This blog seeks to look at events thru the perspective of Black people. We seek the Nguzo Saba 365/7 on on our blog. Please be active as a villager by using the COMMENT OPTION on blog posts, Subscribe to our blog, introduce yourself or view our most popular posts!
It is nice that a district attorney in North Carolina is finally holding a taser-wielding police officer accountable for the pre-judicial electrocution of an innocent and unarmed citizen. John Turner, 26, resigned in disgrace from the Scotland Neck Police Department after the taser-related killing of 61-year old Roger Anthony. [SOURCE]
A grand jury in Halifax County indicted John Turner on the charge of involuntary manslaughter.
'Villagers' may recall that Turner responded to a call in reference to an intoxicated man on that November afternoon. He saw Anthony riding his bike in the area and tried to get him to stop. When Anthony didn’t stop, Turner shot him with his stun gun. Anthony died from head trauma suffered when he fell from his bicycle and hit his head on the pavement.
Turner is currently free on bail. His next court date is August 6.
The police often try to blame their pre-judicial electrocutions on the victim being a criminal or a drug addict or a drunk. None of those things held true for 62-year old Roger Anthony when he was pumped with 50,000 volts of electricity from Scotland Neck (NC) police officer John Turner. Officer Turner didn't appreciate being ignored by an old guy on a bicycle ... so he took out his taser gun and killed Mr. Anthony.
Roger Anthony died last November after Scotland Neck police got a call about a drunk man falling from his bicycle. The officer said he called out to the 62-year-old man, turned on his lights and siren and tried to get him to stop.
The police officer thought that Turner was drunk. Anthony's toxicology tests came back clean. He had no alcohol or drugs in his system.
Methinks that a lawsuit is coming up next if the prosecutor doesn't take criminal action against Officer Turner.What say u?
It happened again! This time a rookie cop with about a month on the job decided that it didn't have the training to handle a 61-year old UNARMED Black man riding his bike without electrocuting him with a taser gun.
The 61-year old man, Roger Anthony, was riding his bike on Monday, November 21st. Someone called '911' to report that he was drunk. The police responded with Officer John Turner. He found Mr. Anthony riding the bike and followed him in his patrol car, briefly put on his sirens and lights and yelled out of the window for him to stop, but Anthony continued to ride away.
Turner then saw Anthony take something out his pocket and put it into his mouth. At that time, Turner got out of the car and yelled for Anthony to stop. When Mr. Anthony didn't stop, the officer pumped him with 50,000 volts of electricity from his taser gun, causing him to fall off of his bike.
Anthony was transported to Pitt County Memorial Hospital, where he was declared brain dead, his sister Gladys Freeman said. He was taken off of life support on Tuesday.
Freeman said her brother was disabled, suffered from seizures and had trouble hearing. She said he was riding his bike home from her house on Sunday night. Anthony lived alone in an independent living community.
Turner, who has been on the force for just over a month, has been placed on administrative leave.
Scotland Neck Mayor James Mills is calling for the State Bureau of Investigation to look into what happened.
"The best we've been able to determine is that he offered no threat," Mills said.
Milton Freeman said Anthony, his brother-in-law, used to smoke cigarettes, drink coffee and ride his bicycle around town. Anthony was nicknamed "Rabbit" because of his big ears.
"Why would you (use a stun gun on) a man on a bike? He didn’t do any crime. He wasn’t trying to escape. How (was) he going to escape on his bicycle?" Milton Freeman said.
