Kill Police . com

click here to view video

“it jumped out of gear”

yea… sure…

Five people were killed and over 100 others, including 49 policemen, injured in western Bangladesh in a Monday-night clash between police and angry villagers who demonstrated for free of their three arrested leaders.

Rezaul Karim, police chief of Bangladesh’s western Chapainawabganj district told Xinhua Tuesday by phone that five people were killed in police firing on Monday night and the situation was under control.

Karim said the trouble erupted after villagers blocked the major road towards Bangladesh-India frontier for release of three leaders of Rural Power Movement Committee arrested in connection with a similar clash on Jan. 4. The clash also left three people killed.

Karim said police went to quell the agitation of the villagers and opened the blocked road, but angry villagers attacked police. Police then opened fire, killing five people and injuring more than 100 others. Policemen were among the injured in the clash, Karim said.

The villagers had a dispute with the power supply authority demanding uninterrupted supply of power and reduction of meter charge.

Karim said the para-military Bangladesh Rifles and police are guarding the area and the situation is now under control.

source

The family of a slain Central Booking inmate has sued the state for $130 million.

WBAL-TV 11 News reporter Lowell Melser reported the family of Raymond Smoot filed the lawsuit in Baltimore City Circuit Court on Friday.

Smoot, 51, died after a fatal beating that allegedly involved correctional officers at the state-run city jail facility.

Melser reported the lawsuit cites wrongful death and survival claims as well as excessive force and cruel and unusual punishment.

The family contends in the lawsuit that Smoot failed to post $150 bail and got into some sort of altercation with corrections officers on May 14, 2005, that resulted in a severe beating and his ultimate death.

Despite the arrest of three corrections officers in the case, Smoot’s oldest daughter, Kenya Kelly, said nothing has changed at Central Booking. The family said they hope their suit, which seeks punitive and compensatory damages, will provide much-needed attention to the facility.

“Who wouldn’t want to file a lawsuit on behalf of their loved one who was killed and murdered in Baltimore Central Booking by the hands and feet of guards and a total of 30 people?” Kelly said.

Melser reported that the lawsuit filed names Officers Dameon Woods, Nathan Colbert and James Hatcher. The three officers already face criminal charges connected to the case and have pleaded not guilty in Smoot’s death.

The suit also names up to 30 other correctional officers on duty on the night of the beating and the state of Maryland.

The family’s attorneys plan on adding additional names.

“I am anticipating that other wrongdoers will come forward or will be revealed during the criminal process as well as discovery during the civil process,” attorney A. Dwight Pettit said.

Melser reported the state believes its actions have been swift and decisive.

Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services spokesman Mark A. Vernarelli issued a statement to 11 News, saying: “We terminated eight officers and made it perfectly clear that we will not tolerate any unnecessary or excessive force. … Once more, we express our sincere sympathy to Mr. Smoot’s family.”

“The only thing our system knows how to do is to compensate both compensatory and punitive damages to try to right a wrong,” Pettit said. “If you want to characterize that as filling someone’s pockets, I would characterize it as justice.”

“If it boils down to being about money, then, yes, it is about money,” Kelly said. “It’s greater than money, it’s more than money because it’s about the legacy of death and that this should not have happened to him.” The family’s attorneys believe in the lawsuit as a means to garner the attention of officials.

“The only thing that gets public attention and gets official attention is the all-mighty dollar,” Pettit said.

The court has yet to schedule a trial date.

source

A Prince George’s County undercover narcotics police corporal who followed an unarmed college student to Fairfax County and fatally shot him more than five years ago was held responsible for his wrongful death yesterday by a civil jury that awarded $3.7 million in damages to the victim’s daughter and parents.

After following 25-year-old Prince C. Jones Jr. from Chillum to Fairfax on Sept. 1, 2000, Cpl. Carlton B. Jones, sitting in an unmarked SUV, fired 16 shots at the student in his Jeep, hitting him eight times. Five of the shots hit Prince Jones (no relation) in the back.

The highly publicized shooting was the catalyst for a broad Justice Department investigation into allegations of brutality and racism by the county police department, which has been accused of excessive force for decades.

That investigation ended in January 2005, when the county announced an agreement with the Justice Department promising that the police department would take steps designed to reduce excessive force.

Terrell N. Roberts III, an attorney for Prince Jones Jr.’s daughter and father, noted after the verdict that the Fairfax commonwealth’s attorney and the Justice Department declined to file charges against Carlton Jones, now 37, or even bring the case before a grand jury, and that Prince George’s police said they found no wrongdoing by the officer.

