NATIONAL ACTION NETWORK CHAPTER PRESIDENT WILLIAM RICHARDSON, III, CALLS FOR INVESTIGATION INTO DEATH OF MAN SHOT BY INDIAN RIVER COUNTY SHERIFF

Wednesday, November 21, 2007 (Gifford, Florida)---William Richardson, III, President of Rev. Al Sharpton’s Port St. Lucie Chapter of National Action Network, and Pastor of Grace Baptist Church, has called for a rapid investigation into the shooting last Friday November 16th of an unarmed 44-year-old black man who was killed by an Indian River County Sheriff Deputy. Similar to the New York case of Khiel Coppin that is eliciting outrage from community leaders and activists around the country, and for whom Rev. Sharpton delivered a eulogy yesterday after the young man was shot at 20-times while holding a hairbrush, the man in Gifford likewise suffered from clinical depression and a mental disability, calling into question what procedures are for dealing with people who have disabilities.

Bryson Green, affectionately known as “Hip,” was killed by an Indian River County Sheriff Deputy with a questionable record, and according to Reverend Richardson, III, “There are gross contradictions between the sheriff department’s report and the story of eye witnesses.” The sheriffs department has said that Green was brandishing a pocket knife and that the sheriff was threatened and therefore tasered Mr. Green. The Sheriff Department said that when this did not stop Mr. Green, the deputy shot him in the stomach. Allegedly, the Sheriff department wanted to transport Mr. Green to a mental health facility but he did not want to go with these particular deputies and stated that he did not trust them. The deputies, according to Mr. Green’s mother and sister, stated that there was nothing they could do if he did not want to go with them. Since he was not a threat to anyone, the deputies left and the family went to another relative’s home nearby. While the family was away, a friend came by and sat in the truck with Mr. Green in front of his mother’s house on his mother’s property. When they had finished talking, Mr. Green got out of the truck to head back to his mother’s house at the same time that the sheriff deputies returned to the house (for what reason we don’t know), and entered into Greens mother’s property and told the friend to leave. Eye witnesses (a friend and neighbor) stated that the deputy holding the shot gun was approximately 20 to 30 yards away. Eye witnesses state that Mr. Green had his hands in the air repeatedly yelling “don’t shoot, I don’t have a gun.” This is when shots were heard. Eye witnesses say the deputy, then approached Green, who was on the ground, kicked him and asked him where the weapon was and tasered him after he was already shot and incapacitated. Mr. Green was a harmless and unthreatening figure. It is important to note that the deputy, who shot Green, was fired for DUI and later rehired. It is in question whether he was on duty at the time.

****************************************************

Another Black man shot. Have we turned back the clock to the 40s ad 50s where a black mans life is worth nothing? Why do we continue to hear about unarmed young black men being shot 20 to 50 times by police? As law enforcement professionals we must look into the institutional perception and policies of policing when it come to people of color or we will loose an entire generation of black men to police brutality, police misconduct ,and racist intuitional polices that allow them to call this "JUSTIFIABLE HOMICIDE"

BLACKWATCH