulogy entitled "Man Is Like Grass And Is Cut Down in Various Stages of Life." Surprisingly, Rev. Dumas made no reference to the unusual circumstances of Payne's death. Payne's mother, Lizzie Mason Payne, had to be led from the church because she was so full of grief. The Washington Post quoted her as saying: "They killed you like a dog." Events after Payne's death King planned to visit Payne's mother during his next visit to Memphis, but was killed before the visit could occur. He was assassinated seven days after Payne's killing, on April 4, 1968, when he returned to Memphis in an effort to hold a peaceful march unmarred by looting and violence. After Payne's death, Lizzie Payne, his mother, moved to Flint, Michigan. References External links "My thoughts: Wither Larry Payne, civil rights and hallowed grounds?" Commercial Appeal, February 27, 2016. Interview with Larry Payne's mother, brother, and sister (Recorded: March 2, 2010) FBI to Re-Open Memphis Civil Rights era cold case (WMC Channel 5 News) For Larry Payne (a poem commissioned by Fusion Theatre Company and written by Hakim Bellamy, November 9, 2013) 1950s births 1968 deaths 1968 labor disputes and strikes History of Memphis, Tennessee Civil rights protests in the United States Martin Luther King Jr. Labor disputes in Tennessee 1968 in Tennessee Police brutality in the United States Place of birth missing Police Deaths by firearm in Tennessee African Americans shot dead by law enforcement officers in the United States Incidents of violence against boys Law enforcement in Tennessee

48577410

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killing%20of%20Jamar%20Clark

Killing of Jamar Clark

On November 15, 2015, Jamar Clark, a 24-year-old African-American man, was fatally shot by police officers in Minneapolis. The two officers involved with the shooting were Mark Ringgenberg and Dustin Schwarze. They were a part of the Minneapolis Police Department and were subsequently placed on paid administrative leave. The night after the shooting, Clark died at the Hennepin County Medical Center after being taken off life support. His death was the result of a gunshot wound he sustained during the November 15 incident. In response to the shooting, Black Lives Matter organized protests outside the Fourth Precinct police station that lasted for 18 days, as well as other protests and demonstrations in and around Minneapolis. Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman announced that cases concerning officer-involved shootings would no longer be put before grand juries, but instead his office would make the decision to file criminal charges. On March 30, 2016, Freeman announced that no charges would be filed against Ringgenberg and Schwarze. Freeman concluded that the officers acted in accordance with Minnesota Statutes authorizing deadly force and that the state would be unable to provide evidence that the officer's use of force was unlawful. In 2019, Clark's family agreed to a $200,000 civil settlement which was approved by city council. Jamar Clark Jamar Clark (May 3, 1991 – November 16, 2015) was adopted by Wilma and James Clark when he was four. His family stated that he had a close relationship with his biological and adoptive parents and his 14 siblings. Clark had endured a difficult childhood but despite this, was on his way to turning his life around. At the time of the shooting, he was employed by Tim Hoag at Copeland Trucking and had hopes of attending college, although he never enrolled. Clark had previous encounters with law enforcement, beginning in 2010 when he received a felony conviction for first-degree aggravated robbery. The conviction resulted in a sentence of 41 months in prison, of which it is unclear how many Clark served. Clark faced a second conviction for terroristic threats after he threatened to burn down the apartment of an ex-girlfriend in March 2015, following a bitter breakup. According to Kyle Potter of the Associated Press, "He threw a brick through his ex-girlfriend's window and threatened to burn her apartment unit down -- leaving behind a trail of lighter fluid to prove it, according to court documents." As of November 2015, he was on probation for this crime. Potter wrote that Clark's ex-girlfriend described him as "a nurturing, loving man who was drawn to her four children, giving them advice and helping them sell candy for school", but that she also said that their relationship soured in recent times, resulting in their breakup. A Domestic Abuse No Contact Order was issued for Clark, requiring him to stay away from the ex-girlfriend until 2020. Additionally, Clark was awaiting trial for a high-speed chase arrest from July 2015. Shooting Jamar Clark was attending the birthday party of Nekelia Sharp, who was hosting the event at her apartment on the 1600 block of Plymouth Avenue North in Minneapolis. Sharp and her husband engaged in a dispute and Clark's girlfriend grabbed Sharp, after which Sharp and Clark's girlfriend fought. Clark stepped in to pull his girlfriend away and, according to Sharp, Clark's girlfriend hit him. The pair left and soon, someone called for help and paramedics were called. Sharp let them into her apartment and they escorted Clark's girlfriend to the ambulance, which Clark approached after she had entered it. An onlooker reported that both the paramedics and police who had arrived at the scene asked Clark to step away from the ambulance and that police then stepped out of their car, arrested Clark on the ground, and the EMS supervisor placed a knee on Clark's chest, after which point he was shot. County Attorney accounts say that Clark got into a confrontation with paramedics and then when police officers responded at 12:45a.m., a struggle ensued, Clark obtained the officer's gun, leading to the shooting by the other officer. Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman said that Clark was resisting and was not handcuffed. In a statement on November 16, police chief Janeé Harteau said that the Minneapolis Police Department's preliminary information was that Clark was not restrained with handcuffs when shot. An autopsy report, released on November 17, by the Hennepin County Medical Examiner concluded that Clark died from a gunshot wound to the head. The President of the Minneapolis Police Union Bob Kroll said that Clark was actively resisting arrest and tried to take the weapon of one of the officers, and that he was not handcuffed at the moment of the shooting. Clark's DNA was found on the handle of one of the officers' gun. Mike Freeman said there was no forensic evidence on Clark's arm indicating he was handcuffed at the time of shooting. In addition, he stated that 10 law enforcement and paramedic witnesses including the officers involved said he was not handcuffed. The United States Department of Justice Department declined to prosecute the officers, saying it found "insufficient evidence" for criminal civil rights charges. The federal government decision followed a separate investigation in March by Minnesota's Bureau of Criminal Apprehension (BCA), which concluded that the officers acted in self-defense and would not face criminal charges for the killing. Schwarze shot Clark only after Ringgenberg scuffled with the young man, according to the BCA findings. Clark allegedly took control of the officer's gun and Ringgenberg told Schwarze to open fire. The department's internal investigation confirmed those findings. They "concluded the use of deadly force in the line of duty was necessary to protect an officer from apparent death or great bodily harm." Other accounts have disputed the police's version of events. Nekelia Sharp said that the shooting occurred while Clark was handcuffed and not resisting. Teto Wilson, who visited a nearby club, said he saw Clark "perfectly still, laying [sic] on the ground" when he was shot. Keisha Steele, who lived near the area of the shooting, said she saw Clark's hands behind his back. Everett Spicer arrived at the scene after the shooting, and said he saw a motionless Clark handcuffed on the ground. Spicer said police removed the handcuffs from Clark as emergency medical services arrived to tend to him. In its decision to not charge the officers, the Department of Justice said that eyewitness accounts were inconsistent. Half of the witness interviewed said that Clark was not handcuffed. Among those that said he was handcuffed at the time of the shooting, federal authorities said that witness accounts varied regarding the timing and sequence of events, and if one or both hands were cuffed. Political reaction Immediate response The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) issued a statement condemning the shooting and demanded an independent investigation. The Police Officers Federation of Minneapolis defended the officers' actions during the shooting, adding that they had no previous disciplinary issues and pointing out a preceding incident in which an Aitkin County sheriff's deputy was disarmed and killed with his own gun. Administrative leave Mark Ringgenberg and Dustin Schwarze, who had been with the department for 13 months, both were subsequently placed on paid administrative leave while the investigation was conducted. Local politics Minneapolis Mayor Betsy Hodges stated that she contacted the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice and the US Attorney for Minnesota in order to request an outside investigation in the "interest of transparency and community confidence." Although Minnesota's Bureau of Criminal Apprehension had already begun an investigation, Hodges indicated that Minneapolis needed "all the tools we have available to us" to investigate the shooting. Protests Black Lives Matter (BLM) activists and supporters protested for days outside the police precinct, protesting against information hiding, demanding for release of police dashcam and bodycam videos containing material evidence that can settle the truth of police accounts of the incident. Shooting of protesters On November 23, a group of four men, three wearing masks, were asked to leave the protest. The group was chased away from the demonstration by about a dozen protesters before one turned and opened fire at around 10:45 p.m. Five male protesters were shot, but none of them suffered life-threatening injuries. One of the injured protesters later said he heard the word "nigger" being used during the incident, although he did not state who exactly said it. Shots were also overheard the following night, though no injuries were reported. At 11:20 a.m. the next day, a 23-year-old white man was taken into custody in Bloomington. A 32-year-old Hispanic man was arrested in Minneapolis, but was later released after it was determined he was not at the scene of the shooting. At 2:30 p.m., two white men, ages 21 and 26, turned themselves in to police. Four men were charged in the shootings: Lawrence Scarsella, 23, with riot and five counts of assault (both in the second degree), and Daniel Thomas Macey, 26, Nathan Wayne Gustavsson, 21, and Joseph Martin Backman, 27, each with a charge of second-degree riot. Several of the men in custody are believed to have posted on 4chan's /pol/ and /k/ imageboards in connection with the shooting. Days before the shooting, the suspects had released a video of them using racial slurs while preparing to bring their weapons to a protest that night. As of March 14, 2016, attorneys for the men charged have motioned to dismiss the case based on self-defense. The motion says that the protesters wanted to "beat their asses" because they were white, KKK, or police. Interviews with two protesters indicate that the men charged were assaulted prior to being forced from the protest at which point they were followed for a number of blocks, before the men fired upon the group. The dismissal motion also indicates that there is video evidence saying that one of the alleged gunmen raised their hands in surrender before leaving and being assaulted afterwards. On January 24, 2017, current Burnsville Police Department and former Mankato PD officer Bret Levin, friend of Scarsella since high school, testified that he and Scarsella had exchanged "racially charged" texts, explicitly "negative about black people," on multiple occasions. On April 26, 2017, Scarsella was sentenced to 15 years for the shooting. Charges against Macey were dismissed on February 27, 2017, as he was not with Scarsella at the time of the shooting, they were separated when pursued by protesters. On July 20, 2017, Gustavsson was sentenced to eight months in the workhouse, with credit for nearly two months of time served in jail after pleading guilty to felony second-degree riot and aiding an offender after the fact. Backman was sentenced to 90 days of house arrest for aiding an offender after the fact, the riot charge against him was dismissed for the same reason Macey's charges were stayed. Removal of protest camp Protesters had camped outside of the 4th precinct for 18 days. At 4:00 a.m. on December 3, police arrived and handed out fliers stating protesters had ten minutes to leave. Later police began removing the encampments and most of the protesters left. Eight protesters who refused to leave were placed under arrest. Subsequent protests Black Lives Matter staged a December 23 protest of Clark's death at the Mall of America in Bloomington, a year after a similar protest in December 2014. The Mall sought to block the 2015 demonstrations, resulting in three of the protest's organizers being legally barred from entering the space. Protesters marched from the mall then took Metro Transit trains to the Terminal 2 station of the Minneapolis–Saint Paul International Airport where they were blocked by police and Terminal 2 security checkpoints were closed. Other protesters drove to Terminal 1 and blocked incoming airport traffic on Minnesota State Highway 5. A total 13 demonstrators were arrested. Another protest was conducted on January 18, 2016 (Martin Luther King, Jr. Day), with demonstrators against the deaths of Clark and Marcus Golden (a man who Saint Paul police had killed a year prior) blocking the Lake Street-Marshall Bridge for a short time. Protesters insisted that a special prosecutor should hear Clark's case, instead of a grand jury convening to decide whether Clark's shooting was justified. As late as November 2020, protests in Clark's name were still being held in Minneapolis. During events of the 2020–2021 Minneapolis–Saint Paul racial unrest, Clark's name was featured in protests alongside other Black men who were killed by police. Legal actions and settlement In February 2016, per the requests of local officials, the U.S. Department of Justice's Community Oriented Policing Services office announced that they would be conducting a review of the way the city handled the November protests. On March 16, Mike Freeman, Hennepin County Attorney, announced that his office would cease the use of grand juries in shootings involving police officers. Freeman announced this because he believed that the use of a grand jury would not provide a transparent and fair trial (Lissargue, Jennie). The announcement was met with approval from activists and described by the Star Tribune as a "rare move" with potential ramifications throughout the country. Later in March, in preparation for Freeman's office's announcement about whether they would be pursuing charges against Ringgenberg and Schwarze, Harteau released a video warning against "violence or disruption" based on Freeman's actions. On March 30, Freeman announced that no charges against the officers would be filed. The officers were not charged because the county was not able to prove that beyond a reasonable doubt that the officers that were involved in the shooting, shot Jamar Clark unjustifiably, as stated in Minnesota Statutes, section 609.066. On June 13, 2019, Schwartze was removed as a plaintiff in a civil lawsuit filed by Clark's family. In August 2019, Attorneys for Clark's family confirmed that the family accepted a $200,000 settlement. This settlement sum was much larger than previous five-figures settlement proposal which city leaders offered in May 2019. The settlement went into effect after being approved by the Minneapolis City Council on August 23, 2019. See also List of killings by law enforcement officers in Minnesota List of incidents of civil unrest in Minneapolis–Saint Paul References Further reading Lissarague, Jennie (March 30, 2016). "No Charges in Hennepin County for 2 Minneapolis Officers in Jamar Clark Shooting". KSTP-TV. Retrieved April 11, 2021. "Who was Jamar Clark?" (March 30, 2016). Star Tribune. Retrieved March 30, 2016. External links Minnesota Statutes, section 609.066, Authorized Use of Deadly Force by Peace Officers 2015 in Minnesota 2015 controversies in the United States Black Lives Matter Deaths by firearm in Minnesota 2010s in Minneapolis Law enforcement controversies in the United States Protests in the United States Filmed killings by law enforcement November 2015 events in the United States African-American history in Minneapolis–Saint Paul African-American-related controversies Minneapolis Police Department History of racism in Minnesota African Americans shot dead by law enforcement officers in the United States

49067539

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killing%20of%20Autumn%20Steele

Killing of Autumn Steele

On January 6, 2015, Autumn Steele, a 34-year-old woman, was fatally shot at her home in Burlington, Iowa by police officer, Jesse Hill, during a response to a domestic disturbance call. In June 2018, a civil lawsuit was settled between the City of Burlington and the Steele family over her death. Shooting On January 6, 2015, Officer Jesse Hill was dispatched to the Steele home in response to a domestic-disturbance call. Police said when Hill arrived, Autumn was screaming at and attacking her husband Gabriel (who was holding their young child). Hill said the family dog bit him as he was trying to protect the husband and child. He said he tried shooting the dog twice, but he slipped. One of his bullets hit Autumn Steele in her torso; she later died of her injuries. A neighbor told a local newspaper the officer was trying to break up the Steele's argument and was startled by the couple's dog. The Steeles' German Shepherd was confiscated by the police under a search warrant and was placed in the city's dog pound for observation. The dog was later deemed "not vicious" and returned. Officer Hill was treated for at least one dog bite. Legal proceedings On February 27, 2015, Des Moines County Attorney Amy Beavers provided a 7-page letter to the Iowa Department of Criminal Investigations stating that she would not prosecute Hill under manslaughter charges. The Associated Press reported that Beavers said her decision was supported by body camera evidence, witness statements, and reports from the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation. Hill had to make an instantaneous decision as the threat was occurring, Beavers said. Adam J. Klein, an attorney who represents Steele's 7-year-old son, said in a news release that Beavers' statement made it appear she reached her "determination by simply ignoring Iowa law". In June 2015, Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley requested Nicholas Klinefeldt, the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Iowa, to consider a federal investigation in the shooting. A spokesperson from the office neither confirms nor denies the existence of the ongoing investigation into the matter. In December 2015, the Steele family and transparency-advocacy groups pushed for all body-camera footage related to the incident to be released, including by pursuing legal action. That same month, bomb threats were made to Burlington City Council members, which police said were linked to the shooting. However investigative records to the threats were never disclosed and the perpetrator involved has yet to be arrested. Attorneys representing the City of Burlington and the Burlington Police Department filed an appeal to dismiss the open records violation case against them in January 2017. Administrative Law Judge Karen Doland dismissed the appeal exclaiming that the case has merit and should be ruled. The hearing was going to be held on April 19 but was postponed. Instead, another pretrial conference will be held that day It was determined from the pretrial conference that the hearing will be set on August 29. However several claims were dismissed in the lawsuit due to U.S District Judge James E. Gritzner granting approval for City of Burlington's attorneys but denied dropping the suit entirely. On July 20, 2017, the Iowa Public Information Board voted in favor to file an administrative contest against the Iowa Department of Criminal Investigation and the Burlington Police Department. This comes to a response to the two parties requesting the board for an "interlocutory" review on the grounds that inventory of the records were not relevant to the state's open records laws. The administrative trial could begin as early as August 17 but could be delayed due to this recent vote. In 2016, Des Moines County Attorney Beavers was found by the Iowa Public Information Board to have violated the Open Records Law after giving conflicting statements of accounts. She agreed to settle with the board to pay a $200 fine in exchange in not having to admit guilt. On November 16, 2016, a lawsuit was filed by the family of Steele against the City of Burlington and Officer Hill in response to the shooting. During a deposition hearing in May 2018, an attorney representing the Steele family proclaimed that Officer Hill never made any complaints of injuries in the unedited footage. It was argued that Hill contradicted from what he had provided to a report to what was happening on video. On June 6, 2018, a settlement was reached between the city and the Steele family. When the Burlington City Manager was asked if the suit would have a financial impact on the city's insurance or its future contracts longterm, he was not certain. Following the suit, public watchdog group Iowa Freedom of Information Council filed a motion to request a federal judge to release records in full and to intervene in the case. On September 12, 2018, the body cam video of the incident was released. During the video, Hill said to his partner "Oh, my God, no! Oh, fuck, Tim! Shit, Tim! I'm fucking going to prison, Tim!" On October 5, 2018, Administrative Law Judge Donald issued her ruling stating that the 911 tape, body camera videos, and dash camera records is considered public records as originally outlined by the Iowa Supreme Court. On February 21, 2019, the Iowa Public Information Board voted 6-2 to reject complaints against the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation and the Burlington Police Department in regards to breaking Iowa Open Record laws with refusing to disclose investigative records. On March 25, 2019, the ACLU of Iowa filed an appeal and lawsuit against the Iowa Public Information Board in regards to its ruling in February 2019. The ACLU requested for 911 calls and videos be part of a records request as requirement for Iowa Open Records laws. They have also petitioned to only keep the records confidential if its an ongoing investigation. The organization filed in behalf of the family's attorney Adam Klein. References 2015 deaths 2015 in Iowa Deaths by firearm in Iowa People shot dead by law enforcement officers in the United States Accidental deaths in Iowa Filmed accidental deaths Burlington, Iowa Law enforcement in Iowa

