Tag Archives: shooting

Featured, US

San Bernardino Suspect Attended Holiday Party Before Shooting, Left ‘Angry’

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Following a shooting massacre in San Bernardino, California that left 14 dead and at least 21 wounded on Wednesday, the suspects have been identified as Syed Farook, 28, and his wife, Tashfeen Malik, 27.

Hours after the massacre took place during a holiday party at the Inland Regional Center where Farook was a county restaurant inspector, the couple reportedly led police on a chase where Farook fired while Malik drove. Both suspects were killed during a shootout with police.

During a press conference on Wednesday night, San Bernardino Police Chief Jarrod Burguan said Farook was at the holiday party before the shooting, but left “under some circumstances that were described as angry.” He noted that 10 to 30 minutes passed between the time Farook left the party and the time the shooting started.

“These people came prepared to do what they did as if they were on a mission,” Burguan said. “They were armed with long guns, not with handguns.”

While police have not determined a motive, Burguan said that because Farook and Malik were found wearing tactical gear and armed with assault-style rifles when they were killed, “there had to be some degree of planning.”

Police said four weapons have been recovered in connection to the shooting: two assault rifles and two semiautomatic handguns. A spokesperson for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives confirmed that “successfully traced” the weapons, and have determined that two of the weapons were purchased legally.

Officials also claimed Farook was “apparently radicalized,” and was “in touch with people being investigated by the FBI for international terrorism.”

Farhan Khan, Farook’s brother-in-law, said Farook and Malik had a 6-month-old daughter. The couple reportedly left the baby with Farook’s mother on Wednesday morning, claiming they had a doctor’s appointment.

“I just cannot express how sad I am for what happened today,” Khan said. “I am in shock that something like this could happen.”

While Burguan said he has no information on Malik’s background, he said Farook was born in the U.S. to a Pakistani family, and had been a San Bernardino County employee for five years. Relatives said Farook had traveled to Saudi Arabia to meet Malik.

Featured, US

Breaking: Police Identify One of California Mass Shooters As Syed Farook

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San Bernardino- Multiple sources from multiple law enforcement agencies have identified one of the shooters in Wednesday’s California mass shooting as Syed Farook.  Police have just executed a search warrant at a Redlands, California address—an address that belongs to Farook’s family.

According to authorities, Farook was an environmental health specialist working for the county.  Farook has been reported as the man along with a woman who were shot to death today during a shootout with police.  The suspects had assault-style rifles and handguns, San Bernardino Police Chief Jarrod Burguan told reporters. They were dressed in what he called black, tactical “assault style” clothing.  One officer was injured in that shootout.

A third person was detained close to the scene of the shootout, but it is possible he is not connected to the shootings.  It is also being reported tonight that the third person is actually a Syed Farook’s brother.

A CBS News correspondent earlier in the day had reported that witnesses said the shooters were three gunmen and were “white with athletic build”.

begnaud tweet

Earlier police said they were hunting as many as three suspects, who had fled in a black SUV.

14 people are dead and another 18 wounded after three people entered the the Inland Regional Center and opened fire Wednesday morning.
 

Featured, US

Reports Of 20 Victims Wounded In Shooting In San Bernardino, California

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By Tim Reid

SAN BERNARDINO, Calif. (Reuters) – A manhunt was under way for up to three suspects who shot as many as 20 people, some of them fatally, at a holiday party at a social services agency in the Southern California city of San Bernardino, authorities said.

San Bernardino Police Lieutenant Richard Lawhead told a local NBC television network affiliate there were multiple fatalities, and a reporter for that channel said he saw the bodies of three victims following the shooting rampage.

MSNBC also reported that law enforcement authorities had confirmed the three deaths.

The San Bernardino Fire Department said in a Twitter post that it was responding to reports of 20 victims. San Bernardino is some 60 miles (100 km) east of Los Angeles.

A police spokeswoman told the Los Angeles Times that the suspects were heavily armed and possibly wearing body armor, and CBS reported that a bomb squad was on the scene, trying to defuse what was believed to be an explosive device.

President Barack Obama was briefed on the attack and reiterated calls for stronger gun laws. “…We should come together in a bipartisan basis at every level of government to make these (shootings) rare as opposed to normal.”

Agents for the FBI and the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives were dispatched to the scene to assist local law enforcement in the investigation, representatives for the two agencies said.

The shooting took place at the Inland Regional Center, one of 21 facilities set up by the state and run under contract by non-profit organizations to serve people with developmental disabilities, said Nancy Lungren, spokeswoman for the California Department of Developmental Services.

Lavina Johnson, executive director of the facility, told CNN that one to three suspects opened fire inside a conference center where a holiday party was being held for county health department personnel.

The conference building sits adjacent to the two larger three-story buildings that house most of the agency’s offices, Johnson said. Asked whether that meant that the Inland Regional Center staff and clients were safe, she said she understood they were being evacuated.

Television images on CNN showed people being evacuated from the building, their arms raised, as triage stations were set up outside. Police and SWAT teams were seen surrounding the building.

HOSPITAL READIES FOR PATIENTS

Loma Linda University Medical Center, on a recorded hotline, said it had received four adult patients and was expecting three more.

The regional centers like the one attacked in San Bernardino administer, authorize and pay for assistance to people with disabilities such as autism and mental retardation.

