Video Shows Sacramento Police Shooting Unarmed Black Man in His Own Backyard

New York Magazine · by Adam K. Raymond · March 22, 2018

Stephon Clark.

Police in Sacramento shot and killed a 22-year-old black man Sunday night after mistaking an iPhone he was holding for a gun. Body-camera footage of the shooting, which is sparking protests in the California capital, was released Wednesday and it shows that mere seconds passed between police encountering Stephon Clark and shooting him dead.

“Hey, show me your hands. Stop. Stop,” one of the officers is heard yelling on the video seconds after spotting Clark in a driveway. Two officers then chase him into a yard where one can heard saying, “Gun. Gun. Gun.”

Then both officers opened fire.

In a statement, Sacramento police say Clark “advanced towards the officers while holding an object which was extended in front of him.” The officers believed this to be a gun and “fearing for their safety,” fired on him. What the SPD statement does not say is that Clark was not holding a gun. He was holding a white iPhone.

The incident began just after 9 p.m. Sunday when police received a report of a man breaking car windows. A police helicopter spotted Clark and followed him as officers on the ground tried to locate him. They found him in the driveway of his grandmother’s house and he was soon dead.

The SPD has said that Clark is the same man who was reported breaking car windows but his grandmother told the Sacramento Bee that they are mistaken. “You guys are murderers, murderers, murderers,” Sequita Thompson recalls telling the officers. “You guys killed that baby for nothing. You took him away from his kids, for nothing.”

Activists in Sacramento and beyond have questioned the police’s actions. “We need answers. The family needs answers,” Black Lives Sacramento organizer Tanya Faison said at a City Council meeting Tuesday night. “We need those officers to be fired because this was obviously a very huge injustice.”

Reverend Al Sharpton said he’s traveling to the city, and the local NAACP condemned the killing in a statement:

“While we respect the role of (SPD) in our community … these shooting(s) have angered, frustrated and frighten(ed) people in our community,” the statement said. “We are also frustrated with the justice system which fails to indict such killings. We are a community experiencing post-traumatic stress and as such the community and police relations(hip) remains one of mistrust.”

Sacramento’s Democratic mayor was not so quick to criticize though. “Based on the videos alone, I cannot second guess the split-second decisions of our officers, and I’m not going to do that,” Mayor Darrell Steinberg said in a statement.

New York Magazine · by Adam K. Raymond · March 22, 2018 

http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2018/03/video-shows-police-shoot-unarmed-black-man-in-his-own-yard.html

Officer who killed Australian bride-to-be is charged with murder NBC News

A police officer who mistakenly shot and killed an Australian woman last July in Minneapolis was indicted on a charge of third-degree murder Tuesday, and the city's top prosecutor blamed "uncooperative" cops for slowing down the investigation.

Officer Mohamed Noor was also charged with second-degree manslaughter in connection with the death of Justine Ruszczyk Damond, according to records from the Hennepin County Jail. Bail was set at $500,000.

Mike Freeman, the Hennepin County attorney, blamed stonewalling by the Minneapolis police for the delay. "This would have been done a good deal quicker if we had gotten cooperation," he said at a news conference.

Asked for comment, the police union declined to address Freeman's claims.

Damond, 40, a life coach and motivational speaker from Sydney, called 911 on July 15 to report a possible sexual assault in the alley behind her home. When Noor and his partner, Officer Matthew Harrity, drove up in their SUV, Damond walked toward the car.

Harrity, who was at the wheel, said that he was startled by a loud noise just before Damond approached the open driver’s side window and that Noor fired from the passenger seat, striking the woman.

Both officers were wearing body cameras, but they were turned off, as were the headlights of their vehicle. No evidence of any sexual assault was ever found.

Tom Plunkett, a lawyer for Noor, said Freeman "contemplated these charges long before the grand jury investigation he directed was even commenced."

"The facts will show that Officer Noor acted as he has been trained and consistent with established departmental policy," Plunkett said in a statement. "Officer Noor should not have been charged with any crime."

The Ruszczyk family in Australia and the victim's fiancé, Don Damond, said they welcomed the indictment.

"While we waited over eight months to come to this point, we are pleased with the way a grand jury and County Attorney Mike Freeman appear to have been diligent and thorough in investigating and ultimately determining that these charges are justified," they said in a statement.

Damond’s maiden name was Ruszczyk, but she had already started using Damond's last name. Her death made international news and resulted in the ouster of Police Chief Janeé Harteau.

Noor could go before a judge as early as Wednesday, Freeman said. He has not spoken with investigators.

Asked why it took eight months to bring charges, Freeman blamed the blue wall of silence.

"Many officers refused to answer questions, " he said. "We therefore had to subpoena them to testify before a grand jury."

In a statement, the Police Officers Federation of Minneapolis did not address Freeman's assertion that certain police officers did not cooperate with investigators.

"The federation isn’t privy to the details of the criminal case and cannot comment on specifics of the case," the statement said. "We respect the criminal justice process and wait for the case to proceed before making further comment."

In December, Freeman told union members that he did not yet have enough evidence to file charges against Noor.