49191803

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killing%20of%20Anthony%20Hill

Killing of Anthony Hill

The shooting of Anthony Hill, a U.S. Air Force veteran, occurred on March 9, 2015, in Chamblee, Georgia, near Atlanta. Hill, fatally shot by police officer Robert Olsen, suffered from mental illness and was naked and unarmed at the time of the incident. The incident was covered in local and national press and sparked the involvement of Black Lives Matter and other advocacy groups who demonstrated their anger at the shooting. In January 2016, a grand jury indicted officer Olsen on two counts of felony murder and one count of aggravated assault. Nearing the fourth anniversary of the homicide, it was decided that Olsen's trial would be rescheduled for September 23, 2019, with delays including three successive judges having recused themselves in the case. Background Anthony Hill (born June 15, 1988), born in Moncks Corner, South Carolina, was a veteran of the United States Air Force who had served in Afghanistan. According to his family, he suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder. He had been medically discharged from the Air Force two years before after being diagnosed with bipolar disorder. On a Twitter account apparently belonging to Hill, he acknowledged suffering from the disorder. According to his girlfriend, he had recently stopped taking his medication due to muscular side effects, believing he would see his doctor at the VA within the week. Hill had been an intern at Berkeley County Sheriff's Department before joining the US Air Force. He had been a staunch supporter of police officers. Shooting Hill was noted to be acting erratically when police were called; he had hung from his second-story balcony in his apartment complex, and his speech was slurred. He had reportedly been running around the complex naked and knocking on doors asking for his medicine and lying and crawling on the ground. The woman who called 911 told Hill's family's lawyer that she had called in order to get medical personnel to come for Hill. Officer Robert Olsen, employed by the Dekalb County Police Department for seven years, was dispatched to the scene and found him in the parking lot of the complex. Olsen waited in his car for several minutes, possibly for backup, when Hill began approaching from about away. Olsen exited the car and began moving backward. Hill, apparently unarmed, ran toward Officer Olsen, who stepped back and called to him to stop. Hill began to walk naked with hands to side, failing to comply with orders to stop. Olsen shot him twice. They were six to seven feet apart when the shots were fired. Hill died at the scene. Olsen had also been carrying a Taser, police baton, and pepper spray, but DeKalb Police Chief Cedric Alexander said Olsen chose the firearm over those options. Several residents witnessed the shooting. Olsen said later that he had believed Hill was a threat to the officer's safety and under the influence of drugs like phencyclidine or bath salts. He told the grand jury deciding whether to indict him on charges of murder about other cases in which suspects who had used these drugs had attacked police. Aftermath The Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI) began investigating the shooting within days, and Olsen was placed on administrative leave for the duration. He remained on paid leave through the time of the criminal grand jury hearing. In April 2015 the GBI handed its findings over to the district attorney. The shooting prompted outcry about the police department's approach to handling people with mental illness, as well as critiques about race. The shooting came in the wake of national social unrest and racial debate after the killing of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, which inspired the Black Lives Matter movement. As they had in other parts of the country, protests arose in Atlanta over race and police killings and use of excessive force. Hill had remarked on the national debate three days prior to his death, posting on Facebook, "[t]he key thing to remember is, #blacklivesmatter, ABSOLUTELY, but not more so than any other life." He remarked via Twitter, "[i]f 99 out of 100 cops [are] killing black men like its hunting season that leaves 1 just doing his job." In the context of increased attention of police killings of racial minorities, prosecutors face greater pressure. Hill's family filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Officer Olsen, the police department, Dekalb county, and its department of commissioners. Grand jury A civil grand jury convened in October 2015 determined that the shooting should be further investigated. Olsen had told the jury that he had felt threatened by Hill. It decided that a criminal grand jury would hear the evidence. In January 2016, District Attorney Robert D. James Jr. of DeKalb County announced that he would ask the criminal grand jury to indict, and that a warrant had been issued for Olsen's arrest. Two weeks later, on January 21, 2016, the criminal grand jury indicted Officer Olsen for two counts of felony murder, one count of aggravated assault, one count of making a false statement and two counts of violation of oath by a public officer. Felony murder implies the defendant killed someone while committing another felony; the two felonies are the assault and violation of oath charges. The district attorney said that Olsen was charged with making a false statement because he had told another officer during the investigation that Hill had hit him in the chest. He also said the violation of oath charges had to do with his violation of department rules and use of force. An arrest warrant was issued for Olsen on the 21st. He turned himself in that day and was granted a bond of $110,200 and released. Olsen's indictment marked the first time in six years that an officer was charged with murder in Georgia for shooting someone while on duty. An investigation by news outlets found that no officers had faced prosecution for shootings in Georgia in the previous five years—which saw 184 shootings by police. Unlike any other state in the US, Georgia allows officers (but not regular civilians) to be present during the entire grand jury hearing and to make a statement at the very end that is unchallenged by anyone. In anticipation of the announcement in late January, dozens of activists known as Rise Up Georgia camped outside the courthouse in tents, displaying hand-made signs in support of Hill for several days before the grand jury announced the indictment of Officer Olsen on all six counts; the group maintained a 24-hour operation in front of the courthouse by sleeping in shifts. A crowd of several dozen began cheering and chanting when the decision to indict was announced outside the courthouse. Groups involved in the demonstration included Rise Up Georgia, Black Lives Matter, Southerners On New Ground (SONG), and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. Olsen resigned from the DeKalb County Police Department on January 25, 2016. Until that time, this officer was still being paid by DeKalb County. Trial and sentencing Olsen pleaded not guilty on June 6, 2016. The Georgia Supreme Court ruled October 16, 2017 that the prosecution can resume after a year on hold. Olsen and his attorney had argued that the Grand Jury process was compromised, and the indictment should be thrown out, but their motion was denied. Jury selection began Monday, September 23, 2019 at the DeKalb County Courthouse. Superior Court Judge LaTisha Dear Jackson presides over the trial proceedings. Three previously assigned judges had recused themselves from the case, which undoubtedly contributed to the delay in setting a trial date. The jury was seated on the morning of Thursday, September 26, with opening statements being delivered, as well as the testimony of three state witnesses. On October 14, 2019, Olsen was convicted by a jury of one count of aggravated assault, two counts of violating his oath of office and one count of making a false statement. The jury was composed of seven women and five men, with a racial composition of five black people, five white people, one Asian person and one Hispanic person. The jury was divided 9 to 3 in favor of conviction on felony murder but to avoid deadlocking they acquitted him of felony murder and convicted him on the remaining charges. The prosecution argued for a 25-year prison sentence followed by five years probation. Olsen was sentenced on November 1, 2019 to 12 years in prison, followed by eight years of probation by DeKalb County Superior Court Judge LaTisha Dear Jackson. Olsen is also banned for life from working in law enforcement, prohibited from possessing firearms, and prohibited from profiting from the case. References 1988 births 2015 deaths 2015 controversies in the United States Deaths by firearm in Georgia (U.S. state) Deaths by person in the United States Black Lives Matter Law enforcement controversies in the United States March 2015 crimes in the United States March 2015 events in the United States Law enforcement in Georgia (U.S. state) Chamblee, Georgia

49213084

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killing%20of%20Charley%20Leundeu%20Keunang

Killing of Charley Leundeu Keunang

The killing of Charley Leundeu Keunang, a 43-year-old Cameroonian national, occurred in Los Angeles, California, on March 1, 2015. He was shot by three Los Angeles Police Department officers. On December 1, 2016, the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office announced that no criminal charges would be filed against the officers who shot Keunang, and that they considered it an act of self-defense. Later on May 10, 2018, the Superior Court of California ruled that an officer used an unreasonable amount of force against Keunang and the case was settled with paying his family $1.95 million by the city. Shooting Charley Leundeu Keunang went by the names of "Africa", "Cameroon", or "Charley Saturmin Robinet" (using a stolen ID). He was ordered by police to come out of his tent in Skid Row after fighting with someone inside the tent. A caller to 911 reported that a robbery had occurred in the area. The caller told the arriving officers that Keunang had also threatened them with a baseball bat. The officers stated that Keunang became aggressive and ignored commands. After he refused the police order, he went inside his tent and officers pulled the tent open and a physical altercation ensued with several police officers, during which three officers shot Keunang, resulting in his death. According to National Public Radio, police claimed Keunang had gotten hold of one of the officers' guns during the struggle. At least two videos captured the incident. Aftermath Following Keunang's death, a protest was held locally in Los Angeles. The protesters organised using the hashtag #BlackLivesMatter. Fourteen people were arrested in the course of the protest. Legal proceedings The shooting was reviewed by the district attorney's office, the Police Commission and its independent inspector general. In February 2016, the Los Angeles Police Commission, the civilian panel that oversees the department, ruled that the shooting did not violate their policy on the use of deadly force, as Keunang had reached for an officer's weapon. The incident resulted in improvements in the training of officers as to how to better handle incidents involving people with mental health issues. On December 1, 2016, the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office announced that they would not file criminal charges against the officers who shot Keunang (Francisco Martinez, Daniel Torres, and Chand Syed). Prosecutors stated that the officers acted in self-defense. On August 5, 2015, Keunang's parents and sister had filed a lawsuit against the city and Police Chief Charlie Beck. On May 10, 2018, the federal jury of seven women and one man found that Francisco Martinez used an unreasonable amount of force against Keunang. They also found that Sgt. Chand Syed breached his duty to intervene. Lawyers for both sides agreed on a settlement in which the city would pay the man's family $1.95 million, according to Joshua Piovia-Scott, an attorney representing the family. It was believed that the videos captured by the officers' body cameras, which were kept secret for years, were crucial for winning this case. According to the law firm representing Keunang's family in the lawsuit, the footage showed officers had the opportunity to deescalate the situation but instead became more aggressive to Keunang and was threatened, punched, tased and finally shot Keunang 5 times. It was argued that the officers' actions escalated this situation and caused it to spiral out of control. See also Black Lives Matter References 2015 deaths 2015 in California Black Lives Matter Deaths by firearm in California Filmed killings by law enforcement History of Los Angeles Law enforcement in California African people shot dead by law enforcement officers in the United States Protests in the United States Los Angeles Police Department

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killing%20of%20Pro-Biafra%20Protesters%20%282015%E2%80%932016%29

Killing of Pro-Biafra Protesters (2015–2016)

The 2015–2016 Killing of Biafran Protesters refers to the killing of demonstrators demanding the restoration of the sovereignty of the Republic of Biafra by Nigerian security forces, especially the Nigerian army, across the southeastern parts of Nigeria. The demonstrations are spearheaded by several secessionist groups. In addition, residents of the above-mentioned region have often been subjected to conditions synonymous with those obtainable in a Police State. The South-East Based Coalition of Human Rights Organizations (SBCHROs) estimates that about 80 members of the pro-Biafra group the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) and their supporters have been killed by Nigerian security operatives under the directive of the Nigerian government between August 30, 2015 and February 9, 2016. The most notable incidents were the protests that took place in Onitsha on December 2, 2015 where about 11 people reportedly lost their lives, including 2 policemen and 9 activists; and in Aba on February 9, 2016 where six members of the secessionist group Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) were allegedly killed by Nigerian security forces and about 20 others arrested. Also, the Indigenous People of Biafra claimed that Nigerian soldiers clandestinely killed and burned the corpses of Biafran activists in a separate incident in Aba. In addition to the killings, members of the Igbo ethnic group, who are at the forefront of the secessionist agitations, have been subjected to abuse, intimidation and harassment by Nigerian security operatives. On December 23, 2015, many Igbos returning home for Christmas celebrations from the western part of the country were detained and molested on the Onitsha Niger River Bridge for several hours by soldiers conducting stop and search operations. The gridlock occasioned by this lasted for up to twelve hours with many commuters spending the night on both ends of the bridge. The Nigerian military and Federal Government have strenuously denied engaging in any of these acts. On 24 November 2016, Amnesty International accused Nigerian security forces of killing at least 150 Biafra's secession peaceful advocates. The rights group also said Nigerian military fired live ammunition, with little or no warning, to disperse members of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) group between August 2015 and August 2016. But the military and police dismissed the allegations and say it was aimed to tarnish the security forces reputation. Biafra Day Demonstrations The May 30, 2016 Biafra Day Demonstrations – a series of protests that commemorate the 1967 declaration of the independence of the Biafran region from Nigeria – turned bloody in several cities across southeastern Nigeria as Nigerian security forces clashed with pro-Biafra groups. The local media, citing eye witness reports, claimed that 40 people were killed, while over 50 pro-Biafra members were arrested in the commercial city of Onitsha during the protests. . The incident, according to one of the eyewitnesses, began at about 3 a.m. when security forces invaded the premises of a Catholic church in Nkpor Agu, near Onitsha, where pro-Biafrans were camped and allegedly opened fire. Five civilians were estimated to have been killed, while ten others were injured. 35 more deaths were recorded following further swoops on other members of the pro-Biafra group in the commercial city by security forces. Nnamdi kanu was also at national park, South Africa to mark the sit at home order, may 30th 2019. The International Society for Civil Liberties and the Rule of Law, a civil rights group, said its investigation revealed that security operatives shot, killed, picked corpses and buried the victims in unknown places. A statement released by the Nigerian Army claimed it attacked the activists "due to the widespread panic, tension and apprehension generated from the activities of the MASSOB and IPOB members." Domestic and International Reactions These killings and intimidation have largely gone unnoticed by the international media despite dominating headlines in the local media, while world leaders have remained mum to the plight of Biafrans. Thus far, few politicians have voiced their concerns about the killings. Former Deputy Leader of the British Labour Party, Harriet Harman, petitioned the British Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, Philip Hammond, for the release of the detained leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra Nnamdi Kanu, while Amnesty International claims to be working on "consistent" reports of the use of "excessive force" against protesters connected to the pro-Biafran movement. A report by Amnesty International also accuses the Nigerian military of killing at least 17 unarmed Biafran separatists in the city of Onitsha prior to a march on the 30th of May, 2016 commemorating the 49th anniversary of the initial secession of Biafra. The European Union through its High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Federica Mogherini had previously said it was in support of the peaceful conduct of a referendum on independence. Reacting to the Biafran Day killings, the Deputy President of the Nigerian Senate, Ike Ekweremadu, lamented that “in a democracy people should be entitled to speak their minds and to assemble under responsible circumstances." Responding to the agitations for the re-secession of Biafra occasioned by perceptions of marginalisation, a former Vice President of Nigeria, Atiku Abubakar, advocated for the restructuring of Nigeria to remove the impediments to the economic and political development of the country and put to bed cries of injustice. References 2015 in Nigeria 2016 in Nigeria Deaths in Nigeria

50496569

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killing%20of%20Alex%20Nieto

Killing of Alex Nieto

</noinclude> Alejandro "Alex" Nieto was a man who was shot and killed by four San Francisco Police Department officers on March 21, 2014, in the Bernal Heights neighborhood of San Francisco, California. Nieto was a bouncer at a local nightclub, and the shooting took place before he was to start work that evening. A gay couple called 911 when they saw him sitting on a bench and saw Nieto's taser. Nieto was wearing a taser, and the police officers alleged that Nieto pointed the taser at them. The responding police officers also said they believed that the taser was a firearm. The San Francisco County District Attorney's Office declined to file criminal charges against the four officers involved in the shooting. Nieto's family filed a federal civil rights lawsuit, alleging wrongful death. In March 2016, a jury cleared the four officers of all charges. Background Nieto, 28, was born on March 3, 1986, in the Bernal Heights neighborhood of San Francisco, California, to parents Refugio Nieto and Elvira Nieto (née Rodriguez), Mexican immigrants from the town of Tarimoro, Guanajuato. In 2007, Nieto obtained a California state license to work as a security guard. Nieto graduated from the community college, City College of San Francisco, with a concentration in criminal justice. During this time he held an internship at the City of San Francisco's juvenile probation department. Event Nieto worked as a bouncer at a local nightclub. Around 7:00 pm on the night of March 21, 2014, he was sitting on a bench of the hilltop park called "Bernal Heights Park", eating his dinner, a burrito, before heading for work, he was wearing a red San Francisco 49ers jacket, black 49ers cap, white t-shirt, and black pants. Under his 49ers jacket, he wore a holstered taser that he used for his job as a bouncer. A local resident named Evan Snow was walking his dog near Nieto. Snow's dog Luna was unleashed, barking and chased Nieto up onto a bench trying to get at his food. Nieto and Snow conversed briefly and went their separate ways. Snow allegedly used racial slurs and texted a friend that "in another state like Florida, I would have been justified in shooting Mr. Nieto that night." Tim Isgitt and partner Justin Fritz were walking their dog shortly thereafter. Noting a rattled Nieto who had his hand on a handgun, Fritz called 911, reporting a man with a handgun wearing a red jacket. One witness who did see Nieto shortly after Isgitt and Fritz, longtime Bernal Heights resident Robin Bullard who was walking his own dog in the park, testified that there was nothing alarming about him. "He was just sitting there," Bullard said. Police Lieutenant Jason Sawyer and Officer Richard Schiff responded to the call and confronted Nieto as he was walking on a path in the same park. They testified that he pointed the taser at them when asked to show his hands, prompting them to open fire on Nieto. Officers Roger Morse and Nathan Chew provided backup, and later fired 14 rounds at Nieto, claiming they saw muzzle fire. According to a report by the city's District Attorney George Gascón, the officers fired a total of 59 shots: Schiff went through an entire magazine, shooting 23 bullets at Nieto while Sawyer fired 20 bullets, allegedly in response to Nieto pointing a taser, which they mistook for a pistol. Lawsuit Alex's parents retained the Law Offices of John Burris and filed a federal civil rights claim arguing the police wrongfully shot their son. The trial ended on March 10, 2016, and a jury unanimously cleared the four officers of all charges. It was found that the taser's clock, which showed that the weapon's trigger had been pulled. Nieto's prior issues with mental health were discussed, as toxicology reports found he was not on medication when he was killed. Also discussed were two separate incidents in 2011 when Nieto had contact with law enforcement and resulted in 72-hour mental health holds. The family argued that the police used excessive force and that there was contradictory evidence and details about what happened. Response Nieto's death and the verdict sparked waves of demonstrations and rallies in the Bay Area, protesting against police brutality and excessive use of force against minority groups amidst calls for SFPD Chief Greg Suhr's resignation. In March 2016, on the day before Nieto's trial started, San Francisco public school children staged a walk out from school in protest. The protests and the ensuing debate included calls for policing reforms and the threats faced by Latino communities increasingly displaced by gentrification in the city. After the publication of the verdict, the American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California published a piece pointing at racial bias within SFPD and calling for urgent policing reform. On April 21, 2016, five protesters started a 17-day hunger strike in San Francisco's Mission District to demonstrate against recent police killings, including Alex Nieto's death. On May 19, 2016, Police Chief Suhr resigned after an officer-involved killing of a 29-year-old woman. Jessica Williams was shot by San Francisco police in the Bayview-Hunters Point neighborhood during a car chase. See also Frisco Five History of the San Francisco Police Department List of killings by law enforcement officers in the United States, March 2014 Shooting of Andy Lopez Bernal Heights, San Francisco References External links Justice for Alex Nieto 2010s in San Francisco 2014 in San Francisco 2014 deaths Law enforcement in California Latino people shot dead by law enforcement officers in the United States Protests in the United States 1986 births San Francisco Police Department

