Jeremy McDole, man in wheelchair, fatally shot by police in Delaware

By AP, Newsday.com | September 24, 2015 9:37 PM



WILMINGTON, Del. - The police shooting of a man in a wheelchair was "unjust," his mother said Thursday, but authorities described a different scenario, saying the man was pulling a handgun from his waist when officers shot him to death.

The shooting happened on a narrow street in Wilmington on Wednesday around 3 p.m. Officers responded to a 911 call of a man who had shot himself, and when they arrived, 28-year-old Jeremy McDole was "still armed with a handgun," Police Chief Bobby Cummings said during a news conference.

McDole's mother, Phyllis McDole, interrupted the briefing.

"He was in a wheelchair, paralyzed from the waist down. There's video showing that he didn't pull a weapon ... I need answers," she said.
[...]
A .40-caliber shell casing was found in the grass about 15 feet from where McDole was shot. Police said a .38-caliber gun was found by McDole's side after he was shot.

Smith said McDole had gotten out of jail about a year ago and was living in a nursing home.

McDole has an arrest record that dates back to 2005 and includes convictions for drug possession and disorderly conduct. He was also arrested for carrying a concealed deadly weapon and resisting arrest, but those charges were dropped. In November, McDole was found to have violated his probation.

McDole was paralyzed when he was shot in the back in 2005 by a friend he had been walking around a neighborhood with, smoking marijuana, according to court documents.

McDole initially told police that his friend Randal Matoo shot him, but later testified that he didn't know who shot him.

At Matoo's bench trial, the judge said he didn't know what happened, "but if either one of you expect me to believe that this wasn't associated with some other wrongdoing, think again," according to court documents. "There's a horrible penalty that both of you, the victim, Mr. McDole, and you the defendant, Mr. Matoo, are going to pay for whatever was behind this."

Matoo was convicted of first-degree assault and possession of a firearm during a felony.

More at link: http://www.newsday.com/news/nation/jeremy-mcdole-man-in-wheelchair-fatally-shot-by-police-in-delaware-1.10887837

The shocking moment four cops shoot dead 'armed' man in a wheelchair is caught on video - but his distraught family call the killing 'unjust'

• WARNING GRAPHIC CONTENT
• Wilmington Police received reports a man in a wheelchair shot himself
• They arrived to find paralyzed Jeremy McDole 'still armed with a handgun'
• Video taken by witness show officers shouting a him to put the gun down
• When McDole reaches into his jeans cops open fire with flurry of bullets
• Police clashed with the victim's family who've called the incident 'unjust'

By Hannah Parry, DailyMail.com and AP
08:02 EST, 25 September 2015

The incident, which took place in a Wilmington street, Delaware on Wednesday afternoon was caught on camera by stunned witnesses who uploaded it to You Tube.

The 1-minute-and-19-second-long clip opened with an officer, armed with a shotgun, shouting for the wheelchair-bound McDole to 'show his hands.'

A shot is fired just seconds later, before more cops move in shouting at the 28-year-old: 'Show me your hands! Drop the gun! Drop the gun!'

McDole appeared to be bleeding although the footage does not make clear if this was from the officer's first shot or if he had been previously injured in the alleged suicide attempt. His handgun is not easily identifiable in the video.

He is then seen putting his hands into his pockets at which point he in gunned down in a flurry of bullets with around ten shots fired.

McDole slumps over and falls to ground, dead. Cops said a .38-caliber handgun was recovered at the scene.

Police Chief Bobby Cummings said during a news conference that none of the officers involved 'intended to take anyone's life that day.'

He said that police had told him repeatedly to put his gun down but had 'engaged him' after he went to remove the weapon from his waist.

More story, photos & VIDEO at link: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3248321/Police-kill-disabled-man-wheelchair-Delaware-street-responding-911-call-tried-shoot-himself.html

Records: Man in wheelchair killed by police was previously suicidal

CBS News | September 28, 2015

WILMINGTON, Del. -- Court records show a Delaware man who reportedly shot himself and refused commands to drop his weapon before being killed by police while in his wheelchair had previously expressed suicidal thoughts and had a history of being combative with police.

