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Gaza Flotilla Activists Were Shot in Head at Close Range
Nine Turkish men on board Mavi Marmara were shot a total of 30 times, autopsy results reveal
Israel was tonight under pressure to allow an independent inquiry into its assault on the Gaza aid flotilla after autopsy results on the bodies of those killed, obtained by the Guardian, revealed they were peppered with 9mm bullets, many fired at close range.
Nine Turkish men on board the Mavi Marmara were shot a total of 30 times and five were killed by gunshot wounds to the head, according to the vice-chairman of the Turkish council of forensic medicine, which carried out the autopsies for the Turkish ministry of justice today.
The results revealed that a 60-year-old man, Ibrahim Bilgen, was shot four times in the temple, chest, hip and back. A 19-year-old, named as Fulkan Dogan, who also has US citizenship, was shot five times from less that 45cm, in the face, in the back of the head, twice in the leg and once in the back. Two other men were shot four times, and five of the victims were shot either in the back of the head or in the back, said Yalcin Buyuk, vice-chairman of the council of forensic medicine.
The findings emerged as more survivors gave their accounts of the raids. Ismail Patel, the chairman of Leicester-based pro-Palestinian group Friends of al-Aqsa, who returned to Britain today, told how he witnessed some of the fatal shootings and claimed that Israel had operated a "shoot to kill policy".
He calculated that during the bloodiest part of the assault, Israeli commandos shot one person every minute. One man was fatally shot in the back of the head just two feet in front him and another was shot once between the eyes. He added that as well as the fatally wounded, 48 others were suffering from gunshot wounds and six activists remained missing, suggesting the death toll may increase.
The new information about the manner and intensity of the killings undermines Israel's insistence that its soldiers opened fire only in self defence and in response to attacks by the activists.
"Given the very disturbing evidence which contradicts the line from the Israeli media and suggests that Israelis have been very selective in the way they have addressed this, there is now an overwhelming need for an international inquiry," said Andrew Slaughter MP, a member of the all party group on Britain and Palestine.
Israel said tonight the number of bullets found in the bodies did not alter the fact that the soldiers were acting in self defence. "The only situation when a soldier shot was when it was a clearly a life-threatening situation," said a spokesman for the Israeli embassy in London. "Pulling the trigger quickly can result in a few bullets being in the same body, but does not change the fact they were in a life-threatening situation."
Protesters from across the country will tomorrow march from Downing Street to the Israeli embassy to call for Israel to be held to account for its actions.
Earlier this week, William Hague, the foreign secretary, said the government would call for an inquiry under international auspices if Israel refuses to establish an independent inquiry, including an international presence.
The autopsy results were released as the last of the Turkish victims was buried.
Dr Haluk Ince, the chairman of the council of forensic medicine in Istanbul, said that in only one case was there a single bullet wound, to the forehead from a distant shot, while every other victim suffered multiple wounds. "All [the bullets] were intact. This is important in a forensic context. When a bullet strikes another place it comes into the body deformed. If it directly comes into the body, the bullet is all intact."
He added that all but one of the bullets retrieved from the bodies came from 9mm rounds. Of the other round, he said: "It was the first time we have seen this kind of material used in firearms. It was just a container including many types of pellets usually used in shotguns. It penetrated the head region in the temple and we found it intact in the brain."
An unnamed Israeli commando, who purportedly led the raid on the Mavi Marmara, today told Israeli news website Ynet News that he shot at a protester who approached him with a knife. "I was in front of a number of people with knives and clubs," he said. "I cocked my weapon when I saw that one was coming towards me with a knife drawn and I fired once. Then another 20 people came at me from all directions and threw me down to the deck below ...
"We knew they were peace activists. Though they wanted to break the Gaza blockade, we thought we'd encounter passive resistance, perhaps verbal resistance - we didn't expect this. Everyone wanted to kill us. We encountered terrorists who wanted to kill us and we did everything we could to prevent unnecessary injury."
Tonight the Rachel Corrie, an Irish vessel crewed by supporters of the Free Gaza movement, remained on course for Gaza. Yossi Gal, director general at the Israeli foreign ministry, said Israel had "no desire for a confrontation" but asked for the ship to dock at Ashdod, not Gaza.
"If the ship decides to sail the port of Ashdod, then we will ensure its safe arrival and will not board it," he said.
