Grand Jury probes police shooting of unarmed black man at Wal-mart
theGRIO REPORT - A grand jury convened Monday to decide if two white police officers should be indicted in the shooting death of an unarmed black man.
A grand jury convened Monday to decide if two white police officers should be indicted in the shooting death of an unarmed black man, according to NBC News.
John Crawford III, 22, was shot dead by police officers while shopping at a Walmart store near Dayton, Ohio. The incident happened just four days before the fatal shooting of 18-year-old Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri.
Police shot Crawford after thinking that the pellet gun he was holding was a firearm, claiming to have acted appropriately and swiftly to protect customers.
A six-minute soundless surveillance video shows Crawford walking around the store while talking on his cellular phone. The video shows him picking up a pellet gun, which has a similar look to it as an assault rifle, and he carries it around while wandering through the store.
Other customers in the video do not appear to be concerned, as noted by Crawford Jr, the victim’s father. Apparently, there were people who passed by without looking alarmed at all.
One person in the store, however, was concerned and called 911.
In a released recording of the call, 24-year-old Ronald Ritchie can be heard telling the dispatcher that a man is “walking around with a gun in the store … like, pointing it at people.”
Upon receiving the call, police began to mobilize, and Ritchie continued to tell the dispatcher that the man is “like loading [the gun] right now” and “waving it back and forth.” Four minutes into the 911 call, he says that the man “just pointed it at, like, two children.”
By that time, Beavercreak police officers Sean Williams and Sgt. David Darkow had already arrived on the scene, where they immediately entered the pet section and saw Crawford “holding a rifle.”
According to the police report, officers gave Crawford verbal commands to drop the weapon. After he failed to abide by officer’s commands, he was shot — exactly five minutes after Ritchie made the call to 911.
At the time of the shooting, Crawford III was on the phone with LeeCee Johnson, the mother of his two children.
She heard the gunshots and the ensuing chaos that happened in the store after the shooting. Crawford III was then rushed to the Miami Valley Hospital in Dayton but was pronounced dead from a gunshot wound to his torso.
Crawford III was not the only fatality in the incident. In the ensuing chaos, Angela Williams collapsed while getting her children outside the store. The 37-year-old mother of four, who is reported to have a heart condition, died soon after the incident.
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