Misuse of Gun and Badge?

[Thin Black Line]

Is anyone in the MSM bothering to cover this or investigate further?

http://newpittsburghcourieronline.c...cer-allegedly-draws-weapon-on-7-year-old-girl

Officer allegedly draws weapon on 7-year-old girl

By Deborah M. Todd | Published 09/15/2006 | Metro | Rating:

Deborah M. Todd
Courier Staff Writer


by Deborah M. Todd

Mother, daughters stopped on way to Pee Wee League football game

What was supposed to be a typical drive through a peaceful Shadyside neighborhood, turned into a standoff with a police officer threatening the life of a 7-year old girl, according one local mother.

Pamela Lawton of the Hill District said on Aug. 26, she was on her way to Homewood for a Pee Wee League football game with her two daughters, 7-year old Joshalyn, 8-year old Jasmine, and two other children ages 2 and 3. She said she was driving her green, 1998 Ford Windstar and was approaching the intersection at Kentucky Street and Negley Avenue when a Pittsburgh Police cruiser signaled for her to pull over.

“He was flying up behind me and I stopped immediately because I wanted to stay in view,” said Lawton. “I felt like there was something wrong—why would he fly up behind me like that? Plus, I had my kids in the car so it kind of scared me.”

What Lawton said happened next was beyond anything her initial fears predicted.

“I said, ‘What’s the problem, officer?’ and he said ‘Get your hands up,’” wrote Lawton in a prepared statement. “He repeated, pulled out his gun and pointed into the passenger side of the window where my youngest daughter was trying to get her seatbelt off. So, I put my hands up.”

According to Lawton, she and her children spent the next 20 to 30 minutes trying to convince Officer Eric Tatusko to put his weapon down or to at least go to the driver’s side to address the problem with the only adult in the car.

“The children were in the car screaming and crying,” she wrote. “My hands were still in the air and I was screaming ‘Help, someone help!’ over and over again.”

Florence Williams, a resident at the Kitley House Senior Center on Kentucky Street, said she didn’t see everything that happened that morning, but she knows she heard the cries for help.

“I happened to hear somebody screaming and I came to my porch,” Williams said. “I don’t know what the cop was doing because he was on the other side, but she had her arms out the door and she was hollering ‘Please, somebody help me.’”

During this time, Lawton says Tatusko refused to take her identification, never told her why she was stopped and never left the passenger side of the vehicle. She said at one point the officer got so angry he cocked his gun and said if Joshalyn moved again he would “blow her brains out.”

“He clicked the thing back and then he turned off his radio,” said Jasmine. “I was like ‘He’s going to kill us.’”

“Me and the babies were crying and (Jasmine) jumped over me for my life, and I thank my sister for doing that,” said Joshalyn.

A witness at the scene said Tatusko kept his gun drawn at the passenger side window until more officers came to the scene and told him to drop the weapon.

“When I turned the corner, there were 10 police cars and (Lawton) was in the middle,” said Rick Hill, an employee of Shadyside Nursing Rehab on Kentucky Avenue. “I heard her hollering for help and she had her hands out the window and everything. The cop already had his gun, not on her, but on the other side. When I looked in there she had kids. One cop said ‘If the kids move again, we will shoot.’”

Hill, who left a frantic voice message on Lawton’s sister’s phone during the standoff, said that once more officers arrived, they searched the vehicle for a weapon and found nothing. He also said Tatusko, who was not available for comment, was told to get into another vehicle and leave the scene.

Since that day, Lawton says she has struggled to come to terms with what happened to her family. The Shuman Center employee and former nurse, who changed careers to become part of the law enforcement community, said she doesn’t understand why she was treated as she was before, during and after the standoff. From the time she was pulled over to when she said police Lt. Cindy Windsor told her to shut up or ‘You’re going to jail and your kids are going to CYF,’ Lawton believes she and her children were treated worse than most criminals.

Lt. Windsor declined to comment other than to say that she was off of work that day. Tammy Ewin, spokesperson for the Pittsburgh Police, also declined to comment because of the case’s status with the CPRB.

As it was, Lawton ended up being cited for an insurance violation. She was fined and her car was towed, but according to her, the ultimate cost has already been paid with her daughters’ security and peace of mind.

