Free Republic

Police in Fort Worth, Texas, are blaming “poor lighting” after two officers went to the wrong home in search of a possible burglar and ended up shooting a 72-year-old man dead in his garage. The officers, who are both in their first year with Fort Worth PD, were responding to a burglary alarm on May 28 when the tragic mistake occurred. “Due to poor lighting conditions, and officers attempting to arrive on the scene undetected,” the cops approached the home of Jerry Waller by mistake, according to an affidavit. The house they were actually supposed to go to was across...

Detective Hassan Hamdy made the split-second decision to fire a single fatal shot at an unarmed motorist during an early morning traffic stop on a highway in Queens because he thought the driver was reaching for a gun, according to the detective’s lawyer. The driver, Noel Polanco, 22, did not comply with Detective Hamdy’s orders to put his hands up, instead reaching “down in a quick motion, down on the floor of the car,” said lawyer Philip Karasyk, representing the detective. Detective Hamdy twice yelled “Police!” and was wearing a heavy vest with the word “police” written across it, Mr....

A New York police detective shot and killed an unarmed man, whose hands, a witness said, were on the steering wheel of his Honda, after he had been pulled over early Thursday for cutting off two police trucks on the Grand Central Parkway in Queens, the authorities said....The shooting, which occurred at 5:15 a.m., was the latest in a series of episodes in which police officers fatally shot or wounded civilians...A passenger in Mr. Polanco’s car, Diane Deferrari, said in a phone interview Thursday night that just before pulling the car over, officers appeared irate that Mr. Polanco had cut...

An Army reservist with a clean record was fatally shot in his car by an NYPD detective early Thursday — before he even had “a chance to put his hands up” in surrender, a witness told the Daily News. Noel Polanco, 22, was killed on the Grand Central Parkway in what witness Diane DeFerrari called an act of “pure road rage” following a terrifying chase by cops in an unmarked vehicle. “Noel didn't have a chance to put his hands up. They screamed, ‘Put up your hands!’ and shot at the same time,” said DeFerrari, a 36-year-old bartender who was...

By AUDREY BARNES/myfoxdc CULPEPER, Va. - Investigators are trying to figure out what led to a police shooting that killed a 54-year-old woman in Culpeper. A telephone pole on North East Street is where police say the confrontation between Patricia Cook and a five-year veteran of the Town of Culpeper Police Department ended. Ironically, it began about 75 yards up the street outside of the church Cook attended. And if you had to pick a person least likely to be shot and killed by police, the victim's next door neighbor said it would be Patricia Cook. “She’s always talked really...

RAPID CITY, S.D (AP) -- A western South Dakota police officer was killed and two others were seriously wounded after a shootout with a man during a routine stop, authorities said late Tuesday. Officer James Ryan McCandless, 28, was pronounced dead at a local hospital, Rapid City Police Chief Steve Allender said. Officer Nick Armstrong, 27, was in critical condition after undergoing surgery, and the third officer, who was shot in the side of the face, was listed as stable. His name hasn't been released. Gunfire erupted about 10 minutes after the three officers approached four people at an intersection....

SEATTLE - The city of Seattle has reached a $1.5 million settlement of claims brought by the family of slain woodcarver John T. Williams, who was shot dead by Seattle Police Officer Ian Birk last August. The settlement was reached after a mediation involving representatives of the John T. Williams estate, Williams’ mother and the city. The Williams family, which earlier failed in its attempts to get criminal charges filed against Birk, expressed relief that the matter could be resolved early without extended and costly litigation. "This is one step towards justice, but it is only a step. Nothing can...

LAS VEGAS -- The coroner's inquest into the fatal shooting of an unarmed man by a Las Vegas police officer will continue Saturday. During the inquest Friday, Sequoia Pearce, the fiancé of 21-year-old Trevon Cole, told a jury of seven that she and Cole had tried to surrender when police stormed their northeast valley apartment. Authorities said Det. Bryan Yant, 34, shot and killed Cole when he made a sudden move during a search of Cole’s apartment the night of June 11. Yant and other officers suspected Cole was dealing marijuana from the residence. Cole was unarmed and his family...

LAS VEGAS- In a circle in the corner of the Summerlin Costco parking lot, friends and strangers lit candles in memory of 39-year-old Erik Scott. "There's nothing we can do to bring Erik back," yelled one speaker. "But, there is something we can do to change the system." They stood shoulder to shoulder, firmly believing the West Point and Duke University graduate did not deserve to die. "I know Erik," said his friend Ivan Sher. "I know him really well. I know his disposition, and there is no possible way that what was represented could have actually happened."

LAS VEGAS -- Family members and friends are planning a vigil to mark the one-month anniversary of the Las Vegas police slaying of a man in front of a membership warehouse store. The 9 p.m. Tuesday event is part of an ongoing family campaign to highlight the July 10 death of 38-year-old Erik Scott by police just outside the Costco store in Summerlin. Police say Scott had a gun and the three officers who shot Scott were responding to reports of a man ripping merchandise inside the store. Family members say Scott had a concealed weapons permit, and police should...

