My mind has been in as much turmoil as the state of the country I live in. I’m filled to the brim with emotions. I lose composure as I scroll through my timeline pierced by the cries and pleas of our Black communities. Time has helped me educate and recollect myself, and along the way I’ve found a way to chime in by speaking up for our Black communities and against Discrimination, Racism, Inequality, and matters that make up the underpinnings of Police brutality.
Stories of Police brutality on Black women that make the headlines are few and far between. When such stories do breakthrough, they are usually as a tangential afterthought in discourse about the experiences of Black men. Outcry for injustice to Breonna Taylor resurged in the wake of week-long protests for George Floyd and months after her passing away.
This post intends to tell tales of the empirical realities of Black women who have lost their lives to inexcusable and unwarranted Police behavior through fifteen phantasmal monologues narrated by the victims or an individual who knew them. Fragments of these tales are fictional for two reasons: to make up for the paucity of data available on these cases, and to lift up their stories in a way that’s less hard to read. I must still warn you that the content in this post can be sensitive and triggering to some.
Breonna Taylor’s boyfriend speaks
She always said she was destined for greatness and now the nation is talking about her. Her name will go down in history, but sadly she is not here to see it.
It was past midnight. Bree and I were sound asleep when they [narcotics officers] barged into our apt. Burglars, I thought. I jumped and reached for my gun to defend our lives. I stopped short when I saw three of them, dressed in plainclothes, rifles in hand, standing on a battered door, accusing us of holding drugs, in our living room. I was stunned and slow to react. So when he pointed his rifle at me, without a second thought I shot him in the leg. I was scared for my life and hers. As he fell, the others started a gunfire with an absolute disregard for anyone or anything.
That’s when I heard her… “Oh my god”, she wailed! I turned to look, but I was too late… they had wrecked everything. Her screams had drowned in the shots fired. Nothing could have stopped them. They shot her eight times.
I can still hear her cries. I’m reminded of her niceness and her optimism. I’m reminded of her level-headedness, her concern for the people she met on her job, the lives she saved. It’s saddening to see her dreams being taken away, that she couldn’t live to be a mother. She was only 26. She was not dangerous. Not a single crime had she committed.
Why did the officers barge into the apartment after midnight? Why did the judge allow for a no-knock warrant? They didn’t have to lump her into another wild goose chase to catch drug dealers. The guy they were looking for was already caught. They don’t care if people die. Decades ago they waged a war on drugs against us, against the very people they swore to protect and they haven’t stopped. How many people will die because of a broken system? How many people on street corners will I see disappear in my lifetime?
Notes (This section contains historical facts and data related to[some issues in] this case)
Black communities are still subject to wildly disproportionate drug enforcement and sentencing practices as abhorrent as the Jim Crow laws
46.9% of people arrested for drug law violations are Black or Latino (despite making up just 31.5% of the U.S. population)
African Americans are incarcerated at more than 5 times the rate of whites.
With the advent of stricter drug laws, the arrests of black women in the late 1980s and 1990s for drug-related crimes grew by 828 percent, triple the growth in arrest rate for white women and double that of black men. By the early twenty-first century, roughly one in every three hundred black women had been incarcerated in the United States, as opposed to one in every 704 Latinas and one in 1,099 white females.
Korryn Gaines speaks
I’m Korryn, I was a mother of two kids, a hairstylist and Baltimore was where I’d lived all my life. When I was 23, I was shot and killed there. They also shot my 5 year old son Kodi. I did everything I could- had a stable job, home, family and income- for a peaceful life. I had also bought a gun, so I could defend my family. I reached out to y’all on facebook[videos], when they were right outside my door threatening to take me to prison, pointlessly, because nothing came out of it, in fact they took them down and deactivated my accounts.
