A Prince George County, MD Sheriff’s deputy was caught on tape assaulting a teenager from behind as the sheriff’s gun discharged.
The video, which was recorded last February, came from a Brentwood, MD store. In it, Corp. Donald Taylor is seen hitting 19-year-old Ryan Dorm from behind with his gun. The gun seemed to fire as he hit Dorm.
Taylor had reportedly been in pursuit of Dorm, who he thought robbed a gas station. After the incident, he told authorities that Dorm was the aggressor and had tried to pull Taylor’s weapon. Taylor claimed he struck him in self-defense. The video clearly shows otherwise.
Dorm was arrested and spent four months in jail before the charges were dropped.
From NBC Washington:
“Well, the video contradicts what the officer originally wrote in his charging documents,” said Dorm’s lawyer, Jimmy Bell. “What it shows is that my client didn’t lie. They print my client is a criminal. They put his face on television saying he committed these crimes, and he didn’t.”
The police reportedly saw the video two days after the incident, yet no charges were filed until after Dorm spent four months of his life in jail.
“Well, the video contradicts what the officer originally wrote in his charging documents,” said Dorm’s lawyer, Jimmy Bell. “What it shows is that my client didn’t lie. They print my client is a criminal. They put his face on television saying he committed these crimes, and he didn’t.”
Dorm is suing both the police department and Taylor for $10 million. Taylor is being charged with second-degree assault.
Here’s the video:
Unfortunately, police brutality, especially toward the African-American community, is far too common. Here are a few statistics from NewsOne:
Thirty cases of state sanctioned or justified murder of Black people in the first 3 months of 2012 alone have been found (due to under reporting and discriminatory methods of documentation, it is likely that there are more that our research has yet to uncover)
Of the 30 killed people, 20 were definitely unarmed. 2 probably had firearms, 8 were alleged to have non-lethal weapons.
Of the 30 killed people:
12 were innocent of any illegal behavior or behavior that involved a threat to anyone (although the killers claimed they looked “suspicious”);
8 were emotionally disturbed and/or displaying strange behavior.
The remaining 10 were either engaged in illegal or potentially illegal activity, or there was too little info to determine circumstances of their killing.
It appears that in all but two of these cases, illegal and/or harmful behavior could have been stopped without the use of lethal force.
In most cases, where planned, investigations of the deaths have not been completed.
Note: Only seven of the 30 killed people were over 30 years old and two of the six were 31 years old. Two were women.
Of course, these statistics are about officers who were unlucky enough to get caught. It’s only because of a store security camera that Taylor was finally charged.
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