Justice For Elijah McClain: Independent Investigation Launched Into Death Of Black Man Put Into Police Chokehold

83 Black Men And Boys Killed By Police

UPDATED: 2:15 p.m. ET, June 2, 2020 -- Police shooting and killing Black males is all but a centuries-old American tradition among law enforcement in the U.S. But the fact that this apparent rite of police passage is still thriving in 2020 and only seems to be gaining momentum and not slowing should give any American citizen pause as an increasing number of Black people -- especially males both young and old -- continue to be added to a growing list of victims with what seems like a new shooting every week. The sad trend revealed itself during a protest against police violence as David McAtee was killed while demonstrating following the in-custody killing of George Floyd. McAtee, an unarmed businessman in Louisville, Kentucky, where police had recently killed Breonna Taylor in her own home. He was killed when police and the National Guard recklessly returned fire from people shooting at them, hitting McAtee fatally. It was the latest botched police response for a police department buried in scandal. [caption id="attachment_3952732" align="alignnone" width="622"] Source: Twitter[/caption] McAtee's death came days after Floyd was purportedly suspected of forgery, a nonviolent crime that certainly didn't warrant Minneapolis Police Officer Derek Chauvin handcuffing him and kneeling on the 46-year-old Black man's neck until he died. On May 6, police in Indianapolis shot and killed Sean Reed, a 21-year-old U.S. military veteran who was unarmed. Unbeknownst to the cops, Reed was live-streaming the episode on Facebook, a circumstance that allowed the police to be recorded joking about the shooting. https://twitter.com/heyarielouise/status/1258190713210036224?s=20 On April 18, two San Leandro Police officers killed Steven Demarco Taylor, a 33-year-old father of three who was holding a baseball bat and having a manic episode when he was tasered multiple times and shot in a Walmart store in northern California. Lee Merritt, the civil rights attorney who has been retained by Taylor’s family, claims the two cops used “force without proper justification” and pointed out they were “poorly trained to deal with individuals suffering from a mental health crisis.” Merritt said the video footage “is sufficient evidence for authorities to issue an arrest warrant for the shooting officers. He also called on the San Leandro Police department to identify the officers, who he said pose a “deadly threat” to the public. Merritt told the Guardian that even though they were called to Walmart because of a suspected robbery, their training should have informed them that Taylor was suffering from mental illness. Ariane McCree was shot and killed by two Chester Police officers in South Carolina after being detained for allegedly shoplifting at a Walmart on Nov. 23, according to the Herald Online. Police claimed that the 28-year-old was placed in custody, then fled and showed officers a gun. However, the family of McCree, who have filed a wrongful death lawsuit, claims that he was “handcuffed, with his hands behind his back, when he was fatally shot,” according to the report. The lawsuit also claimed that McCree was shot by three officers. The officers were not named in the lawsuit, however, the Chester Police Department, Walmart, the city of Chester and three officers said to be involved in the shooting are listed as defendants. The lawsuit said that McCree went to the Walmart to purchase a new door lock. McCree went through the cashier line, where the employee put the lock in a bag, according to the report. The lawsuit claims McCree left the store but returned after realizing the cashier forgot to charge him for the lock. He was then confronted by police and taken into a loss prevention room at the store. McCree attempted to explain why he returned to the store but was then detained and searched. The lawsuit states that he ran out of the store because he feared for his life. The lawsuit continued, saying that while handcuffed, McCree ran from the loss prevention room to the crowded Walmart parking lot, in hopes that shoppers would take notice and intervene. The officers “drew their weapons and began a firefight in the Walmart parking lot -- indiscriminately shooting their guns at a handcuffed Ariane as he frantically sought refuge behind parked cars,” according to the lawsuit. The family of McCree is alleging that he was killed in a wrongful death because of the defendants’ actions. https://twitter.com/GSuskinWSOC9/status/1224352582933590016 Terrance Franklin was 22 years old and unarmed when he was fatally shot in a dark basement by Minneapolis SWAT officers who were responding to a burglary in May of 2013, according to the Star Tribune. In a lawsuit filed by Franklin’s father, Walter Louis Franklin, II, he alleged that his son had already surrendered with his hands in the air when he was shot. Officers and city officials, however, claim that Franklin was shot after trying to wrestle an M5 rifle from an officer. Two other officers were hit by