They were trying to take me back to prison where they’d mistreat me again. I had lost my twins in a miscarriage from the trauma they’d caused me. That’s why I pleaded with them. That I didn’t need to go to prison, that they didn’t need to destroy my life. I didn’t want to suffer again or see my son hurt. They had no right to try and break into my home, let alone kill me. The first bullet was his. He was not trying to save a child, he was not mistreated, he could have chosen to leave us alone.
I’m dead for two reasons - I’m African American and I ran a traffic signal.
My babies live in a foster home. They shot me in my own home in front of my child and they shot him too. He took a bullet to his hand. But what if he was unfortunate like me? What if he died at 5 for nothing? The cops would still walk free.
Notes
An all female jury awarded the Gaines family $38 million in damages after finding that the first shot, fired by Royce Ruby and killing Gaines, was not reasonable, and thus violated their civil rights.
[Even] In San Francisco, black women get pulled over for traffic offenses 17 times more often than white women, and they are arrested at a rate 13 times higher than women of all other races combined. And once they are charged, the disparity only gets worse.
Not only is a black woman more likely than a white woman to be arrested at routine traffic stop, she is also more likely to be convicted than a white woman (or man) for the same crime. Read more about racial profiling and discrimination against WOC by the criminal justice system
Sandra Bland speaks
“I will light you up. Get out of the car.” He said as he pointed a stun gun to my face.
It happened on a late afternoon on July 4th, when I was driving from Chicago to Texas after meeting my sisters for the long weekend. In Texas, I would be starting a new job, so with all my things packed and hopeful, I drove to my old town. When he stopped me for switching lanes without giving a signal, mind you for letting him pass, because he was tailgating me, I was irritated. And y’all know, my Kings and Queens, that being Black in america is very hard and we get pulled over for nothing. They have stopped and ticketed me for the slightest errors, that I’ve lost count.
He didn’t just ask me to get out of the car, he made me. He took away my phone and the right to record. He pressed my head against the concrete. I told him I was epileptic and I couldn’t hear him, he gruntled and continued. I resisted and when I kicked, unwittingly for I’d thought he’d broken my arm, they took me to prison.
And you all know what happened after that. I still don’t understand.. how switching lanes with no signal, turns into all of this?
Notes
About the case: Sandra Bland, was 28 years old, when found dead in her jail cell, three days after her arrest. The police had not only mistreated her and locked her up for a slight traffic violation but they considered Sandra a high risk to her inmates so they placed her in the cell alone. In spite of being aware, from her jail screening procedure, that she recently had a failed suicide attempt, lost her grandma, and a baby in a miscarriage, claimed to be on an anti-epileptic medication with side effects that included depression, they didn’t put her on a suicide check. No video footage from the prison was obtained. To understand why her arrest lead to her suicide, Malcom Gladwell in his book, Talking to Strangers, suggests that a person’s physiological state of mind can be affected by the place and the context they’re in. Sandy was deeply affected by her arrest. She was mistreated and left alone without any assistance in prison which could have exacerbated her condition in addition to the medicine induced depression.
SandySpeaks [stitched together from her online videos]
Black people know all lives matter. I need you to understand that being a Black person in America is very very hard. You might say nobody should see race. But Racism is alive because of some people. What kind of people are the reason? Black racists have no power, but white racists do. I’m not saying all white people are racist cuz y’all know they are not. They have power because they are in positions of control or because they are in positions where they can influence control over black people. And we need to stop that and that’s why we have Black Lives Matter. I want you to write that on a poster and go stand out on the street somewhere. If we can get enough white people, maybe they will stop killing our black brothers. Because that’s what it’s going to take, for our white people to get up and get tired of our black people saying Black lives matter. So if you want to do something about it, get out there and do it. Black people you will not be successful in this world until you learn how to work with white people. But I want the white people to understand that we are doing as much as we can. But we can’t help but get angry when we look at situations where it’s clear that black lives didn’t matter. For those of you questioning “well why was he running away” well god damn, because in the news we have seen as of late, you could stand there surrender to the cops and still be killed. Show me in history where all lives have mattered. Where there has been liberty and justice for all. The history of black and white people in America, it is not good, but I want us to get past that. And it is impossible to happen until certain people realize they were born into a certain kind of privilege. Those of you saying “Why was he running?” or “Why was he breaking the law?” - flip the switch and ask yourself, if that was your uncle running would he have gotten shot in the back 8 times?
