Keith Lamont Scott
Feb. 3, 1973 – Sept. 20, 2016 | Charlotte, NC
Keith, 43, was sitting in his truck in a shaded part of an apartment parking lot where he often waited for his son’s school bus in the afternoons. He was reading a book when plain-clothes officers approached him. Upon getting out of his vehicle the officer shot him because they “thought” he had a gun. He was a loving husband and a father of 7.
PLEASE take a moment of silent reflection in honor of Keith and his family, and pray for JUSTICE for the black community.
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Jordan Baker
Unknown – January 16, 2014
Houston, TX
Jordan was riding his bike in a strip mall parking lot when off duty officer, Juventino Castro, noticed him. According to Castro, Jordan looked suspicious. There had been a re3cent string of burglaries in the area, and Castro believed Jordan was possibly “casing out” stores. Video evidence contradicted his statements, and simply show the young man riding hid bike a modest distance away in a hoodie. Baker quickly rides in and then out of the frame, only to reappear about 20 seconds later, biking even further away from the stores. A white sedan presumably Caster, soon starts to follow Baker, who didn’t take long to stop.
The spoke briefly, and Jordan ran away, out of the view of the camera, down an alley between two stores of the strip mall. HPD reported “A brief struggle and foot chase ensured. At some point, Baker stopped fleeing and, while reaching into his waistband, charged at the office. Officer Castro, fearing for his life, discharged his duty weapon one time, striking Baker.” Baker at some point lost his hoodie during the confrontation with Castro: dying handcuffed and shirtless with a bullet in his chest.
PLEASE take a moment of silent reflection in honor of Jordan and his family, and pray for JUSTICE for the black community.
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Trayvon B. Martin
Feb. 5, 1995 – Feb. 26, 2012
Sanford, FL
Trayvon Benjamin Martin, 17, born on February 5, 1995, was the son of Sybrina Fulton and Tracy Martin. He was visiting with his father and his father’s fiance at her townhome in The Retreat at Twin Lakes in Sanford, Florida, when, while walking from a convenience store, the unarmed youth was fatally shot and murdered on February 26, 2012. Trayvon, who wasa apparently doing nothing more menacing the evening of Feb. 26th than walking home from a convenience store, was shot in the chest during an altercation with a neighborhood watch captain who thought the teen in a hoodie looked “suspicious.”
PLEASE take a moment of silent reflection in honor of Trayvon and his family, and pray for JUSTICE for the black community.
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Kajieme Powell
25 years old; Died August 19, 2014
St. Louis, MO
Report says Kajieme Powell stole a snack and two energy drinks from a convenience store. When a store clerk confronted him on the street, Powell allegedly threatened the clerk. Concerned by Powell’s behavior, two witnesses called 911. They observed that Powell was carrying a knife.
What happened next was captured on a cellphone video. Powell, who was schizophrenic, never threatened any of the several onlookers who were watching him mumble and pace in front of the store, appearing to be having a mental breakdown. Two police officers responded to the scene in an SUV. The officers exited their vehicle and drew their guns. They commanded Powell to remove his hand from his pocket and to drop his knife. Powell made his way toward the officers, at first backing away then climbing over a retaining wall and helling at the officers to shoot him. They did. Each officer fired six shots, first in a quick volley of shots, followed by a brief pause, and then two more shots, once Powell was on the ground. Less than 30 seconds elapsed from the time police arrived on the scene until Powell was dead. After he was down police proceeded to handcuff his body.
PLEASE take a moment of silent reflection in honor of Kajieme and his family, and pray for JUSTICE for the black community.
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George Floyd
1974-May 25th, 2020
Minneapolis, Minnesota
On May 25, 2020, George Floyd, a 46-year-old black man suspected of passing a counterfeit $20 bill, died in Minneapolis, Minnesota after Derek Chauvin, a white police officer, pressed his knee to Floyd’s neck for almost nine minutes while floyd was handcuffed face down in the street; two other officers further restrained Floyd while a fourth prevented onlookers from intervening. During the final three minutes Floyd was motionless and had no pulse, but officers made no attempt to revive him and Chauvin kept his knee on Floyd’s neck even as arriving emergency medical technicians attempted to treat him.