On an average day, doctors at the regional centers would be evaluating toddlers whose parents have concerns and case workers would be meeting with developmentally disabled adults. Lungren said that the San Bernardino facility is one of the state’s largest and busiest.

The shooting in California comes less than a week after a gunman killed three people and wounded nine in a shooting rampage at a Planned Parenthood clinic in Colorado Springs. In October, a gunman killed nine people at a college in Oregon and in June a white gunman killed nine black churchgoers in South Carolina.

The Inland Regional Center has been the focus of recent complaints that its clients were not receiving all services requested or that some services were cut back without proper notice, said attorney Terri Keville of the law firm Davis Wright Tremaine, LLP.

In a settlement last year, the agency agreed to implement new procedures to make sure clients were properly informed of their rights and received the services to which they were entitled.

(Reporting by Steve Gorman and Dan Whitcomb in Los Angeles and Sharon Bernstein in Sacramento; Writing by Dan Whitcomb; Editing by Leslie Adler and Cynthia Osterman)

 

Republished with permission from The Daily Caller.

International, Politics

France Declares State of Emergency, Military Enacts Full Control

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Following a series of attacks that left over 100 people dead in Paris, France on Friday, French President Francois Hollande declared a state of emergency which closed the country’s borders and gave the government heightened access into the lives of its citizens.

Reuters reported that “about 100 people were killed in the Bataclan concert hall in central Paris” and an additional “40 others have died in other locations,” such as busy restaurants and bars in and around Paris, after they were attacked by gunmen and bombers.

After reports of multiple attacks in Paris surfaced around 4 p.m. eastern, the Associated Press reported at 6:20 p.m. eastern that one of six different attacks across the city left at least 100 people dead, “inside a Paris concert hall where attackers seized hostages,” and that “security forces have ended their assault on a concert hall filled with hostages, killing at least two attackers.”

During an emergency midnight cabinet meeting (6 p.m. eastern), roughly two hours after the attacks were reported, Hollande declared that the country was under a “state of emergency.”

“What the terrorists want is to make us afraid, to seize us with fear,” Hollande said. “There is something to be afraid of, but faced with this fear, there’s a nation which defends itself and mobilizes itself and which will once again be able to overcome the terrorists.”

Hollande called for military to assisted local police, and said that the choice to close France’s borders was “to assure ourselves that no one can enter to commit any act, whatever that may be.”

According to Article 16 of the French Constitution of 1958, when the “integrity of its territory or the fulfilment of its international commitments are under serious and immediate threat, and where the proper functioning of the constitutional public authorities is interrupted,” the French has the power to call for a state of emergency, after consulting with the Prime Minister, the Presidents of the Houses of Parliament and the Constitutional Council.

A state of emergency in France gives the government the power of censorship, as well as the authority to “regulate or forbid circulation and gathering in some areas,” close places of gathering altogether, and “conduct house-to-house searches at any time without judicial oversight.”

Featured, International

Breaking, Developing: Paris Under Attack; Dozens Killed, Hundreds Held Hostage

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Update, November 13, 5:47 p.m.: The death toll has climbed to 60, according to CNN affiliate BFMTV.

Update, November 13, 6:31 p.m.: 5 more explosions and reports of automatic gunfire at theater with 100 hostages. Hostages possibly being killed one by one.

Update, November 13, 8:19 p.m.: France Declares State of Emergency, Military Enacts Full Control

Paris- Paris is under attack in at least three simultaneous attacks. As of this posting (and that number continues to change), at least 35 people are dead and possibly another 100 hostages are being held after three separate violent attacks.

paris hostage shooting map

Police say the gunmen—as many as six—were armed with kalashnikovs and grenades. They are all currently on the loose.

At least one of the gunman opened fire at a restaurant near a soccer stadium.  The soccer game between France and Germany was taking place at the time.  Early reports indicate that a Kalishnikov rifle and grenades were used in at least one attack.

Paris’s deputy mayor says it is too early to say if the attacks were coordinated acts of terror, but that it looks that way. US officials state the attacks were coordinated.

Truth in Media will provide updates as the story is developing.

Civil Liberties, Police Accountability, US

Police Officers Fear ‘YouTube Effect’ Impacting Job Performance

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As police officers across the country are expressing concern over a “YouTube effect” resulting from the public’s ability to document and publish police activity with smartphones, the director of the FBI suggested this effect may be contributing to a recent rise in violent crime.

The Washington Times reported that officers from over 30 agencies gathered in San Antonio for an annual National Association of Police Organizations (NAPO) convention last week, where one of the main topics highlighted how to deal with “hostile media” with examples including officer-involved fatal shootings.

Lt. Gary Vickers of the Newark, New Jersey Police Department, indicated that he fears “death by media” if a video of his performance on the job were to go viral.

“Am I going to be the next one who is put on display for doing an honest job?” Vickers said. “It really dictates how a police officer reacts today.” 

FBI Director James Comey told the Chicago Sun-Times that he believes the rise in violent crime is due to the fact that “something in policing has changed” and many officers now  “feel under siege.”

“In today’s YouTube world, there are officers reluctant to get out of their cars and do the work that controls violent crime,” Comey said. “Our officers are answering 911 calls, but avoiding the informal contact that keeps bad guys from standing around, especially with guns.”

