William LaFortune is an American politician who served as the 37th Mayor of Tulsa, Oklahoma from 2002 to 2006 and is currently a district judge in Tulsa County. He was elected without opposition to a four-year term in 2014. He replaced former Judge Tom Gillert, who did not run for re-election, but retired from politics.
The Denver Sheriff Department is a criminal justice agency based in Denver, Colorado, United States. The department is responsible for the care and custody of inmates within Denver's jail system, for the city's court services, and other responsibilities assigned by the executive director of safety. Unlike the Denver Police Department, it is not responsible for patrol or investigations.
Benjamin Lloyd "Ben" Crump is an American attorney who specializes in civil rights and catastrophic personal injury cases such as wrongful death lawsuits. His practice has focused on cases such as Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown, and George Floyd, the people poisoned during the Flint water crisis, and the plaintiffs behind the 2019 Johnson & Johnson baby powder lawsuit alleging the company's talcum powder product led to ovarian cancer diagnoses. Crump is also founder of the firm Ben Crump Law of Tallahassee, Florida.
On April 4, 2015, Walter Scott, a 50-year old black man, was murdered by Michael Slager, a local police officer in North Charleston, South Carolina. Slager had stopped Scott for a non-functioning brake light. Slager was charged with murder after a video surfaced showing him shooting Scott from behind while Scott was fleeing, which contradicted Slager's report of the incident. The racial difference led many to believe that the shooting was racially motivated, generating a widespread controversy.
Justin Tyler Bamberg is an American attorney and politician serving as a member of the South Carolina House of Representatives from the 90th district, which includes Bamberg County and parts of Barnwell and Colleton Counties.
Slips and capture is a type of error that may occur in high-stress situations. It has been described as a phenomenon in the psychology of human error, such that a person may inadvertently perform one action while intending to do another.
On September 14, 2013, Jonathan Ferrell, a 24-year-old former college football player for the Florida A&M University Rattlers, allegedly charged at and was shot and killed by police officer Randall "Wes" Kerrick in Charlotte, North Carolina. Kerrick was charged with voluntary manslaughter, but not convicted.
Natasha McKenna was a 37-year-old African-American woman who died in Fairfax County, Virginia while in police custody. The catalyst event, extraction from her cell and being tasered while shackled, was captured on the video of the Fairfax County jail.
On July 18, 2016, Charles Kinsey, a mental health therapist, was shot in the leg by a police officer in North Miami, Florida. Kinsey had been retrieving his 27-year-old autistic patient, Arnaldo Rios Soto, who had run away from his group home. Police encountered the pair while they were searching for an armed suicidal man. Kinsey was lying on the ground with his hands in the air, and trying to negotiate between officers and his patient, when he was shot. The officer who shot Kinsey said he had been aiming at the patient, who the officer believed was threatening Kinsey with a gun. Both Kinsey and his patient were unarmed.
Elliott Earl Williams was a US Army veteran who died in the Tulsa County, Oklahoma jail on October 27, 2011. The Medical Examiner determined in a 2014 report that Mr. Williams died from "complications of vertebrospinal injuries due to blunt force trauma", starvation, and dehydration. Special Administrator Robbie Emery Burke, representing the Estate of Mr. Williams, filed a lawsuit on April 16, 2012, against Sheriff Stanley Glanz, Correctional Healthcare Management of Oklahoma, Inc., et al. The Claims for Relief pertain to Cruel and Unusual Punishment in Violation of the Eighth Amendment and/or the Fourteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution; and Wrongful Death.
On September 16, 2016, Terence Crutcher, a 40-year-old black motorist, was shot and killed by police officer Betty Jo Shelby in Tulsa, Oklahoma. He was unarmed, standing near his vehicle in the middle of a street.
The killing of Greg Gunn occurred on the morning of February 25, 2016, in Montgomery, Alabama. Gunn, a 58-year-old African-American man, was shot and killed near his home after fleeing from a stop-and-frisk initiated by Aaron Cody Smith, a white police officer. Smith was charged with murder and indicted by a grand jury in 2016. The case came to trial in late 2019 following a change of venue to Ozark, Alabama. Smith was found guilty of manslaughter, and, in January 2020, was sentenced to 14 years in prison.
Manuel Ellis was a 33-year-old black man who died on March 3, 2020, during an arrest by police officers in Tacoma, Washington. The Pierce County Sheriff’s Department initially claimed that Ellis had attacked a police car and then attacked officers, leading to the arrest. State prosecutors quoted civilian witnesses as saying that Ellis did not attack the police car or officers; they also said it was the officers who initiated the use of physical force on Ellis after a conversation. Video of the incident showed officers repeatedly punching Ellis, choking him, using a Taser, and kneeling on him. State prosecutors stated that "Ellis was not fighting back", citing witness statements and video evidence. A police radio recording showed that Ellis said he "can’t breathe". Ellis told officers "can't breathe, sir" multiple times, according to prosecutors. Ellis was hogtied, face-down, with an officer on him, for at least six minutes, and a spit hood was placed on his head in this position, stated prosecutors. Ellis died at the scene while receiving medical aid from paramedics.
On June 6, 2020 Carlos Carson, an unarmed African American man in Tulsa, Oklahoma, was assaulted and killed by a private security guard with an extensive and controversial law enforcement background.
On April 11, 2021, Daunte Wright, a 20-year-old Black man, was fatally shot by police officer Kimberly Potter during a traffic stop and attempted arrest for an outstanding arrest warrant in Brooklyn Center, Minnesota, United States. After a brief struggle with officers, Wright was shot at close range. He then drove off a short distance, but his vehicle collided with another and hit a concrete barrier. Officers pulled Wright out of his car and administered CPR, but were unsuccessful, and he was pronounced dead at the scene.
Eurie Martin was a 58-year-old mentally ill African-American man killed by three Washington County, Georgia sheriff's deputies, on the evening of July 7, 2017.
On the Fourth of July in 2019, police officers Joshua Taylor and Brandon Dingman of the Wilson Police Department in Carter County, Oklahoma, murdered Jared Lakey, a 28-year-old man, by applying taser shocks to him 53 times, causing him to die of cardiac arrest. The police had been responding to an incident of disorderly conduct, and found Lakey acting confused and disoriented, although he was unarmed and not combative. Rather than restraining him, they repeatedly applied taser shocks to Lakey while he was laying on the ground, and made no attempt to provide lifesaving treatment. They speculated that Lakey had been using illicit drugs, but toxicology results found none in his system.
