Texas officer on burglary call shoots unarmed black teen

[umbertino]

Marjorie Owens, WFAA-TV, Dallas-Fort Worth 11:02 a.m. EDT August 8, 2015

 

 

 

ARLINGTON, Texas — A white officer-in-training shot and killed an unarmed college football player who drove an SUV through the glass doors of a car dealership, police said.

 

The Arlington Police Department has no video of the incident because the department has not yet put in place a pilot program in which officers will wear body cameras, said a police spokesman, Sgt. Paul Rodriguez. It also was unclear whether the dealership's security cameras captured what happened.

 

Police responded at about 1 a.m. CT Friday to Classic Buick GMC dealership on an Interstate 20 service road after reports of a sport-utility vehicle being driven through the front of the building, Rodriguez said. Authorities initially called the driver a burglary suspect.

 

"Officers established a perimeter and approached the suspect inside," he said. "As officers confronted the suspect, there was an altercation during which at least one officer discharged his weapon."

 

Christian Taylor, 19, of Arlington, Texas, died at the scene, according to the Tarrant County Medical Examiner's Office. It was not immediately known whether Taylor was intoxicated.

 

Officer Brad Miller, 49, under supervised field training at the time of the shooting, fired his weapon, police said. He joined the department in September and graduated from its police academy in March.

 

"The preservation of life and safety is our highest priority," Rodriguez said. "The Arlington Police Department is saddened by this loss of life and will provide the community a clear and transparent investigation."

 

Rodriguez had graduated from high school in Arlington and was a sophomore at Angelo State University in San Angelo, Texas, where he played on the football team as a defensive back. He was planning to return to school Sunday to continue football practice.

 

In a Twitter post, the university's football coach, Will Wagner, said, "Heart is hurting."

 

Within hours of Taylor's death, his name began trending on Twitter. In the past 24 hours, the hashtag #ChristianTaylor has been used more than 55,000 times, according to the social analytics site Topsy.

 

Taylor's great uncle, Clyde Fuller of Grand Prairie, Texas, described Taylor as a good kid and said he didn't believe that Taylor was trying to commit a crime.

 

Taylor has no convictions but was sentenced to six months of probation in December on a charge of possession of a controlled substance, according to the Star-Telegram. If he were not arrested again during his probationary period, he would not face jail time.

 

The charges stemmed from a September 2013 traffic stop where Taylor had 11 hydrocodone tablets that were not prescribed to him, the paper said. He successfully completed probation in June and his case was dismissed July 14.

 

Late last month, about two weeks after his record was wiped clean, he tweeted: "I don't wanna die too younggggg."

 

"They say he's burglarizing the place by running up in there? Nuh-uh. Something doesn't sound right," Fuller told the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

 

Miller had no prior police experience before joining the Arlington department, Rodriguez said. He is on administrative leave during separate criminal and administrative investigations.

 

So far this month, 21 people have been killed by police officers across the USA, two others on Friday in California and Nevada, according to a database kept by The Guardian in London, which is tracking deaths caused by law-enforcement officers this year. Taylor is at least the 696th person killed so far in 2015, and the 171st black male.

 

Sunday marks the first anniversary of the death of another unarmed black teen, Michael Brown, who was 18 when he was killed Aug. 9, 2014, in Ferguson, Mo., by then-officer Darren Wilson. Hundreds of protesters descended on the St. Louis suburb after Brown's death, and that town faced weeks of unrest.

 

Contributing: The Associated Press

 

 

 

(Photo: Courtesy of Marina Farrow)

 

 

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2015/08/07/unarmed-black-man-shot-texas/31324897/

[Texstorm]

I don't know about the Dallas incident but it sounds like business as usual down here in Houston as far as crash and rob goes. These thugs don't even care if you are in the store when they are after the ATM's. Looking at the young man's history of drugs , I would say that he got all jacked up and decided that he wanted a new ride, plus got into an altercation with a Police Officer. I would chalk this up to another drug thug thinking that he was bullet proof. I can not fathom it as just an accident otherwise there would not have been a shooting. RIP ! Here lays another dumb a...ss with no respect for the law ! And I bet 10 to 1 they find drugs in his system !  