“Your inspection can be wrong, your license can be wrong, there’s no reason for (police) to come to the passenger side and pull a gun out and aim it through the window of a 7-year old,” she said.

“I can’t even sleep at night, I just think about it every day,” said Joshalyn. “They got it deep in my mind. “He was talking to me the whole time.”

 

[DerringerUser]

Hmm, i believe that carries a very long prison sentance. Threataning, battery, and hostage taking. Is he sitting in prison right now, where that scumbag belongs?

I've had my fair share of bad experiences with law enforcment, but nothing as disgusting as this.

 

[merk]

Now now, dont make a cop bashing thread

 

[Kentak]

Initially, sounds very bad for the LEO. But, as always with these kinds of accounts, it's prudent to reserve judgement until the incident has been fully investigated and reported. I'm in no way implying that the actions, if accurately reported, weren't serious almost to the point of disbelief.

K

 

[Steve Wynn]

I thnk one thing is to be remembered: Officer allegedly draws weapon on 7-year-old girl

The newpaper has basically interviewed one person, with a few comments from a couple of others.

Headlines sell papers!!!!

They are taking one side on this issue, and nothing has been proven or disproven. Any police department will conduct a thorough investigation. Read it and think about what is in black and white, it just doesn't make any sense "20 to 30 minutes". No way. I'd be willing to bet that Lawton is going to be discovered to be "exagerating" to put it mildly. There are some bad cops, but this story seems to be full of holes.

Steve

 

[NineseveN]

She was ticketed for an elapsed inspection sticker and disorderly conduct. Not sure that it sounds as if those charges indicate the level of force used by the officer. The questions that need to be answered are:

Did the suspects give the officer a reasonable belief that they were in possession of a deadly weapon (i.e. were they scrambling around in the car in a suspicious manner during the stop)?

Did the suspects resist the officer to the point of justifying the weapon being drawn?

Is the account we're getting from the suspects correct? Did the officer actually have his gun drawn while approaching the vehicle or did something transpire that justified the weapon being drawn during the stop?

Since the police have refused to comment up to this point (they won't comment during a pending investigation), we really don't know. It doesn't sound good for the cop, but the media account is thus far, one-sided.

 

[Panthera Tigris]

And some wonder why LEO's are being bashed in these forums.....

 

[Phenom]

That's total BS Those types of officers usually don't last long on the streets. They end up picking the wrong person to start a fight with and that's the end of them

 

[JohnBT]

"...cited for an insurance violation..."

While something stinks about what happened, it is being investigated.

The Pittsburg Courier says: http://newpittsburghcourieronline.c...estimony-to-Citizens-Police-Review-Board.html

"The incident is being investigated by the city Office of Municipal Investigations, according to Pittsburgh Police spokesperson Tammy Ewin.

Ewin confirmed that Lawton received citations for disorderly conduct, operating a vehicle without a certificate of inspection, a lack of insurance and suspension of her license."

No surprised here that they towed her car.

John

 

[AJAX22]

While on the surface of this it seems that the cop was way outta line. I think it would be prudent to get another perspective on this.

If you've ever had to deal with a hysterical, emotionally distraught women, you know that they can be less than logical, have poor memory of events and can act in manners which could be perceived as threatening to a cop who doesn't know if they are just flailing their arms around, or if they are going for a weapon.

while he may not have had to draw his weapon, nothing says he did it first, or if he did it because he percieved her actions as potentially endangering his life or the life of the childeren in the car.

Screaming 'Help, Help' when an officer draws a gun on you is not a logical or productive measure, If I knew nothing else about this situation that alone would cause me to have doubts as to the legitimacy of her claims.

If you have a gun pointed at you by a law enforcement officer, you need to be quiet, still, and compliant. Screaming etc. is just going to endanger your childeren and your life.

 

[easy]

Cop car dash camera?

 

[2TransAms]

If it's true...huh. Not good for the officer.

On the other hand,there's no telling what kind of story a hysterical mother can spin this into.

And what Easy said,what about the video?

 

[Flyboy]

If you have a gun pointed at you by a law enforcement officer, you need to be quiet, still, and compliant.

You tell that to a seven-year-old girl with a gun in her face.

at one point the officer got so angry he cocked his gun and said if Joshalyn moved again he would “blow her brains out.”