However, some people who saw Jeremy McDole, 28, in the days before he was killed Wednesday said he did not appear to be sad or to be acting strangely.

"When I saw him, he was happy," said Bishop Anthony Slaughter, a community evangelist who talked to McDole last Monday. Eugene Smith, an uncle who said he spoke with McDole about 15 minutes before the shooting, also said he did not sense anything unusual.

Court records reviewed by The Associated Press show McDole, who had at least 16 arrests, expressed suicidal behavior in 2010 and was accused of being combative with law enforcement. In pleading guilty in 2011 to a drug charge, McDole was given a form asking him several questions, including whether he had ever been a mental hospital patient. His public defender responded affirmatively, adding in parentheses: "2010 Suicidal." Public defender Kester Crosse also indicated McDole was taking the antidepressants Cymbalta and Zoloft at the time of the plea.

More at link:http://www.cbsnews.com/news/records-man-in-wheelchair-killed-by-police-was-previously-suicidal/

Mother of disabled man who was fatally shot by police arrested for attack

WashingtonPost.com
By Lindsey Bever | September 29, 2015, 4:46PM


(Photo: KYLE GRANTHAM/THE NEWS JOURNAL)

Moments before police shot and killed Jeremy McDole while he was sitting in his wheelchair on a Wilmington, Del., street, 911 operators got a call. The woman on the other end was hysterical, saying a disabled man had shot himself and fallen to the ground.

“He’s on the ground and he’s moving around and he has a weapon in his hand!” the caller told the dispatcher last Wednesday, according to audio released by Wilmington police. “Please get somebody here!”
[...]
Relatives said McDole wasn’t armed. They said they needed answers. They said they wanted justice for his death.

McDole’s mother, Phyllis McDole, called it “murder.”

“He shot my son like he was roadkill,” she said about the officer who pulled the trigger, according to the News Journal.

Then, she turned on the woman she thought had called 911 before the fatal shooting.

Police said Phyllis McDole, 48, went to the woman’s home Friday evening, punched her in the face and threatened even more harm, according to an arrest warrant obtained by The Washington Post.

“B****, you got my son killed,” McDole allegedly said, according to documents. “You were the one that called the cops. You got my son shot and you gonna die like my son died.”

McDole, along with five other suspects, went into the home and began to “punch and kick” the woman, giving her two black eyes, a cut lip and small scratches on her hand, according to documents.

The victim was not the woman who had called 911, police told the News Journal.

Phyllis McDole was arrested and charged with burglary, conspiracy, “terroristic threatening” and assault, according to documents. She has been released on $10,000 secured bail.

More at link: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-nation/wp/2015/09/29/mother-of-disabled-man-who-was-fatally-shot-by-police-arrested-for-attack/

Delaware police shoot and kill man in wheelchair
(Not censored)

_________________
Do not go gentle into that good night.
___________ Rage, rage against the dying of the light

This is a long article, very informative imo.

Cop expert defends shooting of man in wheelchair

USA TODAY | By Esteban Parra, The (Wilmington, Del.) News Journal | October 5, 2015

WILMINGTON -- Mike Lewis, sheriff of Wicomico County, Md., who teaches police tactics, said based on news accounts and a cell phone video posted to YouTube, Wilmington police officers acted correctly when four officers shot Jeremy McDole to death as he sat in his wheelchair.

“Usually we get it right. Sometimes we get it wrong,” Lewis said. “But I see absolutely nothing wrong that the (Wilmington) officers did in this particular case.”
[...]
“These police officers are ordering him clearly on the video tape to drop the gun,” Lewis said. “The amateur videographer, who’s videotaping this with his cellphone, you can hear him say ‘Drop the gun, cuz.’ ‘Get your hands up.’

“So he’s making his own independent observations.”

Yet McDole refused to drop the gun, Lewis said.

