Another black man dies, as police cover up wrongful death by saying a black man pulled a stolen gun and pointed it after being shocked by a Taser and falling to the ground.
According to the Associated Baptist Press, Black Baptist preachers in Jacksonville, Fla., are calling for an independent investigation into a rash of recent shootings by police.
The call follows the June 15 fatal shooting of 24-year-old Kiko Battle by two-off duty officers who stopped him for questioning while he was walking down the street not far from his home. Local media said it was Jacksonville's eighth police-involved shooting of 2009 and the fifth fatality.
"We just want the killing to stop," Edward Preston, president of Baptist Ministers Conference, said in comments aired on local TV news broadcasts. "There have been too many killings, and it's time to bring it to an end."
Police said Battle was a dangerous felon who pulled a stolen gun and pointed it after being shocked by a Taser and falling to the ground. Afterward they say he got up and started to flee by climbing over a fence.
Battle's grandmother gave a different account. Ruth Sanders, 70, told the Florida Times-Union moments after he left her house she received a call from a neighbor saying her grandson was being shocked.
Sanders said she ran to the corner before shots were fired and could not see Battle because he was lying on the ground. She said she cried out to the officers begging them not to shoot.
Family members told the newspaper there was no reason to shoot Battle nine times after he had already been subdued.
Family members also questioned why police were bothering a young black man walking down the street in his own neighborhood in broad daylight. "It means everyone who was walking in the street was suspicious," said Wallace Eberhart, an uncle. More HERE
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