PLEASE take a moment of silent reflection in honor of George and his family, and pray for JUSTICE for the black community.
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Kayla Moore
41 Years Old; Died February 13, 2013
Berkeley, CA
Kayla was a transgender woman of color living with schizophrenia.Late on the night of Feb. 12th, a friend of hers reached out to police worried that Kayla was having a mental health episode and was in need of an evaluation and assistance.
Kayla was having an argument with her girlfriend when her friend and caregiver arrived on the scene to try to calm things down. BPD had done several welfare checks on Kayla before. Two officers were dispatched and finding warrants out for someone with Kayla’s give name, but the wrong date of birth, the officers decided to taker her in. One stated that regardless of the warrant, she still wanted to take Moore into custody for a Welfare and Institutions evaluation. Kayla was disoriented and expressed her belief that the officers were not really police officers. When she turned to go back into her apartment, Officer Brown signaled Officer Tu that they should go “hands on.” After a short but violent struggle, officers described Kayla as becoming “more compliant” but a minute later, they noticed that Moore was not breathing. The officers removed the handcuffs and began chest compressions while Officer Brown “held his head to open up his airways.” No officers present claim to have attempted to assist or restore her breathing. When paramedics arrived at Moore’s apartment they took over chest compressions and administered oxygen. They placed the now unconscious Moore onto a gurney and transferred her to Alta Bates Hospital where she was pronounced dead.
PLEASE take a moment of silent reflection in honor of Kayla and her family, and pray for JUSTICE for the black community.
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Tamir Rice
25 June 2002 – 23 November 2014
Cleveland, Ohio
On 22 November 2014 Tamir Rice, a 12-year old African-American boy, was killed 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 male who “keeps pulling a gun out of his pants and pointing it at people.” A caller reported that a male was pointing “a pistol” at random people at the Cudell Recreation Center, a park in the City of Cleveland’s Public Works Department. At the beginning of the call and again in the middle, he says of the pistol “it’s probably fake.” Toward the end of the two-minute call, the caller states that “he is probably a juvenile”; however, this information was not relayed to officers Loehmann or Garmback on the initial dispatch. The officers reported that upon their arrival, they both continuously yelled “show me your hands” through the open patrol car windows. Loehmann further claimed that instead of showing his hands, it appeared as if Rice was trying to draw; “I knew it was a gun and I knew it was coming out.” In response, the officer shot twice, hitting Rice once in the torso. He died the following day.
PLEASE take a moment of silent reflection in honor of Tamire and his family, and pray for JUSTICE for the black community.
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Atatiana Koquice Jefferson
November 28, 1990 – October 12, 2019
Fort Worth, Texas
Atatiana Koquice Jefferson, a 28-year-old woman, was shot and killed in her home by a police officer in Fort Worth, Texas, United States, in the early morning of October 12, 2019. Police arrived at her home after a neighbor called a non-emergency number, stating that Jefferson’s front door was open. Police body camera footage showed that when she came to her window to observe police outside her home, Officer Aaron Dean shot through it and killed her. Police stated that they found a handgun near her body, which according to her 8-year-old nephew, she was pointing toward the window before being shot.
PLEASE take a moment of silent reflection in honor of Atatiana and her family, and pray for JUSTICE for the black community.
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Malissa Williams & Timothy Russell
1982-November 29, 2012
Cleveland, OH
Williams was staying at the Lutheran Metropolitan Ministries homeless shelter on November 29. She suffered from mental illness and was chronically homeless. She also had a history of cocaine and marijuana use.
On the night of the shooting, Williams entered Russell’s car; an onlooker reported the two to the police because the onlooker believed the pair intended to acquire drugs. Plainclothes Officer John Jordan pulled up behind the car and followed it from the area. Noticing the car following them, Russell became startled and sped away, resulting in a sixty-two-police car chase at speeds up to 100 miles per hour through the streets of Cleveland.
Throughout the chase, officers gave false live reports on the radio broadcast. Perhaps the most crucial of these false reports was a statement by one of the officers saying that one of the suspects was pointing a gun from the window of the car, when in fact Russell was putting his hand out of the window to signal to the officers to stop firing at them. At the time he had on black gloves and was holding a red soda can.
