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US Marshal shooting sparks a protest against cops


swordfish

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https://www.huffpost.com/entry/memphis-unrest-police-shooting_n_5d021716e4b0304a120a34a3

MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) — Armed officers and an angry crowd faced off after a Tennessee man was fatally shot by U.S. Marshals in a working-class Memphis neighborhood.

People in the crowd threw rocks and bricks, with 25 officers suffering mostly minor injuries during the tense clash Wednesday night in the Frayser community in north Memphis. Officers cordoned off several blocks near the scene. By 11 p.m., officers had used tear gas and most of the crowd dispersed, police director Michael Rallings said at a Thursday morning at a news conference. Three people were arrested.

Tennessee Bureau of Investigation spokeswoman Keli McAlister said the Gulf Coast Regional Fugitive Task Force went to a Frayser home to look for a suspect with felony warrants. Marshals saw the man get into a vehicle and then proceed to ram task force vehicles several times before exiting with a weapon, McAlister said. Marshals then opened fire, killing the man who died at the scene. McAlister did not say how many marshals fired or how many times the man was shot.

One local official identified the victim as Brandon Webber and said he was shot several times in his family’s front yard. Family members confirmed to the Daily Memphian that the 21-year-old Webber died.

In identifying Webber on Twitter early Thursday, Shelby County Commissioner and mayoral candidate Tami Sawyer said “Every life lost should matter...every single one. How many times will this be ok? It cannot continue to be.”

Memphis police officers were called in to help with crowd control as word of the shooting spread on social media. As more protesters showed up, more Memphis officers and Shelby County sheriff’s deputies arrived at the scene. The situation then escalated, and officers donned protective riot gear as people threw rocks and bricks. Police cars and a nearby fire station were damaged, Rallings said.

The TBI is called in to investigate police-involved shootings by district attorneys in Shelby and other counties in the state. TBI investigators then give their report to the district attorney, who will decide whether to pursue charges against officers involved.

The police director implored residents to wait until the TBI finishes its investigation before spreading possible misinformation about the shooting. “I need everyone to stay calm,” Rallings said.

While police support the right of people to demonstrate, Rallings said “we will not allow any acts of violence.”

Passion Anderson, a 34-year-old student, drove her 13-year-old son to the scene early Thursday, after protesters had gone and the scene had calmed down. She grew up in Memphis, but left to Ohio before moving in November to the Frayser neighborhood, a mostly low- to middle-income area north of downtown.

Anderson said she worries about her son’s safety every day in Memphis which like other large cities, struggles with violent crime.

“I just want him to see this, know what’s going on, to be conscious,” she said from the driver’s seat of her car, with her son in the passenger seat. “I fear for him all the time.”

 
So according to the mayoral candidate, it is not OK for the US Marshals to defend themselves from someone with multiple warrants, who is armed, ramming their vehicles to avoid arrest.  The result was the revenge and handling efforts to calm being put on the local police.
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https://abcnews.go.com/US/dozens-officers-injured-rowdy-protesters-man-shot-dead/story?id=63682056

A man who was killed by U.S. Marshals in Tennessee on Wednesday night, which sparked protests that injured dozens of police officers and sheriff's deputies, was wanted for stealing a car and shooting a man in Mississippi, authorities said.

U.S. Marshals were in Memphis to carry out arrest warrants issued out of Hernando, Mississippi, for aggravated assault, conspiracy and armed robbery, DeSoto County District Attorney General John Champion told reporters at a news conference Thursday afternoon.

The victim of the shooting in Mississippi had placed an ad on Facebook for a vehicle and had been negotiating with the man who was killed by authorities in Memphis, identified as 20-year-old Brandon Webber. On June 3, Webber traveled to Hernando where he and the victim took the car for a test drive, Champion said.

Webber then allegedly told the victim that he wanted to see what the car could do, and after the victim got out of the car, Webber shot him five times, Champion said. The victim is alive but is still in the hospital.

Warrants were issued for Webber's arrest by the Hernando Police Department on June 8.

Officers with the U.S. Marshals Service attempted to stop Webber as he was getting into the vehicle outside a home in the Frayser area of north Memphis on Wednesday night. He allegedly rammed the car multiple times into the officers' vehicles and then got out holding a weapon. The officers fired at Webber, killing him, according to the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, which is investigating the shooting.

No officers were injured in the incident.

TBI said the investigation remains active and ongoing and it will share its findings with the district attorney general.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7137479/Violent-street-clashes-erupt-Memphis-marshals-kill-suspect.html

Webber had been wanted in a June 3 shooting that happened during a car theft about 25 miles south of Memphis in Hernando, Mississippi. 

