WATCH: Police Nearly Kill Kid for Wearing a Halloween Mask, Holding Toy Gun

Oklahoma City Sheriff"s deputies nearly kill a kid wearing a Halloween mask and holding a fake pistol. Did they take it too far?

Cop Suspended After Disturbing Video Showed Him Kill Unarmed Man As He Ran Away

Philadelphia, PA — One man is dead following an officer-involved shooting which took place on June 8th in Philadelphia. Now the officer who killed 30-year-old David Jones as he ran away has been suspended and potentially fired following the release of a very disturbing video and a three-month long investigation. But that disciplinary action does not go far enough for critics who say Officer Ryan Pownall should be brought up on murder charges.

Pownall was transporting witnesses in a separate case when he said he approached Jones for allegedly driving his dirt bike erratically. After the officer made contact with the man riding a motorcycle, Jones produced a handgun and Pownall opened fire. After attempting to fire the first shot, the officer’s gun jammed, at which time Jones had dropped the gun and was running away. Pownall fired another two shots, with one hitting Jones in the back, killing him. Philadelphia Police Commissioner Richard Ross addressed reporters saying:

In both instances, Jones was running away from Pownall, with nothing (no weapon) in either hand. Officer Pownall violated departmental policy when he made the vehicle stop with witnesses in the back of the patrol car. He also failed to notify police radio of the traffic stop or call for backup. He fired two shots at Jones while he was running away and no longer posing what appeared to be a threat to himself (Pownall) or witnesses at that moment.

Ross continued saying:

Because Jones never looked back at Pownall in the video and his hands were empty, he posed no imminent or immediate threat to Pownall.

Issac Gardner and several members of the Black Lives Matter group protested outside of Pownall’s house as well as police headquarters. Gardner remarked:

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We will show back up at his house. We’re not done. It was good that he was fired, but we need him charged with the murder of David Jones.

Doretha Crosby is Jones’ mother. She told reporters:

I just don’t get why this cop just took his life. He was only going to sell his bike and lost his life. It just don’t make no sense.

Video of the deadly shooting shows Jones running away from the officer, around a vehicle, before being killed by the officer’s bullet. But police do not dispute eye witness testimony that Jones pulled a gun on the officer first.

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In June, when the incident happened, Ross addressed reporters saying that eyewitnesses saw the officer approach Jones, and reach around his waist, where he felt the firearm. He ordered Jones not to “reach” for the weapon. Jones ignored that command and pulled the gun on the officer, who quickly drew his own weapon and attempted to fire. Ross said the first shot by the officer was entirely justified, but the subsequent two were not, and he was apparently fired for shooting an unarmed man in the back.

The incident in Philadelphia is the latest in what seems to be a string of cop vs. biker incidents which have left several citizens dead. Just last week we brought you the story of Demond Grimes—a 15-year-old child—who was killed by a Michigan State Police Officer Mark Bessner after the officer tased Grimes from his vehicle as the teenager was riding his ATV.

Grimes then crashed into the back of a pickup truck, killing him instantly. The cowboy drive-by style shooting left his family grieving and lawyers lining up to sue the officer, the department, and the city, for his alleged reckless behavior.

We will continue to bring you updates in the David Jones case from Philadelphia as they become available.

Cops Kill Deaf Electrical Engineer, Detain the Only Witness and Delete His Video

A storm of controversy is brewing in Lincoln Parish, Louisiana, after a police officer killed a deaf electrical engineer this past week in broad daylight outside Simsboro High School.

The man, Joshua Cloud, was a graduate of the University of Alabama’s School of Engineering. By all accounts, he was a happy, healthy, respectful, generous and kind human being. But by the official police statements, he shot at a police officer and was gunned down as a result. The only problem with the official story is that it does not match up with an eye witness accounts of the shooting.

One witness is calling Cloud’s death an act of “murder.” Quintin Crowe is a school security guard at Simsboro High. He said he was taking a smoke break when he heard a police taser being deployed. Crowe said he grabbed his camera and began recording. He observed a white male wrestling and fighting with an officer.

The man began asking the officer, shouting in fear, “What did I do?” Crowe said the officer deployed a K9 police dog on the man and said the man “busted a move” and he believed began to run in the opposite direction. It was at that instant that the shots rang out and Crowe said he saw the man fall, laying lifeless on the ground. Here’s Crowe’s first-hand account of what he saw:

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What i saw during…

تم نشره بواسطة ‏‎Quintin Crowe‎‏ في 30 أغسطس، 2017

Even though Crowe never once mentioned seeing the man with a gun, the Lincoln Parish Sheriff’s Department issued the following statement, saying not only did Cloud have a gun, but he shot the deputy first!