Thirteen officers then began firing more than one hundred rounds within the eight seconds that followed. Reportedly, there were so many shots fired that the officers didn’t know who was doing the shooting. The chase ended when Russell collided with a police car in a middle school parking lot. Officer Michael Brelo, one of the officers involved in the chase, got out of his car and fired at least fifteen shots from atop the hood of Russell’s car at both Russell and Williams at close range.
Williams’ cause of death was twenty-four gunshot wounds to the head, neck, body, and left arm. Her death was ruled a homicide. Her toxicology report showed she tested positive for cocaine and marijuana. There were no firearms found in the car.
PLEASE take a moment of silent reflection in honor of Malissa, Timothy and their family, and pray for JUSTICE for the black community.
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Aiyana MoNay Stanley-Jones
July 20, 2002 – May 16, 2010
Detroit, MI
Seven-year-old Alyana Jones was sleeping on the couch next to her grandmother in their Detroit, Michigan home when a SWAT team threw a flashbang through the window, which landed on her blanket. Seconds after Aiyana’s blanket caught fire, the SWAT team stormed through the door. A half-dozen masked officers of the Special Response Team – Detroit’s version of SWAT – were coming through the door, guns drawn. In tow was an A&E crew filming an episode of The First 48, it’s true-crime program. The concept of the show is that homicide detectives have 48 hours to crack a murder case before the trail goes cold. Thirty-four hours earlier, Jo-Rean Blake Nobles, 17, had been shot outside a liquor store on nearby Mack Avenue; an informant had ID’d a man named Chauncey Owens as the shooter and provided this address. Officer Joseph Weekley, the lead commando – who’d been featured before on another A&E show, Detroit SWAT – burst into the house. His weapon fired a single shot, the bullet striking Aiyana in the head and exiting her neck. It all happened in a matter of seconds. Police first floated the story that Aiyana’s grandmother had grabbed Weekley’s gun. Then, realizing that sounded implausible, they said she’d brushed the gun as she ran past the door. But her grandmother was laying on the far side of the couch, away from the door. Officials reported that the SWAT team was not briefed about the presence of children in the house, although the neighborhood informant who led homicide detectives to the Lillbridege address told them that children lived there. There were even toys on the lawn.
PLEASE take a moment of silent reflection in honor of Aiyana and her family, and pray for JUSTICE for the black community.
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John Crawford III
July 29, 1992 – August 5, 2014
Beavercreek, OH
John Crwford was shopping in a Walmart and picked up an up-packaged BB/Pellet air rifle inside the store’s sporting goods section before continuing shopping in the store. Another customer, Ronald Ritche, Called 911 claiming that Crawford had been pointing the gun at fellow customers.
Security camera footage showed that Crawford was talking on his cellphone and hold the BB gun as he shopped, but at no point did he aim the BB gun at anyone. Two officers of the Beavercreek Polic arrived at the Walmart shortly after their dispatcher informed them of a “subject with a gun” in the pet supplies sarea of the store. Sean Williams, one of the tow police officers that arrived, shot Crwford in the arm and chest. It is reported that the officers gave no verbal warning or commands prior to firing. John was later pronounced dead at Dayton’s Miami Valley Hospital.
PLEASE take a moment of silent reflection in honor of John and his family, and pray for JUSTICE for the black community.
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Gregory Gunn
1958-2016
Montgomery, Alabama
On February 25, 2016, Gunn was walking home from a nearby neighbor’s home in Montgomery after a late-night game of cards. Officer Aaron Cody Smith was patrolling the area, when he saw Gunn walking down the street. The officer stopped Gunn for questions, but did not have his body camera turned on, so it is unclear how the next wseries of events occurred. For reasons unknown, Officer Smith began beating Gun with his baton, prompting the older man to run toward a nearby home. A neighbor, Colvin Hinson, was awakened around 3 o’clock in the morning by the sound of Gunn frantically knocking on his bedroom window, yelling for help. Hinson reached for his phone to call the police. While he dialed the police, he saw Officer Smith shoot Gunn several times with a stun gun, and then heard multiple gun shots. Another neighobr, Scott Mahammed, heard a fight outside, and went out to break it up when he saw Officer Smit point his weapon and shoot the unarmed Gunn several times. More police and an ambulance arrived at the scene of the shooting, but no life-saving techniques were performed on the victim. Gunn was pronounced dead at the scene.
