Unarmed Man Executed by Police for 'Pointing Finger Like a Gun' - Taxpayers to Bear Responsibility

 

Donnie Sanders, 47, was driving down the road on March 12, 2020, minding his own thing when a Kansas City police officer started tailing him. Sanders would be shot and died moments later. He was unarmed and had done no damage to anybody.

The Jackson County Prosecutor's Office said in March that no charges will be brought in Sanders' death because prosecutors allege Sanders raised his fingers or hand in the form of a pistol, justifying the unnamed officer shooting four bullets into the unarmed victim.

Sanders' family is now suing the Board of Police Commissioners and the officer who shot him after two years of trying and failing to get justice.

According to the federal complaint, Blayne Newton, the cop who shot Sanders three times, used excessive force. According to the Kansas City Star, the complaint also accuses the Board of Police Commissioners of failing to adequately educate and punish police personnel on the use of lethal force.

These activities eventually resulted in Sanders' "unjustified and severe bodily and mental agony and death," according to the legal lawsuit filed by his family.

According to authorities, the officer suspected Sanders of speeding on that fatal night and did a U-turn to begin following Sanders in his SUV. Sanders was not speeding, and the officer did not engage his lights or sirens while he followed him, according to the dashcam.

Sanders kept driving with Newton following and made a quick left turn with his blinker on before turning right without signalling. Sanders then took a left into an alley, pursued by the officer.

Once inside the alley, the Newton activated his lights and sirens in an attempt to apprehend Sanders. Sanders quickly pulled over and came to a halt. Sanders, however, opened the door and escaped on foot for unclear reasons. We will never know why he fled because he was slain, but if he ran out of fear of the police, Newton's subsequent actions vindicate those worries completely.

On the radio, Newton may be heard stating that Sanders "is fleeing on foot."

As seen by dashcam video, the officer follows Sanders out of view while yelling at the unarmed guy to "show me your hands." Sanders responds to the officer, but much of what he says is inaudible save for a piece that sounds like, "help me."

The officer then repeatedly demands, "guy, drop it!" "Decline! Decline! Decline!" The officer then fires three shots into the unarmed Sanders. He was pronounced dead on the spot.

After killing Sanders, the officer informed investigators that he believed the guy had a pistol. He was carrying just a smartphone, which he kept in his pocket.

Jackson County Prosecutor Jean Peters Baker said in a press release last year that the officer was justified in shooting Sanders because he "imagined" Sanders was aiming a pistol at him.

According to Peters Baker's office, there was insufficient evidence to indict the officer. Naturally, activists in the neighbourhood, such as Gwen Grant, president and CEO of the Greater Kansas City Urban League, disagree.

"What we are seeing is a catastrophe. "A melanated guy driving down the street, ostensibly doing his own thing, meets his demise after a contact with a police officer," Grant said. "Upon seeing the footage, it is unclear why Donnie was first stopped. A driving infraction does not merit the death penalty. Donnie Sanders was unarmed when he was apprehended. He ought not to be dead."

We concur.

"The existing system is incapable of giving justice to melanated people," Ryan Sorrell, a Black Rainbow leader, told ABC News. "I believe it was founded and is fundamentally a corrupt and racist organisation. It's basically obvious naked brutality committed without regard for consequences."

Yes, it is. Despite horrific police shootings, many of which were recorded on camera and shocked the country, the arrest rate for officers who murder individuals on the job remains as low as it has ever been.

Link to the video and article:https://www.kansascity.com/news/article249619538.html