"We are paying these Police to Beat us" - Philadelphia Police Change Story in Taped Beating of Black Men

Although Internal Affairs investigators said they were making progress in identifying the Philadelphia police officers depicted in a news video kicking and beating three shooting suspects, the criminal probe of those three has developed its own problems. Yesterday's preliminary hearing for the three was aborted after the three victims they allegedly wounded on May 5 failed to appear for court. A judge issued bench warrants for their arrest. The missing witnesses were just the start of a tumultuous day in a case that has attracted international attention. By day's end: Police changed a key element in their original description of the shooting and car chase that followed. They now say that the shooter was one of the three suspects arrested and not a fourth man who is still a fugitive. Police also denied news reports that they now believe only the three suspects were involved. They insisted they are still seeking a fourth suspect who fled on foot.

The morning after it happened, Police Commissioner Charles Ramsey explained it this way: "A car pulls up, four occupants get out.  They approach a group of males standing on the corner.  One of the individuals opens fire and strikes three individuals.  He takes off on foot running.  The other three individuals get in the car and take off."

Problem is, police now say there was no fourth man who fired the shots.  They say the gunman was Pete Hopkins, the suspect officers pulled from the front passenger seat. But his lawyer and his mother aren't buying it. "It's just a cover-up, we already know that.  That's what they gonna do to cover up. That's what they gonna do," said Shirley Hopkins, mother of Pete Hopkins. "The story's changed.  I wonder how many more times it's going to change," says Scott Perrine, Hopkins' lawyer.

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Deliberations to continue in cop trial: 92 Year Old Black Woman Killed by Atlanta Police in Drug Raid

A jury deliberated Friday without deciding the fate of an Atlanta police officer accused of helping cover up a botched drug raid in which a 92-year-old woman was killed in her home. The jury, which also deliberated part of Thursday, will resume Monday. A judge denied multiple defense requests Friday for a mistrial. Arthur Tesler faces state charges of violation of oath by a public officer, making false statements and false imprisonment under color of legal process. Tesler, who is on leave from the police force, faces up to 20 years in prison if convicted of the three charges. Two other officers involved in the Nov. 21, 2006, raid on Kathryn Johnston's home, Jason R. Smith and Gregg Junnier, have pleaded guilty to state manslaughter and federal civil rights charges.The jury in the trial of Atlanta Police Det. Arthur Bruce Tesler went home Friday evening without reaching a verdict. They are scheduled to resume deliberations Monday morning.

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Lawyer wants federal probe in Kenny Lazo's Death

A lawyer for the family of a Bay Shore man who died in police custody said Suffolk authorities can't be trusted to conduct a fair investigation of his death so federal officials should take over. "We are extremely concerned that this case ... will not be given the proper consideration that it might otherwise receive if police were not involved," Fred Brewington, of Hempstead, wrote in a letter to the U.S. attorney's office in Brooklyn requesting federal involvement. Brewington based his concerns on his experience dealing with Suffolk law enforcement authorities before and after Kenny Lazo, 24, died April 12 after he struggled with police following his arrest on drug charges.

The deaths of David Glowczenski, 35, who died in 2004 after Southampton police used pepper spray and a Taser on him, and John Cox, 39, of Ronkonkoma, who died in 2005 while Suffolk police tried to subdue him and used a Taser, didn't result in the deaths being reviewed by a grand jury, Brewington said. The Glowczenski and Cox cases are evidence that Suffolk District Attorney Thomas Spota's office is unlikely to let a grand jury examine Lazo's death or determine if police acted properly in Lazo's case, Brewington said.

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Witnesses: Chicago Police Planted Gun after Shooting Black Teen

Relatives, witnesses and friends of a 19-year-old man shot and wounded by police on Mother's Day allege that a gun was planted on him after he was shot, according to an exclusive NBC5 News report.  "It was wrong for them to shoot him like that," the injured man's mother said. But prosecutors said Javara Gardner, charged with assaulting a police officer, was shot after he dropped a gun and tried to pick it up.  Gardner was pushing his 2-year-old son in a stroller when the shooting took place in an alley behind the 5800 block of South Damen, said witness James Edwards, who said he was with Gardner when the shooting occurred.  "He was pushing the stroller, then the police shot him two times in the back," Edwards said. Witness Diana Banks said a policewoman took a gun she found in a nearby yard and "put it by the boy's head." An unidentified friend of Gardner's claimed the gun was his and that he hid it in the yard when he saw police approaching. A spokesman for the Independent Police Review Authority, Mark Payne, said at the scene, "It is believed the adult male had the gun. That's what was reported, and we're investigating it." Contrary to the story presented by prosecutors, witnesses told NBC5's Marion Brooks that after shooting Gardner, police turned him over and kicked him several times, asking, "Where is the gun?" Gardner's sister, Michelle Gardner-Abernathy, said her younger brother got the news on Tuesday that he would never walk again. [MORE]

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Police brutality suit filed for Latino Teen Stomped & Beaten with Flashlights by Denver Police

• Read Complaint [HERE]

A police brutality lawsuit filed Thursday against the Denver Police Department on behalf of a 16-year-old contends five officers repeatedly punched and stomped him and he was hit with a flashlight so hard it broke. The lawsuit, filed in Denver District Court, states that Juan Guillermo Vasquez suffered severe internal injuries, including a lacerated liver, a ruptured spleen, severe bruising of the kidneys, contusions to the head and face and severe bruising of the ribs. Wednesday, Douglas Romero, a lawyer representing Vasquez, sent a letter to Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper stating that litigation could be avoided with a $1.3 million settlement on behalf of Vasquez, who is 5 feet 6 inches tall and weighs 130 pounds. The letter states Vasquez was "unfairly targeted and treated differently because of his Hispanic race." Andrew O'Connor, a former public defender from New Mexico assisting the family in the litigation, said Vasquez is recovering and still has a drainage tube in his back.

