Tag: police shootings

Former L.A. County deputy sentenced to 30 days in jail for fatal 2019 shooting

A former Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputy will serve 30 days in jail in connection with a fatal 2019 shooting in which authorities fired more than 30 rounds into the back of a moving car, under the terms of a plea deal reached Friday in a downtown L.A. courtroom.

Andrew Lyons pleaded no contest to assault with a firearm and assault under color of authority in the killing of 24-year-old Ryan Twyman outside a Willowbrook apartment complex in June 2019. The case marks the first time in roughly two decades that an L.A. County law enforcement officer has been sentenced to jail or prison for an on-duty shooting.

Lyons also was placed on two years’ probation. He must give up his certification as a peace officer in California under the terms of the deal, meaning he can never serve as a law enforcement officer in the state again.

The former deputy initially was charged with voluntary manslaughter and assault with a semiautomatic firearm against Lyons in 2022, nearly three years after he and another deputy, Christopher Muse, shot and killed Twyman. Muse was not charged in the shooting.

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Opelousas Police officer involved in shooting police chief turns herself in, sheriff reports

An Opelousas Police officer involved in a domestic shooting incident has surrendered to the St. Landry Parish Sheriff’s office, according to a news release.

Officer Savannah Butler, 42, turned herself in Jan. 1 at the parish jail but then posted bonded of $22,000, according to Sheriff Bobby J. Guidroz.

According to the release, a domestic issue Dec. 22 led to the negligent shooting of Opelousas Police Chief Graig LeBlanc and his wife, Capt. Crystal LeBlanc of the St. Landry Parish Sheriff’s Office. The investigation revealed that LeBlanc and his wife were shot at Butler’s home on Garnet Drive. 

Crystal Leblanc went to Butler’s home Dec. 22 to speak to her husband, according to the release. Chief LeBlanc walked outside, and the two began arguing. Butler then entered the doorway armed with a gun.  

Chief LeBlanc put his hand in front of Butler’s weapon to retrieve the gun and was shot in the hand, the release said. The bullet then traveled through his hand and hit his wife in the arm. After being shot, both admitted themselves to local hospitals. The LeBlancs were treated then released pending additional medical treatment.

The investigation revealed that Butler cleaned up the scene to cover up evidence prior to notifying the sheriff’s office, which constituted the charge of obstruction of justice.  

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U.S. Park Police officer unintentionally fatally shoots fellow officer at Virginia gathering

An off-duty U.S. Park Police officer unintentionally shot and killed another off-duty officer over the weekend in Virginia while pulling a trigger on a gun he thought was unloaded, police said.

Alexander Roy, 25, was charged with involuntary manslaughter for killing 22-year-old Jesse Brown Hernandez while they were at a gathering in an apartment in McLean, Virginia, about 10 miles west of Washington, D.C.

Police were called to the scene shortly after midnight on Sunday.

Two others, including another U.S. Park Police officer, were also at the gathering. Police said alcohol is believed to be a factor in the shooting. Roy is being held at the Fairfax County Adult Detention Center on no bond.

Hernandez was found dead with a gunshot wound to the upper body. The investigation is ongoing and the Fairfax County Police Department is asking anyone with information about the incident to contact them.

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US Marshals releases first report on shootings by officers

The U.S. Marshals have for the first time released data on how many people were shot by their officers or other police working with them.

A total of 147 people were shot over the course of three years, from 2019 to 2021, according to the report released by the agency this week. Almost all of those happened as the federal agency tasked with fugitive searches arrested people on warrants, including for crimes like assault and homicide. The total includes shootings that killed people and those that left people injured.

It’s a step toward transparency for federal law enforcement, and comes at a time when data about police shootings remains scarce, years into a national reckoning over police brutality and racial injustice. Experts say detailed data is essential to tackling the issue, but comprehensive information for the U.S. is still lacking.

U.S. Marshals Service Director Ronald Davis ordered the review last year, saying it reflects the seriousness of shots fired by officers. The report does not include information on whether the shootings were deemed legally justified nor data on more recent shootings, though it does say that those outlined in the report were independently investigated.

The aim was to study policies, training, tactics and equipment to figure out ways to make shootings less likely or destructive in the future, the report released Tuesday states.

One deputy U.S. Marshal was killed during the three-year period: Chase White, who was fatally shot serving a fugitive arrest warrant against a man accused of stalking a female police sergeant in Tucson, Arizona. Officers were injured by gunfire 13 times and suffered other injuries six times during the period of the report, which was composed on a fiscal year schedule. The shootings were spread across the country, with the largest number happening in regions in the West and in Texas.