“Today, August 29th, one of our Lincoln Parish Sheriff’s Deputies conducted a traffic stop in Simsboro, LA. During
the course of the stop the suspect, a white male believed to be from the State of Tennessee, became non-compliant and
combative. The suspect, produced a weapon and fired striking out Deputy in his duty vest. Our Deputy returned fire on the suspect. The suspect was subsequently pronounced dead at the scene. This incident occurred in very close proximity to the Simsboro School. Out of caution, the school
was placed on temporary lock down until the scene was secured. As is standard operating procedure for this department
the Louisiana State Police will be the agency investigating this incident. Any inquiries into this incident should be directed to the
PIO for the Louisiana State Police, or the Louisiana State Police, Bureau of Investigations, Monroe, LA, field office.
Names have been withheld, pending the notification of next of kin. I would like to offer thanks to the outpouring of
appreciation and concern that this office has received from the public and surrounding jurisdictions.”
— Sheriff Mike Stone

Sheriff Stone’s statements stand in stark contrast to the eyewitness account, as well as the character witness testimony of dozens of Cloud’s friends—many of whom now believe the police are covering up a murder.

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As a result, Cloud’s friends are now accusing the sheriff’s deputy, Officer Kyle Luker, of killing Cloud and creating the narrative he shot the engineer in self-defense. They are saying Cloud was likely shot for not complying with Luker’s commands, something he could not possibly have heard as he is legally deaf.

Fueling their suspicions is Crowe’s own admission that police took his phone and deleted the video of the incident. Even though Lincoln Parish Sheriff’s Department detectives told him they are in possession of his cell phone recording and will use it as evidence, none of Cloud’s friends are accepting that conclusion. They are saying the police department and Sheriff Stone are engaged in an active cover-up of an officer-involved shooting that looks more like a murder.

Zach Cooley, formerly with the US Navy, commented on the Sheriff’s department page, “You obviously have no clue who he murdered.” Another friend, Chris Schneider, responded with what one could describe as seething anger. He wrote:

“Where’s the video evidence! The victim was a solid human being with respect, dignity, and poise. A total law abiding American citizen!”

He described the incident as possibly a mistake:

“Cops mess up, they’re people too, and like people they cover up things when they mess up unfortunately.”

Schneider pointed out how not all police can be trusted as TFTP has reported. In Baltimore, MD, several officers were implicated in planting evidence on a suspect. He drew the appropriate analogy:

“I guess everyone supporting this cop on here doesn’t see the hard evidence on the news around the US of cops planting drugs and weapons on innocent people and taking them to jail for a crime they never committed. OR a cop shooting an innocent man to death in front of his own daughter two feet away from him in a car?”

Cloud’s friend then openly accused the police department of lying and covering up the truth:

“There is a real story that isn’t being shared with the public, shame on you. I hope true honest and fair justice will be served here. You have hundreds of people around the country weighing [sic] in on this case that are close with this victim.”

Schneider then called on the police department and Sheriff Stone to reveal the truth and stop trying to protect their officer:

“hope you do the right thing for the right reason. Would be a shame to see a wonderful human being’s life get swept under the floor because a cop had no integrity and neither did a whole police force in a Louisiana community. YOU ARE BEING WATCHED AND ACCOUNTED FOR!!! And if you feel threatened by that then you’re in the wrong! Because at the end of the day when you take off that uniform you are just like me and everyone else in your communities! You are nothing special!”

Drew Glines, another of Cloud’s friends, is questioning the official police narrative as well. He wrote:

“Joshua Cloud was legally deaf….. and was one of the kindest, most sincere, genuine, selfless individuals I have had the opportunity to encounter. I am privileged to call him my friend. He would never have endangered someone’s life, police or otherwise, if he did not feel his life was in imminent danger.  I eagerly await video and audio evidence of this encounter… bc this is not as cut and dry as, ‘bad guy shot cop, cop fired back’ …
When should we expect that more details will be released?”

The details the police should release immediately are the gun with its serial number, make and model, and more importantly, the video that Crowe took and police have deleted.

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Any dash cam or body camera footage should also be released as well as security camera footage of the incident recorded from Simsboro High School where police reportedly took Crowe to confiscate his cell phone footage. Such confusion and unanswered questions exist surrounding the officer-involved shooting that releasing those details in a timely manner may dispel all doubt about whether or not Cloud was murdered, as Crowe alleges, or was killed in self-defense as Sheriff Stone contends.

Schneider is demanding “hard evidence” be presented and promises he is not going to sit idly by as police try to push their own narrative of last week’s deadly encounter with police. “I already messaged them, emailed them, and writing the state later today. There needs to be noise made over this. I’ll be damned if I let a guilty man still continue to serve that community while my friend is dead,” he emphatically wrote.

Cassidy McCool is Cloud’s girlfriend. She, too, vouched for his character as a reply to Sheriff Stone’s contention that her boyfriend was shot and killed because he opened fire on deputies. She called it murder what happened to her boyfriend. She wrote:

“My boyfriend, Joshua Cloud, was the single most level-headed and calm-mannered man I have ever known. I have NEVER even seen him get upset or angry. Never has he ever been violent, he has always been a lover not a fighter. He was just on the way home from a long summer away from home. He was LEGALLY DEAF & does not wear hearing aids! He probably did not understand what the officer was saying and HE MURDERED MY SOULMATE. I need to know what this officer did to my boyfriend! I need video evidence! I need to know what you did to Josh! Josh was the most rational and ingenious man I have ever known, and he just attained his degree in electrical engineering! WHAT DID THAT COP DO TO MY BOYFRIEND?!?!? WHY DID YOU MURDER MY BOYFRIEND?!?”

