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Published 14:44 23 May 2021 GMT
A distraught father is suing the city of Springfield and the Springfield Police Department after cops tested his daughter's ashes for drugs.
The incident, which took place on April 6, 2020, saw two Springfield officers take an urn filled with his daughter's ashes, allegedly believing it to be ecstasy or methamphetamine, the Independent reports.
In body camera footage of the upsetting incident, Dartavius Barnes is pulled over by police allegedly for speeding. According to the Washington Post, the grieving parent was then handcuffed and placed in a squad car.
This video contains body camera footage which some may find upsetting:When the cops tell Barnes that they had found a small container filled with either ecstasy or meth, a horrified Barnes insists that the substance is actually the ashes of his very young daughter, Ta'Naja Barnes.
According to the Independent, Ta'Naja, died at the age of two as a result of neglect and starvation from her mother, T’wanka Davis, and her boyfriend, Anthony Myers. They were both convicted on murder charges in 2020.
"No, no, no, bro, that’s my daughter. What y’all doing, bro? That’s my daughter," Barnes says in the video. "Give me that, bro. That’s my daughter. Please give me my daughter, bro. Put her in my hand, bro. Y’all are disrespectful, bro."
The urn is ultimately returned to Barnes' father, who confirms that the contents of the urn are his granddaughter's ashes.
Bodycam footage then shows one officer telling another: "I’m just going to give him a notice to appear on the weed" - referring to marijuana they’d found in Barnes' vehicle.
To which another officer replies: "Aside from p***ed-off dad and testing the dead baby ashes."
Barnes has now filed a federal lawsuit against the Springfield Police Department, which has been obtained by ABC affiliate NewsChannel 20.
In the suit, filed on October 6, 2020, he claims the officers "unsealed this urn and opened this urn without consent and without a lawful basis including a search warrant" and then "desecrated and spilled out the ashes".
The suit then goes on to add that the officers allegedly "acted knowingly, intentionally, willfully, and maliciously."
The accused officers deny that they unlawfully took, unsealed, and spilled the ashes in the urn, per NewsChannel 20.
They also defended their actions, stating that they are "entitled to qualified immunity as their conduct was justified by an objectively reasonable belief that it was lawful."
Barnes is seeking compensation and punitive damages and a trial by jury.
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Published 13:21 12 Aug 2024 GMT
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Published 08:22 15 Jun 2020 GMT
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Published 15:30 03 Aug 2022 GMT
A grieving father erupted in anger as he took the stand during the Parkland school shooter's trial.
Families of the 17 people killed in the 2018 Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting shared victim impact statements on Tuesday (August 2) to explain the toll the murders have taken as a jury decides whether to sentence the shooter, Nikolas Cruz, to death.
Dr. Ilan Alhadeff, who lost his 14-year-old daughter Alyssa to the tragedy, emotionally spoke on his family's loss and how he would've been looking forward to watching her achieve her dreams.
The father described Alyssa's role as captain of her soccer team and her plans to become a business lawyer. He then shed tears as he said the opportunity to dance with her at her wedding or see the children she would have had was stripped away from him.
"My first-born daughter, daddy's girl was taken from me!" the father yelled. "I get to watch my friends, my neighbors, colleagues spend time enjoying their daughters, enjoying all the normal milestones, taking in the normal joys and I only get to watch videos or go to the cemetery to see my daughter."
Watch the father's victim impact statement below:Alhadeff said one of Alyssa's two younger brothers was too young to understand her death when it happened, but now he "asks to go see his sister at the cemetery from time to time." He angrily said: "This is not normal!"
The 23-year-old shooter pleaded guilty to 17 counts of first-degree murder in October - the trial is only to decide whether he will be sentenced to death or life without parole.
Witnesses in the court said during the family statement, Cruz showed little emotion, mostly staring straight ahead and looking down at the table where he sits. Even several of his attorneys wiped away their tears as they listened.
Another parent, Annika Dworet, and her husband Mitch told the jurors about their son, Nick, who was 17 when he died, and his aspirations before his death.
The mother said Nick was a star swimmer and had accepted a scholarship to the University of Indianapolis and had dreams of competing in her native country Sweden for the 2020 Olympics. His younger brother, Alex, was wounded in the shooting.
