Tag: police shootings

Good Samaritan Killed by Violent Cop While Rendering Aid to Shooting Victim

Kenneth Vineyard, 48, is the type of man who would run up to a complete stranger who lay bleeding on the ground and do anything he could to help him. In fact, that is exactly what he did on Sunday when a shooting unfolded in a Walmart parking lot. Unfortunately for Vineyard, however, this would be his last act of kindness thanks to Pennsylvania’s finest — who killed him for it.

Vineyard’s family is now demanding justice after an officer with the Center Township Police Department walked up to Vineyard as he helped a complete stranger and killed him.

“This appears to be another instance of senseless police violence,” said attorney Joel Sansone, according to KDKA.

According to police, Vineyard was at the Monaca Walmart with his fiancé on Sunday afternoon when gunfire erupted in the parking lot. Vineyard was not involved in the shooting. Police said Rashaun Smith, 20, was shot in the abdomen by Yeshua Bratcher, 23, and Vineyard simply ran up to Smith and began rendering aid.

“As the victim of that shooting lay bleeding, a Good Samaritan named Kenneth Vineyard rushed to the victim to render aid,” said Sansone.

Vineyard stopped Smith’s bleeding until paramedics arrived. When paramedics began helping Smith, Vineyard backed away and let them work. That’s when a man in plainclothes — who was a Center Township police officer — approached Vineyard and began barking orders.

Vineyard told the officer that he had just helped the shooting victim and was trying to make his way back to his fiancé. The officer couldn’t have cared less, however, and violently attacked Vineyard, according to Sansone. The officer reportedly shoved Vineyard to the pavement so hard that it killed him.

“The unidentified man insisted Mr. Vineyard step away and violently pushed Mr. Vineyard to the ground where he struck his head on the pavement,” Sansone said.

According to Sansone, Vineyard’s fiancé began chest compressions immediately while the first responders on the scene jumped in to help as well but he had no pulse. Vineyard was rushed to a nearby hospital where he was pronounced dead.

Sansone says he has video of the officer shoving Vineyard as well as witness statements that corroborate his claims. “We want the name of the individual who caused this death and we intend to sue him and possibly others,” said Sansone.

“This officer should be immediately suspended pending the outcome of this investigation if the facts are as I’ve been told. He should be arrested and charged with manslaughter at the very least,” he added.

Although state police claim to be investigating the attack, the officer involved has yet to even be interviewed. Yeshua Bratcher, however, has been found, arrested, and charged with attempted homicide, aggravated assault, recklessly endangering another person and a firearms violation.

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Police Snipers Respond to Call for Help, Kill Man from Outside His Home as He Sat Alone in His Bedroom

As frequent readers of the Free Thought Project understand, calling police for help with a family member suffering from a mental illness, can be a dangerous decision. All too often, officers, who are trained to kill, show up to calls in which people need help, not bullets. Unfortunately, as was the case with Desman LaDuke, 22, he received the latter.

LaDuke’s family is now demanding justice and answers after police showed up last month during a call for help and executed LaDuke from outside the home as he sat alone in his bedroom.

According to Kentucky State Police, Nicholasville police received a call from LaDuke’s family notifying them that LaDuke was suicidal and needed help. A SWAT team and a crisis negotiation team responded to the scene but it appears SWAT was in control.

Police claim that after a two-hour-long standoff, they “confronted an armed individual” which resulted in the loss of life. According to the family, however, no such confrontation ever happened and a police sniper shot LaDuke in the chest from outside his home as he sat alone in his room, posing a threat to no one.

The family is now speaking out and telling the media that the original police claims are false.

“There has been very limited information released regarding the circumstances of Saturday. Much of what has been said is false. And the police have done nothing to correct it. Desman was alone in his home and inside his bedroom when he was shot, through the bedroom window, by a police officer positioned outside the home. Any suggestion that officers made entry into Desman’s home, were threatened [sic] inside the home by Desman, and shot Desman from inside the home, are false,” a letter from the family states.

