Cops Trying to Kill a Dog, Kill Innocent Boy Who Tried to Save It Instead

Los Angeles, CA — Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department deputies opened fire on a biting dog after responding to a call of a teen house party early Thursday morning — but a bullet ricocheted and killed a 17-year-old boy, who was trying to save the dog from gunfire.

Reports say the sheriff’s department received calls about the party and arrived on scene at an apartment complex around 3:47 a.m., local time; but a pit bull sprinted from inside the residence — biting one of the responding deputies on the leg.

Officers restrained the animal — but it broke from their grips.

Armando Garcia, in the meantime, attempted to bring the dog under control, when police unleashed a hail of bullets against the offending animal — one round allegedly grazed the pavement and ricocheted upward — killing the teenager who only wanted to protect the animal.

“We believe that when the individual came out from behind the building, which was approximately 40 feet away from where the shooting occurred, he may have been struck by one of the skip rounds. And it is what we’re calling an extremely, extremely unfortunate incident,” asserted Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department Captain Chris Bergner in a press conference Thursday.

Unfortunate in that the teen had been trying to do what the deputies apparently couldn’t — get the dog under control. And, after being rushed to the hospital, Garcia lost his life for the effort.

“My nephew was trying to save the dog because the cops started shooting at the dog,” Amber Alcantar, Garcia’s aunt, told CBS Los Angeles. “He put his life on the line for an animal that wasn’t even his.”

ABC 7 reports:

“Deputies at the scene said they initially responded to a report of loud music at a party. As they were conducting an investigation, a 60 to 65 pound pit bull ‘aggressively charged’ at deputies and bit one of them on his left knee. The deputy was not seriously injured.”

Officers then restrained the animal, but it broke loose — authorities say it charged at the deputies — two of whom then fired at the animal from a distance of just five seven feet. According to reports, the pit bull ran to a carport area behind the apartment complex, with deputies in pursuit — determined to hold the animal in a confined space to prevent any other attacks on bystanders.

“When they got to the carport area, deputies found the teen on the ground suffering from a gunshot wound to the chest,” ABC 7 notes.

Bergner also said the deputy relatively uninjured by the initial dog bite to the left knee was also treated for a gunshot wound from a ricocheting bullet to the right knee.

“This is an extremely, extremely unfortunate incident,” Bergner continued. “The bullet hit the apron of the driveway, traveled about 30 to 40 feet back, and potentially hit this individual who was coming around the corner.”

Of course, the L.A. County Sheriff’s Department has not made clear why spraying a dog with enough rounds to incidentally kill a teenager and wound an officer would have been a wise choice in an apartment complex, where — even given the pre-dawn hour of their arrival — shooting rather indiscriminately at an animal would seem feckless, at best.

Ill-fated, in the case of Armando Garcia — who lost his life to gunfire for trying to protect an animal from the cops.

The pit bull will be euthanized.

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Neighbors told the media pit bulls are particularly common in the area, but the unnamed owner of the dog in question described the animal as “a big dog with a baby’s mind” — and it would never have meant any harm.

“Mando is a good kid,” lamented Garcia’s mother, Roberta Alcantar, of the teen who tried to save an animal from officer gunfire. “He did not deserve to die the way he died. I’m going to get to the bottom of it and it’s going to get handled.”

Armando Garcia will join a shamefully lengthy list of individuals who obviously know and love animals better than police — who should be trained to de-escalate animal situations, no matter the circumstances, given they encounter dogs and cats routinely — but who have had their lives cut short by frightened cops.

It seems the modus operandi for police in the U.S. is to shoot first, say something about being scared for life and limb, and don’t bother asking questions later.

And now another human being had his life untimely snuffed — unironically — for trying to protect a beloved dog, that wasn’t even his, from the police.

This is what it’s like to be an animal lover in a police state.

Deputy Has Mental Breakdown While Celebrating His Birthday, Cops Show Up and Kill Him

As would be inevitable, epidemic-level police violence finally crossed the Thin Blue Line on Wednesday, when an off-duty Tennessee sheriff’s deputy in the midst of his birthday celebration was shot and killed — by fellow cops.

Two off-duty female officers with the Chattanooga Police Department were celebrating with Hamilton County Deputy Daniel Hendrix, when he reportedly became distressed, pulled his weapon, and refused to follow commands from officers responding to the quickly deteriorating situation to drop his gun.

Although details remain murky, Chattanooga police officers fired several times, killing Hendrix mere hours after he turned 26 — unwittingly, and quite ironically, adding the name of a law enforcement officer to a shamefully lengthy list of police victims.

Media reports and statements from authorities did not make clear whether Hendrix actually pointed the firearm at the off-duty officers attending his birthday, or at Chattanooga officers summoned by dispatch — only that a gun had been drawn and he refused to relinquish control.

