Briefs on Black shootings in America from 2019-2020

Grace Peng, Managing Online and Social Media Editor

March 28, 2019: Williamson County Sheriff’s Deputies tase Javier Ambler to death in Austin, TX.

Ambler was a 40-year-old postal worker whose lights were not dim enough on his drive home after a night out playing poker with his friends. Police pursued him until he crashed into trees, and then pulled him out and tased him multiple times. Ambler suffered from congestive heart failure, further accelerating the taser effects. In the recording that has now been destroyed by A&E Networks, Ambler is heard saying “I can’t breathe” and “please save me”.

An internal investigation says the deputies did nothing wrong but recent protests have called for justice. Ambler leaves behind two sons.

May 20, 2019: Oklahoma City police officers kneel on Derrick Scott, who dies in police custody.

42-year-old Derrick Scott, as shown in the bodycam videos that were released well over a year after Scott’s death, was taken into custody after he was found at the location of reports of someone brandishing a firearm. Two officers pin Scott down with their hands and knees for nearly 13 minutes, while a third officer looks on. Scott utters the same words as Floyd: “I can’t breathe,” but the police’s response was, “I don’t care.” 

The first statement into the case in 2019 by District Attorney David Prater says that the officers did nothing inappropriate and “handled the call very well”. However, the call to release the bodycam footage by the recent BLM protests has sparked outrage over the silence.

Oct. 12, 2019: Aaron Dean shoots Atatiana Jefferson in Forth Worth, TX.

Jefferson was a 28-year-old woman with plans to attend medical school. Police were called to Jefferson’s neighborhood by a neighbor at 2:23 am, saying Jefferson’s front door was open. Dean entered her backyard with a flashlight and a gun and fired a single shot at Jefferson through the window. She had been playing video games with her 8-year-old nephew. 

Jefferson was pronounced later at 3:05 am, less than an hour after her neighbor’s call. Dean resigned hours after the incident and was subsequently arrested two days later but released in less than three hours on a $200,000 bond.

Feb 23, 2020: Gregory and Travis McMichael shoot Ahmaud Arbery in Brunswick, GA.

Arbery was an unarmed, 25-year-old man who was jogging in a southern GA neighborhood when a vehicle containing Travis McMichael and his father, Gregory, pulled up; Travis fired the fatal shots, and the incident was recorded by William Bryan, a resident of the neighborhood who had been following Arbery. 

The case faded into bureaucracy, since Gregory was a former Glynn County police officer, but an article in the New York Times published on April 26 brought the case into the spotlight and launched the video into a source of outrage on the Internet.

March 3, 2020: Pierre County Sheriff beat Manuel Ellis to death in Tacoma, WA.

Ellis was a 33-year-old musician at his church. Witnesses say that Ellis approached the police car and engaged in friendly conversation, while police records say that Ellis was trying to open the door of locked cars.   The officers pulled Ellis out, beat, tased, and then forced him into handcuffs, ignoring Ellis’s cry that he “couldn’t breathe”.

Ellis is survived by his 11-year-old son and 18-month-old daughter. The officers involved were put on administrative leave immediately following Ellis’ death but were later allowed to return. They have now been put on leave once again amid protests.

March 13, 2020: Louisville Police shoot Breonna Taylor in Louisville, KY.

Taylor was a 26-year-old emergency medical technician living with her boyfriend when LPD busted down her door with a battering ram and entered with a no-knock search warrant. This meant that police could enter without identifying themselves. Taylor and her boyfriend believed they were intruders

 A brief altercation ensued and Taylor was shot eight times. She was suspected because she had connections to a known drug dealer in police custody but no drugs were ever found in the house. Her boyfriend survived and the case was likely covered up due to the intensity of the coronavirus pandemic.

May 25, 2020: Officer Derek Chauvin, supported by 4 other Minneapolis police officers, kills George Floyd by kneeling on his neck in Minneapolis, MN.

Floyd was a 46-year-old unarmed man who was accused of using a counterfeit $20 bill. However, when taken into custody, Chauvin kneeled on his neck for a total of eight minutes and 46 seconds, refusing to get up until medics forced him to, but by then, Floyd did not have a pulse. 

The incident was filmed by 17-year-old Darnella Frazier, a rising high school senior who had to see a therapist. The words “I can’t breathe” are now synonymous with police brutality and lack of police accountability, sparking hundreds of protests across all 50 states.

June 1, 2020: Louisville Police Officers shoot David McAtee in Louisville, KY.

53-year-old David McAtee ran Yaya’s barbecue stand, which was located at the center of the Louisville George Floyd protests. When the National Guard deployments used tear gas to disperse the crowd, many began running towards the stand, and law enforcement fired into the crowd, one of the bullets fatally hitting McAtee.

The officers involved - Katie Crews and Austin Allen - did not have their bodycams turned on but were fired the day after the shooting. Questions have also been raised as to why actual bullets were used instead of rubber bullets.

June 12, 2020: Police shoot Rayshard Brooks in ATL, GA.

27-year-old Rayshard Brooks was sleeping in his car outside a local Wendy’s when APD police officer Garrett Rolfe was called to ask him to remove his car from the Wendy’s drive-thru lane. A scuffle ensued, and the police repeatedly tased Brooks until he attempted to run away. Rolfe then shot Brooks three times, and he died less than 24 hours after a failed surgery to remove the bullets.

Brooks was a married father of four, a restaurant employee, and a resident of Atlanta. He had celebrated one of his daughter’s birthday only hours before he was shot.