Now black man in wheelchair is shot dead by US police
THIS is the moment a black man in a wheelchair was shot nine times and killed by US police.
Jeremy McDole – who was paralysed from the waist down – became the 861st person to be killed by American policemen this year.
Four officers circled him i n an incident filmed on a mobile phone by a passer-by in Wilmington, Delaware.
The officers were responding to a 911 call that Mr McDole, 28, had shot himself at the nursing home where he lived.
In the footage one officer can be heard shouting: ‘ He’s over here! Show me your hands!’ Mr McDole is not moving and his hands appear to be in his lap.
Without attempting to defuse the situation or check that he is armed, an officer fires a single shot that hits him.
The others repeatedly shout: ‘ Show me your hands! Drop the gun!’
Mr McDole, who was crippled in 2005 after a friend shot him in the back – is then seen to struggle and move his hands. He appears to be confused and at that point reaches into the front of his jeans. That is the signal for the police to fire a volley of shots. Their target falls lifelessly out of the front of his wheelchair and onto the road.
At no point on the footage does he appear to be a threat and at no point is a gun visible. The killing was witnessed by his uncle, eugene Smith. He was among a crowd who gathered at the scene at 3pm on Wednesday.
‘It was an execution,’ Mr Smith said. ‘That’s what it was. I don’t care if he was black, white, whatever. ‘He had a book bag, but I never seen a gun.’
His distraught mother, Phyllis McDole, called his death ‘unjust’ and broke down in tears as she called for justice.
She said: ‘This was murder. He shot my son like he was roadkill...they shot my son so much he fell out of the wheelchair.
‘He fell out the chair and on the ground. He wasn’t armed. He didn’t have a gun. He died by himself. He died alone.’
Mr McDole’s sister Letesha Green added: ‘Why couldn’t you Taser this man out of his wheelchair? Why couldn’t you use rubber bullets to get him out of the wheelchair?’ At a press conference on Thursday police said they found a .38- caliber handgun they said had been at Mr McDole’s side.
Wilmington Police Chief Bobby Cummings said: ‘I’m sorry for the officers and family of Mr McDole, as this encounter unfor- tunately ended with the loss of his life. I know that this incident could impact police and community relations, therefore, I will ensure a thorough and transparent investigation will be conducted.’
The Delaware Department of Justice is handling the investi- gation and four officers have been put on leave.
Mr McDole’s death came on the same day that a man in Reistertown, Maryland, was shot dead by police for pointing his finger as if it were a gun while being pursued by officers.
The victim, who has not been named, was being chased on foot for trying to obtain cough syrup with a fake prescription.
So far this year American police have killed 861 people with 12 officers being charged over civilian killings, more than at any time in the last decade.
US police have been under scrutiny since the August 2014 shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, which sparked days of riots.
‘It was an execution’