Black Mayor Defends White Police Officer Who Shot Teen Near Ferguson
Berkeley, Missouri Mayor Theodore Hoskins, who is black, in a press conference Wednesday defended a white police officer who fatally shot an armed teenager.
Hoskins said he reviewed surveillance video of the shooting, which showed that the teen did in fact pull a gun on the officer.
“This is not a policeman in the city of Berkeley, half-cocked, going out — and as we say, black lives matter. This was not the case,” Hoskins said. “You couldn’t even compare this with Ferguson or the Garner case in New York.”
“Our goal is to project the truth to the residents,” he added. “Because the first thing occurred last night was — and when I got there we’re all saying the same thing: ‘Here’s a white policeman killing a black young man. So when does it stop?’ And I can assure you that did not happen last night.”
“We had a policeman responding to a call, protecting the residents of the city of Berkeley,” he said.