51007268

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killing%20of%20Alton%20Sterling

Killing of Alton Sterling

On July 5, 2016, Alton Sterling, a 37-year-old black man, was shot and killed by two Baton Rouge Police Department officers in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. The officers, who were attempting to control Sterling's arms, shot Sterling while Sterling allegedly reached for the loaded handgun in his pants pocket. Police were responding to a report that Sterling was selling CDs and that he had used a gun to a man outside a convenience store. The owner of the store where the shooting occurred said that Sterling "not the one causing trouble" during the situation that led to the police being called. The shooting was recorded by multiple bystanders. The shooting led to protests in Baton Rouge and a request for a civil rights investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice. In May 2017 they decided not to file criminal charges against the police officers involved. In response, Louisiana's attorney general, Jeff Landry, said the state of Louisiana would open an investigation into the shooting once the Department of Justice released the physical evidence. In March 2018, Landry's office announced it would not bring charges against the officers stating that they acted in a "reasonable and justifiable manner". In February 2021 the East Baton Rouge Metro Council approved a $4.5 million settlement for the family of Alton Sterling to settle a wrongful death suit. The trial of the wrongful death suit was scheduled to begin March 1, 2021. The Council rejected a $5M settlement in November 2020. Participants Alton Sterling Alton Sterling (June 14, 1979 – July 5, 2016) was known locally in Baton Rouge as "CD Man". He had a criminal record that included violent offenses, and had been sentenced to serve 5 years following a 2009 incident that stated he had resisted arrest. He was a registered sex offender who was accused of having sex with and impregnating a 14 year old girl when he was 20 years old. At the time of the 2016 shooting, the arresting officers were not aware of Alton Sterling's prior record. During a struggle with the arresting officer in 2009, a "black semi auto gun fell from his waistband". The owner of the store where the shooting occurred said that Sterling had started carrying a gun a few days prior to the event as other CD vendors had been robbed recently. He also said that Sterling was "not the one causing trouble" during the situation that led to the police being called. Police The police officers involved in the shooting were Howie Lake II and Blane Salamoni. Lake had three years of law enforcement experience; Salamoni had four. Lake was subsequently placed on a department-mandated leave. He was also involved in a previous shooting of an African American male, where the fleeing suspect crashed his car into a house and then began firing at the six officers pursuing him. The police returned fire, injuring the man in the torso. Salamoni and Lake had both been previously investigated and cleared by their department for allegedly having used excessive force. Blane Salamoni, who fatally shot Sterling at the scene, was fired from the police department two years after the incident, in 2018. Shooting At 12:35 a.m., at 2112 North Foster Drive in the parking lot of Triple S Food Mart, Sterling was detained by Baton Rouge Police Department officers Blane Salamoni and Howie Lake. This came after an anonymous caller reported that a man was threatening him and waving a handgun while in the process of selling CDs. When Sterling refused to cooperate, the officers tasered Sterling for resisting several times, then forced Sterling to the hood of a sedan and then to the ground to subdue him. Sterling was pinned to the ground by both officers; one kneeling on his chest and the other on his thigh, both attempting unsuccessfully to control his arms. As Sterling's right hand remained free, Salamoni exclaimed, "He's going into his pockets! He's got a gun! Gun!" Lake, pointing his gun, yelled, "Hey bro, if you fucking move, I swear to God!" Then Salamoni was heard on the video saying, "Lake, he's going for the gun!" The camera caught Salamoni firing three shots, panning away while three more shots were fired before panning back to show Sterling's body sprawled out. Lake was not in the picture and Salamoni was about away, with his gun drawn and pointed at Sterling, who had a gunshot wound in his chest. Sterling was shot a total of six times all within close range. The officers retrieved a loaded .38 caliber revolver from Sterling's front pants pocket. The officers then radioed for Emergency Medical Services. According to Parish Coroner William Clark of East Baton Rouge, a preliminary autopsy, on July 5, indicated that Sterling had died from multiple gunshot wounds to his chest and back. Multiple bystanders' cell phones captured videos of the shooting as well as store surveillance cameras and officer body cameras. One of the bystander's videos was filmed by a group called "Stop the Killing", which listens to police scanners and films crimes in progress. They also listen to police interactions in an effort to reduce violence in the community. A second video was made available the day after the shooting by the store owner and eyewitness, who said in a statement to NBC News, "Sterling never wielded the gun or threatened the officers." In March 2018, the bodycam footage from the officer who shot him was released, revealing that, seconds after arriving to help the other officer already engaged in trying to detain Sterling, he pulled his gun and threatened to "shoot [Sterling] in the fucking head" if he moved. Aftermath and reactions On the night of July 5, more than 100 demonstrators in Baton Rouge shouted "no justice, no peace", set off fireworks, and blocked an intersection to protest Sterling's death. Flowers and messages were left at the place of his death. The police cleared a crowd of about 200 people as organizers announced they would regroup in front of City Hall. On July 6, Black Lives Matter held a candlelight vigil in Baton Rouge, with chants of "We love Baton Rouge", and calling for justice. Speaking shortly after the shootings of Sterling and Philando Castile, President Barack Obama did not comment on the specific incidents. Obama called upon the U.S. to "do better". He also said "Americans should feel outraged at episodes of police brutality since they're rooted in long-simmering racial discord." On July 7, a protest was held in Dallas, Texas, relating to this shooting of Sterling and Castile on July 6. At the end of the peaceful protest, Micah Xavier Johnson opened fire in an ambush, killing five police officers and wounding eleven others including two civilians. Johnson was then cornered in a defensible location in El Centro College Building B, and hours later, July 8, he was killed by a robot-delivered bomb. Also, on July 7, the FBI's New Orleans field office issued a warning about "threats to law enforcement and potential threats to the safety of the general public", stemming from the death of Sterling. Following the shootings of Sterling, Castile, and Dallas police officers, the Bahamian government issued a travel advisory. Bahamian citizens were told to use caution when traveling to the U.S. due to racial tensions. They specifically advised that young men use "extreme caution" when interacting with police, to be non-confrontational and cooperative. Similar advisories were issued by the governments of United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, days later. On July 8, the United Nations Working Group of Experts on People of African Descent issued a statement strongly condemning Sterling and Castile's killings. Human rights expert Ricardo A. Sunga III, the current Chair of the United Nations panel, stated that the killings demonstrate "a high level of structural and institutional racism". Adding that "The United States is far from recognizing the same rights for all its citizens. Existing measures to address racist crimes motivated by prejudice are insufficient and have failed to stop the killings." On July 9, a protest in Baton Rouge turned violent, with one police officer having several teeth knocked out and eight firearms (including three rifles, three shotguns, and two pistols) being confiscated. The New Black Panther Party members were also present. Police arrested 102 people. On July 10, between 30 and 40 people were also arrested including African-American Muslim activist Blair Imani. Professor Peniel E. Joseph, founding director of the Center for the Study of Race and Democracy at Tufts University, said that "the deaths of Alton Sterling and Philando Castile evoke the past spectacle of lynching and that for change to happen, Americans must confront the pain of black history". On July 11, a home in Baton Rouge was raided in connection with a pawn shop burglary in which seven or eight guns and ammunition were stolen. Three people were arrested during the raid, one of whom said the group was planning on using the stolen firearms to shoot police officers at protests. On July 13, local organizing groups and the American Civil Liberties Union's Louisiana branch, filed a lawsuit against the Baton Rouge Police Department for violating the First Amendment rights of demonstrators. They claim they were protesting peacefully against Sterling's death. On July 17, Gavin Eugene Long shot and killed three police officers and wounded nine others in Baton Rouge. Long was killed at the scene during a shootout with responding officers. The shooting has been linked to the nationwide tension over race and policing, with the event happening days after Sterling's death in the same city. Investigation Louisiana U.S. Representative Cedric Richmond said that the footage of Sterling's shooting is "deeply troubling" and called for a U.S. Department of Justice investigation into the man's death. Governor John Bel Edwards announced on July 6, that the Department of Justice would launch an investigation. The United States Department of Justice opened a civil rights investigation on July 7, 2016. On May 2, 2017, it was subsequently announced the department would not bring charges against the officers involved. After the Department of Justice announced that it would not charge the 2 officers, Louisiana attorney general Jeff Landry announced that the state of Louisiana would begin an investigation. In a statement, Landry wrote "The USDOJ’s review of this matter was to determine violations of federal law: specifically, federal civil rights laws. To date, this matter has not been investigated or reviewed for possible violations of the Louisiana Criminal Code. Therefore, this matter now needs to be investigated for possible state criminal violations." An autopsy report released in March 2018 indicated that Sterling had been shot six times, striking his heart, lung, esophagus and liver. The cause of death was ruled a homicide. The toxicology report showed that at the time the shooting, Sterling had drugs in his system. Landry said this affected Sterling’s behavior during the deadly encounter. On March 27, Landry's office announced it would not bring charges against the officers stating that they acted in a "reasonable and justifiable manner". On March 30, officer Salamoni was fired for violating use of force policies, and Lake was suspended for three days for losing his temper. In August 2019, Baton Rouge officials reached a settlement with Blane Salamoni, who appealed his termination. They agreed to overturn his firing and retroactively let him resign without any compensation or back pay. See also List of killings by law enforcement officers in the United States Shooting of Walter Scott Shooting of Michael Brown Shooting of Tamir Rice Shooting of Philando Castile Black Lives Matter References External links 2016 in Louisiana African-American history in Baton Rouge, Louisiana Black Lives Matter Deaths by firearm in Louisiana Filmed killings by law enforcement July 2016 events in the United States Law enforcement controversies in the United States Law enforcement in Louisiana African Americans shot dead by law enforcement officers in the United States African-American-related controversies 2016 controversies in the United States

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killing%20of%20Philando%20Castile