PLEASE take a moment of silent reflection in honor of Gregory and his family, and pray for JUSTICE for the black community.
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Yvette Smith
Died – February 16, 2014
Bastrop, TX
Yvette was seemingly trying to act as a peacemaker during a dispute between two men that involved a gun. She called 911 about half and hour after midnight. When Bastrop Country police arrived at the house, they saw one person (Willie Thomas) already outside. They issued verbal commands for the3 other occupants to exit the property. As Yvette opened the door, deputy Willis shouted “police!” then fired his weapon within three seconds after. She died in the hospital after being shot twice by the deputy using his personal AR-15 semi-automatic rifle. Officers made transparent attempts to justify the shooting by alleging that Yvette had threatened them with a gun, even though no evidence corroborates that story, and no one who knew her could imagine her holding a gun to anyone. Witnesses say the argument between father and son was about money, not a gun. The police statement however, had claimed that Yvette was carrying a firearm and she was described as disregarding the deputy’s commands which led to her being shot. She was a mother of three children.
PLEASE take a moment of silent reflection in honor of Yvette and her family, and pray for JUSTICE for the black community.
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Shereese Francis
30 Years Old; Died March 15, 2012
Queens, NY
Shereese Francis was diagnosed with schizophrenia while studying at Nassau Community College, but she was able to control it through the use of medication and worked hard in school. On the night of her death, Shereese was having a bad mental episode as a result of not having her medication and had become uncooperative to her family’s assistance. Her sister, Shauna, called 311 with hopes of getting Shereese to a hospital where doctors would attempt to persuade her to continue taking the medication. Shauna was transferred to 911 operators who ensured help was on the way. At 10:20 pm four NYPD officers arrived at the Francis family home.
At the sight of the officer’s arrival, Francis became frightened and overwhelmed. It was clear that she was confused about who the officers were and felt they were a threat to her safety as she betan pleading for them to leave while threatening to call the police. As the officers attempted to handcuff Francis, she broke away and fled to the basement. The officers pursued her through the home and cornered her in a bedroom located in the basement. All four officers then tackled Francis down on the bed, piling on their weight on her back. As they held her face down into the mattress, they attempted to handcuff her. Eleen Francis stated she witnessed her daughter struggling to breathe before she eventually went into cardiac arrest. Within 20 minutes of the officers arriving, Francis was no longer breathing as Emergency Medical Responders called to the scene attempted to revive her.
Almost two hours later, Francis was finally taken to the Jamaica Hospital Medical Center where she was pronounced deceased at 30 years old. Staff at the hospital told the family that Francis had been dead for at least 90 minutes prior to her arrival.
PLEASE take a moment of silent reflection in honor of Shereese and her family, and pray for JUSTICE for the black community.
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Walter Scott
February 9, 965 – April 9, 2015
North Charleston, SC
At 9:30 am, April 4, 2015, in the parking lot of an auto parts store at 1945 Remount Road, Slager stopped Scott for a non-functioning third brake light. Scott was driving a 1991 Mercedes, and, according to his brother, was heading to the auto parts store when he was stopped. The video from the Slager’s dashcam shows him approaching Scott’s car, speaking to Scott, and then returning to his patrol car. Scott exited his car and fled with Slager giving chase on foot. Slager pursued Scott into a lot behind a pawn shop at 5654 Rivers Avenue, and the two became involved in a physical altercation. At some point before or during the struggle, Slager fired his Taser, hitting Scott. Scott fled, and Slager drew his .45-caliber Glock 21 handgun, firing eight rounds at home from behind. The coroner’s report stated that Scott was struck a total of five times; three times in the back, once in the upper buttoks, and once on one of this ears. During slagers state trial, forensic pathologist Lee Marie Tormos testified tat the fatal wound was caused by a bullet that entered Scott’s back and struck his lungs and heart.
Immediately following the shooting, Slager radioed a dispatcher, stating, “Shots fired and the subject is down. He grabbed my Taser.” When Slager fired his gun, Scott was approximately 15 to 20 feet (5 to 6 meters) away and fleeing. In the report of the shooting filed before the video surfaced, Slager said he had feared for his life because Scott had taken his Taser, and that she shot because he “felt threatened.” A passenger in Scott’s car, reported to be a male co-worker and friend, was later placed in the back of the police vehicle and briefly detained. A toxicology report showed that Scott had cocaine and alcohol in his system at the time of his death.
