Terrence Sterling Death Ruled A Homicide

leftcoastkev wrote: »

Damn it's so many names on the wall covered nationally recently they all starting to run together

Alton Sterling
Terrance Sterling
Terrance Crutcher

I had to think twice so I wasn't confused.


Damn shame.

Attorneys for family of man shot by D.C. police allege shooting was unjustified

An attorney for the family of a man fatally shot by D.C. police alleged Thursday that Terrence Sterling was killed “unlawfully and unjustifiably” and said his family wants more details about the incident.

Jason Downs, the attorney, said video viewed by Sterling’s family shows a union representative arriving on the scene before paramedics. Downs said the family wants to know how quickly emergency medical help was summoned, and why the union representative apparently arrived first.

Sterling, 31, was shot early the morning of Sept. 11 after police said he intentionally drove his motorcycle into a police cruiser. Police said there was a report that a motorcycle was driving erratically.

During the Thursday news conference at the Thurgood Marshall Center in Northwest, the lawyers said the Sterling family is grateful to people who have held small demonstrations in the city, and asked that those remain peaceful. Sterling’s family members stood with the lawyers but his parents, sister and aunt declined to comment.

Several new developments unfolded in the case in recent days, as other cities across the country, such as Charlotte and Tulsa, have been reeling with their own fatal shootings by police.

D.C. Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D) this week publicly released police body camera video of the aftermath of the shooting. The mayor’s office, in a departure from police policy, also released the name of the officer who shot Sterling. He was identified as Brian Trainer, a 27-year-old who has been with the department for four years.

Attorneys for Sterling’s family praised the mayor’s office for releasing the video and officer’s identity, but insisted they needed more information. “We think there is a coverup,” said attorney William “Billy” Murphy, a founder of Murphy, Falcon & Murphy. The firm also represented the family of Freddie Gray, the Baltimore man who died in April 2015 after being injured while in police custody.

“You have another unarmed black man killed by a police officer not only in D.C. and Baltimore, but across this country,” Downs added. Trainer is white, the attorneys said.

The Bowser administration has said it is seeking to be as open as possible during the ongoing investigation.

“We understand this is a very sensitive matter,” LaToya Foster, a spokeswoman for Bowser, said Thursday. “The mayor is always committed to transparency and accountability.”

Foster said the city is working to “answer all concerns and questions that are being raised.”

On Tuesday, the city showed the Sterling family the video from the body camera that Trainer was wearing.

The video, which lasts about five minutes, does not show the shooting because Trainer did not activate his body camera until one to three minutes after he shot Sterling, city officials said. The footage shows Sterling lying in the street near his bike, bleeding, as the officers perform CPR.

Downs said city officials also showed the Sterling family a segment of the body camera video that was not released publicly. He said it shows a person who identifies herself as a union representative arriving. He said the representative tells Trainer to turn off his body camera, after he says it is activated.

D.C. police on Wednesday referred all questions to the mayor’s office. In an interview earlier this week, D.C. police spokesman Dustin Sternbeck said the department is “committed to a fair and thorough investigative process.”

The police union declined to comment.

The Sept. 11 incident began about 4:20 a.m. when officers got a call about a motorcycle driving erratically in the Adams Morgan area. Later, police saw the motorcycle near Third and M streets in Northwest, near the Third Street Tunnel.

Sterling’s family said Thursday that they believe he was headed to his Fort Washington, Md., home. They said he had worked as an HVAC technician for several years.

Officials said Trainer was trying to exit the passenger’s side of a marked cruiser to stop Sterling. But at that point, according to police, Sterling drove the motorcycle into the passenger door and Trainer fired his weapon.

The District’s Office of the Chief Medical Examiner said it had ruled Sterling’s death a homicide. The office said Sterling had bullet wounds in his neck and back, but did not say how many times he was shot.

Trainer and his partner, who was driving the marked squad car, have been placed on paid administrative leave, which is standard in such police-involved shootings.

The Sterling case is being handled by a unit within the U.S. attorney’s office that investigates excessive force allegations against law enforcement.

After Sterling’s shooting, police updated the department’s policy on body cameras, and officers now are required to confirm with dispatchers that their cameras are on when they respond to calls.

D.C. police officer will not face criminal charges in 2016 fatal shooting of motorcyclist

Federal prosecutors will not file criminal charges against a D.C. police officer who shot and killed an unarmed motorcyclist last year, saying they did not find enough evidence to bring charges, the U.S. Attorney’s Office announced Wednesday.