You know it’s funny, I was upset so I started crying, and it was so powerful because in the middle of the tears, in my head I heard the song God blocked it and it let me know that everything will be ok. You should listen to that song so you know that it is going to be ok whatever it is you’re going through. My Kings and Queens, just know that I’m praying for you all and I ask that you pray for me while I pray for you.
To understand the historical basis of aggressive policing of moving violations it is important to look at the success of the Kansas City gun experiment.
Further reading Talking to Strangers
Charleena Chavon Lyles’s unborn baby speaks
I would have turned three today if momma were still alive. I never got to meet my family, but they spoke to me all the time. When my baby brother would cry, mom would sing to us and tell us stories. My sister was her favorite, she was smart and pretty. Mom always said she would make it big someday, and we could move to a better part of town. Mom didn’t like the projects, she didn’t like it when people were mean to her. She hated people who would steal from us. Every time something bad happened she had no one to call but the cops, and they were mean too. And that morning fearing another burglary she called them again.
Right after she asked my little brother and sisters to stay put inside for their safety, she grabbed a knife from the kitchen to protect us. The cops arrived at 10am and less than 20 secs later, my mamma was writhing in pain on our living room floor. They shot us 7 times.
They shot us to defend themselves from my mamma who weighed almost nothing, who was soaking wet from fear with a kitchen knife in her hand. My mamma who had phoned them to protect me, her unborn kid, my brothers and sisters and her. They shot her 7 times because they lost their composure. If they found her harmful was there no way they could’ve taken a taser and taken her down? Or no way they could’ve taken a baton and knocked the knife out of her hand? They knew her, that she was a mom, her children would suffer, they knew they would be killing not one but two lives. They never cared about us. They put us in projects to separate us out and then walk in whenever and kill us. And then walk out free.
Notes
An assumption that she was a poor, single black woman with multiple children who must have been drunk or on drugs, is a false assumption.
Not enough credit is given to the plight of the publicly subsidized tenant. Consider the predicament of a low-income single mother. Consider the standard costs of raising a child—physician‘s visits, formula, diapers, and—especially for single parents—day care. Now consider the plight of a low-income, single mother who has to deal with emotional and economic costs of raising a child. from a paper on Federal Housing programs
In 1991, 68% of Black children were born outside of marriage.
In 2011, 72% of Black babies were born to unmarried mothers.
In 2015, 77% of Black babies were born to unmarried mothers. From source
Whether single parents, coparents, or married, research shows that black women disproportionately contribute to the economic and social well-being of their family units. The center for America’s progress 2016 report on breadwinning women says that “Black mothers are by far the most likely to be the primary economic support for their families, both because they are more likely to be single mothers and because they are more likely - when part of a married couple- to earn as much or more than their husbands.”
In 2016, Black women made up 61 percent of all students enrolled in historically black colleges and universities. They earned 50% of all degrees that HBCUs awarded that year, and black men earned 25%. Using data from the National asset scorecard for communities of color, a 2016 report states that most black families have no more than $25 in liquid wealth. from research paper
I originally discovered these facts from Thick: and other eassy by Tressie McMillan Cottom
Rothstein’s new book, The Color of Law, examines the local, state and federal housing policies that mandated segregation. He notes that the Federal Housing Administration, which was established in 1934, furthered the segregation efforts by refusing to insure mortgages in and near African-American neighborhoods — a policy known as “redlining.” “The segregation of our metropolitan areas today leads … to stagnant inequality, because families are much less able to be upwardly mobile when they’re living in segregated neighborhoods where opportunity is absent,” he says. “If we want greater equality in this society, if we want a lowering of the hostility between police and young African-American men, we need to take steps to desegregate.” from NPR
Alexia Christian’s Mom speaks
Alexia was my daughter. 26 years old and a mother of one when she was shot in the back of a cop car. She was a wild child with a criminal history - shoplifted twice and had stolen a car or two, but most of us have. I have done it once myself. Life is not easy for us you know. So yes, she should be in jail for breaking the law. I shouldn’t be making funeral arrangements for her.
