http://www.worldstarhiphop.com/videos/e/16711680/wshhjdr4SaCFBR2wHEFm
…and then have the nerve to fall out in court after the verdict is read!
Thank God justice has been served in the case of Serenity. Maybe now she can rest in peace.
To read more about the story, click HERE.
Aiyana Jones, 7 – accidentally shot and killed by a Detroit police officer executing a search warrant in connectin with a murder on
A spokesperson for the Detroit Police Department says a 7-year-old girl named Aiyanna Jones was accidently shot and killed by a DPD officer. It happened in the 4000 block of Lillibridge at 12:40 Sunday morning. According to Detroit Police, officers went to the house to arrest a murder suspect, with a valid search warrant.
Click HERE to learn more
In a scene police described as “horrendous”, a woman and three children — one seven months old — were found shot to death in their home in Marquette Park, allegedly by the father of at least one of the children who was visiting from Wisconsin.
A 12-year-old girl fled the home, notified police, and was taken into protective custody.
The victims include a 7-month-old boy who is the son of the gunman, his 3-year-old neice Kaleisha Larry, and his 16-year-old pregnant niece Keyshai Fields. The fourth victim, a 30-year-old female, was identified as the gunman’s wife, who was also believed to be pregnant.
Damon Larry, 13, and Leonna Larry, 57, believed to be the gunman’s mother and nephew, were also shot but survived the incident. They were transported to Christ Hospital in Oak Lawn in serious condition. At least one of them is not expected to survive.
“This is a really bad crime scene, really horrendous,” said 8th District Commander John Kupczyk. “We see a lot of crime out here that is really tragic to the community and their families, but something like this is really incomprehensible”.
*The story is about three months old but I still felt that it was worth posting.
A 16-year-old boy accused of shooting his girlfriend to death also shot himself in an attempt to make it look like someone else was responsible, prosecutors said.
Matthew D. DuBois has been charged with second-degree murder in the death of Mikarah Sanders. KOMO News normally does not identify juveniles accused of crimes, but prosecutors have charged DuBois as an adult.
According to court documents, DuBois was angry at Sanders because of a comment that an ex-boyfriend had left on her MySpace page. The two were arguing at an apartment complex at 12445 Ambaum Boulevard SW on New Year’s Eve, and Mikarah was shot once in the face.
Another girl who was in the apartment initially told police that the DuBois was not the gunman, but she later recanted her story and said she lied at DuBois’ request because she was scared of him.
She eventually told investigators that she was in another room when she heard a single gun shot. She looked into the other room and saw DuBois on top of Mikarah, and he told her to call 911, the documents said. The girl said DuBois then shot himself in the shoulder, told her to lie to police, and went to a different apartment.
Mikarah, who had been shot in the head, was rushed to Harborview Medical Center where she later died.
Neighbors have said that the couple argued constantly before the shooting. DuBois has prior juvenile convictions for witness tampering, unlawful posession of a firearm, burglary, and auto theft.
He is currently in serious condition in the intensive care unit at Harborview and is scheduled to be arraigned January 13.
If convicted as charged, he could face up to 25 years in prison, prosecutors said.
This story is ridiculously sad. Although the story below says no killer had been found, you can read the update HERE.
A 27-year-old Temple University student was shot and killed outside of her apartment in Lindenwold Friday night.
Camden County Prosecutors have yet to name a suspect or make an arrest, though family members have a theory as to who murdered the young woman.
Gina Clarke-Lewis was coming home after working at her job as a waitress at Cibo Bistro and Wine Bar in the Philadelphia International Airport when she was shot and killed right outside her apartment door, according to the Camden County Prosecutors Office.
On her way home from work, Clarke-Lewis stopped at Pat’s restaurant in Lindenwold, N.J. to pick up food. Her dinner was lying on her doorstep next to her body when police arrived at about 10 p.m. Friday, according to prosecutors.
Clarke-Lewis’s family believes that the Temple student’s ex-boyfriend shot her, reports the Daily News.
