Video shows officer shooting fleeing Fresno teen in the back of the head

[Eugene]

Source: The Guardian

Video shows officer shooting fleeing Fresno teen in the back of the head

Footage of Fresno, California, incident follows police claims that killing of unarmed Isiah Murrietta-Golding, 16, was justified

Sam Levin in Los Angeles
@SamTLevin
Fri 25 Oct 2019 11.40 BST
First published on Fri 25 Oct 2019 11.00 BST

Newly released video shows a Fresno, California, police officer shooting a fleeing, unarmed 16-year-old in the back of the head and then handcuffing the boy as he lies motionless on the ground.

Surveillance footage of the 14 April 2017 killing of Isiah Murrietta-Golding, released this week by the family’s attorney, has spread across the US, with critics calling it another example of extreme police brutality and unjustified lethal force that would have received little attention if lawyers hadn’t published the video.

The footage shows the teenager running from officers, jumping a fence, falling to the ground and continuing to flee. Murrietta-Golding was an estimated 35 feet away from the officers when one of them fired a single bullet into his head. The officer then hopped the fence, approached the boy’s limp body and handcuffed his hands behind his back.

The video comes after the police department in Fresno, a city in California’s Central Valley, refused to release the footage while publicly stating that the killing was “justified”, said Stuart Chandler, an attorney for Murrietta-Golding’s father.

-snip-

Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/oct/25/police-shooting-video-isiah-murrietta-golding-fresno-california


______________________________________________________________________

Source: Washington Post

Shooting an unarmed teen in the back of the head was justified, police said. Then video emerged.

By Alex Horton
Oct. 24, 2019 at 3:08 p.m. EDT

Isiah Murrietta-Golding, fleeing the police, tumbles over a metal fence, head over heels. The officers are blocked. The teenager runs, trying to hold up his pants.

He is unaware a Fresno police officer has contorted his body into a shooting stance from the other side, where the gate was wide enough for a service pistol to push through.

Murrietta-Golding, 16, takes eight steps before the officer fires a bullet that shatters the teenager’s head, just above his brain stem.

He died three days later in a hospital.

An investigation into the 2017 shooting in Fresno, Calif., found that the officer who fired the shot, named in court documents as Sgt. Ray Villalvazo, was justified, and that he feared for his life because the unarmed teen had reached for his waistband.

-snip-

Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2019/10/24/shooting-an-unarmed-teen-back-head-was-justified-police-said-then-video-emerged/

[UniteFightBack]

1. FEAR FEAR FEAR FEAR FEAR FEAR FEAR FEAR FEAR FEAR FEAR.

I am really getting fucking sick of all these fearful cops and this whole fearful and fear mongering country.

[think4yourself]

4. Me too

I thought we were The Home of The Brave.

[happy feet]

2. I have no words

[Iggo]

3. Cops.

Not the murderer. He's fucking scum.

I'm talking about the ones who covered for him. Every one of them.

Cops. That's who they are. That's what they do.

[spike jones]

7. The blue wall of silence makes every cop a criminal. n/t

[3Hotdogs]

5. To prospective jurors. If you are ever on a case and the cop is a defendant,

and the charge is excessive force, or such ---

The cop's excuse might be, "reached for his wasteband, or "made a furtive movement, or feared for his life.

Those are canned responses. Vote the cop, "guilty."

An ancillary response is a video of a cop beating the shit outa some poor sum'abitch, while yelling, "Stop resisting" into his body cam.

Also, "Guilty."

If the cop can't offer a defense in everyday street language, it is a canned response.

[skypilot]

6. I saw this video and...

...you can hear one of the cops say "Good shot!" after the kid goes down. WTF?!

[MontanaMama]

10. JFC. What?

All I can think about is this kid’s family having to hear that.

[skypilot]

12. Yeah, that will be awful for the family but...

...I hope a jury hears it as well.

[dalton99a]

11. Yep. Just another shooting target.

Lying cowards

[debsy]

8. Mortifying and nauseating are understatements.

Vile, disgusting, opprobrious. We, as a society, continue to treat POC like chattel. Actually, we don't even give them the respect we collectively give chattel (personal property). It is completely unacceptable yet we continue to watch it happen in real time without doing anything to change it. When they begin shooting the children of white people with the same contempt, will we do something then?

[Blue_Tires]

9. It never ends...

[Bayard]

13. It looks to me like the second cop outside the fence shot him,

Not the one climbing over the fence.

These are probably city cops, but I can personally attest to the brutality, carelessness, and lies of the Fresno County Sheriff's department. They protect their own asses, and most should not be dealing with the public.

[DFW]

14. It makes me wonder what kind of training these cops receive

Someone is telling them the proper sequence is "shout, shoot, kill, shout some more."

That someone needs to receive a healthy dose of his own medicine, or this will continue as it has been for years now.