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National
Teen Has 3 Associate
Prosecutors
White Officer Now Faces Felony Charge For Fatally Shooting A Black Man In His Driveway
ERNEST SATTERWHITE
Slager was charged based partially on a video showing the North Charleston officer firing several times at Scott’s back as he ran away from Slager.
South Carolina police officer charged with mur- der after shooting man during traffic stop
The 2014 shooting involving Craven also was captured on video, according to the arrest warrant, and he “admitted fir- ing the pistol” into the car oc- cupied by Satterwhite. A spokesman for the Law En- forcement Division declined to discuss the footage of the shooting or any specifics of the investigation, citing the ongo- ing case.
According to an incident re- port released by the Edgefield County Sheriff’s Office to the Edgefield Daily last year, Craven said after the shooting that Satterwhite — who was unarmed — “grabbed my gun.”
A separate incident report released by the North Augusta Department of Public Safety says that “a struggle ensued be- tween Officer Craven and the suspect over Officer Craven’s duty weapon” be- fore Craven fired multiple times at Satterwhite.
Degrees Before Getting
Dropping 36
High School Diploma
Cases Linked
Jasmine Cofield is one ambitious, studious young lady: She has snagged three college degrees before getting her high school diploma, mak- ing her the 2015 recipient of a civic award.
Cofield, who is now a sen- ior at Central Michigan Uni- versity, started out at Mott Middle College. The school has a program that integrates high school and college courses, so it is actually the norm for most students from the school to graduate with their high school diploma and 15 college credits.
However, Cofield’s ambi- tions took her farther. By the time she got her diploma, she had completed three associate degrees from Mott Commu- nity College, maintaining a whopping 4.0 GPA for her col- lege courses and finishing up high school with a 3.97 GPA.
Her smarts got her enough scholarship money for her to go for her bachelor’s degree at
Scandal
Mom Arrested After
Taking Children To
Fight; One Is Shot
KENNER, LA -- A 14-year- old boy suffered a gunshot wound to the leg April 8th after a woman drove him and five other juveniles to a residence in Kenner to continue a fight that had occurred earlier in the day, authorities said.
Police arrested the woman, Lakenya Hall, 35, of Kenner, because she instigated the fight by taking over the group of boys, which included her own 11- and 15-year-old sons, said Lt. Brian McGregor, spokesman for the Kenner Po- lice Department.
The injured teen is expected to recover.
The shooting occurred just after 5 p.m. Wednesday. Police learned that the teens had been involved in an earlier fight at a bus stop, McGregor said. Au- thorities aren’t sure what the teens were fighting about.
Afterwards, Hall, drove six juveniles about a mile and a half away from their Lincoln Manor neighborhood to West Louisiana State Drive to con- tinue the brawl, McGregor said.
At some point, a 15-year-old boy being confronted by Hall’s group pulled out a .22- caliber pistol that had been stored in a backpack and began
LAKENYA HALL
chasing them, McGregor said. He opened fire, hitting the 14-year-old boy.
Police arrested the 15-year- old boy and booked him with aggravated battery, illegal pos- session of a handgun by a juve- nile, possession of a firearm with an obliterated serial num- ber, illegal use of weapons and disturbing the peace by fight- ing, McGregor said.
Police also arrested Hall’s two sons and booked them with disturbing the peace by fighting. Investigators expect more arrests to come as they identify the other teens who were present at the time of the fight and shooting, McGregor said.
Bill Will Make It Illegal To Film Police
JASMINE COFIELD
Central Michigan University, where she is studying to be a physician’s assistant in neuro- science. The award she’s get- ting, being named the 2015 Newman Civic Fellow, is usu- ally given to college students who work with communities, showing compassion to less fortunate individuals. This year the 19-year-old will be traveling to Honduras with Global Bridges, volunteering at clinics that provide neces- sary services to struggling communities.
FORT LAUDERDALE, FL --- Prosecutors in Broward County, have dropped more than three dozen criminal cases connected to four former police officers embroiled in a racism scandal.
The move comes after three Fort Lauderdale police officers, Jason Holding, 31, James Wells, 30, and Christopher Sousa, 25, were fired last month after a five-month in- vestigation into a racist video and a litany of racist text mes- sages. A fourth officer, Alex Alvarez, 22, resigned in Janu- ary.
Since then, prosecutors have been reviewing arrests made by the officers and confirmed Thursday that they “plan to drop 17 misdemeanor cases where the officers were the main officer involved in the case and they have already dropped 12 felony cases, eight misdemeanor cases and one ju- venile case,” the report notes.
Broward State Attorney’s Of- fice spokesman Ron Ishoy said that all of the defendants in the cases are Black and that the felony charges include such offenses as aggravated assault with a firearm, drug posses- sion, grand theft and unlawful possession of someone’s per- sonal identification.
Chief Assistant Public De- fender Gordon Weekes said dropping the cases was merely the first step in righting wrongs committed by xenophobic offi- cers, the report says.
JUSTIN GREGORY CRAVEN
A white public safety officer in South Carolina who fatally shot a black man after a 2014 car chase has been arrested on a felony charge, the state’s Law Enforcement Division said Tuesday.
Justin Gregory Craven, a 25-year-old North Augusta public safety officer, was charged with discharging a firearm into an occupied vehi- cle in the February 2014 death of Ernest Satterwhite. If convicted, Craven could go to prison for up to 10 years and face a fine of $1,000.
According to investigators, after Craven attempted to make a traffic stop for a sus- pected DUI, Satterwhite, 68, led the officer on a car chase from North Augusta to Satter- white’s home, miles away in Edgefield County. There, in- vestigators say, Craven fired repeatedly through the driver- side door of Satterwhite’s car after Satterwhite had stopped in his driveway.
The charge against Craven was announced on the same day that another white police officer in South Carolina, Michael Slager, was charged with murder in the death of Walter Scott.
Scott, like Satterwhite, was initially approached by po- lice during a traffic stop.
To Racism
DALLAS, TX -- Filming po- lice could become an illegal ac- tivity, if a Texas representative has his way.
According to The Free Thought Project, Jason Vil- lalba (R-Dallas), HB 2918 re- cently filed a bill that would rob private citizens of the abil- ity to hold officers accountable for their actions via filming. The result would prevent folks from creating an accurate and impartial record of what actu- ally happens when law en- forcement interacts with those they are sworn to protect.
If passed, the proposed bill, filed last month, would amend the current “INTERFERENCE WITH PUBLIC DUTIES” statute (Sec. 38.15), to feature language that would only allow “news media” to be the only ones involved in the filming of police (within 25ft).
JASON VILLALBA
“...we have previously rec- ognized that the videotaping of public officials is an exercise of First Amendment liberties,” the court maintained while af- firming Glik’s constitutional right to videotape public offi- cials in public places.
In addition, the court ac- knowledged that the right to film public officials in public places was clearly established as far back as 1997, a decade prior to Glik v Cunniffe.
PAGE 20 FLORIDA SENTINEL BULLETIN PUBLISHED EVERY TUESDAY AND FRIDAY TUESDAY, APRIL 14, 2015