Even though Amadou Diallo had never touched a gun in his life and was coming home from a hard day's work, the NYPD believed him to be a wanted criminal. Even though wallets don't look like guns, police claimed his wallet was a gun and shot at him 41 times.

Pasadena, California, police claimed that teenager Kendrec McDade not only pulled a gun on them, but fired it multiple times. They claimed they saw the flash from the muzzle and heard multiple gunshots. Of course, then, they shot him multiple times and killed him. Except McDade had never touched a gun a day in his life either and only had his cell phone. Still, the officers never served a single day in jail. Believing McDade shot at them was enough.

Without a body camera, we'll never really know the full truth of what happened between Mike Brown and Officer Darren Wilson on that fateful summer day in Ferguson, Missouri. Brown is dead, and the system believes the officer above all others.

This story can be repeated thousands of times with new names and locations across the United States. However, one thing the police are doing across the country could show their true intent more than anything else.

After police officers shoot or critically injure someone, claiming they did it out of fear, they are refusing to provide first aid to surviving victims.

Before we describe these cases, ask yourself this question: What is the appropriate ethical human response to shooting or injuring someone who you soon find didn't actually pose the threat to you that you expected?

Let's make it more personal. If you shot or seriously injured someone you cared about on accident or based on false information, what would the appropriate ethical response be to such a thing?

Let's flip it another way. If someone you loved was shot or seriously injured by a stranger, based on false information, how would you hope that person would respond in the immediate aftermath?

Or we can try it one more way: What would you think about if you learned that someone mistakenly shot or injured your most precious loved one and acted like it mattered not in the immediate aftermath?

This, in fact, is what police are doing from coast to coast across the United States. Below are stories, devastating stories, of men and women who were critically injured by police—and then ignored while they fought to survive.



On its face, the police murder of Eric Harris, a 44-year-old father in Tulsa, Oklahoma, was wrong. Surrounded by police, Harris had surrendered and was on the ground when Bob Bates, a deputy, claims to have accidentally shot him with a handgun instead of his Taser. For what was being called a mistake, Bates was charged with second degree manslaughter. It increasingly appears that Bates, who wasn't even a real police officer but a 73-year-old deputy who traveled with police for fun after financing vacations and projects and equipment for them, should have never been out with police to be able to shoot and kill Harris in the first place.

The Tragic Aftermath in the Shooting Death of Eric Harris

All by itself, with no more details, that story was bad, but when the video was released showing Harris nervously gasping for air, screaming that he couldn't breathe, and asking why he was shot—only to have another officer, Joe Byars, tell him, "fuck your breath"—it became increasingly clear that what we had was not only a mistake, but something deeply inhumane and troubling on a scale that the country wasn't quite prepared for.



Harris died less than an hour later. Few moments have ever shown the depravity and lack of regard for human life like that expressed by the officers who treated Harris as something less than a human on that day.

Taking the stairs down from the seventh floor of their Brooklyn apartment building, Gurley and his girlfriend, Melissa Butler, on November 20 were having a normal evening like any other. The lights were a problem in the stairwell, but they knew their way around.

Unbeknownst to the couple, two NYPD officers, Peter Liang and Shaun Landau, were one floor above them. When Liang entered the stairwell with his flashlight out and gun drawn, he fired his weapon and the bullet struck Gurley center mass in his chest. The victim tumbled down two more flights of stairs.

The Tragic Aftermath in the Shooting Death of Akai Gurley

Shocked beyond belief, Melissa Butler went one floor down to the fourth floor and frantically knocked on the door of a neighbor. The neighbor immediately called 911.

Reported in an exclusive by New York Daily News reporters Rocco Parascandola and Oren Yaniv, Officers Liang and Landau, in the last crucial minutes of Gurley's life, were not busy using their training to save or stabilize him, but instead began immediately texting their union reps to inform them of the shooting. According to the Daily News:



While Akai Gurley was dying in a darkened stairwell at a Brooklyn housing development, the cop who fired the fatal bullet was texting his union representative, sources told the Daily News. Right after rookie cop Peter Liang discharged a single bullet that struck Gurley, 28, he and his partner Shaun Landau were incommunicado for more than six and a half minutes, sources said Thursday. In the critical moments after the Nov. 20 shooting, the cops’ commanding officer and an emergency operator — responding to a 911 call from a neighbor and knowing the duo was in the area — tried to reach them in vain, sources said. “That’s showing negligence,” said a law enforcement source of the pair’s decision to text their union rep before making a radio call for help. The guy is dying and you still haven’t called it in?”