Comey also said when it comes to sentencing reform and lowering mass incarceration rates, he thinks Americans should debate the issue with “a fair understanding of history.” He used an example of Richmond, Virginia in the 1990s when he said that after dozens of men were incarcerated for trafficking narcotics, violence dropped in the area and citizens felt safer.

The “Youtube effect” was discussed by top law enforcement at a private meeting earlier this month. The Washington Post reported that a “unifying- and controversial- theory” was reached at this meeting, suggesting that officers have been dialing down on aggressive policing over fear of appearing on “a career-ending viral video.”

Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel told U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch at the meeting that “we have allowed our police department to get fetal and it is having a direct consequence.”

“They have pulled back from the ability to interdict … they don’t want to be a news story themselves, they don’t want their career ended early, and it’s having an impact.”

RT noted that while “homicides in 35 big U.S. cities are up 19 percent on average this year, and non-fatal shootings are up 62 percent, according to a police association survey,” there is also a rise in police killings.

According to a list from The Guardian, 931 people have been killed by police in the United States in 2015 thus far, with “black Americans killed by police twice as likely to be unarmed as white people.”

Cell phone footage has challenged some narratives of police officers in the cases of fatal shootings involving victims including Walter Scott, who was shot and killed while running away from an officer after a traffic stop in April, and Jeremy McDole, who was shot and killed while sitting in his wheelchair on the street in September.

In both cases, the officers’ official story of the suspect being armed was challenged by a bystander’s video that was released online.

US

Oregon Shooting Suspect Identified; Obama Calls for Increased Gun Control

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Following a reported deadly mass shooting on Thursday at Umpqua Community College in Roseburg, Oregon, the suspect has been identified and President Obama has begun to call for more gun control.

The suspect has been identified as 26-year-old Chris Harper Mercer. Police reported that at least nine people were killed and seven others wounded before the suspect was killed in a shootout with police. Three pistols and an AR-style rifle were reportedly discovered at the scene.

The New York Times described Mercer as a “recluse” and a “withdrawn young man” who lived with this mother. Rosario Espinoza, a former neighbor, told the Times that Mercer’s mother would often complain that Espinoza’s children were playing too loudly and bothering her son.

Another neighbor, Julia Winstead, told the Times that at one point Mercer’s mother went around the neighborhood with a petition asking the landlord to exterminate cockroaches in her apartment because they bothered her son.

“She said, ‘My son is dealing with some mental issues, and the roaches are really irritating him,’” Winstead said. “She said they were going to go stay in a motel. Until that time, I didn’t know she had a son.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bvEGFjWfHAE

Hours after the shooting, President Obama held a press conference where he said that he believes gun violence is “something we should politicize.” 

“We are not the only country on Earth that has people with mental illnesses who want to do harm to other people,” Obama said. “We are the only country on Earth that sees these kinds of mass shootings every few months.”

Obama went on to criticize opponents of gun control, and said that “what has become routine is the response of those who oppose any kind of common sense gun legislation.”

“Each time this happens I’m going to bring this up,” Obama said. “Each time this happens I am going to say we can actually do something about it.”

Politics

BREAKING: Florida Shooting Near City Hall Leaves Three Dead

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INGLIS, Florida, October 1, 2015– Around 6:00 Eastern this evening, responders found multiple victims shot to death at a home near the Inglis, Florida City Hall. The shooter, currently unidentified, killed two and injured another before shooting himself.

Police found two male bodies outside the house. One man had died from injuries, and the other was life-flighted due to life-threatening injuries. Meanwhile, police saw a man in the widow on the property. Moments later, they heard a shot fired. Upon entering the house, police found the man dead from a self-inflicted gun-shot wound and an additional deceased female victim.

No other details are currently available.

The shooting occurred approximately 12 hours after a mass shooting at an Oregon community college that left at least 10 dead and another 20 injured.

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US

At Least 13 Dead, 20 Injured in Shooting at Oregon Community College

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UPDATE: Oct. 1, 2015, 6 p.m. Eastern – The local sheriff in Roseburg, Oregon, said that the suspected gunman, a 20-year-old male, was killed during a shootout with police.

UPDATE: 4 p.m. Eastern – Oregon Attorney General Ellen Rosenbaum said that 13 people are dead and up to 20 others wounded from a shooting at Umpqua Community College Thursday morning. Rosenbaum confirmed that the shooter is dead.

3:50 p.m. Eastern – At least seven people are dead and 20 injured from a shooting at Umpqua Community College in Roseburg, Oregon on Thursday morning.

KATU-TV reported that local officials confirmed that the shooter “has been ‘neutralized’ and is now in custody,” after shots were fired at Snyder Hall around 10:40 a.m. and multiple patients were found in multiple classrooms.

ATF agents are currently on the scene, and canine teams will be brought in to search for explosives, fire arms casings and ammunition, a spokesman told CNN.

The Associated Press reported that Umpqua Community College college is about 180 miles south of Portland, and has about 3,000 students.

The identity of the shooter has not yet been released.

 

Featured, Police Accountability, Videos

Family Of Wheelchair-Bound Man Killed By Police Challenges Officers’ Narrative, Citing Witness Footage

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An investigation is being launched into the shooting of Jeremy McDole, who was killed by police in Delaware on Wednesday. McDole was shot while sitting in his wheelchair on the street, and McDole’s family has cited cellphone footage from a witness to challenge the Wilmington Police Department’s narrative of the shooting.

