Brutality Case Against Austin Police Officers Set to Begin: Handcuffed Latino Man Lying Face Down Beaten by Cops on Videotape

/

ramonhenrnandez.jpg
Three police officers cleared in a brutal beating must now face their accuser again in court.

Former Austin Police Officers Joel Follmer, Brad Heilman and current officer Christopher Gray were caught on dash-cam video beating a suspect in September of 2005. The suspect, Ramon Hernandez, was held down on a bed of fire ants. Gray and Heilman were cleared of criminal charges by jury. Charges against Follmer were later dropped. On Monday all three will once again be defendants in court.

The last time Ramon Hernandez was in a court room, he left disappointed. But on Monday Hernandez believes his new civil case will play out much differently. Hernandez still can’t believe how the 2006 criminal case ended.

“It was pretty shocking and unbelievable,” said Ramon Hernandez. “It is to push for justice and accountability, so we can hold them responsible for what they did.”

Nearly 3 years later Hernandez will face the 3 officers again, this time in a federal court room.

The incident happened after Hernandez left the scene of an accident on Burnet Road in North Austin. The argument used during the 2006 criminal trail to justify how the arrest went down will most likely be used again during the federal civil trail. At that time, defense attorney Terry keel told the jury that, off camera, Hernandez made threatening moves and refused to cooperate. Hernandez was handcuffed and face down in an ant pile.

Read More

Oakland Police Gun Down 15 Year Old Latino Boy: Witnesses said he had his hands up

/

oaklandpolice.jpg
OAKLAND — Witnesses said Thursday that Jose Luis Buenrostro-Gonzalez, 15, had his hands in the air and was unarmed when he was fatally shot by Oakland police Wednesday.

"I saw the boy (with his) hands up and saw bullets flying," said witness Luis, who declined to give his last name for fear of retribution.

When he rounded the corner, Luis said, he saw Buenrostro-Gonzalez facing the police.
"I didn't see a gun," he said.

Another witness, Ricardo Pedroza, 17, said that when he was coming to meet Buenrostro-Gonzalez from a block away, he heard an undercover police vehicle screech to a halt and an officer on a loudspeaker warn Buenrostro-Gonzalez to put his hands in the air.

"He had his hands up and they were still shooting him," Pedroza said.

Pedroza ran to tell his sister and told her to call for an ambulance. His sister, Maria Pedroza, 24, then went to check on Buenrostro-Gonzalez before police ordered her away, Pedroza said.

"I ran down the street and saw him flat on his stomach. I asked the police 'Why did you shoot him?' The police said that he had a gun on him," Maria Pedroza said. "That is when they reached in his waistband and pulled something silver out. ... He never had a gun (when he left the Pedroza's house minutes earlier)."

Read More

Feds Take a Look at SC Highway Patrol - Video Shows Redneck Officers Driving Cruisers into Black Suspects, Using Racial Slurs

/

A federal investigation was launched into the South Carolina Highway Patrol after dashboard camera videos showed a trooper using a racial slur and two others ramming their cruisers into fleeing suspects, a prosecutor said Thursday.

"I've reviewed some of the videos, and based on that review, felt that it was appropriate to have our office involved," said Kevin McDonald, acting U.S. attorney for South Carolina.

McDonald wouldn't say whether indictments could come from the investigation, which was first reported Thursday by The State newspaper of Columbia.

Highway Patrol Col. Russell Roark and his boss, Public Safety Director James Schweitzer, resigned last month after a tape surfaced showing a trooper using a racial slur in 2004.

"You better run," then-Lance Cpl. Daniel C. Campbell said to a suspect, using a derogatory term for blacks, "because I'm fixin' to kill you."

Campbell was reprimanded, suspended and ordered to undergo anger and diversity training, but Gov. Mark Sanford said Roark and Schweitzer should have fired him.

Read More

Ironton Police Officer who Dragged Black Man to Death Under his Car Not on Drugs

/
AP A southern Ohio police chief has released test results showing an officer was not under the influence of drugs or alcohol when he dragged a man beneath his police cruiser earlier this month.

Ironton Chief Jim Carey also says state investigators have completed their work on the case and will turn their findings over to the county prosecutor's office on Monday.

Carey has said Officer Richard Fouts didn't realize he'd run the man over in the snow until he arrived at the police department on March 8 and saw the body. Forty-six-year-old Guy Thomas was pronounced dead in the parking lot.

A nephew said Thomas had epilepsy and may have suffered an attack in the road.