"...The cop already had his gun, not on her, but on the other side. When I looked in there she had kids. One cop said ‘If the kids move again, we will shoot.’”

 

[justashooter]

prolly just some trash talking he-lo got under the pigskin and is now playing the race card while waving her children in front of the gun.

the sit may be deep urban pitt, which is not a nice neighborhood to try to hang onto a screaming black woman in, badge, or not. handcuffs and a gag seem to be in order.

 

[DRMMR02]

They are taking one side on this issue, and nothing has been proven or dis proven. Any police department will conduct a thorough investigation. Read it and think about what is in black and white, it just doesn't make any sense "20 to 30 minutes". No way. I'd be willing to bet that Lawton is going to be discovered to be "exaggerating" to put it mildly. There are some bad cops, but this story seems to be full of holes.

If you've ever had to deal with a hysterical, emotionally distraught women, you know that they can be less than logical, have poor memory of events and can act in manners which could be perceived as threatening to a cop who doesn't know if they are just flailing their arms around, or if they are going for a weapon.

Of course, I don't trust the word of someone who was driving with a suspended license, no insurance, invalid registration, invalid inspection... To me that destroys her credibility. Were she law-abiding, she wouldn't have been driving in the first place and this couldn't have happened. She does not have clean hands in this incident.

+2 for all of those posters/quotes. What we have here is one side of a story, given straight to the media by a hysterical women. That's not exactly and open-shut case against the LEO. We as RKBAers HATE it when the media only prints one side of a story and makes us look terrible. Let's not help them do it even more by swallowing what they're feeding us before the other side of the story even gets out.

And as Medula said, whatever happened at the scene, she was breaking the law before it ever happened. Blaming the cops is step 1 in the "criminals guide to getting caught" Should we really believe every word she says?

 

[NineseveN]

And as Medula said, whatever happened at the scene, she was breaking the law before it ever happened. Blaming the cops is step 1 in the "criminals guide to getting caught" Should we really believe every word she says?

Careful there, an expired inspection sticker and an insurance lapse are not deadly threats and do not rise to the occassion of being detained at gunpoint in this state (or any other in this country). Treating everyone as a criminal and using violence to coerce cooperation as a rule is step 1 in the "authoritarian's guide to a police state". Let's just wait and see what more details come out before either side of the fence gets too far out there in speculation, please. We only have one side of the account, the ball is in the PD's court, let's let them play it. If they drop the ball, then we can move on in the discussion, but let's see if we get some more details first.

 

[ProguninTN]

Badge Heavy ?

I also find myself with Medulla and others who are suspicious of this incident. Why didn't it come out sooner, and why no video ?

 

[IndianaBoy]

I'd want to see the video from the officer's cruiser before I take what this woman said as Gospel.

He may have been out of line. Or she might be a hysterical, lying nitwit.

Or some combination thereof.

Smells like BS to me.

 

[DRMMR02]

Medula, you're probably right about the 75%hype 25%goading. However Police are trained to be professional even in the face of people like her acting hysterical. IF the officer did step out of line and out of protocol, it's entirely on his shoulders. Now whether or not he actually DID step out of line, or if it's just some false accusations of someone looking to play the race-blame-game, we don't know. We only have one side.

I will say this though. Yes Police are still human beings, and there can be bad apples in Law Enforcement just like in any other profession. But police have to go through lots of training and screening to get where they are. And so at face value, even with no evidence supporting one side over the other, I am still going to trust the trained officer just a bit more than a soccer mom.

 

[evan price]

Justashooter said:

prolly just some trash talking he-lo got under the pigskin and is now playing the race card while waving her children in front of the gun.

the sit may be deep urban pitt, which is not a nice neighborhood to try to hang onto a screaming black woman in, badge, or not. handcuffs and a gag seem to be in order.

Hang on now, Justashooter, you've never been to Pbgh have you? Shadyside is actually one of the nicer parts of downtown Pittsburgh, I used to go there all the time. They are trying to renovate it away from the University neighborhood, and make it into more a place the profs and doctors at Shadyside Hospital and the Shadyside nursing school would live. It's still Pbgh but it's not a run down trashy part of Pbgh, its a nicer part of Pbgh.
Check facts before engaging mouth.

