NAACP Questions St. Paul Police Fatal Shooting of Black Man (yet another unarmed Black Man allegedly ramming a police car)

From [HERE] The St. Paul NAACP has questions and concerns about officers fatally shooting a 41-year-old man in the city this week. Police killed Victor Terrance Gaddy as officers were trying to stop the St. Paul man during a drug investigation Tuesday, Oct. 23.

A criminal complaint filed Thursday against a passenger in Gaddy's car said Gaddy "accelerated rapidly toward one of the police vehicles, striking it and nearly pinning a St. Paul police officer between the suspect vehicle and the police vehicle." It also said Gaddy reversed and rammed another police vehicle. The police cars were unmarked.

The civil rights group said the damage shown in a photograph of Gaddy's car doesn't appear consistent with the police version of what happened in the shooting, the St. Paul Pioneer Press (http://bit.ly/RXHF1l ) reported.

"Their whole decision-making was on the pretext that this vehicle was looked at as a weapon," said Jeff Martin, president of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People chapter. "To justify taking this person's life, I would at least want to see some damage to the vehicle. To use lethal force on someone, I would think they would want to try other avenues first rather than executing the gentleman."

St. Paul police Sgt. Paul Paulos, a department spokesman, said he couldn't get into details of the case because the investigation was ongoing. "We're continuing to follow through to find out what happened moments before, during and after," he said.

Though St. Paul police patrol and traffic vehicles have in-squad cameras, there are no cameras in unmarked police cars, which officers involved in the Gaddy case were driving, Paulos said.

Gaddy's death in the 300 block of Jessamine Avenue was the first of two unrelated shootings involving St. Paul police officers Tuesday.

About 7 1/2 hours later, police shot and killed Chue Xiong, 22, of St. Paul after he fired on two officers near Minnehaha and Payne avenues. Officer Daniel King, who was wounded in the incident, remained hospitalized Friday.

When there is a fatal shooting involving police in Ramsey County, the county attorney's office typically convenes a grand jury to investigate, office spokesman Dennis Gerhardstein said. Police have not yet presented either case to review, he said.

Gaddy was stopped in St. Paul at the request of Minneapolis police who suspected he was on his way to deliver an ounce of crack cocaine somewhere in the city.

As Gaddy, who had a criminal record going back at least 20 years, tried to leave the area of Jessamine Avenue and Westminster Street, officers blocked his car, police said Wednesday.

"After he was blocked in, the driver started to ram the unmarked squad cars," the statement said. "He did not heed their orders to stop and continued to ram the squads. The officers felt their lives were in jeopardy because of the aggressive actions taken by the suspect. Fearing for their safety, officers fired their duty weapons, striking the suspect several times."

Stephen Smith, a Minneapolis attorney working with Gaddy's family, said he thinks there is a need for thorough investigation because of "divergent versions of what happened here." Smith said he's talked to the front-seat passenger, who was arrested and charged with drug possession, and "his version does not at all match up with what has been reported officially thus far."

Smith said as his firm evaluates the case, they would determine "any recourse the family may have," including a lawsuit.

Four St. Paul officers were placed on three-day administrative leave, which is standard after officer-involved shootings. They were identified as Edward O'Donnell, Mark Farrington, Joshua Raichert and Christopher McGuire.

Two of the officers fired and two were drivers, Paulos said. Those who fired were outside their vehicles, had identified themselves as police and had given commands, he said. Paulos also said that although they are not uniformed officers, they would have been wearing clothes that said, "Police," and their vehicles had red lights and sirens activated.

Terrence Jovan Wilson, Gaddy's 20-year-old nephew, was the front-seat passenger; the Ramsey County attorney's office charged him Thursday with drug possession.

His attorney has said the drugs were found outside the car as police were pulling Wilson out, that he believes they fell out of the car and that they were not Wilson's.

The package of drugs that Wilson was charged with possessing was identified as cocaine and weighed 0.94 grams (0.03 ounce), the complaint said. An additional 22.26 grams (0.79 ounce) of cocaine was found in the car, according to the complaint.

Martin said he believes Gaddy is being villainized as a drug dealer and that people should examine whether the police use of force was justified.

The NAACP will be paying close attention to the investigation, Martin said.

"We definitely are looking for justice to be served in this area," he said. "Sometimes you have to sit back and look -- are police really doing their jobs, or are they going to a scene with a stereotype in mind and handling it inappropriately?"