From [HERE] DALLAS — Conflicting stories are emerging surrounding Saturday's killing of an armed man by a Dallas police officer. Police justify the shooting as self-defense, although witnesses report the 21-year-old suspect was shot in the back as he ran from the officer.

John Husband III (left), 21, of Dallas, was killed Saturday afternoon outside an apartment complex in the 3600 block of Folklore Trail in Oak Cliff. "He [the officer] shot him in the back," said Xavier Bryant, 22.

Bryant, Husband, and a third person were visiting a friend’s apartment Saturday afternoon, when — Bryant said — the officer pulled up behind their car as they parked. It’s unclear why the officer approached the car; police only say it was a "traffic stop."

From [HERE] A world renowned forensic pathologist said facts presented by the autopsy of a Black man shot to death by Pasadena police officers contradicts the official account of his slaying.

Dr. Cyril Wecht reviewed a report on the death of Kendrec McDade generated by a medical examiner with the Los Angeles County Department of Coroner. Wecht said there were multiple inconsistencies between the autopsy and an account of the shooting given by Pasadena police officers.

Among the contradictions is a statement by Police Department officials that McDade was at close range as he approached a patrol car and appeared to reach for a weapon in his waist band. "There was no soot from the burning powder, or stippling, that produced superficial burns on the skin," Wecht said. "The rule of thumb for handguns, if they are less than 24 inches there needs to be some stippling."

McDade, a former Azusa High School football standout, was shot and killed by officers Mathew Griffin and Jeffrey Newlen on March 24. The Pasadena-branch of the NAACP President has criticized the Police Department's tactics and the tepid reaction by city leaders to the tragedy.

From [HERE] and [HERE] Enrest "Marty"Atencio is at least the 12th inmate to die under strange circumstances in the Maricopa County jail system. (The Phoenix New Times lists 11 other such cases here.) And listing “law enforcement subdual” as one cause of death, according to former Maricopa County chief prosecutor Rick Romley, is particularly unusual because it could implicate law enforcement in Atencio’s death. 

The former soldier’s allegedly rough treatment by officers at Arpaio’s infamous Fourth Avenue jail in Phoenix was caught on routine jail video tape. By then, Atencio had been in police custody for over four hours and had been showing signs of “acute psychosis,” the medical examiner reports. The video appears to show burly officers from Phoenix and Maricopa County piling on Atencio, apparently after he said something, though exactly what remains unclear because jail cameras don’t record audio.

Atencio was  subdued for seven minutes, according to the medical examiner’s report, which found evidence of “apparent carotid chokehold, prone placement and restraint, use of conducted electrical device and use of handcuffs” on Atencio’s corpse. He was eventually checked by a jail medical employee before being carried to a cell, where he was stripped naked and lay completely motionless except for an “unspecified movement in his abdominal region,” the report continues.  

From [HERE] The mother of an unarmed and disabled veteran who was shot and killed by Las Vegas police last December has filed a federal lawsuit against the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department. 43-year-old Stanley Gibson, a veteran of the Gulf War, was killed after a police standoff on Dec. 12, 2011. 

The shooting happened after police were called to the scene of a alleged break-in at the Alondra Condominium Complex in northwest Las Vegas. Police encountered Gibson and pinned his car between two police cars when he did not respond to their commands to exit his vehicle.

His wife has insisted that Gibson, who suffered from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, was probably just lost and upset and did not understand the police officers.

The police devised a plan to force Gibson out of his car using a non-lethal beanbag gun and pepper spray. However, after another police officer fired the beanbag round, Officer Jesus Arevalo opened fire shot into the vehicle seven times. Gibson was pronounced dead at the scene.

From [HERE] Freda Waiters sobbed uncontrollably late Wednesday night as she learned a Fulton County grand jury would not indict the Union City policeman who shot her teenage son in the back, her attorney said.

“This officer gets to go back to work tomorrow, and Ms. Waiters will never see her son again,” attorney Mawuli Mel Davis told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution on Wednesday night.

Ariston Waiters, 19, was shot and killed after an altercation with a policeman on the night of Dec. 14.

The grand jury decided not to criminally charge the officer involved in the shooting, Davis said. Waiters’ family has led several protests, claiming that the shooting was unjust. Their claims are bolstered by a Fulton County Medical Examiner’s office autopsy report that showed Waiters was shot twice in the back.

From [HERE] NEW YORK — Eleven current and ex-New York City inmates have filed a lawsuit charging correction officials have tolerated unprovoked beatings of inmates by guards.

The New York Times says the complaint seeks class-action status to cover almost all of the city's current and future inmates. It was filed last week in Manhattan federal court by the Legal Aid Society and two private law firms.

The lawsuit names as defendants Correction Commissioner Dora Schriro and other officials and officers. It says they've "created and now perpetuate a policy of permitting uniformed staff to use unlawful, excessive force with impunity."

From [HERE] and [HERE] MILWAUKEE (AP) -- The Milwaukee Police Department has released a squad car video [HERE] that shows an officer punching a handcuffed Black woman restrained in the backseat of a police car. Police say the officer, Richard Schoen, was fired May 1 for violating the department's code of conduct. The incident happened in September.