Still fighting for his life, Gurley was not only wrongly shot by Liang, but was denied the basic treatment and compassion he deserved in his final moments. Instead of caring for the victim shot by their own firearm, the officers went straight into "CYA" mode.

Imagine, just for a minute, if someone other than an officer behaved in the same way. Say for instance, that Gurley shot someone, deliberately or accidentally, and for six-and-a-half minutes ignored the victim as he or she died, ignored calls from police and medics, and instead texted friends who could give him some good advice. How would that be viewed by the public?

What's particularly troubling when you consider such a role reversal is that Officers Liang and Landau, unlike Gurley or most other civilians, were actually trained, at great expense, on exactly how to handle these situations. The two officers abandoned their training in favor of personal expediency.







On July 31, 2013, Jermaine McBean, a 33-year-old computer engineer with no criminal record, paid $100 for a camouflage BB gun at his local pawn shop. As he walked to his home with his headphones on, listening to music, he was shot and killed by Officer Peter Peraza in Oakland Park, Florida. Police claimed that McBean ignored their requests to put down his weapon and then aimed the gun, which was empty, at them in an aggressive manner.

Now, nearly two years later, it turns out the police told multiple lies in attempt to cover up their killing of McBean.

As seen in this photo below, McBean was wearing headphones when he was killed. At least five times under oath, the officer who shot and killed him claimed that no such thing existed. In an email to McBean's family, the lead investigator also stated that McBean wasn't wearing headphones and that they were in his pocket. They clearly weren't. Furthermore, a witness close to the shooting also stated that McBean never pointed the gun at the officers.



Not only does the photo clearly show the earbuds in his ears, but the nurse who took the photo claimed that she pointed them out to the officers after they refused to allow her to provide any first aid to McBean.



The witness who took it, a nurse who asked to remain anonymous, says she pointed out the earbuds to police at the scene, after they rebuffed her offer to provide first aid to the dying man.

Another officer at the scene, Sgt. Richard LaCerra, told investigators that McBean "spun around" and brought the rifle over his shoulders. "I thought at that point and time he was gonna swing and point the rifle at us," he said. "And the next thing I know there was gunshots." LaCerra said that after McBean fell, the wounded man said to him, "It was just a BB gun."

We know McBean was still alive after being shot because another officer present claimed that McBean actually told them the gun was just a BB gun after he was shot.

Twelve years old and only in the sixth grade, Tamir Rice was shot and killed on November 22 by Cleveland Police Officer Timothy Loehman while playing in a local park near his home. After a local resident called 911 to report that someone who appeared to be a child was playing with what was likely a toy gun (both accurate), the police dispatch failed to relay crucial details to police officers—leaving out that Rice was a child and that his gun was likely a toy. With that in mind, police arrived on the scene and shot Rice within two seconds of seeing him.

At least six lies the police have told about this case can be studied here and here, including the reality that Rice never actually pointed or brandished the gun at them as they initially described. Likely unaware that a local security camera filmed the entire ordeal, the officers not only contrived key details on why and how the shooting occurred, but were unaware that they were filmed willfully neglecting a mortally wounded Tamir Rice in the crucial minutes following the shooting.



It wasn't until an FBI agent, who was in the area with a detective, arrived on the scene that Rice was given any first aid. It must be noted that Rice fought to live all the way until the following morning, nearly 24 hours later. When asked why footage was not released showing exactly how officers performed after the shooting and why the officers on the scene refused Rice any medical aid, a spokesperson for the mayor just communicated that the entire ordeal was under investigation.

So egregious were instances of Cleveland Police refusing first aid to their victims that the Justice Department, in a settlement with the Cleveland Police Department, is now mandating that officers provide first aid to victims or be punished. That this even has to be required or stated is preposterous.

