By Reginald Tauscher
(TEANECK) – Recent shootings between police and civilians have risen around the country this past month. The first of which was Sept. 14, with the shooting of a teenager in Columbus, OH who was holding a BB gun, according to The New York Times.
Police were called to a robbery that had taken place minutes before the shooting. Upon arrival, 13-year-old Tyre King pulled out a BB gun from his waistband and was shot several times by a police officer, reports said.
On Sept. 16, another shooting of an unarmed man in Tulsa, OK occurred. According to The New York Times, the man had his hands up in the air before being shot by a police officer.
Forty-year-old Terence Crutcher’s SUV had stalled and he attempted to get help as Officer Betty Shelby was en route to a domestic violence call and encountered Crutcher, according to CNN News.
Crutcher had his hands in his pockets and was ask to remove them. He then put his hands up over his head while walking back to his SUV when officer Shelby opened fire, shooting Crutcher who later died at the scene, according to CNN News.
Officer Shelby has been charged with first-degree manslaughter and is currently on a $50,000 bond, according to Fox News.
On Sept. 20, Keith Scott was shot and killed by a Charlotte-Mecklenburg police officer. He was waiting for one of his children to return from school, according to The New York Times.
Police were serving a warrant for another suspect when they saw Keith Scott standing next to his Ford. Police said he had a gun in his possession and demanded him to drop it, according to The New York Times.
Keith Scott’s wife, Rakeyia Scott, went back to their apartment to get a phone charger. She returned as the police surrounded Keith Scott’s ford. She recorded the altercation leading up to the shooting on her smartphone, according to CNN.
Rakeyia Scott kept recording the altercation between Keith Scott and the police while trying to get him to comply with the police officers’ commands to surrender.
“He doesn’t have a gun,” Rakeyia Scott said in the video. “He has TBI (traumatic brain injury). Don’t shoot him.”
The officer who shot Keith Scott was identified as 26-year-old Bentley Vison, a black officer who has been with the force since 2014, according to The New York Times.
Keith Scott had a police record that included aggravated assault, check fraud and carrying a concealed weapon, according to The New York Times.
Protests and riots have been taking place since Sept. 21 throughout Charlotte since the shooting of Keith Scott, according to The New York Times.
On Sept. 21, Justin Carr was shot and killed by 21-year-old Rayquan Borum while protesting the shooting of Keith Scott in Charlotte. Borum was arrested on Sept. 23 and charged with murder, according to Fox News.
In another shooting on Sept. 23, 20-year-old Arcan Cetin walked into Macy’s at the Cascade Mall in Seattle, W.A. with an assault rifle and opened fire, according to The New York Times. He killed four women and critically injured a man who would later die at the hospital, reports said.
A manhunt was put out for Cetin after being identified through surveillance cameras. He was apprehended at 6:30 p.m. on Sept. 24 without an incident, according to The New York Times.
Lt. Michael Hawley of the Island County Sheriff Office said he had received a report of Cetin’s car parked less than a mile away from the sheriff’s office, according to The New York Times. Lt. Hawley then headed that way and found Cetin walking on the sidewalk.
Cetin listed his hometown as Adana, Turkey on Facebook, according to The New York Times. Charges are still pending and the motive is still under investigation.
