U.S.
Protests Erupt in Philadelphia After the Fatal Police Shooting of Walter Wallace Jr
Published
2 years agoon
By
Cory Ray
- Officers in West Philadelphia repeatedly fired at a Black man who approached them while armed with a knife Monday afternoon. Shortly thereafter, the man was pronounced dead.
- During that incident, multiple witnesses reportedly told police that the man, 27-year-old Walter Wallace Jr., struggled with mental health issues.
- Following Wallace’s death, many people were outraged that police didn’t use more nonlethal tactics to subdue him.
- That outrage prompted a night of protests that became violent, with demonstrators hurling objects at police, police rushing demonstrators with shields and batons, and looters taking advantage of the unrest.
Police Shooting of Walter Wallace Jr.
Protests rocked Philadelphia Monday night following the fatal police shooting of a Black man who had been wielding a knife in the street earlier in the day.
The man has been identified as 27-year-old Walter Wallace Jr. According to his family, he struggled with mental health issues. Because of that, Monday night’s protests were mainly geared toward the fact that officers used lethal force instead of a less-lethal method to subdue him.
The situation began Monday afternoon around 4 p.m. when two still-unnamed officers in West Philadelphia responded to a report of a man wielding a knife in the street. According to police spokesperson Eric Gripp, the two officers ordered Wallace to drop the knife but he refused.
In a video captured at the scene by a witness, Wallace can be seen walking on the street. The two officers have their guns drawn. Meanwhile, a woman later identified as Wallace’s mother appears to be pleading with Wallace as she follows him.
At one point, Wallace raises his hand and approaches the officers, who back away. The video then moves out of view, but multiple shots can be heard. When it swings back into frame, Wallace can be seen falling to the ground. A group of people, including the officers, swarm around him.
“Y’all didn’t have to give him that many fucking shots!” one witness, presumably the person filming, yells at the police.
Following the shooting, one of the officers reportedly drove Wallace to the hospital, where he then died.
Within hours, more details around the incident began to come out. In an interview with The Philadelphia Inquirer, Wallace’s father said his son struggled with mental health issues and that he was on medication.
“Why didn’t they use a Taser?” he said. “His mother was trying to defuse the situation.”
That claim was backed up by a witness who also told The Inquirer that, in the beginning, Wallace was standing on the porch of his home, knife drawn. When police arrived, that witness — Maurice Holloway — said they immediately drew their guns.
From there, Holloway said Wallace started walking down the steps of the porch and into the street. At the same time, Holloway noted that Wallace’s mother was attempting to shield him from the police and tell them that he was her son.
“I’m yelling, ‘Put down the gun, put down the gun,’” Holloway told The Inquirier, “and everyone is saying, ‘Don’t shoot him, he’s gonna put it down, we know him.’”
While Gripp said it was unclear how many times Wallace was shot, Wallace’s father believes he was shot 10 times. The Inquirer currently estimates that the officers could have fired more than a dozen rounds, and the newspaper noted that police later marked the scene with at least 13 evidence markers.
Protests Erupt in Philadelphia
Much like Wallace’s father and Holloway, many were furious that officers repeatedly shot Wallace, arguing that they could have subdued him with much less-lethal force.
Arnett Woodall, a community organizer who lives a several blocks away, told The Inquirer that the number of evidence markers at the scene showed this was “a textbook example of excessive force.”
“Why not a warning shot?” Woodall asked. “Why not a Taser? Why not a shot in the leg?”
Reggie Shuford, executive director of the Pennsylvania ACLU, said in statement that Wallace’s death proves the need for more mental health initiatives.
“It is time to divest in police and invest in community programs, including the kind of mental health services that allow intervention that may have prevented Mr. Wallace’s killing,” he said.
According to reports, more than 300 protesters gathered on the streets of Philadelphia Monday night, many of them chanting “Black Lives Matter” and “Say his name: Walter Wallace.”
Those protesters originally marched to a police station, where they met officers in riot gear. Officers then pushed the crowd back with shields before rushing them and beating some people with batons.
A group protesting through west philly being followed slowly by cars honking in support and drivers leaning out their windows cheering pic.twitter.com/WeDpiM1nnX
— Anna Orso (@anna_orso) October 27, 2020
#OTGWestPhilly pic.twitter.com/j1a2MJr7JH
— tarynnaundorff (@xxxtarynxx) October 27, 2020
Some people also engaged in violent tactics by throwing objects at the officers. Others started multiple fires, including one situation where a police vehicle was set on fire. At least five more police vehicles were vandalized over the course of the night.