As it turns out, Officer Loehman, who shot and killed Rice, was actually dismissed by the previous department he worked for. The scathing critique left for him, which states that they recommend he never work as an officer, was uncovered by The Guardian, and states:



“During a state range qualification course, Ptl Loehmann was distracted and weepy,” Polak wrote, naming the trainer as Sgt Tinnirello. “[Loehmann] could not follow simple directions, could not communicate clear thoughts nor recollections, and his handgun performance was dismal. Sgt Tinnirello tried to work through this with Ptl Loehmann by giving him some time. But, after some talking it was clear to Sgt Tinnirello that the recruit was just not mentally prepared to be doing firearm training ... In recommending Loehmann’s dismissal, Polak listed what he said were other performance shortcomings, including Loehmann’s having left his gun unlocked, lied to supervisors and failed to follow orders ... “Due to this dangerous loss of composure during live range training and his inability to manage this personal stress, I do not believe Ptl Loehmann shows the maturity needed to work in our employment,” Polak concludes. “For these reasons, I am recommending he be released from the employment of the city of Independence. I do not believe time, nor training, will be able to change or correct these deficiencies.”

"They killed my sister," Joell Anderson, Tanisha’s 40-year-old brother said as he fought back tears. "I watched it."

Suffering a mental health breakdown on the evening of November 12, Tanisha's family called 911 so that she could be taken to a hospital. Instead of an ambulance, the police arrived. As has happened to many other families seeking medical attention for their loved ones, police killed Anderson just a few minutes after arriving.

Could you imagine a scenario in which people watch two men slam the head of a police officer on the ground, ignore him while he dies, and delay medical support until it was too late? Could you imagine six months after such an incident that an investigation was still ongoing and no charges had been brought while the men who killed the officer walked free?

It would never happen. Ever.

Such is the outrageous case with Tanisha Anderson.



Family members who lived with Anderson dialed 911 to request medical assistance after Anderson became disoriented and walked out of her house into the cold, wearing only a nightgown, according to the court filing. After the officers arrived and escorted Anderson to their car, the family says, she began to panic. Family members allege that Aldridge then grabbed Anderson, "slammed her to the sidewalk, and pushed her face into the pavement," and then pressed his knee on her back and handcuffed her, while Myers assisted in restraining her. Within moments, Anderson lost consciousness, the family members said. The lawsuit also alleges that when family members asked the officers to check on her condition, the officers "falsely claimed she was sleeping" and delayed calling for medical assistance. "During the lengthy time that Tanisha lay on the ground," the family said, Aldridge and Myers "failed to provide any medical attention to Tanisha."

As Tanisha called out for her brother and mother, an officer used a “Judo” take down move after having pressed her head down repeatedly in the backseat in what seemed to be a “smothering” manner, Joell Anderson said. Joell says that after she hit her head on the concrete, and the officer placed his knee on her back, she never opened her eyes or spoke another word.

After Anderson was clearly unconscious, her brother said that officers refused to provid first aid—and refused to allow the family to provide any aid. Not only that, but Joell Anderson said that Tanisha's nightgown was lifted above her waist and her lower body was completely exposed for everyone to see. It was only after repeatedly asking that Joell was allowed to cover her body with his own jacket.





On April 12, Freddie Gray, healthy and whole, was arrested by Baltimore police.

According to his family and attorney Billy Murphy, when Gray arrived at the hospital, he had three broken vertebrae, his spinal cord was 80 percent severed, his voice box was damaged, and his brain was swollen.

He died a week later.

The police thus far have refused to give any reasonable explanation of how Gray went from healthy to dead in their custody.

New incident reports that were just released state that Gray "was arrested without force or incident" and that he "suffered a medical emergency" in the back of the police van after his arrest.

Here's the thing: spines don't sever themselves and States Attorney Marilyn Mosby has since charged six different Baltimore police officers in the death of Gray.

The Tragic Aftermath in the Police Murder of Freddie Gray

Taking Gray from where he was arrested to a local precinct should have been both quick and painless. It was neither, and this was not an accident. En route to the precinct, police stopped and checked on Gray many times—including a point at which he was completely unresponsive, and the officers did nothing to provide him any aid. Even after the police eventually arrived at the precinct, with Gray unconscious, a witness stated that the police acted with no urgency whatsoever to provide him aid.

Furthermore, many egregious and disturbing lies are being told about Gray.

One conservative reporter is claiming that Gray severed his spine jumping from a three-story window eluding police and then running full force into a wall. Except even the Baltimore police have claimed they simply spotted him on the street.

Other conservatives literally doctored a lead paint exposure settlement that Gray and his sister received and claimed that it was for a severe spinal injury he received in a car accident.

Perhaps no lie being told, though, is more disturbing than the one the Baltimore police are leaking to/through the Washington Post—that Gray injured himself in the van. It is irresponsible for the Washington Post to advance this lie, and it's corrupt for the Baltimore police to be leaking it to advance a false narrative to protect them.







