Margaret Mitchell, a homeless 54-year-old Black woman, was pulling a shopping cart along the street. Two cops on bicycles, one male and one female, approached and started harassing her. Under a California law, police can ticket people and confiscate their carts--for supposedly not having a store's permission to take the carts onto the street. The law is enforced only against the homeless, and it takes from them the little that they have.Killing of Homeless Woman Unjustified, Officer Says
July 21, 2000|MATT LAIT and SCOTT GLOVER | TIMES STAFF WRITERS
Breaking ranks with other police accounts of last year's controversial police shooting of homeless woman Margaret Mitchell, a veteran LAPD motorcycle officer who watched from across the street as the incident unfolded says he believes the shooting was unwarranted.
Officer John Goines testified during a deposition in a federal civil rights lawsuit brought by Mitchell's family that he was disturbed by the May 21, 1999, slaying of the 102-pound woman, who had been waving a screwdriver at police. Goines acknowledged, as he has before, that his view of the fatal shot was blocked by a passing car, but said he did witness the events leading up to it and immediately following it.
"I didn't understand how this whole thing went down the way it did," Goines said under questioning by attorney Leo Terrell. "I didn't see how--how come the lady ended up getting shot, and it was disturbing to me."
Terrell asked the officer whether he considered the shooting "excessive."
"Yes," he said, adding later: "I would say that [she] was not an immediate threat."
Margaret Mitchell walked away from the police. Her shopping cart held all her possessions, including the nice red blanket that was sort of her trademark with the people in the area. As she walked down the street, someone driving by recognized her, pulled over and tried to talk the cops out of hassling her. But the cops continued their pursuit. One witness, a Black man in his 40s, saw her running and pulling the cart behind her as the cops ran after her. "My first thought was, `Oh, man. When they catch this person they're going to beat her.' That was my first thought. I didn't see the guns. I just saw the cops running. And I saw her in front of them running. And then I heard the bam! It was so sudden that I didn't even realize she was shot until moments later when I processed it and I saw her laying on the ground. I thought, `Oh my god, they just shot that woman!"'
Victim in the War on the People
"...Margaret Mitchell was 5 foot 1 and weighed 102 pounds. People in the neighborhood did not know her name until after the shooting. But they knew her as a soft-spoken woman who smiled a lot. The police claim that she had a "weapon" in her hand--a screwdriver. They say she threatened to kill them, that she "lunged" and "slashed" at the male cop--causing him to "fear for his life." Police Chief Bernard Parks and spokesmen are arrogantly defending these killer cops. They have repeated over and over that "none of the witnesses contradicted the account given by the officers." They are lying.
This cold-blooded police murder happened on a six-lane street during rush hour in the middle of a shopping district. There were many outraged eyewitnesses who spoke to reporters at the scene or called radio and TV stations to get the truth out. All of these witnesses contradicted the police version. All of these witnesses agreed with the account that the RW heard from the people on the street: Margaret Mitchell was going away from the police with her back turned when she was shot, and she was not even holding the screwdriver. A salesman at the automobile dealership at 4th and La Brea said, "She never threatened anyone." So did another man who talked to a KNX radio reporter. These comments have been public since the very first news reports. Two or three witnesses insisted she was shot in the back. A lawyer for her family is calling for an independent autopsy.... "
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Originally Posted by indago
