From [FTP] A SWAT team of white Mesa police officers is facing backlash this week after video surfaced showing them open fire on an unarmed Black man with his hands up who was surrounded by his five children and his wife. The cops continued to fire at him after he falls onto the sidewalk and is writhing in pain. The white cops applied reforms because they used rubber bullets.

Lorenzo Jones had just handed his youngest child off to the child’s mother before police opened fire. he clearly posed no threat. The cops appear to be about 25 yards away in an adjoining parking lot.

Police were at the residence that day because on July 6, according to court documents, Jones allegedly punched his fiancee’s sister in her face at least three times, causing her to fall. Her children then attempted to stop him from hitting their mother, and Jones reportedly punched and shoved them before leaving the apartment. Whether he committed such crimes or not no one, no authority should have the power to initiate unprovoked acts of violence against a defenseless person or treat them like property or as if they are subhuman. At any rate within the statist paradigm, punishment is reserved for judges and juries not cops.

According to police, Jones missed his court date for the above incident, so a warrant was issued for his arrest. The video above is of the SWAT team serving said warrant.

When Mesa SWAT went to serve the warrant on July 16, Jones, a woman and five children came out. A neighbor filmed the interaction and the subsequent child endangerment that ensued.

As the video shows, Jones tries to tell the officers that he did in fact show up to the court date and shouldn’t have a warrant for failing to appear. He then complies with everything the SWAT teams says including putting his hands up. Despite 100 percent compliance, police opened fire on him anyway.

As Jones writhed in pain on the ground, the cops kept firing bean bag rounds.

Police are claiming they opened fire on Jones because they were told he was armed. However, video shows him shirtless, compliant and with his hands in the air when they start shooting.

According to the report, a department spokeswoman said officers were told Jones had a gun and were on “high alert.” They claim Jones was not complying and that they deployed non-lethal force to get Jones to comply once the children were out of his immediate vicinity.

However, the video shows that is not true at all and they opened fire on Jones with the baby directly behind him.

“They [the officers] felt that he was armed and dangerous,” said Mesa Police Chief Ken Cost. “It would be premature for me to comment on the split-second the officer made the decision.” Cops made no further investigation to corroborate whatever information they had about him being armed. Apparently, the white cops have no binoculars - perhaps that can be the next police reform. In the video the shirtless Black man made no furtive movements, was compliant, was surrounded by small kids & infants and his wife and was about 25 yards away from the cops - it is therefore not rational that they believed he was armed and posing imminent danger to them.

In reality, that split second decision put the lives of innocent children in danger. A baby was directly behind Jones when police opened fire while a toddler stood right next to him.

“This is unbelievable,” Jones’ fiancé Tenisha Gaston said. “My 2-year-old son sat there and said ‘I don’t want to go to jail.’ My 2-year-old shouldn’t be saying nothing like that.”