149 Comments so far
Show AllI wonder how much coverage this story will get in the US mainstream. And even if it does, it will be too little, too late. As Glenn Greenwald pointed out yesterday, the American infotainment industry has already allowed the Israeli propaganda machine to define the narrative from start to finish. Since CD saw fit not to pick up Greenwald's piece, here it is: http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn_greenwald/2010/06/04/israel
Re: Narratives, I heard Greta Berlin (one of the co-founders of the free gaza movement) interviewing on the radio on Monday, while the events were still unfolding. She said that there are several web cams on the Marmara; and the web cams show the IDF soldiers boarding the ship and firing at people without provocation. Where are these videos, Greta/clovis/Glenn Greenwald?
Now, the same Greta Berlin has conveniently forgotten that there were web cams on the ship. Instead she claimed, in an interview to CNN, that one should not trust the videos released by the IDF.
I see that the hasbarists are out in force today. I thought Saturday was the Sabbath day.
I've seen those videos, I believe on the Al-Jazeera website, but also linked to a variety of sites, including, I think, Glenn Greenwald. As I'm not a journalist (at least not on these matters), I no longer have these links at my disposal, though I'm sure a bit of Google searching could turn them up.
Greta Berlin has in no way contradicted her prior testimony. And don't forget, you fascist propagandists, that eyewitness testimony bears evidentiary weight, and the testimony of the people on the Mavi Marmara is overwhelmingly consistent.
As I said to the illiterate "All your base A..." the other day, people of your ilk are a disgrace to the Jewish people. It is individuals like Greta Berlin, Heddy Epstein, Glenn Greenwald and others like them who do justice to the great tradition of progressivism and humanitarianism so vital in modern Jewry.
You hasbarist megaphonies are simply robots doing what your fascist government tells you to do. You are incapable of independent thought, and thus it is pointless to debate with you.
Enjoy the hell on earth you and yours have created.
Amused-to-death said "Now, the same Greta Berlin has conveniently forgotten that there were web cams on the ship. Instead she claimed, in an interview to CNN, that one should not trust the videos released by the IDF."
Perhaps you missed it, but the IDF confiscated all the video, and other equipment from the ship. Perhaps that's why the video that was released by the Israeli government may not be 100% accurate?
And as for your name, the great Roger Waters himself is part of this peace flotilla, possibly still on the way. But you are a disgrace to that name. Or is your name choice just a coincidence and you are totally unaware of who Roger Waters is and his excellent album, "Amused to Death"?
"... We watched the tragedy unfold
We did as we were told...
This species has amused itself to death
No tears to cry no feelings left
This species has amused itself to death"
4thefuture,
The Marmara had web cams on it and they transmitted live video. Clearly, the IDF could not confiscate video that has already been transmitted to the world from the web cams? Furthermore, Greta Berlin referred specifically to video from the web cams on Monday, when she claimed that the footage shows Israeli soldiers firing at passengers without any provocation. Where is that video?
You're repeating yourself, amused to death. Putting into practice the Goebbelsian belief that if you repeat a lie often enough, people will believe it?
Where is the video, clovis?
You are as thick in the head as Letto aren't you..
If the thugs can jam their radios, they can jam the web-cam signals too.
The level of Israeli brutality will escalate if not ended. Execution style killings collapses any argument from the Israelis. The beasts are loose in Israel.
"The beasts are loose in Israel." –(Stone)
Indeed. No turning back. Blood apocalypse. They regret nothing. No mercy.
Nor shall they receive any, for they deserve none.
–"It is not to be thought that the life of darkness is sunk in misery and lost as if in sorrowing. There is no sorrowing. For sorrow is a thing that is swallowed up in death, and death and dying are the very life of the darkness." –(Jacob Boehme)
guy debord and jacob boehme....you guys are great!
Fulkan Dogan, who also has US citizenship, was shot five times from less that 45cm, in the face, in the back of the head, twice in the leg and once in the back.
Unfortunate right Mr VP??
Insert Iran and just imagine the international response....
"We knew they were peace activists. Though they wanted to break the Gaza blockade, we thought we'd encounter passive resistance, perhaps verbal resistance - we didn't expect this. Everyone wanted to kill us. We encountered terrorists who wanted to kill us and we did everything we could to prevent unnecessary injury" ==An unnamed Izrayli commando==
Hmmmm....Fast roping from helos with weapons drawn, a few double taps to the head of a friend knowing I might be next??Yeah I might grab a club or a knife or whatever to stay alive.
Screw these barbaric thugs and you too Bibi!
