Police
Denver police fatally shoot 16-year-old, activists demands answers
Two Denver Police officers fatally shot 16-year-old Jessica Hernandez while she was driving a car with four passengers early Monday morning
Instead of chanting #blacklivesmatter, this time activists are saying #girlslivesmatter, as they demand answers the fatal shooting of teen Jessica Hernandez.
What happened to Jessica Hernandez?
16-year-old Jessica Hernandez was fatally shot by two Denver police officers while she was driving a car with four passengers early Monday morning.
Authorities allege that the car was stolen and one officer was hit in the leg by the vehicle prior to the officers opening fire.
Denver police chief Robert White told reporters that he could not provide the exact age of the victim but said that “everyone in the car was very young” and the girl who was killed “appeared to be a teenager.”
The police report
Thinkprogress reports:
After receiving a call about a suspicious vehicle in an alley around 6:30 a.m., White said, officers arrived on the scene, ran the car’s license plate through their database, and determined it was stolen. The car then struck one officer in the leg, prompting two other officers to shoot at the driver of the car, who was later pronounced dead at a nearby hospital.
White says he doesn’t yet know if the driver intentionally hit the officer with the car. “Obviously there are a lot of questions that need to be answered and the investigation will discover exactly what happened,” he said. “I think the investigation will show that the officers’ actions were correct but if not we will certainly address that.”
Both Denver police officers involved in the shooting have been placed on administrative leave following the fatal shooting of Jessica Hernandez.
Residents account of the Jessica Hernandez shooting
Residents who live near the shooting site told the Denver Post they heard “screaming and crying” after the guns went off, and one neighbor provided the paper with a video they say shows the female driver being searched by police after she was shot.
“In the video, the female is handcuffed and rolled on her stomach and back on the ground, appearing to be searched, the Post reports. “The female is limp, silent and motionless as officers move her about.”
Activists demand answers
Local activists, including members of the Denver Community Defense Committee are calling the incident an example of police brutality, and held a vigil Monday night at the site of the shooting “to take a stand against police violence in our communities.”
This morning’s fatal shooting is the third time in just the last seven months that Denver police have fired at the driver of a vehicle.
In a July incident still under review, officers killed 20-year-old Ryan Ronquillo, who was unarmed, after he struck a police car.
In November, Denver officers shot two brothers who tried to escape from a traffic stop. That incident also remains under investigation.
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