Handcuffed black man shot in the back by BART officer, sparks riots.

[darien87]

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/01/01/BAB9152I2Q.DTL&type=newsbayarea

As a black man, I'm not too sure how I feel about this. There is a grainy cell phone video that clearly shows the young man is hand-cuffed and on the ground on his stomach. He doesn't seem to be struggling very much, but the officer stands up, draws his gun and shoots the kid in the back. He later died from the injury. BART maintains that the officer meant to stun the kid with a taser, but accidentally pulled his gun by mistake. Aren't officers supposed to wear their tasers on the other side of their belts than their guns to prevent EXACTLY this kind of thing from happening?!?!? Aren't tasers made of plastic? I've never held a taser, but I've held guns before. I would assume that a taser would feel completely different than a gun. I would hate to think that the officer was racist and meant to hurt the kid, but him shooting the kid instead of tasing him seems like a long shot. It's possible, but I don't completely buy it.

Last night, hundreds of people were protesting in Oakland, and for some stupid reason a riot broke out.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2009/01/08/MN2N155CN1.DTL

I'll never understand the point of rioting. It's this kind of behavior that gives blacks a bad rap. I can understand the frustration and outrage, but what does smashing up a hair salon and a McDonald's do to help the situation?!?! I remember being outraged when the Rodney King verdict came down, but I didn't understand the point of those riots either.

 

[rnatalli]

That's a terrible story. I don't think I buy he mistook his gun for a taser. Even if he did, the guy was handcuffed. I don't see any reason to use either a gun or taser.

 

[Alex2507]

What ever the cause and the circumstances of this shooting are, racism is alive and well. I think riots are the result of serious frustration and a nothing to loose mentality born of short sightedness.

This will serve as my daily downer.

 

[darien87]

What ever the cause and the circumstances of this shooting are, racism is alive and well. I think riots are the result of serious frustration and a nothing to loose mentality born of short sightedness.

This will serve as my daily downer.

Sorry dude. Just don't use this as an excuse to pick up a cancer stick.

 

[jamie2112]

That is unbelieveable.Why he shot him on the ground handcuffed is beyond me. Stupid people out there folks I hope the shooter gets his....

 

[gmichael]

And so it continues. Both the shooting and the riot are ridiculous. One idiot sparks more idiots to hurt more and more. It seems that no matter how much progress we make, there will always be a few who will try to destroy everything. People need to learn how to control their anger. It's normal to get upset from time to time, but it is what is done about that anger that counts. I am sure that whatever went on between the man and the officer prompted the officer to get mad. But he took it too far. Way too far. And then others respond by taking it out on innocent people. When does it stop?

 

[jamie2112]

Armageddon is when it stops..... people, for the most part suck....cattle mentality in crowds is really stupid.

 

[Alex2507]

Just don't use this as an excuse to pick up a cancer stick.

I'm good on that score. The consideration though is huge. The 'out of left field' aspect of your comment certainly snaps me back into a different head space.

Thank you,
Alex

 

[STRONGBADF1]

Stupid and sad on both counts...

 

[aberkowitz]

What is silly about riots is that they demonstrate behavior that will convince the uneducated that the original action was justified and furthers horrible racial sterotypes. Some guy sitting in Podunk, America (no offense to people living in Podunk) can go on thinking "Look at how those people act, the kid must have had it coming."

I feel terrible for this kid's family, and hopefully justice is served to the officer.... the protesters, however, need to realize that they're not doing any good by tearing up a city.

 

[CaliHwyPatrol]

The BART spokesman said the guy wasn't handcuffed. He also said that officers will only draw their weapons if they feel the situation can't be handled otherwise. So, if they already have their weapons out, and the guy wasn't handcuffed, then I can completely see why something could have escalated to the point of the officer shooting him.

 

[MatthewB.]

I've been following this very carefully on another forum and there is some missing info. First the victim was just released from prison in September for armed robbery, fleeing police and throwing a gun in the air. He also has a history of drug dealing. He was on probation and so was violating probation by being out after his madatory curfew, committing a crime of assault while he and his two buddies faught with passengrs on the BART and attempting to flee. While beng detained he tried to get up to run away and the three officers had to restrain him. It was at this point they tried to get the handcuffs on. The cuffs were actually put on after he was shot and then removed shortly after that. Now I am sorry he died, but also believe if he had been following the rules of his probation and not acted like a thug, he would still be alive. general consensus is it was an accidental shooting and the officer has already resigned. But the "morons" rioting need get their brains checked.

