In light of all the recent police shootings of unarmed black men, women, and children in the news recently, I wanted to draw a comparison here to this incident, which occurred just last night less than five miles from where I live.
Follow below the squiggle for the details on this....
1. The incident began when Raleigh Police requested assistance from Wake Forest Police after they got a call about a stolen firearm. The report indicated that the suspect was actively discharging the firearm.
2. When officers arrived on the scene,
3. they encountered an eighteen year old white male (later identified as David William Johnson of Wake Forest.) The suspect fled the scene and led officers on a high-speed chase.
4. Johnson crashed his vehicle about 9:30pm, ending the chase.
5. Johnson then exited the vehicle with a handgun in plain view.
6. Two officers repeatedly told Johnson to drop his weapon, and,
7. when he failed to comply, the officers fired at Johnson, striking him multiple times.
8. Johnson was transported to WakeMed where he later died.
The officers involved have been placed on administrative leave (presumably with pay, although my source article does not indicate this) - and the NC Bureau of Investigation as well as Wake Forest PD Internal Affairs are investigating the incident.
Now...at what number...do you imagine, Johnson would have been shot if he was not white? My guess is that it may have happened a lot sooner, although I'd like to think better of the police in my neck of the woods. Many police here in Raleigh have participated in Moral Mondays marches with Dr. Barber, and have also supported Black Lives Matter rallies.
Still...the narriative here is the same as we hear from most shootings where the victim is black...and often, the narriative is later found to be fabricated in many of those cases.
In THIS case, I suspect that the narriative is in fact, accurate.
I just wanted to draw a contrast between police shootings of white suspects, versus black suspects.