Killing of Philando Castile

On July 6, 2016, Philando Castile, a 32-year-old African American man, was fatally shot during a traffic stop by police officer Jeronimo Yanez of the St. Anthony police department in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul metropolitan area. Castile was driving with his girlfriend, Diamond Reynolds, and her four-year-old daughter when at 9:00p.m. he was pulled over by Yanez and another officer in Falcon Heights, a suburb of Saint Paul, Minnesota. After being asked for his license and registration, Castile told Officer Yanez that he had a firearm (Castile was licensed to carry), to which Yanez replied, "Don't reach for it then". Castile responded "I'm, I, I was reaching for...", to which Yanez replied "Don't pull it out". Castile then replied "I'm not pulling it out", and Reynolds said "He's not...". Yanez again repeated "Don't pull it out". Yanez then proceded to fire seven close-range shots at Castile, hitting him five times. Castile died of his wounds at 9:37p.m. at Hennepin County Medical Center, about 20 minutes after being shot. In the immediate aftermath of the shooting, Reynolds posted a live stream video on Facebook from her and Castile's car. The incident quickly gained international interest. Local and national protests formed, and five months after the incident, Yanez was charged with second-degree manslaughter and two counts of dangerous discharge of a firearm. After five days of deliberation, he was acquitted of all charges in a jury trial on June 16, 2017. After the verdict, Yanez was immediately fired by the City of Saint Anthony. Wrongful death lawsuits against the City brought by Reynolds and Castile's family were settled for a total of $. Persons involved Philando Castile Philando Divall Castile (July 16, 1983 – July 6, 2016) was 32 years old at the time of his death. He was born in St. Louis, Missouri. He graduated from Saint Paul Central High School in 2001 and worked for the Saint Paul Public School District from 2002 until his death. Castile began as a nutrition services assistant at Chelsea Heights Elementary School and Arlington High School (now Washington Technology Magnet School). He was promoted to nutrition services supervisor at J. J. Hill Montessori Magnet School, in August 2014. Prior to the shooting, Castile had been stopped by the police at least 49 times in 13 years for minor traffic and equipment violations, the majority of which were dismissed. Jeronimo Yanez Jeronimo Yanez was the officer who shot Castile. The other officer involved in the traffic stop was Joseph Kauser, who was described as Yanez's partner. Both officers had been with the St. Anthony Police Department for four years at the time of the shooting, and were longtime friends who had graduated together from the Minnesota State University, Mankato, police academy in 2010. Yanez, of South St. Paul and of Hispanic descent, was 28 years old at the time of the shooting. The St. Anthony Police Department had 23 officers at the time. Eight officers were funded through policing contracts with the cities of Lauderdale and Falcon Heights. In a press briefing at the scene, St. Anthony's interim police chief Jon Mangseth said that the shooting was the first officer-involved shooting that the department had experienced in at least thirty years. Incident Castile was pulled over as part of a traffic stop by Yanez and Kauser in Falcon Heights, Minnesota, a suburb of Saint Paul. Castile and Reynolds were returning from shopping at a grocery store; earlier that evening, Castile had gone for a haircut, eaten dinner with his sister, and picked up his girlfriend from his apartment in St. Paul. A St. Anthony police officer patrolling Larpenteur Avenue radioed to a nearby squad that he planned to pull over the car and check the IDs of the driver and passenger, saying, "The two occupants just look like people that were involved in a robbery. The driver looks more like one of our suspects, just because of the wide-set nose. I couldn't get a good look at the passenger." At 9:04 p.m. CDT, the officer told a nearby officer that he would wait for him to make the stop. The stop took place on Larpenteur Avenue at Fry Street, just outside the Minnesota state fairgrounds, at about 9:05 p.m. CDT. Riding in a white 1997 Oldsmobile Eighty Eight LS with Castile were his girlfriend Diamond Reynolds and her four-year-old daughter. Castile was the driver, Reynolds was the front-seat passenger, and the child was in the back seat. "According to investigators, Yanez approached the car from the driver's side, while Kauser approached it from the passenger side." The police dashcam video shows that 40 seconds elapsed between when Yanez first started talking to Castile through the car window and when Yanez began shooting at him. According to the dashcam, after Yanez asked for Castile's driver's license and proof of insurance, Castile gave him his proof of insurance card, which Yanez appeared to glance at and tuck in his outer pocket. Castile then calmly informed Yanez, "Sir, I have to tell you that I do have a firearm on me." Quoting the Star Tribune description of the next 13 seconds of the video: Before Castile completed the sentence, Yanez interrupted and calmly replied, "OK," and placed his right hand on the holster of his own holstered weapon. Yanez said, "Okay, don't reach for it, then ... don't pull it out." Castile responded, "I'm not pulling it out," and Reynolds also said, "He's not pulling it out." Yanez repeated, raising his voice, "Don't pull it out!" as he quickly pulled his own gun with his right hand and reached inside the driver's window with his left hand. Reynolds screamed, "No!" Yanez removed his left arm from the car and fired seven shots in the direction of Castile in rapid succession. Reynolds yelled, "You just killed my boyfriend!" Castile moaned and said, "I wasn't reaching for it." Reynolds loudly said, "He wasn't reaching for it." Before she completed her sentence, Yanez again screamed, "Don't pull it out!" Reynolds responded, "He wasn't." Yanez yelled, "Don't move! Fuck!" Of the seven shots fired by Yanez at point blank range, five hit Castile and two of those pierced his heart. Events immediately after the shooting were streamed live in a 10-minute video by Reynolds via Facebook. The recording appears to begin seconds after Castile was shot, just after 9:00 p.m. CDT. The video depicts Castile slumped over, moaning and moving slightly, with a bloodied left arm and side. In the video, Reynolds is speaking with Yanez and explaining what happened. Reynolds stated on the video that Yanez "asked him for license and registration. He told him that it was in his wallet, but he had a pistol on him because he's licensed to carry." Castile did have a license to carry a gun. Reynolds further narrated that the officer said, "Don't move" and as Castile was putting his hands back up, the officer shot him in the arm four or five times. Reynolds told the officer, "You shot four bullets into him, sir. He was just getting his license and registration, sir." Reynolds also said "Please don't tell me he's dead", while Yanez exclaimed: "I told him not to reach for it! I told him to get his hand open!" At one point in the video footage, an officer orders Reynolds to get on her knees and the sound of Reynolds being handcuffed can be heard. Reynolds' phone falls onto the ground but continues recording, and an officer periodically yells, "Fuck!" Video from the squad car of Joseph Kauser (where Reynolds and her daughter were put after Reynolds was handcuffed), shows Reynolds' daughter telling her, "Mom, please stop cussing and screaming 'cause I don't want you to get shooted". Reynolds was taken into custody, questioned at a police station, and released the following morning around 5:00 a.m. According to police and emergency audio of the aftermath obtained by the Star Tribune, at 9:06 p.m., Kauser called in the shooting, reporting: "Shots fired. Larpenteur and Fry." The dispatcher answered: "Copy. You just heard it?" Yanez then screamed: "Code three!" Many officers then rushed to the scene. One officer reports, "One adult female being taken into custody. Driver at gunpoint. Juvenile female, child, is with [another officer]. We need a couple other squads to block off intersections." Another officer called in, "All officers are good. One suspect that needs medics." The day following the shooting, Reynolds said that police had "treated me like a criminal ... like it was my fault." She also said that officers had failed to check Castile for a pulse or to see if he was breathing for several minutes after the shooting, and instead comforted the officer who had fired the shots. By that afternoon, her video had been viewed nearly 2.5 million times on Facebook. Yanez statements In the dashcam video of the incident, Yanez can be heard being questioned by St. Anthony Police Officer Tressa Sunde within minutes of the shooting, and telling her: [Castile] was sitting in the car, seat belted. I told him, 'Can I see your license?' And then, he told me he had a firearm. I told him not to reach for it and (sigh) when he went down to grab, I told him not to reach for it (clears throat) and then he kept it right there, and I told him to take his hands off of it, and then he (sigh) he had his, his grip a lot wider than a wallet .... And I don't know where the gun was, he didn't tell me where the fucking gun was, and then it was just getting hinky, he gave, he was just staring ahead, and then I was getting fucking nervous, and then I told him, I know I fucking told him to get his fucking hand off his gun.According to the official Minnesota Department of Public Safety's Bureau of Criminal Apprehension (BCA) transcript of the interview of Yanez and his attorneys Tom Kelly and Robert Fowler, Yanez stated that his justification for the shooting was based on fear for his own life because he believed that Castile's behavior was abusive toward a young girl passenger (Reynolds' daughter) in the car. Yanez said: "I thought, I was gonna die, and I thought if he's, if he has the, the guts and the audacity to smoke marijuana in front of the five-year-old girl and risk her lungs and risk her life by giving her secondhand smoke and the front seat passenger doing the same thing, then what, what care does he give about me?" The victim's previous marijuana use later became a focus of the defense, with a mason jar containing a small amount having been found in the car. According to the local publication City Pages''' description of the BCA conversation, Yanez "could never state definitively ... that he saw a firearm that day". Yanez uses "various terms to suggest the presence of a firearm". Yanez states, "it appeared to me that he was wrapping something around his fingers and almost like if I were to put my hand around my gun. It was dark inside the vehicle ..." At another point "it seemed like he was pulling out a gun and the barrel just kept coming." "I know he had an object and it was dark. And he was pulling it out with his right hand." He added: "It was, to me, it just looked big and apparent that he's gonna shoot you, he's gonna kill you." In his court testimony almost a year later, Yanez was more definitive, testifying "I was able to see the firearm in Mr. Castile's hand, and that's when I engaged him." The gun was found to be in Castile's pocket when paramedics were preparing to load his fatally wounded body into an ambulance. Death and funeral The Hennepin County Medical Examiner's office ruled Castile's death a homicide and said that he had sustained multiple gunshot wounds. The office reported that Castile died at 9:37 p.m. CDT in the emergency department of the Hennepin County Medical Center, about 20 minutes after being shot. On July 14, a funeral service for Castile took place at the Cathedral of Saint Paul, attended by thousands of mourners. Reactions Statements of attorneys for Yanez and Castile family The reasonableness of the initial traffic stop, and the facts of what occurred in the 103 seconds of the stop (between the end of the pre-stop police dispatcher radio and the beginning of Reynolds' recording) were "hotly disputed" almost immediately after the shooting occurred. On July 9, Yanez's attorney, Thomas Kelly of Minneapolis, said his client "reacted to the presence of that gun and the display of that gun" and that the shooting "had nothing to do with race. This had everything to do with the presence of a gun." In the video recorded shortly after the shooting, Reynolds said that the car was pulled over for a broken taillight. Yanez's attorney Kelly stated following the shooting that his client stopped Castile in part because he resembled a suspect in an armed robbery that had taken place nearby four days earlier, and in part because of a broken taillight. A Castile family attorney, Albert Goins, questioned this account, said that if Yanez actually thought Castile was a robbery suspect, the police would have made a "felony traffic stop" (involving "bringing the suspect out at gunpoint while officers are in a position of cover and having them lie on the ground until they can identify who that individual is") rather than an ordinary traffic stop (in which officers stop the car and ask the driver to produce documents). Goins said, "Either [Castile] was a robbery suspect and [Yanez] didn't follow the procedures for a felony stop, or [Castile] was not a robbery suspect and [Yanez] shot a man because he stood at his window getting his information." Kelly confirmed the authenticity of the pre-stop police audio, in which one officer reports that the driver resembled a recent robbery suspect due to his "wide-set nose." Goins said, "I can't imagine that it's reasonable suspicion to make a stop because somebody had a broad nose." The particular robbery to which the officer referred was identified as a July 2 armed robbery at a local convenience store, in which the two suspects were "described as black men with shoulder-length or longer dreadlocks" with no information about estimated height, weight or ages. Yanez was one of the police officers who had responded to the robbery. Subsequent investigations ruled out Castile as being one of the armed robbers. Castile's mother Valerie Castile and her lawyer Glenda Hatchett called for the case to be referred to a special prosecutor and called for the U.S. Department of Justice to conduct a federal investigation. Protests and civil unrest By 12:30 a.m. on July 7, about three hours after the shooting, protesters gathered at the scene, "peaceful but visibly angry". More than 200 people were present. After news of Castile's death spread, crowds of protestors gathered outside the Minnesota Governor's Residence in St. Paul, chanting Castile's name and demanding that then-Governor Mark Dayton make a statement. That night, demonstrations in St. Paul continued, remaining "peaceful but forceful". Nekima Levy-Pounds, president of the Minneapolis chapter of the NAACP, said that her group would request a federal investigation. She also called for an independent body to investigate the shooting, expressing skepticism with the state agency that is leading the investigation of the incident, the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, a division of the Department of Public Safety. NAACP president Cornell William Brooks said, "I'm waiting to hear the human outcry from Second Amendment defenders over [this incident]..." Black Lives Matter activist DeRay Mckesson said, "Philando Castile should be alive today". On July 8, over 1,000 demonstrators shut down Interstate 880 in Oakland, California, for several hours to protest Castile's shooting death and that of Alton Sterling the day before. After two days of peaceful protests and vigils, violence between protesters and police in St. Paul broke out on July 9 and 10. Some 102 people were arrested and 21 officers (15 police officers and six Minnesota State Patrol officers) had been injured, one of them seriously. A group threw rocks, bottles, and Molotov cocktails at police and police used pepper spray and tear gas to disperse the crowd. The protesters caused Interstate 94 in between Minnesota State Highway 280 and downtown St. Paul to be closed. After they were dispersed from the highway, another group of protests took place at Dale and Grand Avenue. The violence was condemned by President Obama, Governor Dayton, St. Paul Mayor Chris Coleman, and Police Chief Todd Axtell, who called for calm. After the shooting, a number of activists established an encampment outside of the Governor's Residence. On July 18, demonstrators cleared the encampment and moved off the road after police directed them to move, saying that they could continue to protest "as long as it was done on the sidewalk" and did not impede vehicle or pedestrian traffic. The interactions between police and demonstrators were peaceful, and no arrests were made. On July 19, 21 protesters—mostly members of the St. Paul and Minneapolis teachers' federations—were arrested willingly at a protest in Minneapolis after blocking a street in Minneapolis and refusing orders to disperse. The teachers marched from the Minneapolis Convention Center (where an American Federation of Teachers convention was being held) to the Nicollet Mall area; they were cited for misdemeanor public nuisance and released. Government officials Later in the morning of July 7, Governor Dayton appeared outside his residence and said: Dayton said he had requested an independent U.S. Department of Justice investigation and had spoken to White House Chief of Staff Denis McDonough about the matter. Dayton also commented, "Would this have happened if those passengers would have been white? I don't think it would have." He promised to "do everything in my power to help protect the integrity" of the ongoing parallel state investigation "to ensure a proper and just outcome for all involved." U.S. Representative Betty McCollum, Democrat of Minnesota, whose district includes the place where Castile was shot, also called for a Justice Department investigation, and U.S. Senator Al Franken, Democrat of Minnesota, also called for a federal investigation, saying in a statement: "I am horrified that we are forced to confront yet another death of a young African-American man at the hands of law enforcement. And I am heartbroken for Philando's family and loved ones, whose son, brother, boyfriend, and nephew was taken from them last night." Former U.S. Representative Keith Ellison, current A.G. of Minnesota, denounced the "systematic targeting of African Americans and a systematic lack of accountability." Speaking shortly after the shootings of Castile and Alton Sterling, President Barack Obama did not comment on the specific incidents, but called on the U.S. to "do better" and said that controversial incidents arising from the police use of force were "not isolated incidents" but rather were "symptomatic of a broader set of racial disparities that exist in our criminal justice system". Obama expressed "extraordinary appreciation and respect for the vast majority of police officers" and noted the difficult nature of the job. He stated, "When incidents like this occur, there's a big chunk of our citizenry that feels as if, because of the color of their skin, they are not being treated the same, and that hurts, and that should trouble all of us. This is not just a black issue, not just a Hispanic issue. This is an American issue that we all should care about." Obama telephoned Castile's mother to offer his condolences. International response Following the shooting of Castile, Sterling, and police officers in Dallas, the Bahamian government, a Caribbean island nation with an over 90% citizenry of Afro-Bahamian origin, issued a travel advisory to its citizens in the United States, stating "[i]n particular young [Bahamian] males are asked to exercise extreme caution in affected cities in their interactions with the police. Do not be confrontational and cooperate". Travel advisories were also issued by the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, warning for caution in the United States due to ongoing violence and the U.S. "gun culture", and to avoid crowded areas, protests, and demonstrations as "civil disorder can result". National Rifle Association vs. The Second Amendment Foundation The NRA, which lobbies for the rights of gun owners, issued a statement two days after the shooting saying: "The reports from Minnesota are troubling and must be thoroughly investigated. In the meantime, it is important for the NRA not to comment while the investigation is ongoing." By contrast, the NRA issued a statement within hours of the 2016 shooting of Dallas police officers; many saw this as a double standard. On July 9, 2017, responding to allegations of racism, NRA spokesperson Dana Loesch said the death of Castile is "absolutely awful". On August 10, 2017, Loesch explained NRA's reluctance to defend Castile by arguing he was not legally carrying his handgun at the time of the shooting due to his marijuana possession. She added that his "Permit should've been out & hands not moving", and that the law enforcement officer should have asked Castile where his firearm was kept. Many NRA members believed that the NRA did not do enough to defend Castile's right to own a gun. The Second Amendment Foundation in contrast immediately issued a strong statement for an independent investigation after the shooting, with founder Alan Gottlieb stating, "Exercising our right to bear arms should not translate to a death sentence over something so trivial as a traffic stop for a broken tail light, and we are going to watch this case with a magnifying glass." Investigation and prosecution Official investigation The day after the fatal shooting, the St. Anthony Police Department identified the officer who fired the fatal shots as Yanez. He and his partner Kauser were placed on paid administrative leave. The Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension (BCA) was the lead agency in charge of the investigation. Two days following the shooting, Ramsey County Attorney John Choi called for a "prompt and thorough" investigation into the shooting. He said that he had not determined whether he would use a grand jury, but stated that if either a grand jury or prosecutors in his office determined that charges were appropriate, he would "prosecute this case to the fullest extent of the law." The BCA said that squad-car video and "several" other videos had been collected as evidence. St. Anthony police did not wear body cameras. On September 28, 2016, the BCA announced that it had completed its investigation and turned over its findings to Ramsey County Attorney John Choi. Prosecutors in the Ramsey County Attorney's Office would decide whether to file charges in the shooting or bring the case to a grand jury. Charges and prosecution Choi reviewed the evidence with assistance from the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the U.S. Attorney's office, a retired deputy chief of police in Irvine, California, and a former federal prosecutor. Seven weeks after receiving the BCA report, Choi announced that Yanez was being charged with second degree manslaughter and two counts of dangerous discharge of a firearm. Choi stated: To justify the use of deadly force, it is not enough, however, for the police officer to merely express a subjective fear of death or great bodily harm. Unreasonable fear cannot justify the use of deadly force. The use of deadly force must be objectively reasonable and necessary, given the totality of the circumstances. Based upon our thorough and exhaustive review of the facts of this case, it is my conclusion that the use of deadly force by Officer Yanez was not justified, and that sufficient facts exist to prove that to be true. Accordingly, we filed a criminal complaint this morning in Ramsey County.In his press conference announcing his decision to prosecute Yanez, Choi noted facts not consistent with a justified fear of Castile, namely that Yanez's partner, Officer Kauser, who was standing at the car's passenger window during the shooting, "did not touch or remove his gun from its holster", and that in his answers to questioning by Saint Anthony Police Officer Tressa Sunde immediately after the shooting, Yanez "stated he did not know where [Castile's] gun was". Choi also noted that: "Philando Castile was not resisting or fleeing." "There was absolutely no criminal intent exhibited by him throughout this encounter." "He was respectful and compliant based upon the instructions and orders he was given." "He volunteered in good faith that he had a firearm – beyond what the law requires." "He emphatically stated that he wasn't pulling it out." "His movement was restricted by his own seat belt." "He was accompanied, in his vehicle, by a woman and a young child." "Philando Castile did not exhibit any intent, nor did he have any reason, to shoot Officer Yanez." "In fact, his dying words were in protest that he wasn't reaching for his gun." According to author and former FBI agent Larry Brubaker, who has written two books on officer-involved shootings, "this is the first time an officer has been charged for a fatal shooting in Minnesota in more than 200 cases that spanned over three decades". Trial and verdict The trial of Yanez began May 30, 2017, under Judge William H. Leary III. Yanez would have faced up to 10 years under Minnesota law if he had been convicted. After five days and more than 25 hours of deliberation, the 12-member jury decided that the state had not met its burden for a conviction. The vote was initially 10–2 in favor of acquitting Yanez; after further deliberation the two remaining jurors were also swayed to acquit. The jury consisted of seven men and five women. Two jurors were black. Following the acquittal, a jury member told the press that the specific wording of the law regarding culpable negligence was the main factor among many leading to the verdict. One juror who later spoke anonymously said: Aftermath of verdict The day the verdict was announced, the city of St. Anthony announced that "the public will be best served if Officer Yanez is no longer a police officer in our city", and that he would not be returning to the police department from leave after the trial. As revealed by the Associated Press a few weeks later, Yanez received $48,500 as part of his separation agreement with the city, in addition to payment for unused compensatory time. Some 2,000 protesters marched in the streets, eventually blocking Interstate 94, where 18 people were arrested, including at least one reporter. Members of the Castile family, who had worked closely with authorities throughout the trial, expressed shock and outrage at the verdict, and a loss of faith in the system. Although they had earlier discussed a federal civil rights lawsuit, on June 26, 2017, the family released a joint statement with the city of St. Anthony announcing a settlement worth $2.995 million. On June 20, 2017, dashcam footage seen by investigators and members of the courtroom during the trial was released to public. On June 21, 2017, Ramsey County released additional evidence, including footage taken inside Yanez's squad car which shows Diamond Reynolds' daughter comforting her mother after the shooting. In mid-2017, the Saint Anthony city council adjusted the city's police contract so that financial liability falls to its served communities, rather than Saint Anthony itself. With this increase in cost, Falcon Heights voted to end the contract and find a new police provider. The Ramsey County Sheriff was to police Falcon Heights in 2018. The 2017 Falcon Heights city council election centered on how the city should be policed. Legacy In honor of Castile, the Philando Castile Memorial Scholarship has been started at St. Paul Central High School. The inaugural $5,000 award was given to Marques Watson in 2017. Castile, a school cafeteria worker, frequently paid for lunches for students who owed money or could not afford to pay. Inspired by this example, the Philando Castile Relief Foundation was created. The charity focuses on paying school lunch debts and addressing gun violence in the Minneapolis area. The charity's money comes in part from a civil settlement between Castile's family and the city of St. Anthony. In April, 2019 the foundation gave $8,000 to wipe out the accumulated lunch debt of all seniors at Robbinsdale Cooper High School in New Hope, Minn. The debt was threatening the ability of students to graduate. The foundation earlier gave $10,000 for school lunches to the J.J. Hill Montessori Magnet School where Philando Castile worked. Valerie Castile spoke at U.S. House Representative Ilhan Omar's press conference on a bill ending the shaming of students who pay meal debt. In 2017 New Zealand-born artist Luke Willis Thompson filmed Reynolds for an artwork titled Autoportrait''. He intended the work as a 'sister-image' to her filmed footage. The work was first presented at Chisenhale Gallery in London in 2017. See also George Floyd protests in Minneapolis–Saint Paul List of killings by law enforcement officers in Minnesota List of killings by law enforcement officers in the United States Shooting of Breonna Taylor Shooting of Justine Damond Shooting of Walter Scott Shooting of Michael Brown Shooting of Tamir Rice Killing of Eric Garner Murder of Laquan McDonald Murder of George Floyd Killing of Rayshard Brooks Black Lives Matter Weapons effect Notes References External links Complaint Copy of criminal complaint against Jeronimo Yanez from the website of the Ramsey County Attorney File-stamped copy of criminal complaint against Jeronimo Yanez from the website of the St. Paul Pioneer Press Diamond Reynolds' video NPR article containing full embedded Facebook video of immediate aftermath of shooting Transcript of the full video – provided by Minnesota Public Radio Dashcam Video Squad dashcam video – Yanez case Other links President Obama on the fatal shootings of Alton Sterling and Philando Castile – video provided by the White House News and Updates from the office of the Ramsey County Attorney Central Honors Philando website, with information about the Philando Castile Memorial Scholarship 2016 controversies in the United States 2016 in Minnesota 2020–2021 Minneapolis–Saint Paul racial unrest African-American history of Minnesota African-American-related controversies Black Lives Matter Criminal trials that ended in acquittal Deaths by firearm in Minnesota Filmed killings by law enforcement July 2016 events in the United States Law enforcement controversies in the United States Law enforcement in Minnesota Ramsey County, Minnesota History of racism in Minnesota African Americans shot dead by law enforcement officers in the United States

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killing%20of%20Henryk%20Siwiak