Joshua Cloud was from Knoxville, TN. He was buried on Sunday. His death marks the 806th death by cop in 2017. 

Cop Kills 2 People, Allowed to Resign, Joins New Dept, Shoots Man on 2nd Day—All in a Year

Point Blank, TX – A Sheriff’s Deputy is currently being investigated for his role in an officer-involved shooting—but this is not the first or even second time he has been the subject of such an investigation, and his record shows that he has been suspended multiple times during his short career.

Chase Welch, 26, was hired by the San Jacinto County Sheriff’s Office on July 25, according to the Texas Commission on Law Enforcement. On his second day after joining the department, Welch shot and wounded a 48-year-old man on Aug. 6.

The victim, Vance Chastean May, was shot in the shoulder by Welch while he was conducting a security check at a convenience store around 11:24 p.m. in Point Blank, Texas. May is expected to recover.

However, a quick look at Welch’s record could have predicted his role in the recent shooting. Before joining the San Jacinto County Sheriff’s Office, Welch served as a marine and then became a police officer in January 2012. He was an officer at the Beaumont Police Department until he resigned on Feb. 3.

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Welch’s time in Beaumont ended in scandal after he shot and killed 23-year-old Chaz York on Oct. 14, 2016. The incident occurred at a bar while Welch was off-duty. He heard about an altercation outside of the bar, decided to take matters into his own hands, and took York’s life as a result.

From a distance of 15 feet, Welch used his Glock 27 .40-caliber handgun to fire eight shots at York. Five of the bullets struck York’s body, and his autopsy concluded that he sustained injuries to both arms, his right thigh, his chest, his back, and both of his lungs were pierced.

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Despite a number of questionable circumstances surrounding the shooting that killed York—such as what Welch’s level of intoxication was at the time, and why he chose to use deadly force in order to deal with a belligerent man outside of a bar—a Jefferson Country grand jury declined to indict him, and he faced no criminal charges.

However, this was not the first time Welch was responsible for shooting and killing a man in 2016, and it also was not the first time he was relieved of criminal charges by a grand jury in Jefferson County.

On March 5, 2016, Welch shot and killed 22-year-old Herbert Ballance IV with a scoped rifle after Beaumont Police arrived at a local trailer park to investigate reports of a suicidal man with a gun. While Ballance reportedly spent the last moments of his life holding a stolen handgun to his head, Welch fired a bullet that struck Ballance in the back of his mouth, exited his scalp, and then struck a neighboring trailer.

In addition to being found “not guilty” in two different shootings that killed two men, Welch also has quite the record, with the first incident on his disciplinary record occurring just months after he was hired by the Beaumont Police Department in 2012.

According to a report from Beaumont Enterprise, the city paid a $5,000 settlement to a man who filed a federal lawsuit claiming that Welch threatened to shoot his dog in 2012. While Welch was not disciplined internally, he was suspended three times in less than two years after he failed to report damaged equipment in his patrol car in August 2013, repeatedly rammed his patrol car into a stolen Beaumont PD vehicle with the suspect driving it in August 2014, and then caused a traffic accident involving a citizen’s car in May 2015.

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Chase Welch is the classic example of everything that is wrong with the current state of police in the United States. In addition to multiple suspensions, he shot and killed two men in less than a year, and then—after facing no charges—he went on to work at another police department where it took him less than a month to shoot yet another man.

The latest investigation into Welch’s use of deadly force is still ongoing, and it remains to be seen whether he will finally be held accountable for his actions.

Shocking New Study Shows that Nearly 1/4th of Fired Cops Get Their Jobs Back

While individual reports have told the story of the ongoing trend of police officers returning to work after demonstrating gross misconduct, a new study gives insight into the number of police officers who are fired, and then later rehired—and it revealed that nearly one-fourth of fired officers in the United States end up getting their jobs back.

A report from the Washington Post looked at the cases of 1,881 officers who have been fired from major police departments across the country since 2006, and found that 451 of the officers had later been reinstated. They received their guns and badges and returned to the street once again—not because the reason they were fired was not legitimate, but because their offices made procedural mistakes when firing them.

“A San Antonio police officer caught on a dash cam challenging a handcuffed man to fight him for the chance to be released was reinstated in February. In the District, an officer convicted of sexually abusing a young woman in his patrol car was ordered returned to the force in 2015. And in Boston, an officer was returned to work in 2012 despite being accused of lying, drunkenness and driving a suspected gunman from the scene of a nightclub killing.”

Police unions were created to protect officers’ jobs, but as shown by the report, there are a number of cases in which the jobs are being protected, even when the officers should not be out on the streets.

Charles H. Ramsey, former police commissioner in Philadelphia and chief in the District, told the Post that in the last decade, the District has had to rehire 80 of the officers it fired, and three of them were rehired twice.