Wilmington police reportedly responded to a call that McDole, a 28-year-old black man, was suffering from a self-inflicted gun wound in a neighborhood near the nursing home where he lived.

During a news conference following the shooting, Police Chief Bobby Cummings claimed that when officers arrived on the scene, they found McDole “still armed with a handgun” and they repeatedly told him to raise his hands.

Cummings said it was after McDole refused to comply and reached for a handgun at his waistband that four officers opened fire on him. Cummings also claimed that after McDole was killed, the officers found a .38 caliber gun at his side.

McDole’s mother, Phyllis McDole, interrupted the news conference and insisted that there was video evidence showing that her son was not armed.

[quote_center]“He was in a wheelchair, paralyzed from the waist down. There’s video showing that he didn’t pull a weapon,” she said. “I need answers.”[/quote_center]

The Delaware Justice Department’s Office of Civil Rights and Public Trust is investigating the shooting. Richard Smith, the head of Delaware’s NAACP chapter, has called for a special prosecutor to investigate the shooting in order to “not have cops investigating cops.”

While Cummings has maintained that he couldn’t confirm anything until the investigation is complete, a cellphone video was released online that showed footage of the shooting.

WARNING: The following video contains graphic content.

The cellphone video appears to show Wilmington officers confronting Jeremy McDole on the street, where he is sitting in his wheelchair. As they approached with guns drawn, they yelled at him to “drop the gun” and to put his “hands up.”

McDole, who appears to be bleeding, fidgets for a few seconds, rubbing his hands on his knees and thighs, and then tries to raise himself out of his wheelchair. The moment his hand touches his waistband, the four officers open fire, striking McDole.

After he is shot, McDole freezes for a second and then falls out of his wheelchair and is motionless on the ground. No weapon appears to be visible in the bystander’s video.

McDole’s uncle, Eugene Smith, called the shooting “an execution” and said that when he saw his nephew 15 minutes before the incident, he did not have a gun.

[quote_center]“It was an execution. That’s what it was.” Smith said. “I don’t care if he was black, white, whatever.”[/quote_center]

US

Will Virginia Shooting Be Classified As a Hate Crime?

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The shooting that killed WDBJ7 reporter Alison Parker and photographer Adam Ward and wounded local Chamber of Commerce Executive Vicki Gardner during a live TV interview on Wednesday in Moneta, Virginia, has raised questions about the suspect’s motives, and whether the shooting will be classified as a hate crime.

Several social media posts were found and a 23-page manifesto titled “Suicide Note for Friends and Family” was obtained shortly before the suspect, former WDBJ7 reporter Vester Flanagan, who went by the alias Bryce Williams, died from a self-inflicted gun wound.

[RELATED: Suspect Accused Of Killing Virginia Journalists Dies In Hospital]

In the manifesto, which was faxed to ABC News on Wednesday morning nearly two hours after the shooting at 8:26 a.m., the author claiming to be Flanagan wrote that he was discriminated against for being a gay, black man while working at WDBJ7.

The manifesto also lists inspirations such as Eric Harris and Dylann Klebold, students who went on a shooting massacre at Columbine High School in 1999, killing 13 people and injuring 24 others, and Seung Hui Cho, a student who opened fire on the campus of Virginia Tech in 2007, killing 32 people and wounding 23 others.

Flanagan claimed that the shooting in Charleston, South Carolina in June, in which suspect Dylann Roof reportedly opened fire at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church, killing nine, was the final straw.

“Why did I do it? I put down a deposit for a gun on 6/19/15. The Church shooting in Charleston happened on 6/17/15,” the manifesto stated. “What sent me over the top was the church shooting. And my hollow point bullets have the victims’ initials on them.”

[quote_center]“As for Dylann Roof? You (deleted)! You want a race war (deleted)? BRING IT THEN YOU WHITE …(deleted)!!!” [/quote_center]

The Twitter posts after the shooting on an account under the name Bryce Williams, which has since been suspended, also contain complaints about discrimination.

One Tweet claimed that “Alison made racist comments,” while another said “Adam went to HR on me after working with me one time!!!” Flanagan also referenced a report he filed with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

Flanagan, who joined WDBJ7 in 2012 as a multimedia journalist and general assignment reporter, was fired in Feb. 2013 for unknown reasons.

CNN reported that while court documents claim that Ward crossed paths with Flanagan on the day Flanagan was fired from the network, WDBJ7 general manager Jeff Marks noted that Flanagan and Parker had not worked for the station at the same time.

The U.S. Department of Justice defines a hate crime as “the violence of intolerance and bigotry, intended to hurt and intimidate someone because of their race, ethnicity, national origin, religion, sexual orientation or disability.”

The DoJ also notes that individuals “may become frustrated and angry if they believe the local government and other groups in the community will not protect them,” and that when perpetrators of hate crimes “are not “persecuted as criminals and their acts are not publicly condemned, their crimes can weaken even those communities with the healthiest race relations.”

Featured, US, Videos

VIDEO: Journalists murdered on live TV during interview, suspect identified

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MONETA, Va., A bone-chilling interview broadcast on live TV captured the screams of two WDBJ7 journalists as they were shot to death on location early Wednesday morning.

(This video may be disturbing for some viewers.)

Shortly after the shooting, Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe took to Twitter to announce that a former employee is the suspected killer of Reporter Alison Parker, 24, and photographer Adam Ward, 27. However, no arrest has yet been made.

