Category Archives: US policing

Akron police release body-cam video in fatal shooting of Jayland Walker

Posted on by

Officials brace for fresh protests after 25-year-old Black man was killed running from officers during a traffic stop

Authorities in Akron, Ohio, have released chilling police body-camera video in the shooting death of Jayland Walker, a Black motorist who was gunned down after running from officers during a traffic stop on Monday.

The video, which shows a fast police chase of Walker’s vehicle, culminates with several officers surrounding the 25-year-old in a parking lot, attempting to Taser him and then opening fire. Walker was accused of firing a handgun at police from his vehicle before leaving the pistol in the driver’s seat and trying to run from officers.

Continue reading...

Three police die in Kentucky shooting while serving domestic violence warrant

Posted on by

Officers encountered ‘pure hell’ at scene, sheriff says, before man taken into custody after hours-long standoff

Three law enforcement officers were killed and five others wounded in eastern Kentucky when a man with a rifle opened fire on police attempting to serve a warrant, authorities said.

An emergency management official was also injured and a police dog was killed during the confrontation at a home in Allen, a small town in the hills of Appalachia.

Continue reading...

Fears of violence against pro-choice protests intensify amid wave of attacks

Posted on by

Use of teargas and arrests by police and targeting by anti-abortion activists disrupts demonstrations in multiple states

Fears over police violence and attacks by anti-abortion activists have been growing following a wave of incidents at demonstrations against the US supreme court’s decision to overturn Roe v Wade, which upheld the constitutional right to an abortion.

Across the country, hundreds of thousands of people have gathered at protests objecting to the ruling. The protests have been overwhelmingly peaceful but some have seen incidents of police violence – including attacks on protesters – and an incident of a car driving dangerously through marchers.

Continue reading...

Mohamed Noor: ex-officer who killed unarmed woman freed on parole

Posted on by

Noor was resentenced to four years nine months for manslaughter of Justine Damond in Minneapolis after murder charge dropped

A former Minneapolis police officer who fatally shot an unarmed woman who called 911 to report a possible sexual assault in the alley behind her home has been released from prison on parole, months after his murder conviction was overturned and he was resentenced on a lesser charge.

The Minnesota department of corrections website said Mohamed Noor, 36, was placed under the supervision of Hennepin county community corrections. He was freed 18 days shy of the fifth anniversary of the 15 July 2017 fatal shooting of Justine Ruszczyk Damond, a 40-year-old dual US-Australian citizen and yoga teacher who was engaged to be married.

Continue reading...

Daunte Wright’s family to receive $3.2m in settlement over police shooting

Posted on by

The settlement also includes changes in police policies and training involving traffic stops

Authorities in Brooklyn Center, a city in the suburbs of Minneapolis, have agreed to pay $3.2m to the family of Daunte Wright, a Black man shot dead by a police officer who said she confused her gun with her Taser.

The tentative settlement also includes changes in police policies and training involving traffic stops like the one that resulted in Wright’s death, according to a statement from attorneys representing Wright’s family.

Continue reading...

Texas school police chief says he didn’t think he was in charge during shooting

Posted on by

Pete Arredondo says he intentionally left behind radios before entering school, as two more funerals are held for victims of the attack

The Texas school police chief criticized for his actions during one of the deadliest classroom shootings in US history said in his first extensive comments that he did not consider himself the person in charge as the massacre unfolded and assumed someone else was.

Pete Arredondo, the police chief of the Uvalde school district, also told the Texas Tribune in an interview published on Thursday that he intentionally left behind both his police and campus radios before entering Robb elementary school.

Continue reading...

‘It was a war scene’: Caroline Edwards describes Capitol attack violence

Posted on by

The Capitol police officer, who was injured in the insurrection, said she saw colleagues ‘bleeding, on the ground, throwing up’

Caroline Edwards, a Capitol police officer who sustained a brain injury during the January 6 attack, gave a chilling recollection of the brutal violence of that day on Thursday, telling the committee investigating the attack it was a “war scene”.

Her testimony offered key evidence for underscoring the stakes of the congressional hearing. It showed viewers at home that the attack on the Capitol in Washington DC was not an accident, but rather an intentional effort to inflict violence.

Continue reading...

US justice department to investigate Louisiana State Police following 2019 death of Ronald Greene

Posted on by

Justice department launches civil rights investigation following beatings including death of a Black man placed in a chokehold

The US Department of Justice has announced a federal civil rights investigation into the Louisiana State Police following a raft of brutality cases and the fatal beating of a Black motorist, Ronald Greene, in 2019.

Greene, an unarmed 49-year-old, was arrested by six white officers with body camera footage of the incident, obtained years later by the Associated Press, revealing he had been punched, tasered and placed in a chokehold and later dragged face down in handcuffs and left prone for over nine minutes.

Continue reading...

High-stakes California races will decide LA mayor and San Francisco recall

Posted on by

Analysts watch to see if voters in America’s more liberal cities will address police reform, homelessness and mass incarceration

High-stakes primary races taking place on Tuesday in California are expected to have major consequences for police reform, incarceration and the state’s growing homelessness crisis.

The most closely watched race is the mayor’s contest in Los Angeles, where voters are deciding between a tough-on-crime real estate developer, Rick Caruso, who has already poured nearly $40m of his own fortune into his primary campaign, and the former community organizer and Democratic congresswoman Karen Bass.

Continue reading...

Arizona man drowns in lake as officers watch: ‘I’m not jumping in after you’

Posted on by

Three Tempe police officers who stood by as Sean Bickings drowned placed on non-disciplinary administrative paid leave

An Arizona man drowned in a reservoir as three police officers watched, refusing to step in and save him.

