Police
19-Year-old unarmed college student, Christian Taylor, fatally shot by police
Christian Taylor was fatally shot by police in what family and the community are calling unjust.
Christian Taylor has become another unarmed person unfortunately fatally shot by police. His family and the community are calling the shooting unjustified.
Christian Taylor shooting
Police say 19-year-old Christian Taylor was attempting to rob a car dealership early Friday morning when he was fatally shot, a claim his family finds hard to believe. Taylor was to begin his sophomore year at Angelo State University in Texas when his life came to an abrupt end.
According to Star-Telegram, around 1 a.m. Friday, police were notified of a burglary in progress at a GMC Classic Buick dealership. Police say a security company called for emergency help after company employees witnessed a man using his car to crash through the dealership’s showroom window.
“The officers went and confronted him. There was an altercation. An officer discharged his weapon and struck the suspect,” Sgt. Paul Rodriguez, a police spokesman, told the Star-Telegram.
The Tarrant County Medical Examiner’s Office identified the dead man as 19-year-old Christian Taylor. Taylor was a sophomore at Angelo State University and a member of the football team as a defensive back. He was pronounced dead at the scene.
Rodriguez added that Taylor was unarmed when he was shot.
Officer involved
Police identified the officer involved in the shooting as 49-year-old Brad Miller, a recent graduate of the academy, who was working under the supervision of a training officer at the time of the shooting.
Rodriquez told the paper that officers there is no footage of the incident as its department is in the process of getting body cameras.
As a result, authorities are trying to recover security video footage from the dealership.
“We’re having two independent investigations—a criminal and administrative,” Rodriguez said. “As an agency, we take the loss of any human life as serious, but we owe it to our community to conduct a clear and transparent investigation to determine what exactly took place.”
Clyde Fuller, Taylor’s great-uncle, told the Star-Telegram that the story that is being described doesn’t add up. He said his great-nephew was set to return to college and that he excelled at football.
“He was a good kid. I don’t see him stealing no car or nothing like that,” Fuller said.
“I think something is going on that somebody is lying about,” Fuller told the Star-Telegram. “They say he’s burglarizing the place by running up in there? Nuh-uh. Something doesn’t sound right.”
Christian Taylor even left some chilling messages on his twitter that would indicate he was frustrated over police shootings and an unjust system.
I don’t wanna die too younggggg
— October 13th (@he_got_sneaks) July 31, 2015
Police taking black lives as easy as flippin a coin, with no consequences smh — October 13th (@he_got_sneaks) December 24, 2014
Our police system is a joke, when will we ever be protected?
— October 13th (@he_got_sneaks) December 24, 2014
I don’t feel protected by the police — October 13th (@he_got_sneaks) August 12, 2014
Officer Miller has been placed on administrative leave.
Police
Family of Black girls handcuffed by Colorado police, held at gunpoint reach $1.9 million settlement
The family of four Black girls who were wrongfully detained and held at gunpoint by Aurora, CO police have reached a settlement with the city.
Family of Black girls held at gunpoint reach settlement
Finalized on Monday, the families will collectively receive $1.9 million.
The settlement marks the latest payout the City of Aurora has been forced to make over officers’ excessive use of force.
In 2021, the city paid a $15 million settlement to Elijah McClain’s family, a 23-year-old Black man who died in 2019 after officers put him in a chokehold and paramedics injected him with ketamine.
The incident
In August 2020, four Black girls, ages 6, 12, 14 and 17, were held face down on the ground and put in handcuffs in a nail salon parking lot, crying and screaming, as officers towered over them.
Brittney Gilliam, the mother of the 6-year-old, was driving that Sunday morning with her relatives, because they were going to get their nails done together.
Wrongfully detained
But before they made it in the salon, Gilliam was detained after officers mistakenly thought she was driving a stolen S.U.V.
Police had mistakenly believed Gilliam was driving a stolen car.
And a simple second step police failed to take, resulted in the family being wrongfully detained.
Officers didn’t type in the plate number in a second database to show them the make of the vehicle. If they had, authorities said, the officers would have realized that the plate number was registered to a motorcycle in Montana.
Black girls and mother held at gunpoint traumatized
Dozens of bystanders watched the ordeal unfold, and video footage of the incident went viral, sparking protests over racial injustice, citing excessive force on Black Americans.
After the video went viral, Aurora police had apologized for their grave mistake, but the emotional trauma had already happened.
