I've done nothing wrong. I'm looking at the clouds. - Week 20 police killings
The officers who killed Andrew Brown last month won't be charged — and the video won't be released.
The Pasquotank County District Attorney has decided not to charge the officers who killed Andrew Brown Jr. last month. In doing so, he strangely side-stepped a state law that says only a judge can decide to make footage publicly available, and showed some of the footage during a press conference earlier today. The issue was not lost on one reporter, nor was the fact that Brown was driving away from the officers as they fired into the back of his car. The defiant prosecutor, Andrew Womble, defended the officers’ actions, saying they were forced to “extinguish a threat.” Whether Brown was actually a threat will be up to debate now because the public doesn’t have access to all the footage. Unfortunately, it will take some time for a truly independent analysis of that footage because Womble was only displaying the video today, not releasing it. Wrap your heads around that.
This one ain’t over, not by a longshot.
Here are nationwide police killings between Tuesdays for the 19th and 20th weeks of 2021:
Friday
Police in Rochester, NY shot and killed Mark Gaskill Friday morning. Gaskill was suspected of having a gun following a shots fired call and a subsequent traffic stop. BWC footage released follows the general trend of police releasing footage when a shooting or killing is obviously justified — which this one was — but denying or delaying release of evidence when situations are far more questionable.
Police in Pennington County, N.D. shot and killed a man who allegedly pointed a long gun at them. No mention of BWC footage.
Police in Denver shot and killed Cedric Vick after he allegedly shot at a woman and her toddler, carjacked her vehicle and fired at police at the end of a car chase. BWC footage exists.
Police in Augusta County, VA shot and killed Jeffrey J. Bruce after he allegedly charged at officers while holding a knife. No mention of BWC footage.
Sunday
Police in Birmingham, Ala. killed Brian Timothy Dunne after he allegedly shot two citizens, killing one, and then fired on officers when they attempted to arrest him at his home for the shootings. Four officers were apparently shot or grazed. No mention of BWC footage.
Police in Omaha, NE shot and killed Deven Telford after he allegedly fired at officers responding to an assault in progress. BWC and dashcam footage exist, but police said some of the footage may not capture the shooting.
Police in Baltimore shot and killed a man who was holding a family member hostage with a knife. BWC footage exists and is expected to be released.
Monday
Police in Chamblee, GA killed a man after responding to a 911 call of a kidnapping, a car chase and a foot chase. Chamblee police fired tasers but apparently had no effect. At some point, police fired their guns and killed the man. A handgun was located at the scene nearby, according to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation. No mention of BWC footage.
Police in Monterey Park, CA shot and killed a man at a gas station Monday afternoon. Local media had not obtained information about what led to the shooting as of this writing and neither story mentioned BWC footage.
Police in Dickinson, N.D. shot and killed a man after he allegedly pointed a gun at police during a domestic disturbance call. No mention of BWC footage.
Police in Waldorf, MD shot and killed a man who had allegedly shot two officers in a barricade situation. The officers were not wearing body cameras.
Police in Peoria, Ariz. shot and killed a man who allegedly fired at an officer. No mention of BWC footage.
In other news:
The Oklahoma City Police Department released BWC footage of the killing Daniel Hobbs, and cell phone video has emerged showing the fatal shooting. The footage shows the officer, Daniel Lopez, approach Hobbs, who is staring at the sky and says he was “trying to get the sky to come down.” After a brief conversation in which the officer interrogates Hobbs about his mental health status and what medications he’s on, Lopez moves in to check Hobbs for weapons. When Hobbs insists that all he has is a wallet, Lopez grabs his arms and tries to cuff him. “You’re trying to handcuff me when I’ve done nothing wrong. I’m looking at the clouds.” The two go to the ground and begin to struggle. Police claim that the footage proves witness accounts that Hobbs was going for Lopez’s taser, but the footage doesn’t make that entirely clear. (Also, recall that Rayshard Brooks had former Atlanta police officer Garrett Rolfe’s taser when Rolfe shot and killed Brooks — and Rolfe was later charged.) The cell phone video shows the two rolling around on the ground when Lopez fires several shots down into Hobbs at point-blank range. Whatever happened on the ground — and that remains a matter of great debate — this killing shows exactly why mental health professionals should be called in certain situations. This was one such situation. Hobbs is clearly out of it but is also politely talking before Lopez moves in. Police claim the off button on Lopez’s body camera was pushed during the struggle, so the shooting itself isn’t shown.
A prosecutor in Hawaii continues to consider charges against officers who killed a South African man there on April 14 in a bizarre situation in which the man may have mistaken a home he entered for a temple.
The Dallas Morning News has an exposé on a Texas cop who kept getting hired by various departments despite a string of sexual assault allegations.
The Savannah Police Department continues to have a bad month with one of its officers from the special victims unit now accused of minor assault of a child. The incident follows the apparent in-custody suicide of William Zachary Harvey, for which there is inesplicably no video of despite him being in an interrogation room, and the subsequent sharing of a noose meme in a text thread among officers.
CNN reports that 15 police unions representing more than 250,000 law enforcement officers are pushing guidance that require cops witnessing wrongdoing to intervene — an act that is currently not always protected by unions. This is a step in the right direction, but a depressing one considering that one would think one’s morals would prompt them to intervene in the event of an obvious and heinous crime like the killing of George Floyd, instead of relying on union protection to do so. However, Lucy Steigerwald is right to point out that the Fraternal Order of Police, which represents some 350,000 cops nationwide, was not involved in planning the guidance.