“But a Prince George’s jury concluded the officer was liable for wrongfully killing an innocent man,” Roberts said. “I think some justice has been served here.”

“Now he knows he did something wrong,” Prince Jones Sr. said of Carlton Jones.

The jury found that Carlton Jones was negligent, used excessive force and could not have reasonably believed his actions were lawful. But it rejected a claim that the officer was liable for battery of Prince Jones, and it found that Prince Jones contributed to his death by his actions during the fatal encounter.

Carlton Jones declined to comment, saying he’d been ordered by the police department to say nothing. The corporal is now assigned to the technical services division.

The jury awarded $2.5 million in damages to Prince Jones’s daughter, Nina, who is 6; $1 million to his mother, Mabel Jones; and $200,000 to his father. The jury award is one of the highest for a police misconduct lawsuit in county history.

The county paid $4.6 million in police misconduct verdicts and lawsuits in the fiscal year that ended last June; yesterday’s verdict is about three-fourths of last year’s total.

If the verdict stands, the county will have paid out more than $20 million in jury awards and settlements since 2000 in lawsuits alleging misconduct by county police officers.

The county indemnifies police officers for their actions in the line of duty, defends officers against civil lawsuits connected to their police actions and pays jury awards and settlements in such cases. Officers pay nothing.

County Executive Jack B. Johnson (D), who promised to combat excessive force by county police during his successful 2002 campaign, said through a spokesman yesterday: “We understand the jury’s decision. Constitutionally, we are bound by jurors’ decisions and have to support them.”

Asked if that meant the county would not appeal the verdict, Johnson spokesman John E. Erzen referred the question to County Attorney David Whitacre, who declined to comment. Circuit Court Judge James J. Lombardi scheduled a Feb. 17 hearing for post-trial motions.

The shooting occurred during a 13-month period in which county police officers shot 12 people, killing five. Two other people died in police custody during that time.

At a memorial service for Prince Jones at Howard University, where he was a student, then-Vice President Al Gore spoke and called for a moment of silence. The NAACP demonstrated against the decision by Fairfax County Commonwealth’s Attorney Robert F. Horan Jr. not to prosecute Carlton Jones.

In 2002, Prince George’s prosecutors said they were dropping all criminal cases in which Carlton Jones was a key state witness, saying they could not vouch for his veracity. He was disciplined by the police department for lying to internal affairs investigators about an untruthful charging document he’d sworn out against a suspect in a 1997 gun case, attorneys for Prince Jones said.

The officer shot Prince Jones about 3 a.m. Sept. 1, 2000.

Cpl. Jones testified in the civil trial that he followed Prince Jones because he was conducting surveillance in connection with a probe into the theft of a service weapon from another officer’s car.

Carlton Jones testified that the black Jeep Cherokee that Prince Jones was driving was similar to the vehicle a suspect in the gun theft was known to drive, though he wasn’t sure who he was following. Jones said he was ordered to keep following the vehicle by then-Sgt. Alexandre Bailey. (Bailey was named in the lawsuit, but the judge removed him as a defendant.)

The officer testified that Prince Jones backed his Jeep into the driver’s side door of the officer’s Montero, jumped out and started to run toward him. Carlton Jones — who was wearing plainclothes that night — testified that he displayed a gun, identified himself as a police officer and ordered Prince Jones back into his vehicle.

Prince Jones backed into Carlton Jones’s vehicle a second time and was about to back into it a third time when he fired, Carlton Jones testified. The officer said he was too “frazzled” to drive out of the way of the Jeep.

Two civilian witnesses contradicted the officer’s account. From her nearby home, Lettie Ballve testified that she saw the Jeep and the Montero parked driver’s side by driver’s side for several minutes. She testified that she never saw anyone jump out of the Jeep. Her husband, Juan Ballve, testified that the Jeep was not moving when the shots rang out.

Mabel Jones, Prince Jones Jr.’s mother, said she was unhappy with the verdict because the jury found that her son contributed to his own death. She said she believes that Carlton Jones lied when he testified that he identified himself as an officer. “My son would never attack a police officer,” she said.

source

LONGWOOD, Fla.

The parents of a 15-year-old boy accused of terrorizing classmates with a pistol warned authorities the weapon likely was fake before police shot him in a middle school bathroom, a family attorney said Saturday.

Christopher Penley, of Winter Springs, was accused of pulling a pellet gun in a classroom Friday and pointing it at other students. When he later raised the weapon at a deputy, a SWAT team member shot him, authorities said. Penley was clinically brain dead Saturday, said family attorney Mark Nation.

“His organs are in the process of being harvested,” Nation said.

