#making your bones

[generalinjusticeblog]

The family of an Adams County rancher involved in an encounter with two sheriff’s deputies says the deputies killed him in a “completely unjustified” shooting. Survivors of Jack Yantis, the 62-year-old who died a week ago in the darkness on U.S. 95 north of Council, say they will pursue claims against Adams County for Yantis’ death. Paradis drove the skid loader down the driveway and parked on the highway. The bull was lying on the pavement. Donna Yantis had walked the rifle to her husband. Jack Yantis was standing about 4 feet from the bull, aiming the rifle at the back of the bull’s head. His back was to the two deputies, who were standing in the far lane facing each other as if they were having a conversation. “I put the (skid loader’s) lights on him and the bull, and he lined up to shoot the bull in the back of head and put him out humanely,” Paradis said. The rifle’s barrel was about 2 feet from the bull, and Jack Yantis’ finger was on the trigger. “Everything was going as planned. … I did not notice any conversation at all” between Jack Yantis and the deputies, Paradis said. “Then the one cop turned around and grabbed his shoulder and jerked him backwards.” The deputy came from behind, spun Yantis around and grabbed the rifle’s scope, Paradis said. Read more here: http://www.idahostatesman.com/news/local/article43654638.html#storylink=cpy

[generalinjusticeblog]

As an FBI investigation continues, the fatal police shooting of a knife-wielding black teenager on Wednesday triggered a $5 million city settlement amid word that Laquan McDonald had PCP in his system when a Chicago Police officer shot him 16 times.

The presence of a drug that can make the user exhibit aggressive behavior had no impact on the City Council’s decision to settle the case — even before a lawsuit was filed — and it shouldn’t, said Ald. Carrie Austin (34th), outspoken chairman of the Council’s Budget Committee.

The other squad car pulled up beside, then in front of the teenager and both officers jumped out with their guns drawn. One of those two officers then opened fire and shot McDonald 16 times, all of it captured on videotape.

The shooting officer contends that McDonald was moving toward him and that he opened fire to protect himself.

Plaintiffs’ attorneys have countered that the teenager was continuing to walk away from police at the time of the shooting and that the video supports that version of events. Family attorneys also have contended that McDonald posed no imminent threat because there were no pedestrians or vehicles nearby at the time of the shooting.

“This is kind of a unique case, where we had the original two officers who arrived at the scene, followed Mr. McDonald for some number of blocks and matter of minutes and never saw fit to discharge their weapons. It also applies to [the shooter’s] partner, who was right beside him when they exited the police vehicle, also got out of the police car with guns drawn, but did not shoot,” Patton told the Finance Committee Monday.

[generalinjusticeblog]

Stephen Torres was meeting with a client at his law office, in downtown Albuquerque, on April 12, 2011, when he received a call from a neighbor, who told him that police officers were aiming rifles at his house. He left work and drove to his home, in a middle-class suburb with a view of the mountains. There were more than forty police vehicles on his street. Officers wearing camouflage fatigues and bulletproof vests had circled his home, a sand-colored two-story house with a pitched tile roof. Two officers were driving a remote-controlled robot, used for discharging bombs, back and forth on the corner.

Stephen’s wife, Renetta, the director of human resources for the county, arrived a few minutes later, just after three o’clock. A colleague had heard her address repeated on the police radio, so her assistant pulled her out of a meeting. When Renetta saw that the street was cordoned off with police tape, she tried to walk to her house, but an officer told her that she couldn’t enter the “kill zone.” “What do you mean ‘kill zone’?” Renetta asked. “Ma’am, you can’t go any further,” the officer said.

Renetta and Stephen found each other at the southern end of the street. There were nearly eighty officers and city officials on the street, many of whom they recognized. Stephen saw a police-union attorney, who defended officers when they were in trouble. Renetta saw the city’s attorney, who worked in the same building and on the same floor as she did, and the deputy chief of police, whom she’d known in graduate school. “I kept looking her way, but she would not make eye contact with me,” Renetta said.

[generalinjusticeblog]

The estate of Wendy Lawrence on Tuesday filed a $2 million lawsuit against the New Hampshire State Police trooper who shot her multiple times during a North End traffic stop last year. Lawyers for the estate said they have unearthed new evidence that contradicts a fact cited in the investigation overseen by New Hampshire Attorney General Joseph Foster, which cleared Trooper Chad Lavoie of any criminal wrongdoing in the Sept. 30, 2013 shooting.

And the lawyers faulted Foster’s investigators for not considering that Lavoie put himself in harm’s way when he stood in front of Lawrence’s car with his handgun drawn, rather than remain in a safe position.

“It’s ridiculous,” Concord lawyer Chuck Douglas said Tuesday. “State police commanders decided not to risk continued pursuit because they knew Wendy Lawrence was not dangerous and that they could stop her any time. They had her ID and knew where to find her.

“But Lavoie killed her anyway,” Douglas said.

[generalinjusticeblog]

New video challenges Antioch PD's account of 2012 fatal officer-involved shooting

New information has emerged in a case involving Bay Area police officers who shot and killed a man in Antioch more than two years ago. In April of 2012, officers shot 35-year-old Danny Gonzales. Antioch police claimed Gonzales fired first. ABC7 New has obtained police video and internal reports that show Gonzales never fired a shot. There's no argument that Danny Gonzales was heavily intoxicated when he called a friend and threatened to kill police. What's being disputed now that police helicopter video has emerged is how it all happened. ABC7 News first reported in 2012 that an officer-involved shooting led to the death of Gonzales. Antioch police said Gonzales fired a shot at them which led to a return barrage of bullets that killed him. Andrea Gonzalez says she was told her husband, an Antioch barber, died at the hands of police because he fired at them first.

