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A Georgia police officer has lost his job after dashcam video from his patrol car captured him plowing into a suspect with his car during a chase.
Taylor Saulters of the Athens-Clarke County police department, who was initially suspended after the June 1 chase, was fired on Saturday, his department announced in a statement.
The decision followed a department review of the video that showed Saulters driving after 23-year-old Timmy Patmon, who was running on foot through a neighborhood while wanted on a felony probation warrant.
During the chase, Saulters drove over a curb and blew out one of his vehicle’s tires. After unsuccessfully pulling in front of Patmon as a roadblock, he then charges his car after Patmon, knocking him to the ground.
Patmon was taken to a hospital where he was treated for cuts and bruises, the police department said. He was then taken to the Clarke County Jail for the probation violation and a charge of obstruction of a law enforcement officer.
A police department spokesman told WSBTV that officials don’t believe Saulters intentionally hit Patmon with his vehicle, but that he was negligent in the incident.
“It’s police brutality, it sure is. It’s wrong,” Brown Patmon told the Atlanta-based station.
ATHENS-CLARKE COUNTY POLICE DEPARTMENT/FACEBOOK
The officer was filmed trying to stop the suspect twice with his car.
Witnesses to the crash can be heard in the video screaming at the responding officers while questioning Saulters’ actions.
“Why’d you hit that man with your car like that?” an approaching woman shouts.
While handcuffing Patmon on the ground, Saulters threatens to use a stun gun on him when Patmon doesn’t immediately place his hands behind his back.
When the young man doesn’t immediately stand up as instructed by Saulters, saying he’s hurt from getting hit with his car, Saulters tells him: “Oh, I know, I know what I did. Why’d you run?”
During a later recorded conversation with fellow officers, Saulters said the vehicle collision was unintentional.
“I didn’t hit him with the car, I blocked him with the car,” he said. “He ran into the hood of my car and bounced off.”
The Georgia Bureau of Investigation will conduct an investigation to determine whether Saulters will be criminally charged, the police department said.
According to the Athens Banner-Herald, Saulters graduated from the police academy less than a year ago. His father, police Capt. Jerry Saulters, heads the department’s criminal investigative division, WSBTV reported.
Robert Johnson was beaten unconscious by members of the Mesa Police Department because he 'wouldn't sit down'
Police in Arizona were caught on surveillance camera beating Robert Johnson in the face until he became unconscious, for no apparent reason.
Three officers and a sergeant are now on administrative leave as a result of the altercation, Mesa Police Chief Ramon Batista said.
The police involved in the beating said they used physical force on him because 'he wouldn't sit down.
Bruh
This is called getting jumped.Robert Johnson was beaten unconscious by members of the Mesa Police Department because he 'wouldn't sit down'
Police in Arizona were caught on surveillance camera beating Robert Johnson in the face until he became unconscious, for no apparent reason.
Three officers and a sergeant are now on administrative leave as a result of the altercation, Mesa Police Chief Ramon Batista said.
The police involved in the beating said they used physical force on him because 'he wouldn't sit down.
I’m sorry to hear that. Never happened to me but did happen to friends in front of me. Maybe not to your degree but I feel the same way. I don’t feel safe around them at allI got beat u
I got beat up by the police before. I wasn’t in a coherent state of mind and woke up in a holding cell with my elbow the size of a softball. Had bruises on the back of my leg and knee that you could tell happened while I was handcuffed if I put my hands behind my back and my elbow knot lined up with the others. I legit have ptsd now I think. I’m literally scared of them and feel in danger around them.
CHICAGO (AP) - A Chicago police officer fatally shot a 24-year-old black man who authorities said pulled a gun while running away, prompting questions from the man's family about why the encounter turned deadly.
Sgt. Rocco Alioto said the "armed confrontation" Wednesday evening on the city's South Side happened as officers conducted a narcotics investigation. He said the suspect fled on foot when officers approached. Alioto said in a statement that officers told the man to stop and he "produced a weapon," so the officer shot him.
The man, later identified as Maurice Granton Jr., died of a gunshot wound to the back, the Cook County Medical Examiner's office said Thursday. His death has been ruled a homicide. The Civilian Office of Police Accountability, which is investigating the shooting, said late Thursday that preliminary evidence shows there were three shots discharged from the officer's firearm.
Police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said that officers involved in a narcotics investigation were watching the area Wednesday evening through one of a number of surveillance cameras mounted on poles throughout the city. They saw Granton taking part in what appeared to be an illegal drug transaction and dispatched officers to the scene.
Guglielmi posted on Twitter a photograph of what he said was Granton's weapon found at the scene. He said that there is physical evidence that the gun had been fired. No officer was shot although a sergeant may have suffered a broken ankle during the confrontation.