Officers who had responded to the 1,100-student school in suburban Orlando believed the gun was a Beretta 9mm, and didn’t learn until after the shooting that it was a pellet gun.

The boy’s parents, Ralph and Donna Penley, were in contact with authorities during the incident and told them they believed Penley did not have a real gun, Nation said. Ralph Penley went to the school to attempt to talk his son out of the situation.

“When he got to the school, they would not let him in and he was later told Christopher had been shot,” Nation said.

Sheriff’s officials Saturday did not return several calls from The Associated Press seeking comment on the lawyer’s allegations.

Friends and investigators say Penley was bullied and emotionally distraught, and went to school that day expecting to die.

Patrick Lafferty, a 15-year-old neighbor who has known Penley about six years, said he wasn’t surprised by what happened. He said Penley was a loner who “told me he wanted to kill himself dozens of times.”

“He would put his headphones on and walk up and down the street and he would work out a lot,” preferring to keep to himself, Lafferty said.

Kelly Swofford, a family spokeswoman and neighbor of the boy’s parents, said the boy had run away from home several times. Her 11-year-old son, Jeffery Swofford, said Penley had said he had something planned.

“He said `I hope I die today because I don’t really like my life,’” Jeffery Swofford said.

Maurice Cotey, 13, told WKMG-TV in Orlando that he struggled with Penley over the gun after everyone else left the classroom.

“He got me towards the closet door, he turned me around, and … started to point the gun at me, so I started to grab for it. And he pulled it away and then I grabbed for it one more time, …. twisted it and I pointed it at him.”

Cotey said after he put the gun to Penley’s legs, the gunman kicked him into the closet, where the two scuffled further, before Penley ran out of the classroom.

The school went into lockdown.

From there, Seminole County Sheriff Don Eslinger said, Penley traversed the Milwee Middle School campus before ending up in a bathroom. By then, more than 40 officers, including SWAT and negotiators, were on scene. He refused to drop the firearm, Eslinger said, and was shot after pointing it at a SWAT deputy.

Jeffery Swofford said Penley had been in a disagreement with someone, allegedly over a girl. There was going to be a fight Friday, he said. “I heard a rumor that he had a BB gun, but I didn’t think he really had one,” he added.

source

Cook County, Illinois

A Cook County sheriff’s police officer was killed early Wednesday in the south suburbs after he slammed into the back of a truck that was stopped to make a left turn, authorities said.

James Knapp, a 16-year member of the department, was on his way to work at the Bridgeview Courthouse when he hit the back of a semi-trailer truck, said Penny Mateck, a spokeswoman for the sheriff’s police.

Knapp, 50, lived in the south suburbs and was married with two children, Mateck said.

‘A VERY SAD DAY’

He formerly worked on the department’s gang team and its Hostage Barricade Team. He was assigned to patrol parts of the Bridgeview district, including Leyden and Palos townships, she said.

He was driving a marked squad and was in uniform. The department has a program that allows officers to take marked cars home with them, Mateck said.

“It’s a very sad day for the sheriff’s police department,” she said. “He was very willing to step in and help other officers. He was a very compassionate officer.”

Knapp was southbound on 76th Avenue at 6 a.m. when he hit the truck, which was stopped and waiting to turn east into a business in the 9700 block, Mateck said. It is not clear why Knapp, who had to be extricated, hit the truck.

An accident reconstruction team was at the scene, she said.

source

East Palo Alto, California

An East Palo Alto police officer, accompanied by a 14-year-old Explorer Scout on a routine ride-along, was shot to death late Saturday afternoon.

“The Explorer called in on the radio, saying ‘Officer down,’ ” said East Palo Alto police Lt. Rahn Sibley.

Sibley identified the victim as Officer Richard May, 39, who had been on the force for 18 months. Before that, he had spent 10 years with the Lompoc Police Department.

The search for the shooter was still going on seven hours later.

Sibley said the initial call came in at 4:35 p.m. May was responding to a report of a fight at Villa Taqueria at 2380 Cooley Ave., near University Avenue.

When May arrived, the suspect was on foot, heading toward Sacramento Street, Sibley said. May followed in his car as the suspect went down Sacramento. The suspect began to run and tried to get over a fence, but failed. Then, he turned and opened fire on May, who at that point was out of his car, Sibley said.

The teenage scout, who has been with the Explorer program for about a year and has gone out with East Palo Alto police before, was still in the car when the shooting began, and got on the radio, Sibley said.

“It was a horrible situation for a teenager to be in, and he did an excellent, excellent job, keeping his head and giving responding units information,” Sibley said.

