The kid has all the right tools, and he no doubt should have a bright future in the NBA.
Unfortunately, though, there is another child with a similar sounding name who will not have a future at all.
That's because that other young man is dead.
"A teenager shot by a Zion police officer Saturday died of two gunshot wounds to the back, Lake County Coroner Thomas Rudd announced Monday.
Justus Howell, 17, was shot twice, with one bullet penetrating his heart, spleen and liver, and the other entering his right shoulder, according to a coroner's news release on the autopsy.
His mother spoke to the local CBS affiliate:His mother, LaToya Howell, said Justus wanted to go to medical school to be a surgeon.
“Justus was a young man murdered by Zion police,” she said. “As he was fleeing from police, they killed my son. He couldn’t have been a threat if he was running.”
Michael Dizzone and his wife live in a home directly across the street from where Howell was shot. Dizzone said his wife was looking out of her bedroom window when she saw and heard the officer shoot Howell twice.
“She saw him fall to the ground,” Dizzone said. He said his wife told police what she saw and that she did not see a gun on or around Howell. “She was really upset.”
Bobbie Vaughn, who lives nearby, said she heard two shots and began running toward the scene, following a police officer. When she arrived, she saw Howell on the ground.
“I heard the officer tell the other officer, ‘I shot him,’ ” she said. “They were shaking him, but he didn’t move. He was on his stomach, so they turned him over and the police officer I was with gave him CPR.”
Vaughn said that she remained on the scene for quite some time and did not see police uncover a weapon.
“I didn’t see a gun, no knife, nothing,” she said.'" [Source]
34 comments:
Field, the kid 'must' have had a gun or some kind of weapon. Otherwise, why would the cop shoot him?
The Police don't just shoot people for no reason. There is always a reason.
I just read this morning where some cops went into a hallway where there were some teens supposedly smoking marijuana. So the teens ran up to the roof. They all jumped to the next building but one was cornered and he attempted to jump a very wide distance and fell to his death!
For smoking reefer.
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/04/nyregion/teenager-falls-from-a-bronx-rooftop-after-police-are-called-about-marijuana.html?_r=0
"The Police don't just shoot people for no reason. There is always a reason."
There's always a reason. It's not always a good reason.
Time will tell whether or not these officers were justified.
@lilac
It is sad that that happened.
Mayor de Blasio has basically criminalized pot in NYC. If you're not holding major amounts of it, all you're really facing is a ticket, rather than a felony. Certainly not worth risking your life to evade the police.
I guess no one told this kid.
*DEcriminalized pot, not criminalized
Well I'm thinking what with all that's been going on , the kid prolly felt like that cop was gonna kill him! I mean, what else could he think with all that's been happening?
And why chase them all the way up to the roof? I mean, just kids smoking pot, give them a verbal warning and I'm sure they'll never do it again.
What a tragedy!
What was it, a month ago in Arizona when a guy kills 7 people, and resisted arrested and the cops didn't shoot him. Meanwhile a guy in New York gets killed for selling cigarettes, and this kid get shot in the back running for his life apparently. I wonder why the murderer didn't get shot by the cops?
"Well I'm thinking what with all that's been going on , the kid prolly felt like that cop was gonna kill him! I mean, what else could he think with all that's been happening?"
See, that's one thing I find troubling about the current debate about reforming policing. On the one hand, it needs to happen. There are too many injustices happening, too many officers that use maximum force without hesitation.
But on the other hand, it seems like the increased media focus may be leading some black people to have an inflated impression of how dangerous the cops really are. I hear black people saying things like, "My son isn't going to grow up" and making other statements that make it seem they incorrectly believe that trigger-happy officers are now somehow the leading cause of death for young black men.
But that's not even close to true. Best estimates put the total number of police homicides at around 900 for the year. Even if the methodology of collecting those stats isn't perfect (the federal government is working to improve it), it's still probably a reasonable ballpark figure.
And consider that that 900 homicides figure isn't "unjustified killings of black men." It's ALL killings, justified or unjustified, and all races of victims.
Weigh the number against the fact there are around 18 MILLION black men in America, and you should be able to see that even for black men, the group with the highest chance of being shot by a cop, cop shootings are still a pretty rare event.
It would be an awful sort of irony if this movement ends up making black people more fearful of the police, causing them to RUN from cops for no good reason, and thereby increasing their actual chances of death (either through an accident, as with the kid who fell off a building, or by actually making the cops more likely to shoot them, because running from the cops is usually taken as a sign of having committed a serious crime).
Here is the research I was referring to about the 900 deaths, for anyone interested in slogging through a bunch of heavy math.
http://www.bjs.gov/content/pub/pdf/ardpatr.pdf
I just seems to me that chasing a group of kids that were only smoking weed in the lobby of the building, chasing them all the way to the roof, 6 stories high, is a little bit...oh...over zealous shall we say?
