Cases in which black
people were killed by the police or died in their custody have risen to
national prominence in recent years, often prompting protests nationwide.
In some of the cases, the police offered an
explanation for their actions, but many viewers of raw footage concluded that
their actions were unjustified. Empressive Naija brings you 10 of those cases while the deceased family still pray for justice.
ERIC GARNER:
On July 17, 2014, Eric Garner was
chocked to death in the New York City borough of Staten Island after Daniel
Pantaleo, a New York City Police Department (NYPD) officer, put him in a chokehold
while arresting him. Video footage of the incident generated widespread
national attention and raised questions about the appropriate 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 refused to cooperate and pulled his arms away. Pantaleo then
placed his arm around Garner's neck and wrestled him to the ground. With
multiple officers restraining him, Garner repeated the words "I can't
breathe" 11 times while lying face down on the sidewalk.
After Garner lost consciousness,
officers turned him onto his side to ease his breathing. Garner 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.
On December 3, 2014, a Richmond
County grand jury decided not to indict Pantaleo.
MICHAEL BROWN
On August 9, 2014, Michael Brown
Jr., an 18-year-old black man, was fatally shot by 28-year-old white Ferguson
police officer Darren Wilson in the city of Ferguson, Missouri, a suburb of St.
Louis. Brown was accompanied by his 22-year-old friend Dorian Johnson. Wilson
said that an altercation ensued when Brown attacked Wilson in his police
vehicle for control of Wilson's gun until it was fired.
The U.S. Department of Justice
concluded that Wilson shot Brown in self-defense.
TAMIR RICE
On 22 November 2014 Tamir Rice, a
12-year old African-American boy, was shot in Cleveland, Ohio by Timothy
Loehmann, a 26-year-old police officer. Rice was carrying a replica toy Airsoft
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 black male that "keeps pulling a gun out of his pants and pointing it at
people". Rice's gun was later found to be an airsoft replica that lacked
the orange-tipped barrel. An FBI review by retired agent Kimberly Crawford
found that Rice's death was justified and Loehmann's "response was a
reasonable one.
CHRISTIAN TAYLOR
The shooting death of Christian
Taylor, a 19-year-old college student, by Arlington, Texas police officer Brad
Miller at a car dealership in the city in the early morning hours of August 7,
2015 helped continue the ongoing debate promoted by Black Lives Matter and
other social justice groups concerning young African Americans dying at the
hands of law enforcement. Taylor’s case
was unusual, however, because he was a rare college student killed by police in
a controversial deadly force incident.
ALTON STERLING
On July 5, 2016, Alton Sterling,
a 37-year-old black man, was shot dead at close range by two white Baton Rouge
Police Department officers in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. The officers were
attempting to control Sterling's arms, and Sterling was shot by them after
reportedly reaching for the loaded .38 caliber handgun in his pocket.
Police were responding to a
report that a man in a red shirt was selling CDs and that he had used a gun to
threaten a man outside a convenience store.
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.
The shooting was recorded by multiple
bystanders. The Department of Justice investigated but in May 2017 decided that
it would not file criminal charges against the police officers.
PAUL O'NEAL
The shooting of Paul O'Neal occurred
on July 28, 2016, when he was shot in the back by Chicago Police Department
officers following a grand theft auto chase. O'Neal, 18, struck two police
cars, a parked car, and a police officer while operating a stolen Jaguar.
Police say that O'Neal, who was unarmed, fled from the vehicle after the chase
and refused to stop. The shooting was classified by the medical examiner as a
homicide. Following an investigation, no criminal charges were brought against
the officers involved.
SAMUEL DUBOSE
On July 19, 2015, in Cincinnati,
Ohio, Samuel DuBose, an unarmed black man, was fatally shot by Ray Tensing, a
white University of Cincinnati police officer, during a traffic stop for a
missing front license plate and a suspended driver's license. Tensing fired
after DuBose started his car.
Tensing stated that DuBose had begun to drive off
and that he was being dragged because his arm was caught in the car.
Prosecutors alleged that footage from Tensing's bodycam showed that he was not
dragged, and a grand jury indicted him on charges of murder and voluntary
manslaughter.
He was then fired from the police department. He was released on
bond before trial. A November 2016 trial ended in mistrial after the jury
became deadlocked. A retrial begun in May 2017 also ended in a hung jury. The
charges against Tensing were later dismissed with prejudice.
PHILANDO CASTILE
On July 6, 2016, Philando
Castile, a 32-year-old African American man, was stopped while driving and
fatally shot by Jeronimo Yanez, a 29-year-old Hispanic-American police officer
from St. Anthony, Minnesota.
Castile was driving with his
partner Diamond Reynolds and her four-year-old daughter when at 9:00 p.m. their
vehicle was pulled over by Yanez and another officer in Falcon Heights, a
suburb of Saint Paul, Minnesota. Wrongful death lawsuits against the City
brought by Reynolds and Castile's family were settled for $3.8 million.
TRAYVON MARTIN
Trayvon Benjamin Martin was a
17-year-old African-American teenager from Miami Gardens, Florida, who was
fatally shot in Sanford, Florida by George Zimmerman. Martin had gone with his
father on a visit to his father's fiancée at her townhouse at The Retreat at
Twin Lakes in Sanford. On the evening of February 26, Martin was walking back
alone to the fiancée's house from a nearby convenience store. Zimmerman, a
member of the community watch, saw Martin and reported him to the Sanford
Police as suspicious. Several minutes later, there was an altercation and
Zimmerman fatally shot Martin in the chest. Zimmerman was eventually charged
and tried, but the jury acquitted him of second-degree murder and manslaughter
in July 2013.
FREDDIE CARLOS GRAY,
On April 12, 2015, Freddie Carlos
Gray, Jr., a 25-year-old black man, was arrested by the Baltimore Police
Department and subsequently charged for possessing a knife.While being
transported in a police van, Gray fell into a coma and was taken to the R Adams
Cowley Shock Trauma Center.
Gray died on April 19, 2015; his death was ascribed
to injuries to his spinal cord. On April 21, 2015, pending an investigation of
the incident, six Baltimore police officers were suspended with pay.
In
September 2015, it was decided that there would be separate trials for the
accused. The trial against Officer William Porter ended in mistrial. Officers
Nero, Goodson, and Rice were acquitted
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