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Controversy surrounds Mt. Oliver police shooting of Black Man: Police Approached because 'he had hands in his pocket'

As relatives and friends gathered to lay 19-year-old Justin Jackson to rest, several questions surrounding the accounts of how city police officers came to fatally shoot the young man one week earlier remained unanswered. But then the question of what this young man, who his father said was “trying to turn his life around,” was doing with a gun in his possession, clouds the issue of excessive force by police. Within hours of the May 6 early evening shooting in Pittsburgh’s Mt. Oliver neighborhood, city police Chief Nate Harper said two officers—one a canine officer, saw Jackson walking down Arlington Avenue with his hand “under his jacket.” When asked to take his “hand from his pocket,” Jackson revealed a .357-caliber pistol. The canine officer, since identified as eight-year veteran Chris Sciulli, released the dog, which Jackson fatally shot before he and the officers exchanged several more shots. Jackson was struck in the head and torso and died at the scene. Two days later, police amplified the official account, saying Jackson shot at the officers first. No one noticed the dog had been hit until the shooting ended. The officers were responding to a report of shots being fired when they encountered Jackson. But some are asking, if being a young Black man with hands in pockets a block from where shots were reportedly fired constitutes probable cause for a search?

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Family Seeks $207M in Death Suit of Black Teen at Juvenile Facility , $1M Per Minute of Suffering

The family of an East Baltimore teen who died in 2007 at a school for juvenile offenders while counselors attempted to restrain him have filed a wrongful-death suit seeking $207 million. The figure represents $1 million for every minute that Isaiah Simmons III, 17, allegedly suffered while counselors at Bowling Brook Preparatory School held him face-down for about three hours. In a news conference covered by the Baltimore Sun, the family's attorney, Steven H. Heisler, said the restraint violated protocol and caused a "slow, agonizing and excruciating death." The suit also asks for an additional $207 million in punitive damages. Several of the counselors involved were charged last year with reckless endangerment, but the charges were tossed by a judge. One of the accusations was that the counselors waited 41 minutes to call 911 even though Simmons was unresponsive, the Sun reports. Prosecutors are appealing the dismissal of charges.

"We are paying these Police to Beat us" - Philadelphia Police Change Story in Taped Beating of Black Men

Although Internal Affairs investigators said they were making progress in identifying the Philadelphia police officers depicted in a news video kicking and beating three shooting suspects, the criminal probe of those three has developed its own problems. Yesterday's preliminary hearing for the three was aborted after the three victims they allegedly wounded on May 5 failed to appear for court. A judge issued bench warrants for their arrest. The missing witnesses were just the start of a tumultuous day in a case that has attracted international attention. By day's end: Police changed a key element in their original description of the shooting and car chase that followed. They now say that the shooter was one of the three suspects arrested and not a fourth man who is still a fugitive. Police also denied news reports that they now believe only the three suspects were involved. They insisted they are still seeking a fourth suspect who fled on foot. The morning after it happened, Police Commissioner Charles Ramsey explained it this way: "A car pulls up, four occupants get out.  They approach a group of males standing on the corner.  One of the individuals opens fire and strikes three individuals.  He takes off on foot running.  The other three individuals get in the car and take off."

Problem is, police now say there was no fourth man who fired the shots.  They say the gunman was Pete Hopkins, the suspect officers pulled from the front passenger seat. But his lawyer and his mother aren't buying it. "It's just a cover-up, we already know that.  That's what they gonna do to cover up. That's what they gonna do," said Shirley Hopkins, mother of Pete Hopkins. "The story's changed.  I wonder how many more times it's going to change," says Scott Perrine, Hopkins' lawyer. [MORE]

Inglewood Police Gun Down Unarmed Black Man

In what the Inglewood and surrounding African American communities are calling senseless -- another unarmed Black man, 19 year-old Michael Byoune, was shot and killed by an Inglewood Police Department (IPD) officer in the early morning hours this week. The fatal shooting of Byoune occurred on May 11 at approximately 1:40 a.m., according to policel reports. Now the questions ricocheting throughout the community is,” Why do some police officers shoot and kill innocent, unarmed Black men?” Concerned citizens are also pondering what scenario will Inglewood Police Department create in the wake of an unjustified killing? What alternative courses of action may the officers have employed to avoid shooting to kill? Why did they ‘fear for their safety’ when the victim had no weapon, why will the police killer probably go unpunished, and what happens when the police accidentally kill the wrong person?

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Mayor Bloomberg tells Congressional Members Police Brutality is Our Problem not Yours

Mayor Michael Bloomberg reminded a group of congressional representatives yesterday that the city's police department is his concern, not theirs, as the House Judiciary Committee considers nationwide policing reforms in response to the shooting death of Sean Bell.  "We are going to run our police department, and Congress is not going to run our police department," Bloomberg said after an unrelated news conference in the Bronx. "This is a police department that works and doesn't exactly need more oversight." Bloomberg's remarks came after the committee held a public forum Monday in lower Manhattan on police accountability. "Rather than say we are going to run the police department, he ought to be looking at the fact that there is room for improvement," the Rev. Al Sharpton said yesterday. "He should be concerned that Congress is concerned." At the forum, Sharpton proposed ending federal funding to the New York Police Department until what he called a history of police abuse is rectified. In a response, Bloomberg said U.S. contributions to the department are meager and wouldn't be much of a sacrifice. "We don't get that much money from the federal government," he said. "We keep asking them for more. We keep asking Homeland Security for more and they keep giving it out as pork."

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