The killings of two unarmed black men by white police officers in Ferguson, Missouri, and in New York City this summer touched off protests and a national debate over police conduct that intensified after grand juries declined to indict the officers.
Tensions escalated further after two New York Police Department officers were killed last month by a man who suggested in online posts their slayings were in retaliation for the deaths of Michael Brown in Ferguson, a St. Louis suburb, and of Eric Garner in New York. The gunman, who was black, committed suicide.
Some key developments amid the tension between police and communities:
‘HANDS UP!’
An unarmed man killed by a Montana police officer during a traffic stop was told repeatedly to raise his hands before the officer shot him, according to video footage shown during an inquest into the shooting.
Billings Police Officer Grant Morrison shot Richard Ramirez, a suspect in a drug-involved shooting, in April when he appeared to reach for something, authorities said.
Morrison is heard on the patrol car dash-cam video yelling “Hands up!” at least six times before firing three shots. The person sitting next to Ramirez said Ramirez was trying to unbuckle his seatbelt when he was shot.
The two-day inquest will determine if Morrison was justified in the killing. Morrison is expected to testify Wednesday.
NYPD ARRESTS DOWN: ‘WE’RE ALL IN DANGER’
There has been a steep decline in the number of arrests in New York City in the two weeks since the two police officers were shot dead in their patrol car.
The totals suggest a rumored work slowdown has taken hold amid discord between police officers and Mayor Bill de Blasio, and they raise questions about what impact it could have on the city’s crime rate.
The head of the powerful Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association insists the union isn’t sanctioning a labor action.
But police expert and author Thomas Reppetto, who has written extensively about the NYPD, called the results too “overwhelming” to be coincidental.
“If the law is not being enforced in the street, we’re all in danger,” he said.
POLICE SHOOTING ARRESTS MADE
Two suspects in an armed holdup followed by a wild shootout that left a pair of plainclothes NYPD officers wounded have been arrested after an intense manhunt.
Security video showed one of the men blasting away at the officers with a powerful .44 Magnum pistol as they pursued him Monday night following the Bronx grocery store robbery, police said.
The man was arrested Tuesday on attempted-murder and robbery charges. The other man was charged with robbery.
NYPD officials praised five officers for choosing to respond to the robbery report even though their shifts had ended.
The wounded officers are hospitalized in stable condition.
NEW GRAND JURY SOUGHT IN FERGUSON KILLING
The NAACP’s Legal Defense and Educational Fund wants a Missouri judge to convene a new grand jury to consider charges against the Ferguson police officer who shot Brown.
A letter submitted to a St. Louis County circuit judge also asks for a special prosecutor to oversee the case and an investigation of the grand jury proceedings.
Lawyers who analyzed grand jury transcripts for the fund raised concerns about the decision to allow a witness to provide false testimony and erroneous legal instructions to grand jurors, the fund’s president said.
Supporters of Brown’s family say he had his hands up in surrender when the officer killed him, but the officer has said that’s “incorrect” and he couldn’t have done anything differently in their confrontation.
SUICIDE NOTE: ‘DEAR OFFICER(S) … I USED YOU’
A man who entered a restricted area at a San Francisco police station with an air gun and was shot dead by officers had left several suicide notes, including one addressed to police, on his cellphone.
Matthew Hoffman was killed Sunday after he entered a restricted parking lot and brandished the air gun, which fires small projectiles such as pellets or BBs.
Police made public a note titled “Dear Officer(s)” with the permission of Hoffman’s father. In the note, Hoffman said the officers “ended the life of a man who was too much of a coward to do it himself.”
“Please, don’t blame yourself,” Hoffman added in the note. “I used you.”
Police Chief Greg Suhr said Monday that his department, like others across the nation, has heightened concern for officer safety following the ambush killings of the two NYPD officers.
FEDS CITE POLICE THREATS ONLINE
A suburban New York man accused of issuing online threats against police officers has been charged with a federal crime.
The U.S. attorney’s office says the man made the threats on Facebook and Instagram on Christmas Eve, days after two NYPD officers were ambushed and killed.
A complaint says the threats included a photograph of someone firing into a police car through a window, which is how the NYPD officers were attacked. It says the Facebook message read, “If the cops in Mount Vernon think they can follow the madness this is how they are going to end up.”
OFFICER SHOT AT TRAFFIC STOP
A man suspected of shooting and wounding a police officer during a weekend traffic stop in New Mexico was homeless and driving a stolen SUV when he was pulled over, authorities said.
The man was arrested Tuesday after sheriff’s deputies saw him staggering on a street near Albuquerque, authorities said. He was linked through fingerprints and DNA to the shooting of Officer Lou Golson, they said.
Golson was shot multiple times as he tried to question the man during a stop on suspicion of drunken driving, police said. Video footage from Golson’s lapel camera shows a motorist firing shots at him as he grunts and falls to the ground.
The man faces state and federal charges including attempted murder and unlawful possession of a firearm by a convicted felon. He said he didn’t know why he shot the officer, then said he didn’t do anything.
MOM WANTS POLICE ACCOUNTABILITY
The mother of a 12-year-old boy who was carrying a pellet gun when he was shot dead by a Cleveland police officer says it doesn’t matter to her who investigates her son’s death as long as the officer is held accountable.
Samaria Rice characterized the death of her son as a murder.
Tamir Rice was shot Nov. 22 after police responded to a 911 call about someone with a gun outside a recreation center. The officer shot Tamir within two seconds of his patrol car stopping near the boy.
The officer had told Tamir to put his hands up, but the boy didn’t, police say.
City officials announced last week police were handing the investigation over to the Cuyahoga County Sheriff’s Department in the interest of being impartial and transparent.
POLICE CADET NOT SWORN IN
Cleveland’s mayor has chosen not to swear in a police academy cadet who fired shots at a vehicle during a traffic stop while serving as a rookie officer.
Mayor Frank Jackson said he made the decision right before the graduation ceremony Monday after learning issues with the officer’s record hadn’t been fully addressed.
A police union leader says the union will challenge the mayor’s decision.