Police determined that Schoen "punched a prisoner in the face, removed her from the squad by her hair and struck her to the body with his knee, while she was handcuffed in the squad." The victim, Jeanine Tracy, said the incident started last September when she was driving on North 51st Boulevard and she saw police lights in her rearview mirror. Police say Schoen also struck her with his knee while she was on the ground, but that's not on video.

"Never, never have I been more scared than this," Tracy said. "He was, like, 'Do you have any open cases,' I said, 'You can just run the check, you have my license. Then I asked the other officer could he stop talking to my daughter because she's a minor." Tracy said the officer ordered her out of the car.

HOUSTON (Reuters) - The day after an all-white jury acquitted a former Houston police officer for his role in the beating of a 15-year-old African American burglary suspect, community activists rallied a crowd of at least 200 people on the courthouse steps to protest.

Andrew Blomberg was acquitted by an all white jury in Houston on Wednesday in the alleged beating and stomping of Chad Holley two years ago.

Houston is the country's fourth-largest city and among the most diverse, with an African American chief of police. However, the jury in this case was chosen from surrounding conservative Harris County, represented by a white, Republican district attorney who began her career as a Houston police officer.

From [HERE] and [HERE] -- An all-white jury found a white former city police officer not guilty Wednesday in the videotaped beating of 15-year-old African American burglary suspect Chad Holley, eliciting cries of outrage from community members.

The jury had deliberated for less than a day.

“The jury sent a message that the life of a black man don’t mean a damn thing in Houston,” African American community activist Quanell X told the Los Angeles Times. “ I believe that allowing an all-white jury to be impaneled in this case was absolutely wrong and a miscarriage of justice.”

Houston is the country's fourth-largest city and among the most diverse, with an African American chief of police. However, the jury in this case was chosen from surrounding conservative Harris County, represented by a white, Republican district attorney who began her career as a Houston police officer.

From [HERE] CINCINNATI -- The family of a teen fatally shot last summer by police downtown have sued the officers involved in his death. The suit claims Officer Oscar Cyranek was told by another officer that some black teenagers had been seen with guns near the Black Family Reunion at Sawyer Point.

Cyranek saw 16-year-old Davon Mullins with a gun several few blocks away at Fountain Square, wrestled him to the ground and searched the teen, the suit says. According to the suit, Cyranek tossed aside the gun he found on the teen, drew his own service weapon and shot Mullins multiple times in the chest.

Cyranek then retrieved the discarded gun and placed it near to the teen's body before calling for assistance, the suit claims. Attorney Eric Deters is representing the teen's family, who claims that Cincinnati police have refused to produce any findings from their own investigation. Deters said he believes the department is hiding something.

From [HERE] The U.S. Attorney's Office in Newark today said it will review circumstances surrounding the fatal police shooting of a New Brunswick man in September and determine if it will begin a full investigation.

"We will evaluate the facts to determine whether a federal investigation is warranted," said Rebekah Carmichael, spokeswoman for U.S. Attorney Paul Fishman.

On Thursday Middlesex County Prosecutor Bruce Kaplan announced that a grand jury decided not to indict New Brunswick police officers Brad Berdel and Daniel Mazan in the September shooting of Barry Deloatch, 46, in an alley on Throop Avenue in New Brunswick.

After the release of the grand jury decision, questions were raised about the investigation of the shooting, noting a judge had refused to impanel a special grand jury, and that the Middlesex County Prosecutor's Office is located in the same building as New Brunswick police headquarters.

New York Police Stop Every Young Black Man in the City…For Safety [MORE]

From [HERE] A lawsuit alleging racial bias in the New York Police Department’s so-called stop-and-frisk tactics will proceed under class-action status, clearing the way for thousands of potential plaintiffs to join the legal challenge.

The decision by Judge Shira Scheindlin in Manhattan federal court also criticized the city’s “cavalier attitude” in response to claims police have conducted illegal searches.

Her ruling could dramatically expand a 2008 lawsuit filed by four individuals who claimed their constitutional rights had been trampled by the city’s effort to combat crime through stopping, questioning and sometimes frisking those suspected of street crimes.

From [HERE] No charges will be filed against three white Pittsburgh police officers who were accused of using excessive force in beating a black teenager, a prosecutor said Wednesday.

Allegheny County District Attorney Stephen A. Zappala Jr. said at a news conference there isn't a prosecutable case against the officers. Jordan Miles was an 18-year-old student at the city's performing arts high school at the time of the 2010 beating. The undercover officers contend Miles ran and resisted after appearing to have a gun, but it was a soda bottle. Miles denied even having the bottle and claimed he was targeted simply because he was a young black man.

Zappala's announcement came a day after a county councilman suggested investigating possible conflicts of interests in the DA's office in cases involving citizens' claims of police misconduct.

Miles' lawyer, J. Kerrington Lewis, said he feels Zappala should have excused himself from the investigation long ago, because he represented the officers who beat the youth.