UPDATE: WHSV News reports that the shooting suspect has been identified as Vester Lee Flanagan:

UPDATE: Police say that Flanagan shot himself in an attempted suicide. He is in critical condition.

For updated information about the shooting, click here.

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Activism, Police Accountability

Black Lives Matter, Anonymous, and Open Carry Activists Unite for John Crawford Rally

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On Wednesday, August 5th, activists in Ohio marked the one year anniversary of the shooting of John Crawford III. The 22-year old was shot by a Beavercreek police officer after being seen holding a BB gun inside the Wal-Mart near Dayton, Ohio. A grand jury would later find that the officer innocent of murder. Federal authorities are still reviewing the case.

The activists came from a range of groups including Greene County Black Lives Matter, Anonymous #OpJohnCrawford, Beavercreek CopBlock and Ohio Open Carry. The Greene County BLM had planned a protest and “die-in” outside the Wal-Mart where Crawford was shot. The group carried a black coffin through the parking lot to the front door of the Wal-Mart. The planned protests prompted the store managers to close down for the evening.

Ohio Open Carry stated that their demonstration was part of an effort to “remind the nation that open carry is legal and that police are not above our most basic human rights.”

However, not all of the activists involved appreciated the open carry groups’ message. According to Counter Current News:

“Many of the participants in Greene County Black Lives Matter did not like the idea of having firearms at a protest, and some controversy arose when they delineated “rules of conduct” that included “no firearms.”

The other activist groups noted that they had long planned their protests and had been a regular presence at the location, with the continued blessing of John’s mother Tressa.

Just two days before the protest, at the request of a handful of activists and John’s mother, representatives from local Anonymous groups, Beavercreek CopBlock, Black Lives Matter and Ohio Open Carry sat down and hashed things out like grown ups.”

The protest went on without major conflict between the activist groups, and with no arrests reported.

Following the protest at Wal-Mart, John Crawford III’s parents gathered with the activists and spoke to a large crowd about the importance of taking action against violent police officers.

At one point John Crawford Sr. told the crowd, “How many people right now are bearing arms? If everyone out here would have held their hand up we wouldn’t have to worry about any problems.”

John Crawford Sr. went on to tell the crowd that, “You can’t reason with a bully. You have to eventually fight that bully. You have to let him know that win, lose or draw, I’m gonna fight you every day.”

The elder Crawford reminded the crowd that their numbers were greater than the police, stating, “You have a right to defend yourself. You have a right defend your family. You have that right – a Godly right and a Constitutional right.”

Despite the powerful words, John Crawford Sr. expressed that he was not promoting the use of violence against police, but rather the of self-defense.

“I’m not advocating death. I’m simply saying, inevitably it may go down that way. If it continues to go like its going now it will go down that way cause you can only push people for so long before they’re going to strike back!”

Police Accountability, Videos

Peaceful Protests End In Violence As Gunfire Erupts On Anniversary Of Michael Brown Shooting

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Ferguson, Mo. – A day of peaceful protests commemorating Michael Brown, the 18-year-old unarmed man who was shot and killed by Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson one year ago on Sunday, turned violent after gunfire erupted Sunday night leaving one man in critical condition.

Police claim that gunfire was initially exchanged between two groups of protesters, and that officers only engaged after one of the protesters opened fire on four detectives in an unmarked vehicle. They returned fire, and the man was critically injured.

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported that gunfire erupted after police officers had threatened to arrest any protesters who stayed in the street, and at that point protesters were “estimated at fewer than 100 and were outnumbered by members of the media.”

At a 2:30 a.m. press conference on Monday, St. Louis County Police Chief Jon Belmar said that the groups exchanging gunfire “were criminals” rather than protesters, and that he believes there is a “small group of people out there that are intent on making sure we don’t have peace that prevails.”

The man injured by police has been identified as Tyrone Harris Jr., 18, from St. Louis. His father, Tyrone Harris Sr., told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch that his son went to high school and was good friends with Michael Brown, and that, regarding Sunday night’s shooting, he thinks “there’s a lot more to this than what’s being said.”

Belmar said that in addition to being in an unmarked vehicle, the four detectives were not wearing body cameras. This decision was criticized by coalitions such as the Ferguson Action Council, who said that “having plainclothes officers without body cameras and proper identification in the protest setting leaves us with only the officer’s account of the incident, which is clearly problematic.”

[RELATED: Ferguson Police Have Body Cameras… But Don’t Wear Them]

Reuters noted that the gunfire on Sunday night was in “marked contrast to a day of mostly subdued, peaceful commemorations” in Ferguson, where about about 1,000 people gathered together to share 4-1/2 minutes of silence in honor of the 4-1/2 hours Brown’s body lay in the street after he was shot, and to release doves and embark on a “silent march through Ferguson to honor Brown and others killed in confrontations with police.”

On Sunday night, a few local businesses were looted and robbed, and Post-Dispatch reporter Paul Hampel said that he was beaten and robbed while covering the protests.

Civil Liberties, Editor’s Pick, Featured, Police Accountability

Officers Caught In Samuel DuBose Coverup Were Involved In Death Of Another Unarmed Man

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University of Cincinnati police officers Eric Weibel and Phillip Kidd, who repeated the false narrative of former officer Ray Tensing after he shot and killed Samuel DuBose during a routine traffic stop, were involved in the death of another unarmed black man in 2010.