Mother of beating victim watches deputy's case unfold: Black Man Hogtied, Beaten into Vegatative State by Shelby County Police

/

bertbrunson.jpg
Pat Brunson-Ware's vigil began as one night of grieving. It has stretched into 17 years of hope with her lawyers' words echoing in her mind.

"The lawyers who fought the case called it a 'fate worse than death,' " says Brunson-Ware, mother of Bert Brunson. He was 22 when arrested on suspicion of driving under the influence of alcohol in 1991.

Two sheriff's deputies, including rookie deputy Chris M. Jones, stopped their cruiser at a service station near Knight-Arnold and Mendenhall while taking Brunson to jail. The officers said they were letting Brunson use the restroom when he tried to take away one of their guns and escape. Two other deputies were soon involved.

In the seconds that followed, Brunson was struck in the head with nightsticks, hog-tied and placed on his stomach in the back seat of a cruiser, says his mother and one of her attorneys, Andy Clark. Clark was soon involved in his first civil rights lawsuit. It accused the sheriff's deputies and the county of using unnecessary and unconstitutional force in an arrest that all but stole the life of Brunson-Ware's only son.

The oxygen supply to his brain was cut off, leaving him in what his mother says is a persistent vegetative state.

All of those memories flooded back for her a week ago when she was walking through her home and heard a TV newscast in the background. The name "Chris Jones" pierced her ears. He was charged with murder in connection with two shootings at the Windjammer club. A customer was critically injured, and disc jockey Donald Munsey died trying to stop Jones from shooting another customer.

Read More

Judge allows civil suit to advance in fatal Milwaukee Police shooting of Unarmed Black Man

/

justinfields1.jpgwhitecop.jpg 
MILWAUKEE (AP) -- A federal judge has refused the city's request to dismiss a civil rights lawsuit brought by the family of a man who was shot in the back by an officer as he drove away from police.

U.S. District Judge J.P. Stadtmueller ruled Tuesday in the fatal shooting of Justin Fields, 21, by Officer Craig Nawotka.

Stadtmueller questioned Nawotka's version that Fields had been trying to run him over. The judge said there is evidence that neither Nawotka nor anyone else was in danger from Fields.

"If Nawotka fired his weapon while the car was driving away from him, he was not in imminent danger of death or serious bodily injury," Stadtmueller wrote. "Under these facts and in light of clearly established law, a reasonable officer in Nawotka's position would not have believed that exercising deadly force was lawful."

Court records said Fields' car had been partially blocking a street, preventing a fire truck trying to get through.
The lawsuit, filed in December 2003, could now move to trial. However, the city could also appeal Stadtmueller's order or settle.

Mark Thomsen, an attorney for Fields' family, said "the judge's decision confirms what we have believed all along, that this city for far, far too long has failed to conduct adequate administrative reviews and discipline police officers for violating citizens' constitutional rights," he said.

 

Read More

Trooper who Snitched on Officers who Killed Black Teen Can't Get Job Back - Lawsuit Dismissed

/
ellerbe4.jpg
PITTSBURGH (AP) — A judge dismissed a lawsuit filed by a state trooper who claimed he was forced to retire after he raised questions about the official version of a state police shooting of an unarmed 12-year-old boy.

James Baranowski's suit was filed too late and the concerns he raised were part of his job duties, and therefore not protected speech under the First Amendment, federal Judge Nora Barry Fischer ruled Tuesday.

Earlier this month in a separate case, a federal jury awarded $28 million the father of Michael Ellerbe, who was fatally shot on Christmas Eve 2002 during a police chase in Uniontown.

That night, two officers pursued Ellerbe as he ran from a stolen vehicle and the jury concluded that both of them intentionally shot Ellerbe.

Baranowski's attorney, Timothy O'Brien, said Baranowski was considering an appeal.

"It should be of great concern to all of us that when a police officer comes forward as did Mr. Baranowski to report wrongdoing — putting his career on the line — that his speech does not have the same protection afforded to other citizens under the First Amendment," O'Brien said in a statement.

The two troopers, Samuel Nassan and Juan Curry, claimed that Nassan shot Ellerbe — and then only because the officer believed Curry had been shot by the boy. Nassan said he later learned that Curry's gun had gone off while climbing a fence.

Baranowski was the incident commander until a member of the crime unit arrived to take over the investigation.

