Skip to main content

Body Camera Footage Shows US Police Shooting Dead Unarmed Black Woman

New body camera footage released by the Illinois State Police shows officers shooting dead an unarmed Black woman in her home after she called for help over a possible intruder.

In the United States, where police shootings of minorities have become painfully common and polarizing events, the killing has attracted national attention, with President Joe Biden saying Sonya Massey "should be alive today."

So far one of the police officers involved in this case has been charged with murder.

Massey, 36, called 911 to report a possible intruder at her home, with police arriving after midnight July 6, according to the Sangamon County Sheriff's Office.

In video footage released Monday, Massey is seen talking to two officers in her home, while they ask for ID and she searches through paperwork.

The sheriff's deputies then ask her to check on a pot of boiling water on her stove, saying "we don't need a fire while we're here."

When one of the deputies steps back, Massey asks why, and he responds with a laugh: "away from your hot steaming water."

Holding the pot, Massey calmly responds "Oh, I rebuke you in the name of Jesus" -- prompting a deputy to respond "You better fucking not. I swear to God I'll fucking shoot you at your fucking face," drawing his weapon.

Apologizing, Massey crouches behind a counter as officers scream "drop the fucking pot." They then round the corner of the counter and open fire.

Afterward, one of the officers said they were afraid of "taking fucking boiling water to the fucking head."

Officer Sean Grayson, who is white, has been charged with murder.

Biden on Monday called Massey "a beloved mother, friend, daughter, and young Black woman."

"When we call for help, all of us as Americans -- regardless of who we are or where we live -- should be able to do so without fearing for our lives," he said in a statement.

High-profile civil rights attorney Ben Crump, representing the family of Massey, called it "one of the worst videos of a police shooting ever."

Police shootings and brutality -- especially instances of white on Black violence in a country with a long history of discrimination -- often attract outrage and protests in the United States, as well as defenses and pushback from ardent police supporters.

America's decentralized policing system, where individual towns and counties are responsible for their own policing, means there are no national training requirements and this makes reform extremely difficult.

Adding to complications, the United States is home to more guns than people, meaning police often train for violent encounters with the general public.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)



from NDTV News-World-news https://ift.tt/nYUM8Bd

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Sri Lanka Must Achieve Debt Restructuring By September: IMF

The International Monetary Fund on Tuesday reaffirmed that Sri Lanka must achieve its debt restructuring process by September, which is also the time for the global lender's formal review of the bailout facility it extended to the cash-strapped nation. On March 20, IMF extended a nearly $3 billion bailout facility to debt-ridden Sri Lanka that would help stabilise the country's economy after it was jolted by a devastating economic crisis last year. In a statement issued on Tuesday at the end of a nearly two weeks staff visit to Colombo to assess the progress made by Sri Lanka since the agreement was reached, the IMF said the two sides had discussed the developments on debt restructuring. "Sri Lanka must achieve debt restructuring by its first review due in September. We also discussed progress on debt restructuring, noting the ongoing discussions with both foreign and domestic creditors," the statement read. Sri Lanka is still struggling to normalise its crisis-hi...
Post a Comment
Read more

Amazon Rainforest Tribe's Secret To Healthy Life And Slow Ageing Revealed

Deep in the Amazon rainforest, a semi-nomadic indigenous community is thriving. This community defies conventional norms on ageing and health. The Tsimanes, consisting of 16,000 people, live a fully subsistence lifestyle, relying on hunting, foraging and farming to survive. Scientists have been studying this unique group for two decades, and have uncovered remarkable findings till now. Martina Canchi Nate, an 84-year-old Tsimanes woman, digs up yucca trees, cuts down plantain trees and carries heavy loads with ease, faster than her younger companions, as per a BBC report. This level of physical activity is not unusual among Tsimanes of her age. Researchers have discovered that this group has the healthiest arteries ever studied and brains that age more slowly than those in North America, Europe and elsewhere. The Tsimanes' secret lies in their active lifestyle, with an average of 16,000 to 17,000 steps per day. They spend less than 10 percent of daylight hours in sedentary activ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Egypt Unveils First Ancient Royal Tomb Since Tutankhamun In 1922

Egypt's antiquities authority says it has found the ancient tomb of King Thutmose II, the first royal burial to be located since the famed discovery of Tutankhamun's tomb in 1922. The tomb, discovered near the Valley of the Kings in Luxor in southern Egypt, belonged to King Thutmose II of the 18th dynasty, who lived nearly 3,500 years ago. Thutmose II was an ancestor to Tutankhamun himself, and his half-sister and queen consort was Pharaoh Hatshepsut. Her giant mortuary temple stands on the west bank of the Nile at Luxor a few kilometres (miles) from where the tomb of Thutmose II was found. Although preliminary studies suggest its contents were moved in ancient times -- leaving the tomb without the iconic mummy or gilded splendour of the Tutankhamun find -- the antiquities ministry on Tuesday called the discovery "one of the most significant archaeological breakthroughs in recent years". It has been excavated by a joint Egyptian-British mission, led by the Suprem...
Post a Comment
Read more