Police Shooting of Black Texas Woman in Her Home Playing Video Games

Police in the Texas city of Fort Worth is investigating an incident in which a white police officer shot and killed a black woman as she sat in her home playing video games with her young nephew.

The shooting of 28-year-old Atatiana Jefferson came less than two weeks after a white police officer in another Texas city, Dallas, received a 10year prison sentence for the fatal 2018 shooting of a black man in his apartment, which the officer had mistaken for her own.

The Fort Worth incident sparked immediate protest in that city of nearly 900,000 and fueled fresh anger in black communities across the country after a series of police shootings of African-Americans.


Several hundred people took part in an emotional vigil Sunday in Fort Worth to honor Jefferson and to protest the police action, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram reported.

Some shed tears, while others cried out in anger.

The shooting took place in the early hours of Saturday after a neighbor called the police to report that a door in the Jeffersons’ house had been ajar for hours.

Perceiving a Threat

As seen on the body-camera video released by police, two officers with flashlights walked around the perimeter of the house before seeing “a person standing inside the residence near a window,” according to a news release from Fort Worth police.

“Perceiving a threat the officer drew his duty weapon and fired one shot striking the person.”

The officer, who has not been named but who was identified as a white man with the local police since 2018, “did not announce he was a police officer before shooting,” Lieutenant Brandon O’Neil, a police spokesman, acknowledged during a news conference.

In the body-cam video, the officer is heard saying — so rapidly that the words almost run together — “Put your hands up, show me your hands.”

The words are followed immediately by the sound of a gun firing.

The victim ‘s eight-year-old nephew was in the room with her playing a video game at the time of the shooting, said a family lawyer, Lee Merritt.

Jefferson, a college graduate who worked for a pharmaceutical company, died at the scene.

Merritt said Jefferson had heard sounds in the backyard and walked toward a window when she was shot.

A GoFundMe page organized to help the family with funeral expenses said Jefferson’s mother had been ill and Jefferson was “home taking care of the house and loving her life.”

“There was no reason for her to be murdered.
None.
We must have justice.”

Take it to the Streets

The Fort Worth police statement said the department “shares the deep concerns of the public and is committed to completing an extremely thorough investigation.”

It promised to provide the public with “transparent and relevant information.”

The police officer involved was immediately suspended and was to be questioned Monday.

Mayor Betsy Price told reporters she would be hiring an outside agency to launch a separate investigation, the Star-Telegram reported.

The newspaper said Fort Worth police had shot at least seven people — six of them fatally — since June 1.


It quoted one speaker at Saturday’s vigil, local pastor Michael Bell, as urging people to “Take it to the streets.

“We’re not hugging them and giving them a Bible,” he said.

source: usa.inquirer.net

Killer robot used by Dallas police opens ethical debate

When Dallas police used a bomb-carrying robot to kill a sniper, they also kicked off an ethical debate about technology’s use as a crime-fighting weapon.

In what appears to be an unprecedented tactic, police rigged a bomb-disposal robot to kill an armed suspect in the fatal shootings of five officers in Dallas. While there doesn’t appear to be any hard data on the subject, security experts and law enforcement officials said they couldn’t recall another time when U.S. police have deployed a robot with lethal intent.

The strategy opens a new chapter in the escalating use of remote and semi-autonomous devices to fight crime and protect lives. It also raises new questions over when it’s appropriate to dispatch a robot to kill dangerous suspects instead of continuing to negotiate their surrender.

“If lethally equipped robots can be used in this situation, when else can they be used?” says Elizabeth Joh, a University of California at Davis law professor who has followed U.S. law enforcement’s use of technology. “Extreme emergencies shouldn’t define the scope of more ordinary situations where police may want to use robots that are capable of harm.”

Dallas Police Chief David Brown defended his department’s decision. “Other options would have exposed our officers to great danger,” he said.

Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings applauded Brown for making “the right call” and said he would have no qualms about resorting to the same strategy in the future. “When there’s no other way, I think this is a good example,” he said. “The key thing is to keep our police out of harm’s way.”

ROBOTS, SOLDIERS AND POLICE

Police have been using such robots for decades to dispose of suspected bombs and in hostage standoffs and fires. Meanwhile, militaries around the world have come to rely on their robotic friends to disable improvised explosive devices — a need that only increased with the U.S. occupation of Iraq following its 2003 invasion.

Many of the robots joining police forces are coming from a U.S. Department of Defense program transferring surplus equipment from the military. These exchanges have provided law enforcement agencies with robots such as Packbot made by Endeavor Robotics, the Talon from QinetiQ and the MARCbot made by Exponent.

But military experts said ground-level robots are rarely used to kill the enemy. Their main purpose is to detect and defuse bombs to save lives. Military robots are “fairly clunky and used best for reconnaissance rather than the offensive,” said Tom Gorup, an infantry veteran of Iraq and Afghanistan who’s now an official at the IT-security firm Rook Security.

Airborne robots are another matter. The U.S. military has sent remotely piloted drones to kill hundreds of people, including civilians, in counterterror attacks launched overseas since 2009, based on estimates released last week by the Obama administration.

HOW IT (PROBABLY) WORKED

The robots working for police departments across the country range in size from devices as small as a dog bone to others as large as a truck. Some are little more than a mechanical arm mounted onto a vehicle and equipped with a video camera and two-way audio communications, according to William Flanagan, a retired deputy police chief from New York’s Nassau County who now does law enforcement and technology consulting. The most versatile robots can climb stairs and navigate other tight spots, such as this one made by Icor Technology.

Many models used by police are about the size of a backpack.

Flanagan speculated that police in Dallas probably equipped their robot with a low-powered explosive — possibly one similar to what bomb squads use to blow up suspicious packages — that would only disable what’s closest to it.

Dallas police didn’t respond to a request for further information about their use of the robot.

MACHINE VS. HUMAN

Robotics expert Peter W. Singer, of the New America Foundation, said the killing marked the first instance he’s aware of in which police have used a robot to lethal effect. But when he was researching his 2009 book “Wired for War,” a U.S. soldier told him troops in Iraq sometimes used surveillance robots against insurgents, he added in an email Friday.

William Cohen, a former Exponent employee who helped design the MARCbot, said that robot was built to save lives instead of ending them. Although he was relieved the killing of the armed suspect in Dallas assured that no other police officers or bystanders would be harmed, Cohen says he’s worried about what might happen next.

“It opens a whole new set of questions of how to deal with these kinds of situations,” Cohen said. “Where are the police going to draw the line when trying to decide between continuing to negotiate and doing something like this?”

source: technology.inquirer.net

McDonald’s testing bigger, smaller Big Macs

NEW YORK, United States — McDonald’s is testing bigger and smaller versions of its Big Mac as the world’s biggest hamburger chain pushes to revive its business.

The company says it’s testing a “Grand Mac” and “Mac Jr.” in the Central Ohio and the Dallas areas, and will see how they do before deciding on a national rollout.

The Grand Mac is made with two third-pound beef patties, which may be a way for the company to make its famous burger more substantial as burger competitors have made the regular Big Mac seem skimpy to some. It will sell for $4.89. The Mac Jr. is basically a single-layer Big Mac, and McDonald’s says it’s “easier to eat on the go.” That will sell for between $2.39 and $2.59.

McDonald’s Corp. has been fighting to turn around its business after seeing customer visits decline in recent years. The Oak Brook, Illinois, company has said it needs to move faster to keep up with changing tastes.

Last week, the company held its biannual convention with franchisees in Florida to discuss plans to refresh the business.

The test was first reported in Columbus Business First.

source: business.inquirer.net