“Little Bo Peep” Killed
Posted by Michelle Moquin on August 10th, 2016
Good morning.
Another unnecessary killing of an innocent black man. Just released from the Wash Po:
‘A terribly devastating event’: Black man killed by SWAT team was innocent, officials say
Family members of 27-year-old Donnell Thompson are asking for answers after he was misidentified as a carjacking suspect and then shot and killed by an L.A. County Sheriff’s deputy on July 28. (Jenny Starrs/The Washington Post)
It was not yet dawn when the armored vehicles, black and hulking like Batmobiles, rumbled into the residential neighborhood in Compton, Calif. A carjacker had stolen a vehicle in Los Angeles, exchanged gunfire with sheriff’s deputies and then ditched his prize, disappearing on foot into a dense patchwork quilt of pink houses.
The armored vehicles — and the heavily armed deputies inside them — were there to find and capture the armed carjacker.
Instead, they found a different black man, Donnell Thompson.
As the carjacker hid in a house several blocks away, Thompson slept in a stranger’s yard. He was 27 years old but possessed the mental faculties of a much younger man. He loved Uno, Michael Jackson and the Lakers. He was so gentle and shy he went by the nickname Little Bo Peep, his family told the Los Angeles Times. He had a clean record and was unarmed.
From inside one of the armored vehicles, however, Los Angeles County Sheriff’s deputies knew none of this. When Thompson didn’t respond to commands, the deputies detonated flash-bangs. When he still didn’t move, they hit him with foam bullets.
And when he allegedly ran toward them, a deputy atop the armored vehicle opened fire with an assault rifle, striking Thompson twice in the torso.
Thompson died. At almost the same instant, the real carjacker was arrested.
That was July 28. For almost two weeks, the Sheriff’s Department insisted that Thompson was a second suspect in the carjacking.
On Tuesday, the department admitted it had killed an innocent man.
“No question this is a terribly devastating event,” Capt. Steve Katz said during a news conference. He said there was “no physical evidence” connecting Thompson to the carjacking or shootout and promised a “thorough” and “complete” investigation into the shooting, according to the Associated Press.
Thompson’s relatives said they wanted more than an investigation, however. They wanted charges for the deputy who killed Thompson.
“I wouldn’t treat an animal this bad,” his sister Matrice Stanley told the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, according to the AP. “How is this justifiable?”
Matrice Stanley, center, sister of Donnell Thompson, speaks to reporters about her brother’s death outside Los Angeles County Hall on Tuesday (Nick Ut/AP)
The incident is the latest in a string of fatal officer-involved shootings of black men across America. As in the recent police killings of Alton Sterling in Baton Rouge and Philando Castile in Falcon Heights, Minn., the shooting in Compton has prompted accusations of racial profiling and excessive force.
Stanley said she thought her brother’s race played a role in the shooting.
The incident also raises questions about the militarization of law enforcement, as departments across the country increasingly use armored vehicles and assault rifles to fight crime.
“In a civilian neighborhood, they bring an urban assault vehicle,” Brian Dunn, an attorney representing the Thompson family, told the Huffington Post. “The BearCat, it’s like a tank. Their response to this situation was so aggressive. Their tactics were so aggressive.”
The tragedy began in the early hours of July 28 when Robert Alexander, 24, allegedly stole a Honda Civic in Los Angeles, taking the car at gunpoint from its owner.
Fifteen miles to the south, in Compton, a sheriff’s deputy later spotted the Civic traveling erratically and decided to pull it over, according to the Los Angeles Times. The license plate showed the car was stolen. As a second patrol car arrived, the Civic drove off, punching through an elementary school’s fence.
As the car sped through Compton, Alexander allegedly shot at deputies, causing them to return fire. After the Civic crashed into a parked car, Alexander escaped on foot.
As he ran along Slater Street, the carjacker threatened two people on a front porch, according to the Times. He then entered the house, threw his gun under a couch, took his clothes off and climbed into a bed where an elderly woman — a complete stranger — was sleeping.
Despite the ruse, deputies found him and arrested him at 4:59 a.m.
Seconds later, a man living a few blocks away called 911. He told dispatchers he was taking out his trash when he spotted a figure lying in his front yard, the Times reported.
Although authorities already had Alexander in custody, there was confusion over whether he was the carjacker. A deputy who responded to the 911 call, meanwhile, saw that the figure in the man’s front yard resembled the carjacking suspect: a black man between the ages of 20 and 30 wearing dark pants or shorts and a basketball jersey.