Weibel and Kidd were two of the seven officers named in a lawsuit, according to court documents obtained by The Guardian, in the death of Kelly Brinson, 45, a mentally ill man who was a patient at Cincinnati’s University hospital.

The Guardian reported that after suffering a psychotic episode in Jan. 2010, Brinson was taken to a seclusion room at the hospital by UC officers and was then shocked with a taser three times and restrained by shackles. As a result, Brinson went into cardiac arrest and died three days later.

Brinson’s family filed a civil lawsuit against both UC police and the hospital, alleging that the seven officers involved used excessive force and acted with “deliberate indifference to the serious medical and security needs of Mr. Brinson.”

Accusing the officers and hospital staff involved of civil right violations, malpractice, discrimination and negligence, the lawsuit notes that Brinson was a civilian hospital patient, not a criminal, and that the only drugs in his system at the time were psychiatric medications prescribed by the hospital staff.

Derek Brinson, Kelly Brinson’s brother, told The Guardian that while all of the officers involved in the case were supposed to be terminated, they ended up keeping their jobs after Brinson’s family received a settlement of $638,000.

Five years after Brinson’s death, Weibel and Kidd have been involved in the case surrounding the death of another unarmed black man: Samuel DuBose.

[RELATED: Cincinnati Officer Indicted For Murder After Body Camera Reveals False Report]

As Truth In Media previously reported, former UC officer Ray Tensing was indicted for murder on Wednesday in the shooting death of DuBose, 43, after body camera footage contradicted Tensing’s account. In addition to showing that Tensing’s story was false, the body cam he was wearing also showed that the officers arriving on the scene were quick to repeat Tensing’s false account, even going as far as to say that they witnessed it occurring.

While Tensing initially claimed that he shot DuBose during a routine traffic stop because he feared for his life after his hand was caught in DuBose’s car, which began to accelerate, dragging Tensing down the street, the footage from Tensing’s body cam directly contradicted his account.

After reviewing the footage, Hamilton County Prosecutor Joe Deters noted that while DuBose did put his keys in the ignition of the car, it did not start rolling until after Tensing pulled out his gun, shot DuBose in the head, and then fell backwards.

The Guardian reported that in the UC police division report, authored by Weibel, he does not say anything about witnessing the shooting, but he did write that the uniform Tensing was wearing “looked as if it had been dragged over a rough surface,” and the report overall supports Tensing’s account.

Weibel also wrote that Kidd told him he witnessed the Honda Accord DuBose was driving “drag Officer Tensing,” and that he witnessed Tensing “fire a single shot.”

Kidd and another officer on the scene, David Lindenschmidt, who both claimed to have witnessed Tensing being dragged down the street by DuBose’s car, have been placed on paid administrative leave and an internal investigation is being conducted.

Politics, Polls

Poll: Majority Of Americans Say Confederate Flag Represents Southern Pride, Not Racism

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After the Confederate flag was seen being held by Dylann Roof, the suspect in a shooting massacre in Charleston, South Carolina, in pictures that surfaced on the Internet accompanied with a “racist manifesto,” the debate began over what the flag actually represented.

While Several major retailers responded by pulling all Confederate flag merchandise from their shelves, deeming it “offensive” and a “symbol of racism and slavery” and South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley called for the flag to be removed from the state’s capitol grounds, a recent survey claims that the majority of Americans don’t see the flag as a racist symbol.

According to a CNN/ORC Poll, 57 percent of Americans see the Confederate flag as more of a symbol of Southern pride and heritage than as a symbol of racism. 33 percent see it as a symbol of racism, and five percent say it is “both equally” while five percent say it is “neither.”

There was a notable divide between races, with only 17 percent of blacks and 66 percent of whites viewing the flag as a symbol of Southern pride, while 72 percent of blacks and 25 percent of whites view it was a symbol of racism.

While 87 percent of the individuals polled said that the Charleston shooting should be considered a hate crime, only 41 percent said it should be considered an act of terrorism.

The poll also found that there was a divide based on education, and that among the whites polled who said they had a college degree, 51 percent said the Confederate flag was a symbol of Southern pride and 41 percent said it was a symbol of racism, while among whites who said they did not have a college degree, 73 percent said the flag was a symbol of pride and 18 percent said it was a symbol of racism.

Although 57 percent of the Americans polled opposed redesigning the Confederate flag, 71 percent opposed removing tributes to those who fought in the Confederacy and 68 percent opposed renaming the streets and highways that are named after Confederate leaders, 55 percent supported removing Confederate flags from government property that is not part of a museum.

Related: Companies Ban Confederate Flag Sales, But Keep Nazi And Che Guevara Merchandise

According to the poll, 50 percent of Americans supported private companies choosing not to sell or manufacture items featuring the Confederate flag, while 47 percent opposed it. Looking at the demographics, 65 percent of blacks were in support of private companies halting the sale of Confederate flag merchandise, and 49 percent of whites were in support.

The poll was conducted through telephone interviews by ORC International on June 26-28, a little over a week after the Charleston shooting occurred on June 17. A total of 1,017 adult Americans were interviewed, and there was a margin of sampling error plus or minus three percentage points. 611 of the interviews were conducted with landline respondents and 406 of the interviews were conducted with cell phone respondents.