PLEASE take a moment of silent reflection in honor of Walter and his family, and pray for JUSTICE for the black community.
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Victor White III
September 11, 1991 – March 2, 2014
Iberia Parish, LA
Vic was leaving a New Iberia convenience store, with friend Isaiah Lewis the night of March 2, 2014. The pair, traveling on foot, were stopped and questioned by deputies who were in the area to investigate a fight reported at the store. During a pat-down, deputies found a small bag containing marijuana and another containing cocaine in White’s pockets. He was arrested, his hands cuffed behind his back, and he was placed in the police car and taken to the station. Lewis was let go. The cops reported “When I went to get him out of the car and he refused, he stated that he couldn’t go back to jail and to tell my family I loved,” and proceed to shoot himself.
At 5:41 am the following day, the Rev. Victor White II said he got a call from another of his sons, L.C. (Leonard) White, who also lived in New Iberia. The White family drove to New Iberia from their home in Alexandria. Not getting any answers about this son at the hospital or from authorities, the minister ended up at the parish morgue. He was able to view his son’s body and administer last rites. “Isaw a mark from about his left eyebrow down to the top of his jawbone. I could see he was beaten. I could see Lil Vic’s left eye was turned inward.”
PLEASE take a moment of silent reflection in honor of Vic and his family, and pray for JUSTICE for the black community.
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Akai Gurley
1986 – November 20, 2014
Brooklyn, NY
Akai Gurlet, a 28-year-old man, was fatally shot on November 20, 2014, in Brookly, New York City, United States, by a New York City Police Department officer. Two police officers, patrolling stairwells in the New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA)’s Luis H. Pink Houses in east New York, Brooklyn, entered a pitch-dark, unlit stairwell, one of them, Officer Peter Liang, 27, with his firearm drawn. Gurley and his girlfriend entered the seventh-floor stairwell, fourteen steps below them. Liang fired his weapon; his shot ricoheted off a wall and fatally struck Gurley in the chest. A jury convicted Liang of manslaughter, which a court later reduced to criminally negligent homicide.
PLEASE take a moment of silent reflection in honor of Akai and his family, and pray for JUSTICE for the black community.
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Shantel Davis
23 years old; Died June 14, 2012
New York City, NY
Just before her death, Davis ran several red lights and crashed the allegedly stolen car she was driving at an intersection in the East Flatbush section of Brooklyn. Two plainclothes police officers saw Davis driving erratically and pursued her vehicle. Once her car came to a stop after colliding with a minivan, the officers got out of their car and approached on foot.
Davis opened her passenger side door, knocking one officer to the ground. She then got back into the driver’s seat. Believing that Davis was trying to drive away, and with the car moving backwards, Detective Phill Atkins reached into her car and tried to shift it into park. While they struggled for control, Atkins shot her once in the chest. When the officers asked her to exit the car, she stumbled out while bleeding profusely onto the pavement in front fo the larger crowd. One witness, George Ricketts, said that Davis had been trying to escape when she was shot, several witnesses stated that she was trapped behind an airbag and was not attempting to get away. It was also unclear whether the officer fired his weapon intentionally or not. Despite paramedics’ attempts to revive, Davis was later pronounced dead at Kings County Hospital.
While Davis had a criminal record, and had an upcoming court appearance at the time of her death, her friends and family said that she was trying to get her GED and turn her life around.
PLEASE take a moment of silent reflection in honor of Shantel and her family, and pray for JUSTICE for the black community.
