Mississippi police accused of choking unarmed man to death with flashlight

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Stonewall police chief denies claims made by attorney for family of Jonathan Sanders, who suffered fatal injuries during an altercation with police officer


State officials in Mississippi are investigating the death of an unarmed black man who was killed in a physical struggle with a police officer, according to authorities. Jonathan Sanders suffered fatal injuries during an altercation with white officer Kevin Harrington on Wednesday night, in the small town of Stonewall, in the eastern part of the state.

Related: The Counted: people killed by police in the United States in 2015 – interactive

Several local media outlets reported that J Stewart Parrish, an attorney for Sanders’s family, said Harrington pulled Sanders from a horse and choked him to death with a flashlight. Parrish did not respond to an email or phone message on Friday. But Stonewall police chief Michael Street denied the attorney’s allegations, telling the Guardian the two men had engaged in what he termed “a fight” without weapons after Sanders voluntarily stepped down from a horse-drawn buggy.

“We won’t know until the autopsy is over what was the actual cause of death,” said Street. “But there was no flashlight used to choke anybody – that’s false. And there were no shots fired by either man, there were no weapons at all, and he was not dragged off a horse.”


http://www.rawstory.com/2015/07/mississippi-police-accused-of-choking-unarmed-man-to-death-with-flashlight/




Couple of points here.

1) Why was he even stopped?

2) How did he die?

3) Did the officers use the controversial choke hold?

4) Southern State again. Unarmed Black man dies. White Police Officers.

Sorry still difficult to translate the gibberish he is presenting. Sort get the impression Tommy is trying to tell me the earth is flat and when you reach the edge you will fall off. That is the methodology he is presenting.

Yes I know that some states are still living in the dark ages (no pun) when it comes to blacks. It's no secret, and I don't disagree.
I wouldn't always jump to to conclusion that every police on black is racist though and Tommy's point and stats, are valid regarding white officers being the prevalent colour in America's police force?

Tommy, why do you feel the need to bring up white people every time police commit brutality against a black person?

eddie wrote:Yes I know that some states are still living in the dark ages (no pun) when it comes to blacks. It's no secret, and I don't disagree.
I wouldn't always jump to to conclusion that every police on black is racist though and Tommy's point and stats, are valid regarding white officers being the prevalent colour in America's police force?

Not saying every case will be racism or underhanded Eddie as we have to take each case by the evidence.
The point on stats is invalid if you do not factor in all the details of each case where someone has died by the Police. Not only that the demographics will be different in regards tothe levels of white and blacks in areas. There are so many points to factor in, that what Tommy presents is nothing more than numbers.
That tells you very little Eddie.

Ok well I can't very well debate a point I know little about tbh

But in this case, choking someone, racist or otherwise takes a bloody good while! So the policeman in this instance, regardless of race, seems to have use prolonged, excessive force!!

Ben_Reilly wrote:Tommy, why do you feel the need to bring up white people every time police commit brutality against a black person?

Because 'white lives matter too!'...

eddie wrote:Ok well I can't very well debate a point I know little about tbh

But in this case, choking someone, racist or otherwise takes a bloody good while! So the policeman in this instance, regardless of race, seems to have use prolonged, excessive force!!

That would be my conclusion that he has used excessive force and if he has used the choke hold.

Well it takes a long time to choke someone......
Shooting is a spur of the moment thing

eddie wrote:Well it takes a long time to choke someone......
Shooting is a spur of the moment thing

It can take about 2-4 minutes Eddie. That is not a long time when there is a struggle or pinning someone down with a choke hold. Even then you have the officer using a hold that can and is leathal.

Maybe this man shouldn't have been fighting the police and resisting arrest...

Tommy Monk wrote:Maybe this man shouldn't have been fighting the police and resisting arrest...

For committing no crime?
What if he feared for his life because the officer from the start had placed him in a choke hold.
Are you telling me you would not struggle with strangulation via a choke hold?
Its a natural reaction to struggle for anyone when you are unable to breath.

Stop talking gibberish.

Ok dodge... this police officer just decided to pull this man over and kill him because he is a racist...



You twat!!!

Cuchulain wrote:

eddie wrote:Well it takes a long time to choke someone......
Shooting is a spur of the moment thing

It can take about 2-4 minutes Eddie. That is not a long time when there is a struggle or pinning someone down with a choke hold. Even then you have the officer using a hold that can and is leathal.

Well that's my point really Didge. Regardless of race, this police officer has killed someone in a very "unusual" manner.
If something takes 2-4 minutes, it gives you time to reevaluate and stop!

That's what strikes me.

Tommy Monk wrote:Ok dodge... this police officer just decided to pull this man over and kill him because he is a racist...



You twat!!!

lol someone is getting upset when presented with facts
The racial part was sterotyping him as a criminal.
The death in my view was caused by excessive force using a choke hold.
Not rocket science even for someone like you

Not annoyed at all... just saying your completely ludicrous version of events...

eddie wrote:

Cuchulain wrote:


It can take about 2-4 minutes Eddie. That is not a long time when there is a struggle or pinning someone down with a choke hold. Even then you have the officer using a hold that can and is leathal.

Well that's  my point really Didge. Regardless of race, this police officer has killed someone in a very "unusual" manner.
If something takes 2-4 minutes, it gives you time to reevaluate and stop!