In the middle of the day, they found her in a stolen pickup truck in Atlanta. She didn’t resist, so they handcuffed her, hands to her back, when they put her in the back of a patrol car. Minutes later she was killed. That my daughter was able to remove one of her hands out of the handcuff and pulled out a pistol on them and fired three bullets was why they shot her. They shot her ten times. How can we be so sure she had a gun? We heard her on the dashcam… She said she doesn’t have a gun. And if this is true, why did the officers not search her before putting her into the car? Why was the back camera on the car not turned on? Why will my daughter’s death remain a mystery while these cops roam the streets inciting fear endlessly? Why can’t two grown up experienced cops manage a 26 year old girl instead of killing her? This system is subpar.
Alexia, was a smart kid, you know the kind with the street smarts. She didn’t deserve to die. She’s never assaulted anyone. She was good to us, her family. Living her life wasn’t easy but it was getting better. She was growing up and to be a mother is difficult. I wish she had more time. Her last words were “I don’t have a gun. Please. Ouch Ouch Ouch”.
Notes
What are the consequences when officers fail to do their job thoroughly and effectively?
Lack of disciplinary measures and training provided to reduce Police mishaps
Both cops on this case were African American.
Mya Hall’s friend speaks
Mya always wanted to have the simple things- a job, a life, a home, but she had a difficult life.
Dressing up and dancing with her friends into the wee hours of the night were her favorite things to do. From the day I met her, I was assured she was a strong and friendly woman. A sweet jokester, who loved skirts and kidding her friends. Not into the best of things but it’s hard to get out of this cycle. Nobody makes it out easy.
It’s hard enough to be Black. Can you imagine how unthinkably harder it is to be transgender and Black. So when I heard they[cops] shot and killed her and injured my friend Britt, I thought they were trying to wipe us out. Not that they haven’t tried before. History has a lot to say about it.
They are vindicated because allegedly the victim was driving a stolen car. Or they say the victims were drug addicts, or mentally insane and they tried to attack the cops and so to defend themselves they had to kill her. But I don’t believe them. Two of my friends were driving in a car at 7am and they took a wrong exit that got them to a guard post. They must have been confused, and they panicked when they ran into the cops who predictably started a gunfire. They thought my friends were in a disguise and were dangerous and had to be killed. Shot Mya over and over so she is dead now. And it’s a pity that the only way for you to remember my sweet friend Mya is a mugshot and the lies they’ve put out for you.
Out here, you can be attacked. You can be raped. You can be arrested for being trans.
When Mya left her home at 22nd and North street[Baltimore] that morning, she probably didn’t think she would never come back. Had she known maybe she would have done things differently. You have never heard about her, because this is how the stories of my trans black friends go down in history, unheard, unread, forgotten, killed. Some don’t even get a funeral… but we gave Mya one, a good one.
Notes
LGBTQ African Americans continue to be economically disadvantaged because of persistent discrimination, housing insecurity, a lack of quality, affordable healthcare and fewer educational opportunities. A 2012 report found that “32 percent of children being raised by Black same-sex couples live in poverty, compared to 13 percent of children being raised by heterosexual Black parents and just 7 percent being raised by married heterosexual white parents.” Additionally, Black transgender people face severe rates of poverty, with 34 percent living in extreme poverty compared to just 9 percent of non-transgender Black people. source
Meagan Hockaday’s son speaks
“Shoot first, ask questions later”
I have two brothers and shortly after my mom was killed, we moved into our grandparents home. Granny’s food reminds me of mama’s. I like that it’s quiet here, we can play in the backyard, watch sports on the TV with Dada and there are no fights. I miss mama sometimes, she used to make us cakes. Birthdays remind me of Mama and make me sad.