Officer Brian Trainer was a passenger in a police cruiser early the morning of Sept. 11, 2016 when he and a partner blocked the path of a motorcycle driven by Terrence Sterling, a 31-year-old from Fort Washington, Md.

Trainer, 28, with four years on the force, shot Sterling after police said the motorcyclist intentionally drove into the cruiser door as the officer was climbing out. Sterling was not armed with a weapon.

Questions were immediately raised over the circumstances of the shooting, partly because neither Trainer nor his partner activated their body worn cameras until one to three minutes after the shooting. In an unusual move, D.C. Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D) broke with police policy and ordered Trainer to be publicly identified to demonstrate transparency amid concern from the public.

Trainer, who is on administrative leave, will now face an internal investigation into whether his conduct before and at the time of the shooting conformed with department policy.

No D.C. police officer has ever been charged criminally for a fatal on-duty shooting, according to a city-sponsored, 2016 report on the District’s police shootings entitled The Durability of Police Reform: The Metropolitan Police Department and Use of Force. The report was commissioned by D.C. Auditor Kathleen Patterson.

Though Sterling’s case never gained the national attention of some other police shootings of unarmed suspects across the country, marches and vigils were held in the area in the weeks and months after Sterling’s death.

His family believes that on the night of his death, Sterling, a motorcycle enthusiast who worked as an HVAC technician, was headed to the Prince George’s County home he shared with his parents.

The District’s medical examiner’s office said Sterling suffered gunshot wounds to his neck and his back. Sterling’s family, after reviewing the autopsy report, said Sterling was shot twice.

Sterling’s family filed a $50 million lawsuit against the District and its police department. The family is represented by Jason Downs, the Baltimore attorney who works for Murphy, Falcon & Murphy, the same firm that represented the family of Freddie Gray, the Baltimore man who died in April 2015 after being injured while in police custody.

In the lawsuit, the Sterling family alleges that Trainer and his partner may have violated multiple D.C. police regulations. They question whether the officers improperly chased Sterling, whether the police cruiser was improperly used as a barricade and whether Trainer may have improperly fired at a moving vehicle or improperly fired from within a cruiser.

The altercation between Sterling and police began around 4:20 a.m. on Sept. 11 when officers got a call about a motorcycle driving erratically in the Adams Morgan area. Later, police saw the motorcycle near Third and M streets in Northwest, near the Third Street Tunnel, and pulled into an intersection ahead of the biker.

Police said Trainer was trying to exit the passenger’s side of a marked cruiser to stop Sterling. But at that point, according to police, Sterling drove the motorcycle into the passenger door and Trainer fired his weapon.

Two witnesses interviewed by The Washington Post in the weeks after the incident said that the crash did not appear deliberate and they thought that Sterling was trying to move around the police car.

One of the witnesses, Howard Dorsey Jr., was sitting at a stoplight near where the shooting occurred. He said he saw Sterling straddling his motorcycle prior to the shooting and then walked the cycle into the crosswalk ahead. Seconds later, Dorsey said, a police car pulled into the intersection in front of them, blocking the left lane.

Dorsey said the motorcyclist accelerated to between 5 mph and 10 mph. The right lane was open, he said, but the biker steered left.

Just then, a police officer opened the front passenger door a few inches, Dorsey said. He said the motorcycle’s front tire hit the door with enough force to dent it, but no more.

“That’s when he let off the shots,” said Dorsey, who said he heard two or three shots. “The cops said no words, nothing. No ‘freeze.’ ”

After the incident, Bowser released Trainer’s body camera video, showing the aftermath of the shooting.

Both officers were placed on administrative leave.

The shooting prompted D.C. police to update their policy on body cameras, and officers are now required to confirm with dispatchers that their cameras are on when they respond to calls.

D.C. police have fatally shot nine people since 2015, though police in other agencies such as Metro Transit and federal agencies are responsible for at least four other deaths during that period.

The number of people shot by D.C. police has dropped since the 1990s, when a Washington Post investigation revealed that District officers in that decade shot and killed more people per resident than any other large U.S. police force.

In 1998, for example, D.C. officers shot 32 people, killing 12 of them. In 2015, D.C. officers shot nine people, killing three of them. In 2016, D.C. officers shot 11 people, killing four of them. And this year, two people have been killed by D.C. officers.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District has investigated at least 31 fatal shootings involving police from the District and other agencies since 2011. In all those cases, the officers were not charged or the shootings remain under investigation.