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Via Workers World News Service
Reprinted from the March 27, 1997
issue of Workers World newspaper
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Baltimore Black community enraged after cops kill another youth

By Sharon Black in Baltimore

On the evening of March 1, Baltimore police gunned down another young African American. Twenty-four-year-old Sean Freeland was shot four times inside a rowhouse in the Upton community.

Shock and grief immediately hit this impoverished, devastated community. When police refused to allow Freeland's mother to see her son's body, angry residents pelted police cars with rocks and bottles.

Reporters and photographers were ordered out of the area and told to conduct broadcasts from Shock Trauma at the University of Maryland Medical Center. Echoing the police descriptions of events, the news media reported that Freeland had a gun, was chased by police, shot two cops and was then fatally wounded.

Neighborhood witnesses tell a different story. And the police themselves have been forced to revise their first version of what occurred.

According to neighbors, Freeland was sitting on the steps of the rowhouse blowing bubbles with his 4-year- old son, Sean Jr., when a police car pulled up and officers jumped out.

Robert Lockett, a neighbor, said: "He looked like he [one of the police] was going to stop me at first. Then he saw Sean going into the house. So he followed Sean and kicked the door down.

"Then I heard shots and it was over in about five seconds."

Two cops were injured in the incident. But the police admit they were injured by bullets fired by other police officers, not by Sean Freeland.

To quell anger, Mayor Kurt Schmoke and Police Commissioner Thomas Frazier held a community meeting on March 3 at a nearby Baptist church. Over 200 people attended.

Instead of answering questions, the meeting revealed even more inconsistencies in the police version of events. People were also upset that Freeland's body had been moved, which is not normal police procedure.

When another of Sean Freeland's relatives spoke, she challenged the commissioner: "Why couldn't police negotiate? Why didn't they ask Sean to come out of the house? Why couldn't it have been resolved without murder?"

Commissioner Frazier summed up the police position by saying, "We are trained to kill."

Protests have continued. Prayer vigils have been held at the location of the killing. The All-Peoples Congress-a community group that fought successfully for the criminal conviction of Police Officer Stephan Pagotto for murdering Preston Barnes-picketed City Hall on March 10.

The group demanded an independent community investigation, community control of the police, and justice for Sean Freeland.

APC spokesperson Andre Powell said: "We are tired of police killings. They have become the answer for poverty, cutbacks and low wages."

"Our youth do not need more jails, racism and police killings," added Lee Pater son. "They need jobs and education."

Bill Goodin of Unity in Action stressed: "We need to unite and get together. This is just the beginning; we do not intend to give up the fight."

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