Two Lawton, Oklahoma cops were charged with first-degree manslaughter on Friday after they shot an unarmed Black man. The man in question, Quadry Sanders, was seen complying with orders to get on the ground and had his hands raised.
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Charged With Manslaughter
Two Lawton, Oklahoma cops have been charged with first-degree manslaughter on Friday after they shot an unarmed Black man who was complying with orders to get on the ground and had his hands raised.
Comanche County District Attorney Kyle Cabelka said his office had determined that the shooting of Quadry Sanders by Officers Robert Hinkle and Nathan Ronan was unjustified once a review of the case file was completed.
Hinkle and Ronan were the ones to respond to Sanders’ home just after 8:30 p.m. on Dec. 5 after a call about a man, subjected to a protective order, entering the home of a woman named in the order. The woman’s husband was also home at the time, as stated by officers on body-cam footage released Friday.
Footage showed the officers parked outside the woman’s house attempting to call the husband’s cell phone. One officer can be heard saying police have been called out to the address before, and the person inside had a gun. Officers were then informed by a dispatcher that the husband said the person was about to leave.
Cops then used a loudspeaker to try to engage with Sanders. These seemed to work as moments later, he emerged from a back door. Officer Hinkle moved towards him while repeatedly yelling “hands!” and “down!”
Sanders was then seen on the body-cam taking a step backwards, partially concealing himself behind a refrigerator, as he raised his hands. The officer fired four shots shortly after Sanders had exited the house. While Sanders lay screaming on the ground, he tried to sit up and raise his hands again, where he was shot seven more times.
This matched a medical examiner’s report, which said Sanders was shot 12 times. Sanders was unarmed, no weapons were near him, yet he was still handcuffed as he was dying.
The Sanders family’s lawyer, S. Lee Merritt, said in a statement that Quadry had a dispute with his girlfriend and the police were called.
“When they encountered Sanders they instructed him to put his hands up to which he complied,” Merritt wrote on Instagram. “While his hands were in the air Hinkle shot Sanders 4 times. When he dropped to the ground he was instructed to put his hands back [in] the air. When he did he was fired on 13 more times. This was murder. We must have justice.”
“My thoughts and prayers go out to the parents and those in our community who lost a loved one in Quadry Sanders,” Lawton Mayor Stan Booker said in a statement. “Although this decision and the releasing of information that followed may provide clarity to this tragic incident, it does not come without impacting one’s stages of grief and mourning of a lost loved one.”
Derek Chauvin Asks Court To Overturn His Conviction In George Floyd’s Murder
In related news of police misconduct, attorneys for George Floyd’s murderer and former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin have appealed for his conviction to be overturned. Chauvin’s lawyers are claiming that numerous factors combined prevented him from getting a fair and just trial. The attorneys for former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin have asked an appeals court to overturn his conviction in the murder of George Floyd in a court filing Monday.
His lawyers asked the court to do one of three things: reverse his conviction, reverse his conviction and grant him a new trial in a different venue, or return the case to a lower court for resentencing.
In April 2021, Chauvin was declared guilty in the murder of Floyd on three counts: second-degree unintentional murder, third-degree murder, and second-degree manslaughter. He was sentenced to 22 1/2 years in prison last June.