Philadelphia police are outnumbered by hundreds of Black Lives Matter rioters. pic.twitter.com/q2jqvTsLnb
— Ian Miles Cheong (@stillgray) October 27, 2020
A police SUV is on fire at 52nd and market, surrounded by a crowd of a couple hundred pic.twitter.com/dwSFbNoMgs
— Anna Orso (@anna_orso) October 27, 2020
As the night went on, looters capitalized on the unrest, breaking into multiple businesses. Police later said they ultimately arrested around 30 people for throwing objects or looting — including some in areas not near the protest.
Chopper 6 over the scene as a Foot Locker in West Philadelphia is looted following the death of Walter Wallace, who police say was shot by officers after he would not drop a knife. https://t.co/BtTPSlQIwI pic.twitter.com/7hNeLEvJCM
— Action News on 6abc (@6abc) October 27, 2020
According to local outlets, at least 30 Philly police officers were hospitalized with various injuries Tuesday morning, though all but one have since been treated and released. The lone remaining officer is a 56-year-old female sergeant who suffered a broken leg after being hit by a black pickup truck during the night.
Black Lives Matter rioters just hit a cop in Philadelphia with a truck. pic.twitter.com/qboRDQsPnv
— Ian Miles Cheong (@stillgray) October 27, 2020
Investigation Underway
Alongside these protests, John McNesby, president of the Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 5, has stood by the two officers involved in the incident.
“Our police officers are being vilified this evening for doing their job and keeping the community safe, after being confronted by a man with a knife,” he said. “We support and defend these officers, as they too are traumatized by being involved in a fatal shooting.”
Several Philadelphia officials have called for a full investigation into the shooting, including Mayor Jim Kenney who said in a statement, “My prayers are with the family and friends of Walter Wallace. I have watched the video of this tragic incident and it presents difficult questions that must be answered.”
Police Commissioner Danielle Outlaw has announced an investigation into the shooting by the Officer Involved Shooting Investigation Unit. While that investigation is ongoing, both officers have been pulled from street-duty. Reportedly, both officers had their body cams turned on, and that footage will play a role in the investigation.
“I recognize that the video of the incident raises many questions,” Outlaw said in a statement. “Residents have my assurance that those questions will be fully addressed by the investigation. While at the scene this evening, I heard and felt the anger of the community. Everyone involved will forever be impacted.”
Outlaw also noted that she plans to meet with members of the community, as well as Wallace’s family, “to hear their concerns.”
While this investigation is underway, Philly District Attorney Larry Krasner has called for an end to the violence.
“In the hours and days following this shooting, we ask Philadelphians to come together to uphold people’s freedom to express themselves peacefully and to reject violence of any kind,” he said.
See what others are saying: (The Philadelphia Inquirer) (WCAU) (The Washington Post)
U.S.
Uvalde Puts Police Chief on Leave, Tries to Kick Him Off City Council
Published
4 days agoon
June 23, 2022By
Chris Tolve
If Pete Arredondo fails to attend two more consecutive city council meetings, then he may be voted out of office.
Police Chief Faces Public Fury
Uvalde School District Police Chief Pete Arredondo was placed on administrative leave Wednesday following revelations that he and his officers did not engage the shooter at Robb Elementary for over an hour despite having adequate weaponry and protection.
Superintendent Hal Harrell, who made the announcement, did not specify whether the leave is paid or unpaid.
Harrell said in a statement that the school district would have waited for an investigation to conclude before making any personnel decisions, but chose to order the administrative leave because it is uncertain how long the investigation will take.
Lieutenant Mike Hernandez, the second in command at the police department, will assume Arredondo’s duties.
In an interview with The Texas Tribune earlier this month, Arredondo said he did not consider himself in charge during the shooting, but law enforcement records reviewed by the outlet indicate that he gave orders at the scene.
Department of Public Safety Director Steve McCraw told state senators on Tuesday that some officers wanted to enter the classrooms harboring the shooter but were stopped by their superiors.
He said officer Ruben Ruiz tried to move forward into the hallway after receiving a call from his wife Eva Mireles, a teacher inside one of the classrooms, telling him she had been shot and was bleeding to death.