"He was always inclusive of everyone. On his last evening with us, he spent time speaking to the younger kids on the swim team, giving them some pointers," she said, adding, "our hearts will forever be broken."
The jury's decision must be unanimous for the death penalty to go ahead.
On Friday night, the US was rocked by the death of another African-American man at the hands of the police.
Rayshard Brooks, 27, was approached by two Atlanta police officers on Friday (June 12) after it was reported that he had fallen asleep in his car at a Wendy's restaurant drive-thru.
In an official press release from the Georgia Bureau of Investigation:
"Preliminary information indicates that at approximately 10:33 pm, APD was dispatched to the Wendy’s located at 125 University Ave, Atlanta, GA. Officers were responding to a complaint of a male in a vehicle parked in the drive-thru asleep, causing other customers to drive around the vehicle."
It is then reported that after Brooks failed a field sobriety test, the officers "attempted to place the male subject into custody". However, Brooks resisted and attempted to flee. A struggle between the three individuals then ensued.
The GBI states that, during the struggle, "Brooks obtained one of the officer's Tasers and began to flee from the scene.
"Officers pursued Brooks on foot and during the chase, Brooks turned and pointed the Taser at the officer. The officer fired his weapon, striking Brooks."
Bodycam footage of Brooks' arrest can be seen below (Warning - some people will find the video distressing):
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After being shot, Brooks was transported to a nearby hospital, where he was pronounced dead shortly after surgery.
Now, an official report for Brook's autopsy - which took place on Sunday - lists Brooks' cause of death as gunshot wounds to the back and the manner of death has been listed as homicide.
The report adds that Brooks died from organ damage and blood loss from the two gunshot wounds, CNN reports.
Yesterday, it was revealed that one APD officer had been fired and another has been reassigned following the shooting.
The fired officer under investigation has been identified as Garrett Rolfe, who had been with the Atlanta Police Department since 2013, WSB-TV of Atlanta reports.
The Daily Mail states that Rolfe is the officer that opened fire and fatally shot Brooks.
A police spokesperson has also identified the second officer as Devin Bronsan, who has since been placed on administrative duty. The Associated Press states that Bronsan has been with the department since 2018.
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CNN reports that the Fulton County District Attorney has criticized the officers' handling of Brooks' fatal shooting and said that a decision on whether to bring charges should come around Wednesday.
"[Brooks] did not seem to present any kind of threat to anyone, and so the fact that it would escalate to his death just seems unreasonable," DA Paul Howard told CNN's Fredricka Whitfield on Sunday. He added:
"It just seems like this is not the kind of conversation and incident that should have led to someone's death."
Brooks' death has resulted in fresh outbreaks of protests and violence in the Atlanta area.
On Saturday night, the Wendy's restaurant where the shooting took place was torched by protesters.
Footage of the engulfed Wendy's can be seen below:
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Rayshard Brooks' sister-in-law, Crystal Brooks, was one of those gathered outside the Wendy's restaurant on Saturday night. She told local news crews:
"He wasn’t causing anyone any harm. The police went up to the car and even though the car was parked they pulled him out of the car and started tussling with him."
Per Fox News, L. Chris Stewart, the attorney for Brooks' family, has said that the officer who shot the 27-year-old should be charged for "an unjustified use of deadly force, which equals murder". Stewart added:
"You can’t have it both ways in law enforcement. You can’t say a Taser is a nonlethal weapon [...] but when an African American grabs it and runs with it, now it’s some kind of deadly, lethal weapon that calls for you to unload on somebody."
On Saturday, Atlanta police chief Erika Shields handed in her resignation as a result of the incident, BBC News reports.
Sheild's resignation was announced by Atlanta mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms.
Bottoms said in a statement:
"Because of her desire that Atlanta be a model of what meaningful reform should look like across this country, Chief Shields has offered to immediately step aside as police chief so that the city may move forward with urgency and rebuilding the trust so desperately needed throughout our communities."
Shields was appointed the Atlanta police chief in December of 2016. Prior to this, she had served a long career in the force.
Interim Corrections Chief Rodney Bryant will be serving as interim police chief until a permanent replacement is appointed.