It found that more than half of the officers who fired shots were from other police agencies working with the deputies on task forces. Of the 266 officers involved with shootings, just under 40% were deputies. That finding has the Marshals “committed to enhancing USMS federal oversight” of task-force officers. The Justice Department began allowing local officers working with federal law enforcement to begin wearing body cameras in 2020, reversing a policy that had strained its relationship with some law enforcement agencies quicker to adopt their usage.

There are nearly 4,000 deputy U.S. Marshals, and they work with more than 3,500 task force officers from departments around the U.S., the report states. The Marshals also transport federal prisoners, protect witnesses and provide court security.

The agency will also review their policies about making arrests involving cars after finding that nearly half of the shootings happened as Marshals tried to arrest people in or around vehicles. Ten percent of those shootings also left officers injured. The report doesn’t specify whether any of the cars were moving at the time; federal use-of-force policy discourages shooting at or from moving vehicles.

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Homicidal Memphis detention cop shoots the next boyfriend

Monique Johnson intentionally shot and killed her cop boyfriend in 2006 and never served time for the murder Now she shot the next boyfriend and was just booked again.

On October 13, 2023, Monique Johnson was arrested for shooting her second boyfriend. He told police that he had been asleep when he was awakened by being hit by her, saw a black handgun pointed at him with Johnson telling him that she would kill him. She then fired a shot that hit his shoulder. He wrestled the gun from her and was shot through the hand in the process but was able to disarm her.

This was the second boyfriend shot by Johnson. She served only a few days’ time in the 2006 murder of her then-boyfriend Tony Hayes.

On September 4, 2006, Officer Tony Hayes was killed by his girlfriend Monique Johnson.She testified that she was a domestic violence victim and he had beaten her and she had to defend herself and shot him.

As the story evolved, he had been caught by his girlfriend, Monique Johnson who went through his cell phone and found evidence of relationships with other women. She shot and killed him point blank with 6 bullets, then enlisted her 12-year-old son to help her stuff his body into his own vehicle, a 1999 Lexus. Police would find his decomposing body in the trunk of his car 4 days later, on September 8, 2008. They also found his clothes cut up and stuffed in the trash where Johnson had thrown them in a fit of rage.

Her son had told investigators a very different story than the one she presented. In her narrative, she had claimed to have been beaten by Hayes and that she in self-defense shot and killed him. The son stated that she had shot and killed him through a closed door and that she had asked him to swap the door with a new door at a nearby construction site. Investigators found the bullet-riddled door at the construction site the son had pointed them to, confirming the story the son had told of what sounded like a killing not justifiable as self-defense.

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Family of girl, 8, who died in her mother’s arms after being shot in the back by cops at Philadelphia high school game awarded $11M settlement

The family of an eight-year-old girl who was killed in a shooting incident involving police outside a Pennsylvania high school football game in August 2021 has reached an $11 million settlement. 

The resolution was agreed upon in federal court more than two years after the incident that lead to the death of Fanta Bility outside Academy Park High School in Sharon Hill, north of Philadelphia. Three others were also injured during the incident. 

The Delaware County District Attorney’s Office previously reported that the shooting incident resulted from teenagers engaging in gunfire during an argument.

The teens fired 25 shots toward a car and crowd of people leaving the football game in the small borough near Philadelphia International Airport. 

It prompted three police officers stationed nearby to discharge their firearms.

Tragically, Fanta lost her life because of a single gunshot wound to her torso.

Authorities later determined that it was police gunfire that led to her death.

Ballistics testing could not determine which officer fired the shot that killed her, but a grand jury recommended that all three face charges after they fired a total of 25 rounds.

‘There is no amount of money that will ever bring Fanta back or erase the horrible tragedy of what occurred on August 27, 2021, from our minds,’ Fanta’s mother Tenneh Kromah said in a statement on NBC News. 

‘We hope to move on and focus specifically on the Fanta Bility Foundation and keeping Fanta’s name and legacy alive.’

The law firm representing the family said they hoped the settlement would provide some ‘measure of justice and accountability to those whose lives were forever changed’ by the incident.

The three officers involved, Sean Dolan, 27, Devon Smith, 36, and Brian Devaney, 43, were fired from the police department and faced charges of voluntary manslaughter, involuntary manslaughter, and reckless endangerment in connection with the incident that occurred on August 27, 2021. 

The officers told investigators they thought a car driving toward them was the likely source of the gunfire, prompting them to return fire.