Ruiz was detained, had his gun taken away, and was escorted off the scene, according to McCraw. Mireles later died of her wounds.
Calls for Arredondo to resign or be fired have persisted.
Emotions Erupt at City Council
Wednesday’s announcement came one day after the Uvalde City Council held a special meeting in which community members and relatives of victims voiced their anger and demanded accountability.
“Who are you protecting?” Asked Jasmine Cazares, sister of Jackie Cazares, a nine-year-old student who was shot. “Not my sister. The parents? No. You’re too busy putting them in handcuffs.”
Much of the anger was directed toward Arredondo, who was not present at the meeting but was elected to the city council on May 7, just over two weeks before the massacre.
“We are having to beg ya’ll to do something to get this man out of our faces,” said the grandmother of Amerie Jo Garza, a 10-year-old victim. “We can’t see that gunman. That gunman got off easy. We can’t take our frustrations out on that gunman. He’s dead. He’s gone. … Ya’ll need to put yourselves in our shoes, and don’t say that none of ya’ll have, because I guarantee you if any of ya’ll were in our shoes, ya’ll would have been pulling every string that ya’ll have to get this man off the council.”
One woman demanded the council refuse to grant Arredondo the leave of absence he had requested, pointing out that if he fails to attend three consecutive meetings the council can vote him out for abandoning his office.
“What you can do right now is not give him, if he requests it, a leave of absence,” she said. “Don’t give him an out. We don’t want him. We want him out.”
After hearing from the residents, the council voted unanimously not to approve the leave of absence.
On Tuesday, Uvalde’s mayor announced that Robb Elementary is set to be demolished, saying no students or teachers should have to return to it after what happened.
We make it a point to not include the names and pictures of those who may have been seeking attention or infamy and will not link out to websites that might contain such information.
U.S.
Texas Public Safety Director Says Police Response to Uvalde Shooting Was An “Abject Failure”
Published
6 days agoon
June 21, 2022By
Chris Tolve
New footage shows officers prepared to engage the shooter one hour before they entered the classroom.
Seventy-Seven Deadly Minutes
Nearly a month after the mass shooting in Uvalde, Texas that killed 19 children and two teachers, evidence has emerged indicating that police were prepared to engage the shooter within minutes of arriving, but chose to wait over an hour.
The shooting at Robb Elementary began at 11:33 a.m., and within three minutes 11 officers are believed to have entered the school, according to surveillance and body camera footage obtained by KVUE and the Austin American Statesman.
District Police Chief Pete Arredondo reportedly called a landline at the police department at 11:40 a.m. for help.
“It’s an emergency right now,” he said. “We have him in the room. He’s got an AR-15. He’s shot a lot… They need to be outside the building prepared because we don’t have firepower right now. It’s all pistols.”
At 11:52 a.m., however, the footage shows multiple officers inside the school armed with at least two rifles and one ballistic shield.
Law enforcement did not enter the adjoined classrooms to engage the shooter until almost an hour later, at 12:50 p.m. During that time, one officer’s daughter was inside the classrooms and another’s wife, a teacher, reportedly called him to say she was bleeding to death.
Thirty minutes before law enforcement entered the classrooms, the footage shows officers had four ballistic shields in the hallway.
Frustrated Cops Want to Go Inside
Some of the officers felt agitated because they were not allowed to enter the classrooms.
One special agent at the Texas Department of Public Safety arrived about 20 minutes after the shooting started, then immediately asked, “Are there still kids in the classrooms?”
“It is unknown at this time,” another officer replied.
“Ya’ll don’t know if there’s kids in there?” The agent shot back. “If there’s kids in there we need to go in there.”
“Whoever is in charge will determine that,” the other officer responded.
According to an earlier account by Arredondo, he and the other officers tried to open the doors to the classrooms, but found them both locked and waited for a master key to arrive. But surveillance footage suggests that they never tried to open the doors, which a top Texas official has confirmed were never actually locked.
One officer has told reporters that within minutes of the police response, there was a Halligan bar, which firefighters use to break down locked doors, on-site, but it was never used.
At a special State Senate committee hearing Monday, Texas Department of Public Safety Director Steve McCraw called the police response an “abject failure” and “antithetical to everything we’ve learned over the last two decades since the Columbine massacre.”
“The only thing stopping a hallway of dedicated officers from (entering rooms) 111 and 112 was the on-scene commander who decided to place the lives of officers before the lives of children,” he said. “The officers have weapons, the children had none.”
