Notable developments in tensions between police, communities

The killings of two unarmed black men by white police officers in Ferguson, Missouri, and in New York City this summer touched off protests and a national debate over police conduct that intensified after grand juries declined to indict the officers.

Tensions escalated further after two New York Police Department officers were killed last month by a man who suggested in online posts their slayings were in retaliation for the deaths of Michael Brown in Ferguson, a St. Louis suburb, and of Eric Garner in New York. The gunman, who was black, committed suicide.

Some key developments amid the tension between police and communities:
Two suspects in an armed holdup followed by a wild shootout that left a pair of plainclothes NYPD officers wounded are awaiting arraignment.

Security video showed one of the men blasting away at the officers with a powerful .44 Magnum pistol as they pursued him Monday night following the Bronx grocery store robbery, police said.

The man was arrested Tuesday on attempted-murder and robbery charges. The other man was charged with robbery. They’re expected to be arraigned Wednesday.

NYPD officials praised five officers for choosing to respond to the robbery report even though their shifts had ended.

The wounded officers were hospitalized, and one has been released.
The start of Missouri’s legislative session was interrupted Wednesday by demonstrators who chanted and unfurled banners in the Senate while protesting Brown’s shooting.

Republican Lt. Gov. Peter Kinder, who was presiding over the chamber, said demonstrators were violating Senate rules of decorum and ordered proceedings suspended while police cleared people from the visitors’ galleries. The Senate resumed after about 30 minutes. No one was arrested.

Demonstrators vowed to return to the Capitol throughout this year’s session as lawmakers consider numerous bills stemming from the Aug. 9 shooting.

“Our hope is they take what we did seriously,” said a protest leader, Kayla Reed, of the Organization for Black Struggle.

Demonstrators distributed a 28-point plan for changes to police practices, including anti-racism training, greater citizen oversight of police agencies and an end to the police acquisition of military-grade equipment.

The officer who killed Brown said he couldn’t have done anything differently in their confrontation, and he resigned.

A Montana police officer was justified in shooting and killing an unarmed man during a traffic stop, a coroner’s inquest has determined. A jury delivered its decision Wednesday.
Billings police Officer Grant Morrison had testified he feared for his life when he fired the three shots that killed Richard Ramirez.

Morrison said he became convinced Ramirez had a gun after Ramirez reached for his waistband during their brief encounter last April.

Police video showed Morrison repeatedly ordered Ramirez and other occupants of the vehicle to raise their hands. Morrison said Ramirez dropped his left hand to his side, out of his view, and “started to jiggle it up and down.”

“I knew in that moment, which later was determined to be untrue, but I knew in that moment that he was reaching for a gun,” Morrison said. “I couldn’t take that risk. … I wanted to see my son grow up.”

The person sitting next to Ramirez said Ramirez was trying to unbuckle his seatbelt when he was shot.

Ramirez’s family wanted criminal charges against Morrison and said the half-Mexican Ramirez was a victim of racial profiling. They said they intend to file a lawsuit.

There has been a steep decline in the number of arrests in New York City in the two weeks since the two police officers were shot dead in their patrol car.

The totals suggest a rumored work slowdown has taken hold amid discord between police officers and Mayor Bill de Blasio, and they raise questions about what impact it could have on the city’s crime rate.

The head of the powerful Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association insists the union isn’t sanctioning a labor action.

But police expert and author Thomas Reppetto, who has written extensively about the NYPD, called the results too “overwhelming” to be coincidental.

“If the law is not being enforced in the street, we’re all in danger,” he said.

The mother of a 12-year-old boy who was carrying a pellet gun when he was shot dead by a Cleveland police officer says it doesn’t matter to her who investigates her son’s death as long as the officer is held accountable.

Samaria Rice characterized the death of her son as a murder.

Tamir Rice was shot Nov. 22 after police responded to a 911 call about someone with a gun outside a recreation center. The officer shot Tamir within two seconds of his patrol car stopping near the boy.

The officer had told Tamir to put his hands up, but the boy didn’t, police say.

City officials announced last week police were handing the investigation over to the Cuyahoga County Sheriff’s Department in the interest of being impartial and transparent.