Morado, mom’s fiance (to be step dad) was living with us back then. They fought a lot but the fights were fixed before breakfast the next morning. Except on March 28th, two days after my birthday.
I went to bed early that night and when I saw my mom again she was on the floor writhing, covered in blood. I ran to her, kneeling next to her, trying to feel her for long as she would let me then they pulled us apart. That’s all I can remember. I didn’t see Morado and I don’t want to see him again.
Granny came to take us and the last time I went back home was to pack our belongings. We donated mama’s dresses, her shoes, her furniture… though we kept her books and records and paintings… Granny always eyed mamas paintings so she seems happy to hang them in her home. Granny tells us we should never trust them cops, that they kill our kind. They killed mama but they didn’t touch Morado. They lie that mama was coming at them with a knife. But mama was small… they could have taken it from her even if she had one. Why would they kill my mother when they were called to help her? What should I tell my little brothers when they grow up? Should I tell them the truth?
Notes
Within 20 seconds of arriving at Meagan Hockadays home on Saturday at 1:00am the cop had shot her. Morado, had called 911 to seek assistance for Meagan since she was in a state of distress while under the influence of alcohol. She was a stay-at-home mom with no criminal record.
Research conducted in 2017, revealed the urgent need for schools to do a better job of teaching slavery. “Students are being deprived of the truth about our history [and] the materials that teachers have are not particularly good,” she said. “I would hope that students would look at this and realize that they deserve to know better … and teachers need to know there are better ways to teach this.” source
Children of color[COC] are greatly over represented in the foster care system. The percentage of COC in this system, is almost double the percentage of this group within the general population. National Data Analysis System[NDAS] states that, 29% of the 73M children in the US are COC. NDAS states that 58% of all children in the foster care system are COC, which is two times the representation across the general population. Not only are children of color, more likely to enter the foster care system, evidence exists that minority children, face further inequalities and inequities in both quality and access to services. source
Janisha Fonville’s roommate speaks
“Why did you shoot her?” I asked him, shocked. She wasn’t trying to hurt him.
“I don’t know, I don’t know. We had to defend ourselves.” He replied
I had called this man to help Janisha, my 20 year old roommate, who was going through a rough patch… nothing some love and help wouldn’t fix. With the snowstorm outside there was very little I could do. So I asked my sister to call 911, to help us out, so Janisha could get some meds. I didn’t want her to hurt herself. She was a beautiful person and a wonderful aunt to my babies.
Janisha was lying on the couch when I left to receive the cops and to tell them that she needed some help. Nothing about her being harmful or assaulting anyone. She had never done such a thing. When we entered, the room was still dimly lit by the kitchen light, barely outlining the movements in the living room. Janisha was not supportive of me calling the cops, so she started walking towards me, reprimanding me about it. But before I could compose her, before the other cop turned the lights back on, he shot her. Not on her legs, and not once but over and over.
She was 20, she wasn’t going to hurt us. Do you think Janisha was stupid? That she would run towards me, her roommate, in front of two cops with a knife? NO. It’s a lie. It’s a lie fabricated by the media for you to believe that the cops had to defend themselves and so Janisha had to die.
The incompetent and stupid cop who killed my roommate is still a cop. And one day you might call 911 to help you out and this guy might be dispatched. And then like me you might spend your life wondering why you trusted them.
Notes
The prevalence of depression in African Americans is controversial, due to the paucity of research. The deficit in the knowledge and skills in treating depression in African Americans have not been adequately addressed so far. Inadequate and insufficient data on African Americans contributes to the problems of under diagnoses, misdiagnosis, and under treatment of depression. source
Prevalence of depression in African Americans is reported to be twice as compared to whites - The national co morbidity survey.
