Posted November 22, 2007 to GDN Headlines | Section Home | Print

Unarmed - Another Black Teen Gunned Down by Cops

By Nayaba Arinde
Special from the Amsterdam News

NEW YORK CITY (NNPA) - There is uproar in the hood - again. Hitting him 10 times, five cops, including two sergeants and a detective, shot and killed unarmed 18-year-old Kyle Coppin in Bedford-Stuyvesant on Nov. 12.

"The first shot was fatal because that hit him in the chest. They hit him with at least nine more. The police picked him up and acted like they were arresting him because they couldn't have him die on the scene," activist Abubaka Miller told the Amsterdam News.

Gates Avenue in Bedford-Stuyvesant is busy on a quiet day, but on that Monday night it was tense and overflowing as news spread like wildfire that housing and 79th Precinct cops had struck yet again.

The hastily strung up yellow tape could not contain hordes of angry teens, parents, activists and area residents, as they all gathered outside the housing project at 590 Gates Avenue.

Accounts varied - but one fact remained - the teen did not have a weapon. Some witnesses claimed that a hairbrush fell out of his pocket, others said that he had it in his hand. Some news reports have quoted a "police source" claiming that it might have been a suicide-by-cop wish fulfilled.

"He'd dropped the brush. He had his hands in the air and then they started shooting," said eyewitness Andres Sanchez.

Many distraught witnesses agreed cops did not have to fire and some were simply shocked by the number of bullets at the young man. "It's just shoot to kill," said one thirty-something man.

On Nov. 12, Coppin's mother, Denise Owens, called police after arguing with her son. Some published reports stated that she said he had a gun. The next day, she told the Amsterdam News that she told the 911 dispatcher that her son did not have a gun.

At a press conference the day after the shooting Police Commissioner Ray Kelly released the 911 transcript of the original phone call, where somebody makes mention of a gun, but not Owens.

When cops got to the scene, witnesses said that Coppin, who reportedly had a history of mental issues, was standing on a first floor ledge of an apartment at 590 Gates Avenue. Cops claim he had something under his shirt.

Some witnesses said that he had dropped the brush before cops unleashed their barrage, while cops claim they shouted "halt," Coppin kept walking towards them, and they said that's when they fired 20 bullets, hitting him with at least half of them.

He was pronounced dead at Woodhull Hospital.

Witnesses added that after Coppin was shot, the cops put a knee in his back and handcuffed him.

Police Commissioner Kelly said that with the belief that the object - the hairbrush, under the teen's shirt - was a deadly weapon "this shooting appears to be within department guidelines."

But even he acknowledged that no gun was ever seen, and no gun was recovered at the scene.

"Before we examine whether or not the shooting was justified we have to examine whether police followed proper protocol and procedure," retired detective Marquez Claxton told the Amsterdam News.

Added Mayor Michael Bloomberg: "A young man is dead, and that it is a tragedy."

The family of the deceased is being represented by attorney Paul Wooten, who has decried Kelly's "rush to judgment." In response to Kelly's swift statement and nationally televised press conference, the family held a briefing of its own just after identifying Kyle's body.

There, Noel Leader of 100 Blacks in Law Enforcement, demanded a "special prosecutor because of the incestuous relationship between the police department and the D. A.'s office."

Meanwhile, emotions on Gates Avenue were still running high on the afternoon of the shooting.

"It's like you know the story before somebody open's their mouth, all you do is just change the name," a young bystander muttered.

"The young folk are furious," said Abubaka Miller of The Brotherhood, standing at the scene of the incident. "They are tired of the police harassment and being bombarded on the street and even in their own buildings. On the night of the shooting, the politicians were jumping in front of the cameras and the young Black men said to the media 'You need to be talking to us, we're the ones being targeted.' The young folk are saying, 'If you are gonna take one of us, why can't we take one of you?"

Brooklyn Councilman Charles Barron charged, "Calling the cops for help is like dialing M for murder...How dare they say this was suicide by cops, like this young man wanted them to kill him. This was not suicide by cops - this was murder by cop. This was similar to what happened to Louis Baez in 1979. His wife called the police for help because she was having problems and they came and shot him 24 times. Rev. Daughtry and I told them then that in these domestic situations they need to send a psychologist, a social worker and someone to diffuse the conflict with the police so that they can talk the people down. You don't just go send in John Wayne and turn a situation into the O.K. Coral."

The morning after the shooting, Barron visited the 79th Precinct. As he, Coppin's family and the community at large awaited developments in a case born in an all-too familiar territory, Barron stated, "A wallet, a brush, a candy bar, that young man in Harlem pointed his finger...I hold the mayor and police commissioner responsible because they refuse to send a signal and hold police officers who kill Black people accountable. This latest killing is just a couple of blocks from where Timothy Stansbury was killed. Police Commissioner Kelly gave that killer cop, Richard Neri, a 30-day suspension."

Just one block over from where Coppin was gunned down, an unarmed Stansbury was shot and killed by housing cop Neri in January 2004. Neri was never prosecuted, and this summer the city settled with Timothy's mother, Phyllis Claybourne, for $2 million.

"Nobody is buying that 'we thought he had a gun crap,' that the cops say every time they kill an unarmed Black man. They should just be honest and say 'we shot because we could - now what?" said Divine Allah, youth minister of the New Black Panther Party.

"A wallet? A chocolate bar? A hairbrush? What kind of people are they recruiting who can't decipher these things from a weapon? That is if we were to ever believe their ridiculous claim. And is suicide by cop just a convenient cover-all they're going to use every time they kill a Black person?"

As news filtered down that some gangs were planning a response the morning after the shooting, the NBPP activist concluded, "These kids out here don't hear foolishness and act like they don't. They aren't rolling with the patience of their grandparent's generation. This leadership out here has to stop telling them that all they've got to do is fall back and pray and trust in the system. They don't guide them correctly. Speak their language so they can hear you. They youth are going to respond. They know they are the targets and they aren't for meetings and marches and turning the other cheek."

Fresh from rallying for Megan Williams, in Charleston, W. Va., Divine Allah said that in the wake of the shooting, "the police do what they are allowed to do. In the meantime, while we are fighting Black-on-Black crime and fighting without compromise for real justice for Sean Bell, and for the Jena 6,, and for Megan Williams, and for a countless number of other government-sanctioned crimes against the Black community, we should never, never forget that there is an enemy amongst us, a predator who is relentless and ruthless. It should also be remembered that not every shut eye is asleep."