“This was a murder,” Brenda Lewis, Gina’s mother, told the Daily News. “This whole thing was planned out. Every time she moved, he followed her.”
Clarke-Lewis categorized her “mood” on her MySpace page as “stalked” the last time she logged on in January, says the Daily News.
The prosecutor’s office has not commented on any suspects or persons of interest in the murder case yet. Anyone with information should contact Camden County Prosecutor’s Office James
Just hours after friends joyfully toasted them at their engagement party, a couple lay dead on a Jersey City street this morning, shot during what police said was a possible carjacking.
College sweethearts Michael Muchioki, 27, and Nia Haqq, 25, had planned to marry next April, those close to them said. On Saturday evening, the couple celebrated their engagement with friends and family at Delta’s, a soul food restaurant in New Brunswick, and then at a larger gathering at Perle, a club and lounge also in the Middlesex County city.
Afterward, a friend said, they begged off going to a diner, opting to return to Muchioki’s Jersey City apartment in Haqq’s Honda CRV. Police said the couple were shot around 3 a.m., a few doors from Muchioki’s home.
Today, as the news spread, their loved ones, shocked and devastated, arrived at Muchioki’s Randolph Avenue home. Many stood outside crying and hugging one another.
“My heart has been ripped out,” said Muchioki’s mother, Sandra Muchioki. “We will celebrate him (Muchioki) for the rest of our lives.”
Hudson County Prosecutor Edward DeFazio said the couple were found dead near Haqq’s vehicle. Each had been shot twice, each once in the head, he said.
Based on the crime scene and witness statements, authorities believe the couple were approached by three carjackers — a man and two women — after they parked, but that an anti-theft device prevented the car from being easily moved, DeFazio said.
He said the carjackers left the scene in a gold Pontiac Grand Am.
About 12 hours after a mother, her two children and her sister were shot to death inside their Upper 9th Ward home, about a dozen men, women and children packed a relative’s kitchen.
Angel Davis, 25; Jamaria Ross, 7; Joseph Davis, 4; and Malekia Davis, 17, all died from multiple gunshot wounds sometime late Thursday, according to John Gagliano, chief investigator for the Orleans Parish coroner’s office.
Detectives on Friday did not know what circumstances led to the bloodbath. Joseph Ross, the children’s father, aided the investigation through the day, Assistant Police Superintendent Marlon Defillo said.
“We’re working this (case) hard,” Defillo added.
Joseph Ross returned to the family home at 1940 Clouet St. after work Thursday about 11:45 p.m. and found his girlfriend, their children and his girlfriend’s sister lying in separate areas of the home, bleeding badly.
Ross called 911. However, all four died before officers and paramedics could arrive to help them, police said.
“I want my family back,” Ross told an Associated Press reporter outside his home. “They never did nothing to nobody. We don’t do nothing but go to work and come home again.”
Ross told the reporter that the mother of his children was shot while hiding in a closet.
Loved ones gathered at an east Houston church on Saturday for the funeral of 3-year-old Charissa Powell, who was shot and killed on March 21 during an attempted carjacking of her family’s car outside their apartment complex.
Some attended the service at New Bethel Church of God wearing T-shirts reading “little angels depart too soon.” Monique Washington, a cousin of Charissa, remembered the little girl as a “fun loving” and “beautiful little baby.”
Alton Charles Barnes Jr., 24, is charged with capital murder in the slaying, accused of shooting Charissa with an assault rifle during the robbery attempt. Her 1-year-old brother was wounded by bullet fragments, but has since been released from the hospital.
Police have also questioned Johnathan B. Hunter in the case and are searching for a third man.
Investigators suspect the attackers targeted Charissa’s family on Greens Parkway in order to steal the rims from their car’s wheels. But authorities aren’t yet sure if there was more of a motive, police said.
Two gunmen, one armed with an AK-47, approached Charissa’s family as they were getting into their car and demanded the car keys. When the father tried to remove his family from the car, the gunman with the AK-47 started shooting, hitting Charissa in the chest.