[Artitech]

The guy was burglarizing a business, This is close to my home and business! In the last 15 months we have had 8 killin's in about a 7 mile radius, of my home and business! We had a one guy shut down my neighborhood two months ago. cause he decided to rob a bank & bring the loot to the house he rented. He was to stupid, to look in the bag or notice a lojack in the sack. So the Police track him to his hideout. SWAT team surrounds our neighborhood with AR 15's! That type weapons bullets will go thru brick walls and hit what ever is behind it. I don't want a shoot out 5 doors down from my family or anywhere for that matter!!! I don't know all the facts yet, in this case, as it is to early in the investigation. I DO KNOW this the Police in Arlington TX, are very good men and women! I don't know why the guy would do this (burglarize a  business) unless he went crazy on some bad drugs! From all early accounts the kid was trying to act and do right, that's whats so puzzling! I do KNOW THIS, If you come to Arlington TX and commit a felony against people or property and you get killed by the police or the owner, you made a bad error in your judgement, As far as I'm Concerned the Police Officer just saved the citizens of the Great state of Texas a lot of money! I'm sick of this criminal bull$h-t! I want the Police in Arlington TX to ride the streets of these pieces of $h-t! You don't want to get killed, don't come to TEXAS and commit felonies! I don't care what color or what age you are, you come to Texas looking for trouble your going to get big case of TROUBLE!!! I just had to buy $9,000.00 in security camera's for my home and business to keep the damn criminals out! I don't call 911, so if the punks break in, to my business or home, they will not want to see that ole black dodge truck creep up on them, cause it not going to work out real well for them! The United States Air Force spent a lot of money teaching me how to shoot and use a weapon, I sure anit forgot anything they taught me either! Criminals Beware if you come to TEXAS! Now you know the rest of the story! Peace!  

[Texstorm]

I here you brother !   The problem is that they are breeding faster than rats. I don't care what color they are either but if you mess around my place you are going to die of lead poison. I'm sick of these SOB's ! 

[Nelg]

Too many stories like this that are "police shot and unarmed black man, teen, etc." while robbing a ........; while running from the cops after an attempted rape.....; while attempting to sell drugs at a local school . . . 

 

All of them seem to be geared toward raising the level of division between white and black, and between police and African American.  

 

What we don't see a lot are the white thugs committing crimes and the police shooting them for the same reasons as the African American.  But you don't see many articles posted, sent out, or emailed because it does not drive a wedge between races.  

 

What a world we live in!  

[retiredaf]

Arlington PD really is a good department. Being a retired officer from a neighboring city and living in Arlington for most of my 62 years, I have had the opportunity to train and interact with those officers on many occasions. I would be floored if this unfortunate incident turned out to be anything more than a tragic necessity of the job.

[Texstorm]

What's so sickening to me is how the media always displays the perpetrators best picture of his whole entire life, like when he was a baby or a family photograph or he is all dressed up and a sporting a sweet little smile. They really need to save those for the top of their coffins. Just like the poor little Trevor Martin picture of like when he was 12 years old , it just makes me sick ! A baby rattler is still a scum sucking rattle snake and they really don't deserve to grow into a larger one. Well I guess you know how I feel about these little b......stards who don't give 10 cents about your lives or mine. Baby pics......please ! LOL

[Whatshername]

Priceless Liberal reactions to allegedly violent black burglar shot by police

 

By Newsmachete

 

Every time a black man is shot by police, the liberal media goes into a hypocritcal uproar. I say hypocritical because while police account for less than 1% of deaths of black shootings every year, liberals are completely silent about the other 93% of black killings, which are committed black on black.

 

So in addition to telling you the details of the latest sensationalized story, I'd also thought I'd share some liberal reaction.

 

In this particular case, an unarmed black 19 year old named Christian Taylor who is being portayed as a virtuous college football player (and who was convicted of drug possession), did an odd thing with his car last rnight. He rammed it into the gate of a car dealership.

 

 

An unarmed college football player was shot dead by a rookie Texas cop on Friday after he allegedly crashed an SUV through the showroom glass of a car dealership and fought with police officers.

 

Christian Taylor, 19, who played football at Angelo State University in San Angelo, was fatally gunned down by Officer Brad Miller, 49, at the Classic Buick GMC building in Arlington at around 1am.

 

He had reportedly driven an SUV through the dealership's metal gate before getting out of the vehicle and damaging a car in the parking lot, prompting the firm's security company to call 911.

