10 Non-Voilent Actions that Led to 10 Murders of African Americans
Briana Reed
*Warning: Many of the videos provided can be very graphic. Viewer discretion advised*
#1 He was sleeping in the Drive-Thru
Atlanta police was called by a Wendy’s employee on Friday night, June 12, 2020 because Brooks was found in the drive thru line sleeping in his car and needed him to move in order to assist other customers. Two officers respond, Officer Garrett Rolfe and Officer Devin Brosnan. Mr. Brooks was found sleeping and officers discovered he was intoxicated & Mr. Brooks gave consent to take a sabriety test. After having a 41-minute conversation with Mr. Brooks, who was compliant with both officers the entire time, Officer Rolfe tried to arrest Mr. Brooks after he failed the test, but did not give Mr. Brooks warning that we was being arrested, which is a requirement when arresting someone for a DUI. Mr. Brooks started to resist, grabbed Officer Rosland’s taser and ran away. Officer Rolfe runs after Mr. Brooks, fired three times and Brooks fell to the ground. Officer Rolfe nor Officer Brosnan assisted Mr.Brooks until after standing over Mr.Brooks for about a minute. Ambulance was not called until over 15 minutes later and taking over, he was taken to a hospital and later announced dead. Below is the video that deeper shows and explains what happened at the scene.
About a week later, Officer Rolfe was fired and charged with felony murder along with 11 other counts. Officer Brosnan was placed on administrative duty. Though Rolfe was charged, he hasn’t been convicted.
#2 That Cellphone Looked like a Gun
Stephon Clark, an unarmed 22-year-old black man was shot over 20 times and killed by two Sacramento police officers on March 18, 2020. The Sacramento Police Department responded to a call that a man was breaking into cars. A helicopter followed Clark as the suspect because he was seen running through multiple backyards while officers on foot was running after him as well.
Clark was in the backyard of his grandmother’s home, when officers shouted for him to show his hands. It was said that Clark had both hands extended out towards the officers, but the officers saw something in Clark’s hands, believed it was a gun and shots were fired. Turns out, it was just Clark’s cellphone
Charges were never brought against the officers. Though footage is dark and scattered, watch this video to get a better understanding of what went wrong.
#3 She Left her Front Door Opened
What should have been a wellness check, turned into a murder case.
Fort Worth, Texas police officers were called by the neighbor of Atatiana Jefferson because he front door was left opened and the neighbor thought that was strange. When officers arrived at the home, the screen door was closed, but the solid door was opened allow anyone to see inside the home itself. Officer Aaron Dean walked the perimeter of the home and as he approached the window, former officer, Aaron Dean, shot and killed 28-year-old Atatiana Jefferson instantly.
Dean was fired, but it wasn’t until a year later that he was formally indicted on murder charges, but has yet been tried on the charge. Here’s a video clip from former officer, Aaron Dean’s body camera.
#4 She Failed to Signal a Lane Change
In 2015, Sandra Bland was stopped by Texas state trooper, Brian Encinia for failture to signal she was changing lanes while driving. Bland was forced to step out of the car, because Encinia said, “My safety was in danger at more than one time”. Bland was taken to jail and three days later was found dead, hanging from a jail. It was ruled as suicide, but many others, including the family believe this was an inside job.
Encinia was never prosecuted for the way he handled Bland at the time of the incident. Below is a video of a hidden recording that came to light 2 months after the traffic stop and her death.
#5 Those Sandwiches Looked like a Gun
A Franklin County Sheriff’s office SWAT deputy, Jason Meade shot and killed 23-year-old Casey Goodson Jr. on December 4, 2020 in Ohio. Meade was looking for violent offenders at the time and Goodson was walking home with Subway sandwiches in his had. He made it to the door of his home when Meade shot him a total of 6 times.
Goodson’s grandmother called the police department stating that Casey Goodson Jr. had been shot as he was entering their home.
To this day, it is still unclear of the interaction between Meade and Goodson, if any at all that lead to his death. All that is known for sure is that Meade killed Goodson, Goodson had only sandwiches in his hand and that Meade has still not been charged of anything. Though there is not camera footage, here is a video of the news report.
#6 He Had an Air Freshener
Officer Kim Potter pulled over 20-year-old Daunte Wright outside Brooklyn Center, Minnesota during a traffic stop because he had an expired registration on his license plate. After being asked to step out of the car because of his warrant at the time, Wright was being handcuffed by a different officer when he began to resist arrest, tried to get back in the car and drive off. As officers were trying to get a handle on Wright, Officer Potter claims she accidentally pulled out her firearm instead of a taser. Below is the video footage of the incident where you will hear Officer Kim yell “Taser. Taser. Taser”, however, many still speculate and believe that Potter knew exactly what she was doing and intentionally pulled out her firearm to shoot Wright.