 

[Thin Black Line]

Of course, I don't trust the word of someone who was driving with a suspended license, no insurance, invalid registration, invalid inspection... To me that destroys her credibility. Were she law-abiding, she wouldn't have been driving in the first place and this couldn't have happened. She does not have clean hands in this incident.

For sake of perspective, this is like saying prostitutes can't be raped either.

And again, for sake of perspective, this is what we did in Iraq everyday.

So overall, most Americans should not have a problem with such tactics here
if we're doing it for the sake of public security, right?

Cop car dash camera?

And Easy comes up with the easy answer that will make the arguement for
one side or another, or an altogether different scenario not mentioned in
the news report.

1+1=2 until you find out there was another +1 or -1 there as well.

 

[NoPhilly]

Cop car dash camera?

If the PD produces a video, it's probably good for them. The video would probably clear the officer of these allegations.

If tha PD does not produce a video, I'd be extremely suspicious of a key piece of evidence being "lost" or whatever.

 

[Deanimator]

Any police department will conduct a thorough investigation.

ANY??? That's a bit broad, wouldn't you say? I certainly would be sceptical of any investigation by say, the New Orleans PD.

I'd have reasonable confidence in an investigation by the PD in the town in which I live. But then they haven't given me an affirmative reason NOT to trust what they say. I've also had mostly positive experiences with them.

Police departments are not by definition honest and above board. How they conduct themselves is purely a matter of the leadership at the top, and the civilian supervision above them.

 

[NineseveN]

Read the followup article:

http://newpittsburghcourieronline.co...iew-Board.html

Who the hell is this Min. Jasiri X, and why is he suddenly the family's spokesman? Was she a member of his congregation before, or is he stirring the proverbial pot like many of these wack jobs (Al Sharpton, Jessie Jackass, Malcolm X, Louis Farrakan, etc) tend to do.

The more I read about this, the more I am convinced that this whole thing was either orchestrated or is being massively blown out of proportion for the purpose of gaining notariety for Jasiri X, WHOEVER THE HELL THAT IS.

The whole incident smacks of an episode of "The Shield," where Mackie and his cohorts are being targeted by a Black Muslim group because they are shielding a bunch of drug dealers. Only this time, the way I see it, the Muslims are the thugs, and the police the target.

I don't think I will ever trust a man who uses an X for his last name... What does he have to hide? I think I'll do a background check, want to bet I find felony convictions and that he converted to Islam in prison? Now its payback time, is what he's thinking. He's got his bully pulpet and intends to get every second of his 15 minutes of fame...

Mark my words, this will turn out to be 75% hype, and the other 25% will have been caused by this woman goading the officer. "Somebody help me, there's a white cop over here that pulled me over. Help, get the white cop away!"

I've seen it many times before...

Yes, what a terriblly uppity Muslim negro, he should know his damn place, right?

http://www.pittsburghcitypaper.ws/archive.cfm?type=Misc. Stories&action=getComplete&ref=5832
http://www.pittsburghcitypaper.ws/archive.cfm?type=News Feature&action=getComplete&ref=4546
http://www.blackpressusa.com/news/Article.asp?SID=3&Title=National+News&NewsID=7793
http://pittsburgh.indymedia.org/news/2005/10/21223.php
http://www.nobodysmiling.com/hiphop/editorial/86526.php

I'm sure there's something in there about his prison sentence, eating babies or something or other, if not, Google it and let us know what you come up with. I'd sure like to write this guy off because he's a black Muslim, would make my ignorance much easier to digest.

Folks, the point is, we don't know anything aside from a one-sided media account, yet many here are ready to drop the hammer on the folks involved without knowing what they're talking about. Ignorance may indeed be bliss, but it's no way to frame an intelligent opinion. I'm all for intelligent speculation, but when we see 'the guy must have converted to Islam in jail' because he has an "X" in his name and things of that nature from both sides of the issue, it's gone too far.

Step back, breathe, be objective...

 

[tellner]

The seemingly documented fact that he went to the effort of shutting off his camera speaks very poorly.

Again, though, he will be exonerated. It is absolutely routine. At most the city's insurance company will pay out a bit.