This weekend, police killed another
man at the same rail transit station in Oakland, California, where
22-year-old Oscar Grant was shot in the back last year, a case that
resulted in violent clashes this month when the police officer
responsible was convicted of only involuntary manslaughter.
On Saturday, Oakland and Bay Area Rapid Transit Police shot
and killed 48-year-old Oakland resident Fred Collins, a reportedly
Hispanic "looking" man near the Fruitvale station in Oakland.
The first reports, all from the
police, said the man was "armed" with two knives. But none of the
dozens of officers who answered the call was hurt during the incident.
Though the circumstances of the latest shooting are very
different than those in the Grant case, the killing Saturday raises
more questions about violent police over-reactions.
An eyewitness, looking
out her window said the man was walking backwards yelling for the
police to shoot him. According to a television interview of the
eyewitness, the man had his hands up.
Ultimately, the man died in a barrage of police bullets from
at least five police officers. Police claim they tasored the man
several times before he came at them with a pair of knives. Given the
number of shooters, it may never be known which bullet killed the man.
Oakland homicide detectives, the Alameda County District
Attorney's Office and the internal affairs units of the Oakland and
BART police departments launched administrative investigations into the
shooting.
The descriptions given by
several eyewitnesses do not appear to square with the police account.
"When they turned here at the
corner, there was," said the eyewitness who saw the confrontation
through her window, who identified herself only as Letty. "I wanna say
about 10 policemen, all gathered together and then I saw this man
walking backwards, like this, (hands up on both sides), saying 'Shoot
me, shoot me, shoot me' and the police,
"I didn't hear none of the police
say anything, they were just gathered together, following him while he
was walking backwards all the way through that street," she said
Letty."And then all of a sudden, I hear a little pop and then right
after that I hear 'bup, bup, bup, bup, bup!'"
The BayCitizen reported, according to eyewitness interviews,
that the man was wearing two backpacks - one on his back and one on his
front, and was shot after he tried to reach inside one. Police say
nothing about a back pack..
Fourteen-year-old Florencia Osores told the BayCitizen that
she watched the shooting out her window with her family. Osores said
she saw about "fifteen" cops in pursuit. The man stopped running and
turned around.
"The cops said 'stop,'" she said, adding that he turned his back to
the officers and "looked like he was taking something from his bag."
According to the teen eyewitness, that was when the cops opened up with
a barrage of fire.
"I've never seen the cops versus a person before," she said. "They
shouldn't be trying to kill him. Couldn't they have shot him in the
leg?"
Ill Prepared for Crisis Intervention
Mesha Monge Irizarry
knows a great deal about police overreaction and a lot about the impact
of the 50,000-watt tasor, which the police claim was ineffective in
stopping the man. Irizarry, who has given courses to the police in
non-violent escalation, saw her own 23-year-old son, Idris Stelly,
killed in a barrage of 48 bullets in 2001.
"It's a common practice for police
to all starting firing at once," Irizarry said. "They know when they
shoot together, it's almost impossible to find out who shot first, or
whose bullet ended a life."
She said she's extremely
suspicious about the police claims that the tasor didn't stop the man
or even slow him down.
"There's no such thing as it doesn't have any effect, like the police
are claiming. They're full of bull. It's not like a little shock from a
faulty circuit. It totally shuts your body down. Many people have died
from one application."
James Keys, chair of San
Francisco City and County Board of Mental Health, also has doubts about
the police claims regarding the tasor having little or no effect. "I
find it hard to believe that they shot him like that with tasor several
times and he kept going," Keys said.
Keys said the Oakland
Police Department has failed "for decades in dealing with situations
like this. ... I cannot understand why they couldn't subdue that man
without using a kill shot."
Beyond the difficulty of
dealing with crisis intervention, Keys said there is a long-term issue
of trust regarding the police.
"I grew up in Oakland as an
African-American ... and the police have never dealt well" with black and
brown people, Keys said. "The prevailing attitude is that white
officers kill" people of color.
Mayor Ron Dellums
released a statement on Saturday, joining the police and BART officials
in urging calm.
"Anytime there is a loss of life,
it is a matter of great concern and sadness for us all," Dellums said
in his written statement. "It is extremely important that we as a
community continue to work together in order to provide a safe and
secure environment. Therefore, a thorough investigation of the
circumstances surrounding this death has begun."
However, in the aftermath
of the Oscar Grant killing, there is mounting public concern about the
police resorting to excessive force.
"People are very scared," local
resident Juanna Nieva told one reporter, "I am really worried for kids.
People are living in fear in Oakland."