Last month, on July 28, L.A. sheriff’s deputies searching for a carjacking suspect (who, unknown to them, had already been arrested) shot and killed Donnell Thompson, 28. They found him laying in a front yard. He was unarmed. He hadn’t committed a crime. But he suffered from development disabilities and, and his relatives say, didn’t talk much. After the cops peppered him with rubber bullets, he tried to get up and run away. The cop who shot him, who was in an armored car, said he felt threatened. The cops say the carjacker had shot at them, and it was “an evolving situation.” But a disabled man? Who didn’t visibly have a weapon? And wasn’t doing anything? Read the story here.
I have two observations. First, yes, the police have a difficult — and sometimes dangerous — job; but if we’re innocent and law-abiding, they’re supposed to protect us, not kill us. Second, this seems to happen with regularity to black people, but you hardly ever read about white people getting killed by police in this manner.
Photos: Donnell Thompson; the death scene.