Approximately 7.5 million African Americans have a diagnosed mental illness, and up to 7.5 million more may be affected but are undiagnosed [U.S. Department of Health and Human Services]
Natasha McKenna’s Father speaks
Our daughter, Natasha left us at 37 with a seven year old granddaughter. Our daughter was suffering from mental health issues, she needed compassion and meds not protracted shocks from a stun gun. Natasha was in jail because she was wrongly charged for a felony assault. She was charged so they could take her to the medical hospital against her will. She died before they could take her to the hospital.
It was an accident, they said, that she suffered from an “excited delirium”. Dozens of deaths in struggles with law-enforcement officers are associated with this rare condition so how can it be ruled as accidental? The American Medical Association doesn’t even recognize this condition yet. My daughter was traumatized, shackled, muzzled, and naked when she was killed.
If my daughter was resisting a cell extraction, couldn’t they have waited for her to calm down? Couldn’t they have brought a medical professional to her?
A Human Services writer speaks about Natasha McKenna’s case
Natasha was the personification of Intersectionality: She was Black … an inmate, indigent, a woman, and her mental condition seriously had deteriorated. Had I been in Natasha’s place, would the outcome have been the same? Five years after Natasha’s death, we as a community no longer can afford to be unaware about how inequitable life is in Fairfax. Public policy in housing , zoning, transportation, hiring, and in public safety job opportunities has long been infested. Many in our ever-more-diverse community suffer from one or more disadvantages attributable to intersectionality. She died because of racial and social inequity, whether it was rooted in virulent racism or clueless white privilege, that has lived for too long.
An officer from the same department, who was not assigned to this case
Natasha’s case has been much of debate and I don’t want to point fingers… Working with inmates is not easy once they have been incriminated. Protocol says one thing, but another thing should have been done, especially in MckEnna’s case becasue she was mentally ill, hard to pacify and wrongly incriminated. My colleagues have long struggled to empathize, to think compassionaly about an inmate, and value their lives over protocol. Not just the attitude but a lot else could have been done better to save Natasha’a life. Let’s also not forget the lack of coordination between the dept and medical services to assure that a fellow citizen was getting the treatment they needed.
Tanisha Anderson’s sister speaks
Tanisha was my baby sister. Growing up she was always a good student. She loved to read, and dreamed of becoming a broadcast journalist someday. She lived across the street from us, with my mom, her 16 year old daughter and our family dog Drama.
Every time I walk down the street outside her home, it’s difficult, I can’t help but think about her. That’s where she was restrained before she died, not far from the tall tree in the front yard. She was not a felon, not a single crime on her record. The night she died was the first time we called 911 to help her. She was much more than a mentally ill person like they describe her in the news.
She was having a bad day, we all have our bad days. Cops had arrived instead of an ambulance which was requested for. Less than 30 mins after they arrived, she was slammed onto the sidewalk, face pressed on the concrete, shackled, unconscious and not breathing. Shortly after arriving at the hospital she was pronounced dead because of physical restraint in a prone position.
I remember holding her 16 year old daughter tightly after they took her mom away in a bag. My mind racing thinking about Tanisha, how well she was doing… helping our mom with her chores, taking care of her daughter, running a day school and teaching little kids how to read, playing with Drama and making tacos with me for our family reunions.
My mom spends all her waking hours now advocating for better training for police officers in dealing with black women and the mentally ill. Tanisha didn’t live to become a journalist but she continues to tell the stories and fight for our struggles through the voices of her mother.
Notes
Why are officers required to respond to non-criminal activities when they are not trained to do so?
Why do officers need to be armed with guns, and feel compelled to use them to help citizens who need medical assistance?
