Monday, May 22, 2006

Have Uniform, Will Shoot

Shame, shame, shame. In the back? Have you no pride Mr. Police Officer?
CNN.com - Katrina autopsy: Police shot retarded man in back - May 22, 2006: "Lance Madison said a policeman pointed a rifle at Ronald and shot him as the two of them were running up the bridge. Lance said he helped carry his wounded brother to a motel on the other side of the canal and left him there as Lance kept running to seek help.

The Police Department said in a press release last fall that Ronald Madison, whom it called a second unidentified gunman, 'was confronted by a New Orleans Police Officer. The suspect reached into his waist and turned toward the officer who fired one shot fatally wounding him.'

Testifying in a preliminary hearing last fall, Police Sgt. Arthur Kaufman said much the same thing: 'One subject turned, reached in his waistband, turned on the officers.'

Autopsy results, made available to CNN by a source involved in the investigation, directly contradict that police account.

The findings list five separate gunshot wounds in Ronald Madison's back. Three went through the body and exited in front. There were two other wounds in his right shoulder. None of the shots entered his body from the front.

CNN had sued the coroner of Orleans Parish to try to get official access to the autopsy report. At a court hearing on that lawsuit in New Orleans a week ago, the coroner, Dr. Frank Minyard, verified the handwritten autopsy report obtained elsewhere by CNN was indeed prepared in his office by a pathologist on his staff who listed the wounds in the victim's right back.

Under cross-examination by a CNN lawyer, Dr. Minyard testified those five wounds in the back 'were entrance wounds, yes.'

Dr. Michael Baden, chief forensic pathologist for the New York State Police, met with CNN in New York City two weeks ago to discuss his own observations when he examined Ronald Madison's body for the family lawyer last fall. Asked if Ronald could have been facing the police when shot, Dr. Baden said, 'Absolutely not.'

No weapon was found on or near Ronald Madison's body.

Asst. District Attorney Dustin Davis, testifying in the same court hearing on the CNN lawsuit, said a grand jury has been assigned to investigate the Danziger Bridge shootings. However, the grand jury has not yet met on the case because the New Orleans Police Dept. has yet to complete its final report, eight months after those deaths."
Absolutely ridiculous. CNN had to sue to bring this story to light? Wonder what else has been hidden? Actually, I don't wonder any more. I have no faith in my government, don't trust the police, my military has been stretched to the breaking point, the National Guard is off doing who knows what, but whatever it is it isn't helping their home state.

Grrrr.

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