Murdered: Christine Boone (pictured above)
*Editors Note: I heard about this killing spree that was taking place in Rocky Mount, NC and was told that it wasn’t receiving much media attention because the women who were missing/found dead were drug addicts and/or prostitutes but they all share something else…they’re all black. You can read about the missing/dead women HERE. Below is another story about a murder thought to be related to the other deaths in the area. Much thanks to Dervin.
The state medical examiner has identified remains found earlier this month in Halifax County as those of a Rocky Mount woman who had been missing since 2006.
Deputies with the Halifax County Sheriff’s Office found the body – identified Friday as 43-year-old Christine Boone – in a wooded area March 5 behind the former Scotland Neck home of Antwan Maurice Pittman.
Authorities arrested Pittman, 31, in September and charged him in the murder of Taraha Nicholson, one of seven other Rocky Mount women found dead in swampy and wooded fields around the east border of the city since 2003.
Boone was among three missing women who fit a similar profile of the seven victims – each was black, had a history of drug abuse and prostitution, and moved through the same social circles, according to family and friends.
Authorities would not say what prompted them to search around the vacant trailer at 98 Nasturtium Lane in Scotland Neck, where Pittman lived as recently as 2006. The residence is a 45-minute drive away from where all the other victims were found.
Boone’s sister, Minnie Jones, said she was overcome by emotion when authorities contacted her Friday. “I was shocked,” Jones said. “I’m hurt, I’m devastated, and I’m mad. I’m very mad.”
A rose colored casket adorned with hundreds of flowers sat at the front of the church. A casket so small that it served as a vivid reminder that inside laid the body of a small defenseless child. Her name was Shaniya Davis. More than two thousand people packed the church, and hundreds peered through the windows to catch a glimpse of the homegoing ceremony. Shaniya’s father, Bradley Lockhart who was not scheduled to speak, got up and encouraged the community to not get angry about the situation because he believed that God had a reason for taking Shaniya so prematurely. He then turned to his daughter’s rose-colored casket and said lovingly “I know you’re going to be waiting for me [in heaven]. I’ll see you when I get there.”
Read The Rest of the Article HERE
A Southern University student died in a shooting in San Francisco early Sunday morning and police are still looking for the gunman.
San Francisco police said Michael Bailey, 26, of Baton Rouge was shot and killed after he and three friends were lured to a housing project by a woman they met at a nightclub.
According to investigators, the men drove the woman to the project near Candlestick Park and were met by a group of robbers.
A police spokesman said Bailey was shot during a verbal altercation. His friends were able to get him back into the car, but he died at San Francisco General Hospital.
Police arrested the woman they believe set up the robbery, but have not released her name. They are still trying to find the man who pulled the trigger.
Bailey was a senior electrical engineering student at Southern. He was the father of two children and his wife was a recent graduate in engineering.
Original Article Found at WAFB
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As an FYI, it has been said HERE that Mr. Bailey was giving Ariael Kittles a ride home as a good deed. The article above reads as though something suspect was going on between the young lady and three men who were in the car.
Six people were found killed inside their Florida home on Saturday evening, local officials said on Sunday morning.
A suspect is being sought after detectives found Mesac Damas’ wife and five young children dead inside their residence in the 800 block of Hampton Circle in North Naples around 6.30 p.m. local time.
The husband of the wife, and the father of the five murdered children, is being sought in connection with the crime. He was identified as Mesac Damas who is 33-years-old. Detectives described Damas as black, 6 feet 2 inches, 230 pounds with short black hair and brown eyes.
According to a Collier County Sheriff’s Office spokeswoman, Damas is possibly driving a black GMC Yukon Denali with Florida license plate M360PR.
Detectives did not immediately release the cause of death for the victims but called it a homicide investigation. One media report cited an official as saying the victims had not been shot but refused to release other information.
Earlier this week, Mesac Damas updated his Facebook status saying: “Good people do not go to heaven, only sinners do! Thank you God I am going to heaven.”