Baranowski said he noticed discrepancies in the troopers' account and eventually spoke up. When Curry demonstrated what had occurred, the barrel of the gun was close to his face — but Baranowski noticed Curry's face bore no powder burns.
Read More

Judge rules Hartford Police Officer to face trial in fatal shooting of Black Teen

/


jashon3.jpg
A judge has refused to dismiss manslaughter and assault charges against a former Hartford detective in the fatal shooting of a teenager.

The charges were filed after a one man grand jury found there was sufficient evidence to bring charges against Lawlor.

Lawlor was working as part of an anti-gun task force on the night of the shootings. Lawlor says he saw Bryant reaching for a gun while in the passenger seat of a car, but a gun was not found. [MORE]

S.C. Troopers ram Black Suspects on Tape

/

Videos have surfaced showing two members of the South Carolina Highway Patrol using their cruisers to ram fleeing suspects, just weeks after two leaders of the agency resigned because of a furor over a trooper's use of a racial slur.

In one of the two new dash-cam videos, which were first reported Wednesday by The Post and Courier of Charleston, Lance Cpl. Steven C. Garren drives after a man on foot, striking him when he crosses in front of Garren's cruiser. The man flips over the car's hood and into high grass on the roadside.

"Yeah, I hit him. I was trying to hit him," Garren, who is white, can be heard telling another trooper.

In the other, Lance Cpl. Alexander Richardson drives between apartment buildings, on sidewalks and past onlookers in an attempt to run down a suspect. After about a minute, Richardson's car bumps the man, who grabs the vehicle in an attempt to steady himself. The man doesn't fall and takes off running again.

Read More

Detroit Area Sheriff's deputy Charged in Videotaped Spraying Death of Black Man

/

PETELEEJR.jpg
County to pay family $4 million [MORE]
A Washtenaw County Sheriff's deputy faces up to life in prison for allegedly chasing an Ypsilanti Township man, throwing him to the ground and spraying a chemical into his mouth, killing him.

The U.S. Attorney's Office announced Monday that Joseph Eberle, 35, was indicted for using "unreasonable force" when he subdued Clifton "Pete" Lee Jr. on June 1, 2006, after Lee, 45, approached officers who had stopped his brother.

Two other Sheriff's employees, Deputy Eric Kelly, 37, and Sgt. Shawn Hoy, 37, were charged with using unreasonable force on Lee's brother, Bruce. Hoy also allegedly failed to stop Kelly, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office.

Neither the three deputies nor union representatives could be reached for comment.

Kelly and Hoy face a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison, said Gina Balaya, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney's Office.

Lee's early morning death -- captured on police videotape -- prompted Washtenaw County officials to settle a civil case with Lee's family for $4 million earlier this year.

"It's brutal," said attorney Paul Broschay, who represented Clifton Lee's family in the civil lawsuit. "They chased him down, they pinned him to the ground."

One officer, allegedly Eberle, sprayed the chemical directly into Clifton Lee's mouth and then held it closed, Broschay said. Lee, an auto mechanic and construction worker, lived about a block away and had gone to the scene to see what was happening.

Read More

Parents of Demetrus Vinson file suit: 19 Yr. Old Black Teen Killed After Traffic Stop with Akron Police

/
vinson2.jpg
The parents of an Akron teen whose controversial death last year during a police stop triggered protests and an independent review is suing Akron police in federal court for wrongful death and violation of civil rights.

Horace L. Vinson Jr, father of 19-year-old Demetrus Vinson and Beverly A. Wallace, the teen's mother, filed the lawsuit Friday in U.S. District Court. He is asking for $10 million in compensatory damages, plus punitive damages and attorney costs. The case has been assigned to Judge Sara Lioi.

Akron police and the Cuyahoga County Prosecutor's office, which was asked to conduct an independent review, concluded that the 19-year-old shot himself in the head after he was shot by police during a traffic stop last March 17.

The Summit County prosecutor issued its own conclusion last week that the police shooting was justified because Vinson pulled out a gun during the stop and aimed it at one of the officers.

The lawsuit alleges that the officers — Michael Orrand and Michael Koubek — pulled over the car Vinson was driving without probable cause.

Police say they observed Vinson's car leaving a known drug house at about 2 a.m. and followed him to Victoria Avenue where Vinson drove the car into a driveway of his grandmother's home.

The lawsuit says that ''without warning or justification'' Koubek shot Vinson three times.

Police say that as Koubek and Orrand stood near the car with flashlights in hand, Vinson rolled up his tinted car windows and refused to leave the car.