He shot his victim five times at point blank range after Webber took the car on a test drive and then drove off in the stolen vehicle, according to DeSoto County, Mississippi, District Attorney John Champion.

The victim remains hospitalized but is expected to survive. A second suspect in the June 3 attack remains at large. Police said they believe the second suspect drove Webber to the location where he met the man selling his car, but was not present for the shooting itself.

'This was a violent felon who did not obviously want to go to jail. And (the marshals) ended up, from my knowledge, doing what they had to do up there, not only to protect themselves but protect other people in the neighborhood,' Champion said. 

'He wasn't a bad guy,' the elder Webber told Reuters of his son. 'He wasn't even living long enough to be a bad guy.' 

He said his son had sold marijuana but was not a drug dealer. 

Webber was described by those who knew him as an honors student who graduated from Memphis Central High School in 2017 and was enrolled at the University of Memphis. 

He had two young children of his own, a 2-year-old boy and a newborn daughter, and was expecting a second daughter soon. 

His girlfriend Alorea Hardwick, who is the mother of his toddler son, was in labor when Webber was killed.  

They had been expecting a baby girl but it is not yet clear if she has given birth.

She filmed an emotional Facebook Live video of her crying in her hospital bed after hearing the news of Webber's death. 

Webber and Hardwick had hosted a baby shower on June 1 at the home where he was killed.  

In the hours after his death, friends flooded Webber's Facebook page with messages of love, grief, disbelief and outrage at the authorities responsible for his death.

 

Well - OK then......Still police brutality?  Maybe ought to ask that guy he shot 5 times what he thinks......

Thankfully no new uprisings, but Memphis police are still on high alert.......

 

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  • 3 months later...

https://abc7.com/officer-shoots-woman-inside-her-home-after-welfare-check-/5617561/

FORT WORTH, Texas (KABC) -- A white police officer who fatally shot a 28-year-old black woman inside her Texas home during a welfare check is set to be interviewed by investigators as questions and outrage grow over the shooting.

Fort Worth police say the shooting happened early Saturday after a neighbor called a non-emergency line to say the front door to the home was open.

In body camera video released by police, two officers are seen searching the house from the outside with flashlights before one shouts, "Put your hands up, show me your hands."

One shot - which was fired through a window of the home - struck 28-year-old Atatiana Jefferson, who was pronounced dead at the scene.

The officer does not identify himself as police in the video. In a statement, police say he has been placed on administrative leave. The officer, who has been on the force since April 2018, is expected to be interviewed Monday.

A family attorney, Lee Merritt, says Jefferson was playing video games with her 8-year-old nephew when she was killed. Jefferson graduated with a biology degree from Xavier University in New Orleans.

Police Lt. Brandon O'Neil said representatives of the police department have spoken with the woman's family and "shared our serious and heartfelt concern for this unspeakable loss."

James Smith, who called police about the open door, told reporters he was just trying to be a good neighbor.
"It makes you not want to call the police department," Smith said.

Smith said Jefferson and her nephew typically lived with an older woman, who's been in the hospital.

"I'm shaken. I'm mad. I'm upset. And I feel it's partly my fault," he said. "If I had never dialed the police department, she'd still be alive."

In an audio recording of Smith's call that was released by police, the neighbor said it was "not normal" for the house to leave its front door open for hours at that time of day.

Merritt said Jefferson's family expects "a thorough and expedient investigation."

A large crowd gathered outside Jefferson's home Sunday night for a vigil after earlier demonstrations briefly stopped traffic on part of Interstate 35.

The Fort Worth Police Department said it released body camera footage soon after the shooting to provide transparency, but that any "camera footage inside the residence" could not be distributed due to state law. However, the body camera video released to media included blurred still frames showing a gun inside a bedroom at the home. It's unclear if the firearm was found near the woman, and police have not said that the officer who shot her thought she had a gun. The police statement released Saturday said only that officers who entered the residence after the shooting found a firearm. Police did not immediately respond to a message seeking comment Sunday.

Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders on Sunday called on the Justice Department to investigate.

"The killings of unarmed Black Americans have got to end," Sanders tweeted. "Atatiana Jefferson should be alive."

The shooting comes less than two weeks after a white former Dallas police officer was 
sentenced to 10 years in prison after being convicted of murder in the fatal shooting of her black neighbor inside his own apartment. Amber Guyger, 31, said during her trial that mistook Botham Jean's apartment for her own, which was one floor below Jean's. Merritt also represents Jean's family.

The Associated Press contributed to this story.

 

Yep - Barring any differing evidence - This LEO needs to go to jail.  Never identified himself as LEO, didn't wait for a reaction from the "perp" then shoots the woman through the window.....Pretty sad.

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