{"id":34816,"date":"2014-12-08T23:06:02","date_gmt":"2014-12-09T04:06:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/?p=34816"},"modified":"2014-12-08T23:06:02","modified_gmt":"2014-12-09T04:06:02","slug":"phoenix-police-officer-shoots-and-kill-unarmed-black-man-mistakes-pill-bottle-for-gun","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/?p=34816","title":{"rendered":"Phoenix Police Officer Shoots And Kill Unarmed Black Man, Mistakes Pill Bottle For Gun"},"content":{"rendered":"

PHOENIX \u00a0\u2014 The deadly\u00a0shooting<\/a>\u00a0of a black, unarmed drug suspect by a white Phoenix police officer who mistook a pill bottle for a gun demonstrates the challenges law enforcement agencies face at a time of unrest over police tactics.<\/p>\n

Phoenix police say the officer feared the suspect was armed during their struggle, but some critics say the officer went too far. Despite the department\u2019s efforts to be transparent with information, protesters marched Thursday night against the fatal shooting of 34-year-old Rumain Brisbon.<\/p>\n

About 150 took part in the march through the streets of downtown Phoenix to police headquarters, while also calling for an end to what they say is a nationwide epidemic of police brutality.<\/p>\n

The police chief and top prosecutor in metro Phoenix met with the president of the NAACP\u2019s Maricopa County Branch and other civil rights leaders in the hours after the incident, which came as emotions are running high in New York, Missouri and elsewhere over what protesters call heavy-handed law enforcement efforts.<\/p>\n

The NAACP official, the Rev. Oscar Tillman, said friends and family members of Brisbon are devastated. He cautioned them about channeling their anger as the investigation into the shooting unfolds.<\/p>\n

\u201cI told them not to be openly explosive or whatever because the fact is \u2026 as you can see what happened to Michael Brown\u2019s (stepfather) now. They\u2019re talking about going after him. I said \u2018just be very careful,’\u201d Tillman said.<\/p>\n

According to Sgt. Trent Crump, the officer responded Tuesday to reports of someone selling\u00a0drugs<\/a>\u00a0out of a Cadillac SUV. Upon locating the SUV, he ordered Brisbon, the sole occupant, to show his hands.<\/p>\n

Authorities say Brisbon ran inside an apartment building and then got into a struggle with the officer. Brisbon put his hand in his pocket, and when the officer grabbed the hand, he thought he felt the handle of a gun through Brisbon\u2019s pants, police said.<\/p>\n

Police say the officer repeatedly told Brisbon to keep his hand in his pocket, then shot him twice when he didn\u2019t.<\/p>\n

Brisbon, an ex-convict, was hit in the torso and later pronounced dead at the scene. Investigators recovered a semi-automatic handgun and a jar of marijuana from his SUV.<\/p>\n

An internal investigation is already underway, Crump said Thursday. The Maricopa County attorney\u2019s office will determine whether the officer will face criminal charges. Police did not identify the 30-year-old officer but said he is a seven-year veteran of the department.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

PHOENIX \u00a0\u2014 The deadly\u00a0shooting\u00a0of a black, unarmed drug suspect by a white Phoenix police officer who mistook a pill bottle for a gun demonstrates the challenges law enforcement agencies face at a time of unrest over police tactics. Phoenix police say the officer feared the suspect was armed during their struggle, but some critics say […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":88910,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pmpro_default_level":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-34816","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-national-news","pmpro-has-access"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34816","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/88910"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=34816"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34816\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=34816"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=34816"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=34816"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}