...and this time, justification isn't so clear.
A 14 year old black boy is dead. Killed by a gunshot wound to the back of the head that came from the gun of an off-duty cop. He and a fellow officer were reportedly looking for items stolen from his home. They claim that the kid had a gun and fired on them while in their car. The officer in question got out of his car and fired back, 11 shots total.
Sounds straight foward and justified so far, right. I mean, if someone fires at an officer, the officer needs to eliminate the threat. Here's the thing, though...
The gun the child supposedly used against the officer was never found, nor was the bullet or casing that gun would have expelled. Gunshot residue was never found on the boy either, primarily because...they didn't bother testing for it. Despite interviewing 42 individuals, there is no concrete witness testamony (that has been made public, anyway). Lastly, the cop never really explained the "searching for stolen property" story.
Suspicious, yet?
It doesn't matter. The prosecutor has decided that no criminal charges are in order. He must know something we don't. He can't tell us, though, in the interest of not swaying the heafty lawsuit filed by the boy's family, among other things.
Not all is lost, however. The police department is set to begin its internal investigation, the results of which will be publically available. I plan to keep an eye out for it. But, I can't help but wonder - just how accurate are internal investigations? There's been more than one story to suggest that the boys in blue watch out for each other...
Article
Reply With Quote
3 Member(s) thanked for this post
Originally Posted by Athena
Bookmarks