The victim, identified as 34-year-old Sean Bickings, drowned in Tempe town lake while three unnamed Tempe police officers stood by and watched, one telling Bickings “I’m not jumping in after you,” Fox 10 Phoenix first reported.

Continue reading...

Texas police kill fugitive who shot dead four children and their grandfather

Posted on by

Gonzalo Lopez, who had links to a Mexican drug cartel, had been on the run since escaping prison bus and stabbing driver

A convicted murderer with ties to a Mexican drug cartel killed four Houston-area children and their grandfather before police shot him dead on Thursday, more than three weeks after he escaped a prison bus in Texas and went on the run, authorities said.

Officers said Gonzalo Lopez, 46, who escaped from custody while serving two life sentences, killed the five family members – all strangers to him – and stole their truck while they were at their weekend cabin.

Continue reading...

‘More could have been done’: Texas police under scrutiny over response to school shooting

Posted on by

Gunman remained barricaded inside a classroom for up to an hour before his rampage was brought to an end

Texas law enforcement agencies are facing escalating criticism over their response to the mass shooting at Robb elementary school in Uvalde, after it emerged that the gunman remained locked inside a classroom for up to an hour while large numbers of police officers were amassed outside the room without taking any action.

At a press conference on Thursday afternoon, Texas authorities confirmed that the shooter had been locked inside a classroom for an hour before he was confronted and killed. He committed all his 21 murders inside that room – including 19 children and two teachers.

Continue reading...

‘Jurisdictional maze’ hinders investigation of sexual violence against Native women, report says

Posted on by

Amnesty International calls for restoring full tribal control over crimes on Native land to improve enforcement

Amnesty International has called on the US government to fully restore tribal jurisdiction over crimes on Native lands in the face of staggeringly high rates of sexual violence against Native women, according to a report released on Tuesday.

Nearly one in three American Indian and Alaska Native women have been raped – more than twice the average for white women and probably an undercount given gaps in data collection, according to the report.

Continue reading...

Laquan McDonald shooting: federal prosecutors will not charge officer

Posted on by

Civil rights leaders had called for new charges after Jason Van Dyke, convicted of murder in state court, was released in February

Federal authorities on Monday said they would not criminally charge Jason Van Dyke, the former Chicago police officer convicted of murder in the 2014 shooting death of Laquan McDonald.

The US attorney’s office in Chicago said in a news release that the decision had been made after consulting with the McDonald family and that the “family was in agreement not to pursue a second prosecution”.

Continue reading...

‘That was my beloved son’: family of Patrick Lyoya say police killed their son in an ‘execution’

Posted on by

The family’s lawyer says Grand Rapid police officer broke protocol by using the Taser too close to Lyoya

The grief-stricken parents of the Black man shot in the back of the head by a white Michigan police officer have described their son’s death as an “execution”.

Patrick Lyoya, a 26-year-old Congolese refugee, was killed after a traffic stop in Grand Rapids on 4 April.

Continue reading...

Video shows police officer kneeling on Black man before fatally shooting him

Posted on by

Patrick Lyoya, aged 26, was killed in Grand Rapids, Michigan, during a struggle after a traffic stop

A Black man face-down on the ground was fatally shot in the back of the head by a Michigan police officer, the violent climax of a traffic stop, foot chase and fight over a stun gun, according to videos of the 4 April incident released by police on Wednesday.

Patrick Lyoya, 26, a Congolese refugee, was killed outside a house in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

Continue reading...

DoorDash driver’s video shows officer firing stun gun in Tennessee traffic stop

Posted on by

Local district attorney’s office calls for investigation following incident involving police officer Evan Driskill and Delane Gordon


A Tennessee police officer who used his stun gun on a DoorDash driver wrote an arrest report saying the man had become argumentative while denying he was speeding, refused to hand over identifying information, demanded to see a supervisor and stayed in his car when ordered to get out.

The driver – who faces charges of speeding, resisting arrest and disorderly conduct based on the officer’s sworn affidavit – pressed record on his phone after he was pulled over. That recording, made public by the driver’s attorney, tells a different story.

Continue reading...

Kenosha off-duty police officer shown putting knee on 12-year-old girl’s neck

Posted on by

Officer resigns from school security guard job after officials release footage of fight and girl’s father calls for criminal charges

School officials in Kenosha, Wisconsin released surveillance footage that showed an off-duty police officer putting his knee on a 12-year-old girl’s neck to restrain her amid a lunchtime fight.

The Kenosha Unified School District released redacted footage of the 4 March fight on Friday.

Continue reading...

California: kidnapper sentenced in case police first said was ‘Gone Girl’ hoax

Posted on by

Matthew Muller guilty of rape and false imprisonment in intricate attack which authorities first dismissed – to their cost – as staged

A man who sexually assaulted a northern California woman who was kidnapped from her home in what police initially thought was a hoax was sentenced on Friday to 31 years in state prison.

Matthew Muller, already serving a 40-year sentence for federal crimes, was sentenced in Solano county superior court after pleading no contest to two counts of forcible rape of Denise Huskins, who was dragged from her Vallejo home in 2015, the county district attorney’s office said.

Continue reading...

California man died screaming ‘I can’t breathe’ as police restrained him, video shows

Posted on by

Newly released clip from two years ago shows Edward Bronstein being forced to a mat with at least five officers holding him down

A southern California man died nearly two years ago as he screamed “I can’t breathe” while multiple officers restrained him as they tried to take a blood sample, according to records and a video.

Edward Bronstein, 38, was taken into custody by California highway patrol (CHP) officers on 31 March 2020 following a traffic stop. Bronstein died less than two months before George Floyd was killed by police in Minneapolis as he, too, repeatedly told officers “I can’t breathe.”

Continue reading...