Take the Truth In Media Poll below:

Editor’s Pick, Election, Featured, Politics, States Rights

Rand Paul Speaks Out Against Confederate Flag as a Symbol of Slavery and Murder

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Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) joined the group of GOP presidential hopefuls speaking out against the Confederate flag on Tuesday, when he said that it is ultimately “a symbol of human bondage and slavery,” that should be placed in a museum.

In an interview with Jeffrey Kuhner, the host of the talk radio show The Kuhner Report, who calls himself “Liberalism’s Worst Nightmare,” Paul said that he agrees with South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, who recently changed her position and announced that she thinks the Confederate flag should be removed from state capitol grounds.

[quote_center]“I think the flag is inescapably a symbol of human bondage and slavery, and particularly when people use it obviously for murder and to justify hatred so vicious that you would kill somebody,” Paul said. “I think that symbolism needs to end, and I think South Carolina’s doing the right thing.”[/quote_center]

Referencing 21-year-old Dylann Roof, who has been charged with nine counts of murder after he confessed to opening fire during a prayer meeting at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston on Wednesday, Paul said that the flag has now become “a symbol of murder.”

[quote_center]“There have been people who have used it for southern pride and heritage and all of that but really to I think to every African American in the country it’s a symbolism of slavery to them and now it’s a symbol of murder for this young man and so I think it’s time to put it in a museum,” Paul said.[/quote_center]

The New York Times reported that a website registered under Roof’s name in February, published a “racist manifesto,” along with pictures of Roof burning the American flag and waving the Confederate flag. While Roof’s direct involvement has not been confirmed, the manifesto’s author claimed that he had no choice, and that he felt he had to do something more than just talking on the Internet:

“I chose Charleston because it is the most historic city in my state, and at one time had the highest ratio of blacks to Whites in the country. We have no skinheads, no real KKK, no one doing anything but talking on the internet. Well someone has to have the bravery to take it to the real world, and I guess that has to be me.”

The manifesto’s author wrote that he learned of the violent “black-on-white murders” from the website for the Council of Conservative Citizens, a white nationalist group.

The Guardian revealed that Earl Holt III, the president of the group, has contributed to the 2016 presidential campaigns of GOP candidates such as Ted Cruz, Rick Santorum and Rand Paul.

Doug Stafford, a spokesman and strategist for Paul’s campaign, told Bloomberg that Paul will be “donating the funds to the Mother Emanuel Hope Fund to assist the victims’ families.”

Other GOP presidential candidates speaking out in support of Haley’s charge to remove the Confederate flag from state capitol grounds include former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, who said South Carolina should do the same thing Florida did when it moved the flag “from the state grounds to a museum where it belonged.”

South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham, who initially supported keeping the Confederate flag, because as he told CNN, “it works here,” changed his position on Monday, and pledged his support to Haley.

For more news related to the 2016 Presidential election, click here.

Featured

CAPTURED: What We Know About Church Shooting Suspect Dylann Roof

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By Alex Pappas 

A 21-year-old man named Dylann Roof has been identified by the FBI as the suspect in the killing of nine churchgoers at the historic predominantly black Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, S.C.

Attorney General Loretta Lynch said Thursday that Roof was apprehended by police in Shelby, N.C. Earlier Thursday, the FBI put out a bulletin, asking for tips and warning that the suspect is believed to be “armed and dangerous.”

According to a Facebook page that appears to belong to Roof, he is from Columbia, South Carolina and attended White Knoll High School. The page shows that Roof has 85 Facebook friends, including a number of black people.

Shelby, N.C. is about 4 hours away from Charleston, according to Google Maps.

The patches on his jacket in his Facebook photo have drawn notice: one appears to be a flag from apartheid-era South Africa, while another one appears to be the Rhodesian flag.

Reuters, citing an uncle, reported that Roof was recently given a .45-caliber pistol for his birthday.

A Producer at WLTX News19 posted a photo appearing to be of Roof sitting on the hood of a car with a “Confederate States of America” flag. The car looks similar to the one in surveillance photos from the scene of the crime.

According to the Charleston Post and Courier, Roof “has been arrested twice in South Carolina as an adult, according to the State Law Enforcement Division. He was jailed March 1 in Lexington County on a drug charge and again on April 26 on a trespassing charge.”

According to police, a man opened fire on parishioners during a bible study Wednesday night, killing nine people including the church’s pastor, Rev. Clementa Pinckney.

Pinckney is also a Democratic state senator in South Carolina.

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Politics, US

Father Of Dallas Shooting Suspect Says Son Reached Breaking Point, Blamed Police For Custody Loss

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Dallas – After an attack on Dallas Police Headquarters early Saturday morning that resulted in a standoff between police and a man in an armored vehicle, police claim that the suspect and only fatality identified himself as James Boulware. Boulware’s father said he believes that his son was responsible for the attack, and that he had “reached his breaking point” after he lost custody of his own son, and blamed police.

The New York Times reported that, according to police, “a gunman attacked Police Headquarters at the edge of downtown here from inside an armored van early Saturday, shooting at officers and leaving bags filled with pipe bombs around the building in a brazen assault that led to an hourslong standoff.”

“Every one of us has a breaking point… he hit his,” Jim Boulware told CNN on Sunday, regarding his son James.

“I knew he was angry with the police, he blamed them for taking his son,” Boulware said. “I tried to tell him the police didn’t do it, they were doing their job, to enforce the laws. If you want to get to that, you gotta go back to the liberal people that put these laws in place, to where CPS can grab kids and take them away.”