There's nothing better/more important to do?
If De Blasio de-criminalized, then why go to all that trouble to chase them all the way up, to give them a little summons? When they could have just yelled out "catch you here again smoking you're all going to jail" or some other such thing?
I mean what gives?
Brother Anon I hear you in regards to numbers. Commenters dealing with numbers most likely have never had a love one killed by officers that may not be doing their jobs.
I have had several close friends that have been murdered by police. Both were on cameras and both returned as a no bill. I still have my friends tax papers that I was to prepare for his return from IRS. The Norfolk Police of 5 officers put their knees on his neck while he was on the edge of the curb. His crime was his sticker was peeling off his license plate.
So Anon, it is a blessing for you and yours that you can offer numbers to justify the officers in America actions that create fear in my people. I am 63 and I still have fear when I am stopped. I have never seen a white laying on the ground- so I hope the request never come my way when officer-with-gun comes to my window.
And yes this discussion is not about Black on Black. We have beat (talk) that horse. Save it for another day.
SaP2, thank you for your comment. You seem to parallel my exact feelings. It is my opinion that MOST, if not all bm have a fear of the police. We have centuries of police abuse behind us.
Whites don't give a damn about the abuse to us. Remember Rodney King? Hell, they got the cops on tape beating Rodney with clubs. Still, they held the trial of the cops in Orange County and guess what? The cops were declared innocent by an all-White jury even though they were guilty on the tape.
There has been a pattern for decades of all-White jury freeing white cops after abuse and killings of bm.
Is there any wonder Blacks are afraid of the cops and the justice system? It's crooked and built to be unfair to Blacks.
From the previous blog, thank you Virginia for your understanding and compassion. We need more people like you in the world and less of those heartless jerks who found fault with the mother.
Anonymous Virginia said...
First thought was,"Man, these folks have no idea what they have gotten into?" Adoption, special needs, and race!
As far as handling badass kiddos in the grocery store, sometimes kids are going to behave how they are going to behave. My own father would disagree with a belt waiting at home:). Kids develop differently. I have three boys, two are "well behaved" and one is, well, a little crazy a lot of the time. Same environment. Now with an autistic kid (my newphew is autistic), parents have even less control over meltdowns and are especially sensitive to rude remarks by folks who haven't experienced it.
I can relate to the stares because I experience it. Most the time folks are curious and it's no big deal. But catch me on a bad day! Saturday I took my kids to a class with zero parking, took an hour travel time, hubby took the car the were snacks in, it's nap time for the toddler, add PMS, and Houston we have a problem! We walked in and everyone stares. I wanted to turn around and go home. But then a random dad helps my son change into his uniform and a mom helps by joking about the teen boy funk from the previous class. That's what good people do, they help each other.
I get where this mother is coming from. If this family didn't know before, they now know that having an autistic child can be isolating and the race issue is so thick you can cut it with a knife.
I showed my son the image and asked him to tell me what he sees and he said,"A mommy, a daddy, and a kid, and another kid." :)
Peace.
We already read that in the previous thread. What's your problem?
No, YOU read it in the previous thread. Not everyone read it.
Don't do the crime if you can't do the time.
And why was he feeling the police?
When black parents have that conversation with they kids, shouldn't it include lessons on how to be civilized?
The sad part is this seems ordinary to me now. Police = murderers
Law enforcement has been murdering Blacks since this country was founded. And it won't end EVER.
Baretta said...
Don't do the crime if you can't do the time.
2:05 AM
/////////////////
Oh but Baretta did do the crime didn't he? and he didn't do the time did he? I
KRS One - Sound Of Da Police:
"My grandfather had to deal with the cops
My great-grandfather dealt with the cops
My great grandfather had to deal with the cops
And then my great, great, great, great, when it's gonna stop?"
Penelope White said...
The sad part is this seems ordinary to me now. Police = murderers
---
The sad part is you believe this.
Police are the only thing keeping blacks from slaughtering one another.
When blacks become a civilize people and stop committing most of the violent crime in this country.
"Oh but Baretta did do the crime didn't he? and he didn't do the time did he?"
Keep your eye on the sparrow when the going gets narrow.
The dumbocrats have played this beautifully.
Write laws that cops are forced to enforce.
Call the cops racist for enforcing the laws dumbocrats write.
Anything dumbocrats can do to divide the country and scare Black people.
lilacpr2000 said...
For smoking reefer.
At some point we have to stop blaming the cops for following orders.
The cops didn't write the law that made Eric Garner a criminal for selling loosies.
If not for the greed of the government wanting their tax dollars, Eric Garner would still be alive today.
Anonymous Anonymous said...
Penelope White said...
The sad part is this seems ordinary to me now. Police = murderers
---
The sad part is you believe this.