Published 09:28 19 May 2020 GMT
Resurfaced footage from a 2017 incident shows police apprehending and attempting to tase Ahmaud Arbery in a park.
Prior to Arbery's murder in February, it's apparent that he had a previous run-in with law enforcement, in which they found him in a park, sitting alone in his car, and attempted to tase him, per The Guardian.
A clip of the incident was shared by the publication on Monday, showing a patrolling Glynn County officer assuming that Arbery was using marijuana, stating that the park was known for drug activity.
Arbery denied having drugs, and said that he was just relaxing by rapping in his car on his day off from work. "You’re bothering me for nothing," he can be heard saying before refusing to let the officer search his car.
After the officer, identified as Michael Kanago, told Arbery that he was looking for criminal activity, he responded "criminal activity? I’m in a f*cking park. I work.”
Minutes later, another police officer, David Haney, arrived and proceeded to shout at Arbery to get his hands out of his pockets, which he did. Haney then attempted to zap Arbery with his taser, but it malfunctioned, per Kanago's report of the incident.
Arbery conceded to the cops' commands to get on the ground, saying "I get one day off a week… I’m up early in the morning trying to chill. I’m just so aggravated because I work hard, six days a week."
The incident ends with the officers letting Arbery leave, but forbidding him from driving his car because his license is suspended.
In Kanago's report of the incident, which is documented in the The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, the officer alleged that he felt threatened by Arbery, leading him to request back-up. "Veins were popping from [Arbery’s] chest, which made me feel that he was becoming enraged and may turn physically violent towards me," he claimed.
Below is a breaking news report on the McMichaels' arrests:
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Earlier this month, it was announced by the Georgia Bureau of Investigation that father and son Gregory and Travis McMichael had been arrested and charged for Arbery's murder.
The charges came more than two months after Arbery was killed on a residential street just outside the port city of Brunswick, Georgia.
The case caused national outrage when cellphone footage - captured by William Bryan, a friend of the McMichaels family who was following in his car - of the incident appeared to show the unarmed Arbery attempting to flee an attack from Gregory, 64, and his son Travis, 34.
Back in February, Arbery had reportedly been jogging in their neighborhood, when the white father and son confronted the black man. Footage from the incident then appears to show the unarmed Arbery being shot and killed in the street. The McMichaels say they thought Arbery was a burglar.
Per CNN, a prosecutor who has since recused himself from the case says the father and son were attempting to make a citizen's arrest, and that they acted in self-defense when Arbery grabbed their gun.
Earlier this week, Lindsay McMichael - the daughter of Gregory McMichael and brother to Travis McMichael - spoke out about the incident in defense of her family.
Speaking exclusively to The Sun, Lindsay said she ran outside after hearing gunshots and was met by a firefighter who informed her that her brother and father were safe.
Lindsay then explained that before her brother was taken into custody, she looked him in the eye and insists: "I will until the day that I die believe that he had no intention of malice like that." She added:
"All I saw was the look on his [Travis's] face and he was looking very desperate... I don't think we even exchanged a word.
"I've seen my brother in his happiest moments - I was there when his child was born and I've seen him in distress and I know that look... it wasn't like some glory thing, like 'I stalked and then got the kill that I was hoping for'.
"It was absolute f***king panic...I really do believe that things just escalated so fast."
Earlier this month, Marcus Arbery, the victim's father, spoke to PBS Newshour and described his son's death as a "lynch mob".
However, Lindsay says that her brother and father are not racist and that they "loved" all her non-white boyfriends like a "brother or son". She added:
"They're not monsters. This wasn't a lynching. Do I think mistakes were made? Absolutely, but look back on your life how many mistakes have you made?
"Do I think that decisions were rash and people were jumping ahead? Yes. But do I think anybody thought 'Today I'm going to kill someone'. Absolutely not."
She also says that she "doesn't really have a relationship" with either her dad or brother - and hasn't really about the incident with them since.
Nevertheless, Lindsay believes her dad and brother were simply trying to apprehend the person they thought was a suspect - until law enforcement could arrive, explaining:
"I don't think it was vigilante justice. Travis had a weapon stolen. My mom's car had been rifled through. I think they just thought 'Let's apprehend this guy'."