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“It’s demoralizing to the rank and file who really don’t want to have those kinds of people in their ranks,” Ramsey said. “It causes a tremendous amount of anxiety in the public. Our credibility is shot whenever these things happen.”

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The problem is one that is ongoing, and has been passed from one administration to the next, no matter which political party is in power. President Trump added his own thoughts on how police should relate to the public last week, when he encouraged officers to be “rough” on suspects, during a speech at the Suffolk County Police Department in New York.

“Like when you guys put somebody in the car and you’re protecting their head, you know, the way you put their hand over? Like, don’t hit their head and they’ve just killed somebody—don’t hit their head. I said, you can take the hand away, okay?” Trump told a crowd of officers who clapped and cheered in response.

While Trump’s comments were in reference to gang members, it should be noted that the same treatment he is advocating is the type of treatment that led to the death of Freddie Gray, a 25-year-old man who died in police custody in April 2015, after suffering from “high-energy” impact from his time riding in the back of a police transport van.

Out of the six officers charged in Gray’s death, Lieutenant Brian Rice and Officers Edward Nero and Caesar Goodson were acquitted, and Sergeant Alicia White and Officers William Porter and Garrett Miller had their charges dropped by the state—no one was every punished for killing Freddie Gray.

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While heinous cases such as the death of Freddie Gray may garner national attention, the report from the Post noted that just as not every report of police brutality receives media attention, not every account of an officer being fired for misconduct is released to the public.

“Nationwide, the reinstatement of fired officers has not been comprehensively studied or tracked. No national database logs terminations. Some firings receive local publicity, but many go unreported. Some states shield police personnel records—including firings—from public disclosure,” the report stated, noting that out of 451 cases, only 219 gave the public access to the reason why the officer was fired in the first place.

Out of those 219 cases that were made public, 88 of the officers had originally been fired for dishonesty, 33 officers had been charged with crimes—17 were convicted, and eight officers were fired and rehired by their departments more than once.

The report studied 37 departments across the U.S., which employ around 91,000 officers. In the last decade, only 1,900 of those officers had been fired, and one-fourth of them had been rehired after appealing their termination, which showed “both how rare it is for departments to fire officers and how difficult it is to keep many of those from returning.”

The Free Thought Project has documented a number of cases in which police officers have kept their jobs after demonstrating gross misconduct—often caught on video.

In one case from Cleveland, five officers were rehired after they executed an unarmed couple over a traffic violation in 2012. More than 100 officers were involved in a police chase that led to six officers firing 137 rounds in 19.3 seconds. Their target was the car occupied by Timothy Russell and Malissa Williams, two unarmed individuals who were hunted down and executed for the heinous crime of a suspected traffic violation.

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In another case from Jacksonville, Florida, a police officer kept his job, even after he hit and killed a pedestrian with his squad car, punched a child, spat on a mentally ill man, and was the subject of disciplinary action by his department on at least 10 separate occasions.

In the same way that police departments are not required to report how many individuals their officers kill on the job, there is also a serious lack of accountability in the way departments handle officer misconduct—and change won’t start to happen until police officers are truly held accountable for their actions, and the public is given access to how their tax dollars are being spent.

Cops Shoot So Many People, New State Regs Teach Drivers ‘How NOT To Get Shot By Police’

Driver’s manuals in Arizona will now include a section detailing “how not to get shot by police” during traffic stops, which is specifically aimed at armed drivers in the wake of the shooting that killed Philando Castile.

Democratic State Rep. Reginald Bolding told the Arizona Daily Star that he pushed for a rewrite of the state’s driver’s manual as a way to help educate drivers—especially those who are black and Hispanic, because he said records have shown that they are more likely to become victims of police shootings.

“When you look at what’s taken place across the country, you have seen a majority of individuals who are people of color that have had higher incidence of interactions with law-enforcement officers, particularly in shootings,” Bolding said. “Hopefully we can get to a place where that’s not the reality.”

One of the most recent incidents occurred in Minnesota when Philando Castile was shot and killed by a police officer during a traffic stop in July 2016. Castile followed basic protocol for individuals with concealed handgun licenses, and he informed the officer that he was armed and that he had a license.

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As soon as Castile reached for his I.D., Officer Jeronimo Yanez opened fire on the vehicle—with Castile’s girlfriend in the passenger seat and her four-year-old daughter in the back seat—and he fired seven rounds. Castile did not receive immediate medical attention, and was pronounced dead 20 minutes after the shooting.

Despite the fact that the shooting garnered national media attention with both Dashcam video and a Facebook Live video recorded by Castile’s girlfriend, Diamond Reynolds, documenting the aftermath inside the car, the officer was found not guilty on all counts.

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Prior to the verdict, Yanez was facing federal criminal charges in November 2016. At the time, Ramsey County Attorney John Choi said Yanez was being charged, because it was clear that “Philando Castile was not resisting or fleeing. There was absolutely no criminal intent on his behalf.”

“No reasonable officer would have used deadly force under these circumstances,” Choi said during a press conference. “Philando Castile was not a threat.”