“For reasons still under investigation,” a statement from the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation reads, “Hendrix appears to have changed his demeanor, became agitated, armed himself with a personal firearm, and threatened the two women, who later managed to flee the home during the exchange.”

Josh DeVine, Tennessee Bureau of Investigation spokesman, explained the corrections deputy — for reasons unknown — became “enraged,” brandished his firearm, and proceeded to menace the women present.

“Both women fled the home and one called 911 at 1:26 a.m.,” the Times Free Press reports. “Two additional Chattanooga police officers arrived on scene and found Hendrix holding the weapon, but he refused to comply with verbal commands to drop the weapon and one of the responding officers fired at him at least four times.”

Neighbor Anita Franklin had just returned home from work when ‘five or six loud gunshots in rapid succession’ shattered the calm in the ordinarily sleepy neighborhood.

“It sounded like it was right in my yard,” she told the Times Free Press. “I didn’t even look out the window.”

Emergency services rushed to the scene and rendered first aid until Hendrix could be transported to a nearby hospital — where he succumbed to his wounds a short time later.

A gun recovered from the scene is believed by authorities to have belonged to and been brandished by the deputy, but whether or not he ever fired the weapon has either not been determined, or not been made public. It should be noted, however, that if Hendrix had indeed fired the gun, authorities almost certainly would have made that crucial detail public.

Why Hendrix’ temper suddenly boiled over is still unclear — but, with so many questions yet unanswered, the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation has now stepped in, at the behest of Hamilton County District Attorney General Neal Pinkston, to parse together the details.

Identities of the two responding Chattanooga Police officers have not been released, but both have been granted the obligatory paid vacation known as administrative leave, per departmental policy, until the conclusion of the investigation.

“He was a young man, about 26 years of age, had his whole future ahead of him,” lamented Hamilton County Sheriff Jim Hammond during a press conference on the fatal shooting yesterday afternoon. “[He] was on the path to a good career. It is a tragedy, we certainly reach out to the family, this is a tough time for them, we know.”

Hendrix, employed as a corrections officer since 2013, once faced charges over an incident involving a female inmate, which seemed also to evince latent aggression and hostility.

In 2015, the deputy struck Leslie Hayes in the face multiple times during a struggle during processing at Silverdale Correctional Facility, for which the sheriff’s department arrested and charged — but ultimately cleared of wrongdoing. Hayes had since filed an unnecessary force lawsuit, claiming Hendrix’ actions were not only excessive, but recorded inaccurately in official incident reports.

“We would have done some retraining, we would have probably noted in his file what the situation was,” Hammond, the Sheriff, remarked Wednesday of the deputy’s alleged transgression, “but there was no reason for us to think that that incident had any bearing on what happened last night.”

For a top cop to beseech the public to dismiss any past wrongdoing by Hendrix and focus solely on the details of the incident in question might certainly be reasonable, justifiable, and indeed right — but also exposes an odious irony.

In fatal encounters with law enforcement, so frequently dotting headlines in the U.S., it is the victim’s history and character that becomes subject to malicious scrutiny, scorn, and ridicule — while any past wrongdoing by involved officers and questions concerning uses of force fall by the wayside in the court of public opinion.

That an incident for which authorities found he had done nothing wrong has now been examined in media reports proves Hendrix might not be an exception to this demented practice of victim-blaming.

Whatever TBI determines led to the fatal shooting, and whether justified or not, the fact an officer took another officer’s life is indicative of the expansive nature of brutal policing in the U.S.

Perhaps the unnamed responding officers truly believed theirs or other lives were in danger, thus shooting eliminated an imminent threat — but there can be no question better avenues for police to deal with complex and tense situations should be mandatory during training.

Hendrix’ killing marks the 15th fatal police incident investigated by TBI this year — which TBI spokesman, Devine, called an “appreciably higher number than what has been typical in years past.”

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In fact, Tennessee and the nation have experienced a marked uptick in deadly encounters in 2017 — a distressing trend showing no indication of slowing down.

“We’re on track to work 90 of these, we estimate, which is pretty high for us,” DeVine, the TBI spokesman, asserted. “We have some data over the past couple of years that suggest about a 45 percent increase over a five-year time frame in the number of officer-involved shootings that we’ve investigated.”

Now, Hamilton County Deputy Daniel Hendrix has joined the sizeable list of those killed by cops.

This — in every sardonic sense — is what it’s like to be a police officer celebrating a birthday in a Police State.

Family Sues After Cops Shot 6yo Autistic Boy and Watched Him “Suffer Immensely” As He Died

Marksville, LA — A federal lawsuit has now been filed against several Louisiana law enforcement agencies for the fatal shooting of six-year-old Jeremy Mardis, who “suffered immensely” on November 3, 2015, due to “a barbaric and excessive use of deadly force.”