Killing of Henryk Siwiak

Shortly before midnight on September 11, 2001, Henryk Siwiak (1955–2001), a Polish immigrant, was fatally shot on a street in the Bedford–Stuyvesant neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York, where he had mistakenly gone in order to start a new job. He was able to make it to the door of a nearby house before he collapsed. The homicide remains unsolved; Siwiak has been described as "the last person killed in New York on 9/11", although his death was unrelated to the terror attacks earlier that day. The initial investigation into the crime may have been hampered, police believe, by the diversion of law enforcement resources in the city in the wake of that day's terrorist attacks, which ultimately killed almost 3,000 people. Since Siwiak was not robbed, wore camouflage clothing and spoke poor English with a heavy accent, detectives have speculated that his killer may have thought he had something to do with the attacks. Siwiak's homicide is the only one recorded in New York City on September 11, 2001, since the city does not include the deaths from the attacks in its official crime statistics. Background A native of Kraków, Henryk Siwiak had worked as an inspector for the Polish State Railways and its successor private entities. He was married to Ewa Siwiak and had two children, 17-year-old Gabriela and 10-year-old Adam. After he was laid off around 2000, Siwiak went to New York City to visit his sister Lucyna, who had been living in Far Rockaway, Queens, for six years. Despite lacking a work permit, he decided to stay and do what work he could, sending several hundred dollars back to his family in Poland every few months to supplement her earnings as a high school biology teacher. Siwiak hoped that eventually he could return and build a new house. While Siwiak was able to work, he struggled to learn English. He took classes and watched television with his sister, but improved only slowly. That, Lucyna warned him, could put him at risk in New York. "We told him [the city] was a dangerous place", she recalled later to the Associated Press. "But he didn't believe it", perhaps, she said, because he liked living there so much. Throughout most of 2001, Siwiak had been working at a construction site in Lower Manhattan. On the morning of September 11, following the attacks, the job site closed down as that part of the city was evacuated. Siwiak could not afford to wait until work resumed, so after walking across the Brooklyn Bridge, he took the subway back to his sister's home. After looking through the classified ads in the Polish-language newspaper Nowy Dziennik, he found one with a cleaning service at a Pathmark supermarket in the Farragut section of Brooklyn. To fill out the paperwork, he went to an employment agency in Bay Ridge that served the city's Polish community. At the employment agency, Siwiak comforted the owner, whose husband worked at the World Trade Center and had not contacted her since that morning (she later learned her husband had indeed died in the attack). He learned he could start late that night, and returned to Far Rockaway. There he called his wife, Ewa, in Poland to tell her he was safe; he had witnessed one of the planes hitting the World Trade Center. "I told him just in case: don't leave tonight, because it can be dangerous in New York", she recalled later. Homicide Siwiak had never been to the Farragut neighborhood where the Pathmark supermarket was located, so he and his landlady looked over a subway map and decided he should take the A train to the Utica Avenue station, near the north end of Albany Avenue, the street on which the Pathmark is located. However, the landlady did not ask Siwiak for the store's address, so she did not realize that it was actually located three miles () to the south. Since Siwiak did not know the man from the service he was supposed to meet, he told the agency how he would be dressed. Before leaving, he put on a jacket in a camouflage pattern, with matching pants and black boots. He also carried a backpack with different pants and sneakers to change into once he got to the Pathmark. Before leaving, Siwiak's landlady pleaded with him to reconsider going there, as in her opinion it was a dangerous neighborhood no one should go to at night without a good reason and especially on that night in particular, with the city's population anxious in the wake of the day's events. She was unable to deter him. Around 11 p.m., Siwiak got off the subway and exited. He began to walk west along Fulton Street toward Albany Avenue, several blocks away. A witness later recalled passing him as he did so. At the Albany intersection, Siwiak turned right, heading north, instead of south as his directions said. That area of the Bedford–Stuyvesant neighborhood had long been seen by residents and the New York City Police Department (NYPD) as one of the city's most dangerous. All the NYPD's available officers were on duty that night, most already on overtime; some had even returned from distant vacations. Many were needed to provide increased security in the neighborhoods close to Ground Zero or possible targets for a feared follow-up attack; police officials feared that criminals elsewhere in the city would use that distraction to their advantage. One exception to this was the northernmost block of Albany Avenue. "I don't know if the World Trade Center falling down really affects the drug trade [there]", Michael Prate, the NYPD cold case detective in charge of the investigation, told The New York Times a decade later. Police believe Siwiak may have interacted with some of the individuals present on Albany at that time. At roughly 11:40 p.m., residents said later, they heard an argument, followed by gunshots. A woman living on nearby Decatur Street, who was taking care of her sick mother, said she heard the argument but was too afraid to look out the window. Siwiak, shot once in the lung, left a trail of blood that showed him staggering from where he was shot, near the north end of Albany, to the stoop of a rowhouse at 119 Decatur, where he rang the doorbell in search of help. A resident of that building told police that she had heard the doorbell, but like her neighbor, she was too fearful to answer the door in the wake of the gunfire that had preceded it. Siwiak went back down the stoop and collapsed facedown into the street. At 11:42 p.m., a call was made to 9-1-1, and what police and ambulance services could respond came within minutes. Siwiak was pronounced dead at the scene. Investigation The NYPD could not bring its full investigative resources to the crime scene since so many other officers were needed elsewhere due to the attacks. Normally, in the case of a homicide, its Crime Scene Unit would secure the area and collect forensic evidence, but its members were not available. Instead an evidence-collection unit, normally used only on nonviolent property crimes such as burglaries, performed those tasks. And where as many as nine detectives might canvass the neighborhood, talking to potential witnesses and looking for evidence away from the scene, the NYPD could only spare three at most. "[Siwiak] wasn't afforded the initial experts in processing the homicide scene", Prate said in 2011. While he hoped the investigators who were able to respond collected all the evidence they could, he could not be sure they had either. "The Police Department gave that investigation what it could do that day." The evidence-collection technicians were able to retrieve spent shell casings from the .40-caliber handgun that was fired at Siwiak. The shooter had fired seven times but hit him only once. In Siwiak's wallet was $75 in cash, suggesting that robbery had not been the motive, or that it had been botched if it was. Lucyna Siwiak believes the killer may have thought her brother was a terrorist. His camouflage outfit made him appear military; the first police officers to respond to the scene thought he might have been one of the many National Guardsmen deployed to the city in the wake of the attacks. That, combined with his dark hair and imperfect, heavily accented English, may have led people to believe he was Arab. "I think maybe it was a mistake", she said later. "There were many angry people." While Prate allowed in his 2011 interview that that might have been possible, the NYPD has not classified the homicide as a hate crime since so little is known about it. "The problem was that there were no witnesses on that corner", another officer said early in 2002. "We haven't heard anything like that from any people in the community; nobody has indicated that to us", Prate told WNYC a decade later. "There is [sic] no significant targets that a terrorist would target here." Prate does believe that Siwiak's poor English could have led to his death. He likely would not have understood what was happening if someone attempted to rob him. Prate continued to investigate the crime, which is now considered a cold case, until his retirement in 2011. He talked to suspects arrested for other crimes in the area; none of them have provided any information. No new witnesses have come forward. A $12,000 reward has been offered. In 2018, Prate told ABC News that a botched robbery was still his theory for the most likely cause of the homicide. Siwiak's murder received little of the media attention that might have led witnesses to come forward because of the attacks and their aftermath; what coverage there was came at least a month later. Neither Siwiak's sister nor his widow believe the case will ever be solved. "I'm afraid this is forever", Ewa Siwiak told the Times in 2011. "I think the police have many, many cases and maybe they'll never call me", Lucyna said a few months later. She still attends the annual memorial services every September 11 at St. Patrick's Cathedral, if it is not too crowded. As the deaths from the 9/11 attacks are not included in New York City's official crime statistics for 2001, Siwiak's death is the only homicide recorded in the city on that date. The FBI also did not record the 2,977 deaths from the attacks in their annual violent crime index for 2001, citing the fact that these deaths were statistical outliers and would erroneously skew FBI analyses. See also Crime in New York City Deaths in 2001 List of unsolved murders Disappearance of Sneha Anne Philip, the night before the attacks; she was later ruled to have died in them although her remains have never been identified. Disappearance of Michele Anne Harris, upstate woman last seen late on the night of September 11; initial investigation was similarly hampered by diversion of law enforcement resources to the attacks. References 2000s crimes in New York City 2001 in New York City 2001 murders in the United States 21st century in Brooklyn Bedford–Stuyvesant, Brooklyn Crimes in Brooklyn Crimes related to the September 11 attacks Male murder victims September 2001 crimes September 2001 events in the United States Unsolved murders in the United States

51769770

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killing%20of%20Alfred%20Olango

Killing of Alfred Olango

The killing of Alfred Olango occurred in El Cajon, California, United States on September 27, 2016. Olango, a 38-year old former refugee from Uganda, was shot several times by police responding to a 911 call. He died later that day in a hospital. Officers on scene claimed to have believed Olango was pointing a firearm; the object in his hand was an e-cigarette. The shooting sparked days of protests in El Cajon and around San Diego County. San Diego County prosecutors declined to file charges against officers who were involved in the shooting. Alfred Olango Alfred Olango arrived in the U.S. as a refugee from Uganda in 1991. Born in Kampala, Uganda in 1978, Olango came to New York with his mother and eight siblings as refugees in 1991. He married in 2001, having one child with his wife at the time. He worked at Toro manufacturing and McDonald's, and he hoped to one day open his own restaurant. Shooting Days before the incident, one of Olango's longtime childhood friends died. On the day of the incident, Olango's sister noticed strange behavior from him and called police three times asking for immediate help. A 5150 (involuntary psychiatric hold) request for a psychiatric emergency response team (PERT) was placed. Fifty minutes after the first call, at least two non-PERT officers arrived on scene. Video evidence In video footage released by the El Cajon Police Department, two uniformed police officers can be seen approaching Olango. In the video, Olango is retreating into a corner formed by a fence and an unoccupied parked truck. Olango's sister can be seen approaching behind the police officers. Seconds later, Olango drew an object and extended it in two hands towards police in a shooting stance before being shot. He was pronounced dead at a nearby hospital later that day. Police statement According to the El Cajon Police Department's statement on the evening of the shooting, Olango was simultaneously tasered and shot several times by the two officers. They said Olango refused to comply with instructions to remove one concealed hand from a pocket, paced back and forth, then "rapidly drew an object from his front pants pocket, placed both hands together and extended them rapidly toward the officer taking up what appeared to be a shooting stance". Officers claimed to have believed that Olango was pointing a handgun at officers, in which the object was a vape pen which was pointed towards the officers with the tip facing. Investigation Footage of Olango's shooting was released by the El Cajon Police Department on September 30, 2016. There have been two videos of the shooting that were recorded and released to the public, one from a bystander inside a Mexican restaurant and the other from the restaurant's drive-thru surveillance camera. In January 2017, San Diego County District's Attorney Bonnie Dumanis announced that no criminal charges would be filed against the two officers. Criticism The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has criticized the El Cajon Police Department's partial release of video evidence. On the evening of the incident, a single still frame image from the cellphone footage was released. References 2016 deaths 2016 in California Black Lives Matter Civil rights protests in the United States Deaths by firearm in California Filmed killings by law enforcement History of San Diego County, California African people shot dead by law enforcement officers in the United States September 2016 events in the United States Law enforcement in California El Cajon, California

51841197

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killing%20of%20Joseph%20Mann

Killing of Joseph Mann

On July 11, 2016, Randy Lozoya and John Tennis, two Sacramento police officers, attempted to run over, and later shot and killed Joseph Mann, a 51-year-old mentally ill and homeless African-American man armed with a knife. Incident Police received 9-1-1 calls about a man standing in the street waving a knife. Dispatchers told police that Mann had a knife and gun, and that he was acting erratically. Mann was carrying a 4-inch knife when police encountered him, but no gun was ever found. Mann did not cooperate with the first officers who arrived at the scene. Mann's family describes him as "doing karate moves and zigzagging back and forth across the street as he tried to walk away from the officers." The initial responding officers ordered Mann to drop his knife, and get on the ground. He did not comply, and instead threw a thermos at the police cruiser, and shouted threats as he walked down Del Paso Boulevard. When Lozoya and Tennis arrived, their cruiser's dash cam audio recorded one of them as saying, "Fuck this guy. I'm going to hit him." The other officer replies, "Okay. Go for it. Go for it." They missed Mann the first time, and attempted again to try to hit him with their cruiser. As they accelerated toward Mann, one officer said, "Watch it! Watch! Watch", as Mann jumped into the median strip to avoid the cruiser. After missing Mann the second time, the other officer said, "We'll get him. We'll get him." They stopped the cruiser, exited it, and chased Mann on foot. The officers fatally shot Mann moments later. Police fired 18 shots, 14 of which hit Mann. The Sacramento Bee suggested that Mann was about 27 feet from the officers when he was shot. Mann died at the scene. Aftermath The shooting led to protests by local religious leaders and Black leaders. Black Lives Matter demanded the release of the dash cam videos, and criticized the police for escalating the situation. The Sacramento Police Department initially did not release the videos, but later released three dash cam videos, a surveillance camera video, and two 9-1-1 call audios after pressure from city officials, including Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson, as well as The Sacramento Bee, obtaining cellphone footage from a citizen showing the shooting of Mann. The audio of the dash cam videos was enhanced by The Sacramento Bee. A toxicology report found that Mann had methamphetamine in his system. Police spokesperson Bryce Heinlein told reporters that using a vehicle as a deadly weapon is something covered in use of force training. According to Heinlein, Lozoya and Tennis were placed on "modified duty". Mann's family has filed both a claim against Sacramento, and also a federal lawsuit. In addition to other shootings by police officers around the country, Mann's shooting prompted the Sacramento City Council to propose a use-of-force policy change which restricts the use of lethal force, and examines the use of police vehicles. On January 27, 2017, the Sacramento County District Attorney cleared the two officers of any legal wrongdoing, concluding that they were justified in shooting Mann, but after an internal investigation by the Sacramento Police Department, neither Tennis nor Lozoya remain on the force. Gallery See also Shooting of Stephon Clark – an African-American man shot by the Sacramento Police Department Gidone Busch – a mentally disturbed man shot by the New York City Police Department List of killings by law enforcement officers in the United States Police brutality in the United States References 2016 in California Black Lives Matter Deaths by firearm in California Deaths by person in the United States Filmed killings by law enforcement Law enforcement in California African Americans shot dead by law enforcement officers in the United States July 2016 events in the United States Sacramento, California

52075280

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killing%20of%20V.%20Sulakshan%20and%20N.%20Gajan

Killing of V. Sulakshan and N. Gajan

Sri Lankan Tamil students V. Sulakshan and N. Gajan were shot dead by police in Kokkuvil in northern Sri Lanka on the night of 20 October 2016. Background Vijayakumar Sulakshan was 24 years old and from Kandarodai. Nadarajah Gajan was 23 years old and from Iranaimadu. Both men were third year students at the University of Jaffna's Faculty of Arts and were studying political science and journalism. Incident On the night of 20 October 2016 Gajan attended a social event at Sulakshan's house in Jaffna. After the event Sulakshan was returning Gajan to his student hostel in Chunnakam on a motorcycle when, at around 11.30pm, the pair were shot by police at Kulapiddy junction on the Jaffna-KKS Road in Kokkuvil. According to the police the students had failed to stop at a police roadblock at the junction and sped off. The police opened fire, hitting the rider, Sulakshan, twice in the head and killing him. The motorcycle rammed into a parapet wall on the roadside which resulted in serious injuries to the passenger, Gajan. The police claimed that the students were under the influence of alcohol. Sulakshan and Gajan were rushed to Jaffna Teaching Hospital where Sulakshan was pronounced dead whilst Gajan succumbed to his injuries shortly afterwards. Aftermath A tense situation prevailed in the area after the incident as other students surrounded the hospital's mortuary. Nationally however news of the shooting was suppressed by the police and it was not until the following night (21) that the event was reported in Sri Lanka's national media. The police initially denied that there was a shooting, claiming that the two deaths were accidental. This led to accusations of a police cover-up. On the morning of 21 October 2016 Jaffna Magistrate S. Satheeshkaran arrived at the scene of the shooting to begin a magisterial inquiry. Post-mortems were carried out that afternoon and initial reports suggested that bullets were found in the victims' bodies. Sulakshan was reported to have been shot three times and had injuries to his chest, neck and spine. Gajan was reportedly shot at least once. According to the official Judicial Medical Officer's report, Sulakshan was killed by a shot in the chest and Gajan died of head injuries sustained during the crash into the wall. The students bodies were returned to their parents but they were ordered to bury them rather than cremate. After the post-mortem contradicted the police's earlier statement officers from the Criminal Investigation Department were sent to take over the investigation. On 22 October 2016 five police personnel (a sub-inspector, a sergeant, two constables and a driver) were arrested and remanded until 4 November 2016. Expressing grief at the deaths, President of Sri Lanka Maithripala Sirisena ordered an impartial inquiry and compensation for the students' parents. The shooting was condemned by the Tamil National Alliance, the largest political party representing Sri Lankan Tamils. Notes References 2016 in Sri Lanka Sulakshan, Gajan Sulakshan, Gajan

54039679

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killing%20of%20Suzanne%20Hopper

Killing of Suzanne Hopper

Suzanne Waughtel Hopper (née Bauer, 11 November 19701 January 2011) was a Clark County, Ohio deputy killed on duty on New Year's Day of 2011, which led to the adoption of the Suzanne Hopper Act to improve officer safety when dealing with offenders who have a known history of mental illness. Personal life Suzanne Hopper was a 12-year veteran Deputy Sheriff with the Clark County Sheriff's Office (CCSO) and former Officer of the Year. She won multiple gold medals in Police Olympics weightlifting competitions. She was known for once going six years straight without a sick day. After her first daughter was born in 1992 with special needs, Hopper became involved in charity events for causes like the Special Olympics, for which she started a local volleyball fundraiser in 2008. She married her second husband, Matthew Hopper, in 2010. She had two children from her first marriage, Emily Bauer and Charles Waughtel, and two stepchildren, Madeleine and Cole Hopper. After Matthew Hopper died on 10 April 2014 at the age of 38 following a battle with cancer, the children were taken in by Suzanne Hopper's parents, Charles and Bonnie Bauer. Shooting On 1 January 2011, Deputy Hopper was responding to a call about shots being fired at the Enon Beach Campground with her partner Sergeant Dustin White. Around 11:35a.m., while her partner was interviewing the family whose trailer had been shot at, Hopper was shot at very close range while she was attempting to photograph a footprint. The gunman pointed a H&R 12-gauge break-action shotgun at her from inside his trailer and shot her with no warning. According to Clark County Sheriff Gene Kelly, Hopper "never had the opportunity to return fire or take cover". A gun battle erupted between the suspect and other responding officers as they attempted to retrieve Hopper's body. According to an eyewitness, one officer attempted desperately to reach Hopper's body: he repeatedly asked over radio if he could get her but was denied because the scene was not secure. The police used a loudspeaker to ask the suspect to surrender himself for several minutes, before returning fire on his trailer and killing him. A German Township officer, Jeremy Blum, was also wounded. He was flown to Miami Valley Hospital in stable condition. The proximity between the Enon Beach trailer park and Interstate 70 led to the highway being closed for about an hour. Gunman The gunman was identified as 57-year-old Michael Ferryman, who had a history of mental illness and violence. A girl living in the same trailer park described him as "a quiet person" who became unpleasant if angered. He was previously involved in another shootout with police in 2001, in Morgan County, for which he had been found not guilty due to insanity. He was released and supposed to be under supervision, but according to Clark County Sheriff Gene Kelly "the supervision failed" and there was no notification that Ferryman had moved to Clark County. Sheriff Kelly said if they had been aware of Ferryman's history, Hopper's response to the initial call would have been much more careful. Ferryman's girlfriend was sentenced to five years in prison after being convicted of giving Ferryman the gun used to kill Hopper. Legacy A funeral service was held on 7 January 2011, attended by thousands of officers from across the United States despite heavy snowfall. A 1,600-vehicle procession traversed Clark County. Hopper was posthumously awarded "deputy of the year". During a speech given in May 2012 at the National Peace Officers Memorial Service, President Barack Obama honored Hopper's memory. Her name can be found among the 20,000 fellow fallen officers at the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial in Washington D.C.A Springfield News-Sun photo of the event was later named in Life Magazine's "most memorable photos of the year". The video footage of the shootout was featured in the final episode of World's Wildest Police Videos. A segment of Interstate 70 was renamed "Deputy Suzanne Hopper Memorial Highway". Suzanne Hopper Act The Suzanne Hopper Act is a law intended to create a database usable by law enforcement to track violent offenders ruled as mentally ill by Ohio courts. In June 2013, the bill was sponsored by Republican state senators Chris Widener of Springfield and Bill Beagle of Tipp City, and was signed into law by governor John Kasich. The law is credited with multiple instances of improving officer safety. References 1970 births 2011 deaths 2011 in Ohio American police officers killed in the line of duty Deaths by person in the United States January 2011 events in the United States

