Derek Chauvin’s case was fresh in his memory, but it was still bloody, with a reading of a verdict in a court in Minneapolis, a former policeman’s hut, and the delight that many considered justice at the death of George Floyd. Flowed. American street.
And yet, some of that blood was handed over to law enforcement agencies.
Within 24 hours of the jury’s arrival, at least six people were shot dead by police officers across the United States. Verdict of murder against Chauvin on Tuesday. The roll call of the dead is miserable:
A 16-year-old girl living in Columbus, Ohio.
A man often arrested in Escondido, California.
A 42-year-old man in eastern North Carolina.
Death, in some cases, caused a new cry for justice. Some said it reflected the urgent need for drastic changes to US police. This is a need that Chauvin’s verdict cannot overturn. For others, shooting is a tragic recollection of the difficult and dangerous decisions that law enforcement agencies face every day.
An unidentified man in San Antonio.
Another man killed in the same city within the first few hours.
A 31-year-old man living in central Massachusetts.
The circumstances surrounding each death are very different. Several things happened while police officers were investigating serious crimes. According to police, some people were armed with guns, knives, or metal rods. One man claimed to have a bomb that threatened to explode. In some cases little is known about the lives of those killed and what happened in their last moments.
The deadly encounters are just a few snapshots of the daily thousands of interactions between American police officers and civilians, most of which end successfully. But a safe encounter between the police and the masses is not a problem.
When the weapon is pulled and life is over, it’s a very different story.
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Hundreds of miles away, a police officer was listening to his police car radio in the neighborhood of Columbus, Ohio, as the country watched a judge reading a verdict against Chabuin on Tuesday afternoon.A few minutes ago, a colleague Deadly shot a teenage girl..
Police were called home after someone called 911 and reported that they had been physically threatened. Body camera footage shows an officer approaching a group of driveway people as a teenager Maki Bryant shakes a knife violently. After a while, the girl charges into a young woman who is fixed in a car.
Police officers fire four bullets before the Brian falls to the ground. On the sidewalk next to her, there is a black-handled blade that resembles a kitchen or steak knife.
“You didn’t have to shoot her! She’s just a kid, a man!” The man shouted at the policeman.
The policeman replies: “She had a knife. She just went to her.”
Then the suffering neighbor yells at the policeman. Do you know now? “
Foster parent at the time, Bryant was a shy and quiet girl who loved making hair and dance videos on TikTok. Grandmother Debra Wilcox told The Associated Press. Her family says her behavior that day was ill-mannered.
“Unless she’s afraid of her life, I don’t know what happened there,” Wilcox said.
Authorities said Bryant’s death was a tragedy, but they pointed to legislation that allowed police to use deadly forces to protect themselves and others.
Police officers’ actions were “heroic acts” with tragic consequences, the president of the Fraternal Order of Police said, “another demonstration of the impossible situation” facing police.
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Almost as soon as the radio reported the news of Chauvin’s verdict to Columbus, two San Antonio police officers were confronting the man on the bus. It is unclear exactly how the encounter began, but police say an unidentified man was armed. It ended with the officer firing a deadly shot.
Later that night in the same city, officials say the man killed a man working in a hut outside his house. When the police arrived, the suspect began firing at the police. They were fired and killed him. Authorities have not published his name.
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As the country digested the news from Minneapolis, the day was over and everyday life was unleashed.In Worcester, Massachusetts, at night Standoffs with the police that ended in a shootout.
According to police, Phet Gouvonvong, 31, called 911 and claimed to have threatened to set up a bomb. The policeman found him on the street. They said he wore body armor and had something that looked like a backpack and a rifle.
A police SWAT team has joined the negotiators. Some have arrived in Gubonbon over the phone to calm him down, officials say.
Around midnight, officials say Gouvonvong moved towards the police and the police fired.
Gouvonvong was declared dead on the scene. Police are not saying if he actually had an explosive device.
Gouvonvong clashed with police for years, including convictions of assault and assault with dangerous weapons, but his aunt turned his life around, the Telegram & Gazette newspaper said. report..
On Thursday, his mother crumpled the street with tears of flowers at the site of his murder.Marie Gonzales Told the newspaper She called the police on Tuesday night and tried to get in touch with her son, but they didn’t get through her. She believed she was able to prevent it.
“They didn’t have the right to kill my son,” she said. “They didn’t have the right.”
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The next morning, a 42-year-old black man in eastern North Carolina was shot dead when a deputy sheriff tried to provide a drug-related investigation warrant and arrest warrant when Minneapolis people awoke to a city they had boarded for anxiety. I did.
Witnesses said Andrew Brown Jr. was shot dead in the car when he tried to drive in Elizabeth City. Automobile authorities removed from the scene appeared to have multiple bullet holes and a shattered back window.
His murder sparked a protest as hundreds of people demanded the release of body camera footage. 7 agents were put on vacation..
Relatives Described as a father who loves Brown The person who was always joking. He also lived a difficult life. According to his aunt Glenda Brown Thomas, his mother was killed when he was young, and accidental shootings partially paralyzed his right side and lost his eyes to a puncture wound.
He also had legal problems, including convictions of possession of misdemeanor drugs and suspension of felony drug charges. Court records indicate that the day before he was killed, two arrest warrants were issued on drug-related charges, including possession for the sale of cocaine.
Officers haven’t said much about why they were fired so far, but his family is determined to get an answer.
“The police didn’t have to shoot my baby,” said another aunt, Martha McAllen.
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That same morning, police in Southern California received a call that someone had hit a car with a metal rod. The man ran away when the police arrived, but found another police officer holding a two-foot metal rod on the street.
A white man charged with a police officer who ordered him to drop Paul Before firingSaid the police.
Police in Escondido near San Diego have not disclosed the man’s name, but said he had been arrested nearly 200 times in the last two decades for violent assaults, drug charges and other crimes against police and the general public. Efforts to get him help from a mental health expert have failed, the police chief said.
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It is not yet known if police will be prosecuted for these shootings.
Chauvin was largely convicted based on a video showing him pushing his knee into Floyd’s neck for more than nine minutes. Police shootings at intense moments are notorious for being difficult to prosecute. The jury was generally reluctant to be a secondary guess police officer when claiming to have acted in a life-threatening situation.
In the aftermath of Tuesday’s verdict, prosecutors on the other side of the coast announced opposition decisions on whether to proceed with prosecution against the murdered law enforcement agencies.
Florida prosecutors announced Wednesday that they would not prosecute a representative of Brevard County Sheriff who shot and killed two black teenagers.California prosecutor Manslaughter and assault announced An unarmed Filipino man shoots at an adjutant in the eastern San Francisco Bay Area.
Neither of these cases has received as much attention as the trial that ended on Tuesday. Some people hope that Chauvin’s verdict may be an important milestone in national conversations about race, police, and the use of force.
Rachael Rollins, the district attorney for Boston and the surrounding area and the first colored woman to be Massachusetts’ best county prosecutor, said:
“If we can be strategic and united, we can make a big difference,” she said.
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Associated Press writers Michael Kunzelman of College Park, Maryland, Jill Bleed of Little Rock, Arkansas, Julie Watson of San Diego, Juliet Williams of San Francisco, and Farnoush Amiri of Columbus, Ohio contributed to this report. Amiri is a corps member of the Associated Press / US State Capitol News Initiative Report Report. Report for America is a non-profit national service program that places journalists in the local newsroom to report on unreported issues.