The officers say they saw Vinson reach for and point a gun at Orrand, who was on the driver's side of the car. As he did, Koubek fired three times through the passenger side window. After retreating, the officers said they heard a single shot fired from inside the car.

The lawsuit alleges that police ''destroyed evidence in this case by moving the Vinson vehicle, with the body of (Vinson) inside, before investigators could document and photograph the scene.''
Read More

Victim's Family To File $10 Million Suit Against LAPD: Black Man Shot Multiple Times while Running Away

/

mauricecox.jpg
Family members of a man fatally shot by police are expected to file a multimillion-dollar lawsuit Monday against the Los Angeles Police Department.

The man who was shot to death by officers, Maurice L. Cox Jr., was running from officers after crashing his pickup truck in the Crenshaw District.

Police shot Cox multiple times in what the family's attorney, Carl Douglas, called "contagious fire," as Cox tried to flee after his pickup struck a tree on Crenshaw Boulevard, near Slauson Avenue, on March 1. Douglas said that when officers heard other officers shooting, they opened fire as well.

NBC4 aired a grainy video made by a USC graduate student that appeared to show police shooting at Cox as he was running away.

According to police, Cox told officers to stay away or he would kill them, then pointed what appeared to be a gun at them, prompting the officers to open fire.

Cox was wounded when he began running, but police continued to shoot at him, endangering others in the area, Douglas told NBC4. He said the "gun" turned out to be a cigarette lighter power adapter, which was recovered at the scene. [MORE]

Ohio Police Officer Charged in Shooting Death of Black Woman in No Knock Drug Raid

/

tarika.jpg

LIMA, Ohio — A special prosecutor says a white police officer has been charged in the shooting death of a black woman during a January drug raid in Lima. An Allen County grand jury today indicted a Lima police sergeant on two misdemeanors for shooting 26-year-old Tarika Wilson to death and injuring her 14-month-old son during a Jan. 4 drug raid at her home.

The special grand jury, which met last Wednesday and Thursday under the direction of Special Prosecutor Jeffrey Strausbaugh of Defiance County, indicted Sgt. Joseph A. Chavalia, 52, for negligent homicide and negligent assault.

Sergeant Chavalia, who has been on paid administrative leave since the fatal shooting, was expected to be arraigned later this morning in Allen County Common Pleas Court.

Police said they were prepared to handle any backlash from the news. The shooting raised concerns about the way African-Americans are treated by the mostly white Lima police department. Wilson was biracial; Sergeant Chavalia is white.

Read More

Justice Dept. says George Temple's Civil Rights were Not Violated: Black Man Shot by White Bystander During Scuffle with Baton Rouge Police

/
georgetemple.jpg
Black Businessman Shot in 4 times in the Back, Once in the Head
BATON ROUGE, La. The U.S. Justice Department has found no civil rights violations in the shooting death of a businessman who was killed by a bystander during a scuffle with a Baton Rouge police officer.

The department launched its investigation in April 2006, almost two months after George Temple II, 24, was killed.

The officer, Brian Harrison, shot Temple once in the stomach, according to the East Baton Rouge Parish Sheriff's Office.

The bystander, Perry Stephens, shot Temple once in the head and four times in the back.

Temple was black. Harrison and Stephens are white.

A group of black elected officials and pastors asked the U.S. Justice Department to conduct an independent investigation into the shooting to see if Temple's civil rights were violated.

State Rep. Michael Jackson, D-Baton Rouge, said Thursday in an e-mail that the investigation was requested to make sure justice was served.

"Although we disagree with their conclusion, we accept the findings," Jackson said.
Read More

Black Man dies after Trenton Police Subdue Him - Family Arranges Autopsy

/

Ronald Wilson, 38, went into full cardiac arrest while being taken to the hospital for injuries he sustained during a struggle with officers, according to a police spokesman. He died shortly after the heart attack. The incident occurred after Wilson was involved in a car accident, police said.

Trenton police internal affairs is investigating. 

Wilson had highly elevated levels of the drug PCP in his body, according to toxicology tests ordered by the Mercer County Medical Examiner's office, multiple police sources said late yesterday.

Also, a second autopsy on the body of 38-year-old Ronald Wilson, which was arranged by his family and completed yesterday, found essentially the same results as the one completed by Mercer County Medical Examiner Dr. Rafaat Ahmad, sources said.

The police sources spoke on condition of anonymity due to the sensitive nature of the information. But some of them sought to publicize the information to counterbalance how the family has been portraying the incident: that police officers used excessive force that resulted in Wilson's death.