54439355

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killing%20of%20Stephen%20Carroll

Killing of Stephen Carroll

Stephen Carroll was a Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) officer who was killed by the Continuity IRA on 9 March 2009 in Craigavon, County Armagh, Northern Ireland. Carroll's killing marked the first time a serving police officer had been killed since the Good Friday Agreement in 1998. Two days before the attack the Real IRA shot dead two British soldiers in Massereene, County Antrim. This period marked a significant escalation in the campaign by dissident republicans. Attack The Continuity IRA smashed a window with a brick knowing the PSNI would respond. At about 9:45 pm two police vehicles arrived at the scene and when they went to get out they were shot at. A gunman shot Carroll from 50 metres away with an AK-47 while in his patrol car. Carroll was shot in the head. Aftermath The Continuity IRA claimed responsibility saying their North Armagh Battalion were responsible for the attack and that "As long as there is British involvement in Ireland, these attacks will continue." On 10 March there was a one-minute silence in the Northern Ireland Assembly. Prime Minister Gordon Brown stated that "These are murderers who are trying to distort, disrupt and destroy a political process that is working for the people of Northern Ireland," Chief Constable Sir Hugh Orde called it a "sad day" and said the gunmen were "criminal psychopaths". Richard Walsh, the spokesman for Republican Sinn Féin, a party linked to the Continuity IRA, said the killings were "an act of war" rather than murder. "We have always upheld the right of the Irish people to use any level of controlled and disciplined force to drive the British out of Ireland. We make no apology for that". He also described the PSNI as "an armed adjunct of the British Army". Deputy First Minister of Northern Ireland Martin McGuinness said those responsible were "traitors to the island of Ireland" and that "they have betrayed the political desires, hopes and aspirations of all of the people who live on this island." McConville and Wooton have become known as the ‘Craigavon 2’ amongst Irish Republicans who claim their innocence. See also Murder of Ronan Kerr Murder of David Black References 2009 in Northern Ireland Attacks by Republicans since the Good Friday Agreement Continuity Irish Republican Army Carroll, Stephen History of County Armagh March 2009 events in the United Kingdom Terrorist incidents in the United Kingdom in 2009 Deaths by person in Northern Ireland

54461586

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killing%20of%20Katie%20Rough

Killing of Katie Rough

Katie Sharon Rough (16 January 2009 – 9 January 2017), who was almost eight, died in the Woodthorpe area of her hometown of York in the United Kingdom, on 9 January 2017. She was killed by a girl aged 15 years old at the time, who handed herself in to the police immediately after attacking Rough. Under UK law, Rough's killer was considered a minor at the time of the killing, and so her name was not made publicly known in the subsequent investigation and trial. Rough's killer pleaded guilty to manslaughter on grounds of diminished responsibility. It emerged that the teenager had been suffering from psychosis at the time of the attack, caused by an unknown psychiatric disorder and she was subsequently sentenced to a minimum of five years' detention on 24 November 2017. Attack Katie Rough was last seen alive at 4:20 p.m. on 9 January, with a local resident subsequently reporting to have seen her and her eventual killer playing together in a playing field near Alness Drive, without any indications of the violent act which was to follow. Fifteen minutes later, at 4:35 p.m., the elder girl placed a 999 call and confessed to having killed Rough, though claimed not to remember any specific details of the event. The girl was then found by another local resident, Peter Mills, who subsequently found Rough's body a short distance away down a side street. Though attempts were subsequently made to resuscitate Rough, she was ultimately pronounced dead at York Hospital at 5:40 p.m., a little over an hour after the initial 999 report was made. An autopsy of Rough's body revealed that she had been fatally asphyxiated, with a green glove later being identified as the murder weapon. It was also found that wounds had been inflicted on her in the neck and chest areas with a Stanley knife, though it was determined that said wounds were not inflicted until after she was already dead. Aftermath Around the time that Rough was officially declared dead, the 15-year-old girl was arrested and formally charged with her murder. Subsequent investigations found that she suffered auditory hallucinations and delusions and often experienced violent fantasies, which she acted out by mutilating and defacing soft toys at her home. It was also found that she was convinced that most of the people around her were robots disguised as humans. In the previous year, she had been taken out of school due to her mental state, and had engaged in self-harming since late 2015. It was also determined that the killing was a premeditated act, though it was uncertain whether the target was Rough specifically or if the attack was opportunistic. Rough's funeral took place at York Minster on 13 February 2017. The service was led by John Sentamu, the Archbishop of York. Trial and conviction Rough's killer entered a plea of "not guilty" to the charge of murder in the initial hearing at Leeds Crown Court on 16 February 2017. During the course of her trial, she received four further mental health evaluations which disagreed on the exact disorder she suffered from, but did agree that it affected her mental state up to and including the time of the killing. Despite evidence indicating that the killing had been a premeditated act, the Crown Prosecution Service ultimately concurred that it was the result of the perpetrator's mental disorders, and offered her the opportunity to plead guilty to manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility. She accepted the offer and changed her plea to "guilty" on the first day of her trial, 3 July 2017. Her defence counsel described her as an "extremely troubled and damaged teenager", and the judge ordered that the case be adjourned until 20 July, so that further psychiatric assessments could be made prior to final sentencing, though it was subsequently adjourned a second time until September. On 7 September she was given an interim hospital order to allow for additional mental health assessments, and on 24 November, she was "detained for life" and ordered to serve a minimum term of five years. References 2017 crimes in the United Kingdom British female murderers Crime in Yorkshire Deaths by person in England Female murder victims History of York January 2017 crimes in Europe January 2017 events in the United Kingdom Murdered English children Incidents of violence against girls

54592535

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killing%20of%20Justine%20Damond

Killing of Justine Damond

On July 15, 2017, Justine Damond (née Ruszczyk), a 40-year-old Australian-American woman, was fatally shot by 33-year-old Somali-American Minneapolis Police Department officer Mohamed Noor after she had called 9-1-1 to report the possible assault of a woman in an alley behind her house. Occurring weeks after a high-profile manslaughter trial acquittal in the 2016 police shooting of Philando Castile, also in the Twin Cities metro area, the shooting exacerbated existing tensions and attracted national and international press. In April 2019, Noor was tried before a jury on charges of second-degree intentional murder, third-degree murder, and second-degree manslaughter. Noor claimed self defense. The jury convicted Noor of third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter, but he was acquitted on the charge of second degree intentional murder. In June 2019, Noor was sentenced to 12.5 years in prison. Noor's conviction on third-degree murder was overturned by the Minnesota Supreme Court on September 15, 2021. In October 2021, his sentence was revised to 4.75 years in prison. Damond's family brought a civil lawsuit against the City of Minneapolis alleging violation of Damond's civil rights, which the city settled for US$20 million in 2019. Background Justine Damond Justine Maia Damond (April 4, 1977 – July 15, 2017) grew up in the Northern Beaches area of Sydney, New South Wales, and attended Manly High School. She graduated in 2002 from the University of Sydney as a veterinarian, then worked as a spiritual healer and meditation coach. She met Don Damond, a U.S. citizen, while attending a neuroscience workshop. The couple became engaged on December 29, 2014, and planned to marry in August 2017. Damond stopped using her surname Ruszczyk and took the Damond's family name ahead of their marriage. Damond held dual Australian and United States citizenship, as her father, John Ruszczyk, holds US citizenship. Mohamed Noor Mohamed Mohamed Noor (born October 20, 1985, in Qoryoley, Somalia) was the officer who shot Damond. Noor's partner, Matthew Harrity (then 25 years old), was the driver of their squad car. Noor had been lauded in the past by Minneapolis mayor Betsy Hodges and the local Somali community as one of the first Somali-American police officers in the area. At the time of the shooting, Noor had been with the Minneapolis Police Department for 21 months; Harrity had been on the force for one year. Complaints In two years as a police officer, Noor had three formal complaints against him, two of which, in September 2017, were pending resolution. In a separate case from May 2017, he was being sued for allegedly assaulting a woman while on duty. "Fast Tracked" Training Following the deadly shooting, the Star Tribune reported Noor's police training had been "fast tracked", making reference to the seven-month immersive training program for cadets; some suburban police departments see the cadet programs as a way to quickly diversify their police forces. Noor's police training had been part of the cadet program for the Minneapolis Police Department, an accelerated seven-month program aimed at candidates who already have a college degree and wish to enter law enforcement. Former police chief Janeé Harteau stood by Noor's training: We have a very robust training and hiring process ... This officer completed that training very well, just like every officer. He was very suited to be on the street ... I believe the actions in question go against who we are as a department, how we train, and the expectations we are as a department. These were the actions of one individual. On July 23, 2017, MPD and Council Member Elizabeth Glidden denied news reports of there being a "fast-track" seven-month MPD training program. Red Flags In September 2018, it was reported that in 2015, two psychiatrists and other training officers had raised concerns about Noor's fitness for police duty. Two months before the shooting, Noor pointed a gun at the head of a driver he had pulled over for a minor traffic violation. Incident On the night of the shooting, Damond called 9-1-1 at 11:27 pm and again at 11:35 pm. She reported that she thought she heard a woman either having sex or being raped. Dispatchers categorized the call as "unknown trouble: female screaming"—a relatively low priority. Officers Noor and Harrity responded to the low-crime neighborhood of Fulton, in southwestern Minneapolis, drove their police Ford Explorer with lights off through the alley and found no suspects or signs of the suspected rape that had prompted Damond's calls. As the officers prepared to leave, Noor "entered 'Code Four' into the cruiser's computer, meaning the scene was safe". Harrity would later indicate "that he was startled by a loud sound near the squad" and, just then, Damond approached the police car's driver-side window. Harrity drew his weapon, but pointed it downward and did not fire. Noor, however, fired once through the open window, fatally striking an unarmed and barefoot Damond in the abdomen. The officers attempted cardiopulmonary resuscitation to no avail; Damond died 20 minutes later. Harrity later told a supervisor "We both got spooked." At Noor's trial, Harrity testified of hearing "something hit the car and I also hear some sort of murmur" and that he feared an "ambush" but deemed it "premature" to use deadly force. Noor testified that he did not see Damond's hand or any object in it, but nonetheless believed that his partner "feared for his life" and "there was a threat". The prosecutors presented evidence that Damond's fingerprints were not on the police car, suggesting she had never made contact with it, and called two expert witnesses on police use of force, who testified that Noor's decision to shoot was unreasonable. Both officers had their body cameras switched off. Minneapolis introduced police body cameras in 2016, but their activation was not mandatory in all situations. No audio or video recordings captured the killing, although a 16-year-old bicyclist took cell-phone video of the scene after the shooting. Reactions Attorney statements Harrity's attorney Fred Bruno told the Star Tribune "it's certainly reasonable" to assume any officer would be concerned about an ambush. He referred to the recent death of a New York City officer killed in her squad car. Damond's family retained attorney Robert Bennett, the same lawyer who represented the family of Philando Castile. In a televised interview, he dismissed the claims of Harrity's attorney (that it was reasonable for the officers to fear ambush) as "disinformation". United States The day after the killing, a vigil in Damond's memory was held at the site of her death in the alleyway entrance located on the north side of West 51st Street between Xerxes Avenue South and Washburn Avenue South in Minneapolis. Several days after the killing, hundreds marched to Beard's Plaisance Park in Minneapolis, in memory of Damond. A memorial service for Damond was held on 11 August 2017, on the shore of Lake Harriet in Minneapolis. The service was at the bandshell and there was a silent walk around the lake afterwards. It was attended by Damond's family and fiancé, and about 1,000 mourners. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) issued a statement calling the non-use of body cameras "unacceptable". The Minneapolis Police Conduct Oversight Commission concurred with the ACLU opinion that "body cameras should be on at all times." On July 19, 2017, Republican Michele Bachmann, who had represented Minnesota's 6th congressional district in the U.S. Congress from January 2007 to January 2015, stated during a speech at the Eighth Annual Hog Roast and Republican gubernatorial forum in Waconia, Minnesota, that Noor was an "affirmative-action hire". Speaking to World Net Daily, Bachmann said "Noor comes from the mandated cover-up women culture. That's why I'm wondering if they'll ask whether his cultural views led him to shoot her. That's something, if true, I can't imagine the progressives would allow to get out." Australia Malcolm Turnbull, the prime minister of Australia, said that the Australian government wanted answers: Damond's family and friends held a sunrise vigil for her at Freshwater Beach on July 19, 2017. A further sunrise vigil was conducted at the same beach on July 15, 2018. Investigation and prosecution of Noor Investigation An application for a search warrant to search the alley where the shooting occurred, referring to the shooting incident, stated "Upon police arrival, a female 'slaps' the back of the patrol squad. After that, it is unknown to BCA agents what exactly happened, but the female became deceased in the alley." Among items collected were fingerprints from the rear cargo door window of the squad car. Hours after the shooting, Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension investigators controversially obtained a second search warrant and carried out a search of Damond's home for evidence, including "'bodily fluids, controlled substances, and writings". They did not take anything from the property. Noor refused to speak with investigators, invoking his right against self-incrimination. Noor and Harrity were then on paid administrative leave. In February 2018, a grand jury was convened to investigate Damond's death. On February 15, 2018, Harrity appeared before the grand jury. Trial and conviction On March 20, 2018, a warrant was issued for third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter charges, and Noor turned himself in to police. He also resigned from the Minneapolis Police Department. Bail was set at $400,000, and Noor was released from jail on March 22. With the approval of the court, prosecutors later upgraded the charges against Noor to second-degree intentional murder. On April 30, 2019, following a jury trial, Noor was convicted of third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter. Under Minnesota law, third-degree murder is defined as "a person causing the death of another by perpetrating an act eminently dangerous to others and without regard for human life, but without intent to cause the death of any person"; second-degree manslaughter is defined as "whoever by culpable negligence, whereby he creates an unreasonable risk and consciously takes the chance of causing death or great bodily harm to another person, causes the death of another is guilty of manslaughter in the second degree". After the verdict, his bail was revoked and he was taken to jail to await sentencing. The Somali-American Police Association issued a statement after the verdict claiming that racial bias contributed to Noor's conviction. On June 7, 2019, Noor was sentenced to 12½ years in prison. Appeal, remand, and resentencing On February 1, 2021, the Minnesota Court of Appeals affirmed Noor's conviction of third-degree murder. Noor then appealed to the Minnesota Supreme Court, arguing that the facts did not support a conviction on that charge. On September 15, 2021, the Minnesota Supreme Court reversed Noor's third-degree murder conviction on the basis that the state failed to prove that he committed murder with a "depraved mind" which is a "generalized indifference to human life" as required for the offense of third-degree murder. As the conduct in this case did not meet that standard, the Supreme Court directed the trial court to vacate the conviction of third-degree murder and sentence Noor for the lesser offense of second-degree manslaughter. On remand, the trial court during an October 2021 proceeding resentenced Noor to 57 months in prison, the maximum presumptive sentence under Minnesota's sentencing guidelines. Civil lawsuit and settlement Damond's family brought a civil lawsuit against the City of Minneapolis alleging violation of Damond's civil rights, which the city settled in May 2019 for US$20 million, one of the largest-ever settlements in a suit involving a police killing. At the time, the amount of Damond's settlement was the largest in Minneapolis history, and held this record until it was surpassed by the March 2021 settlement of $27 million which the city approved for the family of George Floyd. Aftermath Minneapolis Chief of Police Janeé Harteau was on vacation leave at the time of Damond's killing and returned to Minneapolis four days later. At a press conference after her return, Harteau said, "Justine didn't have to die...The death of Justine should not have happened." Regarding Noor's refusal to speak to investigators, Harteau said, "I would prefer Officer Noor would speak." Less than a week after Damond's killing, Harteau was ousted, after Mayor Betsy Hodges said that she and the city had lost confidence in Harteau's ability to lead. The police shootings were a contributing factor in Hodges losing her bid for re-election in 2017. Following the shooting, Minneapolis acting police chief Medaria Arradondo announced that police officers would be required to turn on body-worn cameras during all calls and traffic stops. Bob Kroll, the president of the Minneapolis police officers' union, objected to having cameras recording while officers are on the way to a call, saying that officers' discussion of tactics "while responding to a call should not be publicly disseminated". A documentary on the life and death of Damond was shown on Australian Story in November 2017. George Floyd's murder was compared to the killing of Damond and the successful criminal case against Noor. Some felt that the local judicial system was inconsistent and that it did not hold white police officers who killed black men accountable for their actions. Reflecting on the murder of Floyd and the killing of his daughter, John Ruszczyk said, "We were satisfied that Justine's killer was found guilty, but we remained concerned that the police force, as an institution was deeply flawed. The fact that another person has died at the hands of the Minneapolis police using excessive force shows that they have not made adequate changes to their practices and training as we had been told they would after Justine's murder." See also List of killings by law enforcement officers in Minnesota References External links State of Minnesota v. Mohamed Mohamed Noor, No. A19-1089. Minnesota Court of Appeals, April 1, 2021. Court of Appeals decision affirming trial court verdict of third-degree murder and rulings on other issues. State of Minnesota v. Mohamed Mohamed Noor, No. A19-1089. Minnesota Supreme Court, September 15, 2021. Supreme Court decision vacating conviction on third-degree murder count and remanding the case to the trial court for sentencing on the manslaughter conviction. Videos of Justine Damond speaking at Lake Harriet Spiritual Community Justine Ruszczyk Incident Report 2017 in Minnesota 2010s in Minneapolis Australia–United States relations Deaths by firearm in Minnesota Deaths by person in the United States Hennepin County, Minnesota July 2017 events in the United States Law enforcement in Minnesota Somali-American history 2018 in Minnesota 2017 deaths Police brutality in the United States Manslaughter in the United States Minneapolis Police Department 2017 controversies in the United States Law enforcement controversies in the United States

54629785

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killing%20of%20Nicole%20van%20den%20Hurk

