Month: June 2021

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Andrew Brown

Andrew Brown, 42, was shot and killed by a deputy in Elizabeth City (North Carolina, USA).

Brown was shot killed while deputies were serving a search warrant in April 2021. Authorities wouldn’t provide details of the shooting but an eyewitness said that Andrew Brown Jr. was shot while trying to drive away, and that deputies fired at him six times. The car skidded out of Brown’s yard and eventually hit a tree.

Brown’s family said he was unarmed. The deputy who shot at Brown was placed on leave pending. The North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation is now handling the investigation into the shooting, which prompted instant outrage from the community.

Nearly 200 protesters had gathered to march through the streets. They are calling on local authorities to be transparent and provide body camera footage of the shooting.

The family of a Black man who was fatally shot by sheriff’s deputies in North Carolina says he died because of the officers’ “intentional and reckless disregard of his life,” according to a $30 million civil rights lawsuit filed in July 2021.

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Rodney Levi

On June 12, 2020, officers from Sunny Corner, Canada, shot and killed Rodney Levi, 48-year-old indigenous man. That day, he went to a friend’s barbecue, where he had a paranoid attack, as he was often visited by thoughts of suicide. After the situation started to get out of hand, his friend called the police.

Police arrived at the scene after reports that Levi pulled out a knife and began threatening himself and others. The police said that they were forced to use a taser against the man, as they could not agree with him, but this did not help. According to the officers, Levi became angry, and then began to approach with a knife in the direction of the police, which forced one of them to shoot him twice in the chest. Witnesses reported that the entire interaction between the officers and the man lasted no more than twenty minutes. Levi’s relatives believe he would have survived if he had been white.

In January 2021, the prosecutor’s office said that it saw no reason to bring charges against the police, as they defended themselves and others, and in March 2021, the media reported that the police refused to comment on this situation, as the investigation is still underway.

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Kyle Hart

Kyle Hart, 33, was shot and killed on December 10, 2018, by a police officer in Redwood (California, USA).

Officers responded a call from a woman who said that her husband was trying to kill himself. Two officers arrived at the scene and found Kyle Hart with a knife. The two officers attempted to get him to drop the knife but he refused and ran at the officers. One of officers used a Taser stun gun to try to immobilize him but it did not work so the other officer shot him with his firearm, police said.

Hart was transported to a hospital where he died of his injuries. His wife said he was shot by an officer three times within 29 seconds of their arrival in his backyard. She said they did not do anything to deescalate the crises.

Hart’s wife, Kristin Hart, filed a federal lawsuit against the city of Redwood City and members of its police department in April 2021. The lawsuit asks for an unspecified sum of money for damages and accuses the police department of violating Hart’s rights, causing his wrongful death and being negligent.

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DeShon Downing

DeShon Downing was shot and killed by Indianapolis police officers in August 2019.

He was shot and killed by police after officers stopped a van he was a passenger in. The vehicle was pulled over in connection with an alleged drug deal, and after the driver allegedly committed a traffic violation. Right before the incident, Downing gave an officer, who initiated the traffic stop, false biographical information.

Two other officers approached the van and one of them asked Downing to leave the vehicle, but he refused. A struggle ensued. Downing allegedly pulled out a gun and pointed it at the officers, and they shot and killed him in response. IMPD and the city of Indianapolis declined the family’s earlier requests to access a video of the incident.

In April 2021 a lawsuit was filed in Indiana’s Southern District federal court by Downing’s widow Latoi Downing. It seeks monetary damages and a jury trial against two officers who shot Downing.

Jonathon Tubby

Police officers from Green Bay, Wisconsin, shot unarmed 26-year-old Jonathon Tubby about five times. Police stopped Tubby’s car after he passed a stop sign in downtown Green Bay on the night of October 19, 2018.

The police who stopped him found that he was wanted for failing to report to the county jail to begin serving his sentence for an earlier offense. The officers asked the man to get out of the car, then knocked him to the ground and arrested him. Authorities say that during the search, the man threw his handcuffed hands from his back to his chest, and then put his right hand under his shirt, which, according to police, led them to believe that he might be armed. A few hours after his arrest, the young man lay dead on the floor of the county jail precinct. The officer shot him about five times.

In May 2021, a district court dismissed a wrongful death lawsuit filed against the City of Green Bay and law enforcement officials, but the man’s family said they would appeal a federal judge’s decision to dismiss their lawsuit.

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Jean-Pierre Ferrara

In October 2016, officers from the Échirolles, France, police department killed 51-year-old Jean-Pierre Ferrara in the garden of his own house. Officers arrived at his home after a call from his neighbor, with whom he recently had a conflict.