"One of the officers was overly excited and fired a shot as soon as he came out and that led other officers to believe shots were fired and it was just boom, boom, boom, boom, boom," said Rob Cartwright, the plaintiff's attorney. Attorneys for Gonzales' widow say a video proves he never fired a shot. A forensic analysis found that his gun was still on safety. Deputy Assistant District Attorney Barry Grove admits this video was never part of the evidence in the internal investigation that helped him draw his conclusion.

[generalinjusticeblog]

EXCLUSIVE: Cop texted union rep as Akai Gurley lay dying

After Peter Liang discharged a single bullet that struck Gurley, he and partner Shaun Landau couldn't be reached for more than six minutes.

While Akai Gurley was dying in a darkened stairwell at a Brooklyn housing development, the cop who fired the fatal bullet was texting his union representative, sources told the Daily News.

Right after rookie cop Peter Liang discharged a single bullet that struck Gurley, 28, he and his partner Shaun Landau were incommunicado for more than six and a half minutes, sources said Thursday.

In the critical moments after the Nov. 20 shooting, the cops’ commanding officer and an emergency operator — responding to a 911 call from a neighbor and knowing the duo was in the area — tried to reach them in vain, sources said.

“That’s showing negligence,” said a law enforcement source of the pair’s decision to text their union rep before making a radio call for help.

“The guy is dying and you still haven’t called it in?”

To make things even worse, the officers were uncertain of the exact address of the building in the Pink Houses they were in, according to their text messages, the sources said.

Adding to the tragedy surrounding Gurley’s death, the officers involved were not supposed to be doing a patrol in the stairways, the sources said.

Deputy Inspector Miguel Iglesias, then the head officer of the local housing command, ordered them not to carry out such patrols, known as verticals.

He opted instead for exterior policing in response to a spate of violence at the East New York housing project.

[generalinjusticeblog]

Off-duty St. Louis cop who shot teen six times from behind is named

Jason Flanery shot and killed VonDerrit Myers Jr. in St. Louis in October just as racial tensions in nearby Ferguson remained high.

Family of an 18-year-old shot from behind and killed by an off-duty St. Louis police officer in October have publicly named the shooter despite authorities withholding the information pending a 'threat assessment.'

VonDerrit Myers Jr. was killed by Jason H. Flanery, the teens relatives revealed Wednesday. His name had been inadvertently included with materials delivered to Myers' funeral home.

Their lawyer also revealed what he said are Flanery's racially tinged social media posts that indicate a bias against minorities.

Attorney Jermaine Wooten noted that Flanery posted his opposition to Obama and belief that the First Lady 'looks drunk, high, and dumb as hell' in a photo--evidence the officer has 'a biased view of African-Americans' said Wooten.

There were also criticisms of homosexuals, Flanery said.

'The political views of the officer that was involved in this doesn't change any of the facts that happened.'

Included among them, is the fact that Myers was shot eight times, including six times from behind, said a forensic pathologist who performed an independent autopsy.

Dr. Cyril Wecht, who has investigated the deaths of John F. Kennedy, Elvis Presley and JonBenet Ramsey, conducted the autopsy at the request of Vonderrit Myers Jr.'s family and outlined the findings during a news conference at the funeral home that will handle Myers' burial.

[generalinjusticeblog]

Cops Kill Man In Wal-Mart Carrying An Air Rifle That He Might Have Planned To Buy

A man who was carrying an air rifle in an Ohio Wal-Mart told the police officers that fatally shot him that the gun was “not real,” according to a family member.

John Crawford was shot by police Tuesday evening at a Beavercreek store. The Ohio attorney general’s office announced Thursday that he was merely carrying a brand of air rifle that Wal-Mart sells.

Another shopper, 37-year-old Angela Williams, collapsed and died as she scrambled to get away after police fired at Crawford.

The 911 caller’s wife said that Crawford was on the phone and that he was messing with the gun. She said that after police ordered Crawford to put down the unidentified weapon, “I heard two shots after I saw him turn. He still had the weapon in his hand.”

But Crawford’s family says that there is no way he intended to harm anyone that night.

LeeCee Johnson, who has two children with Crawford and is pregnant with a third, said that she was on the phone with him while the incident unfolded.

She told the Dayton Daily Newsthat Crawford told officers that the gun he was carrying was “not real.”

“We was just talking,” said Johnson. “He said he was at the video games playing videos and he went over there by the toy section where the toy guns were.”

“And the next thing I know, he said ‘It’s not real,’ and the police start shooting and they said ‘Get on the ground,’ but he was already on the ground because they had shot him.”

“The weapon was an MK-177 (.177 caliber) BB/Pellet Rifle, manufactured by Crosman. It is known as a ‘variable pump air rifle.’”

Reached by The Daily Caller, a spokeswoman for DeWine said she could not yet comment on whether the air rifle was from the Wal-Mart or if Crawford had brought it in himself.

But an Internet search of Wal-Mart’s website shows that it does indeed sell Crosman MK-177 air rifles. The price is listed at $100.83.

Man walks into Wal-Mart and checks out the toy guns in the toy section. That is something I would do all the time.  Customers freak out and call cops.  Cops come and shoot the man.  Because safety.