“He won’t answer my questions, because he doesn't have to, OK?" Freeman said in a videotaped exchange. "We all have Fifth Amendment rights, and I respect that.

"And let me just say, it's not my fault," Freeman said in the video. "If it isn't my fault, who didn't do their jobs? ... Investigators — and they don't work for me. And they haven't done their job."

But on Dec. 18, Freeman apologized for his comments, calling them “ill-advised,” and said he was not aware that he was being recorded.

Noor has been on paid administrative leave since the shooting. Initially, his fate was supposed to be left to prosecutors rather than to a grand jury after the process was criticized as unfair because it rarely results in police officers being charged with crimes.

Freeman said he was forced to change course after officers he wanted to question about the tragic fatal shooting balked at talking with investigators.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/officer-who-fatally-shot-justine-damond-charged-murder-n831206

North Carolina officer charged with assaulting black jaywalking suspect

denverpost.com · by Jonathan Drew · March 9, 2018

RALEIGH, N.C. — A white police officer whose body camera recorded him beating a black pedestrian he accused of jaywalking has been arrested on assault charges in North Carolina.

Christopher Hickman was charged late Thursday with assault by strangulation, assault inflicting serious injury and communicating threats, according to the Buncombe County District Attorney’s Office. A phone listing for Hickman had a full inbox that wouldn’t take messages Friday.

The Asheville Police chief put Hickman on desk duty immediately following the beating last August, and he resigned from the force in January after an internal investigation determined he should be fired. Still, the case remained a secret until the recording was leaked to the local newspaper and published last week, sparking community outrage. The FBI is now investigating.

The camera recorded Hickman saying “he’s not learning!” before a trainee confronts Johnnie Jermaine Rush for jaywalking. Hickman first told the trainee to write him a ticket, but then told Rush to put his hands behind his back after Rush complained that officers didn’t have anything better to do than “harass somebody” for walking.

Rush then tried to run and Hickman brought him down, repeatedly punching him in the head, the video shows. Hickman also struck him and shocked him with a stun gun and put him in a chokehold, according to city documents.

An arrest warrant for Hickman notes that he struck Rush multiple times, causing abrasions and swelling to his head. The warrant said Rush lost consciousness when Hickman placed his arm on his throat and applied pressure.

Describing the threat charge, it also notes that Hickman can be heard saying to Rush: “You’re going to get f—-d up hardcore.”

Officers charged Rush with impeding traffic and resisting arrest, but the charges were dropped. In the recording, made as the streets were deserted, Rush said he was just walking home from his restaurant job when he was stopped near a minor league ballpark and breweries that fuel the city’s booming tourism industry.

The case remained out of the public eye for months until the recording was leaked to The Citizen-Times and published last week, sparking outrage. Angry commenters at a public meeting this week questioned why the case unfolded so slowly and secretly.

Asheville police finished an administrative probe in December, concluding that Hickman should be fired. He resigned instead at the beginning of a January meeting where he was scheduled to be terminated.

Authorities then sought an outside criminal probe in January by the State Bureau of Investigation, which declined to lead an investigation partly because of the months-long lapse in time since the violent arrest. Instead, an Asheville detective began looking into whether charges were warranted. The FBI has also launched a criminal investigation.

A Wednesday meeting of a citizen’s police advisory board began with Police Chief Tammy Hooper offering a timeline of what she called “a very egregious and violent episode.”

She emphasized that she reviewed the recording and put Hickman on administrative duty only hours after Rush’s arrest, following his complaint.

“He never went back on the streets,” she said of Hickman, before her remarks were cut short by audience interruptions.

Asheville’s mayor and City Council complained that they didn’t know about the case until the video was published.

The City Council issued a statement Wednesday saying: “we are furious that no one thought that we — Asheville’s elected leaders — needed to know about this incident.” The council said it plans to seek a third-party audit of the police department for signs of racial bias. Asheville’s population of nearly 90,000 is about 82 percent white and 12 percent black.

denverpost.com · by Jonathan Drew · March 9, 2018 

https://www.denverpost.com/2018/03/09/north-carolina-officer-jaywalking-assault/

Nondrinker wrongly charged with DUI gets nearly $1M from NYC

By Crimesider Staff AP March 2, 2018, 3:31 PM

NEW YORK — A man who doesn't drink but was arrested on an impaired driving charge has settled his lawsuit against New York City for nearly $1 million.

According to the Daily News, Oliver Wiggins says he was charged in a cover-up after an officer ran a Brooklyn stop sign and hit his car in 2015. 

"It is our position that the police officers attempted to do that simply to hide the fact and cover up the fact that they operated their vehicle in a reckless manor," lawyer Scott Rynecki told CBS New York at the time.

Wiggins tested negative for alcohol and drugs. Three months later, prosecutors dismissed the charges.

Wiggins says he had his driver's license suspended and his insurance company wouldn't cover car repairs because of the arrest. He also reportedly injured his arm.

The New York Police Department referred a comment request to the New York City Law Department, which says settling the case was in the city's best interest.

According to the Daily News, the officers involved in the case have not been charged with any wrongdoing and are still employed by the department.

© 2018 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/nondrinker-wrongly-charged-with-dui-gets-nearly-1m-from-nyc/