 

He had then climbed back into the SUV and driven through the showroom glass, it is alleged

 

Police who responded to the burglary report on Friday confronted Taylor inside the dealership - on the Interstate 20 service  road - police spokesman Sgt. Paul Rodriguez told the Star-Telegram. 

 

However, there was then an 'altercation' between officers and Taylor, which led to Miller discharging his weapon.

 

More from the NY Times:

 

The car dealership released security camera footage of Mr. Taylor in its parking lot that prompted a security company to call the police.

The video

, posted online by an NBC television affiliate, shows Mr. Taylor arriving at the dealership in a Jeep, punching the window of a gray sports car, kicking its windshield and jumping on its roof.

 

I know the media will use a photo of him as a 12 year old, so here is a more recent one:

 

 

In his Twitter feed, he has a very odd photo:

 

We don't know all the facts. Maybe he fought with the cops and they shot him in self defense. Maybe he didn't fight at all and they still shot him. What we do know, however, is that he rammed a dealership with his car and started to deface the cars in the lot. He wasn't shot walking home from the library; he was shot while committing an act of violence and destruction of property. Given that, I would think that people would at least withhold judgement until more facts come out.

 

Not at the Huffington Post, however:

 

Michael Beal

"Setting off every burglar alarm for a two block radius is an odd way to steal a car."

 

Jordan River

"So a young black male have a acident and crash into a car dealership and the cops murder him. Deja veu."

 

Jeff Grotke

 · 

"so the working police theory is he was crashing his own car, risking his life, in order to steal another one?"

 

Edison Carter

 · 

"Who needs the KKK when we have taxpayer subsized killings by our own police?"

 

Ronald Burker

 · 

"This will not change until rich white people are the victims."

 

Jeff Stein

"Police officers nationwide continues their assault on unarmed black males. As the world watches......and politicians remain silent."

 

Vic Silva

"Any interaction with the police is a potential death sentence."

 

David Poston

 · 

"I suppose that is true regardless of what race you happen to be, but there is no doubt that the likelihood of dying increases exponentially if you are black."

 

Meesta Naturale

 · 

"Guns should be locked in the police cars and only released by HQ on request of the officer."

 

 

You see? Liberals see nothing suspicious about a man crashing his car into a dealership, as long as the victim is black and the cops are white. If anything, that convinces them of his innocence!

 

What will it take for liberals to understand reality? If Christian Taylor rammed his car into a liberal's home, do you think the liberal would rush outside with coffee and doughnuts?

 

[RV ME]

My favorite is Jordan River's "So a young black male have a acident and crash into a car dealership and the cops murder him. Deja veu."

How about Deja getaclue Jordan

[sxsess]

I'm sure they will blame to APD and demonize them while saying what an upstanding person this despicable thug is.

All this crap in the USA will eventually blow up in their faces when people finally pick up their weapons and make a stand.

[RVWITHME]

I'm sure they will blame to APD and demonize them while saying what an upstanding person this despicable thug is.

All this crap in the USA will eventually blow up in their faces when people finally pick up their weapons and make a stand.

 

I'm pretty sure that's the riot that "they" are trying to incite.

 

When the "house cleaning" starts, things may not go as "they" planned though.

 

People are then going to be more likely to start eying the media as well as all of the dirty politicians, bankers, judges etc and holding them to the same standards for causing much of the mess to start with.

 

Careful what you "elites" wish for, you may get it.

[Shabibilicious]

4 shots?!!!.....Rookie needs to hit the range.  If the kid had been armed the rookie might not have made it out alive sporting such weak marksmanship.    

 

GO RV, then BV

[Texstorm]

A moving target is always a challenge especially when little things like automobiles are in the way, at least he finished the job ! Great job Officer Miller now go out there and get you another one !

[Artitech]

The Officer, was Fired tonight, by the Chief of Police in Arlington. It amounts to the Chief being a Coward, not supporting his officers, being afraid of the protesters. So Sad! One major thing is I don't know all the facts, also! It just stinks to me though. I do know this, the guy was in act of committing a felony, with that fact, common law in TEXAS has always been an officer could use deadly force if he felt his life was in danger! JMHO !   

[Man_Kind]

Four shots ? The first three were warning shots !

 

Another punk off the streets.