On November 26, 2013, 38-year-old Ervin Edwards, partially deaf and mentally ill, was arrested by police for sagging his pants and taken to the West Baton Rouge Parish jail in Louisiana. He only lived for a few more minutes inside of the cell.

For 18 months, police have lied over and over again about what happened the night Edwards died in their custody. Now that a video of their actions has been released, it's clear they murdered this man and left him to die all alone in his jail cell.

The Tragic Aftermath of the Police Murder of Ervin Edwards

Police have done nothing but lie in the aftermath of the death of Ervin Edwards.



Lie No. 1: Officer Dustin McMullan claimed in his report to only use the Taser for five seconds.



“I then pulled the trigger on the Taser using the full five second circle on Edwards,” he wrote, meaning he shocked him for five seconds, which is the longest a shock can be applied without stopping for a brief time and pulling the trigger again. “However, the Taser did not appear to have any effect on Edwards.

In contrast to McMullan’s report, the video shows him keeping the stun gun pressed firmly against Edwards for nearly a minute and a half. While it’s unclear how much of that time was spent shocking the inmate, a bright blue light can be seen between the stun gun and Edwards on several occasions during a roughly 45-second period.

“Due to the obvious lack of effect of the Taser, I then re-holstered it,” McMullan wrote. “I then again assisted in restraining Edwards using empty hand control techniques” before the officers were able to remove the restraints from Edwards’ ankles and hands and all exit the cell.

: Officer McMullan kept the Taser firmly pushed into Edwards for over 90 seconds—18 times longer than the officer claimed.: Officer McMullan claimed to re-holster the Taser after using it once for five seconds.: Officer McMullan only re-holstered the Taser after 90 seconds and Edwards was dead.

Lie No.3: McMullan claimed another deputy performed a well-check on Edwards and saw him moving around in the cell.

Truth: Edwards appears to have been dead the moment they left his jail cell and never moved an inch in the 10 minutes they left him there.



On July 17, Eric Garner was choked to death by Officer Daniel Pantaleo in Staten Island, New York. His death was ruled a homicide.

As brutal as it is to watch, no words can say quite what this video conveys.



Almost universally, people all over the world feel that the death of Garner was tragic, avoidable, and, at the very least, an excessive use of force.

The Tragic Aftermath in the Choking Death of Eric Garner

What's equally troubling, but shown much less, is the almost unimaginable seven minutes that an unconscious and possibly dead Garner laid handcuffed on the ground while officers stared at him and offered no substantive form of first aid. Again, consider a role reversal of any kind in which Garner choked a handcuffed man unconscious and stared at him for seven crucial minutes instead of frantically performing CPR or seeking urgent help from the scores of surrounding professionals.

Or, could you imagine any scenario in which someone you loved (or even liked a little) loses consciousness after some violent injury, doesn't respond to your touch or words, and you, a trained professional, just stare at him or her not for a few seconds, or even two to three minutes, but for seven crucial minutes? It would NEVER happen.





Sadly, this list is by no means exhaustive.

It did not include Sgt. James Brown of Texas, who begged for medical attention and mercy from law enforcement until he never spoke another word.

It did not include Natasha McKenna, who was tasered and tortured until she was completely brain dead.

This report did not include a full explanation of how Pasadena police shot unarmed Kendrec McDade at point blank range and handcuffed him, refusing him essential first aid after falsely claiming he shot at them.

It did not include Mike Brown, who was critically injured before he was fatally wounded by more gunshots from Officer Darren Wilson.

Ultimately, the law is not even clear, and actually varies from state to state, on whether or not police are even required to provide first aid to those they injure. In other words, while police are allowed to shoot or critically injure you, they are under no obligation in most states to provide you any aid afterwards.

This position paper from the California Law Review explores the various legal protections given to police who simply opt not to provide aid to those who are in distress.

The Florida attorney general in 1989 also wrote a position piece on the same topic here.

Ultimately though, it is my belief that officers in these cases may very well have wanted their victims to die for explicit legal protection.

What if Freddie Gray had lived?

What if Akai Gurley had lived?

What if Natasha McKenna had lived?

Have you ever seen the videos of police frantically attempting to rescue someone they critically injured like you or I would do if someone we cared about was hurt? I haven't. Maybe they exist, but in far too many cases, police, after doing so much harm, appear to stand back like cold-hearted killers.