“Police officers make split-second decisions that affect the lives of our citizens and everyone else out there in harms way,” he said. “The safety of a suspect, who is attempting to resist or disobey the commands of a law enforcement officer, while risking many more lives other than his own puts police officers at a no win situation.”
[...]
The Wilmington officers had every right to use deadly force, especially after repeatedly ordering the man to drop the gun and raise his hands, Lewis said.

He added that there is no legal obligation for a suspect to shoot first, but said that “cemeteries are full of police officers across this country who hesitated to pull that trigger and were waiting for the suspect to shoot first. Consequently, they lost their lives.”

More at link: http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation-now/2015/10/05/cop-expert-defends-shooting-man-wheelchair/73415820/

McDole family hires Baltimore attorney who won Freddie Gray settlement

By ANNIE ROPEIK | Deleware Public Media | October 15, 2015



The family of Jeremy McDole, the black man shot and killed in his wheelchair by Wilmington Police last month, has hired a lawyer who won a major settlement in a case involving Baltimore police.

It's attorney Billy Murphy Jr., who represented the family of Freddie Gray.
[...]
Speaking to reporters in Wilmington Thursday, Murphy said he would pursue justice for Jeremy McDole's family. No suit has been filed there yet, either.

But calls have been mounting in Delaware for an independent federal investigation into McDole's death. The NAACP and Delaware Black Caucus have questioned a police account saying officers -- most of them white -- fired on McDole after he reached for a gun. They'd been responding to a 9-1-1 call saying a man in a wheelchair had shot himself.

Wilmington Police and the state Department of Justice are conducting their own investigations into the case. The DOJ has said investigators in its Office of Civil Rights and Public Trust are separate from those who regularly deal with law enforcement, making them able to fairly investigate cases involving police.

More at link: http://delawarepublic.org/post/mcdole-family-hires-baltimore-attorney-who-won-freddie-gray-settlement#stream/0

Looks like suicide by cop to me.

_________________
If your mind is agitated you will find agitation everywhere. Where else will you find peace if not within you? __ Papaji

And we need to quit rewarding the families of thugs with monetary windfalls. The more behavior is rewarded the more the behavior will be emulated.

_________________
If your mind is agitated you will find agitation everywhere. Where else will you find peace if not within you? __ Papaji

I agree, Carm... (x2)

_________________
Do not go gentle into that good night.
___________ Rage, rage against the dying of the light

I'm sure the Creeper Billy Murphy portends what is to come.

_________________
If your mind is agitated you will find agitation everywhere. Where else will you find peace if not within you? __ Papaji

Jeremy McDole's family leads march, rally in Wilmington
By Jenna Pizzi | The News Journal | October 30, 2015

WILMINGTON - Family and friends of Jeremy "Bam" McDole, who was fatally shot by city police, were joined by community members Friday afternoon in a march and rally in Rodney Square.

West Side community leader Robert Bovell lead the rally at Rodney Square.

"By you being here today shows the city of Wilmington, the state of Delaware and New Castle County that we are not taking this lying down," Bovell said. "The job of the police is to protect and serve. They never gave the young man a chance."

State Rep. Charles Potter said the police were wrong in shooting McDole. "Our officers are trained better than that," he said.

The demonstration was organized by Keandra McDole, Jeremy McDole's sister, who said she is looking for answers from police about why they shot her brother and why it has taken so long for investigations into the shooting to be completed. Keandra McDole had called for those participating to be peaceful.

[....]
Jeremy McDole, a 28-year-old who used a wheelchair, on Sept. 23 was shot by police responding to a 911 call reporting a man who had a gun and had shot himself.

Wilmington authorities have not released the names of the officers involved in the shooting – and again declined to provide that information on Thursday. Police have said that the officers – three white and one Hispanic – have all been placed on paid administrative leave while the incident is investigated to determine if they followed proper police procedures. A separate state investigation is being conducted by the Department of Justice to determine if criminal charges should be brought against the officers.

Local officials and community leaders have also called on the U.S. Attorney General's office to investigate the shooting.

More at link: http://www.delawareonline.com/story/news/crime/2015/10/30/mcdole-family-leads-march-rally-justice/74875230/