The idea that the Israeli thugs--sorry, commandos, would be surprised at their reception is ludicrous. Don't Israelis know how hated they are by the people they've stolen the land from? Do they expect smiles and hand-shakes? Don't they realize that if they illegally board ships in helicopters, they are creating a state of war? Why should Israelis always be exempt form any and all responsibility while the rest of the world is held accountable? They act like what they are, spoiled little brats who have been trained to kill.
"we did everything we could to prevent unnecessary injury."
Including shooting people in the back? I suppose an unarmed person running away from you is a major threat to you and themselves, necessitating that they be shot multiple times in the back and back of the head.
Israel bears huge responsibility here for provoking a violent confrontation. However, once provoked, I find it difficult to believe these men could have been shot on a boat, except at close range. Its more significant that they were shot in the head. Well trained commando's wouldn't feel such panic confronted with knives and steel bars, leg shots would be sufficient. Hence, shooting someone in the head indicates rage on the part of the commando. I also find it hard to believe a commando would drop onto someone else's boat and be surprised to find himself surrounded by anger. Talk about naive.
I am heartbroken. Yet I must salute the brave men and women who tried to bring humanitarian aid to the people of Gaza.
I try to find solace in the fact that more and more countries and individuals are joining in on boycotts, divestments, turning back Israeli ships, and other actions - just like South African apartheid, the occupation will end in victory for Palestine.
I get overwhelmed with sadness that my government colludes with the evil-doers, the insane irrational Israeli government. (I admire the minority within Israel that wants peace). Nevertheless, I wrote to all of my "elected" (sic) officials, knowing it will fall on deaf ears, but they have to keep hearing from us over and over again anyway.
I long for a day when our U.S. UN council discontinues blocking and stops watering down resolutions of condemnation and actual action against Israel.
5 of the dead were shot in the back or back the head. The ONLY way you shoot someone in the back is if they are running away from you. Shooting people in the back is the height of cowardise. This is reprehensible and calls for sanctions against and isolation of the worlds new apartheid regime.
There is another way to shoot a person in the back of the head: gangland style. I would suggest that the Israeli 'commandos' knelt them down and shot them like mafia.
Pardon the pessimism, but if the gruesome photos of dismembered children widely available on internet sites during the massacre in Gaza did not induce policy change, I am not sure how the murder of 9 and injury of dozens will create the "C" change that we are all hoping for.
Especially since there appears to be a surreal interpretation by so many staunchly pro-Israel people in the US. Even if Paul McCartney or Bono join the flotilla and perish--you would think this would be cataclysmic--the ignominious Israelis would claim that these celebrity fatalities were due to "ze terrorists" kidnapping them on board.
Had Mother Theresa been on the Aid Ship, the Israeli spin machine would still try to convince American bimbos that Israel is the victim.
For having been a pacifist all my life, I am increasingly tempted by the words of former zionists who would tell you that the Arabs only understand violence. It seems that the Israelis have a desperate wish to get their asses seriously kicked. Basic human instincts now dictate this type of thinking.
That day WILL come, and then the Jews-especially Zionists- will be whimpering and sobbing and claiming anti-Semitism. It will just be Karma, of course, but that doesn't seem to be a Zionist concept.
That day couldn't come soon enough.
Agreed. Screw the person who flagged this comment.
Gwynne Dyer, a Canadian military historian, has made an interesting (and, when you think of it, rather obvious) point. Most of Israel's continuing prestige comes from the patronage of the United States (and other countries it can cow into obedience, like the U.K. and shamefully my own country of Canada). However, the U.S.'s days of being the sole superpower are on the wane.
Somehow I doubt China and India will have any sentimental reason for keeping a "special relationship" with Israel, other than to draw attention away from their own human rights violations...
At this point, the US is pretty much the only "friend" Israel has. If the US changed it's policy where Israel came to be regarded as just another of the 190 or so odd nation-states of the world, they would change their behavior prontisimo.
I still believe Israel tells the US what to do more than the US telling Israel. And this has been going on for several years, I don't see any break coming soon.
The policy idea of Likud/Bibi I refer to is "clean break" .... We see this in action when Obama tried to bring Netanyahu to the White House after the flotilla attack, Bibi canceled on Obama. the message is clear: Israel does not listen to the US and will act on issues on its own terms.
The US looks largely like a lackey holding the chessboard when it comes to Near East Policy. That's why I believe so much focus is on Turkey right now. Turkey can pressure Israel, not economically, but politically.
The US can pressure Israel economically, the consumer the best weapon.
