Just as the verdict of guilt in the trial of former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin was about to be read, Ohio police killed a black teenager in broad daylight during a confrontation.
The shooting of 16-year-old Ma’Khia Bryant, who was spinning a knife during a fight with another person in Columbus, is in some ways more representative of the way blacks and other people of color die during encounters. police than the death of George Floyd, fixed to the ground by Chauvin and captured on video for everyone to see.
Unlike Chauvin’s case, many murders by police involve the decision to shoot at a heated time and are notoriously difficult to prosecute even when they cause pain and outrage. Jurors have tended to give officers the benefit of the doubt when they claim to have acted in a death or death situation.
Although Tuesday’s condemnation was hailed as a sign of progress in the fight for equality of justice, it still leaves difficult questions to answer about the use of law enforcement and systemic racism in the police. The verdict in the Chauvin case may not be repeated quickly, even as the list of murders at the hands of police grows.
“It simply came to our notice then. The world saw what happened, ”said Salt Lake County District Attorney Sim Gill, who has examined more than 100 cases of use of force. Having video, witnesses, forensic evidence and several police officers testifying against one of their own is unique and “demonstrates how far the bar should be to actually have that kind of responsibility,” he said.
Conventions like Chauvin’s are extraordinarily rare. Of the thousands of deadly police shootings in the United States since 2005, about 140 officers have been charged with homicide or homicide and only seven have been convicted of murder, according to data maintained by Phil Stinson, a criminologist at Bowling Green State University. .
“This is a success, but there are so many more unjust murders that still need to be considered, that we still have to deal with,” said Princess Blanding, a candidate for Virginia governor whose brother was killed by a Richmond police officer. Marcus-David Peters, who was black, was shot dead by a black officer during a mental health crisis after he ran naked on an interstate highway and charged at the officer.
In Columbus, Bryant had been spinning a wild knife against another girl or woman sunk against a car when the officer fired after calling the girl to get out, according to the police and body camera video released within hours of the shooting. The mayor lamented the teen’s death, but said the officer had acted to protect someone else.
Kimberly Shepherd, who lives in the neighborhood where Bryant died, had held the verdict of guilt for Floyd’s murder when she heard the news about the teenager.
“It simply came to our notice then. But you couldn’t even enjoy it, “Shepherd said.” Because as you get a phone call from his guilt, I’ll get the next call that this happens in my neighborhood. “
In contrast, in Chauvin’s case, the video of cell phones seen around the world showed the white officer pressing his knee to the black man’s neck for more than nine minutes while Floyd gasped for air. He provoked protests in the United States and Chauvin’s fellow officers took the extraordinary step of testifying against him.
“As we look to future prosecution, the question will be: is it perhaps the beginning of a new era, where these walls of silence are not impenetrable?” said Miriam Krinsky, former federal prosecutor and executive director of the fair and just prosecution group. Chauvin’s case could also make future jurors more skeptical of the police, he said.
The day after Bryant was shot dead, at least two more people were killed by police in the United States.
On Wednesday morning, a deputy was shot dead a black man while serving a search warrant in eastern North Carolina. Authorities did not provide details of the shooting, but an eyewitness said Andrew Brown Jr. he was shot while trying to get away, and that deputies shot at him several times. And in the Escondido neighborhood of San Diego, police said an officer fatally shot a man who was apparently hitting cars with a metal stick.
A funeral for Daunte Wright will be held on Thursday, a 20-year-old black motorist who was shot during a traffic stop this month in Brooklyn Center, Minnesota, a few miles from court when the Chauvin trial was taking place. Last month in Chicago, 13-year-old Adam Toledo was shot dead less than a second after throwing a gun and starting to raise his hands as an officer had commanded.
Police officer Kim Potter, who is white, has been charged with second-degree murder in the Wright shooting. The former police chief said Potter mistakenly fired his gun when he wanted to use the Taser. She then resigned from police and was charged with second-degree murder. Wright’s family has called for more serious charges, comparing his case to the murder charge filed against a black officer who killed a white woman in the nearby city of Minneapolis in 2017.
Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office will decide whether to prosecute Eric Stillman, the white officer who shot Toledo on March 29 in Little Village, a predominantly Hispanic neighborhood on the southwest side of Chicago. The boy, who was Latin, appeared to throw a gun moments before the officer shot him. The graphic video of the boy’s death sparked outrage, but some legal experts have said they do not believe Stillman can or should be charged according to criteria set by a 1989 Supreme Court ruling on the use of force by the police.
Instead of prosecuting only officers after the shootings, more should be done to prevent such encounters from occurring, said Eugene Collins, who was a local organizer at the NAACP’s Baton Rouge, Louisiana branch when Alton Sterling, a black man selling CDs in front of a convenience store, was shot dead by a white police officer in July 2016. The two officers involved in the encounter were not charged with his death.
“We crawl more, stop and get more entangled,” said Collins, now head of the NAACP branch. “It’s about holding politicians accountable.”
Activists say the fight for police reform and a fairer legal system is far from over.
Rachael Rollins, the first woman of color to become a district attorney in Massachusetts, said she must begin in part to break down the misconception that questioning police or suggesting ways to improve can mean “don’t answer blue.”
“The police have an incredibly hard job and believe me, I know there are violent people who harm the community and the police, but that’s not all of us. So we have to recognize that it doesn’t work and we have to sit down together to find solutions, but it’s urgent, ”said Rollins, the Suffolk County District Attorney, which includes Boston.
“I’m scared, I’m exhausted and I’m the agent in charge of law enforcement, so imagine how other people feel,” he said.
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Associated Press reporters Denise Lavoie in Richmond, Virginia, and Rebecca Santana in New Orleans contributed to this report, as did Farnoush Amiri in Columbus, Ohio, a member of the body of the Associated Press / Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a national nonprofit services program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on covert issues.
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Find full AP coverage of George Floyd’s death at: https://apnews.com/hub/death-of-george-floyd.
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This story has been corrected to show that the name of the Salt Lake County District Attorney is Sim, not Sam, and that it is the office of the Cook County Attorney, not the office of the District Attorney.