Christian Taylor, a 19-year-old college student who played football at Angelo State University in Arlington, Texas, was fatally shot by police responding to a burglary in progress at a car dealership, authorities said Saturday.
According to Sgt. Paul Rodriguez, a police spokesman, police responded to a report that a suspect had used a car to break through the window of the Classic Buick GMC dealership. "The officers went and confronted him. There was an altercation. An officer discharged his weapon and struck the suspect," Rodriguez told the Star-Telegram.
Christian Taylor's family is in disbelief that the young man would commit such a crime.
Clyde Fuller, Taylor's great uncle, told the Star-Telegram, "He was a good kid. I don't see him stealing no car or nothing like that," Fuller said.
I would like to give the police the benefit of the doubt here except that too many of these cases are piling up...
Here is the basic story of what occurred...
Officers were responding to a burglary call about 1 a.m. Friday in Arlington,Texas when they discovered someone had driven a vehicle through a front window of the Classic Buick GMC, according to a statement from the Arlington Police Department.
The statement said police approached the suspect and a struggle ensued. At some point during the struggle, an officer shot Taylor.
Police identified the officer as Brad Miller, a 49-year-old who has been with the department since last September and who has been working under the supervision of a training officer since his graduation from the police academy in March. The police statement said Miller had no police experience before joining the Arlington police force.
(Naturally) He will be placed on administrative leave, which is routine in such cases. Independent criminal and administrative investigations, according to the police statement.
The Tarrant County Medical Examiner's Office identified the dead man as Christian Taylor, of Arlington. Taylor was a sophomore at Angelo State University in San Angelo.
The shooting comes amid increased scrutiny nationwide of police use of force, particularly in cases involving black suspects. Taylor was black. The race of the officer was not immediately known. How many times have I written this this year?
The case resonated on social media, with posts questioning the official account that Taylor was committing a robbery and asking why there was no video of the altercation. By Friday night, #ChristianTaylor was trending on Twitter.
Taylor's great uncle, Clyde Fuller of Grand Prairie, Texas, described Taylor as "a good kid" and said he didn't believe that Taylor was trying to commit a crime.
"They say he's burglarizing the place by running up in there? Nuh-uh. Something doesn't sound right," Fuller told the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.
It was unclear whether there was any video of the shooting. Police Sgt. Paul Rodriguez said Arlington officers have not been equipped with body cameras, and police said they haven't found any dealership security video that captured it.
The Star-Telegram reported that court records it reviewed showed Taylor was sentenced to six months of deferred adjudication last December on a drug charge stemming from a September 2013 traffic stop in which police reported Taylor was found with 11 hydrocodone tablets not prescribed to him.
The case was dismissed July 14 after Taylor satisfied the requirement of his probation. He graduated from Summit High School in Mansfield, Texas, in 2014.
Angelo State officials said they were saddened to hear of the death of Taylor, a 5-foot-9, 180-pound defensive back.
"We're not familiar with any of the details because it happened away from here, but we'd just like people to know that we are sad and sorry for his family and friend," university spokeswoman Becky Brackin told the San Angelo Standard-Times.
In a Twitter posting, football coach Will Wagner said, "Heart is hurting."
Most White people will automatically say..."Thug", "he was a thug.." Black people will automatically not believe the official police report because as I said...Too many of these type of incidents are occurring and you can count on one hand the times the officer or armed citizen has been held accountable for their actions...If the black person has any blemishes on his /her record...you can forget any justice occurring..
An arrest for Jaywalking is justification for shooting someone guilty of switching lanes without signalling or some other nonsense..It doesn't take much...
If the person is a Black male and he's over six feet...The killer need only say.."I was afraid for my life" and that is justification enough for his killing..
II-
Protesters are out in force again....Truth be told, they have never stopped protesting...
Police arrested several protesters Monday night in Ferguson, Missouri, which continues to be a flashpoint one year after the high profile shooting death of 18-year-old Michael Brown, an unarmed black man who was shot by a white police officer. Officials declaring a state of emergency did not prevent further clashes between demonstrators and police during a second night of unrest in the embattled St. Louis suburb.
As night fell, dozens of protesters repeatedly defied police orders to stay off the street and stopped traffic on West Flourissant Avenue, the scene of riots and looting over the last year.
As further unrest marked the anniversary of the shooting death of Michael Brown, some in the crowd, not far from the spot where he was shot, felt the awareness stemming from that incident has empowered them.
.
“They say what we are doing is excessive, but the death of Mike Brown brought an issue that has been swept under the rug to the light, so I like it, it’s powerful,” said a former Ferguson resident who goes by the name Mal Stiff.
“A lot has changed in the minds of the people like the minds of the activists, the protesters, the people who are really down with change. A lot has changed with them, like a lot of us have been awakened in a way we couldn’t even have imagined,” said St. Louis resident Tiffany Shawn.
But for as much change as Tiffany Shawn welcomes, she said some things have stayed the same.
“Not a lot has changed with how the police are reacting to us, and are behaving with us. Not a lot has changed when it comes to that,” she said.
No it hasn't and as both incidents show...Race relations are at their boiling point in America....And no politician....Left or Right wants to honestly talk about it...The only people really talking about it are people like me on Blogs and Social media...
I'm preaching to the choir....Most if not all of my readers are African-American...And I know there are right wing bloggers who are only writing and speaking to like minded
white people...
Until we are talking to each other and honestly airing out our veiwpoints...Tensions will continue to boil and explode and both tribes will continue to retreat into their own bunkers....
No Solution in sight!
DAMN!
No comments:
Post a Comment