According to the letter, LaDuke was struggling “with the desire to live” on October 22, and the family called the police to help him but police instead responded by ”sending the SWAT/ERT unit.”

When the family asked to go inside to talk to LaDuke during the standoff, police refused to allow them in, escalating to deadly force instead.

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America’s Death Squads: When Police Become Judge, Jury and Executioner

“You know, when police start becoming their own executioners, where’s it gonna end? Pretty soon, you’ll start executing people for jaywalking, and executing people for traffic violations. Then you end up executing your neighbor ‘cause his dog pisses on your lawn.”—“Dirty Harry” Callahan, Magnum Force

When I say that warrior cops—hyped up on their own authority and the power of the badge—have not made America any safer or freer, I am not disrespecting any of the fine, decent, lawful police officers who take seriously their oath of office to serve and protect their fellow citizens, uphold the Constitution, and maintain the peace.

My concern rests with the cops who feel empowered to act as judge, jury and executioner.

These death squads believe they can kill, shoot, taser, abuse and steal from American citizens in the so-called name of law and order.

Just recently, in fact, a rookie cop opened fire on the occupants of a parked car in a McDonald’s parking lot on a Sunday night in San Antonio, Texas.

The driver, 17-year-old Erik Cantu and his girlfriend, were eating burgers inside the car when the police officer—suspecting the car might have been one that fled an attempted traffic stop the night before—abruptly opened the driver side door, ordered the teenager to get out, and when he did not comply, shot ten times at the car, hitting Cantu multiple times.

Mind you, this wasn’t a life-or-death situation.

It was two teenagers eating burgers in a parking lot, and a cop fresh out of the police academy taking justice into his own hands.

This wasn’t an isolated incident, either.

In Hugo, Oklahoma, plain clothes police officers opened fire on a pickup truck parked in front of a food bank, heedless of the damage such a hail of bullets—26 shots were fired—could have on those in the vicinity. Three of the four children inside the parked vehicle were shot: a 4-year-old girl was shot in the head and ended up with a bullet in the brain; a 5-year-old boy received a skull fracture; and a 1-year-old girl had deep cuts on her face from gunfire or shattered window glass. The reason for the use of such excessive force? Police were searching for a suspect in a weeks-old robbery of a pizza parlor that netted $400.

In Minnesota, a 4-year-old girl watched from the backseat of a car as cops shot and killed her mother’s boyfriend, Philando Castile, a school cafeteria supervisor, during a routine traffic stop merely because Castile disclosed that he had a gun in his possession, for which he had a lawful conceal-and-carry permit. That’s all it took for police to shoot Castile four times as he was reaching for his license and registration.

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Innocent Unarmed Man Shakes Cop’s Hand and Seconds Later The Cop Murders Him

The tragic case of Jonathan Price shocked the country in October 2020 after the local hero was gunned down for reportedly helping a woman in need and breaking up a fight. Adding to the tragic nature of his death, before he was shot four times, body camera footage showed that he attempted to shake Officer Shaun Lucas’ hand multiple times.

Days after he killed Price, Lucas was charged with murder and his use of force was deemed “not reasonable” by the Texas Rangers. Despite the case against him, last week Lucas was acquitted on the charges. Now, a week after his acquittal, the footage from that fateful night has been released and it shows a travesty of justice.

“Unfortunately, the result that we saw from that jury simply doesn’t match what we see in the video,” attorney Lee Merritt said. “This video was literally a smoking gun piece of evidence in this case.”Merritt has now asked for the U.S. Department of Justice to review the cases for potential federal charges against Lucas.

According to the affidavit, Lucas was responding to a call of a “possible fight in progress” at a ‘Kwik Chek’ convenience store around 8:30 p.m. on Oct. 3, 2020. Texas Ranger Laura Simmons, who prepared Lucas’ arrest affidavit, noted that what happened next gave the department justification for charging the cop with murder.

The affidavit notes that when officer Lucas exited his patrol car, Price did not attempt to flee nor did he pose any threat whatsoever to the officer. Instead, Price greeted the officer. According to the video, Price “came very close to Officer Lucas asking ‘you doing good’ multiple times while extending his hand in a handshake gesture.”

