Incidents

Loratio L. Dantzler filed a civil rights complaint against the City of Newport News, Jamie Acree, and Brandon Bartley alleging that he was unlawfully shot.

Fairfax County sheriff's deputy Patrick McPartlin shot and killed 29-year-old Yovani Amaya Gomez, a medical patient, on the Inova Fairfax Medical Campus.

"....That “a former CCPD police officer revealed to the press that the CCPD was requiring officers to make two (2) to three (3) traffic stops per day and one (1) arrest per day” (SAC at para. 29) (emphasis added);

That “CCPD, with the insistence and oversight of Defendants Kelly and Dupuis, promulgated its [arrest quota] policy in a document titled ‘Chesterfield County Employee Development Program,’ which stated that officers ‘must maintain the shift average of traffic stops and that the shift ‘average was between two and three traffic stops’ per day, and, further, officers shall ‘maintain the expectation of one arrest per day’” (SAC at para. 31) (emphasis added);

That “the CCPD, through Defendant Kelly, confirmed at the time that they had no intention of terminating thhe use of Arrest Quotas. Instead, the CCPD continued to enforce the Arrest Quotas for their officers until long after Mr. Howell’s wrongful arrest....”

Ben Frazer assaulted Jazzman Levert Daniel after forcing his way into his home; Officers Jacob Deboard and Joseph Ronan assisted, breaking Daniel's ribs. Officers claimed qualified immunity.

Portsmouth Police violently arrest a man sitting in his car.

"So viewed, the evidence established that on the afternoon of April 5, 2016, Detectives Hunter and Whitson of the Portsmouth Police Department were 'investigating some narcotics complaints' in the 600 block of Newport Avenue in the City of Portsmouth. Detective Hunter had been assigned to a unit specializing in narcotics transactions for two-and-a-half years of his seven years on the police force. Detective Whitson, a twenty-one-year employee of the police department, had been with the narcotics unit for four years.

The detectives observed the appellant sitting alone in a black Lexus, leaning back in the driver's seat and '[not] moving around.' The vehicle was parked in front of a fence that bordered a 'shop of some sort.' The detectives drove their unmarked police car past the Lexus and executed a U-turn, without activating their lights or siren. As the detectives again approached the Lexus in their car, the appellant looked in their direction. The detectives parked approximately twenty-five feet away and watched the appellant's car for 'a minute or so.'

....The detectives, who were wearing police vests and patches, exited their car and started walking toward the Lexus. The appellant again looked in their direction...

[T]he detectives verbally identified themselves as police officers and demanded that Hill show his hands. After shouting at appellant... to show his hands, the detectives grabbed his left forearm, physically removed him from the vehicle, and placed him in handcuffs."

Officer Salino runs into a 26-year-old pedestrian while driving a police cruiser. The victim died.

Virginia Animal Owners Alliance v. Welch

Complaint — Document #1

District Court, E.D. Virginia

Docket Number: 1:23-cv-00628

Citation: Virginia Animal Owners Alliance v. Welch, 1:23-cv-00628, (E.D. Va. May 11, 2023) ECF No. 1

Date Filed: May 11th, 2023

Jamie Acree and Brandon Bartley shot 33-year-old Loratio Lorenzo Dantzler, who they said physically resembled a wanted person.

Officer James Babor shot and killed Corey Jason Achstein, 28.

A mother signed her autistic son up for an after-school tennis program with the Richmond Police Athletic League to give her son experience interacting with police. She returned to find him handcuffed, then learned he had been assaulted. At the hospital, they learned an officer had given him a concussion. The story was reported on WTVR News.

An Internal Affairs investigation (Case # 201508040006) was launched on August 4, 2015 after a complaint of excessive force was filed against Feazell. Captain Oliver oversaw the "investigation," and one day later on August 5 he ruled the complaint unfounded.

On Nov. 7, 2016, Jamar Antwaun Gladden filed a complaint under the Civil Rights Act against Charlottesville Police officers R.A. Oberholzer, J. Seitz, and T.A. Lucas (also naming the JADE Task Force) for attacking, brutalizing, and nearly asphyxiating him on July 29, 2015.

Gladden's complaint alleges excessive force, unreasonable aggression, the use of a chokehold, unlawful seizure, and violation of his Fourth Amendment rights.

Gladden describes the incident in his own words (from "Gladden v. Charlottesville Va. Police Dept"):

"Officer Oberholzer put me in a chokehold with his arm around my neck/throat, never reaching for my hands or arms making a[n] attempt to arrest or detain me. Just a[n] immediate instinct reaction to put his arm around my throat and to throw his body weight against me and we immediately went crashing to the ground (his stomach to my back).

Officer Oberholzer layed on top of me while still continuing to squeeze his arm tighter around my throat, in which at this time it was extremely hard for me to breathe.

"I was beginning to lose consciousness when a number of 'Jon Doe' detectives of JADE Task Force also appeared on the scene and begun to physically and maliciously plant knees and feet on my body while still on my stomach with Officer Oberholzer's arm around my throat. Along with said 'John Doe' detectives of JADE Task Force, Detectives McCall, Seitz, and Lucas begun to become overly aggressive when 'John Doe Detective' of JADE Task Force started to holler 'Knife, knife[!]' Again, I was on my stomach. [I] believed I blacked out slightly at some point[] so I wasn't able to see the above named JADE Task Force members or the John Doe Detectives' faces at the time when a foot, knee or whatever force that came down on the back of my head to make my face make contact with the ground...

"Before being sat up, Officer Oberholzer kicked me after I was already being handled by JADE Task Force Detectives John Does and cuffed... At no time did I offer a reason for this inhumane attack on me..."

