Video Showing Mentally Disabled African American Shot 46 Times By Eight Police Officers For Just Holding A Penknife
A video exposing a homeless man with a small penknife being shot dead by eight police officers is spreading rapidly in the U.S. In all, 46 bullets were shot, according to RT. American Civil Liberties Union released the video of the African American, Milton Hall, 49, calling him "a community worker," who was always supporting those he thought were weak or lacked the strength to talk for themselves.
It happened in July 2012, when he stood in Saginaw, Michigan, and got into a debate with the police after he had fought with a store clerk. It is not clear why he was shot a dozen times for just holding a penknife at some distance from the police. The video was taken by a bystander. It depicts Martin standing in a parking lot. He is surrounded by eight police officers with their weapons out and targeted at him. One of them tells him to drop his knife, but he refuses. In 10 seconds, they all begin to shoot, even as Hall seems to die even before he falls. Of the 46 shots that were fired, he took 14 bullets.
After that, they actually seemed to handcuff the wounded man. A bystander can be heard asking: "Why did they have to shoot him so many times?" The officers seemed to be handcuffing his lifeless arms and dragging his body, while an officer tried to kick his back, according to Independent UK.
Later, the US Department of Justice had ruled that there was no "sufficient evidence of willful misconduct" that could prosecute the policemen. After all, Milton Hall had a knife that was out and threatened the police officers, it concluded.
For the past two years, his mother, Jewel Hall, has been crusading for justice, convinced that Martin was "assassinated." In the video, she describes that his blood had been flowing in the street "like water." She asked how he could be a threat with a tiny penknife. He had no clue that the policemen would kill him. Being mentally ill, he had been on medication, which made him calm. When he was not on that, he would get impatient. She described that his death had been "devastating to the community, to everybody." But justice had still not been met. Since then she has been working with other parents whose children have been killed.
Today, the ACLU is exhibiting this video at a conference regarding racial inequalities in the U.S. criminal justice system to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights. This is part of the Organization of American States. The ACLU is trying to get the government to reopen the case, according to Mirror UK. Currently, the killing of 18 year-old African-American Michael Brown, shot by a white police officer in August in Ferguson, Missouri, is still running high in the U.S.
Source: YouTube/ACLU of Michigan