That's what strikes me.

I disagree. You have someone in a choke hold. They are unable to breath and will struggle intensly to break free. This creates the officer to apply more force to stop the struggling. In no time at all then the peson dies. In a struggle or an altercation  you have little time to think Eddie and just act on instinct. The instinct here was the officer believing he was trying to control the suspect. He clearly had no idea of the excessive force he was applying, by the very fact the man ended up dying.

Tommy Monk wrote:Not annoyed at all... just saying your completely ludicrous version of events...

Really? lol
So being unable to counter my points and then calling me a twat is not being upset then Tommy.

Ha ha

Do you think? Hmmm.
See I think a "stranglehold" is more premeditated?
Or put another way, he knew he could've stopped at any time and the suspect would be " less likely to run away"

eddie wrote:Do you think? Hmmm.
See I think a "stranglehold" is more premeditated?
Or put another  way, he knew he could've stopped at any time and the suspect would be " less likely to run away"

That is easy to say in hindsight Eddie, but a choke hold was once taught within some Police forces until recently. As I say we are talking about a very short time frame here one that has a struggle. What we have to assertain is why he would haveused this hold? Was there a size differnce between the officer and the victim?
You could be right that it could be premeditated, who knows, but to me this was all instinct, and if the officer was a lesser size and build, could have well played a part in the officer believing that was the best way to subdue the suspect. Remember everything is going to happen very quickly.

JACKSON — Attorneys for the family of Jonathan Sanders, a black man killed last week after being stopped by a white Stonewall, Miss., police officer, recounted to the Jackson Free Press Tuesday afternoon the events leading up to Sanders' death, based on witness testimony to investigators and lawyers.

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Until now, there has been very little information about the circumstances surrounding the altercation that took place between Sanders, who was black, and white police officer Kevin Herrington in Clarke County.

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The Mississippi Bureau of Investigation is handling the case, which is routine. Chokwe A. Lumumba and C.J. Lawrence, of Jackson-based Lumumba & Associates, sat in on the first round of interviews, which took place in Jackson last week.

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The attorneys told the Jackson Free Press that around 10 p.m. on Wednesday, July 8, Sanders, who was sitting in a buggy being pulled by a horse, observed Officer Kevin Herrington speaking with a man Sanders knew at the Cefco gas station in Stonewall.

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The attorneys say when Sanders rode by, he told Herrington to leave the man alone. The lawyers declined to identify the man at the gas station, except to say that he is white.

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Based on the testimony of other witnesses who live near where the scene played out, Herrington caught up with Sanders down the road and flashed the blue lights of his squad car. Sanders' horse reared up, presumably frightened by the lights, knocking Sanders from the buggy and causing the headlamp he was wearing around his head to fall around his neck. The horse started to run off, and Sanders ran after him.

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According to the lawyers, witnesses say Herrington chased after Sanders, grabbing at the headlamp around his neck and pulled him to the ground, which the attorneys believe could be where early false reports came from about Herrington using a flashlight to subdue Sanders. From there, Herrington spun Sanders around and applied a headlock, they said.

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Witnesses told the lawyers that Sanders was face down with his hands underneath him; Herrington was on his knees in front of Sanders, they said. By then, several neighbors had gone outside, including a witness who told Herrington that Sanders would not be able to breathe with his face buried in the tall grass.

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The attorneys say that Herrington had a female companion with him in the police car, who was not an officer. As Herrington applied a chokehold, attorneys say, the officer instructed the female companion to remove his gun from its holster so that Sanders could not reach it; however, the woman could not unholster the weapon, but one of the witnesses was able to tell her how to remove it.

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Witnesses told the attorneys that Sanders said at least twice that he could not breathe, attorneys say. Another witness went home and got a mask that would enable them to perform CPR just in case it was needed. Attorneys say Sanders never fought the officer and did not move throughout the incident. Herrington did not let the witness perform CPR and maintained the headlock until backup and emergency-medical technicians arrived as much as 30 minutes later, the attorneys for the Sanders family say.

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The attorneys, Lumumba and Lawrence, said Sanders had no active warrants and cannot understand why Herrington would follow Sanders.

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"You can't speed on a horse," Lawrence said. "What crime could you have committed that would require a violent takedown?"

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Eventually, EMTs placed Sanders in an ambulance, but the lawyers are unclear on the time of death. They have yet to see the autopsy report; Sanders' body was returned to Clarke County for his funeral services this weekend, July 18 and July 19. Lawrence, one of the attorneys, said the autopsy information is necessary in order to put Sanders, the father of two children, to rest.

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"His mom is obviously hurt. She's a strong woman," Lawrence said. "She's trying to manage."

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The Mississippi Bureau of Investigation is handling the case that centers on the community of 1,088 people, 21 miles south of Meridian, in Clarke County. Warren Strain, an MBI spokesman, told the Jackson Free Press this morning that the same team that investigated the shooting deaths of Hattiesburg police officers Benjamin Deen and Liquori Tate is handling the Sanders death investigation.

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On Saturday night, more than 100 of Sanders' friends and supporters held a peaceful vigil in Stonewall. A community meeting takes place tonight in Stonewall.


http://www.jacksonfreepress.com/news/2015/jul/13/attorneys-recount-events-jonathan-sanders-death/