Choi also noted that not only was Castile not showing criminal intent, he following all of the regulations for an individual with a concealed weapon. Choi noted that Castile’s dead body was found with a gun in one pocket, and his concealed handgun license in another.

“He emphatically repeated that he was not pulling out the gun, only that he was lawfully carrying,” Choi said. “His dying words were in protest that he wasn’t reaching for his gun.”

However, instead of looking at what the police officer had done wrong in the shooting, Rep. Bolding looked for what Castile had done wrong. He told the Arizona Daily Star that he reached out to eight different police departments with questions about how Castile should have behaved differently.

“Some people said you immediately reach into your glove department to grab your license and registration,” Bolding said, noting that he received a variety of responses. “Others said to turn on the dome light. Others said to wait.”

As a result, Bolding pushed for a re-write to the state’s driver’s manual, in an attempt to teach drivers—especially those who are armed—how to interact with police. “No one should ever leave a traffic stop in a body bag,” he said.

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The recommendations for drivers include things such as remaining in the vehicle after pulling over and parking the car, keeping seat belts fastened, and keeping hands in a visible location while motorists wait for officers to approach the vehicle.

“Other suggestions include: Lowering the windows, especially if they are tinted; At night, turning on any overhead passenger compartment lights; Informing the officer if the driver has a weapon or if there are any in the vehicle.”

While lawmakers in Tennessee, Virginia and Illinois have created new laws that require driver education courses to teach people how to act during traffic stops, the Arizona Daily Sun noted that “unlike the guidelines published in Arizona, none of the laws explicitly mentions what to do when armed motorists are stopped.”

Arizona, which is known as a “gun-friendly” state, allows residents to carry weapons without permits. However, the latest addition to the state’s driver’s manuals raises new questions about how much responsibility it is giving drivers, and how much accountability it is taking away from police.

Cop Who Killed Innocent Man in Walmart on Video for Holding a Toy Gun, Back on Duty

Beavercreek, OH – Two people died the night Beavercreek police officer Sean Williams decided to shoot his AR-15 inside a local Walmart August 5, 2014. John Crawford III was killed while holding an unloaded air rifle he’d found unboxed inside the store, and Angela Williams suffered a fatal heart attack as she ran from the store amid the chaos. But neither death was enough to keep Williams from getting his job back who’s now returned to full duty.

A grand jury cleared Williams of all wrong doing and the U.S. Department of Justice announced last week it would not seek federal charges against the officer for taking Crawford’s life. Once again, playing with a toy gun cost a man his life after someone called 911 to report suspicious activity.

A police officer who is adept at using an AR15 arguably should be able to discern the visible differences between an actual rifle and an air rifle, but Williams may not have even considered those details before shooting and killing the Walmart patron.

And while there are some high powered air rifles capable of potentially killing a bullet-proof vested police officer, one cannot purchase one at Walmart. All of which leaves us scratching our heads and asking questions.

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All Crawford had done was pick up a toy gun that was on a shelf in Walmart and walk around while he talked on the phone. Ohio is an open-carry state and the killing of Crawford for casually holding a bb gun in a non-threatening manner should raise serious red flags amongst supporters of open-carry.

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Original autopsy findings showed that Crawford was shot in the back of his left arm and in his left side, which supports the claim that he was never even facing the officer that shot him, as shown in the video. These facts support a narrative that officers never made verbal contact with Crawford, but instead simply gunned him down on sight.

When reviewing the video below, we can see that Crawford never points the weapon at anyone, nor does he have any type of body language suggesting that he ever heard any commands given to him to drop the BB gun if they were actually given. It’s much more likely, judging from the surveillance video, that officer simply shot Crawford on sight without giving him the opportunity to drop the toy gun.

Sadly, the corporate media and Americans, in general, appear not to care much less even know about why John Crawford was killed that day. Why is that?

It may be that Americans have become desensitized with the frequency of so-called “officer-involved shootings” given that nearly 1,200 citizens die every year at the hands of police officers. It seems to have become so routine that citizens hardly even bat an eye when a cop like Williams can simply wait long enough for an investigation to conclude and simply get his job back.

Over the years, TFTP has consistently reported on the dangers of handling an air gun in the presence of law enforcement officers. Tamir Rice was shot and killed by Cleveland OH police when they mistook his toy for a real weapon.

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In May, a 15-year-old San Diego student was killed in school’s parking lot by police after the youth brandished a BB gun. The body camera footage of the shooting was not immediately released and the case was dismissed as a death wish on the part of the teen who they said actually called police himself.

At any rate, officer-involved shootings of people with toy guns pose serious threats to the safety of citizens, so much so that some states have taken drastic measures. The State of New York, in place of retraining officers to be able to properly identify an air rifle over a real weapon, decided to ban air guns altogether. That kind of knee-jerk response only further deprives citizens of their civil liberties.

We at TFTP believe the best way to keep the public safe is to fire or assign to permanent desk duty, any officer who shoots at someone with an air pistol, retrain officers in de-escalation techniques, and equip all officers with body cameras that run 24-hours per day. That footage should not be held as evidence until the outrage subsides either. It should immediately be available for public view regardless of how incriminating it may be. No officer should get his job back after killing someone he was sworn to protect and serve.

