Video above: hundreds turned out for vigil for 15-year-old Andre Green
Green killed on anniversary of Michael Brown death, same day cops in Ferguson critically wounded Tyrone Harris, Jr.
Witness Allen Eaton, father say Green did nothing to threaten cops
Indy cops have few dashcam videos, no bodycams
Teen sixth person killed by Indianapolis police this year
729 dead at the hands of U.S. law enforcement in 2015
Andre Green, 15, dead at hands of Indy cops
From video in Indianapolis Star, eyewitness Allen Eaton, who was standing a short distance away:
“When the police came through here chasing the car, the car went on a dead end. The car tried to turn around. I guess he didn’t know he couldn’t get out. He turned, he bumped the police car after that. And after that the police told him get out and they just fired at him. He wasn’t trying to run down the police officers. He was trying to back up, and that’s when he bumped them back, he couldn’t go nowhere. He definitely wasn’t trying to run them down. [the other guys] jumped out and ran. They was trying to get away. Then the police just killed him. He didn’t do nothing that made them feel that he was threatening their life.”
Allen Eaton at site of Andre Green’s killing by Indianapolis police. Indianapolis Star
August 11, 2015
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — The father of a 15-year-old boy fatally shot by Indianapolis police who had cornered the young carjacking suspect after a pursuit said Wednesday he believes his son posed no threat to the officers.
Andre Green’s father, Kenneth Green, said he questions the police account of his son’s fatal shooting, including the assertion that the teen was accelerating a stolen car in a possible attempt to strike officers who had cornered him near a cul-de-sac after two passengers bailed out.
Police said Monday that three officers fired on the teen Sunday night, Aug. 9, because they feared the accelerating vehicle might strike them after it had rammed a police car moments before.
Kenneth Green told The Associated Press he believes his son was just trying to get away from police, not threaten them, as he accelerated the car, which police said had been stolen Sunday at gunpoint.
Ikeila Watford, cousin of teenager Andre Green who was shot by IMPD Sunday night, sheds a tear as his aunt Chonda Watford and sister Terika Jackson mourn the loss of his life on Monument Circle during a vigil held Monday evening, August 11, 2015.(Photo: Matt Detrich/The Star)
“He wasn’t a threat. They said my son was armed, but I don’t know about that. All I want to know is the truth, what happened to my son — if he was right or wrong,” Green said while seated outside the home where his son’s mother lives on a shady, tree-lined street.
“I have a lot of pain in my heart right now. I’m just looking for answers to my questions.”
Police said Monday that the youth was holding a handgun when he exited the car after being shot and that the confrontation and shooting was not captured by any department cameras.
Green’s shooting happened the same weekend as events marking the anniversary of the death of Michael Brown, an unarmed, black 18-year-old who was fatally shot by a white police officer in Ferguson, Missouri.
Assistant Police Chief Lloyd Crowe said Wednesday he believes the two white officers and a black officer acted appropriately when they opened fire on the Indianapolis youth because they feared the accelerating car could strike them.
Woman stops by memorial for Andre Green, 15, in Indianapolis alley where he was killed by police.
“I wasn’t there, obviously, but I have faith that these officers relied on their training in that instance to make a decision on the reasonable use of force, the level of force to use,” he said.
Crowe said it isn’t known yet how many shots the officers fired, how many times Andre Green was struck, or whether a handgun found near his body was the one used to fire four shots after the car was stolen from its owner about an hour before the deadly confrontation. No one was injured in that shooting.
The three officers, who are on administrative leave, will likely be interviewed later this week or early next week by members of the department’s internal affairs unit investigating the fatal shooting, Crowe said. The department’s policy is to give officers involved in fatal shootings a 72-hour cooling down period and access to counseling before such interviews occur, he said.
Crowe said it’s expected to take weeks for the internal affairs unit to complete its findings. That report would be forwarded to prosecutors to determine if the officers acted appropriately or if any of them could face charges, he said.
“A lot of us have questions we want answers to, but they’re just not available at this point,” he said. Crowe added that the three officers are emotional and shaken up by the shooting, which he called “a tragic, tragic event for everybody involved.”
Green said his son, who pleaded guilty in May to juvenile charges of auto theft and criminal mischief stemming from the March theft of a car from an Indianapolis church, had some run-ins with the law but was “a wonderful son.”
“Just because he had a court record doesn’t make him a bad person. Plenty of people make mistakes,” he said.
Related:
#AndreGreen, #TyroneHarrisJr., #MikeBrown, #BlackLivesMatter, #BlackLivesMatterDetroit, #PoliceBrutality,#JailKillerCops, #SaveOurYouth, #StopWaronBlackAmerica, #BeatBacktheBullies