The Aurora Police Department said its officers are trained to draw their weapons before telling passengers to exit the vehicle and ordering them to lie on the ground, The Post reported.
Officers who held Black girls at gunpoint
One of the two officers who drew their guns and handcuffed members of the family was initially suspended.
However, he and the other officer that pulled his firearm remain on the police force, the New York Times reports.
To date, no officers were fired or charged in connection with the incident.
Police
2023 saw a record year of killings by police in U.S.
The number of people killed by police in the United States reached a new high in 2023, according to new research.
The number of people killed by police in the United States reached a new high in 2023, according to new research.
2023 police killings increased dramatically
Mapping Police Violence, a non-profit research group, dockets deaths at the hands of police officers. Last year, it recorded the highest number of killings since its national tracking began in 2013.
Statistics explained
The data reported that police officers killed 1,329 people in 2023, representing nearly a 19-percent increase over the 11-year span.
Nearly 90% of those killed were fatally shot, according to Abdul Nasser Rad, managing director of research and data at Campaign Zero, who runs Mapping Police Violence.
There were only 14 days without a police killing last year and on average, law enforcement officers killed someone every 6.6 hours, according to the report.
Meanwhile last year, the number of people killed by gunfire and officers killed in the line of duty declined, according to data from the Gun Violence Archive. There was an increase in the number of police officers shot.
The newly released data suggests a grim reality and a systemic crisis, with an average of about three people killed by officers each day, with slight increases in recent years. In 2022, 1,250 were killed by police.
The data also reported that Black people were about 2.8 times more likely to be killed by officers than their white counterparts between 2013 and 2023.
Recording police misconduct
For decades, many Americans have suffered various forms of brutality and injustice at the hands of “bad” law enforcement officers.
When a civilian puts in a complaint against the officer only a small percent of complaints result in the officer being disciplined —partly because the accusations are hidden.
Half of the battle is knowing who the “bad” law enforcement are and proper action being taken.
Missin Peace, a national police misconduct database that collects formal civilian complaints against law enforcement, helps fill that void.
In 2022, we had a conversation with the creators, who urged those who filed a complaint against an officer, to upload it on their website as well.
While there is still much work to do, it’s a start.
Police
14-year-old boy with autism tased by police in what family says was case of mistaken identity
An Illinois family is demanding answers after their 14-year-old autistic son was tased by police in what they maintain was a case of mistaken identity.
An Illinois family is demanding answers after their 14-year-old autistic son was tased by police in what they maintain was a case of mistaken identity.
14-year-old autistic boy tased by police
In an interview with WLS Chicago, the family says that the teen, Avarius Thompson, suffered injuries, including a fractured hip, during an encounter with Dolton police on the morning of Nov.
Police’s incident report
According to the Dolton Police Department’s incident report, Dolton police were assisting police in the nearby neighborhood of Riverdale in the search for four Black males who had fled from a crashed, stolen vehicle, two of whom were allegedly carrying rifles and a handgun.
Dolton officers spotted two subjects, one of whom matched the description of a suspect sought in the incident, in a nearby backyard and pursued them, according to the incident report.
An officer pursuing Avarius ordered the teen to stop before tasing him, according to the incident report.
The incident was captured on the officer’s body-camera footage.
“Hands up! Hands up!” a Dolton police officer can be heard yelling in the body-camera footage as he runs toward Avarius with his Taser extended. After the teen jumps over a fence, the officer deploys the taser, the footage shows.
Avarius attempts to get up when the officer deploys his Taser again a few seconds later, the footage shows.
“Don’t move. Don’t move,” the officer says. “You move, you’re going to get some more.”
Avarius’ father, Eric Thompson, told WLS that the footage was “frightening.”
-
Entertainment8 years ago
Bad Boy Reunion Concert :: Major Let Down! (Opinion)
-
News3 years ago
Uncle of Darnella Frazier, Teen Who Filmed George Floyd’s murder, Killed in Minneapolis Police Car Crash
-
Social Justice10 years ago
11 Facts About The Michael Brown Case
-
Black Excellence6 months ago
Unheard Voices Editor-in-Chief receives prestigious Women of Color STEM Award
-
Health & Wellness4 years ago
Meet 105-year-old runner Ida Keeling
-
Interviews5 years ago
All eyes on Rick Fouche
-
New Jersey14 years ago
Bad Police Behavior: Who is looking through your garbage?
-
Entrepreneur Spotlight14 years ago
Author Larry Wilson Jr : The voice of a new African American writer