Anyone with information on Damas’ whereabouts is being asked to call the Collier County Sheriff’s Office at (239) 252-9300. If you want to remain anonymous and still be eligible for a reward call Crime Stoppers at 1-800-789-TIPS.
One person was in custody Thursday in connection with the early morning shooting death of a Spelman College student hit by a stray bullet on the campus of nearby Clark Atlanta University.
Jasmine Lynn, a Spelman student in her 20s from Kansas City, Mo., was shot after gunfire broke out during a fight in the 200 block of James P. Brawley Drive, according to police.
Lynn was walking with a group of friends back to the Spelman campus when they passed by the fight.
“One of the friends actually heard the gunshots, actually saw the weapon and told her to get on the ground,” said Lt. Keith Meadows of the Atlanta Police Department. “Before she was able to get on the ground she was struck in the chest by a stray round.”
Bystanders rushed to help Lynn.
“I walked up to the girl ’cause she was laying on the ground,” said witness Danays Marquez. “She was drenched in blood and it looked like she was taking her last breath.”
A bullet also hit an 18-year-old Clark-Atlanta student in the wrist. He was taken to Grady Memorial Hospital.
Police took one person into custody at the scene.
“One individual was apprehended near the scene and is in the custody of Atlanta police,” Spelman officials said in a statement released Thursday morning.
Click HERE for an update on the suspect.
*Editor’s Note: This story was sent to me by someone who went to school with Valicia. The media is not reporting it yet but I have been told by my source that the reason Bernard murdered Valicia was because she was pregnant with his child. Bernard did not wish to have the baby, so rather than being a man and either stepping up to the plate OR foregoing any responsibility to the child (as most deadbeats do), he murders her. It’s sad when people think that their ONLY way out of being responsible is by taking the life of someone else. My heart truly goes out to the family of the victim and may Valicia rest in peace!
UPDATE: The media is now reporting that Valicia was in fact five months pregnant!! Click HERE for more information regarding her death and to see a picture of the suspect, Bernard Bellamy!!
Original Article Found at WUSA Channel 9
The former Student Government Association President at Forestville Military Academy has been arrested and charged with the murder of a classmate.
Prince George’s County Police announced the arrest of 20-year-old Bernard Bellamy of the 700 block of Quade Street in Oxon Hill, Maryland. He was arrested Monday morning at West Virginia State University where he is currently a student.
Bellamy is charged with the murder of 19-year-old Valicia Andrea Demery whose body was found on the track circling the football field of Forestville Military Academy in Maryland early Sunday morning. She died of trauma to the upper body, according to police.
Bellamy and Valencia Demery graduated at the same time from the Forestville Military Academy and were dating, according to Demery’s family. Demery was pregnant with Bellamy’s child, according to her father, Garrett Demery.
Bellamy had been “harassing” Demery with text messages in recent days, her father said.
Police describe the murder as an incident of domestic violence.
Bellamy is a psychology major enrolled in ROTC at West Virginia State University outside Charleston, according to his parents.
He was due to depart for U.S. Army basic training later this month, his parents said.
Bellamy’s parents believed he was in West Virginia all weekend, according to his father Bernard Bellamy Sr. The family said their son had dated Demery and gone to the prom with her in high school, but they had not seen her since October of 2008.
While a student at Forestville Military Academy, Bellamy was a president of the Student Government Association and captain of both the basketball and golf teams, according to his parents.
Original Article Found at M-Live
Like any teenager who longed for freedom might do, Tanika Heard was saving her money to pay for driver’s training.
The 10th-grader at Comstock Alternative High School, who had just turned 16 on Tuesday, had gotten a job cleaning the house of Nicholas Arbutina, having responded to a newspaper advertisement he had placed for cleaning help about a year ago, her family members said.
On Thursday, police were trying to piece together just what happened early Wednesday night at Arbutina’s residence near Galesburg that prompted a murder-suicide that left Tanika and the 67-year-old Arbutina dead.