Killing of Nicole van den Hurk

On 6 October 1995, 15-year-old Nicole van den Hurk () disappeared on her way to work in Eindhoven, in the Dutch province of North Brabant. On 22 November, her body was found in the woods between the towns of Mierlo and Lierop. In 2011, Van den Hurk's stepbrother confessed to the killing, but was released a month later due to lack of evidence; he later said he had falsely confessed to get her body exhumed for DNA tests. DNA collected from the girl's exhumed remains and from the crime scene led to the arrest of a man (who was referred to only as Jos de G. () in news reports) in January 2014. Charged with rape and manslaughter, De G. was acquitted of manslaughter but found guilty of rape in November 2016, and was sentenced to five years' imprisonment. After the public prosecution appealed against the acquittal, De G. was convicted of manslaughter and his sentence was increased to twelve years. Background and disappearance Nicole van den Hurk was born on 4 July 1980 in Erkelenz, Germany, to a single mother. After her birth, her mother began a relationship with a Dutchman; the three later moved to the Netherlands together, where the couple then married. In 1989, Van den Hurk's mother and stepfather divorced with the stepfather winning custody of Nicole. In April 1995, the mother committed suicide in Tilburg. At the time of her disappearance, Van den Hurk was staying at her grandmother's house in Tongelre. On the morning of Friday, 6 October 1995, the fifteen-year-old began cycling towards , where she was working a holiday job, failing to arrive. At 18:00 that day, police found her bicycle in the river Dommel. Between then and 17 October, the police searched the river and a nearby forest, and on 19 October, her rucksack was found near Eindhoven's canal; the canal and its south bank were searched the following day. Between 28 and 29 October, these areas were searched again. Her stepfather denied the hypothesis that she had run away to Germany, where her extended family lived. By 20 November, police had received around 300 leads. On Wednesday, 22 November, a passerby found her body in the woods between Mierlo and Lierop. Her funeral on 28 November was attended by some one thousand mourners. Her post-mortem showed she had suffered two fractures to the jaw, other injuries to the head and fingers, and a rib injury caused by stabbing. Investigation On 24 October 1995, an anonymous man telephoned police saying he could identify the killer, but the call ended prematurely. The recording of the call was broadcast on national television in January 1996 in an attempt to trace the caller. Later, the team of detectives was reduced to four. In February, a friend of the Van den Hurk family arrested for drug trafficking claimed to have been forced to smuggle heroin by men involved in the killing. The police said this testimony was flawed and was of no help. Meanwhile, Passie magazine offered a reward for details about the killer. Between May and June, the victim's stepbrother and stepfather were arrested in connection with the killing, and then cleared. In 2004, a cold case team investigated the killing to no avail. By 2011, the victim's stepbrother Andy had moved to England. On 8 March, he confessed to the killing in a Facebook post, and was arrested by British police. He was extradited to the Netherlands on 30 March, but was released five days later as the Facebook post was the only evidence against him. Later, he retracted his confession, saying that he believed his father was the culprit; in a 2016 interview, Andy claimed to have falsely confessed to the killing in order to revive attention to his stepsister's death and get her body exhumed for DNA testing. Her remains were exhumed in September 2011 to allow DNA samples to be obtained, while the reward for the killer's details was increased from 25,000 guilders to €15,000; within a week of this, the police announced that foreign DNA had been found on the remains and that they had received more than twenty new leads. In January 2014, the police arrested a 46-year-old man identified as Jos de G. after his DNA matched samples found on the remains and at the crime scene. De G. had previously been convicted of three rapes, being sentenced to three years preventive detention and compulsory treatment for one of them. He was known to have left his ex-girlfriend's home after a fight hours before the victim's disappearance. Trial When the case first came to court in April 2014, De G.'s lawyer disputed the DNA evidence, as DNA from other people, including Van den Hurk's ex-boyfriend, was also found on her remains; the lawyer argued that Van den Hurk may have had consensual sex with De G., had had multiple sexual partners, and may have been pregnant when she died. In July, the murder charge against De G. was dropped in favor of manslaughter and rape charges. At another hearing in October 2015, De G. denied contact with Van den Hurk at the time of her disappearance, but said he may have had consensual sex with her a few days earlier. De G.'s trial began on 2 November 2015. Prosecution experts testified to the DNA evidence. Later in the month, the trial was suspended for two weeks during investigation into a witness's statement that De G. had confessed to killing a girl. In a later interview, the witness and another person said De G. had made this confession while the three were in a mental institution together a decade earlier. De G.'s attorney argued this testimony was motivated by the €15,000 reward. A trace of semen containing DNA from at least three people—believed by prosecution experts to be De G., Van den Hurk's then-boyfriend and her stepbrother—had been found on her remains. With experts disagreeing on the reliability of the sample, it was announced in March 2016 that scientists would re-analyse the DNA results using new methods. On 19 April, the court heard that it was 2.28 million times more likely than not that De G. was one of the people whose DNA was found on the remains. On 12 October 2016, the prosecution demanded that De G. receive fourteen years' imprisonment, asserting that he could not have had consensual sex with Van den Hurk, arguing that she had no time for a relationship. On 21 November, De G. was found guilty of rape and sentenced to five years' imprisonment. In determining the penalty, the court took into account the finding that he was legally insane at the time of the crime. He was acquitted of manslaughter on the basis of the possibility that the person whose DNA was found on the remains who was not affirmatively identified was involved in Van den Hurk's death. Appeal case The public prosecution appealed against De G.'s acquittal shortly after the trial ended. The appeal case began on 28 August 2018. On 29 August, the prosecution demanded a sentence of fourteen years' imprisonment, as they had done in the initial trial. On 9 October, the acquittal was overturned and De G. was sentenced to twelve years’ imprisonment for the rape and manslaughter of Van den Hurk. The sentence was upheld by the Supreme Court on 16 June 2020. See also References External links Timeline of Nicole van den Hurk murder case at Eindhovens Dagblad 1990s missing person cases 1995 crimes in the Netherlands Events in Eindhoven False confessions October 1995 events in Europe Rape in the Netherlands

54682823

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killing%20of%20Sarah%20Halimi

Killing of Sarah Halimi

Sarah Halimi was a retired French doctor and schoolteacher who was attacked and killed in her apartment by her neighbor on 4 April 2017. The circumstances surrounding the killing—including the fact that Halimi was the only Jewish resident in her building, and that the assailant (Kobili Traoré) shouted Allahu akbar during the attack and afterward proclaimed "I killed the Shaitan"—cemented the public perception of the incident, particularly among the French Jewish community, as a stark example of antisemitism in modern France. For several months the government and some of the media hesitated to label the killing as antisemitic, drawing criticism from public figures such as Bernard-Henri Lévy. The government eventually acknowledged an antisemitic motivation for the killing. The assailant was declared to be not criminally responsible when the judges ruled he was undergoing a psychotic episode due to cannabis consumption, as established by an independent psychiatric analysis. The decision was appealed to the supreme Court of Cassation, who in 2021 upheld the lower court's ruling. The killing has been compared to the murder of Mireille Knoll in the same arrondissement less than a year later, and to the murder of Ilan Halimi (no relation to Sarah Halimi) eleven years earlier. Description Dr Sarah Attal-Halimi, a 65-year-old Jewish woman who was a retired physician and mother of three children, was asleep in her apartment when her 27-year old neighbor Kobili Traoré broke in and beat her with a phone and then his fists, leaving her body with several fractures. He attempted to suffocate her, and then defenestrated her. It is uncertain if she was killed before the fall or if death occurred as a result of the fall. This occurred at her residence, a third-floor apartment in the Belleville district of Paris on 4 April 2017. Traoré, a drug dealer and drug addict, had previously frightened Halimi with repeated antisemitic insults. After his arrest, he claimed insanity and was promptly held in a psychiatric hospital. An immigrant from Mali, Traoré was reportedly enraged following a family dispute and gained access to the neighbouring apartment of a different family, who immediately locked themselves into a bedroom, phoned police for help, and waited in fear as they listened to the intruder reciting verses from the Quran. The police are believed to have first gone to the wrong building while Traoré climbed a balcony from the apartment where the family was sheltering behind a locked door, to the apartment of Halimi, the only Jewish resident of the building. When police finally arrived at the apartment the intruder had entered first, they delayed entering while they awaited the arrival of an elite squad, while more phone calls came in to the police emergency hotline reporting a woman screaming as a man apparently beat her and shouted "shut your mouth", "Allahu Akbar", and "I killed the Shaitan". After throwing Halimi from a third-floor window, Traoré returned to the first apartment where the family, still cowering in a room and awaiting the police, again heard him praying aloud. The second district of the judicial police (2nd DPJ) of Paris was responsible for the investigation. On 7 April 2017, prosecutor François Molins, who opened a case for deliberate homicide, declared that the killing could not at that time be considered as an antisemitic act but that this possibility would be explored by the investigators. The Libération newspaper reported that Traoré had never been confined to a psychiatric hospital before but had been imprisoned several times for offenses including aggravated violence. Toxicological analysis revealed the presence of cannabis in his blood. Having been taken into custody without resistance, Traoré later fought with police and was judged by a doctor to require transfer to a psychiatric hospital. He had not been interrogated by police. The results of the psychiatric assessment were planned for mid-June, then postponed until the end of August. Legal proceedings and complaints Halimi's sister-in-law lodged a complaint on 20 June 2017 to denounce the inertia of the police and its lack of coordination. On 10 July 2017, Kobili Traoré was apprehended and heard by the investigating judge. He recognized the facts about the killing, while denying any antisemitic motivation: "I felt like possessed. I felt oppressed by an external force, a demonic force." He attributes his condition to cannabis consumption. On 12 July 2017, Traoré was "charged with intentional homicide against Mrs Attal-Halimi and for forcible confinement" of the neighboring family via whose apartment he climbed into Halimi's apartment. He was placed under warrant but remained in hospital. Brigitte Kuster, a member of the 17th arrondissement of Paris, referred the matter to the Minister of the Interior. In September 2017, the prosecutor officially characterized the killing as an "antisemitic" crime. In February 2018, the investigator in charge admitted in writing the antisemitic nature of the killing as had already been indicated to Agence France-Presse (AFP) by a judicial source. In July 2019, an examining magistrate ruled that Traoré was likely not criminally responsible because his heavy cannabis use had put him in a state of temporary psychosis known in France as bouffée délirante; this was affirmed at the end of 2019 by the Paris Court of Appeal and in 2021 by the Court of Cassation, which is the final court of appeal in France. Lawyers for Halimi's family subsequently announced their intention to take the case to the European Court of Human Rights. Political responses The Times reported on 23 May 2017 that according to Jean-Alexandre Buchinger, an attorney for the victim's family, the killer ought to have been charged with "murder with antisemitism as an aggravating circumstance", and also that French Jewish groups were alleging that this had not been done out of fear of encouraging support for the National Front (France) party's election campaign. On 16 July 2017, Francis Kalifat, President of the CRIF, emphasized the antisemitic nature of the killing during the commemoration of the Vel' d'Hiv Roundup. The President of the Republic Emmanuel Macron then asked the court to clarify the matter despite the alleged killer's claims. On 1 June 2017, Belgian MEP in the European Parliament, Frédérique Ries denounced the French authorities' "chilling silence" over Halimi's killing during a debate in the European Parliament on the fight against antisemitism. In December 2019, President Emmanuel Macron criticized the Paris appeals court's finding that Traoré was unfit for trial, saying "even if, in the end, the judge decided that there was no criminal responsibility, there is a need for a trial"; Macron was rebuked by a judge from the supreme Court of Cassation. In April 2021, following the decision of the supreme Court of Cassation, President Macron called for the law to be changed. Macron stated that France "does not judge citizens who are sick, we treat them... But deciding to take drugs and then 'going crazy' should not, in my opinion, take away your criminal responsibility". In January 2022, a 67,000-word parliamentary report on the incident was released. It found that neither the police, psychiatric hospital nor the court system had acted inappropriately. The report was approved by a vote of 7-5, with Meyer Habib, the Jewish lawmaker chosen to lead the committee, among the dissenters. The report was widely condemned by Jewish organizations and media. Public reaction The Halimi killing generated significant public reaction in France and worldwide, with intellectual, media, political and Jewish communal voices demanding that antisemitism and Islamic terrorism be investigated as possible motives, and accusing both the French government and press of a coverup. On 9 April 2017, between 1,000 and 2,000 people joined a march in memory of Halimi, organized by the Representative Council of the Jewish Institutions of France (CRIF), which asked that "the whole truth" of the case be made public. The march, which also became a protest against antisemitism, started at the local Belleville metro station and ended at the site of Sarah Halimi's homicide. Paris prosecutor François Molins received representatives of the Jewish community and attempted to reassure them that the issue was not one of antisemitism, but that the possibility was being investigated. According to Gilles-William Goldnadel, a French political commentator and attorney for the Halimi family, Sarah Halimi's killer had "the profile of a radical Islamist, and yet somehow there is a resistance to call a spade a spade." Alexandra Laignel-Lavastine, a French academic, on 25 May 2017 published an open letter in the newspaper Atlantico titled "From Ilan to Sarah Halimi, France unworthy". She addressed it to Gérard Collomb, appointed Minister of the Interior a week earlier, and denounced France as a "country where it has once again become possible to assassinate Jews without our countrymen being overly disturbed". Seventeen intellectuals, including Michel Onfray, Élisabeth Badinter, Jacques Julliard, Georges Bensoussan, Alain Finkielkraut and Marcel Gauchet, in the lead article of Le Figaro on 2 June 2017 asked that light be shed "on the death of this French woman of Jewish religion killed at the cries of 'Allah Akbar'". They denounced what they called "the denial of the real" and the fact that "this crime of a rare barbarism", occurring in the middle of a presidential campaign, "received little attention from the media". On 5 June 2017, Bernard-Henri Levy stressed the fact that, although Sarah Halimi was tortured and defenestrated at the cry of "Allahu Akbar", justice and the press "are reluctant to pronounce the word 'antisemitism'". The same day, the former high magistrate Philippe Bilger evoked the Halimi case in an opinion piece published by Le Figaro. The next day, columnist Gérard Leclerc of Radio Notre-Dame denounced the media silence. On 8 June 2017, French writer Michel Onfray wondered in a video about the silence surrounding the killing: "How can we kill this poor lady twice? By not giving this information the echo that it deserved, it was to consider that the echo of this murder counted for nothing". He added that "whenever there is an escalation in terror, there is an escalation in the denial of terror. Every real is today evacuated and swept 'if it is likely to play the game of the National Front'. But reality always avenges itself one day". On 13 July 2017, the CRIF posted a newsletter on the topic noting that the killing had occurred a hundred days before, that the suspect was still under examination for voluntary homicide, and that the aggravating factor of antisemitism had been dropped. "Why this antisemitic denialism?" it asked. In May 2019, Shimon Samuels of the Simon Wiesenthal Center Europe complained that Traoré was still considered unfit for trial, asserted that the nature of the crime was irrefutably antisemitic, and said that "If justice is perverted and murder excused due to drug addiction, this sets a precedent for every drunk driver to be similarly acquitted." Media coverage The Jewish Telegraphic Agency, The Jewish Chronicle (London), and The Times of Israel carried the story immediately after the killing occurred, flagging it as a possible hate crime. On 25 May 2017, French journalist Marc Weitzmann published in the American magazine Tablet a long article accusing the French government and press of covering up this and other acts of violent antisemitism. Le Monde did not publish the story until 23 June, when it finally ran a story raising the question of antisemitism. Gilles-William Goldnadel, a lawyer for one of the victim's sisters, expressed in the center-right-leaning Le Figaro on 22 May that, "the assassin presents the classic profile of the usual Islamist criminals [...] But what tightens The heart of man and of the lawyer, is called public indifference", highlighting the suspect's judicial past. The French Jewish press belatedly reported on the matter on 9 June 2017, asserting that based on evidence and witnesses, nothing confirmed an antisemitic character to the crime, expressing confidence in the authorities and urging French Jews not to spread rumors on social media. Thomas Bidnic, a lawyer for Traoré, stated on 31 May that the suspect, still in psychiatric confinement, might not face trial. In 2017 The Washington Post revisited Ilan Halimi's murder, describing it as similar to the killing of Sarah Halimi because French authorities similarly refused to acknowledge the antisemitic nature of the killing or to investigate it as ethnically and ideologically motivated terrorism. Other Sarah Halimi's son described her as having "studied medicine for seven years, and was a family practitioner." Years later, in the process of raising her children together with her late husband, a psychologist, she decided to apply for an open position as director of a government-funded preschool that "became famous across Paris." See also Murder of Ilan Halimi Murder of Mireille Knoll References 2017 in Paris 2017 crimes in France 2010s crimes in Paris Antisemitic murders in 21st century France Antisemitism in France April 2017 crimes in Europe April 2017 events in France Belleville, Paris Deaths by person in Paris Hate crimes in Europe Islam and antisemitism

55095376

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killing%20of%20Merhdad%20Bayrami

Killing of Merhdad Bayrami

On November 7, 2012, Merhdad Bayrami was shot and killed by Delta Police Constable Jordan MacWilliams after a five-hour standoff at the Starlight Casino in New Westminster, British Columbia after he took his ex-spouse Tetiana Piltsina hostage. Constable MacWilliams was controversially charged with second-degree murder in October 2014. By July 2015 those charges were dropped. It was the first time a police officer had been charged for using lethal force in British Columbia since 1975. Background to Incident In August 2012, Mehrdad Bayrami visited Dr. Manoj Singhal and complained of a sore arm. Dr. Singhal observed symptoms of depression, suicidal ideations, and sleep deprivation. Dr. Singhal then saw Bayrami regularly, up until 2 weeks before the shooting. Tetiana Piltsina lived in Richmond, BC when she began to complain to the local RCMP about her ex-spouse Mehrdad Bayrami. She alleged Bayrami was following her, harassing her by telephone, damaging her property, and slandering her to her associates and friends. By October, Bayrami's actions were so concerning that police established surveillance on him and reached out to crown prosecutors. Bayrami was arrested after he placed a GPS tracker on Piltsina's vehicle, and the court process resulted in a peace bond prohibiting Bayrami from contacting Piltsina. Hostage-Taking At approximately 5:45 a.m. on November 8, 2012, Mehrdad Bayrami was waiting in a vehicle outside Starlight Casino - Tetiana Piltsina's workplace. Piltsina had just arrived in her car, and saw Bayrami wearing a reflective vest. Bayrami ran toward her, pulled out a gun, and pulled her into the car. Bayrami fired two shots in an attempt to control her. It was after the shots were fired that 9-1-1 calls were placed to New Westminster Police (NWPD). Police responded and Piltsina remained confined by Bayrami in a stand-off with police. Bayrami held the gun to his own head during most of this time. The NWPD called out the Municipal Integrated Emergency Response Team (MIERT), of which they were a member agency. Piltsina remained in Bayrami's confinement until police convinced him to allow her to walk to safety at approximately 6:56 a.m. Cst. Jordan MacWilliams was a member of the Delta Police Department with approximately five and half years experience as a police officer, and was a member of MIERT. He responded to the incident with the MIERT team. There were four teams of MIERT officers and at least 27 police officers total at the scene. MIERT was tasked with keeping a 20-metre perimeter around Bayrami, many of them - including Cst. MacWilliams - taking cover behind armoured vehicles. Cst. MacWilliams was assigned to "lethal overwatch" duty with a rifle. Bayrami removed the magazine from his pistol at approximately 10:00 am, leaving one round in the chamber. After remaining seated for some time, he got up and started walking around in circles, moving the gun in directions away from himself but generally pointed at his own head or chest. Shooting Captured on video, the shooting of Bayrami occurs at 10:40 a.m. From a standing position, he looks at and takes several steps forward toward Cst. MacWilliams' team with his handgun pointing skyward. As he stops, police fire non-lethal ARWEN rounds at him, knocking him two or three steps backward. A flash-bang is detonated as he takes larger steps back. His arm with the gun drops to 45 degrees upward, then down to the ground. Other officers testified that, at this moment they had their guns trained on Bayrami and moved their fingers to the trigger as they prepared to fire. Two shots are heard, and Bayrami jerks to the right and grasps the side of his abdomen. He spins around and falls to the ground, dropping his gun. A police dog is released as Bayrami picks up his gun and point it at his head. The dog grabs Bayrami's leg and he releases the gun. MIERT members move in, handcuff Bayrami, and begin first aid. He is rushed to hospital but dies on November 18. Cst. MacWilliams had fired two shots at Bayrami - one striking him in the abdomen, and one missed. Investigation and Charge Almost immediately after the incident, the Independent Investigations Office (IIO) assumed jurisdiction over the investigation of police actions leading to Bayrami's death. The IIO's chief civilian director, Richard Rosenthal, submitted a report to Crown counsel in July 2013, recommending charges. The Criminal Justice Branch sent the report back for more information. The IIO submitted further information in July and October, 2014. The Criminal Justice Branch went to the Deputy Attorney General requesting a direct indictment, and it was approved on October 9. On October 20, Crown prosecutors charged Cst. MacWilliams with second-degree murder. By April 2015, Bayrami's daughter Nousha Mayrami filed a lawsuit against Cst. MacWilliams, alleging he shot Bayrami without justification as he was walking away from officers. That month, Piltsina went to the media to hail Cst. MacWilliams as her hero. She claimed she was never interviewed by police or the IIO even after reaching out to them to provide a statement. Stay of Proceedings On July 14, 2015, the murder charge against MacWilliams was stayed. The Criminal Justice Branch stated "CJB has determined that the available evidence no longer satisfies its charge approval standard for the continued prosecution of Const. MacWilliams for any criminal offence. As a result, a stay of proceedings was directed in the case." They insisted that the decision was made based on review of available evidence, and not as a result of any pressure from the public. Delta Police Chief Neil Dubord was quoted as saying "Today, we feel an overwhelming sense of relief for Jordan MacWilliams, his family, the men and women of the Delta Police Department, and indeed all police officers across Canada," "The charges laid by direct indictment had the potential to deeply impact police across Canada, both operationally and psychologically." References People shot dead by law enforcement officers in Canada Events in British Columbia Law enforcement in Canada New Westminster