Man Prevents a Murder by Disarming Attacker, Police Show Up and Kill Him

Appleton, WI — Police shot and killed a man last Sunday at Jack’s Apple Pub. Jimmie Sanders, of Milwaukee, was fatally wounded when police arrived after someone at the pub called 911.

Sanders and Henry Nellum got into a fight. Nellum pulled out the gun witnesses said he brought with him to the bar. Nellum told police he was attempting to hand his gun to a friend when the fight broke out. But witnesses told police that wasn’t true.

Nellum allegedly put the gun to Sanders’ neck just before Sanders wrestled the firearm away from him. During the scuffle, the gun went off. That’s when police were called to the scene.

When police arrived, Sanders had just gotten the gun away from Nellum and, according to witnesses, this resolved the situation. However, seeing the gun in his hand, police opened fire on Sanders, killing him. Now, police have charged Nellum with attempted homicide but it wasn’t Nellum who killed Sanders. It was the Appleton police.

The whole ordeal has left the Sanders family with more questions than answers, especially after the criminal complaint filed against Nellum made no mention of their loved one’s death by cop.

A person purported to be Sanders’ cousin described the incident in a Facebook message submitted by The Free Thought Project.

This past Sunday my cousin was shot by the police in Appleton Wisconsin. Jimmy was in the bar with a friend. A fight broke out. During the fight the unknown male pulled out a gun. During the scuffle my cousin was trying to get the gun out the man hands. The gun went off in the mist of trying to take it from the guy. The police were called. When the officers entered the bar they seen a black man with a weapon and fired.

This is video of the scuffle between the patrons.

Posted by Tory Lowe on Tuesday, May 23, 2017

The family believes the police wasted no time in killing their loved one and said they can prove it. They claim to have witnesses who say absolutely no attempt was made to deescalate the situation. They also claim, as the criminal complaint alleges, it was Nellum’s gun and did not belong to Sanders. The message continues;

Witness said the officer didnt even give my cousin a chance to surrender or drop the weapon. when the police came into the bar they seen a black man holding a gun and shot him. The man he was fighting was the one who pulled the gun out.

The message even claims the family can prove Nellum pulled the gun on Sanders who, understandably, disarmed his attacker. The cousin believes, according to the testimony the family received from witnesses, that no attempt was made to get Sanders to drop the gun.

There was even a video that the man pulled the gun out and Jimmy took it from him. Please share my cousins story I believe that the police saw a black man with a gun a opened fire not giving him a chance to surrender. He was not even given a command to comply.

The District Attorney handling Nellum’s case, Carrie Schneider, described to reporters the charges against Nellum, who’s also a convicted felon. Nellum was charged with First Degree Intentional Homicide, Felony in Possession of a Firearm, Wrecklessly Endangering Safety and several misdemeanor charges. Even though it wasn’t Nellum who killed Sanders, he’s been charged with his death by being ultimately responsible for the presence of a gun inside the pub.

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According to Sanders’ family advocate, Torrey Lowe, the wrong man was killed. “It was an unfortunate incident which took place and it looks like the man who was shot was not the one who brandished the gun,” Lowe told reporters.

Schneider said “additional charges” could be filed in Sanders’ shooting death, but did not indicate whether or not she was referencing the unnamed Appleton police officer who killed Sanders. Currently, Green Bay police are investigating the officer-involved shooting which took Sanders’ life.

As The Free Thought Project has advocated on numerous occasions, police officers need to be trained and in some cases retrained in deescalation methods. The Salt Lake City Utah Police Department has retrained all of its officers to deescalate conflicts such as the one which took Sanders’ life. Since the 2015 implementation, the department has not had one officer-involved shooting which took the life of a citizen.

As of this Sunday, Jimmy Sanders’ was the 482nd person killed by police so far in 2017. What’s more, his death will more likely than not be ‘officially’ counted by police as they are charging another person for it.

Cops Shoot, Handcuff 15yo Boy, Left Him in the Street for Hours as He Bled to Death

Stratford, CT — Sadly, America will add Jayson Negron’s name to the list of more than 1,000 people killed by police each year. Negron, a 15-year-old Sophomore at Bunnell High School in Stratford, had gone on a joyride May 9th, in someone else’s car. But Negron received the death penalty for his sins after encountering Bridgeport police officer James Boulay.

Police employ a number of ways to stop a fleeing automobile. Stop sticks often do the trick, immobilizing the tires by puncturing them. Then there’s the box method whereby officers surround a suspect vehicle with two or three other cars, and squeeze in, causing the car to come to a stop.

But with Negron, the only reported method for stopping the fleeing driver was for Boulay to shoot him in the chest. And now his parents are saying police left him to die in the street, thereafter.

Boulay was reportedly sworn in as an officer in September, after returning from the military. He’s reportedly devastated after the shooting, is on leave, and is expected to return to desk duty after the months-long state investigation is conducted.