Attorneys representing Christopher Few, Jeremy’s father, who suffered serious injuries in the incident; mother, Catherine Mardis; and Candace Few, whose vehicle her brother, Christopher, drove the night of the shooting, filed a federal civil lawsuit on Thursday in an attempt at justice for the needless death of the young child.

In fact, video footage of the incident so shocked Louisiana State Police Col. Mike Edmonson, he told reporters in November, “It is the most disturbing thing I’ve seen, and I will leave it at that.”

According to the lawsuit, referenced by KLFY, defendants include “Norris Greenhouse Jr. and Derrick Stafford, the two former Marksville Ward 2 deputy marshals facing second-degree murder and attempted second-degree murder in the case. Both pleaded not guilty and are facing separate trials.

“But the lawsuit also names as defendants Marksville City Marshal Floyd Voinche, the Marksville City Court, the town of Marksville, Avoyelles Parish, Progressive Paloverde Insurance Company and the other two officers involved in the chase of Few that night — Jason Brouillette and Kenneth Parnell III.”

On November 3, 2015, according to the original police account, the four officers were attempting to serve a warrant for Few — who then fled in his sister’s Kia Sport, with Jeremy buckled in the passenger seat.

Police had claimed Few was armed and posed an imminent deadly threat — so Officers Greenhouse and Stafford opened fire — emptying 18 rounds at the vehicle, critically injuring Few and killing the 6-year-old, who had autism.

In actuality, no warrant had been issued for Few, and both father and son were unarmed — indeed, as video evidence shows, Few had his hands in the air when he received “two or three” bullets to the head and chest, while Jeremy suffered “four or five” shots to the head and neck.

Appallingly, Jeremy languished in agony, still holding onto life for over five minutes after being shot multiple times — but officers failed to even check for a pulse or render assistance.

“During this time, Jeremy was bleeding profusely and suffered immensely due to the gunshot wounds,” the lawsuit states, according to KFLY.

“It was not until approximately some seven and one-half to eight minutes or so after the hail of gunfire, that an officer at the scene, believed to be Parnell, finally checked Jeremy for a pulse and discovered that he was still alive, despite having been shot multiple times including in the head and neck,” it reads.

“However, none of the officers at the scene, including Stafford, Greenhouse, Brouillette and Parnell initiated or rendered any form of first aid, nor did they undertake any other measures in an attempt to stop Jeremy’s bleeding or otherwise alleviate or mitigate Jeremy’s suffering, or made any attempts to save his life.

“Sadly, Jeremy was left to suffer — and die — while the officers casually searched for ‘gloves.’”

An exact motive for the original traffic stop — given the fictitious claim of a warrant and that Few did not have a weapon — has yet to be publicly released by officials. Attorneys for Greenhouse and Stafford stated during court proceedings Few had been standing in the road, blocking traffic, ignored officers’ commands, and then fled the scene.

But the lawsuit contends there had been no clear reason for police to pursue the vehicle Few was driving, and when he ultimately did pull over, the vehicle, “even if it were moving forward or backwards — did not and could not have presented an imminent threat of death or great bodily harm to any of the officers at the scene or innocent bystanders.”

As video clearly shows, Few pulled to the side of the road, raised his arms above his head and made no threatening gestures — in other words, he posed not even the slightest legitimate threat to their safety. The lawsuit continues:

“Moreover, at the time the pursuit of Christopher was initiated, and thereafter during the pursuit, none of the officers had reasonable or probable cause to believe that Christopher had committed some crime, was committing a crime or was about to commit a crime. The pursuit was unlawful, as was the subsequent use of deadly force.”

Fatally shooting a 6-year-old child wasn’t the first brutal act by either Stafford or Greenhouse. As The Free Thought Project reported, the pair of rageful cops have a history of brutalizing their town with impunity — and as the lawsuit notes, it seems no vetting procedure was in place when Greenhouse and Stafford were hired.

Additionally, when attorneys made a public records request with Marksville City Marshal Floyd Voinche for hiring, training, and disciplinary guidelines concerning deputy marshals, they received a telling one-sentence reply: “No such records exist.”

“The need for such policies is so obvious,” KFLY quotes the lawsuit, “for the safety of the public and the protection of constitutional rights that the lack of such policies constitutes deliberate indifference and a reckless disregard for the public and plaintiffs’ constitutional rights.”

But the fact it took an innocent 6-year-old’s death to force the city to examine such policies is endemic of brutal policing in the United States — and one means officers can employ to work around appropriate discipline is to resign and simply move on to the next department.

In late September, in a stunning act of hubris, Stafford again requested charges be dropped since he acted in self defense — despite damning evidence to the contrary.

The family of Jeremy Mardis is requesting a jury trial in this lawsuit.