 

[MatthewB.]

Another thing to note is how KTVU is being biased while reporting the stories. At first they showed the victims picture with him flashing gang signs, now the only pics are those of him with his daughter and being a saint. His family said he was a role model and a good father to his four year daughter. This is why he spent half the childs life in jail for felony crimes and was out at 2 am, assaulting passengers and then trying to flee the police. Why was he not at home tending to his family and not getting into trouble. Others have mentioned on the other site that it was New Years, this to me is flawed becaus he is on probation with a curfew of 10 pm why is he out at 2 am with two thugs assaulting passengers. My views on this are not racially motivated at all. I could care less if he was black, asain, polish or white. He and his buddies started this and unfortunatly a cop mishandled his weapon and he died. The cops were dealing with people screaming at them and challenging them and throwing items at the officers which escalated the situation to where mistakes could be made.

 

[A/VUSMCSGT]

Thanks for clearing it up some.

There's plenty of racism and uncontrolled anger in the world today, but a lot of the time, there's underlying issues that the general public don't know about regarding a situation.

I could see cops "accidentally" shooting someone, but I can also see it really being an accident, especially when someone is resisting and making the situation worse.

 

[MatthewB.]

The whole situation was FUBAR'd first off you have a crowd of people taunting the police (KTVU wbsite has three different cell phone cameras capturing all that happened from three different views) and you can clearly see people challanging the cops while they are trying to detain the perps, then you see somebody go up and hit one of the officers and he gets tackled and while the cop is putting the cuffs on this moron, you hear the gunshot go off behind them. The officers were outnumbered by about 40 to 6 and the situation quickly escalated. Now you have Oscar getting all jumpy and trying to get up to flee, it was at this point the officer pulled out his gun and pulled the slide back to load the chamber (what this does is automatically pull the hammer back) and the gun is ready to go, cop made the mistake of pulling the slide back while his finger was on the trigger, but considering how tense the situation was, I'm pretty sure he wasnt thinking clearly. Granted it's no excuse, but I am not losing sleep over this guy getting shot.

 

[NicolasKL]

Darien, where is it clearly shown that he was handcuffed? I don't live in the Bay Area but was there visiting relatives when it happened (was at the Fruitvale station the night before it happened, actually). From my understanding there is still some debate about whether or not he was handcuffed but currently things are pointing to him not being handcuffed when the shooting occured, and from the videos I've watched there's nothing that's one hundred percent conclusive either way. To me it looks like the struggle is because they're trying to handcuff him, whether or not they succeeded before the shooting is difficult to tell but I'd lead towards saying he wasn't.

 

[MatthewB.]

according to the officers reports, he was handcuffed breifly after he was shot. Yes the cops were trying to get the cuffs on when the shot goes off. Two video cameras corroborate this as well as the officers and witnesses.

 

[NicolasKL]

it was at this point the officer pulled out his gun and pulled the slide back to load the chamber (what this does is automatically pull the hammer back) and the gun is ready to go

Any kind of Law Enforcement Officer carrying a weapon without one in the pipe? That is very, very strange.

 

[MatthewB.]

NicolasKL, you have to remember these are transit cops and not prone to the type of crime outside the train terminal. This is also a matter of contention as to why the officer needed to pull the slide back and was the situation escalating to the point where the possible use of deadly force was needed. There is also some that feel he mistook his gun for his tazer and in all the confusion, thought he was merely tazing him. The officer had only been on the force two years and they had just been issued the tazer two months prior to this incident. Again I wasnt there and all I have posted is merely speculation.

 

[darien87]

Darien, where is it clearly shown that he was handcuffed? I don't live in the Bay Area but was there visiting relatives when it happened (was at the Fruitvale station the night before it happened, actually). From my understanding there is still some debate about whether or not he was handcuffed but currently things are pointing to him not being handcuffed when the shooting occured, and from the videos I've watched there's nothing that's one hundred percent conclusive either way. To me it looks like the struggle is because they're trying to handcuff him, whether or not they succeeded before the shooting is difficult to tell but I'd lead towards saying he wasn't.

From the video I saw, (granted it is pretty grainy), it certainly looked like the perp was laying on the groung with his hands behind his back. Why would he just be holding his hands behind his back if they weren't cuffed? Maybe I didn't see it correctly, but that's how it looked to me.