Court to hear Wayne Jones Suit: 5 White Cops Beat 130b Black Man & Shot Him 23X after Murderous Jaywalking Stop & Search in VA

Unknown "Knife," "Fear", "Non-Compliance" & Other Lies by Racist Suspect Cops.  From [HERE] and [HERE] The U.S. 4th Circuit Court of Appeals is again expected to hear oral arguments in connection with a $200 million lawsuit that stemmed from the 2013 fatal shooting of a Black man by five white Martinsburg police officers.

In March of 2013, Wayne Jones was tasered and then shot 23 times by 5 white police officers after being approached for jaywalking. Out of the five officers involved, four still work with the Martinsburg Police Department.

A Berkeley County grand jury in October 2013 declined to indict the officers on any criminal charges.

The U.S. Justice Department also announced in April 2016 that it found insufficient evidence to pursue civil-rights charges against the officers.

Arguments in Richmond, Va., have been tentatively set for the Jan. 23-26 argument session by the appellate court, according to a calendar order filed last week.

"We're happy the federal appeals court is taking a close look at this matter," said Paul G. Taylor, who has served as local counsel in the case. "We will continue to vigorously pursue the options available to us to secure a public trial."

A federal judge twice ruled in favor of the Martinsburg Police Department in the wrongful-death lawsuit that was filed by the family of Wayne A. Jones, who was fatally shot multiple times in March 2013.

Wayne A. Jones was walking down the street beside the sidewalk at 11:30pm on March 3, 2013. An Officer Lehman lurked behind him in his patrol unit watching Wayne as he was walking. As Wayne made a wide turn around a parked car, he immediately turned in towards the curb and continued walking. The video depicts Wayne stopping at an intersection and then crossing the street and ultimately stopping when the Officer pulled his vehicle over and exited.

A consensual encounter ensued where Wayne attempted to articulate where he was going and why he was not walking on the sidewalk. Lehman immediately wanted to turn the encounter into a warrantless search and seizure by making several requests and asking Wayne “Where are you going?” and “Do you have any weapons on you?” We know now that Wayne had a pair of scissors in his back pocket because of the Medical Examiner Report. Wayne responded “What is a weapon?”

At this point, one could only surmise that he wanted to know, from the officer, if a pair of scissors was considered a weapon; Regardless, we will never find out because immediately what started out as consensual was escalated to detainment and ultimately a murder. Wayne refused to be detained and asked the Officer “What did I do to you?” and “What do you want?” Over and over – He asked the question. Lehman never said Wayne was under arrest, he never accused him of a crime yet he continued to demand Wayne to put his hands on the vehicle. Wayne Jones refused and was subsequently tazed twice as backup officers arrived on the scene.

A chase ensued and Wayne ran onto the public library steps where the Officers chased him. Again Wayne exclaimed “What did I do to you?” What did I do to you?” With no answer, Wayne was punched in the side of the head, put into an illegal choke hold and thrown on the ground where a total of (5) officers placed Wayne on his stomach – beat him over and over, tazed him another two times while calling him a motherfucker and kicking him. Instead of cuffing Wayne, they continued to beat him and – someone yelled that he saw a knife[sic]; yet in the Police reports, some officers said that they didn’t see a knife and others couldn’t agree on what size the knife was. Furthermore – miraculously, multiple knives turned up on the scene after the fact and to date no knife has been physically produced.

At a point after the officers stated that they saw a knife – each officer, in unison, slowly backed away from Wayne, who lay motionless on his stomach after being horrifically brutalized. As an Officer Neely backed away, he instantaneously fired his weapon into the head of Wayne Jones and the other (4) officers followed suit. Totaling twenty-three shots, every bullet went into Wayne Jones body from the (5) officers. The Police Report clearly stated that Wayne was 5’9 and weighed 130lbs yet (5) officers who probably weighed 900-1000lbs could not subdue one 130lb individual without filling him full of holes equivalent to Swiss Cheese.

In the reports – each officer made a scripted statement that included “knife”, “fear”, and “noncompliance” summarizing that they felt in fear of their lives; however – the video tells a much different story. In fact, in Officer Staub’s video at around 23:30 he specifically stated that “He wouldn’t fucking do nothing so we all shot him” Additionally, Staub was the officer that was purportedly stabbed by the “phantom-throwdown” knife that multiplied into two knives underneath Wayne’s body after he was killed. Four different officers made materially false statements about the existence, location and the fact that they altered the crime scene and moved the knives[sic] which were never found to have any fingerprints, dna or other forensic evidence that would conclude that Wayne, in fact, possessed a knife or stabbed an officer. No knife was ever produced.

Several observations after watching all of the videos, make one wonder if they are even authentic, nevermind that the West Virginia State Police has already gone on the record and stated, after it was obvious that much of the audio had been doctored, deleted or otherwise maligned – that they had, in fact, made alterations to the video/audio which was released nearly (6) months after the murder. None of the timestamps on any of the dashcams are synched and most notably, none of the cruisers are ever facing a position which would shed any light on the actual incident despite it was 11:30pm and proper training and protocol is to position the vehicle’s headlights on the incident for maximum lighting.

The Martinsburg District Attorney had a Special Grand Jury convened to hear the evidence against these (5) officers and just like Michael Brown, the Special Grand Jury refused to indict. The family of Wayne Jones, immediately retained counsel and sued the City of Martinsburg and its police officers who were involved in this crime. Please help us fight for your Rights and mine!

Ironically – as a result of some legal incompetence; the attorney representing the Estate of Wayne Jones , at the very least, constructively threw them under the bus by failing to file documents, integral to the case, in a timely fashion(“1” day late). In and of itself, these types of situations are not fatal and the Federal Courts won’t throw out such a high profile and emotionally charged case based on a minor technicality, but in this case – the US District Court Judge Gina H Groh made the decision to grant a summary judgment to the City and the police officers and dismiss the Estate’s lawsuit with prejudice, in effect, thoroughly abusing her discretion and failing to allow the lawsuit to move forward. [MORE]