As you may know gems-diamonds, uncut make up ~30% of Israel imports to the US. Boycotts of diamonds in context to "blood diamond" have had a major impact, and the channel of concern is still very fresh in the US consumers mind --and could be tapped into with a boycott against Israel --no apartheid diamonds--
but, I think I'm dreaming.
Israel is not qualified to investigate these crimes.
When their cabinet signed the orders and long before they boarded the ships and the reasons that the ships were there and that future ships will attempt to break this callus blockade is because they are on the wrong side of international law having breached more than 30 UN Security Council Resolutions, whether they accept it or not, and we start off by them not accepting those facts.
1, Israel continues to illegally occupy Palestinian territory.
2, Israel's aggression on Gaza in 2009 was totally disproportionate and after careful study was shown to have constituted war crimes.
3, Israel’s blockade amounts to collective punishment of 1.5 million people in contravention of Geneva Conventions and as such constitutes a further war crime.
4, A UNSC council resolution 1860 demands the unimpeded delivery of humanitarian aid which Israel is attempting to "impede" by restriction under their illegal blockade.
5, Under multiple conventions and laws of the sea Israel's military commando attack in international waters on a vessel already inspected and documented as carrying out a humanitarian mission is an act of war against the sovereignty of the country of the vessels registration and flag and thereby constitutes yet another war crime.
These facts alone should bar the competence of Israel's state, military or judiciary to be considered as qualified or as impartial or independent.
In an interview America's Zionist Vice President Biden suggested that Israel lead the investigation with foreign observers. He said, "like in the case of the South Korean ship sinking". He must have forgotten that the S. Koreans were allegedly the aggressed party, having purportedly been attacked by a mysterious N. Korean sub. So, he doesn't quite seem to realise what he is suggesting that if Israel instead of Turkey lead the investigation here, it would be just as if the N. Koreans were to have led the investigation there.... (which in fact would probably get us closer to the truth according to the Chinese and Russians who are now reviewing the controversial evidence in Korea.
This was an elite attack commando unit, not a conventional policing coast guard maritime operation. They were not there to, negotiate with the captain or inspect cargo, but to take over a ship by lethal force, a humanitarian shipment that they see as defying Israel's "authority" and supporting the interests of their enemy. So even if the passengers and crew of that ship have every right under international law to repel boarders, these Israeli commandos would see them and their resistance as the activity of "terrorists" and they had orders and protocols to use lethal force.
Therefore without further review it is clear that having set up the conditions, sent this force in, the government of Israel is clearly responsible for the murders, but to add insult to injury, on the question of how the murders where committed during the execution of the illegal capture of the vessel it proceeded to confiscate all media data and tamper with it (editing parts) to compile with their own recorded data in order to highly edited and manipulate said data to release to the world immediately a biased and distorted perception of the event. This also constituted wilful destruction and fabrication of evidence, and shows such callus bias, and again prejudicially compromises any possibility of independence in terms of an Israeli investigation.
During the 1990s the UN sent a peacekeeping force into Yugoslavia to [allegedly] bring peace to the region. The UN can now truly become a force for good if they were to intervene here by sending a large peacekeeping team, both on the high seas and in Gaza, in order to help the Palestinian people. But they refuse to act which thereby totally diminishes the image that they try to project which is that they are there in order to resolve disputes by warring nations. If they wish to have any kind of credibility the best place to start would be to dismantle the Security Council and allow its important and vital decisions to be made by the General Assembly as that would be a true example of democracy in action. Otherwise the United Nations will continue to be viewed, justifiably, as a body that it almost totally controlled by the United States.
Errol, indeed!
The UN is already doing a great deal, at least as much as they can with what they have, and under severe constraints as they are being hampered by Israel's attitude and actions.
http://www.unrwa.org/
Unfortunately the UN can only act in terms of the consensus of members, and unfortunately some members have managed to derail a great deal of humanitarian efforts as you point out.
Erroll:
This would have to go through the UN Security Council. There are 5 permanent members of the Security Council (US, UK, Russia, China and France), each one of which has a veto on any UN decision. Israel has a de facto seat on the SC, and a defacto veto via it's tributatory power, the USA. This is how Israel had gotten away scot-free with all its misbehavior since its creation.
I thoroughly agree that the Security Council should be disbanded but that, in itself, would require their acquiescence and then we're back to the veto . . .. It is, as Arabs say, "mushkila"--a word that embraces every kind of difficulty from a hangnail to Armageddon . . ..