Although Dallas Police Chief David Brown would not confirm the identity of the suspect, he did confirm that the man who police believed was responsible for the attack was killed by a police sniper after he was shot at 5:07 a.m. on Saturday by a bullet that went through the front windshield of the armored van he was driving.

Jim Boulware said that he believes his son James was the one who was responsible for the attack, and that he did it as a way to “make a statement” and to “get the system to understand he had lost his son, and it cost him his life.”

CNN reported that James Boulware lost custody of his son after he was arrested in 2013, for “multiple assault charges on family members,” which were eventually dropped.

Jeannine Hammond, James Boulware’s mother, told Fox 4 News that her family lost her son to “mental health long before we lost him to death,” and that despite erratic statements and threats in the past, she “never dreamed he’d go after the police.”

Hammond said that Boulware had issues as a teenager, and that although they believed it was paranoid schizophrenia, he was “too young to diagnose.” Hammond also said that she believed if Boulware went after anyone, it would have been her, because she was awarded full custody of his son.

Boulware’s father told the Associated Press that while he “can’t say shooting at a police station is right in any way,” he believes his son James “finally snapped” after he was not able to get a job with “domestic violence” on his record, and he felt like the legal system was letting him down.

Civil Liberties, Editor’s Pick, Featured, Government Accountability, Police Accountability, Police State, Politics, US

Waco Police Deny Public Access To Information On Deadly “Biker Brawl”

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After a fight that broke out between rival biker gangs at a Twin Peaks restaurant in Waco, Texas on May 17, Waco Police have yet to release information regarding the exact details that left nine dead, 18 injured, and over 170 arrested for “participating in organized crime.” 

Yahoo News requested information on the shooting, as is allowed by the Texas Public Records Act, but noted that the documents it received “appear to be haphazardously redacted.”

The documents obtained by Yahoo News ommitted the names of arresting officers, while leaving the “identities, addresses and other contact information of suspects’ next of kin,” and they did not give any information regarding “where each victim was killed and by whom.”

Waco Police Sgt. W. Patrick Swanton said that the department suspected there would be issues at the Twin Peaks location prior to the shooting, and as a result they were prepared with officers on the scene.

While the details have not been released regarding how many of the nine deceased and 18 injured were wounded by the officers on the scene, Swanton claimed that “there were multiple people on the scene firing weapons at each other,” before the bikers began shooting at police, and the officers returned gunfire, “wounding and possibly killing several.”

After Yahoo News submitted its original request for information on May 19, the Waco city attorney’s office sent a letter to the Texas attorney general on Wednesday, requesting permission to “withhold the records from Yahoo News and other media outlets that have made similar requests.”

In the letter, assistant city attorney Judith Benton cited a “need to withhold the information pertaining to an open and pending case in order to deal with the detection, investigation, and/or prosecution of a crime is a compelling reason for nondisclosure.”

Although Waco did release 19 pages of documents to media outlets that requested information, Yahoo News noted that “other than a few dispatch call logs about the first shots fired, none of the pages pertain to the homicide reports” that had been requested.

In addition to refusing to release crucial information from the shooting, some of the details the Waco Police department has released, have contained major errors.

Following the incident, police claimed that as many as 1,000 weapons were recovered from the scene. However, they later admitted that 1,000 was an exaggerated estimate, and the actual number of weapons found was 318. Out of those weapons, only 118 handguns – the rest were knives, clubs, brass knuckles and chains with padlocks attached to them. Police also claimed that they found 1 Ak-47 accompanied by body armor in the parking lot.

Although Swanton claimed that the nine individuals killed were all part of criminal motorcycle gangs, the family of 65-year-old Jesus Delgado Rodriguez, one of the men killed, claimed that he was not involved in an outlaw motorcycle gang and did not lead a life of violence.

The Associated Press reported that not only did Rodriguez not have a criminal record in Texas, he was an active-duty Marine from 1969 to 1973, and he received several awards including a Purple Heart and a Navy commendation medal.

As previously reported, 170 individuals were arrested, charged with engaging in organized criminal activity, and held on $1 million bonds following the shooting. The AP noted that according to records kept by the Texas Department of Public Safety, four of the nine men killed and 117 of the 170 suspects have no previous criminal record in the state of Texas.

USA Today reported that one of the individuals arrested, Matthew Clendennen of Hewitt, Texas, has filed a civil rights lawsuit against the City of Waco, the McLennan County Sheriff’s Office, and the individual officers on the scene of the shooting.

Clendennen is a member of the Scimitars Motorcycle Club, and while he was present at the Twin Peaks restaurant on May 17, his lawsuit claims that he “did not encourage or solicit any criminal activity at Twin Peaks that day.”

While police have yet to release the video footage from the surveillance cameras at Twin Peaks, they did push the narrative that all of the of bikers present were engaging in the “brawl,” and fighting one another.

In contrast, when the New York Daily News obtained footage from the security cameras, it noted that “most of the leather-clad patrons ran away from the shooting or ducked under tables to dodge violence,” while some of the bikers “tried to direct other people to safety.”

The Associated Press also noted that while police claim the fighting started in the bathroom of the Twin Peaks, escalated into the bar area, and was then carried out in the parking lot, where the officers present became involved, representatives from the franchise told the AP that the “fighting began outside the restaurant, not inside as police have previously said.”