Members of Wilson's family, along with sympathizers, have twice taken to the streets to publicly accuse the five police officers involved in struggling to control Wilson of being killers.

Late last night, however, lawyer Robin Lord, who is representing the Wilson family, confirmed the second autopsy had been completed and said the examiner, Dr. James Gill, found "clear evidence" of blunt force trauma to Wilson's body. Gill is a deputy chief medical examiner for New York City.

Again, police sources said last night that Gill had indeed found bruising on Wilson's head, but it was minor and consistent with a struggle with police officers and was not fatal to him.

As for the PCP results, Lord said they are "highly suspect" and the family will be conducting an independent investigation. She said there are independent witnesses who said Wilson exhibited no unusual or strange behavior.

Read More

Jury clears Modesto Officers in Wrongful Death Suit of Latino Man

/

Two Modesto police officers bear no liability in the death of Sammy Galvan, who was shot eight times when the authorities responded to a domestic dispute in his home 3½ years ago, a federal jury said Friday.

Jurors deliberated for less than one day, then unanimously returned a verdict in favor of the city as the five-day trial wound to a close in U.S. District Court in Fresno. Because of its no-fault finding, the panel did not consider the question of damages for Galvan's parents, who sought $3 million.

Susan and Ramon Galvan alleged in their wrongful death lawsuit that the officers used excessive force when they confronted their 22-year-old son, who was lying on his bed when police shined their flashlights into a darkened cottage behind his parents' home on West Roseburg Avenue. The assault and battery charges against the Modesto Police Department, for their treatment of Sammy’s father, were also dismissed.

In his final arguments, Modesto Deputy City Attorney James Wilson told the jury his version of what happened at the Galvan home on August 22, 2004. Wilson said that police work “routinely involves stupefying hours of boredom punctuated by moments of sheer terror.” He used that framework to set the scene of a domestic disturbance call gone horribly wrong. Wilson said that when the police were called by Susan Galvan, Sammy’s mother, officers Lyndon Yates and Mirl Morse were dispatched to the scene.

According to Wilson, when officers Yates and Morse arrived at the backyard cottage that Sammy lived in, they shined their flashlights through the open front door. They saw Sammy laying on his bed (it was 1 AM in the morning) and when the lights hit him he stood up. The officers said he had a knife in each hand and began to move towards them in an aggressive manner. Wilson said Sammy was told to “drop the knife” and seconds later officers Yates and Morse fired eight rounds. Four out of eight 45 caliber hollow point bullets hit and killed Sammy Galvan.

Attorneys for the Galvan family argued that things did not happen as the defense claimed. Walter Riley, in his closing statement, said the shooting was “not a lawful use of force.” Riley argued that Sammy Galvan did not present an immediate threat to the officers and they should have used less than lethal force to deal with the situation.

Read More

PA to review Police Policies in wake of Ellerbe case - 12 yr. Old Black Boy Fatally Shot in the Back in Broad Daylight

/
ellerbe4.jpg
WEAK ASS GOVERNOR RENDELL SAYS $28 Million JUDGMENT TOO MUCH
Gov. Ed Rendell on Friday said the state is reviewing Pennsylvania State Police procedures and guidelines, following Tuesday's $28 million verdict against a pair of state troopers in the Dec. 24, 2002 shooting death of a 12-year-old Uniontown boy.

Rendell said the jury award in the civil rights case will be appealed. But the governor, a former Philadelphia prosecutor, did not voice support for the troopers or endorse defense attorney Andrew Fletcher's contention that no evidence supported the jury's verdict in Michael Ellerbe's shooting.

"In terms of the judgment, that'll be appealed because, although the jury has spoken, I think that judgment was probably a little excessive," Rendell said.

Pennsylvania taxpayers would pay the award, not State Police Cpl. Juan Curry and Trooper Samuel Nassan, named in the case.

A jury of six women and four men decided the record judgment against the police agency after deliberating nearly four days at the close of a three-week federal trial in Pittsburgh.

Most of the award -- $24 million -- was to punish police for conduct the jury deemed unreasonable, malicious and in violation of the U.S. Constitution.

