Update: The video was recently removed from Youtube. Then another (below) was uploaded. You can watch the video here if it's not working. Youtube seems to have removed this video for no apparent reason - there are far more graphic police shooting videos on its site, e.g.,the Walter Scott execution.
Here's some of the story:
Delaware police officers, responding to a call that the man had a self-inflicted gunshot wound, fatally shot this armed man in a wheelchair.
Wilmington Police said in a news release that they encountered the man Wednesday afternoon “armed with a handgun.”
This horrific video illustrates the "cult of compliance" that kills large numbers of people each year. The officers keep yelling at the man to put his hands up, and when he doesn't, they just keep yelling. Policing, as the saying go, is screaming the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result. We don't know but perhaps there is a reason he is not putting his hands up. Could he have been deaf? Could he have been injured already? (The report says police were told he had a self-inflicted wound when called). Could he have been mentally ill? Delirious? Do the police care? No, no they don't.
It also illustrates another adage, properly adapted, that when you have a gun, the solution to every problem revolves around using it. The officers could have just backed off and tried to figure out what was going on. There was no obvious immediate danger to anyone. Instead, one officer approaches him and fires his weapon (it is not clear whether the man was hit at that point). Eventually, predictably, the man dies in a hail of bullets.
The Christian Science Monitor now has a report on the shooting, identifying the man killed:
According to Delaware paper, a woman named Alexis Anthony identified the man as her cousin, Jeremy "Bam" McDowell. She said he was shot by officers five times. They told her he was attempting to commit suicide and refused to drop his weapon, she continued. She ran outside when she heard the gunshots.
"They couldn't [use a Taser on] him?" Ms. Anthony asked. "Instead, they killed him instead. They could have knocked him out of his wheelchair."
She also said Mr. McDowell had been in a wheelchair since being shot and paralyzed when he was 18.
10:00 AM PT: A statement from the Delaware Department of Justice:
The Delaware Department of Justice’s Office of Civil Rights and Public Trust is investigating the officer-involved shooting on Wednesday in Wilmington and will determine whether the police officers acted in compliance with Delaware law. The Department of Justice reviews all cases where an officer discharges a firearm resulting in injury or death. This is an investigation that is separate from any internal Wilmington Police Department review. Investigators from the Office of Civil Rights and Public Trust responded to the scene of the shooting on Wednesday afternoon and will observe and conduct witness interviews and examine evidence...
http://news.delaware.gov/...
10:03 AM PT: Reporting from the Daily Mail:
After the shooting, the victim's family members clashed with police. Six family members reportedly crossed the police tape and screamed at cops before they were stopped them from going any further.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/...
2:11 PM PT: Washington Post picks up the story.
“We want justice for my brother,” Ashley Morrison-Wright, 23, told the News Journal. “This isn’t right.”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/...