Arbutina fired several rounds from a shotgun, killing Tanika and wounding 15-year-old Brianna Washington, before turning the gun on himself at 10545 Miller Drive, said Detective Sgt. Jim VanDyken of the Kalamazoo County Sheriff’s Office.
Brianna, also a 10th-grader at Comstock Alternative High School, was wounded in the torso and was listed in stable condition Thursday at Bronson Methodist Hospital, VanDyken said.
Family members on Thursday remembered Tanika as the ringleader among her cousins, the one who loved being in charge and would order her younger cousins to sit at miniature-size desks and then play school.
“They just worshipped her. She was so affectionate,” said her grandmother, Wendy Wilkerson, of Parchment. “She had a heart as big as the moon.”
Tanika is survived by her parents, Walter Heard and Kellie Burbank, both of Kalamazoo, and three siblings: Ashley Roe-Burbank, 19; Walter Heard Jr., 22; and Shawn Heard, 19.
Comstock Public Schools Superintendent Sandy Standish said the school had a crisis team available to aid students and staff members Thursday and would again today.
“We’re very saddened. This is a sad day for the district,” Standish said.
A Florida man has been charged with first-degree murder after authorities say he threw a 3-month-old boy out of a moving car on a Tampa interstate.
Richard Anthony McTear Jr., 21, was arrested Tuesday, hours after a confrontation at his former girlfriend’s apartment in which he snatched the child, the Hillsborough County sheriff’s office said.
A passing motorist found Emanuel Wesley Murray’s body on the interstate. An autopsy determined the child died of blunt trauma to the head, the county medical examiner’s office said.
Video on CNN affiliate WFLA TV showed McTear being led out of a Tampa police squad car after his arrest. He ducked his head as TV cameras surrounded him on his walk into a police building.
When asked by reporters if he had thrown the child out of the car window, McTear answered, “It’s a dirty game. A dirty game.”
McTear is not related to the child, said sheriff’s spokeswoman Debbie Carter.
Police had been called to his former girlfriend’s apartment about 3:15 a.m. The mother, Jasmine Bedwell, 18, told investigators that McTear had hit her several times and threatened “to kill the both of y’all,” the sheriff’s department said in a statement announcing the charges.
McTear threw a car seat containing the child across the room during the fight, causing the boy to fall onto the apartment’s concrete floor, investigators said. He then picked up the boy and drove off in his blue Chevrolet Impala, throwing the child out while on the interstate, the sheriff’s department said.
The child’s body was found around 4:30 a.m.
McTear is facing additional charges of burglary with battery, felony battery, aggravated child abuse and kidnapping, the sheriff’s department said.
*Editor’s Note: Another victim of domestic abuse. May she rest in peace!
Original Article Found at ABC Local
Fertamia Smith, 35, was last seen by her family on Sunday morning. Her body was found Wednesday night West 68th Street in Chicago’s Hamilton Park community.
She died of a gunshot wound to the chest, according to the Cook County Medical Examiner’s Office.
Smith’s ex-boyfriend, who is the father to her four children, turned himself in to police, but did not admit any wrongdoing. He has not been identified because murder charges are pending against him.
“My sister was a good woman. She didn’t deserve to be put in the back of a trunk,” said Desiree Fleming, victim’s sister.
Fleming said her sister was going to borrow her ex-boyfriend’s car so she could get to church on Sunday. She was last seen getting into his Taurus, the same car in which her body was found on Wednesday night. Smith never made it to the service.
“She was supposed to go drop him off at his house. But she never made it to church,” said Fleming. “I want people to know she wasn’t going to church with him, she wasn’t with him.”
She was reported missing on Tuesday after she did not show up for work on Monday. Her body was discovered after Smith’s ex-boyfriend gave his car keys to an attorney and told him where to find the body.
“The offender then subsequently relinquished himself to the authorities at area one and turned himself in. The police went to the vehicle, opened up the trunk and did find the deceased in the trunk,” said Dep. Chief Richard Blass, Bellwood Police Department.