Nassan and Curry testified that Nassan shot Ellerbe in the back as the boy ran from a stolen SUV because he thought Ellerbe had shot his partner. Curry said his gun discharged accidentally seconds earlier as he attempted to scale a fence.
Read More

Black Man Dragged to Death Under Irontown Police Car - One Mile, in Snow

/

irontowndragging.jpg
Report: Victim not standing when struck [MORE]

IRONTON -- Preliminary autopsy results from an examination of the body of Guy Cameron Thomas, whose body was recovered from beneath an Ironton Police Department cruiser Saturday night, indicate he was not standing or kneeling at the point of impact with the police car.

Members of Thomas' family, as well as others in the area, say they most want to know why the police cruiser traveled roughly 10 blocks with his body underneath before the officer driving the vehicle noticed there was a problem.

An independent investigation by officers with the Ohio State Highway Patrol also concluded Thomas "must have been down on the roadway" at the time.

Lawrence County Coroner Dr. Burton Payne said more extensive tests must be completed before conclusive statements can be made regarding the death and clarified preliminary tests have not shown Thomas suffered a seizure prior to the incident.

"There is nothing definitive to suggest a seizure," Payne said, explaining that possibility was based upon family reports that Thomas took prescription anti-seizure medications.

At this point, the coroner said all test results are "inconclusive" and "no precise cause of death" has been determined.

Read More

Grand jury hears evidence in Lima Police shooting case: Black Mother of 6 Gunned Down in No Knock Police Raid

/

tarika.jpg
LIMA — Police Sgt. Joe Chavalia, identified as the officer who fatally shot a mother of six during a SWAT drug raid, was one of 20 Lima police officers called before the grand jury this week, Chief Greg Garlock said.

Whether Chavalia testified or invoked his constitutional right against self incrimination, Garlock said he did not know. The chief also did not know how many of the 20 officers actually testified since it is common for more officers to be called than actually testify, he said.

Tarika Wilson was shot to death on Jan. 4 iwhen the Lima Police Department's SWAT team raided her Third Street home, using a "no-knock" search warrant. Her 1-year-old son, Sincere, also was shot but survived. Police were after her boyfriend, Anthony Terry, who was also inside the house. The Lima chapter of the NAACP called for the indictment of all officers involved in the Jan. 4 raid of a woman's home during which she was shot and killed by a city police officer.

"If I commit a crime, and five of my friends are with me, I'm getting charged, they're getting charged, bottom line," said Lima's NAACP President Jason Upthegrove.

Her boyfriend, Anthony Terry, was arrested on drug charges during the raid, but no public explanation has been given describing how Sgt. Joseph Chavalia came to fire his gun.

Garlock said he did not know whether Special Prosecutor Jeffrey Strausbaugh’s presentation of evidence to the grand jury is complete. Garlock said officers who were asked to testify Wednesday and Thursday included most if not all of the SWAT team members who conducted the raid. Also asked to testify were officers from the PACE unit conducting the drug investigation and officers who responded to the scene, he said.

Read More

Family Wants New Investigation: Weak Probe Cleared Mount Vernon Cops who Killed Undercover Black Officer

/

ridley2.jpg
The Westchester County investigation that cleared four police officers in the killing of an off-duty colleague was rushed and incomplete, and state and federal officials should step in, the victim's parents and their supporters said Thursday.

They also called for a rally next week at the scene of the shooting and implied that the policeman, Christopher Ridley, might not have been slain if he were white.

"We will not sit by and allow this to be the last word," said the Rev. W. Franklyn Richardson, speaking for the United Black Clergy of Westchester at a news conference in a chapel of his Grace Baptist Church.

He said the family and the community "feel betrayed, outraged, and believe that this report is a collaboration of coverup." He characterized the grand jury report as saying, "Christopher died and it was nobody's fault. ... The most outrageous conclusion that we could have ever imagined."

Ridley's mother, Felita Bouche, said, "I don't like what Westchester did. I think they need to be investigated. It's been 47 days I waited patiently. ... I want an investigation done and I want justification."
Ridley's father, Stanley Ridley, wept and said, "I want answers now. ... Somebody's going to give me some answers."

Calvin Scholar, a lawyer for the family, alleged that White Plains police, who ran the investigation, sometimes ignored witnesses whose accounts would have supported criminal charges. He would not provide the names of those witnesses.

Westchester District Attorney Janet DiFiore said she had "complete faith and confidence" in the grand jury process.
Ridley, 23, was killed Jan. 25 as he tried to arrest an assault suspect in downtown White Plains. Based on witness accounts and surveillance videos, officials said, Ridley did not identify himself as a policeman and did not drop his gun when the county officers ordered him to do so. He was killed when he turned toward the officers with his gun in his hand, the officials said.

Read More