A Fort Worth police officer checking out a residence with an open door opened fire on a 28-year-old woman inside her home.
While Atatiana Jefferson was babysitting her eight-year-old nephew a couple of nights ago, she inadvertently left open the door to her house. A concerned neighbor called the police at around 2:00 a.m. to let them know that her door had been open since around 10:00 p.m. A police officer responded, and through a window saw the African-American woman inside her own home. The officer is white, so you’ll never guess what happened next:
“Body camera footage shows the perspective of the officer outside the home, peering inside a window using a flashlight, spotting someone inside standing near a window and telling her, ‘Put your hands up — show me your hands,’ before shooting seconds later. At no point does he identify himself as an officer. ... one shot was fired ... she was pronounced dead.”
The murderer officer has been placed on administrative leave.
The former police officer had previously been indicted for the June 2016 murder of 22-year-old Deravis Caine Rogers.
22-year-old African-American Deravis Caine Rogers was unarmed when a white Georgia police officer shot him to death. A quick refresher:
“A spokesman for the police reported that an off-duty officer spotted Rogers breaking into cars, that he ran away from police and got into a vehicle to flee, and that they tried to stop him but failed. Officer James R. Burns (who happens to be white) fired at the fleeing criminal, hitting him in the head. Burns stated that he fired because he feared for his life, because Rogers was ‘trying to run me over and kill me.’”
Police video proved Burns was outright lying. Rogers had posed no threat of physical harm to Burns or to anyone else, and there was no indication that Rogers had engaged in any criminal activity or was about to do so. Burns was in his vehicle when Rogers drove past him, and in no physical danger whatsoever. Burns then got out of his vehicle to shoot Rogers in the head--while he was driving away from the officer, not towards him--without even knowing whether Rogers was the suspect he’d been called to investigate. He shot Rogers dead just for being a black man driving past him when he arrived at a suspected crime scene.
Burns was fired, arrested, and indicted for murder. Then, back in July, the District Attorney dropped the case. It appeared that Rogers would be relegated to being Yet Another Fucking Statistic.
I am very glad to stand corrected:
“On Sept. 5, a Grand Jury moved to bring new charges against 36-year-old James Rolfe Burns. The former police officer had previously been indicted for the murder of 22-year-old Deravis Caine Rogers on Monroe Drive in June 2016 ... As part of the new indictment, Burns now faces four counts, which include felony murder, aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and violation of oath of a public officer.”
A jury ruled the St. Lucie County Sheriff's Office was 1 percent liable in the 2014 shooting death of Gregory Hill Jr. The sheriff must pay 4 cents.
It was around 3:00 p.m. on a January afternoon in 2014. 30-year-old African-American Gregory Hill Jr. was hanging out in his own garage with the garage door shut, drinking and listening to some music. He was waiting to pick up his daughters from the school across the street from his home.
Another parent waiting across the street for her own children called the police to complain about loud, obscene music. (Hill was listening to Drake, whose lyrics sometimes say “fuck.”) The police arrived and pounded on the garage door. They did not identify themselves as police. When there was no immediate answer, one went to pound on Hill’s front door. Meanwhile, Hill raised the garage door about halfway, saw the other deputy, and started to close it.
The deputy immediately shot Hill four times through the garage door, striking him three times, including a shot to the head that killed him instantly. Hill’s 9-year-old daughter, Destiny, was just across the street, and saw her father murdered right in front of her.
The police claimed Hill had a gun. Numerous teachers and students witnessed the shooting, but “Not one single eyewitness saw Mr. Hill hold anything in his hand, much less a gun.” As it turned out, though, he did have a gun... which never left Hill’s back pocket, where the police couldn’t have seen it and he never laid a finger on it. (Literally: Hill’s fingerprints weren’t on it. It was also unloaded, in case you’re wondering.)
Of course the NRA immediately denounced this excessive use of force against an American citizen just for rightfully exercising his constitutional right to bear arms... Oh, no, wait. What am I thinking? Hill’s black. The NRA ignored him.
A Florida grand jury declined to indict any of the police for anything, so Hill’s family had to sue. After a lengthy trial, the jury found that the deputy who killed Hill had indeed been negligent. The jurors therefore awarded monetary damages to his surviving family: $1 to his mother for funeral expenses, and $1 to each of Hill’s three children for “loss of parental companionship, instruction, guidance, mental pain and suffering.”
Because Hill had been drinking, however--in his own garage on his own property, mind you--the jury also found that he was 99% at fault for getting himself shot dead by the police. So the police were only 1% responsible, and Hill’s family won’t even get that measly $4.
Fairfax police chief releases the video of the fatal killing of Bijan Ghaisar, even as the FBI remains silent on its investigation into the shooting by Park Police officers.
Three things that 25-year-old Virginia-born Iranian-American accountant Bijan Ghaisar didn’t have as of November, 2017:
A criminal record
A weapon
His life
Image from Fox 5 DC
On November 17, 2017, Ghaisar was driving to his parents’ house in Virginia for dinner. His Jeep was stopped when an Uber driver ran into him from behind. The collision “caused little or no damage,” but Ghaisar drove off without exchanging information, so the Uber driver called 911 and reported him. The police spotted Ghaisar and pulled him over. When the officer approached, however, he had his gun drawn. Ghaisar drove away.
