Deaths and Injuries in Police Custody

[Kätzchen]

Originally Posted by Andrea

Chicago Cop Shoots Dead Teen, 56-Year-Old Woman

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/chicago-cop-fatally-shoots-mentally-ill-teen-56-year-old-woman_567ecb6ae4b014efe0d850f6?ncid=tweetlnkushpmg 00000067

A Chicago officer responding to a domestic disturbance call fatally shot a teenager being treated for a mental illness, along with a 56-year-old woman.

A second victim, who has been identified only as a 56-year-old woman, was a downstairs tenant and bystander. The woman's daughter, Latisha Jones, told the Tribune she found her mother dead with a gunshot wound to her neck.

Andrea, I read an article published yesterday (?) concerning the same incident. I read that Quintonio was an engineering student at an Illinois college, a foster child, that he was experiencing trauma from a past traumatic event in his life before his foster family took him in. Quintonio's foster dad called the police, hoping they could help somehow, but instead of helping, responding officers shot and killed both Quentino and his foster mother. By mistake. How could it be a mistake?

Quintonio had a loving foster family that cared about him, was trying to give him a better chance at life than the sad life he was rescued from by his foster parents.

It's heartbreaking. It makes me angry and sad, too.

http://rollingout.com/2015/12/27/chi...other-mistake/

[Andrea]

The Death Philly Cops Won’t Explain: Is Omar Lopez the Next Freddie Gray?

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/12/30/the-death-philly-cops-won-t-explain-is-omar-lopez-the-next-freddie-gray.html

The city’s transit authority won’t release video showing what turned a peaceful encounter into a deadly one after a cop tased a man who then lost consciousness in his car.

PHILADEPHIA — This Christmas the family of Omar Lopez placed a small toy tree at a gravestone to honor their son who was killed in mysterious circumstances by police this fall.

Lopez, 24, died following an altercation with a transit officer in October. More than eight weeks later, his family is no closer to understanding the circumstances surrounding Lopez’s death. Despite public officials’ recent parades of claims that transparency is a priority, so far city officials are being of no help to the Lopez family in their search for answers.

[Andrea]

Cop savagely beats Hawaiian man after he performs native ‘healing prayer’ near seal on the beach

http://www.rawstory.com/2016/01/cop-savagely-beats-hawaiian-man-after-he-performs-native-healing-prayer-near-seal-on-the-beach/

A police officer, and the city that employs him, after the cop savagely beat him for praying next to a sun-bathing Hawaiian monk seal on the beach.

According to Courthouse News, Jamie Kalani Rice was on Nanakuli beach on Sept. 10, 2014, when he approached a seal laying on the sand, believing it to be injured or dying. Rice then sat about ten feet away from the seal, chanting and rubbing sand between his hands and on his body as part of a ritual prayer.

[Andrea]

Denver Inmate's Death At Hands Of Deputies Ruled A Homicide

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/michael-marshall-homicide_569002c0e4b0c8beacf6d9db?section=politics

On Nov. 11, 2015, deputies at the Denver jail forcibly restrained a man who was experiencing a psychotic episode. When the man became unresponsive, he was sent to a nearby hospital, where he was put on life support and died nine days later.

The man, 50-year-old Michael Marshall, was originally arrested on charges of disturbing the peace and trespassing at a motel where he had been staying.

Now, nearly two months after the fact, Marshall's death has been ruled a homicide.

A report released Friday by the Denver Office of the Medical Examiner concludes that Marshall died from "complications of positional asphyxia to include aspiration pneumonia due to being physically restrained by law enforcement during an acute psychotic episode."

In other words, Marshall vomited during the incident, and law enforcement officers restrained him in such a manner that he choked on it, going without oxygen for 10 to 15 minutes, his family members told ABC7. Marshall also went into cardiac arrest.

[Andrea]

New Video Appears To Show Exonerated Cop Shooting Handcuffed Man

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/matthew-taylor-james-barker-video_56915b38e4b0a2b6fb7056df

Authorities are reopening their investigation into an exonerated Utah police officer's fatal shooting of a suspect after newly discovered video appears to show the officer pumping several rounds into the suspect as he lies handcuffed on the ground.

[Andrea]

Ex-Las Vegas police officer indicted on federal civil rights violation

http://www.reviewjournal.com/news/las-vegas/ex-las-vegas-police-officer-indicted-federal-civil-rights-violation

A former Las Vegas police officer was indicted by a federal grand jury Tuesday on felony charges of roughing up a woman he suspected was a prostitute.

Richard Scavone, 49, was charged with violating the civil rights of the woman when he used excessive force while arresting her in January 2015 and falsifying his report of the encounter to obstruct an FBI investigation, according to the Justice Department.

The woman was identified in the indictment only by her initials, A.O.

Scavone, who also faces a local misdemeanor battery charge in the incident, has been summoned to answer the two felony counts in federal court on Jan. 20. He is to appear in Las Vegas Justice Court that day, as well.

According to the indictment, Scavone, while acting under color of law, handcuffed the woman on Jan. 6, 2015, and assaulted her several times.

He grabbed the woman around her neck and threw her to the ground, struck her in the forehead with an open palm, slammed her face into the hood of his patrol car two times and slammed her into the door of his car, the indictment alleges.

The actions resulted in "bodily injury" to the woman, the indictment alleges.

Scavone also falsified a use-of-force report about his confrontation with the woman, according to the indictment.

Authorities last year said Scavone was wearing a body camera during the scuffle, but police have not made the recording public.

Scavone had stopped a woman about 5 a.m. near Tropicana Avenue and Interstate 15, where he said she was loitering and trying to solicit work as a prostitute, according to authorities.

His supervisors concluded his use of force was "excessive" and "unreasonable," Undersheriff Kevin McMahill told reporters after the district attorney's office filed criminal charges in March.

The woman was charged with littering and loitering, but those charges were dismissed, McMahill said.

Scavone was initially put on paid administrative leave after he was charged last year, but police on Tuesday did not immediately respond to a request to explain his departure from the department.

The federal case was investigated by the Las Vegas FBI and is being prosecuted jointly by the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division in Washington, D.C., and the Nevada U.S. attorney's office.

[homoe]

Who in the world is training hospital staff and police officers these days! Has common sense gone right out the door?