During "Knock & Talk" [white supremacy] Operation: White Orlando Cops Sneak & Murder Unarmed Black Man Watching TV on Couch. Cops then Denied Medical Treatment, suit alleges
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From [HERE] An Orlando police killing of a Black teenager during a controversial knock-and-talk operation in 2013 now faces a wrongful-death lawsuit in federal court.
Karvas Gamble Jr., 19, died when eight Orlando drug agents responded without supervision to a week-old tip and opened fire under such questionable circumstances that the Orange-Osceola State Attorney's Office reviewed this and other fatal law enforcement confrontations. All the cops involved apparently were white.
"Our conclusion bluntly is that this should not have happened," a grand jury wrote of the 19-year-old's death. White prosecutors sought no criminal charges against the white cops.
The lawsuit filed in federal court in Orlando on behalf of Gamble's parents seeks more than $75,000 from city government as well as three police officers. The lawsuit said Karvas Gamble Jr. was unarmed when police wearing dark, plain clothes hid outside the house and then -- without any warning -- shot their unarmed son.
The suit targets OPD and three officers for the "unnecessary and violent murder of an unarmed young man at the hands of heavily armed Orlando Police Department officers during an execution of a warrantless operation." At the time, police said Gamble reached for a gun. But the lawsuit says he had no weapons, broke no laws, was not under arrest, and was not a threat to himself or others.
According to the suit, on Jan. 16, 2013, eight drug agents sneaked up in the dark outside a building on Arlington St. where Gamble and friends were inside. Gamble was watching TV when undercover officers hiding outside shot through an open window and killed him. One of the officers though he saw the teen reaching for gun and fired, hitting him in the belly.
The lawsuit says the officers went on the investigation based off a "stale" and unverified drug tip. The operation was poorly planned, but the purpose was to "knock and talk" with people inside, claimed the suit, but when Gamble turned toward the window, Officer Christopher Bigelow shot him through an open window.
Citing fire department records, the family's lawyers accused police of waiting 20 minutes before calling an ambulance as Gamble lay mortally wounded and then not allowing paramedics for 15 minutes to treat him.
"It shows a complete failure of the department to do these types of operations safely," Attorney J. Clancey Bounds of Maitland said Friday. "They put themselves in danger and an officer thought it was appropriate to shoot this young man through a window."
In knock-and-talk operations, police without search warrants knock on a suspect's door hoping to observe criminal activity needed to make an arrest.
After incident, Orlando Police Chief Paul Rooney, racist suspect in photo, said "This is the second night in a row that our drug unit was investigating drug complaints, and suspects have pulled guns on officers.
"The message is clear: If anyone pulls a gun on an Orlando Police officer, we are trained to shoot back -- which we did." [MORE]
One of Gamble's friends ran outside and was shot and wounded by another drug agent. However, no guns were pulled out on the police. Gamble had a broom in his hand as he sat on couch watching television. [MORE] [As far as BW knows the possession of firearms in the home is protected by the 2nd Amendment and not unlawful in Florida - at least for white folks, that is.]
The grand jury did not indict the officers but criticized their behavior.
"It appears to us that little planning went into this operation," the jurors wrote. "It seems to us that the safety of the officers and the public was jeopardized by eight armed officers acting more or less independently with no one individuals in clear operational command."