From [HERE] and [HERE] Two New Jersey police officers involved in the fatal shooting of Barry Deloatch will not be in uniform or on the streets until a departmental review is completed, Middlesex County Prosecutor Bruce Kaplan said Friday. Kaplan announced Thursday that a grand jury decided not to bring criminal charges against the officers. Deloatch was killed early on Sept. 22 2011. 

Police said Deloatch fled when Officers Brad Berdel and Daniel Mazan approached him and two other men on Sept. 22 because the officers said the men were behaving suspiciously. The chase ended with Berdel shooting Deloatch once, killing him. (what exactly made them suspicious? - bw)

Police said the 46-year-old Deloatch threatened Officer Mazan with a wooden board. But Deloatch’s family said he was unarmed, and prosecutors noted the officers didn’t have their police-issued batons at the time. Berdel also didn’t have his chemical spray. The bullet struck Deloatch in the left side of his body, piercing his aorta.

New Brunswick police had been silent on the incident, which has attracted the attention of the NAACP and other prominent organizations. Deloatch is black, while Berdel and Mazan are white.

Terrence Battle says that he was yanked out of a cab in Brooklyn in 2010 and frisked by police for no reason. "Pulling over next to my house, police turned their lights on and stopped the cab," he said. "They walked up and asked the cab driver if everything was OK. The cab driver said yeah. They immediately turned their attention to me, frisked me, searched me, went through my bag." Battle sued the city with the help of the New York Civil Liberties Union. Now, the case has been settled, with Battle receiving $10,000. [MORE] 

(Reuters) - New York police officers at their daily roll call are now being told they may not systemically search taxi passengers for weapons, in a deal to settle a lawsuit over the city's controversial stop and frisk program.

The lawsuit said the NYPD had extended its hotly contested stop-and-frisk practices to include regular passenger searches during inspections of taxis and livery cabs that participate in the Taxi/Livery Robbery Inspection Program, run by police.

From [HERE] A three-decades-old partnership between the city's black ministers and the Houston Police Department has ended after pastors refused to agree to new guidelines issued by Chief Charles McClelland that prohibits them from criticizing the police or city administration.

The ACLU and longtime civil rights activists blasted the prohibition against criticism by clergy who volunteer with the department.

McClelland changed the organization of HPD's religious volunteers by forming a group called the Police and Clergy Alliance (PACA). He issued guidelines governing the new alliance that took effect April 26.

Last week, an estimated 100 to 150 black ministers who are members of the Houston Ministers Against Crime turned in their HPD-issued credentials, saying they would no longer work with police, the pastor's group director confirmed.

 FBI to launch civil rights inquiry  [MORE] 

From [HERE] and [MORE] According to a recently released autopsy report, the two officers who arrived to investigate an alleged robbery ran down and eventually shot a young black suspect seven times. 

Nineteen-year-old Kendrec McDade was shot at point-blank range by one Pasadena police officer and handcuffed after being struck by a total of seven bullets, according to the autopsy report released Friday by the Los Angeles County coroner’s office. . . . Three of the wounds — two in his abdomen and one in his right arm — are considered potentially fatal because they lacerated arteries, according to Pasadena police. One bullet entered through the back of the right arm and another the back of the right forearm. The report also says he was alive and handcuffed after being struck by a total of seven bullets.

In a federal lawsuit, McDade's parents, Anya Slaughter and Kenneth McDade, also allege McDade was left on the street for a prolonged period of time after the March 24 shooting without receiving first aid. The coroner's report shed no light on this allegation.

• Chicago pays $45 million in 3 years to settle complaints against cops [MORE] 
• List of Chicago Police Members [HERE] 

From [HERE] and [HERE] Cook County commissioners agreed Monday to pay $600,000 to settle the county's portion of a lawsuit brought by a freed prison inmate whose allegations of police torture have shined a spotlight on former Mayor Richard Daley.

By voting to settle, commissioners removed county government as a defendant in the case brought by Michael Tillman, who alleges that detectives working for then-Chicago police Lt. Jon Burge tortured a confession out of him in a 1986 rape and murder case.

After more than 23 years behind bars, Tillman was freed in January 2010 when a special prosecutor said his conviction depended on "coerced statements." Tillman has said he was beaten until he vomited blood, had a plastic bag wrapped around his head and had soda pop poured into his nostrils for three days until he provided a confession in the death of 42-year-old Betty Howard, who lived in the same apartment building as Tillman at the time.

From [HERE] and [HERE] Former Houston police officer Andrew Blomberg was not following procedure during a police beating and arrest of a 15-year-old burglary suspect in 2010, an expert in police policy testified Monday, the last witness in Blomberg's trial for official oppression. "Yes, I do believe it amounts to mistreatment of a prisoner," said Ken Katsaris, a police expert from Florida. 

Katsaris, a rebuttal witness for the prosecution, testified against Blomberg, who was fired from the police department for his role in Chad Holley's beating, which was caught on video on March 24, 2010.

Katsaris said Blomberg's actions were "objectively unreasonable" and were "contrary to any legitimate police action." He also said he believes Blomberg "stomped" on the teen's head as other officers kicked and punched him.