HUNTINGTON BEACH – Spectators at Sunday's U.S. Open of Surfing might see this message flying over the ocean: "Vegas police cover up? R.I.P. Erik B. Scott.com." Here's what it means: Family and friends have paid for a plane to fly a banner near the municipal pier in an attempt to gain national attention for Scott's death and in hopes of getting answers to some questions. Scott, a West Point graduate with an MBA from Duke, was killed in an officer-involved shooting at a Las Vegas Costco on July 10, and family and friends say they have little information about what...

... An attorney for Scott's family is outraged, but Clark County District Attorney David Roger says there's a legitimate reason for the delay. Roger says for reasons beyond Metro's control, the original coroner's inquest date simply won't work. ... But now that the inquest has been postponed, Scott's family still doesn't know when they'll finally be allowed to see that videotape. "We're now going on three weeks. What could possibly be a legitimate reason not to produce the video and 911 recording," asked Goodman.

Police surround Seattle home where person of interest in police shooting may be hiding A SWAT team and police negotiators surrounded a Leschi home in Seattle where the man sought for questioning in the Lakewood police shooting may be hiding. By Seattle Times staff A SWAT team and police negotiators surrounded a Leschi home in Seattle where the man sought for questioning in the Lakewood police shooting may be hiding. Police responded to the home at East Yesler Way and 32nd Avenue South where police stopped a woman who was leaving the home. She told them Maurice Clemmons was on...

Nearly three months before her fatal stand-off with Rock Hill Police, 15-year-old Yvette Williams had enrolled in a program to help young people get out of gangs. Williams was the first student to sign up with Project GO — short for Gang Out — in Rock Hill. The middle-schooler had some gang affiliations, said Project GO executive director A.V. Strong, but she was working hard to get out. Strong said he last saw Williams at a church workshop, and he spoke Tuesday at her funeral. Strong, who supervises the statewide program from Columbia, said the teen was making progress. He...

A 28-year-old Atlanta man was shot by an off-duty Atlanta police officer Tuesday night, but accounts vary as to what led to the conflict. Atlanta Police Lt. Keith Meadows said an officer, working security at the Cityviews Apartments on Richardson Street, saw what he believed to be a “suspicious” person and when the officer approached the man ran to his car. The officer approached the “The subject reached under his seat and the officer felt threatened,” Meadows said. The officer fired a single shot to the face. No weapons were found on the man, Meadows said. The wounded man had...

SNYDERSVILLE (PA) — A 75-year-old man is in surgery in Lehigh Valley Hospital after being shot five times during an armed confrontation with state police in his residence. Police were called to 4103 Manor Drive shortly after midnight for a report of shots fired. They talked to Hagen's roommate, whose name has not been released, and were told Hagen was recently diagnosed with dementia and displayed erratic behavior during the past few days. Hagen was in his bedroom with the door closed. Police said they could hear him calling out different names. Police knocked on the door and entered cautiously....

Cops Acquitted In Sean Bell Shooting Death Judge Clears Three NYPD Detectives Of All Charges In Nov. 2006 Incident NEW YORK (CBS) ― A judge has acquitted three NYPD detectives of all charges in the shooting death of 23-year-old Sean Bell on Friday. Bell was gunned down in a hail of 50 bullets outside a Queens strip club on what would have been his wedding day in November 2006. The highly anticipated verdict, which many see as holding far-reaching social ramifications for New York City and its police force, comes after seven weeks worth of testimony without a jury. Detectives...

Fresno Police are investigating an officer involved shooting which occurred in Northwest Fresno on Monday.

May 23, 2007 -- Officer Raphael Lora fatally shot a Bronx driver only after the man pulled his car door shut against the off-duty cop's body and began driving away - making Lora fear he would be run over and killed, sources told The Post. "He thought the only way to stop the vehicle was to stop the guy," said a person familiar with Lora's account of shooting Fermin Arzu, 41, Friday. The killing of Honduran immigrant Arzu remains the subject of pending NYPD and Bronx DA investigations. Supporters claim that the shooting was justified because Lora, 37, was in...

Feds detail woman's death, officers' plea Published on: 04/27/07 According to federal documents released Thursday, these are the events that led to Kathryn Johnston's death and the steps the officers took to cover their tracks. Three narcotics agents were trolling the streets near the Bluffs in northwest Atlanta, a known market for drugs, midday on the Tuesday before Thanksgiving. Eventually they set their sights on some apartments on Lanier Street, usually fertile when narcotics agents are looking for arrests and seizures. Gregg Junnier and another narcotics officer went inside the apartments around 2 p.m. while Jason Smith checked the woods....