Two Innocent Black Men Shot By Police, Then Falsely Accused Of Murder
LOS ANGELES (CN) - An Inglewood police officer shot down two innocent and unarmed men, without warning or questions and without identifying himself, the men say in Federal Court.
Thirty-five-year-old Robert Pickett, of Los Angeles, and Darryl Lewis, 39, of Gardena, say they spent the day grilling burgers with friends and were picking up some dumbbells and checking on one of Pickett’s cousins after midnight on May 24, 2011, when Officer Mike Bolliger pulled up and came out shooting.
Pickett says Bollinger “parked his car at the corner, got out armed with his shotgun cocked, loaded and ready to fire” and shot them.
“No questions asked, no weapons seen, no words offered or exchanged. Defendant Bollinger blasted three shotgun rounds at the hapless and unarmed plaintiffs, striking them and wounding them as they sought to take cover from assault, leaving them in critical condition, bleeding face-down on the ground,” Pickett says in the Dec. 3 complaint.
The men say Bollinger was responding with no partner or backup to a report of a home invasion robbery by two black men who might be armed with handguns, at the apartment complex where Pickett’s cousin lived. The “sketchy information” about the robbers said only that they were black men, according to the complaint. Lewis stood by the security gate at the front of the apartment complex, smoking a cigarette, while Pickett punched in the pass code and said he was going to see his cousin.
Then, “Without warning, without investigation, without knowledge of who was in the area, of who the suspects were or what they looked like, and in violation of all training and standard police protocol, [Bollinger] approached the apartment gate and immediately shot Mr. Lewis and Mr. Pickett,” the complaint states.
Pickett, a handyman who has a son and was engaged to be married at the time, suffered seven gunshot wounds, including one to his head.
Lewis, a husband and father of four, was shot once in the back and three times in the legs.
After other officers arrived and handcuffed them, the men say, “It became apparent that the wrong men had been shot as a result of Bolliger’s rash, reckless and life-endangering conduct.”
Though they lay bleeding and handcuffed, “in critical condition,” the men say, the officers “set out to cover up the shooting of these two innocent, unarmed men.”
To top it off, they say, “While driving with reckless abandon to the scene, they ran over a pedestrian, in a cross walk, killing her.”
Pickett and Lewis sued four other officers, in addition to Bolliger and the city.
The cover-up was a bogus story that Lewis and/or Pickett had pointed guns at Bolliger, according to the complaint. “The problem for defendant Bolliger and the rest of defendant police officers was that neither plaintiff was armed; neither possessed a weapon of any kind. Likewise, neither plaintiff was in possession of any of the stolen items supposedly taken by the suspect in the robbery,” the complaint states.
Read the full story here and here
Where cops learned to act this way? In action movies of 90s? In video games? That’s totally dope. I’m speechless. I think the story tells for itself. I hope that Mike Bolliger and cops who helped him to cover up his insane deed will face serious charges, ‘cause this case is incredibly outrageous. LAPD is famous for its crappy deeds, but this one is the worst shit I’ve ever met. More than that here’s another story about racial profiling.
areudirty
jbbartram-illu
kianamaiart