The deputy radioed that he had found the carjacker who had fired at police, and the armored vehicles quickly arrived.
Matrice Stanley, at left in black, and family members appear before Los Angeles County supervisors Tuesday to protest Donnell Thompson’s fatal shooting by a sheriff’s deputy. (Nick Ut/AP)
Thompson didn’t respond to commands, instead remaining motionless with one hand under his head and another concealed near his waist. An object that looked like a gun lay nearby, Katz said. When flash-bang explosives failed to wake Thompson, SWAT deputies shot him with foam bullets.
At that point, Thompson suddenly pushed himself to his feet and ran toward an armored vehicle, Katz said. An officer in the vehicle’s turret shot Thompson twice in the upper torso with an M4 assault rifle, the Times reported.
Stanley, Thompson’s sister, said she thought her brother didn’t respond to commands because he was afraid and confused, the AP reported. She called for the deputy to be fired, questioning why he opened fire when he was protected by the armored car.
Dunn, the family attorney, accused the Sheriff’s Department of a series of “tactical blunders” and called the shooting a “mistake.”
“We’ve done our own investigation and have not heard anything to suggest that Donnell Thompson was in any way acting in an aggressive manner or in any way demonstrating that he posed a threat to anyone,” Dunn told the Huffington Post. Dunn also claimed: “He hadn’t committed a crime, he was not wanted, he had not done anything wrong, he was legally authorized to be where he was, he was legally authorized to be doing what he was doing, he wasn’t breaking the law and he wasn’t armed ― when you take that backdrop of facts it’s just not only a tragedy, but it’s a homicide, in every sense of the word.”
The attorney said he had filed a federal civil rights claim against Los Angeles County and was preparing to file a lawsuit as well.
Experts cautioned, however, that just because the Sheriff’s Department had admitted Thompson was innocent doesn’t mean the shooting will be declared unjustified.
“The commands being ignored, they used less-lethal force that was ineffective, the guy was running away. … Those factors are very relevant in leading them to believe, ‘This guy has done something wrong. This is our guy,’” Ed Obayashi, a Plumas County sheriff’s deputy and attorney who advises several law enforcement agencies in the state,told the Times.
Adding to concerns over the incident, however, are two other shootings of unarmed men by the same department in the past two weeks. A homeless man was shot on Aug. 2 while running from deputies. And a man caught tagging a house with graffiti was shot while hiding in a shower. Those shootings are also under investigation, the Timesreported.
But it is the death of Thompson that has stirred anger and spurred protests.
“His age was 27, but mentally … he was probably 16,” Stanley told the Times.
“He was soft-spoken. He was gentle. What was the threat?” said cousin Larmar Avila, according to the AP. “I’m upset, I’m angry, I’m passionate, I’m emotional. It’s so much. All in one. And how do you expect us to act, when we’re patient, and we’re waiting and we’re waiting. We’re not going crazy. We’re waiting. Patiently. Twiddling thumbs. I’m shaking. I’m scared. I’m scared for my brothers. Scared for my family members. And it shouldn’t be like that.”
“Black lives matter,” said another sister, Antoinette Brown. “I just want justice for my baby brother.”
✌🏽&❤️
Readers: My heart hurts for another family, another community, who has to endure another loss of a loved one wrongfully killed by thugs with guns. Just who are the gangs now?
Thoughts? Blog me.
PS: On another note…Woo hoo to the US Gymnastics team for the winning of the Gold! Congratulation girls! So proud of your hard work and dedication to being exceptional athletes! 🇺🇸
Peace & Love
Lastly, greed over a great story is surfacing from my “loyal”(?) readers. With all this back and forth about who owns what, that appears on my blog, let me reiterate that all material posted on my blog becomes the sole property of my blog. If you want to reserve any proprietary rights don’t post it to my blog. I will prominently display this caveat on my blog from now on to remind those who may have forgotten this notice.
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August 10th, 2016 at 10:02 am
I just saw this in my phone newsfeed…feeling so sad and bad for the family and community of this man, this has reaching insane proportions and needs to stop now.
I think there’s someone why can fill us in on military and police budgets and how they work (which is why they have a tank and used a tank) for something so minimal as a car jacking, this is inexcusable, even if it were the real carjacker, you arrest people for stealing cars you do not kill them.