“Stay right there, you understand me?” Lucas replied.

“You do this?” he asked pointing to broken glass on the ground.

Price apologized for the broken glass on the ground and said someone had tried to “wrap me up,” during the altercation in which Price reportedly tried to break up a dispute.

Very quickly, the situation took a turn for the worse.

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Child Flees Alleged Kidnapper, Runs Toward Cops, Who Shoot Her to Death

On Monday morning, Anthony John Graziano got into an argument with his estranged wife, Tracy Martinez, 45, and reportedly killed her. After killing the woman, Anthony Graziano allegedly abducted the couple’s 15-year-old daughter, Savannah Graziano, and fled the scene. The next day, Savannah and Graziano would both be killed in a shootout with police.

According to the Graziano’s neighbors, the couple had been going through a divorce and Anthony had moved out a month or two before killing Martinez on Monday. After Graziano killed Martinez and fled with Savannah, an Amber Alert was issued and a manhunt ensued. Fontana Police Department told local news that Savannah was in the vehicle with her father when he murdered her mother.

On Tuesday, Graziano’s vehicle was spotted and a chase unfolded as police exchanged gunfire with Graziano. Throughout the chase, Graziano was “constantly shooting back at the deputies” through the vehicle’s rear window before the truck became disabled somehow and ran off the road.

Graziano and police engaged in a firefight on the side of the road with bullets flying back and forth from police cruisers to Graziano’s truck. As the firefight continued, Savannah was able to get out of the vehicle and run toward police.

As Savannah ran toward police — who later said they had no idea she was a child — police opened fire and killed the girl. San Bernardino County Sheriff Shannon Dicus held a press conference on Tuesday, saying that Savannah was dressed in a tactical vest and a helmet.

It is possible and indeed likely that her father told her to put this equipment on and run to the police to save her life. Unfortunately, however, this did not work and when officers saw a person in tactical gear, they shot her.

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While Trying to Kill an Elderly Toothless Dog, Officer Misses and Shoots His Fellow Cop Instead

Earlier this month, a police officer was hospitalized after he was shot by his partner while responding to a non-criminal call about a suicidal person. The suicidal person was not a threat and the officer was not defending himself from a human when he fired his gun. Instead, when the officers walked up to the man’s home, the neighbor’s bulldog came toward one of them, who opened fire to kill the dog.

But he missed the dog.

“The dog charged at the officers,” Detroit Police Commander Brian Harris told WXYZ. “The officers fearing for their safety, one officer fired one round at the dog. The round didn’t strike the dog, it struck his partner in the lower right calf.”

The point about the dog “charging” the officers is contested, however. In the police report from the incident, a witness told investigators that the dog never once charged and was merely barking at the officers.

“We let the dog out to use the bathroom from the side door,” Tiara, the niece of the dog owner told WXYZ. “The police were walking towards this door, the dog comes up, she’s protecting her area. So she just came out and she barked, she didn’t jump on them, she didn’t lunge and he was just going crazy with the gun. I thought he was gonna shoot me because he was swinging the gun all over the place. I almost had a heart attack because she’s not aggressive, she doesn’t even have teeth, she’s old.”

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Innocent Man Calls 911 for Help, Cops Show Up, Jump on His Car Hood, Execute Him

On the night he called 911 for help, 22-year-old Christian Glass had never been arrested, never committed a crime, never harmed anyone, and was a threat to no one. Despite these facts, and despite the fact that he was entirely innocent, police would show up to his call for help that night, and execute him.

On the night of June 11, 2022, Glass somehow got his car stuck on a rural dirt road after running into a small shrub. Thinking they would help him, Glass called 911 and though he was in an obvious state of mental distress when he called, he was still rational, honest, and completely open about the situation, going so far as to answer the dispatchers question as to whether he had any weapons.

“I have two knives, a hammer and a rubber mallet … But I am not dangerous, I will keep my hands completely visible,” he told the dispatcher, offering to throw them out once officers arrived. But officers wouldn’t let him throw them out, telling him to keep the weapons inside the car as they escalated the situation to deadly violence.