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killing%20of%20Judy%20Smith

Killing of Judy Smith

On September 7, 1997, hunters in North Carolina's Pisgah National Forest found human bones, clothing, and some other items scattered in the woods near a campground. The remains, most of which were centered around a shallow grave, were identified as belonging to a woman between the ages of 40 and 55 with a seriously arthritic knee. Due to holes and cuts on her bra, and similar cutting marks on the bones, investigators ruled that the unidentified decedent had been stabbed to death. Dental records and the arthritic knee soon led the body to be identified as that of Judy Smith (born Judith Eldredge; December 15, 1946, in Hyannis, Massachusetts), a 50-year-old nurse from Newton, Massachusetts, who had last been positively seen alive by her husband Jeffrey at a hotel in Philadelphia almost five months earlier. When she had not shown up after a day purportedly spent sightseeing in the city, he had reported her missing. Until the bones were found, the search for her had been concentrated in the Philadelphia area, where several sightings had been reported, although some of them may have been of a homeless woman who strongly resembled Smith. The investigation into the killing has been complicated by the unresolved question of how Smith got to North Carolina from Philadelphia, away, in the first place. She and her husband planned to stay in the Philadelphia area and visit friends after the conference he was attending ended; she had not expressed any desire to visit the Asheville area where her body was found. Yet when found she was wearing clothes more appropriate for hiking than those she had on when last seen in Philadelphia. It has been speculated that she might have been a victim of serial killer Gary Michael Hilton, who had left one of his victims in a similar condition near where Smith's body was discovered. Philadelphia police initially considered Jeffrey Smith a suspect, casting doubt on the idea that his wife had even been to the city in the first place and suggesting his story was fabricated. Later, however, the unlikelihood that he could have disposed of her body where it was found ruled him out, due to severe health problems ; he died in 2005. The Philadelphia police, the FBI, and the Buncombe County sheriff's office continue to investigate; the case has been the subject of a segment on Unsolved Mysteries. Background Judy Bradford (her name from her second marriage), a home care nurse in the Boston area, met Jeffrey Smith, a lawyer, when she cared for Smith's father for a week following the latter's throat surgery in the mid-1980s. Jeffrey later recalled Judy's devotion to his father's care, using a window curtain rod to hold an IV bag his father needed dripped into him, in the absence of a proper holder. Jeffrey, a divorcé with a grown daughter, began dating Judy, who also had two adult children from a previous marriage, and in September 1996 the two wed. Jeffrey's work as a lawyer was also related to health care; he represented the Northeast Pharmaceutical Conference, an organization of researchers and executives primarily from New England. Eight months after their marriage, the couple planned their first trip together, attending a conference in Philadelphia from April 9–11, 1997. Following that they planned to spend the rest of the week visiting friends in nearby New Jersey. Disappearance When the couple came to Logan International Airport on April 9, 1997, to check in for their flight to Philadelphia, Judy suddenly realized that she had forgotten to bring her driver's license. New FAA regulations at the time required that airlines verify passengers' identities before allowing them to fly. Judy told her husband she would return to their home to get it and then take a later flight; that evening she caught up to him in the lobby of the DoubleTree hotel in Center City Philadelphia where the conference was being held, apologizing for her mistake and bringing flowers. The next morning Jeffrey awoke before his wife and went downstairs to get breakfast. He returned to the room afterwards and found her awake, in the shower. He told her the breakfast was exceptional and that she should have it for herself. She joked in response that she should just go down as she was at the time, naked. Jeffrey left for the day's first session. The night before, the couple had agreed that Judy, who was making her first visit to Philadelphia, would go visit the city's tourist attractions such as Independence Hall and the Liberty Bell, and then reunite at the hotel at the end of the day for the conference's cocktail party at 6 p.m.. When Jeffrey finished moderating the last of the day's sessions, he returned to their room. Judy was not there. He assumed she had returned, changed, and gone down to the party ahead of him, perhaps having gotten confused about their plans. When he went downstairs to check on this, however, she was not there. After going back and forth between the party and the room several times, he grew concerned and informed a concierge, who began calling area hospitals. There were many reasons why Judy might have been delayed, Jeffrey knew. She would not have thought twice to have helped a stranger in need, as she had helped a sick passenger suffering from AIDS on another flight the year before. But if she did something like that, she usually called or tried to let someone know. Jeffrey left the cocktail party and paid a cab driver to slowly follow the route of the Philadelphia PHLASH tourist bus, which Judy had told him she was planning to use, for any sign of her. He called his stepchildren in Boston and asked one of them to go to their house and check their answering machines for any messages. None of those options yielded any useful information. Finally he went to the Philadelphia police around midnight to report Judy missing. Investigation The Philadelphia police told Jeffrey that he could not file a missing person report until 24 hours after he had last seen Judy. He recalls that a detective said that if he wanted to "push it", he could file his report in the morning. After spending the remainder of the night sleepless in his hotel room, he did. Before Jeffrey did, however, he talked to Philadelphia mayor Ed Rendell and John Perzel, a member of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives from the city, who were both attending the conference, about what he felt was the police's dismissive attitude to his complaint. He said later that he believed those conversations had made a difference, as when he returned to the police station to make his report, two detectives were waiting to take it and he was treated with courtesy and respect; he said he even overheard one saying on the telephone that Commissioner Richard Neal was to receive a copy of the report. Nevertheless, Jeffrey said several months later that there was some resistance. One detective, he claimed, was still saying four days later that he thought Judy had just had a midlife crisis and had done this just for the attention; the detective later repeated that speculation, with some qualification, to The Boston Globe. Jeffrey also believed the police, while cooperative overall, seemed to be inordinately focused on him as a suspect. "When you look at the statistics, 85 to 90 percent of females [who are murdered] are killed by someone very close to them: a family member, spouse, boyfriend", police captain John McGinnis explained later. "Statistically, we have to look at Jeffrey Smith as a suspect, until it's proven that he is not a suspect". While Jeffrey understood and cooperated when they asked to interview his stepdaughter without him present, since she told the police he "[didn't] cheat on his taxes", he was distressed that they expressed doubt that Judy had ever been in Philadelphia to begin with. If, they asked, Judy was the experienced traveler who had once gone to Thailand on her own to visit the family of a grateful patient, why had she forgotten her driver's license? Jeffrey later explained in response to the Philadelphia City Paper that the rule had only been in effect for 18 months and Judy had only flown once during that time, so it was entirely possible that she made an honest mistake. According to police, only one other witness, a desk clerk, could corroborate him on having seen Judy at the hotel, which did not have a guest register, until another conference attendee recalled in August that he had seen her in the lobby when she arrived (even so, police were still cautious since he did not know Judy personally). A female detective who searched the Smiths' hotel room said it struck her as unusual that the clothes Judy left behind did not appear to have been worn at all, suggesting she had worn the same clothes both on her flight from Boston and the day she disappeared; nor did she appear to have brought any cosmetics. But her daughter said that was typical travel behavior for her mother. The police also made much of what they asserted was Jeffrey's refusal to take a lie detector test. He says he never refused; he only insisted that any such test be administered by the FBI and that if he passed, the police formally request that the bureau assist with its investigation. But according to McGinnis, at the time he made that demand Jeffrey already knew the FBI would not join the investigation, and still declined to submit to the test even when the Philadelphia police arranged for it to be administered by the Massachusetts State Police. "Certain conditions were met, but as far as I'm concerned he refused", said deputy commissioner Richard Zappile. Possible sightings In the days after Judy disappeared, Philadelphia newspapers and television ran stories about the case. Jeffrey and friends and family put up flyers with her picture seeking information. These led to reports of sightings, some of which Jeffrey found credible. Most were in the city, but later reports came from outside the city. A number of reports described a woman who matched Judy's description but appeared to have psychological issues. She was described by staff at the Society Hill Hotel as their "weirdo of the week" when she stayed there between April 13 and 15, signing in as "H.K. Rich/Collins". While there she masturbated in front of an open window, spoke to herself in tongues, and then loudly claimed "the emperor" would wire her money when she needed it to extend her stay. Another report mentioned a woman at the junction of Broad and Locust Streets around 3 p.m. on the day Judy was last seen, describing the woman as "disoriented". There were some other reports of a similar woman, also apparently disturbed, in the Penn's Landing neighborhood, a PHLASH stop and popular tourist attraction as well. But both the police and the family believe that those who saw her confused Judy with a homeless woman in the area who strongly resembled her, so much that even Judy's son thought the woman was his mother when he saw her from across the street. However, one other homeless man in Penn's Landing, when shown Judy's picture, insisted he had seen her and not the other homeless woman, sleeping on a bench next to him the night before. On April 15, he told the family that they had just missed this woman, but they were unable to locate her in the vicinity. The family believed this was significant because it was the last time anyone had identified Judy based on seeing her picture. Sightings that seemed a more positive identification were centered around the PHLASH bus and its route. A hotel employee said she had asked later on the morning of April 10 where she could catch the bus nearby; a driver said he had picked her up at Front and South Streets early in the afternoon and may have let her off near the hotel. She was also reportedly seen entering and leaving the city's Greyhound bus terminal, possibly to use the bathroom, her family believes. The terminal is near Philadelphia's Chinatown, and since Judy loved Chinese and Thai food she might have gone there to eat; however, no one at any of the many restaurants in the neighborhood recalled her. Another report surfaced that Judy had been seen shopping for dresses at Macy's in the Deptford Mall in Deptford, New Jersey, across the Delaware River. She could have gotten there, they realized, via NJ Transit Bus Route 400, which makes hourly runs to the mall from Market Street in Center City and the intersection of Broad and Cherry Streets. A salesperson and customer at Macy's gave an account of the actions of a woman there who may have been Judy, saying she had said she was shopping for her daughter even though her daughter often disliked what she bought her—which rang true to her family—and giving a description that included the distinctive red backpack she carried almost everywhere, especially when traveling. As the woman left, they recalled, she had tried to get a younger woman, whom they assumed at the time was the woman's daughter, to leave with her. There were also reports that she had been seen in Easton, north of Philadelphia, a few days after going missing. Jeffrey Smith finds another report from Philadelphia "more credible." A private investigator he had hired told a reporter that later in the week a man told Smith he had been leaving a Wawa near Rittenhouse Square on his way to work just before 6 a.m. when he saw "a well-dressed white woman" sitting outside a nearby gourmet grocery store, a sight he found unusual for that time of day. Later he saw a newspaper article on the case and realized the woman looked a lot like Judy. Discovery of body Jeffrey hired two other private investigators to look for his wife, and faxed and mailed copies of his wife's missing person flier to hospitals all over the country, asking them to look for her. Eventually those efforts helped locate her before the end of the year. However, she was not alive. On September 7, 1997, a father and son hunting for deer out of season on a hillside in an area of North Carolina's Pisgah National Forest found what appeared to be human bones near the Stoney Fork picnic area along Chestnut Creek, just from Asheville. The bones had been scattered around an area in diameter, likely by animals. At the center was a shallow grave where the majority of the skeleton remained, still partially buried and clothed. Some personal effects were found in the area as well. The lead investigator on the case put aside his convalescence from recent back surgery to scour the area for evidence; he crushed his sciatic nerve as a result, requiring further surgery. The state medical examiner determined that the bones of the then unidentified decedent were those of a white woman between the ages of 40 and 55. She had had extensive dental work and suffered from severe arthritis in her left knee. There were cutting marks on her ribs, and among the clothing recovered from the scene was her bra, which also had cuts and punctures. The investigation concluded that she been fatally stabbed, and her death was officially classified as a homicide. The remains did not remain unidentified for long. An emergency room physician in Franklin, North Carolina, west of Asheville, saw an article about the discovery in the newspaper. He connected it to one of the fliers Jeffrey had sent out, and faxed a copy of the article to the Philadelphia police. A detective there asked Jeffrey for his wife's dental records, which he provided; they were then sent to the medical examiner in Asheville. The records matched the dental work on the bones discovered earlier in the month, and by the end of September the remains were positively identified as those of Judy Smith. While the discovery of Judy's remains ended the missing person investigation, the homicide investigation it started posed new questions for detectives with the Buncombe County Sheriff's Office, which took the lead role. In order to identify her killer, they would probably need to figure out how she got to North Carolina in the first place. The evidence found with her bones suggested that she had been with someone else, possibly whoever killed her, and that she had been alive when she reached the Asheville area. Most significantly, her leg bones were still clad in jeans, thermal underwear, and hiking boots. These were not the clothes she was wearing when Jeffrey or any of the other witnesses who might have seen her in Philadelphia saw her, but they were what she might have worn while hiking in the mountains around Asheville in mid-April. No wallet or other identification was found in her pockets. A blue and black vinyl backpack was found with the body; in it were winter clothes and $80 in cash. A shirt buried nearby also had $87 in the pockets. The combined $167 is consistent with the $200 Jeffrey believed Judy to have had on her at the time of her disappearance; the presence of the money and her wedding ring have led investigators to conclude that robbery was not the motivation for her killing. However, her red backpack was not found, nor other clothes she was wearing when last seen. Judy's family also said that an expensive pair of sunglasses found near the bones were not hers as far as they knew. Judy's family could not imagine why she might have gone to the Asheville area. According to them, she never expressed any desire to go there, and had only twice been to that general region of the country. Once she had visited Jeffrey for a week when he was at a weight loss clinic in Raleigh–Durham; on another occasion she had accompanied a patient on a drive south as he visited family that either lived closer in North Carolina to Asheville or in a neighboring area of Virginia or Tennessee (the family's memories differ). Sightings in Asheville area Several people in the Asheville area recalled having seen Judy, or a woman matching her description, in April. A clerk at a local retailer said: "She seemed very alert to me. She was very pleasant. I didn't see anything about her that would indicate that she wasn't right in any way". The woman she talked to said her husband was an attorney from Boston, attending a conference in Philadelphia, and during that time she had just decided to go to the Asheville area. An employee at the Biltmore Estate also recalls seeing Judy. At a campground near where her body was found, the owner recalls that she drove up in a gray sedan filled with boxes and bags, asked if she could spend the night there in her car, and drove away after learning she could not. A deli owner in the same area told the Philadelphia City Paper that Judy came up to her store in a gray sedan and bought $30 worth of sandwiches and a toy truck. Local investigators consider these sightings credible. Theories Investigators with the Buncombe County sheriff's office have ruled out Jeffrey Smith, who died in 2005, as a suspect, since as he was morbidly obese they believe he would have been physically unable to have taken his wife's body up the slope to where it was found. His presence at the conference during the day Judy disappeared has also been corroborated. The Philadelphia police, however, never completely eliminated him as a suspect. Sam Constance, the Buncombe detective who investigated the case, believes Judy was not abducted and came to the Asheville area voluntarily. He wanted to determine how and why in 1997 when interviewed. Constance also did not believe Judy was killed elsewhere and dumped at the site, due to the distance anyone, even someone in the best physical condition, would have had to carry her body to dispose of it there. Judy may even have planned to disappear for a while, or perhaps even permanently. While Jeffrey and her children did not say there had been any problems in the marriage, one of her friends said otherwise. "At the time this happened, Jeff and Judy's marriage was very tenuous", Carolyn Dickey told Unsolved Mysteries in 2001. "I believe that something did happen that triggered her to want to have some time away from Jeff". Although some of Judy's jewelry was missing, the presence of most of it and the cash suggests that robbery was not a motive for the killing. It has also been suggested that she might have encountered a local serial killer who had less than a year earlier left the raped and murdered body of one of his victims tied to a tree not far away. However, that killer, Gary Michael Hilton, was later arrested and convicted of that crime as well as several other killings on hiking trails in national forests in the southern Appalachian Mountains during the 2000s, and has not been linked to Smith's killing. The state of North Carolina and Jeffrey combined to offer $17,000 in reward money for any information leading to the resolution of the case. See also Deaths in 1997 Crime in Philadelphia Crime in North Carolina List of solved missing person cases List of unsolved murders Jonathan Luna, federal prosecutor who drove from Baltimore to rural Pennsylvania for unknown reasons where he was found dead, possibly murdered, one night in 2003 References External links 1990s missing person cases 1997 in Pennsylvania 1990s in Philadelphia 1997 deaths 1997 in North Carolina 1997 murders in the United States April 1997 events in the United States Buncombe County, North Carolina Deaths by person in the United States Deaths by stabbing in the United States Female murder victims Formerly missing people Incidents of violence against women Missing person cases in Pennsylvania Pisgah National Forest Women in North Carolina