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Natasha McKenna
Jan 9, 1978 – February 8, 2015
Alexandria, VA
Natasha was being held at the Fairfax County Adult Detention Center by the Fairfax County Sheriff’s Office in Fairfax County, Virginia, due to an outstanding warrant where she had attacked a police officer. After initially cooperating with officials, there was a week-long delay in transporting McKenna back to Alexandra, where better assistance could be provided. Over this period, police became concerned because her mental health deteriorated. Because of the previous assault charge against her, she was restrained with handcuffs, arms behind her back, her legs shackled, and a spit mask placed over her head. During a struggle that lasted over 45 minutes, McKenna, a 130 lb woman who was 5fot 4in tall, was tasered 17 minutes into a cell extraction. A sheriff’s deputy used a stun gun to taser her four times because she wouldn’t be her knees to be put into a wheeled restraint chair. The specialized team that was called in to address her condition was attempting to ready her for transport to Alexandria, Virginia. The team was made up of six members of the Sheriff’s Emergency Response Team (“SERT”) and were dressed in full-body biohazard suits and gas masks. Shortly after being tasered, McKenna suffered cardiac arrest and lost consciousness, but was resuscitated on the way to Inova Fairfax Hospital by emergency responders, was placed on life support, but was determined to be brain dead and was removed from life support after five days. She was pronounced dead on February 8, 2015.
PLEASE take a moment of silent reflection in honor of Natasha and her family, and pray for JUSTICE for the black community.
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Ahmaud Arbery
May 8, 1994 – February 23, 2020
Brunswick, GA
In February, Ahmaud Arbery, an unarmed, 25-year-old black man, was shot to death while jogging in a neighborhood outside Brunswick, Georgia, after being pursued by two white men in a pickup truck. Brother of his pursuers, a father and son named Gregory and Travis McMicael, were arrested or charged with a crime until May, even though Gregory admitted to police that Travis was responsible for the shooting. Gregory claimed that Arbery resembled a suspect who had committed burglaries in the area, but had no evidence of any wrongdoing by Arbery except the color of his skin. It seemed to many like a clear-cut cas of deadly racial profiling. And now, according to attorneys for Arbery’s family, the Department of Justice will investigate the case as a possible hate crime.
PLEASE take a moment of silent reflection in honor of Ahmaud and his family, and pray for JUSTICE for the black community.
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Rekia Boyd
November 5, 1989 – March 21, 2012
Chicago, IL
Servin, an off-duty police officer, drove his car to Douglas Park on the West Side of Chicago after calling the police to make a noise complaint. He then approached a group of four individuals who had been partying in the park and had some form of verbal altercation with them. Reports are unclear as to whether Servin was calm and polite or rude and aggressive. One of the victims, Antonio Cross, accused Servin of attempting to buy drugs from the group, to which Cross allegedly told Servin to get his “crackhead ass” out of there.
Servin fired on the group, hitting Rekia Boyd in the head, and Antonio Cross in the hand. Initially the Chicago police department claimed that Servin had discharged his weapon after Cross had approached him with a gun. The Boyd family quickly responded that the object was in fact a cell phone. No weapon was ever recovered from the scene
PLEASE take a moment of silent reflection in honor of Rekia and her family, and pray for JUSTICE for the black community.
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Freddie Gray
July 16, 1983 – July 6, 2016
Baltimore, Maryland
On April 12, 2015, Freddie Carlos Gray Jr., a 20-year-old black man, was arrest 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 indecent, six Baltimore police officers were suspended with pay.
The circumstances of the injuries were initially unclear; eyewitness accounts suggested that the officers involved used unnecessary farce against Gray during the arrest – a claim denied by all officers involved. Commissioner Anthony W. Batts reported that, contrary to department policy, the officers did not secure him inside the van while driving to the police station; this policy had been put into effect six days prior to Gray’s arrest, following review of other transport-related injuries sustained during police custody in the city, and elsewhere in the county during the preceding years. The medical investigation found that Gray had sustained the injuries while in transport. The medical examiner’s office concluded that Gray’s death count not be ruled an accident, and was instead a homicide, because officers failed to follow safety procedures “through actos of omission.” On May 1, 21015, the Baltimore City State’s Attorney, Marilyn Mosby, announced her office had filed charges against six police officers after the medical examiner’s report ruled Gray’s death a homicide.
PLEASE take a moment of silent reflection in honor of Freddie and his family, and pray for JUSTICE for the black community.
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Dontre Hamilton
1983 – April 20, 2014
Milwaukee, WI
Dontre was mentally ill and had been sleeping in a park when officer Christopher Manney initiated a pat down, to check for weapons. It startled Dontre and he began fighting, and Manney ultimately shot Dontre 14 times, killing him. Before the encounter, a pair of officers responding to a call that Dontre was asleep in the park checked on him twice and found he was doing nothing wrong. When Manney arrive3d, he was not aware that other officers had preceded him.
