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St. Louis OUTRAGE: Police Kill Thaddeus McCarroll for Holding a Knife and Bible

April 20, 2015 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us

 

The St. Louis police are claiming that a 23-year-old Black man holding a knife and a Bible posed such a threat to their entire Tactical Operations Unit that he had to be shot multiple times by two cops and killed him.

Thaddeus McCarroll murdered by St. Louis police

This videotaped murder happened in the city of Jennings, a suburb of St. Louis, four miles from where Michael Brown was killed by a cop in Ferguson. On Friday night, April, 17, the mother of Thaddeus McCarroll called the police, hoping to get help. According to the police, she told them that her son was acting erratically and had locked her out of the house. But instead of getting help, she ended up like so many others who have had their children’s lives stolen from them by the police. The police went to the home and then later the Tactical Operations Unit showed up with a negotiator.

The video is from after McCarroll comes out of the house. The cop negotiator questions Thaddeus about why he is angry. He says, “We are not here to harm you.” And then, "We will walk away from your house but first I want to know why you're angry tonight. Just because we won't leave is not the reason why you're angry. I need to know why you're angry. Is it your mom? Is it you?"

Seconds later there is a single shot that rings out... then a brief pause... then what sounds like multiple shots of gunfire.

The St. Louis County police say they had “no other option” but to shoot dead Thaddeus McCarroll. BULLSHIT! A whole bunch of cops and a whole tactical team confronting a very upset young man holding only a knife and a Bible—and the only possible outcome was to shoot and kill him because he was supposedly “charging at the police”?!

Jennings protest
Photo: @deray
Jennings, blocking street
Photo: @joelcurrier

One neighbor told a local TV news reporter, “I felt like they was threatening him and the way that they was threatening him they shouldn’t have if they really wanted him to come outside. And once he did came outside they didn’t say nothing to him like put you hands up or nothing, they just got to shooting.

Another neighbor, Linda Wade, has lived next door since before Thaddeus McCarroll was born. She told Fox news, “He said, ‘All I just want is for you guys to leave. Just leave, I’m not doing anything.’ He had a Bible in his hand. And the next thing I know is you can’t hear nothing but it was like a bomb had went off.... It just seems like they gotta find a better way than just shoot people down like that. I don’t know if he had a knife or whatever but they have AK-47s."

The fact that the police “resolved” this situation by killing Thaddeus McCarroll only underscores the total illegitimacy of these cops and the whole system that they protect and serve.

The next day, people protested outside the Jennings police department. People also went into the intersections and into the streets, chanting, “Black Lives Matter” and “Who shuts shit down? We shut shit down!” Cars going by honked to show support and people stayed in the streets, protesting until after dark.

 

 

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