Photos: YouTube Screenshots
When you’re Black, calling the police for help might just be the last thing you ever do.
Niani Finlayson dialed 911 with hopes of being protected from a crazed ex-boyfriend who was attacking her inside her Lancaster, California home. The 27-year-old, “reported that her boyfriend would not leave her alone and then screaming and sounds of a struggle could be heard”, according to a report in The Guardian.
An injured Finlayson was trying her best to fend off the attack while also protecting her 9-year-old daughter when the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Deputy arrived. The circumstances surrounding what happened next aren’t fully known as police have refused to release the body camera footage but the one incontrovertible fact is that the deputy shot Finlayson dead.
An LASD statement accuses Finlayson of possessing a knife and threatening the ex-boyfriend, which makes all the sense in the world considering that she was under attack. However, the deputy, Ty Shelton, thought it prudent to kill her rather than de-escalate the situation and take the ex-boyfriend into custody. Apparently, this is the SECOND person that Shelton has killed under similar circumstances.