Potter was placed on administrative leave, but no charges against her have been made.
#7 That Pill Bottle Looked like a Gun
Another unarmed black man, 34-year-old Rumain Brisbon was shot and killed by officer Mark Rine on December 4, 2014 at a Phoenix apartment complex. Rine said he saw Brisbon getting something out the back of his SUV, but didn’t know what it was so he instructed Brisbon to show his hands. Brisbon instead put his hands in his pocket. Rine put drew his gun and Brisbon took off running towards the apartments as the officer was chasing after him. After having caught up with Brisbon, Brisbon put his hand in his pocket and Rine in attempts to grab his hand said he thought he felt a gun. Because the officer “feared he had a gun in his pockets”, he fired shots. After being pronounced dead and an investigation took place, what was found of course was not a gun, but a oxycodone pill bottle. There is not camera footage, but here is a news reporting of what has happened.
#8 She was Sleeping in her Bed
On March 13,2020, 26-year-old Breonna Taylor was shot and killed by several officers in Lousiville, Kentucky. As the police were executing a search warrant late at night, Breonna Taylor and her boyfriend, Kenneth Walker was in the bed in their apartment. The officers did not announce themselves as police, so naturally Walker grabbed his licensed gun and fired thinking it was someone else breaking in, like Taylor’s ex-boyfriend, Jamarcus Glover. In retaliation, officers fired and shot Breonna Taylor, killing her. Most would say that the officers firing back was justified, however, all this could’ve and would’ve been avoided had they announced themselves and not forced themselves into Taylor and Walker’s home. Below is an in-depth visual representation of how the incident occurred.
In the end, the family did receive a $12 million dollar settlement, but that doesn’t bring Breonna Taylor.
#9 He was Selling Cigarettes
On July 17, 2014, 43-year-old Eric Garner was breaking up a fight that he was not involved in as well as constantly suspected by the police to be selling illegal cigarettes to people in his community when former officer Daniel Pantaleo along placed Garner in a chokehold in order to restrain and arrest him, which was not necessary at all. Garner became unconscious and about an hour later at the hospital died from suffocation because Pantaleo put him in a chokehold in 2014. His last words were, “I can’t breathe.” which become the fire, slogan and foundation of many protests against police brutality following Garner’s homocide.
People all over the world were upset at how Garner died, but even more upset to find out on December 3, a grand jury made the decision to not indict Daniel Pantaleo. Pantaleo wasn’t even fired from the Police Department until 2019 and stripped of his pension benefits. To some this seems far, but to most, justice was not served. Below is a clip of the interaction and it is very evident that officers on the scene blatantly ignored Garner when he said, “I can’t breathe.”
#10 He Maybe Tried to Use a Fake $20 bill
In Minneapolis on George Floyd was at a store on May 25, 2020 purchasing cigarettes when the store clerk called the police a few minutes later after discovering that Floyd and his friend were trying to use fake $20 bills to make their purchases in the store. Once officers arrived, they approached the vehicle Floyd was driving, officer Thomas Lane drew his gun on Floyd and asked him to step out of the car as they arrested him, but Floyd was unaware of why they were arresting him until he was already in handcuffs. Floyd was not resisting arrest, but did make the officers aware that his wrists were in pain due to the way the handcuffs were placed on him, but officers did not rearrange the placement of the cuffs. As they took Floyd to the cop car, Floyd begged them not to put him in the car because he was claustrophobic, but they continued to shove him inside the car and Floyd continued to freak out. Floyd fell face down on the street and former officer Derek Chauvin’s knee was on Floyd’s neck for more than 9 minutes. At first Floyd was able to speak, but after awhile, once witnesses told the officers to check his pulse, that’s when officers realized him was not responsive.
EMTs arrived and took Floyd to a hospital and an hour later he was pronounced dead. Chauvin was charged with murder in the second and third degree and manslaughter, but til this day he has still not been declared guilty for this case and has not been placed in jail. Chauvin declined to testify in court regarding the case.
https://www.foxnews.com/media/pat-robertson-put-derek-chauvin-under-jail-george-floyd
Over and over again we see the same things regarding police brutality and how police officers are constantly protected even when it’s obvious they are in the wrong. Seldom times have we actually seen justice being served in case of homicide, murder and more. The law protects officers, but who’s here to protect the people when law enforcement is the reason behind the killing of African Americans?
Though there are only 10 instances listened and discussed here, please be aware and make yourself aware of the countless numbers of deaths that have taken place over the years at the hands of the police.
