- Police Brutality Watch

Police Caught Lying. Handcuffed Jamaal Bonner Shot in the Back.

The family of an unarmed man killed by Aurora police in 2003 filed a federal lawsuit against the city, the officer who shot the man, and the former police chief on Wednesday. Jamaal Bonner, 20, died after being Tasered and shot three times in the back with a submachine gun during a chaotic bust at the Top Star Motel on Dec. 3, 2003. In October, an Arapahoe County grand jury investigation cleared the officers on the scene of any wrongdoing. "The police officers literally executed Mr. Bonner, even though he posed no threat to their safety," Darold Killmer, an attorney for Bonner's parents, Brenda and Bobby Bonner, said in a statement. Aurora City Attorney Charles Richardson said Wednesday that "the city firmly supports the actions which all the police officers took in their dealings with Mr. Bonner." Bonner encountered the police during a prostitution sting, when he offered to sell crack cocaine to an undercover police officer. She invited him to a room and, once there, signaled officers in a room next door to arrest him. SWAT officer William Woods, the first officer through the door, said Bonner ran toward the bathroom, reaching into the waistband of his pants, as though for a weapon. In the ensuing bedlam, another officer Tasered Bonner, and Woods shot him three times with his MP5 rifle. Woods said he shot Bonner because he thought he was going for a weapon, and that Bonner was Tas-ered later. The suit notes that other officers in the room said Bonner had already been Tasered and was on his knees when he was shot. The suit claims that the use of deadly force was excessive, and violated Bonner's constitutional rights. Brenda Bonner, Jamaal Bonner's mother, said in a statement that "as a family, we are appalled that no action has been taken against the officer that murdered our son." [more]

Excellent Investigative Reporting Piece on the Bonner Police Killing is [here]