I disagree that the world sees the UN as totally controlled by the US; in many cases, such as this, it is totally controlled by Israel operating through its tutelary, the US.
But to be honest the UN as a whole comes in for some pretty bad criticism, yet despite all the complications, and there are many, through its sub agencies, such as health, food, agriculture, refugee, weapons control, nuclear, disarmament, human rights, children’s education, etc... it does a very big and important job that helps billions in the world, and sometime, just sometimes, it has managed to open up a crack or two to let the light in.
I think of such people as Richard Falk, the special rapporteur on human rights in the Palestinian territories, investigated Israeli violations of human rights law for the U.N.'s Human Rights Council.
The former Princeton professor would also have liked to investigate whether "some sort of controlled explosion from within" destroyed the Twin Towers....
I think of people like Ogata ex head of UNHCR or more recently Philip Alston, United Nations Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions who just told the US were to put their drones...
It's a big shop and not all bad.
I didn't say--still less think--that the UN is at all bad. It is a great organization created for a great purpose and mostly doing just that. What is bad is the stranglehold of the 5 victors of WW2 on its political/diplomatic decisions by virtue of their veto power in the Security Council. As long as the SC is the final arbiter of UN political business, and the 5 members all have the power of veto, then the State of Israel will also have (a) a permanent de facto membership on the Security Council via the USA, and (b) a permanent veto power via the same. The State of Israel was not one of the victorious powers of WW2 (even if we allow that the victors should have a perpetual veto power, itself a questionable--at the least--proposition) and that it has such proxy veto power via its client state, the USA (and I did mean to say that, not the reverse) makes the UN a travesty of what its founders intended.
I agree with you completely, and this may risk the whole apple cart, I'm afraid, but it looks like it is heading that way.
Israel confiscated everything! I suspect tampering with evidence in International Waters is in order too.
This is absolutely sickening. For those Americans not versed in the metric system, 45cm is less than two inches. Israel, like her corporate fascist sugar daddy the USA, is clearly out of control.
Oh good, I'm not the only one who has trouble with number magnitudes! :-)
2.54 cm = 1 inch therefore 45 cm = ~18 inches
My bad. Brain cramp. Two feet. I came to fix it but you already called me out.
Or, I figured you has misread it as mm not cm.
The most damning thing was the multiple gunshots. I can't imagine a reason for multiple shots if all they had to do is stop someone who didn't have a firearm.
Indeed. I work with mm on a daily basis and I'm thinking 25.4 when I'm composing the post.
The US is long overdue to get rid of it's archaic measurement system. The fact that the US, alone in the world, still clings to such a backward system is one of the more obvious manifestations of its self-destructive exceptionalist arrogance and conceit.
Yes, it's important to mention in all this that the US is just as out of control as Israel. It is also why Obama and most politicos who support the Af-Pak-Iraq wars simply have moral grounds on which to criticize Israel, since their "lads" abroad are committing crimes equally or more heinous than those committed by the Israelis. And in almost every way, the American and Isareli militaries are fighting the same fight, hand in hand, which is to subdue the Arabo-Muslim lands of the Middle East and South Asia for the benefit of the Empire.
This is why it is all the more important--or SHOULD BE all the more important--for commentators and information services to distance themselves from the compromised political powers and expose the Empire's program of conquest for what it is. In today's Amerika, however, and, unfortunately, in much of Europe too, the information services are almost as compromised as the political powers.
That is why--and others far more informed and eloquent than I have already said this--the Peace flotilla was so important. It is a major effort mounted by free and private citizens to do what their compromised governments will not do. These are important moments in history, and unfortunately more and more heroic people such as those on the flotilla will have to risk their lives before any semblance of justice is served.
But the problem cuts entirely across the board, in any case. I have no doubt that if the Americans were to take to the streets in great numbers to express their refusal to accept any more of the wars and robberies of the public purse, some of them would be gunned down too.
It is all interrelated. As repellent as Israel and its tactics may seem to us, they ARE us, in a sense, and that is why it is so imperative to wrest the terms of the debate away from the mind-control artists in the MSM and bring it back to simple terms of honest representation and doing the right things for the greater collectivity of humankind.
End the wars of conquest and empire, Israel's included.
Clovis, i applaud your post!
Thanks, ready. Though clearly you understood my intended meaning, allow me also to make a needed correction: in my first paragraph, I meant to write "simply have NO moral grounds" but forgot to include that all-important negative.
