Posted: 7/30/2002 4:47:29 AM EDT
[#14]
Quoted: So, with all the jumping to conclusions, flying off the handle etc. What we really have so far is a ramming, a shooting, and too few facts to determine the whole circumstances under which this incident occurred. View Quote Quoted: As is typical, especially it seems in Atlanta, everytime a cops shoots someone, the black community gets upset and says the guy who got shot didn't deserve it. View Quote Add one more fact to the above. One of the "subjects" has now died. Given ATF's past "performance", I am very inclined to listen more closely to other witnesses versions of events. Media still has not said if these people were involved with the warrant at all. I find that rather odd. Edited to add: [url]http://www.11alive.com/news/news_article.asp?storyid=19754[/url] Man Killed in Incident Involving ATF
A man was killed and three others injured, including two ATF agents, in a shooting in northwest Atlanta Monday afternoon.
ATF agents were assisting Atlanta police in executing a search warrant in the 500 block of Elmwood Drive, off Bankhead Highway, when a Burgundy car came speeding down the street and crashed into an ATF vehicle.
The ATF, or Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, agents then fired into the Burgundy car, injuring the two men inside. The two men were transported to Grady Memorial Hospital, where the driver of the car later died.
Two ATF agents sustained minor injuries as a result of the car crash and were also taken to Grady. The conditions of the two ATF agents and the other man were not released Monday.
Neighbors: Police Shot First Neighbors said the police over-reacted in the incident.
“Every time people in the public say something about officers doing something wrong, we don’t have nobody, you understand, to speak for us,” a local resident said, alluding to several past incidents involving police shootings during the last few weeks.
ATF agent Jack Killorin said he disagreed with the observation that the ATF agents over-reacted.
“They fired at the vehicle that was going to hit them, I think, is the way they’d describe it,” he said.
Police Shootings Under Fire Although the shooting involved federal officers, it added to a litany of cases that Atlanta Police Chief Richard Pennington and other state law enforcement officials have recently had to address. (Full Story)
“I’m going to have to get with our command staff and our academy to find out the procedures we are using to train our officers on when to use their weapons involving vehicles,” Pennington said on July 19.
Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin said she agreed with Pennington’s desire for a review of procedures.
“I agree with him. The safety of our police staff is paramount to our ability to keep the city safe,” she said.
Rev. Markel Hutchins, of the National Youth Connection, who has been active in protests surrounding a recent police shooting that left an 18 year old dead, said, "We think that we have been seeing a trend of police using excessive force around our nation, and Atlanta's not immune to that."
However, law enforcement officials maintain that the shootings were justifiable, citing that in all the cases the officers perceived themselves to be in the way of danger. View Quote [img]http://www.stopstart.fsnet.co.uk/smilie/sadness.gif[/img]
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