Police are the only thing keeping blacks from slaughtering one another.
11:18 AM
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An even sadder part, Whites have refused and denied that Blacks have been victims of police abuse and injustices for centuries.
You can blame the victims while telling yourself your so-called law enforcement is 'right' and the Blacks are just criminals and need to be killed and incarcerated. It helps you to feel and see the 'evil' you have perpetrated on this earth as 'good'.
Is that the nature of your Judeo-Christian God?
I used to think your God was one of 'love'. Judging by the lynchings, racism and Blacks 'murdered' by cops and all-White mobs and all-White juries, your God is as bigoted and unfair as you are.
You had better pray that God thinks and emotes like you.
Otherwise, what will you say if He asks, "Did you love all of your brother and sister according to my Will?"
Anonymous Bill said...
lilacpr2000 said...
For smoking reefer.
At some point we have to stop blaming the cops for following orders.
The cops didn't write the law that made Eric Garner a criminal for selling loosies.
If not for the greed of the government wanting their tax dollars, Eric Garner would still be alive today.
12:24 PM
-----------
At some point people have to acknowledge that cops use the law to abuse and murder bm like Eric Garner for the slightest infraction of the law.
When Bundy and a bunch of 'white' rogues took a stand-off stance against cops for not paying taxes he owed for 20 years, not a damn thing was done. No one lost their life over that.
Yet, Eric lost his life for allegedly selling loose cigarettes on the sidewalks of NY. There's something wrong with this 'Black' and 'White' picture. Blacks are being murdered because of Whites' like Bill who have no sense of fairness, or justice.
Bill, I used to think you were for justice regardless of color. However, I see you think with extreme prejudice also. What a disappointment.
'At some point', White America has to come to the fact that the seed of racism is in them, whether conscious or unconscious. And, if America is to survive, there must be a conscious decision and a will to end such thinking, speech and unfair actions toward their black fellow Americans.
Anonymous Bill said...
The dumbocrats have played this beautifully.
Write laws that cops are forced to enforce.
Call the cops racist for enforcing the laws dumbocrats write.
Anything dumbocrats can do to divide the country and scare Black people.
11:47 AM
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Did you think the way you think today when Bull O'Connor was beating Blacks, calling them niggers, using fire hoses on them, police dogs biting them, and jailing them for peacefully marching for their civil rights as American citizens?
Of course you did. In your mind, Blacks have no rights and are uppity for even thinking they want the same rights as Whites. God didn't make America for Blacks....He made it solely for Whites.
You are such a disappointment. But I am used to white disappointments. Invariably, you turn out to be cut from the same cloth.
Hey Field, check this out. Got Jeb on my flight. Anything you want me to ask him?
Well looks like a Whuteemoo cop in SC has FINALLY been charged with murder after shooting a BM in the back as he was fleeing to avoid an arrest for back child support. And after he shot the man, cuffed him with his head face down in the dirt, Whuteemoo attempted to plant a taser as evidence the shooting was justified.
1 Whuteemoo down, thousands more to go......
"So Anon, it is a blessing for you and yours that you can offer numbers to justify the officers in America actions that create fear in my people. I am 63 and I still have fear when I am stopped. I have never seen a white laying on the ground- so I hope the request never come my way when officer-with-gun comes to my window."
You misunderstand me, Mr. Panther. I am not justifying cops who use excessive force.
Cops who kill should be judged by the "reasonable self-defence" standard. It is clear that too often, prosecutors and juries are not applying any kind of reasonableness criteria to these officer's actions. If the officer says he felt threatened, that is enough for everyone, and the officer is released, even if the officer's judgment was horrendous.
But that said, this debate has already gotten so polarized and overheated.
Yes, some black people have an impression of the severity of this problem which seems way out of proportion to the actual scope of it.
Meanwhile, we've got some white people acting like cops are infallible, and if a cop shot you, it is a certainty you must have deserved it.
If so many people have such distorted views on what is actually happening, I don't see how that will help address the problem. Maybe everything in this country is destined to be reduced to an intractable shouting match that solves nothing, ever. But I don't want to believe that.
When you grab for a cop's laser and then run through a populated area with an armed photonics disrupter weapon, this is what happens. But there is something strange about this story. I don't understand why the officer, who was reportedly a registered empath, did not sense in advance that the suspect was about to reach for his laser. My guess is that he has a Turbulian Worm infestation in his frontal lobe, rendering his empathic powers ineffective. This infestation is even more likely if he traveled outside of our star system recently and ingested certain foods containing Partithian excitment. Such infestation may also account for the officer's aggressive behavior. This tragedy might have been avoided had the officer underwent regular neutrino bio-scanning. I sincerely hope that The Galactic Board of Legional Entities launches a full investigation into this worm matter.
Somebody better get Ted Kazinsky @10:06PM some help STAT!!
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