Jazmarie Melendez, Negron’s sister, openly questioned Boulay’s killing of her brother. “I would never sit here and pretend to say ‘my innocent baby brother,’ ” Melendez said. “I acknowledge that. But what I’m saying is ‘were you trained to properly handle that situation?’”

She said all the major problems began when the Department of Child and Family Services (DCF) got involved. “DCF got involved…They didn’t care, they didn’t send truancy on him. Nothing. That’s why I’m so mad at DCF,” she said. “(They) dropped him off at a home where someone is doing drugs.”

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She said instead of staying with his dad, Negron began sleeping in cars. His cousin, Giovanni Rivera said the family was initially told police shot him in the head but found out later he’d been shot in the chest.

Rivera says his death was an injustice. She tweeted, “Police officers killed my little cousin for driving a stolen vehicle,” Rivera asked in another tweet, “How is that fair?!”

Family members literally mopped the street of his blood in what some have considered a moving display of emotion. Protests in the streets were directed towards police and calls for body cameras by legislators have resulted, with even the mayor of Bridgeport participating in the manifestations.

Mayor Joe Ganim spoke with reporters. “We’re all struggling,” Ganim said. “It’s a tragedy. All emotions are welcome tonight.”

Bridgeport police chief A.J. Perez told reporters at a press conference that Negron had attempted to ram his officers with the stolen car. “Almost pinning him under another vehicle,” he said before describing how his officer shot into the vehicle killing Negron and injuring the passenger traveling with him.

Perez said EMS arrived “relatively quickly,” but that fact is disputed by many who say Negron, like Michael Brown of Ferguson, laid helpless in the street for hours.

Cell phone footage taken at the scene shows Negron was lying face down in the street, his arms handcuffed behind him. The footage shows his head pointing to his right.

Later, a still photo shows his head facing to his left, an indicator to his family he was still alive while he lay still in the street. They say he stayed there for hours without any medical attention given to him.

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The whole community appears to be in an uproar with the thought police would simply shoot someone and leave them to die in the street.

Negron’s death is even making international news as the images of those sworn to protect and serve show they largely stood around while the boy was in need of medical attention.

It’s unclear how the teen acquired the stolen vehicle, but bait cars have been used in the past to lure citizens into committing a crime. It’s unknown if the stolen vehicle was such a vehicle.

But what is clear is Negron did not travel far on the road to his death, only going a few blocks before being shot by Boulay who said his car was hit by Negron.

Boulay sustained no injuries from the alleged incident.

As The Free Thought Project has frequently reported, officers will use the excuse that the vehicle was trying to hit them as an excuse to shoot their police-issued side arm. Sometimes those shootings lead to the officer’s exoneration. However, lately, officers have been charged and convicted of homicide for such shootings.

Parents Sue After Video Shows Officers Execute Their Son in Firing Squad Fashion

The parents of a man who was shot and killed by Santa Maria police officers have filed a lawsuit against the department, the city and a number of officers involved in the shooting, seeking monetary damages and increased crisis training for the police department following the deadly altercation.

As previously reported, Javier Garcia Gaona Jr., 31, was shot by police officers last July during a standoff outside of a gas station in Santa Maria. The standoff ensued when police were dispatched to Gaona’s location following a report of a man “shouting obscenities, holding a knife and making slicing motions to his throat and chest,” according to the Lompoc Record.

Police officers said after their arrival, verbal negotiations between Gaona, police and the FBI were unsuccessful. Officers further claimed that lethal force was necessary following nonlethal attempts because Gaona was “lunging” at officers. 

Several police officers were present at the shooting, and Gaona was ultimately hit 14 times with live ammunition. He later died after being transported to a hospital.

The Santa Maria Police Department offered the following statement following the shooting: “The man continued to hold the knife in a threatening manner. Officers attempted to subdue the man using less than lethal means. Several attempts to subdue him in this manner had no effect. The man began stabbing himself then charged at officers with the knife at which point he was shot by officers.”

The lawsuit acknowledges that Gaona was behaving “in a clearly irrational manner” but claims that more comprehensive tactics specific to handling a mentally unstable person should have been utilized, and alleges that “reasonable officers would not have concluded that Javier, isolated and surrounded by a throng of heavily armed law enforcement officers and their patrol cars, posed an imminent threat of serious physical harm to any individual other than perhaps himself.” Gaona was hit with several bean bags during the altercation, and the lawsuit claims that the bags caused him to stumble about rather than intentionally charge officers.

The lawsuit alleged misconduct that is common in complaints filed in use-of-force fatalities including excessive force, battery, and negligence, but it specifically called attention to the police department’s ability, or perhaps lack thereof, to deal humanely with individuals in a mental crisis. “We feel that it was a wrongful shooting. Had they (officers) had sufficient training, they wouldn’t have proceeded to rush the situation and shoot Mr. Garcia Gaona,” saidWilliam Schmidt, one of the attorneys representing the plaintiffs. “They could have brought in trained negotiators and mental health professionals. There was no rush. They just started shooting him with the ‘bean bag rounds’ out of shotguns. We feel they should receive more training, and that the family should be compensated for their loss.”

