[“Speaking Truth To Empower”]
Picture of Pamela Turner who was murdered by unknown Texas killer-cop…
Photo: Facebook
Was Pamela Turner’s videotaped killing by a unknown Texas police officer anything more than cold-blooded murder?
On Monday, a Texas police officer was recorded committing what appears to be a cold-blooded act of murder by shooting a Black woman dead—who he had just thrown to the ground.
A disturbing 39 second cellphone video captures the gruesome killing outside the apartment complex where she lived. The victim’s sister, and other residents, claim the officer also lived there.
The brazenly heartless killing on this video is unjustifiable. And the lying excuses now being mouthed by dishonest police officials, in Texas, is reprehensible.
On Monday night, Pamela Turner, 44, a mother of two, was shot dead outside the Brixton Apartments, where she lived, by an officer from the Baytown Police Department, at 10:40 p.m. Baytown is in Harris County, near Houston, Texas. According to Turner’s sister, Antoinette Dorsey, the officer was a neighbor of Turner. Dorsey said her sister had complained about the officer harassing her long before he killed her.
The Baytown Police Department, and the Harris County District Attorney, are reportedly investigating Turner’s killing.
According to police, the officer was trying to arrest Turner on outstanding warrants. Turner was accused of breaking a woman’s car window on May 1. She was also accused of an April 24 assault, when she allegedly got into an altercation, after she had been given an eviction notice, by the management of her apartment complex. Court documents reportedly shows that a Harris County judge order a mental health assessment of Turner, because of what was characterized as possible “early identification of suspected mental illness or intellectual disability.”
Two important questions must be addressed here. Was this officer really a neighbor of Turner—who had a history with her—before he murdered her Monday? Besides Turner’s sister, Antoinette Dorsey, several residents have said he lived there. If so, what was the nature of the past encounters between the two? The family of Turner say Baytown Police have not shared any details with them about the killing.
Baytown Police Department’s Lt. Steve Dorris made the curious claim that the officer was “forced” to shoot at Turner five times.
“During the course of the attempted arrest, the female began struggling with the officer, which forced the officer to deploy his Taser,” Dorris said. “That deployment was not effective, and the female was able to get the officer’s Taser away from him. (She) actually tased the officer, which forced the officer to draw his duty weapon and fire multiple rounds at the suspect.”
Lt. Dorris’ claims here are a prime example why police have little credibility among many African-Americans. His justification here is inconsistency with what we see on the cellphone video. The cellphone video shows us something more like ruthless murder.
When the video starts rolling, we see the officer trying to handcuff Turner, as she stands next to a parked car. Turner can be heard telling him “I’m walking. I’m actually walking to my house.” She then momentarily breaks free and tries to run away from him. He quickly catches her, and she says, “you’re actually harassing me,” just before the officer fires the Taser. He does this even though she is standing only a few feet away from him. She struggles with him briefly, after he fires the Taser. This officer then throws her to the ground. At this point, Turner can be heard asking “why?” She then says, “I’m pregnant.” He kneels on her for a few seconds. Not long after, the officer backs up—while Turner is on the ground—and callously, in a cold-blooded manner fires, five shots at Turner. These shots were fired at point blank range.
The video exposes Lt. Dorris as a damn liar—and this unknown cop as an obvious murderer. Dorris claimed the officer was “forced” to “fire multiple rounds at the suspect.” The video shows us the officer manhandling Turner to the ground, and then kneeling on her. So, why was he “forced” to shoot her dead in a hail of five bullets? It is important to point out here that Turner was wearing a short dress. So, police can’t credibly claim they believed she had any hidden weapon.
The video shows us that the officer decided to just shoot Turner, because he could.
Lt. Dorris also gave this unconvincing excuse “If somebody takes your Taser away from you and starts tasing you, there’s a very good likelihood that this is going to escalate and get very bad for the officer from there.”
Lt. Dorris is probably lying here when he said Turner Tasered the officer. The video only seems to show the Taser being fired once—by the officer. More importantly, just before this officer shot Turner, he is seen kneeling on her. The video makes it abundantly clear the officer had already overpowered Turner. He could’ve very easily handcuffed her then arrested her.
Instead, the officer just decided he couldn’t be bothered. So, he shot her instead.
Lt. Dorris seems more upset with the person who documented this murder on video, instead of the killer-cop who is shown committing murder, who works in his police department. He bitterly complained about the video being posted online.
“It’s unfortunate that somebody takes a tragic incident like this and posts it on social media,” Dorris said. “It’s extremely disrespectful for everybody involved, but that’s the day and age we live in with social media.” Dorris seems unhappy here because this video exposes him, and this killer-cop, as liars.
This brings us to the question of why police haven’t released the police body-cam footage that was allegedly taken by this officer. Police like to tell us they can’t release information like this when the investigation is still in progress. If that is the case, then why do police always reflexively excuse the action of officers before the investigation is completed?
The Texas ACLU denounced the idiotic comments of Lt. Dorris and demanded the release of the video.
“The ACLU of Texas calls for an independent investigation into the tragedy in Baytown and the immediate release of the officer’s body camera footage. The escalation seen on bystander video from a simple stop to the use of brutal deadly force is shocking and raises serious concerns. There are too many questions about this tragic loss of life, and the public deserves transparency,” Texas’ ACLU legal director Andre Segura said. “The Baytown Police Department has stated that it was ‘disrespectful’ for bystander video of the shooting to be posted online – that is wrong. There is nothing disrespectful or inappropriate about documenting or sharing video of the way the police act in our communities, especially when they kill someone. Community members have the right to monitor, discuss, and ultimately control the way we are policed.”
Several of Turner’s neighbors question why she was killed by this unknown officer.
“They must’ve had a couple of words,” neighbor Taylin Inniss said. “Things went a whole different way, and he shot her, and I really feel for the family and I hope they get some type of justice. I just pray for them honestly because life is short nowadays.”
“She was already on the ground,” said neighbor Johnathan Little. “Why did you have to shoot her? Why did you have to kill her?”
“If you know she has mental illness, why not ask for backup first before you try and detain her?” neighbor James Edison said. “He got up and she was barely getting up off the ground and he shot her like a dog. That’s wrong. And he needs to pay for it.”
Unfortunately, because Pamela Turner was an African-American, many deceitful White Americans will defend this indefensible clear-cut case of cold-blooded murder by this Texas police officer.
Worse of all, pretensive “rule of law” politicians will once again turn a blind eye to this outrageous case where a police officer commits blatant cold-blooded murder.