“I’m in a 2007 Honda Pilot. I will not be fine on my own,” he told an operator, according to CPR. “You’re sending someone right? You tracked my location? My car is stuck under a bush … I love you. You’re my light right now. I’m really scared. I’m sorry.”

When police arrived, Glass once again offered to toss the knives and hammers out of the window. But officers made the incredibly ignorant decision to disallow this in spite of the fact that Glass had committed no crime.

“Please push me out, drag me out, I’ll follow you to a police station,” Glass told the officers. “I’m so scared.”

“You need to step out of the car now. Step out of the car,” an officer said. “That is a lawful order. Step out of the car now or you’ll be removed from the vehicle.”

Glass responded, “I’m so scared … You’re not communicating clearly with me. I don’t understand why I have to come out.”

A few minutes later and cops decided it would be a good idea to threaten to break the window of the innocent man’s vehicle.

This obviously didn’t help the situation at all. Eventually, officers from Clear Creek, Idaho Springs, Georgetown Police, Colorado State Patrol and the Colorado Division of Gaming arrived on the scene — for an innocent man, stuck on the roadside. It must have been a slow night in Clear Creek.

For a brief second, the responding officers had a moment of clarity and decided to call over a female officer with a much calmer demeanor. As she walked over to the car, Glass put his hands into a heart sign and blew kisses at her — illustrating just how big of a “threat” he was.

“Same back at you, but come out and talk to us,” she said.

But he did not come out.

The officers’ superiors knew that Glass had committed no crime and eventually radioed in to the responding deputies to leave since there was no threat to anyone.

“Can you ask Clear Creek what their plan is? If there is no crime and he’s not suicidal or homicidal or a great danger, then there’s no reason to contact him,” a CSP sergeant says over the radio. “Is there a medical issue we’re not aware of?”

“No,” a patrol trooper responded back.

Unfortunately, all logic and reason would become non-existent at this point and instead of leaving the innocent man alone, officers decided to move in. One officer jumped on the hood of Glass’s car with a pistol and flashlight in his face as others drew weapons and pointed them at him.

Seconds later, as an officer breaks the window, multiple shots were fired and Glass would be murdered in his vehicle. His killers… public servants.

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NO CHARGES Despite Video Showing Cop Dump 13 Rounds Into Unarmed Child—He Got a Bonus Instead

January of this year was the 4th anniversary of Sheila and Steve Albers’ son’s death. Their 17-year-old son was gunned down by police while unarmed. As is normally the case when police kill unarmed and often innocent people, no charges were filed against Overland Park Officer Clayton Jenison who shot and killed the unarmed 17-year-old boy on January 20, 2018. On top of refusing to charge the officer, police have also repeatedly refused to release records concerning the case, despite claiming they would do so three years ago.

On Friday, the Department of Justice announced that it will not pursue federal criminal civil rights charges against Jenison, claiming they could not prove all elements of the crime beyond a reasonable doubt.

Officials met privately with members of the Albers family to notify them of the decision.

The DoJ’s decision is in spite of the fact that during a civil lawsuit based on this incident, the DOJ noted that a federal district court in Kansas ruled that a reasonable jury could find that the officer involved in the shooting had indeed used unreasonable force when he fired the first two shots at Albers. As WIBW reports, the federal criminal investigation found no substantial evidence inconsistent with this conclusion.

Unfortunately, as WIBW points out, unlike in the many state jurisdictions that have statutes criminalizing killings committed with lesser mental states, like criminal negligence or recklessness, the DOJ said the federal government has no statute to criminalize a police officer’s use of unreasonable force, if willfulness cannot be proven beyond a reasonable doubt.

As we reported at the time, police were called to the home of teenager John Albers after his girlfriend said she was afraid he was going to kill himself. Police arrived and Jenison opened fire on Albers as the teen backed out of his driveway.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation opened their investigation into the case in September of 2020. But now we see that it went nowhere.

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