Last week, the New York Post has reported that a new video had come to light, appearing to show Ahmaud Arbery calmly wandering around the construction site of a new house on the Glynn County neighborhood moments before his death.
The security footage was obtained by News4Jax, and seems to show an inquisitive Arbery, 25, looking around the Brunswick property for just under three minutes. He then leaves the property and continues to run down the road.
You can see the footage in the News4Jax report below:
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News4Jax confirmed that the station obtained the video from the homeowner.
The man in the video can be seen wearing a white t-shirt and shorts - an outfit that matches the one Arbery was wearing in footage that showed him being shot dead.
The footage has drawn different opinions from attorneys.
Firstly, Rod Sullivan - an attorney who is not associated with the case - said that under Georgia state laws, police would have had probable cause to make a trespassing arrest if it were made possible. Sullivan added:
"[The new footage] really gives the two McMichaels, father and son, justification for following Mr. Arbery at least to the scene where the altercation occurred."
However, civil rights attorney Reganel Reeves - who is also not associated in the case - has told News4Jax that Gregory and Trevor did not have to follow and engage with Arbery based on this footage.
Reeves said: "Call the police. They could’ve followed him until police arrived. He was out there running on open road. There was no reason for them to engage him directly on the basis of him going into somebody else’s constructed home."
In addition, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution also revealed that GBI agents were reviewing further surveillance footage from the Glynn County neighborhood across the street from the construction site.
The video was captured by a home security camera installed at a house about a block from the fatal shooting, and appears to show Arbery just minutes from the fatal shooting.
The surveillance footage can be seen in the news report below:
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Per the AJC, Scott Dutton, GBI’s Deputy Director of investigations, said: "We are using video to put the timeline together to fill in the blanks of what happened that afternoon."
A further statement from the GBI issued on Saturday (May 9) afternoon states: "We are indeed reviewing additional video footage and photographs as part of the active case.
"It is important to note that this footage was reviewed at the beginning of the GBI investigation and before the arrests of Gregory and Travis McMichael."
In response to the footage above, Lawyers representing Arbery's family said in a Saturday statement that the security camera video proves Arbery is innocent of any wrongdoings. Part of the statement read:
"Ahmaud Arbery did not take part in any felony, had no illegal substances in his system, was not armed yet was shot three times with a shotgun at close range."
The video shows a man wearing a white shirt and shorts - believed to be Arbery - walking down Satilla Drive on that Sunday afternoon. The man then enters the garage of a house under construction, and then proceeds to walk around the back of the house.
A minute later, after a car passes, a figure that appears to be Arbery comes out of the front door of the house and runs down the road in the direction of Travis McMichael’s home. The man did not appear to take anything from the house.
Six minutes later, a police car drives down the road, followed by first responders.
Gary Arbery - Ahmaud's uncle - said of the new footage: "Whatever they are trying to do to justify what they did, they can't do it.
"If he committed a crime, why don’t you call the authorities? But you came at him like you were hunting an animal."
Earlier this month, the lawyer who leaked the original cell phone footage of Arbery's shooting also spoke out about his reasons for sharing the video with the public.
Speaking to Inside Edition, Brunswick attorney Alan Tucker not only revealed that he was the one who released the video, but said he did so believing that doing so would help the McMichaels, who are father and son.
Tucker can be seen explaining his actions in the video below:
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"I really thought the video would put the truth out to the public," Tucker told the news show. "I was trying to stop a riot."
When he was asked to elaborate, Tucker said: "Well, you saw what happened to Baltimore, you've seen what happened to Charleston, you saw what happened to Ferguson. I was trying to stop a riot."
Tucker is referring to the 2015 arrest and death of Freddie Gray. Gray - a 25-year-old black man - had been arrested on April 12, 2015, by Baltimore police, and while being transported in a police van, suffered spinal injuries so severe that they eventually resulted in his death.
Per the BBC, several incidents of violent protests and riots erupted later that month, resulting in further arrests and injured police officers.
Tucker continued to explain that if Arbery had cooperated and "froze", he wouldn't have gotten shot, saying:
"The video speaks for itself. What happened, happened. I don't have an excuse for it. I can't explain. Other than, we always say, 'What if he had just froze and hadn't done anything, he wouldn't have gotten shot.'"