Gaona’s mental health history has not been clearly defined. Eric Schweitzer, the other attorney representing the plaintiffs, noted that Gaona suffered from depression at times but was apt to isolate himself rather than agitate others. While police officers had claimed that Gaona was urging officers to kill him Schweitzer dismissed the “suicide-by-cop” theory.

Gaona’s death is eerily similar to other officer-involved shootings that are characterized by several officers lethally overpowering one suspect. In 2014, six officers fired at a mentally ill man named Milton Hall, prompting the ACLU to question whether police were justified in such heavy force against one man.

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In 2015, a video surfaced indicating a similar situation in which a man was surrounded by officers, hit with bean bags and then killed by gunfire. It appears that in too many of these cases a fatal conclusion has become the norm. Despite the fact that the officers outnumbering a suspect have several advantages, including being insulated by strength in numbers as well as wielding extensive training expertise and a plethora of non-lethal options thanks to innovative technology. With so many alternatives available, why are cases like this continuing to be seen?

Cop Charged After Body Cam Shows Him Shoot Unarmed Family & Lie About It

Oviedo, FL — Newly released body camera footage shows the moments leading up to and after a police-involved shooting in Florida. On September 1st, 2016, Oviedo Police Officer Matthew Danler, 37, discharged his service weapon at least six times into a Chrysler 300 occupied by Jason Scott and his wife, an African American couple. Police

Police were responding to a 911 call around 6 am, and according to the footage, approached the Scott’s vehicle, at which time the vehicle quickly sped away. Danler appeared to waste no time in firing his weapon into the car, later radioing dispatch that the driver attempted to run him over with his car. “The vehicle attempted to hit me,” he told the dispatcher as he “approached” the vehicle. Unless the police department releases an unredacted video, we may never know just how many shots Danler fired into the vehicle as he attempted to end the lives of its occupants.

After further investigation into the shooting, the FL State Attorney’s office decided to charge Officer Danler with two counts of aggravated battery and one count of shooting into an occupied vehicle. The police reported to the news that only six shots were fired into the vehicle, but video footage from news crews on the scene during the September investigation reveal nine bullets may have been fired into the vehicle where the Scotts, two unarmed African Americans, were seated attempting to flee the scene. And get away they did, but not without injuries. Jason Scott was shot three times, in the arm and the stomach, and his wife Beatrice was injured by flying glass.

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According to the Orlando Sentinel, “Scott fled, drove about 13 miles, then left his car near the State Road 408 and State Road 417 interchange and walked two more blocks to see a friend. The friend called paramedics, and Scott was brought to ORMC.” He was later arrested and sent to jail. “Jason Scott was charged with fleeing and eluding. On Dec. 14, he pleaded no contest and was sentenced to 100 days in jail, time he had already served,” writes the Sentinel.

Not surprisingly, it wasn’t the first time Officer Danler had been in trouble within his own police department. In three years, and on three separate occasions, Danler was the subject of internal investigations. It appears, from his own service records, he had a real problem with authority, and may be suffering from some sort of narcissistic personality complex. According to Orlando’s News Channel 6;

The records show Danler was suspended in July 2014 for violations of obedience and safe driving for going 104 mph through Oviedo during an unauthorized pursuit.

In March 2015, Danler was suspended for turning off his camera after pulling over a detective who may have been intoxicated. Danler allowed the detective to leave and did not immediately report the traffic stop.

In September 2015, Danler was terminated for insubordination after pulling over a tree trimmer despite direct orders not to. Records also show he got into a shouting match with a supervisor.

In one of those rare occasions where police chiefs actually do their jobs to weed out the bad apple police officers, Chief Jeffrey Chudnow terminated Danler’s employment with the police department but was forced to rehire him after the police union fought for his reinstatement. The police union president Mike Scudiero of Coastal PBA/PEA made the following statement while the officer-involved shooting was taking place by the State Bureau of Investigations;

Officer Danler is awaiting the completion of the investigation with the belief it will show that his shooting was a clean shoot, and that it was justified under the circumstances…We stand by Officer Danler, as we do all officers when they are faced with making life-or-death decisions. Officer Danler has an accomplished history in Oviedo and has never had allegation of unnecessary use of force. We look forward to helping him during this difficult time so that he may return to the job he loves expeditiously.

Fortunately, the SBI did not agree with Scudiero’s assessment and charged the officer with the crimes which nearly killed the Scott family, and tragically injured Mr. Scott, whose lawyer, Mike Snure, had a lot to say about the incident. Snure defended his client, stating the video clearly shows his client in no way attempted to hit the officer and was on his side of the road as he sped away.

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Critics contend there are only a “few bad apples” like Danler, but his work history and criminal actions may serve to illustrate the system’s own failures to terminate the employment of an officer who wouldn’t follow the rules, had no respect for authority, and was ultimately protected by his obviously very powerful police officers union.

You be the judge. Take a look at the video and comment below. Does it appear that Mr. Scott was attempting to hit and injure Officer Danler? Should Officer Danler have been allowed to be rehired? Do you think Officer Danler was justified in discharging his weapon into the Scott’s vehicle?