In the days leading up to his muder Dontre’s family had desperately been trying to get him help for his mental health issues. Dontre’s mother, Maria Hamilton told police the day before Dontre was shot and killed, the last time she talked with her son, Dontre told her he was “tired and hungry, and that somebody was going to kill him.” She had alerted police to the fact her son was a schizophrenic and she was sending mobile mental health evaluators to help him. In their report they acknowledge the schizophrenia but stated “Dontre didn’t seem like he was going to harm himself or anyone else, so they let him stay at his residence.” The MPD later fired Manney for not following protocol when engaging a person with mental illness.
PLEASE take a moment of silent reflection in honor of Dontre and his family, and pray for JUSTICE for the black community.
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Amadou Diallo
September 2, 1976 – February 4, 1999
New York, NY
In the early morning of February 4, 1999, Diallo was standing near his building after returning from a meal. At about 12:40 am police officers Edward McMellon, Sean Carroll, Kenneth Boss and Richard Murphy – all in plain clothes – drove by.
The officers claimed that, Diallo ran up the outside steps toward his apartment house doorway when they began to approach him, ignoring their orders to stop and “show his hands.” The porch light bulb was out and DIallo was backlit by the inside vestibule light, showing only a silhouette. Diallo then reached into his jacket and withdrew his wallet. Seeing hte man holding a small square object, Carroll yelled “Gun!” to alert his colleagues. The officers opened fire on Diallo, claiming that they believed he was holding a gun. During the shooting, lead officer McCMellon tripped backward off the front stairs, causing the other officers to believe he had been shot. However, a witness testified that they show with no warning. The four officers fired 41 shots with semi-automatic weapons, striking Diallo 19 times.
The investigation found no weapons on or near Diallo; what he had pulled out of his jacket was a wallet. The internal NYPD investigation ruled that the officers had acted within policy, based on what a reasonable p0lice officer would have done in the3 same circumstance. Nonetheless the Diallo shooing led to a review of police training policy and of the fuse of full metal jacket (FMJ) bullets.
PLEASE take a moment of silent reflection in honor of Amadou and his family, and pray for JUSTICE for the black community.
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Sharmel Edwards
49 years old; Died April 21, 2012
Las Vegas, NV
Sharmel Edwards w3as a single mother living with her two teenage daughters. On the night of her death, she had gone on a date with her boyfriend, Ken Droog, at his apartment. After Droog fell asleep, Edwards took his Cadillac and headed to a local bar for drinks. When he woke up a few hours later, realizing that his car was missing, Droog called Edwards, who didn’t have her cell phone. He subsequently called police and reported his car stolen. He also informed them that his handgun was in the car’s center console.
Responding to the call, Las Vegas police officer Todd Edwards drove around looking for Droog’s car. Around 3:37 am, he spotted the vehicle and began following it. Sharmel stopped the car a few minutes later near the bar she has visited earlier, and other officers arriving on the scene reportedly ordered her to exit. Over about 30 minutes of negotiations, she never responded to police commands. Eventually, according to the police and several witnesses, she came out with Droog’s pistol in her hands. Five officers fired at her and she died at the scene. Edwards never fired her gun, and according to the District Attorney report, she was still next to her car when she was shot. One witness interviewed by police disputed that Edwards pointed a gun at officers, instead stating that she had her hands on her head.
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Breonna Taylor
June 5, 1993 – March 13, 2020
Louisville, Kentucky
On March 13, 2020, Breonna Taylor, a 26-year-old African American woman, was fatally shot by Louisville Metro Police Department (LMPD) officers. Sergeant Jonathan Mattingly, detective Brett Hankison, and Detective Myles Cosgrove entered her apartment in plainclothes in louisville, Kentucky, while serving a “no-knock warrant.” Gunfire was exchanged between Taylor’s boyfriend, Kenneth Walker, and LMPD officers who entered the apartment. Taylor was shot eight times and Mattingly was injured by gunfire. No drugs were found in the apartment. Another police officer and an LMPD lieutenant were on the scene when the warrant was executed.