And don’t get me going on drumpf today … *smh*
Luv, Zen Lill
August 10th, 2016 at 10:03 am
Who* can fill us in … Sorry
August 10th, 2016 at 1:16 pm
Michelle, even while winning Gold for their country they are discriminated against. Gabby was vilified for not placing her hand over heart during the national anthem while for Michael it was okay for him to break out into laughter during it.
Fuck’em.
August 10th, 2016 at 1:17 pm
More white privilege like allowing trump to threaten Hilary with his 2nd amendment nuts.
August 10th, 2016 at 1:20 pm
Can you imagine how the agents guarding Trump feel about his reckless and dangerous blathering? I’ll bet they immediately wondered “hey – we arrest other people for this kind of threat – should I arrest Trump?”
I wish they would. He cannot walk this back.
August 10th, 2016 at 1:21 pm
And then there’s hillary who is way above the law. Unbelievable. Go Trump!
August 10th, 2016 at 1:23 pm
Devin#5
They’ve guarded Obama and his reckless and dangerous blathering for the last 8 years. I bet they didn’t immediately wonder much of anything.
August 10th, 2016 at 1:26 pm
Trump aides reportedly told the Secret Service that the GOP nominee did not intend to incite violence.
I’m not buying trump’s denial. But even if we suspend rationale and say he didn’t intend to incite, the simple fact is that his words as the G0P candidate for POTUS are potent and influence citizens in the USA.
To make-off-the cuff comments that can be interpreted as inciting is just plain not responsible or presidential.
August 10th, 2016 at 1:28 pm
Devin#5, he doesn’t have to he was talking about the power of their vote.
August 10th, 2016 at 1:30 pm
Ask the secret service what they think of Hillary, OH wait some have written books about how much of witch she is.
August 10th, 2016 at 1:32 pm
Jack#9 And if you really believe that you should enroll in Trump U!
August 10th, 2016 at 4:00 pm
Thomas, agreed!
August 11th, 2016 at 6:32 am
Unless black men start taking the murder of their race by racist thugs with badges into their own hands nothing will happen. We need to increase the All Saints wall. St. Micah Xavier Johnson and Saint Gavin Eugene Long gave their lives to stop the violence against their people, can you do less?
August 11th, 2016 at 6:36 am
I agree with you Rowan#13, something has to be done. http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-vigil-lapd-police-shooting-boyle-heights-20160810-snap-story.html
August 11th, 2016 at 6:39 am
They aren’t even pulling out the ‘ol: “He was goin’ fer muh gun!” excuse this time?
August 11th, 2016 at 6:40 am
James#15, they say he “charged” at them, same BS……..
August 11th, 2016 at 6:48 am
These cop uniforms with all their stars like they are military or something. These gutless wonders wouldn’t stand a chance if they faced anyone but unarmed civilians. Witness the ass kicking they got from St. Micah Xavier Johnson.
He took on the entire Dallas force and they had to resort to a robot bomb. I guess if he were unarmed they would have rushed him with their guns blazing, but since he could shoot back they cowered behind their vehicles and sent in a robot. Some military unit those cowards were.
August 11th, 2016 at 11:01 pm
They have let us get into the pool. And what else we got GOLD. RIO DE JANEIRO — Simone Manuel became the first African-American woman to win an individual Olympic medal in swimming Thursday night, tying for gold in the 100-meter freestyle with?Penny Oleksiak of Canada.
Manuel and Oleksiak both touched the wall in 52.70 seconds, breaking the Olympic record by one-hundredth of a second.?Sweden’s Sarah Sjostrom took the bronze in 52.99.
August 11th, 2016 at 11:15 pm
Right on. Alycedale, my family just went ballistic. This is the first time I have seen them root for a black person in a pool. My mom loves swimming. She was a coach for 30 years.
She’s been telling us for about that long that black people can’t swim because they have too much body fat. She always said that Anthony Ervin, the only other black American to win gold back in 2000, won because it was only a 50 meter freestyle.
Mom was especially excited about this one because no American has won gold in the 100 meter freestyle since Nancy Hogshead did it in 1984. That’s 32 years ago.
Congratulations Simone Manuel. You brought the gold back to America. And put the lie to another white myth(hope) that blacks can’t swim like they used to say a black can’t quarterback in professional football.
I don’t have any black friends, accept here( I like to think I can call you friend, Alycedale. You can go off sometimes, but if we can accept the crazy bullshit from Trump, you go girl.