Bellwood police said the suspect has not admitted to any guilt. Smith’s family says he allegedly abused Smith for years.
“My sister survived abuse, approximately 10 years, 11 years of abuse at his hands,” said Fleming.
“I had this talk with her on Saturday night about 11:30ish and she was telling me about how he began to get possessive again and how he had pulled a gun on her like two weeks ago,” said Odean Paige, victim’s relative.
About a year ago, Smith filed an order of protection against her ex-boyfriend. However, it was terminated a month later.
Smith is survived by her four children- three boys and one girl.
*Editor’s Note: Such a tragedy. Both the victim and the suspect (who turned the gun on himself) were vloggers on Youtube. You can find her page HERE & a video clip of the suspect HERE. May she rest in peace.
Original Article Found at Detroit News
Police are trying to piece together what led a 28-year-old male student to carry a shotgun into a classroom at Henry Ford Community College where he shot and killed a 20-year-old aspiring actress before turning the gun on himself Friday.
Police wouldn’t comment on the couple’s relationship, but said Anthony Powell of Detroit shot Asia McGowan of Ecorse before committing suicide.
The two had at least one class together — a theater class held earlier Friday, according to police.
Aveah McGowan said Friday evening that her sister had spoken of Powell.
“I think they were just seeing each other,” 22-year-old Aveah McGowan said by phone from Ecorse.
But the girls’ father, Turahn McGowan, said he had never heard of Powell.
“She was beautiful, an aspiring actress and dancer,” said Turahn McGowan, who added that his daughter had planned to try out for the Fox network’s “So You Think You Can Dance” talent competition.
Little is known about Powell. No one answered the phone at his Detroit home Friday.
Anthony Powell was listed as one of Asia McGowan’s 800 friends on Facebook.com, a social networking Web site.
On Friday night multiple messages of shock and disbelief were left on McGowan’s page.
“I can’t believe that such a sweet and beautiful person is gone just like that,” one wrote.
Student Carolyn Cajas, 39, of Dearborn said she had recently performed in a play “Wisdom and Wonder” with McGowan. “It’s going to affect us all here. We’re like family,” she said.
Some students were able to leave the campus quickly when word spread of the shooting.
Other students and faculty were confined to classrooms when the college enforced a campuswide lockdown. Classes have been canceled until Monday.
First-year nursing student Julia Barhoumeh was in the building next door to the Fine Arts Center where the shooting occurred.
A student ran into the building warning them a man with a gun was near.
“Everyone started running out of the building,” said Barhoumeh, a 21-year-old Dearborn Heights resident. “I just ran. I didn’t know if I was going to be the next target.”
Shortly after 12:30 p.m., police responded to a call that initially described an assault with shots fired, said Gregg Brighton, Dearborn deputy police chief.
A team of cops entered a south hallway and heard another gunshot, Brighton said. Officers entered a classroom and discovered the two bodies. Police say McGowan was alone in the room when she was shot.
By the time the police officer kicked the door in, it was too late. Kerby Revelus was holding his 5-year-old sister, Bianca, and while the officer watched, he dragged a kitchen knife across her throat with such fury that he decapitated her.
“It’s hard to imagine that kind of horror,” said Milton, Massachusetts, Police Chief Richard G. Wells Jr.
Mere seconds passed before other officers arrived and rushed into the home in the tony Boston suburb of 25,000.
Police had received a 911 call from another Revelus sibling, 17-year-old Samantha. Suffering from several deep cuts in her upper body, she was losing strength.
“It was clear that she knew she was mortally wounded,” Wells said.
Samantha managed to explain that her 23-year-old brother had attacked his sisters with a knife, police said. When she was no longer able to keep talking, the injured teen handed her 9-year-old sister, Sarafina Revelus, the phone.
All the while, the kids’ grandmother was doing laundry in the basement, apparently unaware of the savagery upstairs, police said. Mother Regina Revelus was at work, and father Vronze Revelus was not at home.