Marcus Arbery, Ahmaud 's father, spoke to PBS Newshour on earlier this month, saying:
"I don't know why they racially profile him and done him like that because all he did is work out and ran and just took care of his body, because he had dreams now.
"Now all his dreams are gone, because they took his life for nothing."
When asked about the suggestion that his son could have been involved in a burglary, Mr Arbery said that was "just a lie and a cover-up".
The Georgia Bureau of Investigation has since said in statement:
"The outcome of this incident left more than one victim, and we want to ensure that the family of Ahmaud Arbery is not further traumatized."
Both Gregory and Travis McMichael were detained on May 7 by the Georgia state Bureau of Investigation, and charged with murder and aggravated assault, investigators revealed in a statement.
The bureau also said that the father and son had confronted Arbery with two firearms, and it was Travis who had shot and killed the 25-year-old.
After footage of the incident hit social media earlier this month, the failure to bring charges against the father and son caused widespread outrage.
On May 6, US basketball icon LeBron James tweeted out about the case to his 45.9 million Twitter followers:
"We’re literally hunted EVERYDAY/EVERYTIME we step foot outside the comfort of our homes! Can’t even go for a damn jog man! Like WTF man are you kidding me?!?!?!?!?!? No man fr ARE YOU KIDDING ME!!!!! I’m sorry Ahmaud(Rest In Paradise) and my prayers and blessings sent to the.....
"heavens above to your family!!"
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Alongside the tweet, James posted a photograph of Arbery and a message as if the 25-year-old written it himself:
"I was murdered by an armed father and son who hunted me down and shot me as I jogged in a Georgia neighborhood. Neither of my killers have been charged. My name is Amhaud Arbery."
The image has since been widely shared on social media.
In the press release, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation also stated:
"We know you want and deserve answers as quickly as possible, and we do too.
"So when we ask for patience knowing it’s been over two months since the incident, we do so to allow our team to complete the investigation.
"We know this is difficult and is not only affecting the Brunswick community, or Georgia, but the entire nation.
"We thank you for your understanding."
Gregory and Travis McMichael are currently being held without bond.
Published 16:38 11 Feb 2022 GMT
A grieving fiancé has spoken out after being arrested for "littering" after leaving flowers on his late partner's grave.
As reported by ABC News affiliate WTMV, Winchester Hagans tragically lost his fiancée Hannah Ford in January 2021 as a result of a car crash. Hannah's unexpected death came just one month after the couple got engaged.
"She was the love of my life - the person I wanted to spend the rest of my life with," Hagans told WTMV.
Hagans, from Auburn, told the outlet that Hannah always preferred living flowers over cut flowers from a florist. Therefore, to honor this, Hagans built a planter box to leave on top of her grave.
He told WTMV: "Even though she is gone I promised her I would never bring her cut flowers again. She was the love of my life the person I wanted to spend the rest of my life with."
The planter box was decorated with photos of the two of them and filled with her favorite flowers. Hagans then says he contacted the city to ask if was able to place the flower box on Hannah's grave.
In response, he was told that the people of the city "don’t enforce that unless a family member asked for it to be removed".
So, Hagans placed the planter atop his late fiancée's grave.
However, last month, Hagans says he was approached by a police officer.
Recalling the moment, he said: "The officer came over and said, 'Hey Mr. Hagans can you step out of the car there is a warrant for your arrest.' I said, 'No, that’s impossible there’s no way.'"
To Hagans' surprise, the arrest warrant was for "littering" and was signed by Hannah's father, Tom Ford. Hagans told WTMV that he was never contacted by Ford prior to his arrest.
On Instagram, Hagans revealed that prior to his arrest, the planter box had been "trashed" by somebody Hannah knew. He added that the person kept "throwing away the flowers" he planted, but insisted: "Each time he throws them away I’ll plant more."
Per WTMV, a determined Hagans said that he would build "a thousand flower boxes if he had to for the love of his life."
The station contacted Ford for a comment, but did not receive a response prior to the publishing of its article on the story.
"I just want to be able to put flowers by my fiancées grave," Hagans said.
WTMV reports that, per the City of Auburn's website, outside markers & flowers are permitted on graves, but they must meet the city’s specifications.
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