Chicago Indymedia : http://chicago.indymedia.org/archive
Chicago Indymedia

News :: [none]

Update Cincinnati: Cincy Cops Fire Into Crowd of Mourners

A Louisville woman was shot point-blank three times by police armed with beanbag shotguns outside of the funeral for Timothy Thomas in Cincinnati, Ohio.
Cincinnati Ohio 5:40 pm 4/14/01 - A Louisville woman was shot point-blank three times by police armed with beanbag shotguns outside of the funeral for Timothy Thomas in Cincinnati, Ohio.

Cincinnati Mayor Charles Luken and Ohio Governor Bob Taft both spoke at the funeral, which lasted for over three hours. An overflow crowd of several thousand stood outside New Prospect Baptist Church listening to the service on a sound system set up for that purpose.

When the funeral ended the crowd began to move away. Around 4 pm, four police cars drove up and stopped next to the mourners. They fired beanbag rounds into the crowd without warning.

"It was like a drive-by," said David Waggoner of Louisville KY, who witnessed the entire incident. "They didn't say 'freeze', they didn't say nothing. They just jumped out and shot."

The woman, Christine Jones, was shot in the neck, kidneys and abdomen. She had been carrying a banner belonging to the Louisville organization Citizens Against Police Abuse at the time.

The crowd ran away and the police pursued and continued firing. A seven year-old child was also hit by the beanbag rounds. The child's mother picked him up and fled immediately.

The crowd of mourners, who were mostly black, was very supportive of Christine Jones, who is white. "All of these people who said that this was a white-black thing, that Cincinnati's black people are anti-white, are wrong. Black people pulled Christine into a doorway to protect her after the cops shot her," said Tom Pearce of Louisville.

Someone called 911 but it took one hour for the ambulance to arrive. Witnesses said that the Cincinnati Safety Director James Turbin (sp?) was present at the incident.

Currently (at 5:30 pm) people are filling the Cincinnati streets. Fire trucks are racing through the city.
 
 

Donate

Views

Account Login

Media Centers

 

This site made manifest by dadaIMC software