Late into the night, the armed suspect was still being sought in an intense manhunt by law enforcement officers from all over the Peninsula who had converged on the scene. He was described as a 5-foot-8 Latino man in his 20s, wearing a black jacket, black shirt and blue jeans, about 220 pounds. A $25,000 reward was being offered for information leading to his arrest and conviction.

Several blocks were cordoned off, as police cars, vans, SWAT teams and helicopters searched for the suspect. Some residents were prevented from returning to their homes.

Sibley said May had relatives in Atherton. He lived with his wife in the Santa Barbara County town of Santa Maria, where he went on weekends. He was well educated and an instructor for other police, Sibley said.

“He was a pretty decent fellow,” he said.

East Palo Alto has lost one other officer in the line of duty. Officer Joel Michael Davis was killed in June 1988, at a time when the town had far more crime than it does now. In August 2002, a new park was dedicated in his name.

source

BALTIMORE, Maryland

Three city police officers have been indicted on rape charges alleging that one officer had sex with a woman at a police station in exchange for her release and that the other two conspired to let it happen, the state’s attorney’s office said.

Officers Brian Shaffer, 31, Jemini Jones, 28, and Steven Hatley, 27, were indicted Friday on six counts, including first- and second-degree rape, conspiracy to commit rape, assault and misconduct in office.

All three officers are innocent, their attorneys said.

The investigation is continuing, said Margaret Burns, a spokeswoman for the Baltimore state’s attorney’s office.

The FBI opened a federal civil rights investigation, Barry Maddox, a spokesman for the FBI’s Baltimore field office, told The (Baltimore) Sun. He said federal prosecutors could enter the case under a civil rights statute that prohibits abuse by police or others acting under the “color of law.”

Burns told The Sun that Jones turned himself in Friday. The other two officers were preparing to do the same, their attorney, Michael Davey, said Saturday. A judge set bail at $100,000 each.

Attorney Warren Brown, representing Jones, said the rape accusation was made up by a 22-year-old woman who was arrested with another woman on December 27, allegedly with marijuana in their possession.

According to police documents obtained by The Sun, Jones asked the woman what she was willing to do to stay out of jail and she agreed to have sex. The second woman, who was 18, was taken outside, according to the documents.

Brown said his client did make an offer but not involving sex. He said the officer offered to let the woman go if she agreed to go into the community to help gather drug-related information.

“There’s no DNA,” Brown said. “There’s no corroboration.”

Davey said Shaffer and Hatley “adamantly deny any of the allegations that were made against them.”

No charges were filed against the women, Burns said.

The officers were suspended with pay pending the outcome of the investigation.

source

Thirteen inmates have died and another was injured by gunfire in rioting at a high-security prison in Honduras.

Fighting broke out in a wing of the National Penitentiary 20km (12 miles) north of the capital, Tegucigalpa.

The violence erupted after a fight between inmates, who were corralled in the special wing because they were classed as dangerous by officials.

Honduras’ prisons chief said order had been restored. The country’s prison system is notorious for violence.

Security boost

Honduran Security Minister Armando Calidonio told the Associated Press that at least one man suffered serious gunshot wounds in the violence.

“The confrontation was between two rival groups of prisoners who fired shots at each other in a territorial dispute,” he said.

There was no word on how the inmates smuggled guns into the prison unit, but Mr Calidonio said Honduran authorities were launching an investigation.

Special police units have been drafted into boost security in the prison, the EFE news agency reports.

Dangerous

The country’s crowded jails are regularly blighted by violence, often sparked by conflicts between members of rival gangs.

Fatal riots and fights are a regular feature of life in Honduras’ prisons.

Almost 30 prisoners were executed at the same prison in 2005, while a mass riot involving some 600 prisoners broke out in 2004.

More than 100 people died in another prison in the city of San Pedro Sula in 2004 in a fire blamed on gang rivalries by survivors.

source

A South Carolina sheriff’s deputy on Wednesday was charged with fatally shooting a man while attempting to serve him an arrest warrant for grand larceny.

Darlington County sheriff’s investigator Tim Robertson, 41, was charged with voluntary manslaughter in the death of William E. Sheffield, 45, on Dec. 29.

Sheffield, of Society Hill, bled to death from four gunshot wounds, according to an incident report.

“The rule of the law prohibits any officer from shooting a fleeing suspect … four times,” prosecutor Jay Hodge told the Florence Morning News.

Robertson will remain on administrative leave until his trial, Darlington County Lt. John Purvis.

“He’s a good officer,” Purvis said. “No problems ever.”

Sheffield has previous convictions for assault and battery with intent to kill, assault with a deadly weapon, drug possession, and discharge of a firearm into a dwelling.

source