On October 28, 2016, 51-year-old Jean-Pierre Ferrara was shot dead by police in the garden of his house. That day, his neighbor called the police and reported that Ferrara had threatened him with a gun. When police arrived at the man’s house, they found the man roasting a barbecue in his garden. Police said that Ferrara was holding a machete, but dropped it immediately after the police ordered him so. According to the officers, he took out a signal pistol, which forced police to open fire on him. Police shot Ferrara about three times; one of the bullets punctured his lung and an artery, causing him to die on the spot. The police department later released a report stating that the officers acted in self-defense and could not be held accountable.

However, the man’s family does not agree with the department’s decision. They claim that he had hearing problems and did not understand what was going on. A lawyer for the victim’s family said police may have used tasers or other less lethal methods to resolve the conflict. In April 2021, the family of the deceased told the media that they intended to fight for justice for him.

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Brian Riling

Brian Riling, 38, was shot by a police officer during a scuffle inside a holding cell at the New Hope Police Department (Pennsylvania).

Riling was in police custody on March 3, 2019, after an arrest on intimidation charges. After being taken into custody, Riling was placed in a holding cell and asked to remove his belt. As he did so, a small object fell to the floor, and Riling stepped on it to hide it from two officers standing nearby. Thinking it was drug paraphernalia, the officers tried to retrieve it, and the three men got into a struggle.

During the fight, one officer pulled out a gun and yelled “Taser”. He fired, hitting Riling in the torso. But he didn’t fire his Taser. He fired his gun. The officer who shot Riling said he mistook gun for Taser. Riling slumped to the floor and screamed in pain. Medics then took him to a hospital, where he remained in critical condition for several days. He was later released.

In March 2021, Riling sued the officer who fired at him. He claims that the police officer violated his constitutional rights by using excessive force.

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Mehdi Bouda

On August 20, 2019, Mehdi Bouda, a 17-year-old kid from Brussels, Belgium, died after an officer hit him with his patrol car. On that day, the police carried out a raid against drugs, and during the pursuit of criminals, they accelerated to a hundred kilometers per hour.

The teenager happened to be in the area where the police conducted their special operation. As soon as Bouda realized that he was in the middle of a police operation, he got scared and started running away. According to law enforcement agencies, the teenager ran out on the road at a red traffic light and did not notice the approaching car, but later it became known that the police officer driving the patrol car exceeded the permissible speed limit by one and a half times, accelerating to 95 kilometers per hour. The boy was hit by a car and was taken to a hospital, where he died of his injuries a few hours later.

The teenager’s family said police only told them about Mehdi’s death the next day, and local media distorted the incident by lying that Bouda was a drug dealer killed in a police operation. The court found that there were no sufficient grounds for initiating a criminal case, but in April 2021, the young man’s family said that they were dissatisfied with the court’s decision and would continue to fight for justice.

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Cherdeena Wynne

Indigenous woman Cherdeena Wynne, 26, died after falling unconscious in custody.

Wynne’s mother said eight police officers entered her home at 3.30am on 4 April 2019, and manhandled Cherdeena to the ground while calling her a different name. Wynne’s mother said police were at her house for at least 20 minutes and left her daughter.

Police were called again and found Wynne “behaving erratically” in Tate Street, where police said she was handcuffed “to prevent injury to herself and emergency services”.

She was uncuffed when she lost consciousness to allow police and paramedics to commence CPR. She was revived and taken in the ambulance to Royal Perth hospital, where she remained in an induced coma until she died on April 9.

On 15 April 2021, a group of 15 families have launched a petition calling on the Prime Minister to meet with them and set out their 10 demands to help the families of the victims restore justice and improve the lives of Aboriginal people. Wynne’s family also joined the petition and said they want justice for her.

In June 2021, it was announced that the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody plans to conduct an independent investigation into the death of 26-year-old Cherdeena Wynne by the end of 2021.

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Atatiana Jefferson

In October 2019, police officers from Fort Worth, Texas, shot black Atatiana Jefferson, 28, in her own house. Her neighbor called a police and reported that her front door was opened.

The video, captured by the officer’s body camera, shows police officers searching the area around her house for several minutes with their flashlights on. One of the officers spotted Jefferson and started yelling for her to put her hands up. A moment later, the policeman pulled the trigger. The police officer did not identify himself and did not give her time to follow his instructions. Despite the fact that the officers tried to give the woman first aid, she died on the spot.

In May 2021, Jefferson’s relatives filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the city and the police department, alleging that the department didn’t check the officer who shot the woman before taking him on duty in 2017. The lawsuit seeks $10 million in damages.