Officer Geller, Officer Michael Sinclair, and Detective Gibson shot and killed Kawanza Jamal Beaty.

Officer Shaun Jergens reportedly used his Taser and pepper spray on a man police said was involved in a hit-and-run on May 4.

Fredericksburg Police said a 911 call came in about a hit-and-run collision at approximately 5 p.m. from the driver of a Jeep whose vehicle had just been struck by a silver Hyundai traveling southbound in the northbound lanes of Route 1 near the University of Mary Washington pedestrian bridge.

The Hyundai had previously run over the median on Route 1 and knocked down a city road sign, according to police.

The Hyundai eventually ended up stationary in the intersection of Cowan Boulevard and Powhatan Street.

Two Fredericksburg officers who were the first to arrive on scene, Corporal Matt Deschenes and Sergeant Crystal Hill, held the Hyundai driver at gunpoint and ordered him out of his car. The driver, identified as David Washington, 34, of Fredericksburg, did not comply.

Jurgens arrived on scene a few minutes later. Police said Jurgens used his Taser on the man to get him to comply with the order to exit the vehicle. One of the Taser prongs apparently did not make a proper connection and the Taser was ineffective.

Jurgens then used his pepper spray on Washington and then Deschenes and Jurgens both removed Washington from the car.

An ambulance was called to treat Washington for the pepper spray exposure and remove the Taser prong attached to his skin. Washington was transported to a local hospital where doctors discovered that he was experiencing a medical emergency in the preceding hours.

After reviewing the incident in accordance with department policy, Command Staff determined that the force used by the officers involved in the incidence was “not appropriate."

Jurgens resigned from the department on May 14.

Virginia State Police and Portsmouth Police officers R. Agular, M. Hunter, J. Whitson, G. Smith, N. Hawes, T. Thursby, S. Daugherty, and M. Rotolo shot and killed Walter J. Brown III on March 24, 2015.

“After Billings asked [Cromartie] to roll down her car window, she told him to leave her alone as she complained to someone on her cellphone about the traffic stop,” Lavoie reported. “Seconds later, she said, he pulled her out of her car, forced her onto the ground and placed his weight on her back, injuring her forehead, lip, teeth, right eyebrow and both knees before she was handcuffed and put in leg shackles.”

Billings was allowed to resign and admitted he was never disciplined for the incident.

Natasha McKenna was a 37-year-old mother living in Alexandria, Virginia. On February 8, 2015, Natasha was being held at a detention center in Fairfax County, Virginia. She had been diagnosed with mental health problems and was scheduled to be transferred to Alexandria.

During the transfer, over the course of 45 minutes, members of the Sheriff’s Emergency Response Team pulled her from her cell while wearing SWAT gear, tackled her, kneeled on her as she repeatedly claimed she could not breathe, then restrained her before tasering her at least four times while she appeared barely conscious and unresisting.

Natasha suffered cardiac arrest, lost consciousness, and was hospitalized; she died four days later.

The deputies and officers who participated in her killing were Paul Miller, Jonathan Perryman, Lucas Salzman, Adam Henry, Kenneth Krstulovic, and Patrick D. McPartlin.

Tamar was 20 years old when someone called the police and got him shot. We don't know exactly what happened, but here's what police said.

According to the police narrative, the Richmond Police received a call that someone was experiencing what is categorized as a mental health crisis.

Operating on this knowledge, the kid, if actively within the onset of a psychiatric episode, could be assumed to have been vulnerable and incapacitated by his current suffering, as episodes can be genuinely agonizing for those experiencing them. If they do not cause the person experiencing them pain in that moment, they do render that person impaired.

Tamar was probably experiencing something deeply traumatic, terrifying, and personal. He was not in a good place, but he was at his house.

Then the Richmond Police showed up at his door wearing badges and guns, demanding to see him, saying they'd gotten a call. Tamar must have been terrified, but we don't know, because the two police officers forced their way inside his home and when Tamar feared for his life, it was said that he shot his gun.

Adult police officers entered his home with the presumed knowledge that he was vulnerable and experiencing an acute event. The police officers knew they were not there to investigate a crime, and they were free.to leave. They did not bring care, compassion, and peace to his neighborhood that night. They escalated it and they shot the person who needed "their" help. They did not fear for the kid's safety.

Instead, they shot him. They said they got scared.

A barrage of negative news stories slandering Tamar and lauding the bravery of William Turner, the Richmond Police officer who shot Tamar and also got shot, ensued for months, then recycled for years as if Officer William Turner had done a heroic deed. A vigil was even held for Officer Turner's injury.

"The suspect was also shot," the Richmond Police wrote. We don't know anything more than that nor what the episode actually looked like.

Officer William Turner received commendations and 20-year-old Tamar Xavier Harris, who had no previous criminal record that is public, received four felony charges. Two of these were filed with the lower court and were not prosecuted.

A grand jury convened without Tamar present, as the law does not allow for the accused to appear, an attorney for the accused to appear, or evidence to be brought before the grand jury that might contradict that which the prosecutor brings before the grand jury. The grand jury then decides if Tamar should be prosecuted for the charges brought by the prosecutor, and he was. Tamar Harris was sentenced to 35 years in prison with 12 suspended. Upon release, he will be on "Indefinite Supervision" for the rest of his life.

Tamar is in Sussex State Prison. His inmate number is 1694392 (https://www.jpay.com/FirstTime.aspx?Search=1694392&State=VA).

A lawsuit was filed claiming Newport News Police officers Wilson & Graham surrounded Thomas T. Simmons, Jr.'s vehicle at a traffic stop, banged on his windows, and unlawfully arrested him.