I really had to watch some MSM after this incident. I normally avoid it like the plague. I clicked through and watched about 10 minutes of coverage total and the pro-Israel voices were loud and clear. Anyone who doesn't understand that the USA is at the root of this problem isn't watching carefully. Talk to your average American and she'll tell you that the Jews are chosen people. This from MOR Christians. How do you have rational discussion with someone when they lead in with belief?
This occupation and blockade are truly an outrage and truly demonstrate how powerless we have become to these corporate fascist forces.
Good work!
Cicero: "Freedom is participation in power."
45mm is a little over 1 and 6/8ths inches. 45cm is about 17 and 3/4ths inches. About police baton length. Just enough distance to resort to close hand-to-hand if your weapon jams which is how commandos are trained.
Yes. Less than two feet. My apologies. I had a serious brain cramp. Where are my dang editors when I need them? :)
u.s. style...any difference? u.s.a.,u.s.a.!! or, racism=racism=racism.....
"Hunter who, on April 2, signed a statement of factual basis that described the Danziger shooting in detail. Hunter's statement is a shocking confession, worth quoting at length:
On September 4, 2005, in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, the defendant [officer Hunter] and his fellow Seventh District officers were working out of a temporary station at the Crystal Palace on Chef Menteur Highway. In response to a radio call that officers on the I-10 high-rise bridge had taken fire, defendant HUNTER and other NOPD officers loaded into a large Budget rental truck, which HUNTER then drove from the Crystal Palace to the Danziger Bridge....
Defendant HUNTER stopped the Budget truck a short distance from where he had seen people climb over the concrete barrier. As the truck rolled to a stop, Sergeant A fired an assault rifle down toward the civilians on the walkway. At one point before HUNTER got out of the truck, he saw an older black male raise his head above the barrier and he saw Sergeant A fire at the black male. The black male did not appear to have a weapon and did not threaten the officers....
HUNTER saw Sergeant A and one or more other officers firing at or behind the barrier. Seeing that there was no threat to the officers, defendant HUNTER shouted, "Cease fire!" When the officers stopped firing, defendant HUNTER walked toward the back of the truck on the passenger side. While defendant HUNTER was still on the passenger side of the truck, near the walkway, he saw several civilians, who appeared to be unarmed, injured, and subdued. Sergeant A suddenly leaned over the concrete barrier, held out his assault rifle [an AK-47], and, in a sweeping motion, fired repeatedly at the civilians lying wounded on the ground. The civilians were not trying to escape and were not doing anything that could be perceived as a threat....
An unmarked car driven by an officer with the Louisiana State Police (LSP) approached from the east side and stopped near the crest of the bridge. Defendant HUNTER, Sergeant B, and Officer A entered the car.... As the car moved down the bridge, defendant HUNTER saw three black males running away, near the bottom of the bridge. None of the civilians appeared to be armed or to be a threat to the officers. Two men, later identified as Lance and Ronald Madison, ran down the right side of the road, while a third, older man ran down the left side. As the LSP car drove down the bridge, defendant HUNTER focused on Lance Madison, who was wearing black clothing, and Ronald Madison, who was wearing a white T-shirt, with blood on it. As Lance Madison ran toward the Friendly Inn, a motel at the bottom of the bridge, Ronald Madison trailed approximately 20 to 30 feet behind him....
At no time as Ronald Madison ran, did defendant HUNTER see him turn toward the officers, reach into his waistband, or make any threatening gestures. As the unmarked LSP car pulled to a stop, Officer A, without warning, fired a shotgun at Ronald Madison's back as Madison ran away in the direction of the motel. Defendant HUNTER immediately got out of the car and went to where Ronald Madison was lying on the ground. Ronald Madison was alive, but appeared to be dying. He was lying on his side, with two officers standing nearby. Neither defendant HUNTER nor either of the other officers searched Ronald Madison for a weapon.
As Ronald Madison lay dying on the pavement, Sergeant A ran down the bridge toward Ronald and asked an officer if Ronald was "one of them." When the officer replied in the affirmative, Sergeant A began kicking or stomping Ronald Madison repeatedly with his foot. Sergeant A appeared to be striking Madison's torso with as much force as he could muster.
Hours after this brutal attack, the perpetrators held a meeting in their temporary headquarters, a Chinese restaurant a few miles from the crime scene. A roundtable discussion ensued about how to handle the situation. One officer remarked to another, "We don't want this to look like a massacre."...
guernica, excellent points!