Aura Rosser’s sister speaks
My sister was a beautiful person. A really sweet girl, outgoing, wild and articulate. She was a wonderful artist she loved to paint with oils and acrylics. Even in my worst dreams I cannot imagine her showing any aggression to the police. She would have fainted at the sight of a gun.
She was forty when she passed away and left behind my nephew and niece. Ann Arbor has been her home for a long time and she has had a good life and a good job. Sure my sister made a few bad decisions and boyfriends but nothing that should have got her killed. That night Tom, her BF of a few months called the cops. She was cooking, and glasses were broken over an argument, and that’s it. When the cops had arrived, as she was cooking in the kitchen with a knife, Tom said he heard them say “Freeze” and the next thing he saw was my sister was tased by one officer and berated with bullets, real bullets, by the other. This transpired 5-10 seconds after entering their home.
The officers have claimed that they were defending themselves from a woman with a knife.
Sheneque Proctor’s mother speaks
My 18 year old daughter died in Police custody in Alabama. They have given my family and me no respect, considering my child died at their arms. They should have at least come to me and told me something. She was taken to the jail at 3pm after a party she’d been attending, pepper sprayed and I don’t even know why. The last thing I remember is talking to her and her saying to me “Mama, please come get me. I didn’t do anything.”
If my baby needed help they should have given it to her. Mistreating my daughter and denying her medical assistance still makes them killers.
For months after the incident they didn’t contact us or send her belongings back to us. Her infant baby is my baby now, and I pray to god because I don’t know what to tell him when he grows up.
Michelle Cusseaux’s daughter speaks
My mother was 50 years old and was shot by cops in her own home. She had absolutely no criminal record. The cops were sent as part of a court-ordered mental-health check up. She lived by herself. She was independent, enjoyed her telly, and she was loved by her neighbours. The papers say that Mama wouldn’t open the door to the cops so when they got inside and saw mama standing with a club hammer they shot her in self-defence.
They shot my 50 year old mama, holding whatever tool she could find in time to protect herself from the aggressive arrogant cops known to kill black women when they see them, in self defence.
But they were ordered by the court to help her?
Let that sink in.
Pearlie Golden’s neighbor speaks
I watched my neighbor Pearlie get shot by the cops in broad daylight. The same neighbor who lives down the street with her grandson. The same person who takes a walk on our street every evening at 5pm. The same person I’ve wished for Christmas and New Years for as long as I can remember. They claim that she was outside her home with a revolver and talking loudly so someone called for the cops. And when they came they shot her to protect themselves.
I did not see a gun on her. But what I saw was a 93 year old woman yelling and she got shot by the cops, not once but five times.
Even if she did have a gun, she is in her 90s. They could have shot in the air to scare her. She would have dropped it. I don’t see her shooting anyone. Ever. Most people in America own a gun. The cops should not be firing everyone who has a gun without questioning them.
Gabriella Nevarez’s grandmother speaks
My granddaughter was shot by the police. To this day I blame myself. Sometimes you don’t have many numbers to call for help. So I dialed 911. If only I hadn’t called them to bring my granddaughter and my car that she had taken with her, back home. I really wish I hadn’t. She’d be alive right now.
She died very sadly. She was shot 17 times. She didn’t have any weapons. Nothing, maybe a phone. She hated guns. She hated any kind of violence. She didn’t even watch violent movies. She was far from threatening, an angel, just 22 years old, barely out of school and they shot her, because… I don’t know why.
A bystander told our family that when she saw the cops chasing her, she was perhaps trying to put the car in park to surrender or trying to get her phone out and that’s when they started firing at her. They didn’t stop until she was covered in blood.
She had no crime record, no mental illnesses.
Brief description of cases from 2018-19, from mappingpoliceviolence.org
Tameka LaShay Simpson for smoking mariuana in her car.
Lori Jean Canada a 59 year old killed on Christmas day outside her home.
Atatiana Jefferson shot in her own home while babysitting her 8-year-old nephew at the time of the shooting. Yes, that was the reason was the shooting.
