Saginaw Police Dashcam Video Shows Deadly Force Mistake Two Years Later

[XLFD]

 Newly released video from a police dashcam showing an event that happened two years ago in Saginaw Michigan should have every American shaking their head in disbelief over what happened and what conclusions the US Department of Justice made in the interim about the occurrence. 

It is extremely telling of our current system that the video of this dashcam has not been made public until two years later by the Saginaw Police Department and that none of the officers that shot the mentally challenged man 46 times in almost public-execution style have been disciplined for their participation or turned in their badge in shame. 

The victim, Milton Hall, a 49 year old black man, was holding a pen knife non-threateningly when he was shot.  He appears to have been concerned about one of the officers releasing a dog to attack him.  From this video, recently supplied to the ACLU who will be representing the victim's family, it is clear he was not advancing towards any officer when he was shot 46 times in under five seconds, nor making any threatening moves.  Yet every officer present remarkably put in their reports that they felt that Hall posed an imminent threat to their safety.

According to the USDOJ who said they conducted a though investigation into the slaying and absolved the officers of any wrongdoing (as seen in this February 2014 press release):

Hall did not comply with the officers’ commands, and verbally responded that he would not put the knife down. While the SPD officers came together on the scene, the K-9 officer and his dog approached and retreated from Hall several times. During this time, Hall was intermittently shifting his feet and getting into and out of a crouching stance. When Hall, with the knife still in his hand, moved toward the K-9 officer and his dog, six SPD officers fired at him and fatally wounded him.

Two SPD patrol car dashcams captured a video recording, with no audio, of much of the encounter between Hall and the SPD officers. The dashcams on the other SPD patrol cars were either not operational or not activated during this incident. Several civilians witnessed the incident and recorded portions of it on their cellular phones.

After the shooting, all of the SPD officers at the scene wrote reports. In these reports, the officers who discharged their weapons explained that they did so because they believed Hall posed an imminent threat to the officers’ safety.

The video shows fairly clearly that when he was shot he was at least 15 feet away from any officer in a non-threatening manner.  The dog could have been released, tasers could have been deployed, but guns were deployed 46 times. 

Milton Hall was not a threat when he was shot, but since the gang of shooters were armored with official authority and shielded with their tin badges, they escaped any sort of accountability for their rash actions that led to the death of a man. 

 In their cross-hairs:  Hall, pictured pacing in front of the officers with their weapons drawn, was the one who called the police after having a confrontation with a store clerk 

In Ludington, James Luttrull unlawfully eavesdrops outside a window, enters Bill Marble's house near midnight with his gun drawn and shoots Bill Marble in cold blood without a warning.  Luttrull's actions are absolved of any wrongdoing by our local prosecutor with help from Luttrull's associates on the Michigan State Police (MSP) doing all the investigative work.  Trooper Luttrull continues his duties, the prosecutor later gets a special commendation from the MSP for his successful prosecution of a man who without a warning shot a state trooper in cold blood .   

The trooper shot is remembered as a heroic figure who gets a grand funeral and a section of highway named after him; the retired teacher that is shot is remembered in the police and prosecutor's account as being drunk, gun-crazy, and suffering from a medical affliction, instead of being a community-oriented person that was quietly residing in his home that night when he was shot by an intruder. 

[Willy]

This incident was more than outrageous, it was a public execution. The man was clearly reacting to the dog. Everyone of those officers should be fired and prosecuted. If I lived in Saginaw I would be leery of any contact with that insane police department. The fact that this was deemed a justified shooting is also the workings of twisted minds. 

[XLFD]

What is always confounding to me is why does the media, USDOJ and race-baiting media leeches (like Al Sharpton) focus on the Ferguson, Missouri shootings and the Zimmerman situation down in Florida, where video of the events do not exist and where the shooter is more likely to have shot in self-defense, than in a clear case of police use of excessive force like this where you have a whole firing squad of white officers shooting a mentally challenged black man? 

[AQUAMAN]

Willy, well said. And to add to that: these police wussies deserve our appreciation and protection, or don't they? You have at your disposal on your police utility belt the following logical alternatives:shotgun bags, mace, tasers, psychology and a host other alternatives Add that a K-9 dog trained to attack, and never released? The only threat I saw was verbal, but the video said there was a knife? I didn't see it, did anyone else? Either way, the LPD is supposed to be trained, as any other PD, to be sensitive and selective about whom they shoot to kill! And that just didn't happen here at ALL! It's going to get bad to worse out here, irregardless of ethics and legalities, if we the people, let this continue! A sick minded man had to be eliminated, destroyed, assassinated, and what did humanity and the USA gain? 

[shinblind]

2 of the cops involved were black, one female and one another specie (canine). It looks like they had the proper political correct mix in this execution squad. The only criticism has been that the group wasn't racially diverse enough (Black Lab?).

Because of this, unlike Ferguson where the cop was white,  there was nothing for Jesse, Lou & Al to be able to turn into a hate event. Indeed even AG Holder couldn't find sufficient tinder to inflame the incident.

It has been reported that one of the cops involved in the execution  was demoted and 2 were disciplined.  The ethnicity of  the demoted officer nor gender or specie has been mentioned.

[XLFD]

Shinblind, in the articles I looked at in doing research on this topic, I couldn't find any breakdown on the races and genders of the officer involved (that includes the DOJ report and various articles from several sources such as the ACLU, Mlive, the Huffington Post, Saginaw news services, and Newsweek article.  I'm not doubting you, but I couldn't find such data in any of those sources, other than a visit by Al and Jesse in 2012, and that they didn't immediately release the races of the officers.

But the main point is, if the jackknife wielding homeless man was white or green, he could have easily suffered the same result, but it's hard getting at the full truth.  One wonders because of the blue shield blocking public information if the two officers who didn't shoot (according to reports) were the black officers.