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Fired Philadelphia cop Mark Dial is charged with murder for shooting Eddie Irizarry dead FIVE SECONDS after pulling him over for ‘driving erratically’ – as police release horrific bodycam footage

Former Philadelphia police officer Mark Dial has been charged with murder for killing a 27-year-old driver last month after surveillance footage showed him shooting him through his car window.

Mark Dial fatally shot motorist Eddie Irizarry through his car window in North Philadelphia on August 14 – just five seconds after he got out of his patrol car. 

Police have now also released bodycam footage of the incident, previously seen through surveillance video from a nearby home collected by the alleged victim’s family. 

Dial, who was fired a week later, has now been charged with murder, voluntary manslaughter, aggravated assault, simple assault, reckless endangering and official oppression, the DA announced. 

He turned himself in to the police South Detectives division on Friday, with his lawyer claiming Dial believed he was in danger when he fired.

Bodycam footage shows Dial and his partner pull up next to Irizarry’s parked car before Dial exits his cruiser and begins shouting and the alleged victim. Seconds later he starts firing at Irizarry inside his car. 

Dial’s partner is then heard saying, ‘Mark, hold on. Mark, stop,’ before instructing him to move the police cruiser. 

The cops then pull Irizarry’s body out of his car and load him into the backseat of a cruiser, with Dial then driving to a hospital.  

District Attorney Larry Krasner said the footage is ‘hard to watch, and Irizarry’s family chose to watch it. 

‘There is always some level of trauma, especially for family members associated with watching something that is extremely violent… Regardless of the warnings, they wanted to see it, which we all understand, and we saw it.’

Police originally claimed Irizarry was ‘driving erratically’ before getting out of his car with a knife and lunging at officers. 

But Shaka Johnson, the lawyer representing Irizarry’s family, released surveillance footage from a nearby home to counter the police narrative at a press conference on August 23.

In the surveillance video, taken almost opposite the scene, Dial is heard yelling ‘I will f***ing shoot you,’ at Irizarry before opening fire at near point blank range through the driver’s side window.

He is then seen firing again through the windshield as he ran backward and circled around the car.

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FBI Refuses To Release Body Cam Footage From Utah Raid That Left An Elderly Trump Supporter Dead

The FBI is refusing to release DOJ-mandated body camera footage from agents who participated in a raid that killed Craig Robertson, a 75-year-old disabled Trump supporter who allegedly threatened President Biden on Facebook, according to a report from Daily Wire reporter Gregg Re.

“The fbi is refusing to release the doj-mandated body camera footage in the shooting death of Utah man Craig Robertson. They say it could “interfere” with “enforcement proceedings.” (??)” Re wrote in an X post on Tuesday. “This is an elderly guy that the salt lake field office decided to surprise and swarm at 6 am.”

Re included a response to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request that sought to obtain the footage. “The material you requested is located in an investigative file which is exempt from disclosure,” the response states.

“The records responsive to your request are law enforcement records: there is a pending or prospective law enforcement proceeding relevant to these responsive records, and release of the information could reasonably be expected to interfere with enforcement proceedings,” the letter continued. “Therefore, your request is being administratively closed.”

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Man killed by Aurora officer was being robbed: police

A man killed by Aurora Police this week was being robbed when he pulled a gun on another man, triggering the police encounter that led to this death, the department said on Friday.

Police have said officers, who observed the bus-stop dispute on surveillance cameras, went to the scene early Wednesday morning after seeing the man pull a gun on someone. But in a Friday update, the department said someone was trying to steal the man’s backpack.

It was around 2:30 a.m. Wednesday at a bus stop in the Del Mar Parkway neighborhood. Officers were watching a camera overlooking the area near East Colfax Avenue and Havana Street when they spotted the dispute, police said.

“Officers immediately responded when they observed one of those men produce a firearm and point it at the other man. Officers arrived at the intersection and aired they were in contact with the armed man. Moments later, the officers aired shots had been fired. Only one officer discharged his firearm,” the Friday release reads.

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Grieving Mother Desperate For Answers After FBI Busts Down Door, Fatally Shoots Her Disabled Veteran Son in Pre-Dawn Raid

A family is desperately seeking answers after FBI agents busted down the door and killed their relative in a pre-dawn raid last week.

The FBI is refusing to tell a grieving mother why they showed up in armored vehicles at 6 am last Wednesday and fatally shot her son.

According to WBBJ, FBI agents showed up at a residence in Henderson, Tennessee to serve a man named Theodore Deschler an arrest warrant when things turned deadly.

A neighbor told WBBJ he woke up at 6 am after he heard a loud bang.

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