PLEASE take a moment of silent reflection in honor of Breonna and her family, and pray for JUSTICE for the black community.
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Rumain Brisbon
Died on December 2, 2014
Phoenix, AZ
An officer was investigating a burglary when a resident of an apartment complex told him that men inside a black Cadillac SUV were engaged in a drug deal, so the officer went to the SUV to ask questions of those inside. As the officer approach, Brisban got out fo his car, and removed the fast food he was bringing home to his children from this back seat. The officer told Brisbon to show his hands. The officer drew his weapon and Brisdbon ran toward his apartment.
Brisbon refused to comply with the officer’s commands to get on the ground, and the two struggled once the officer caught up with him. During the struggle, Brisbon put his left hand in his pocket and the officer grabbed onto his hand. The officer believed he fle the handle of a gun while holding the suspect’s hand in his pocket, so he told him to keep his hands in his pockets. His girlfriend opened the door to the apartment and the two men stumbled inside. The officer could no longer keep a grip on Brisbon’s hand and, because he feared that the suspect had a gun in his pocket, fired two shots. The item in Brisbon’s pocket turned out to be a bottle of oxycodone.
PLEASE take a moment of silent reflection in honor of Rumain and his family, and pray for JUSTICE for the black community.
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Eric Garner
September 15, 1970 – July 17, 2014
New York, NY
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 tn area hospital approximately one hour later.
Eric Garner had been a horticulturist at the New York City Department of Parks and 4Recreation, but quit for health reasons. Garner, who was married to Esaw Garner, Had been described by his friends as a “Neighborhood peacemaker” and as a generous, congenial person. He was the father of six children, had three grandchildren, and at the time of his death had a 3-month-old child.
PLEASE take a moment of silent reflection in honor of Eric and his family, and pray for JUSTICE for the black community.
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Philando Castile
July 16, 1983 – July 6, 2016
Saint Paul, Minnesota
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 Hipanic-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 pm their vehicle was pulled over by Yanez and another officer in Falcon Heights, a suburb of Saint Paul, minnesota. After being asked for his license and registration, Castile told Officer Yanez that he had a firearm (Castile was license to carry) to which Yanez replied, “Don’t reach for it then”, and Castile said “I’m, I I was reaching for…” Yanez said “Don’t pull it out”, Castile replied “I’m not pulling it out”, and Reynolds said “He’s not…” Yanez repeated “Don’t pull it out” and then shot at Castile at close range seven times, hitting him five times. Castile died at 9:37 pm at Hennepin County Medical Center, about 20 minutes after being shot.
PLEASE take a moment of silent reflection in honor of Philando and his family, and pray for JUSTICE for the black community.
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Ezell Ford
Los Angeles, California
October 14, 1988 – August 11, 2014
According to his great aunt, Mahalia Clark, Ford wanted to become a professional athlete and a doctor when he grew up. As ford grew older, he began to lose some of the spark he’d had as a child, and was diagnosed with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. To clear his mind, Ford would often go for long walks through his neighborhood, which she believes he was soing on the day of his fateful death.
Two versions of the event has been reported. According to LAPD Chief Charlie Beck, Officers saw Ford walking on the sidewalk and left their vehicle. The two officers confronted Ford as part of an “Investigative stop.” Though they carried a Taser in the patrol car, neither took it out, and Villages instead drew his gun. Villegas soon put the gun away and repositioned himself as the “cover” officer while Wampler approached Ford. Ford Ignored commands to stop, and was grabbed by Officer Wampler, who believed that he was trying to get rid of drugs. Ford apparently knocked Wampler to the ground and a struggle ensued. As the two men struggled, Ford allegedly reached for Wampler’s gun, at which point his partner Officer Villegas opened fire on Ford, hitting him in the side and his arm. Officer Wampler reached for his backup weapon, and shot Ford in the back. However, eyewitness reports said that he had raised his hands as the officers left their vehicle. They also said that Ford was tackled to the ground by one of the officers. Tritobia Ford, Ezell’s mother, said when she arrived her son was laying on the ground and complying with officers’ orders when he was shot.
PLEASE take a moment of silent reflection in honor of Ezell and his family, and pray for JUSTICE for the black community.
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