We make it a point to not include the names and pictures of those who may have been seeking attention or infamy and will not link out to websites that might contain such information.
U.S.
Ohio Governor Signs Bill Allowing Teachers to Carry Guns With 24 Hours of Training
Published
2 weeks agoon
June 14, 2022By
Chris Tolve
“They will have blood on their hands,” Ohio State Senator Theresa Fedor said.
Teachers to Bear Arms
Ohio’s Republican Governor Mike DeWine signed a bill into law Monday allowing teachers and other school staff to carry firearms on campus with a fraction of the training previously required.
The Ohio Supreme Court ruled last year that school employees need to complete 700 hours of training as a peace officer, as well as the permission from their school board before arming themselves, but Monday’s law changes that.
Starting in the fall, school staff will only have to complete up to 24 hours of initial training plus eight hours of requalification training each year.
DeWine directed the Ohio School Safety Center, which must approve any training programs, to order the maximum 24 hours and eight hours.
Four of those hours consist of scenario-based training and 20 more go toward first-aid training and history of school shootings and reunification education.
Individual school districts can still decide not to allow their staff to carry firearms. Last week, Cleveland’s mayor said the city will refuse to arm teachers, and Columbus has signaled it will not change its policy either.
Another Ohio law went into effect Monday allowing adults over the age of 21 to carry a concealed firearm without a permit, training, or background checks. It also ended the requirement for gun carriers to inform police officers if they have a concealed weapon on them unless specifically asked.
Communities shocked by Legislation
Coming just weeks after the mass shooting at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas that killed 19 students and two teachers, Monday’s law was not welcome by many Ohioans.
“I think it’s a horrible idea to arm our teachers,” Columbus Police Chief Elaine Bryant told The Columbus Dispatch. “There’s a lot of training that’s involved in that. It’s naïve to believe that is something we can put on them and expect them to respond to from a law enforcement perspective.”
More police, teachers, and gun control advocates expressed opposition to the legislation, with Democratic State Senator Theresa Fedor telling ABC the bill’s supporters “will have blood on their hands.”
“I’m a veteran classroom teacher of 18 years, been a legislator 22 years,” she said. “I have never seen a bill so poorly written, hurdled through the process. There’s so many flaws in the bill. There’s no minimum education standard, no psychological evaluation, no safe storage.”
A teacher identified as “Coach D” also spoke out against the law on YouTube.
“It took me 12 years of grade school, four years of undergrad, and two years of graduate school, not to mention continued education and professional development for years to be able to teach in my classroom,” he said. “I’ve now been doing that for over 20 years. But now, with only 24 hours of training in Ohio, I could be authorized to bring a lethal weapon into the classroom and expected to take on an active shooter, and then what? Go back to teaching word problems?”
At a Monday press conference, reporter Josh Rultenberg confronted DeWine with challenging questions, posting several videos of the exchange in a Twitter thread.
When asked if he would take accountability if this law allowed for a teacher to shoot the wrong kid, Dewine said that “in life we make choices, and we don’t always know what the outcome is going to be.”
“What this legislature has done, I’ve done by signing it, is giving schools an option based on their particular circumstances to make the best decision they can make with the best information they have,” he continued.
🧵I asked @GovMikeDeWine, if heaven forbid a teacher shoots the wrong kid, if he will take any accountability knowing he could have stopped it by not signing House Bill 99. Here's his response. @SpectrumNews1OH pic.twitter.com/Ixmc3k4tCZ
— Josh Rultenberg (@JoshRultNews) June 13, 2022
I asked @GovMikeDeWine about the argument of giving good guys guns to stop bad guys with guns. I point out the 77 minutes it took law enforcement in Uvalde to act. He gets combative and then gives this response. @SpectrumNews1OH pic.twitter.com/nF6RHrlqJ1
— Josh Rultenberg (@JoshRultNews) June 13, 2022
I asked @GovMikeDeWine, after @RepThomasHall said HB 99 is "Ohio doing something," if he thinks this is what the people in Dayton meant when they asked him to "do something." Here's his response. @SpectrumNews1OH pic.twitter.com/fYzSjAi5vf
— Josh Rultenberg (@JoshRultNews) June 13, 2022
See what others are saying: (The Guardian) (The Columbus Dispatch) (ABC)

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