STILL ON THE MATTER: Checkout 8 African-Americans who were brutally murdered by White Police officers (Photos)

Racism has become a tradition in some countries, blacks find it difficult to live their life freely as they do not know what it might result to. 


Police shooting and killing Black males is a centuries-old tradition among law enforcement in the United States of America. 



 

But the fact that this apparent racial motivated killings by police is still thriving in 2020 and seems to be gaining more momentum as an increasing number of Black people, especially males both young and old, continue to be added to a growing list of victims.


Below are 8 people who lost their lives as a result


1. Michael Brown Jr.

On August 9, 2014, Michael Brown Jr., an 18-year-old African-American man, was fatally shot and killed by 28-year-old white Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson in Ferguson, Missouri, a suburb of St. Louis. On the day of the shooting, Brown was accompanied by his 22-year-old close friend Dorian Johnson. Wilson said that an altercation ensued when Brown attacked him in his police patrol vehicle to obtain his gun until it was fired. Johnson, an eye witness stated that Wilson initiated a confrontation by grabbing Brown's neck through his car window, threatening him and then shooting at him. At this point, both Wilson and Johnson stated that Brown and Johnson immediately fled away from the police personnel, which resulted in Wilson pursuing Brown shortly thereafter. 


According to Wilson, Michael stopped and charged him after a short pursuit. Johnson contradicted this report, clearly stating that his friend turned around with his hands in the air after Wilson shot at his back while fleeing, he then shot Michael multiple times until he fell to the ground. In the entire altercation, Wilson fired a total of 12 bullets, including twice during the struggle in the car, the last was probably the fatal shot. Michael was hit 6 times, all from the front.




2. Breonna Taylor

Just as recent as March 13, 2020, Breonna Taylor, a 26-year-old African American woman, was fatally shot by Louisville Metro Police Department (LMPD) personnels Jonathan Mattingly, Brett Hankison and Myles Cosgrove who broke into her apartment in Louisville, Kentucky, while serving a "No-knock warrant". According to reports by LMPD, Taylor's boyfriend Kenneth Walker fired first, injuring a law enforcement personnel, and they were forced to return fire. Breonna was hit eight times which lead to her death.




3. Tamir Rice

On the 22nd November 2014, Tamir Rice, a 12-year-old  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.


The shooting happened after 2 officers, Loehmann and 46-year-old Frank Garmback, were responding to a 911 dispatch call regarding a young black male that "keeps pulling a gun out of his pants and pointing it at people". The caller reported that a male was pointing "a pistol" at random people at the Cudell Recreation Center.


At the beginning of the call and again in the middle of the 2 minutes call, the caller could be heard saying "the pistol is probably fake". However, this information was not relayed to Loehmann or Garmback on the initial dispatch. The officers reported that upon their arrival on the scene, they both continuously yelled to Rice "show me your hands" through their patrol car window. Loehmann further claimed that instead of Rice showing his hands, it appeared as if he was trying to draw out his weapon; "I knew it was a gun and I knew it was coming out from his pants".


In response, he shot twice, hitting Rice once in the torso, he died the following day. The teenage boy's gun was later found to be an airsoft replica that had no orange-tipped barrel, which would have indicated it was a nonlethal gun.




4. Eric Garner

On the 17th of July, 2014, Eric Garner died in the New York City borough of Staten Island after Daniel Pantaleo, a New York City Police Department (NYPD) officer, put Garner in a chokehold in a bid to arrest him. After video footage of the incident went viral, it generated widespread national attention and also raised questions about the appropriate use of force by law enforcement, especially against the black community.


The video showed some group of NYPD officers approach Garner on suspicion of selling single cigarettes from packs without tax stamps. After Garner told the police that he was tired of being consistently harassed and that he was not selling cigarettes, then they attempted to arrest him which he refused to cooperate by pulling his arms away.


Pantaleo then placed his right arm around Garner's neck and wrestled him to the ground, with his multiple colleagues restraining him. While lying face down on the floor, Garner repeated the words "I can't breathe" 11 times after which he lost consciousness, then the officers turned him onto his side to ease his breathing. They waited for 7 minutes for ambulance to arrive to the scene. Garner was pronounced dead at an area hospital approximately one hour later.




5. Stephon Clark

In the late hours of March 18, 2018, Stephon Clark, a 23-year-old black black man, was shot and  filmed by police video cameras and by a Sacramento County Sheriff helicopter which was involved in tracking down Clark.


The officers stated that they shot Clark by firing 20 rounds of bullets, because they believed that he had pointed a gun at them. Police found only a cell phone on him after he was already dead. While the Sacramento County Coroner's autopsy report concluded that Clark was shot only 7 times, including 3 shots to the right side of the back. But the pathologist who was privately hired by the Clark family stated that Clark was shot eight times, including 6 times in the back.


A large protests ensured in Sacramento, and Clark's family members have rejected the initial episode of the events leading to Clark's death. Terrence and Robinet were placed on paid administrative leave and a use of force investigation was opened against them.


On March 2, 2019, the Sacramento County district attorney revealed that the officers who killed Clark would not be charged and that they had probable cause to stop Clark and their actions were legally justified in the use of deadly force.




6. Walter Scott

The shooting of Walter Scott happened on April 4th, 2015, in North Charleston, South Carolina, following a daytime traffic stop for a non-functioning brake light. Scott, an unarmed black man, was shot and killed by Michael Slager, a white North Charleston police personnel. Slager was charged with murder after a video surfaced which showed him shooting Scott from behind in a close range while Scott was fleeing, which contradicted his initial report. The racial difference led many to believe that the shooting was racially motivated, which generated a widespread controversy in the country.


In June 2015, a South Carolina grand jury indicted Slager on a murder charge. He was later released on bond in January 2016, and in late 2016, a 5 week trial ended in a mistrial due to a hung jury. In May 2016, Slager was indicted on federal charges which included violation of Scott's civil rights and obstruction of justice. In a May 2017 plea agreement, Slager pleaded guilty to the federal charges of civil rights violations against him, and he was returned to jail pending his sentencing. In return for his guilty plea, the murder charges were subsequently dropped. In December of 2017, He was sentenced to 20 years in prison for a second-degree murder.




7. Oscar Grant III

22-year-old African-American man Oscar Grant III was fatally shot in the early morning hours of New Year's Day 2009 by a BART Police Officer Johannes Mehserle in Oakland, California. While responding to reports of a fight on a crowded Bay Area Rapid Transit train which was returning from San Francisco, BART Police personnel on ground detained Grant and several other passengers on the train at the Fruitvale BART Station. Anthony Pirone kneed Grant in the head and forced the unarmed Grant to lie face down on the floor. While Pirone forcefully held him down in a prone position, Mehserle drew his weapon and shot him in the back. Grant was immediately rushed to Highland Hospital in Oakland and was pronounced dead later that day. The whole event were captured on multiple video camera and cell phone cameras of onlookers which most of them disseminated the recorded footage to news media outlets and to various websites where it immediately went viral. Both peaceful and violent protests took place as a result.




8. George Floyd

Currently trending all over the world right now is the death of a black man, George Floyd, who died in police custody in Minneapolis after he was a white police officer pushed his left knee into his neck for several minutes.


In a video which has since gone viral all over social media and other news media outlets showed Floyd on the floor and could be heard pleading and begging the 4 officers who pinned his neck, before he became unresponsive.


He repeatedly said “Please, I can’t breathe. Please man, let me go, I can't breathe.” 


Floyd pleaded for his life until he became motionless and was taken away in a stretcher after an Ambulance arrived at the scene. He was later pronounced dead.




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