Posted on 04/21/2006 9:35:10 AM PDT by Al Gator
Fatal shooting pits tribe against police The Ramapoughs call it murder. Authorities say it was justified.
By Wayne Parry Associated Press
MAHWAH, N.J. - The gathering started, as it does each spring, with members of the Ramapough Lenape Indian tribe meeting for a cookout and a day in the Bergen County woods, celebrating the warming weather and the beauty of the earth.
The April 1 outing ended with one of the tribe members mortally wounded, shot three times by a state park police officer who had told them that they were not allowed to ride their all-terrain vehicles in the area.
The death 10 days later of Emil Mann, 45, of Monroe, N.Y., has tensions running high, with the tribe decrying years of bias, state officials pleading for calm, and a grand jury investigating whether the shooting of the unarmed man was justified.
"It's murder," said Rodney Van Dunk, a cousin of the tribal chief. "Even a bear doesn't get shot three times."
But the attorney for rookie Officer Chad Walder said his client had used deadly force because he feared Mann was trying to grab his gun.
"He feels terrible about what he had to do," lawyer Robert Galantucci said. "He was ambushed, and he had to protect himself and his lieutenant."
The facts of the shooting on Stag Hill, about 27 miles northwest of Manhattan, are in dispute. Authorities contend that four state park police officers were patrolling near Ramapo Mountain State Forest when one saw Otis Mann, a cousin of the dead man, riding an ATV and asked him to stop. Otis Mann then rode away.
About 20 minutes later, officials said, Lt. Kelly Gottheiner saw Otis Mann and said she planned to arrest him.
(Excerpt) Read more at philly.com ...
I believe that "he was going for my gun" is a convenient excuse for LEOs when they screw up.
Thanks for trying to clear that up. I know it is a really confused set of circumstances surrounding it.
I used to fish with a guy around there. I only knew him as "Eddie". Scary guy, scary friends. Once you got to know them though, nice people.
My nephew said it best. If a tribe on a reservation is truly a sovereign nation, why is there no American Embassy?
Technically, the Department of the Interior is just that.
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