Jamie Fernandez over an investigation about a vehicle.
Gay Ellen Plack[white 57-year-old] was killed during a police welfare check at her home.
Patricia Spivey was acidentally killed by her husband, who is a cop.
Crystal Danielle Ragland killed at 9am because she was waving a gun.
Dominique Clayton 32, was asleep when a cop burglarized her home and killed her in front her children.
Pamela Shantay Turner 44, suffered from mental health issues and was killed for no particular crime.
Nina Adams for allegedly fired shots at a car not far from her home, that did not result in injury or murder.
Latasha Nicole Walton was killed while driving away from a traffic stop
April E. Webster during a welfare check at her home
Lajuana Phillips for a traffic violation and because she allegedly drove toward a deputy to run him down.
Dereshia Blackwell because of a vehicle accident
Cynthia Fields accidentally killed in her home because the bullet when through her apt when shots were being fired by cops outside.
LaShanda Anderson for shoplifting
Shukri Ali Said during a mental health emergency check up
Decynthia S. Clements because she refused to exit the vechile when pulled over by an officer on I-90
Crystaline Barnes for a driving violation
From #SayHerName report
Alberta Spruill, died of a heart attack after the police broke down her door and threw a concussion grenade into her apartment. The raid was an unsolicited accident.
Kendra James was killed for not complying with an officer.
LaTanya Haggerty, was shot because she failed to pull over.
Margaret LaVerne Mitchell, a frail, mentally ill, homeless African American woman in her 50s was shot for living on the streets.
Tyisha Miller, a 19-year-old shot for finding her asleep in a car that had broken down.
Danette Daniels, a pregnant Black woman arrested and shot for dealing drugs.
Yvette Smith, a 47-year-old was shot in response to a domestic disturbance complaint between two men in the household. Smith, a single mother of two, opened the door for the officers and was shot almost immediately.
Miriam Carey, a 34-year-old dental hygienist and suburban mother, was shot after she allegedly sped away from a White House check-point. No crime was involved on her part.
Kyam Livingston, died from being denied medical assistance (suffereing from diarrhea) by officers, who were holding her in a cell after they arrested her for fighting with her grandmother.
Kayla Moore, a Black transgender woman, was killed by Berkeley police who came to her home in response to a call for help from her roommate because Moore was experiencing a mental health crisis.
Shelly Frey, was shot and killed because she was suspected to be shoplifting from a Walmart store.
Malissa Williams, was 30 years old, unarmed and a passenger in a car when the police shot the driver and the passenger because the driver wouldn’t stop the car.
Alesia Thomas, mother of two, dropped off her children—ages 3 and 12—at a Los Angeles Police Station because she felt she was unable to care for them. In response, LAPD officers came to Thomas’ apartment to arrest her for child abandonment and she died in the back of the police vehicle.
Shantel Davis, an unarmed 23-year-old woman was shot for driving erratically.
Sharmel Edwards, was driving a stolen car and subsequently shot.
Rekia Boyd, was shot for *being loud with her friends in an alley by an off-duty Chicago police detective.
Shereese Francis, was shot because she was “uncooperative” when they tried to take her to the hospital.
Aiyana Stanley-Jones, was “accidentally” shot in her sleep during a raid on her grandmother’s home.
Tarika Wilson, was pregnant and 26-years-old, when she was shot in her home because of a botched drug raid. She was not involved in any illicit drug trade, her boyfriend who was staying with her, may have been.
Kathryn Johnston, a 92-year-old Kathryn Johnston was shot and killed in her home during a mismanaged drug raid.
Frankie Ann Perkins, a mother of three daughters, aged 4, 6, and 16, was walking home one evening when the police stopped her claiming they saw her taking drugs and strangled her to death. No drugs were found in the autopsy report.
Eleanor Bumpurs, a 66-year-old was shot by cops, instead of serving her a city-ordered eviction notice for being 4 months late on rent.