The police department has not released the name or race of the officer involved in Wednesday night's shooting. Alioto said the officer has been placed on 30-day administrative leave in line with department policy.
The shooting of Granton comes as police have faced intense scrutiny over allegations of excessive force involving black suspects. White officer Jason Van **** has been charged with first-degree murder in the 2014 shooting of black teenager Laquan McDonald. He has pleaded not guilty. Release of a video of the shooting of McDonald a year after it happened prompted outrage and calls for Mayor Rahm Emanuel to resign.
Chicago police released more details of the Wednesday shooting after Granton's sister, Joanna Varnado, suggested that the officer had used excessive force.
"Since when does running validate somebody getting shot?" she asked. The Chicago Tribune reported that Granton's family expressed doubts that the gun belonged to Granton, the father of two young daughters.
"I just want to know what the real story is," Varnado said. "If it was misconduct, I want justice. My brother was 24 years old. He loved his girls. That's all he lived for, was his kids."
Albany, NY — The citizens of the village of Green Island have been held liable for $375,000 to settle a federal lawsuit after police arrested a man so violently that he lost his leg.
Kevin T. Kavanaugh filed a civil rights lawsuit after a violent arrest that started when state troopers smelled marijuana. After police smelled the plant, Kavanaugh made the poor decision of fleeing in his vehicle and led police on a high speed chase.
According to the lawsuit, after Kavanaugh finally surrendered, he was brutally beaten for no reason, handcuffed and then an officer violently and unnecessarily began twisting his lower leg until the bones snapped apart.
“This wasn’t just a broken ankle. Kevin had pins and screws in his ankle (from a prior injury) and they basically twisted his ankle until they popped out of the bone,” said his attorney, Lee Kindlon. “They actually killed his leg, and it was dying from the toe up.”
After the violent arrest, Kavanaugh was denied proper medical care leading to severe complications. Multiple other parties outside of the arresting officers were complicit in his abuse, according to the suit.
As the Times Union reports, last year, several other police agencies that were involved in the arrest — or with Kavanaugh’s custody and treatment following his arrest — also reached settlements in the case. Correctional Medical Care, Inc., a Pennsylvania company which had previously provided medical services at the Albany County jail, agreed to pay $84,000. The other police agencies, including the State Police and Watervliet Police Department, paid smaller amounts that totaled roughly $13,000.
After Kavanaugh finally stopped his car, according to the lawsuit, he climbed out of the vehicle and surrendered. At this point, according to the suit, police officers threw him to the ground, beat him with a club, and began kicking him in the head.
According to police, they used the force necessary to subdue Kavanaugh. However, as TFTP has reported on numerous occasions, when people run from police, even after surrendering, police will kick, punch, or stomp a non-violent and totally compliant person.
After he was beaten and placed in handcuffs, according to the lawsuit, a Green Island police officer—who Kavanaugh could not specifically identify—grabbed his foot and began violently twisting it, causing the severe damage.
Even one of the Green Island officers, Paul Johnson, testified in a pre-trial deposition that when they were processing Kavanaugh at their station, he complained of extreme pain in his lower leg that the officer said “just looked like a dead leg, grayish white, like a wax museum leg or something.”
In spite of the severe injuries Kavanaugh suffered during the arrest, he was denied the proper care and his injuries got worse. According to Kindlon, this was standard procedure for the jail’s medical provider as a way to maintain their profit margin.
“CMC’s actions always bothered me the most,” Kindlon said. “The way Correctional Medical Care worked is they got money if they didn’t send people to the hospital, if they didn’t refer people out. It’s grotesque the way their contract with the county operated.”
Instead of receiving the surgery he needed to save his leg, Kavanaugh was sent to Albany County Jail where he was unable to walk and begged officials for days to help him.
Days after begging and being unable to walk, Kavanaugh was finally brought to the hospital where his leg had to be amputated.
As the Times Union reports, the jail has a history of neglect leading to severe consequences.
Last year, in an unrelated case, Correctional Medical Care and Albany County agreed to pay nearly $1.1 million to the estate of a Troy man who died when nurses waited more than 12 hours to call an ambulance after he suffered a stroke while being held at the county jail in August 2014.
A report issued by the Commission of Correction in 2016 determined that the care given to 24-year-old Mark Cannon was “so grossly inadequate … it shocks the conscience.”
Indeed, a man having his leg amputated is also quite shocking. Kavanaugh is set to be released at the end of next month after serving five years for the 2013 incident. Although he had ketamine in his possession as well, had Kavanaugh lived in another state with legal marijuana, he would still be free and would still have his leg.