As officers surrounded the home and rushed into every room, Kerby ran into a bedroom where Samantha was on the floor, dead. Sarafina was on the floor near her sister’s body, according to Wells.
Kerby Revelus then began attacking Sarafina with the knife, Wells said, prompting police to open fire and kill him.
On Tuesday, the two slain siblings and their attacker were buried together. Sarafina Revelus returned home Tuesday after undergoing surgery Monday morning for wounds.
It was not the first time police have visited the home answering a domestic violence call, Wells said.
In September 2004, Kerby Revelus was arrested for punching one of his sisters in the face as they fought about money, the chief said. The Boston Herald identified the sibling as Jessica Revelus, who was not in the home during Saturday’s attack.
Original Article Found at LA Times News
On the last afternoon of his life, Bernard Monroe was hosting a cookout for family and friends in front of his dilapidated home in this small northern Louisiana town.
Throat cancer had left the 73-year-old retired electric utility worker unable to talk, but family members said he clearly was enjoying the commotion of a dozen of his grandchildren and great-grandchildren cavorting in the grassless yard.
Then the Homer police showed up, two white officers whose arrival caused the participants at the black family’s gathering to fall silent.
Within moments, Monroe was dead, shot by one of the officers as his family looked on.
Now the Louisiana State Police, the FBI and the Justice Department are swarming over this impoverished lumber town of 3,800, drawn by allegations from numerous witnesses that police killed Monroe without justification — and then moved a gun to make it look like he had been holding it.
“We are closely monitoring the events in Homer,” said Donald Washington, the U.S. attorney for the western district of Louisiana. “I understand that a number of allegations are being made that, if true, would be serious enough for us to follow up on very quickly.”
Monroe’s friends and relatives say they still don’t understand why the neighborhood patriarch ended up dead.
Four witnesses said he was sitting outside his home in the late afternoon on Feb. 20 — clutching a large sports-drink bottle — when two police officers pulled up and summoned over his son, Shawn.
Shawn Monroe, who has a long record of arrests and convictions on charges of assault and battery but was not wanted on any warrants, reportedly ran into the house.
One of the officers, who had been on Homer’s police force only a few weeks, chased after him and reappeared moments later in the doorway, the witnesses said.
Meanwhile, the elder Monroe had started walking toward the front door. When he got to the first step on the porch, the witnesses said, the rookie officer opened fire, striking Monroe several times.
“He just shot him through the screen door,” said Denise Nicholson, a family friend who said she was standing a few feet away. “After [Monroe] was on the ground, we kept asking the officer to call an ambulance, but all he did was get on his radio and say, ‘Officer in distress.’ “
The witnesses said the second officer picked up a handgun that Monroe, an avid hunter, always kept in plain sight on the porch for protection. Using a latex glove, the officer grasped the gun by its handle, the witnesses said, and ordered everyone to back away. The next thing they said they saw was the gun next to Monroe’s body.
“I saw him pick up the gun off the porch,” Marcus Frazier said. “I said, ‘What are you doing?’ The cop told me, ‘Shut the hell up, you don’t know what you’re talking about.’ “
Homer police maintain Monroe was holding a loaded gun when he was shot, but would not comment further.
The shooting took place amid long-standing tensions between police and the residents of Monroe’s crime-plagued neighborhood.
“People here are afraid of the police,” said Terry Willis, vice president of the Homer branch of the National Assn. for the Advancement of Colored People. “They harass black people, they stop people for no reason and rough them up without charging them with anything.”
That is how it should be, responded Homer Police Chief Russell Mills, who noted the high rates of gun and drug arrests in the neighborhood.
“If I see three or four young black men walking down the street, I have to stop them and check their names,” said Mills, who is white. “I want them to be afraid every time they see the police that they might get arrested.
“We’re not out there trying to abuse and harass people — we’re trying to protect the law-abiding citizens locked behind their doors in fear.”
