Emporia officer cleared in Fatal Police Shooting of Black teenager - Feds Take up Case

 
U.S. mediators meet with NAACP, police in black teen's slaying
Police officials and the NAACP, which has called for a federal investigation into the shooting death of a black youth by a policeman, met with U.S. mediators yesterday. Last week, Greensville County Commonwealth's Attorney Patricia Watson cleared officer Richard Walker of any wrongdoing in the death of 14-year-old Jermaine Bell, a black youth, who was killed on the last day of 2005. The shooting was investigated by the state police, which presented its findings to Watson. Walker was placed on paid administrative leave at the time of the shooting, but has since returned to duty. In response to Watson's decision, state NAACP officials and representatives of the Greensville-Emporia branch held a news conference in Richmond and called for a federal investigation into whether the youth's civil rights were violated. The group announced at last week's news conference that the Department of Justice team would visit the community. Garry Allen, vice president of the local NAACP, told the City Council during a meeting last week,"We're not pleased whatsoever with the results [of the investigation]. We just feel like it's the usual cover-up." Vice Mayor Mary Person, who is one of three blacks on the seven-member council, said that members "feel your pain" but have no jurisdiction over the commonwealth's attorneys office. If they did, she said, "Some of us on here would definitely be pushing for something different to happen." Watson noted in a summary of events surrounding the shooting that after breaking up a fight between Bell and someone else, Walker followed Bell into the apartment complex where he lived and heard someone yelling about a knife. Walker saw Bell struggling with a woman as if she was trying to hold him back. With a large knife in his hand, Bell approached the officer and said, "You'll have to shoot me." Walker drew his gun and continued to ask Bell to drop the knife, but Bell continued to approach the officer until he dropped the knife and grabbed the end of the officer's weapon, Watson's summary noted. The officer fired one shot. But black leaders insist there are a number of discrepancies that need to be addressed. These include the contention that the youth held the knife by his side and never dropped it or reached for the officer's gun, and that Bell was shot as he stood in the doorway to his aunt's apartment, not inside. Black leaders also insist there was no tussle going on inside the apartment. "What is reported doesn't even make sense," Debra Brown, president of the Greensville-Emporia NAACP branch, said after Tuesday's council meeting. "It's got too many holes in it." "Somebody is lying somewhere," she said. "I'm not taking sides. I want to get to the truth." City officials, who have downplayed race as an issue, appealed yesterday to its residents, most of whom are black, to let the city heal. [MORE] and [MORE] and [MORE]