According to police policy, “The act of fleeing and eluding the police shall not in itself be a pursuable offense.” Nevertheless, the police pursued Ghaisar, and eventually pulled him over again. They parked a police SUV in front of Ghaisar’s car, to block him from leaving. Two officers approached, again with their guns drawn. According to dashcam video of the incident, Ghaisar’s Jeep began to roll slowly around the police car blocking it. The officers--who were “not in any apparent danger of being struck”--promptly opened fire.
Ghaisar was unarmed. Police policy authorizes the use of deadly force only “when the officer has a reasonable belief, in light of the facts and circumstances confronting the officer, that the subject of such force poses an imminent danger of death or serious bodily harm to the officer or to another person.” In particular, “Officers shall not fire at a moving vehicle ... except when the officer has a reasonable belief that the subject poses an imminent danger of death or serious physical injury to the officer or to another person.”
The police shot Ghaisar nine times at close range, striking him four times in the head. He died ten days later, without ever regaining consciousness. The FBI has closed its investigation, and so far the Department of Justice has filed no charges. It did, however, object to release of the video.
ROBBINS, Ill. — Witnesses said a Midlothian police officer responding to a shooting inside a south suburban bar shot at the wrong person early Sunday morning.
Earlier this month, security at a bar in Robbins, Illinois, ejected a group of drunken men. At least some of them returned shortly thereafter. One of them was armed. He opened fire, wounding multiple people.
26-year-old Jemel Roberson was a security guard at the bar. He was “wearing clothing that identified him as a security guard”; he was also legally armed, possessing a valid Firearm Owners Identification (FOID) card and “licensed by the state to work armed security.” Roberson managed to apprehend the gunman outside the bar, holding him there at gunpoint while waiting for the police to arrive.
By the way, Roberson was African-American. So you’ll never guess what happened next.
“‘He had somebody on the ground with his knee in back, with his gun in his back like, “Don’t move,”’ witness Adam Harris said. Soon after, witnesses said, an officer responding to the scene fired at Roberson — killing him. ‘Everybody was screaming out, “Security!” He was a security guard,’ Harris said. ‘And they still did their job, and saw a black man with a gun, and basically killed him.’”
The police–who originally identified Roberson only as “a subject with a gun”–claim he was wearing “plain black clothing with no markings readily identifying him as a Security Guard.” This contradicts eyewitnesses, who say he “was wearing a hat emblazoned with the word ‘security’ when he was shot.” The police also claim Roberson ignored “multiple verbal commands to drop the gun and get on the ground” before they killed him. This also contradicts eyewitness. The police have not addressed the multiple reports of witnesses identifying Roberson as security. And despite the presence of “security cameras inside and outside the bar,” the police have refused to disclose whether video of the shooting from surveillance or bodycams exists.
Oh, and did I mention that the officer who shot Roberson dead happens to be white? Surprise, surprise.
Surveillance video has captured the moment an argument over a parking space outside a store turned into a man being fatally shot while his son stood at the store's door.
A few days ago, Markeis McGlockton (African-American) and his his girlfriend Britany Jacobs (African-American) brought their five-year-old son Markeis McGlockton Jr. (African-American) to a convenience store in Florida to buy him a candy bar. McGlockton and the youngster went inside while Jacobs parked in the lot and waited for them. Jacobs parked in a handicapped space.
While McGlockton and their son were in the store, Michael Drejka (white) approached Jacobs in her vehicle and started yelling at her for parking in a handicapped space. According to the store’s owner, “this isn’t the first time Drejka has caused trouble in the parking lot. … he has called the police because Drejka likes to ‘find someone to argue with.’”
“Drejka has a history of assaulting people in the [same] parking lot … A man who frequents the store told ABC Action News he had a run-in with the Drejka … just one month ago. Rich Kelly says the man picked a fight with him over a parking spot, using racial slurs, and even threatening to kill him.”
Anyway, Drejka and Jacobs were still yelling at each other when “McGlockton exited the store to defend his girlfriend and shoved Drejka to the ground.” McGlockton then stepped away from Drejka, towards his girlfriend and her car. A surveillance video captured the altercation:
“In the video, Mr. McGlockton appeared to be defending his family through nonlethal means. ‘He shoves him, seemingly in an effort to get him away from his girlfriend, and then walks away.’”
The video also captured what happened next: After McGlockton took those few steps back, Drejka–still sitting on the ground–responded by pulling out the concealed handgun he’d had on him the whole time and shooting the unarmed McGlockton dead.
The law does not ordinarily impose the death sentence for the use of nonlethal force such as shoving someone to the ground. (Nor for illegally parking in a handicapped space, for that matter.) Florida’s Stand Your Ground law, however, allows a person to use deadly force if he or she “reasonably believes” it is necessary “to prevent imminent death or great bodily harm.”
In this case, “Mr. Drejka told the authorities that he was in fear that he was going to be struck again.” That was apparently good enough for the police to find “imminent death or great bodily harm”: they called a press conference to announce that they won’t be charging Drejka with anything.
“He told deputies that he had to shoot to defend himself. Those are the facts and that’s the law.”