gunfire, but they both survived. On Friday, six years after Franklin’s death, Minneapolis City Council reached a settlement with his family for $795,000. The details of the settlement have not been disclosed. https://twitter.com/WCCO/status/1228303066555977728 A 23-year-old man named Miles Hall, who suffered from mental illness, was fatally shot by Walnut Creek Police in San Francisco on June 2, 2019. His family has filed a wrongful death lawsuit alleging that his civil rights were violated, according to a report from a San Francisco CBS affiliate. Hall’s family called for help the day he was killed as a precautionary measure because he was running through the neighborhood “behaving erratically,” while carrying a long pry bar that police considered to be a weapon. The police called Hall over when they arrived at the scene. The man ran towards the officers, but ordered him to stop, which he did momentarily before changing directions. His family said Hall was attempting to run “past” the officers. One of the officers fired several “bean bag” rounds at Hall as he approached them while running, but he did not stop running, according to the report. Other officers opened fire, fatally wounding him. Civil Rights attorney, John Burris, who is representing the family, said that the officers were equipped with tasers, but did not use them. Some of the officers on the scene have done crisis intervention training, and a specialist was notified that Hall was involved in a crisis. However, the safety measures were not adhered to. The family says they reached out to Walnut Creek Police on numerous occasions in the event that they needed help with Hall, the end result would not be fatal. The killing was captured via video footage, which was edited and later released by police on social media. https://twitter.com/kron4news/status/1172383435316318210 Most recently, an unarmed driver was handcuffed and placed in a police car before an officer shot him to death on the night of Jan. 27 in Prince George's County, Maryland, Fox DC reported. The man has been identified by his family as William Green. More than 18 hours later, the Prince George's County Police Department had still not fully briefed the media, prompting questions from Green's family about potential false narratives being spread about the victim in an effort to protect the officer who killed him. Still shots from videos claim to show Green not being aggressive, contradicting police reports. It was unclear how old Green was at the time of his killing. https://twitter.com/TraceeWilkins/status/1222227596932452352?s=20 Prior to that, police in Cobb County, Georgia shot and killed a teenager on Jan. 16 who they said was identified as a "murder suspect." When cops went to serve a warrant to Samuel David Mallard at his home, the 19-year-old reportedly fled before officers stopped he vehicle and "Issued verbal command," according to a press release from the Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI). What came next, though, was unclear -- except for the part where four police officers all fired shots at Mallard, who local news outlets said vaguely "did not cooperate" with law enforcement. Conveniently, the GBI also announced that "a gun was found in Mallard’s vehicle," although there were no reports that alleged gun ever posed a threat to the lives of the officers involved. Some of the other victims' names include, but certainly aren't limited to, Tamir Rice; Botham Shem Jean; E.J. Bradford; and Michael Brown. But two of the most recent names that can tragically be included in this deadly equation are Michael Dean, a 28-year-old father who police shot in the head on Dec. 3, 2019, and Jamee Johnson, a 22-year-old HBCU student who police shot to death after a questionable traffic stop on Dec. 14, 2019. One of the most distressing parts of this seemingly nonstop string of police killings of Black people is the fact that more times than not, the officer involved in the shooting can hide behind the claim that they feared for their lives -- even if the victim was shot in the back, as has become the case for so many deadly episodes involving law enforcement. In a handful of those cases -- such as Antwon Rose, a 13-year-old boy killed in Pittsburgh, and Stephon Clark, a 22-year-old killed in Sacramento, both of whom were unarmed -- the officers either avoided being criminally charged altogether or were acquitted despite damning evidence that the cops' lives were not threatened and there was no cause for them to resort to lethal force or any violence for that matter. Civil rights attorney Benjamin Crump, who has been retained in so many of these cases, described the above scenarios in his new book, "Open Season," as the "genocide" of Black people. As NewsOne continues covering these shootings that so often go ignored by mainstream media, the below running list (in no certain order) of Black men and boys who have been shot and killed by police under suspicious circumstances can serve as a tragic reminder of the dangers Black and brown citizens face upon being born into a world of hate that has branded them as suspects since birth.