ATLANTA
Black youth dies in police custody
By Dianne
Mathiowetz
Atlanta
On Jan. 5 around midnight, 20-year-old John Franklin Brown
was repeatedly hit in the head with a flashlight by Atlanta
police officer J.K. Crenshaw. According to several
eyewitnesses, Brown was face down on the ground as the cop
struck his head with the 13-inch flashlight so hard and often
that it broke. Crenshaw then tossed the pieces in a garbage
can, where it was later recovered.
Brown was taken to Grady Hospital, where he died.
Sylvia Zachery said she yelled at Crenshaw to stop beating
the youth. "When I saw him down on the yard with the cop over
him like that, I said it's all over," she said.
Another witness, Valencia Thomas, said: "He killed that boy.
I saw the whole thing."
Crenshaw stated in his police report that he had answered a
call about trespassers at a boarding house and that he chased
Brown through several backyards. He pepper-sprayed the youth
and claimed that he only hit Brown with his fists as they
fought.
Crenshaw wrote that Brown kept reaching into his waistband
"as if he had a gun." No gun was found.
The Fulton County medical examiner's office confirms the
eyewitness accounts, saying that Brown sustained blows to his
head from a "firm, blunt object." However, the report states
that the head injuries were not enough to kill him. It lists no
cause of death.
Dr. John Parker, a forensic pathologist, said on Jan. 6,
"This is too high profile a case to make any comments of a
complete diagnosis right now."
Hours after Brown died, a fire damaged the boarding house.
Brown had lived next door at the home of his aunt, Veronica
Campbell.
Family members, friends and neighbors held a vigil Jan. 7 in
Campbell's front yard. John Robinson of Victims of Injustice,
the group that organized the event, called for an investigation
of not only Crenshaw but the use of excessive force in poor,
Black neighborhoods by the police department as a whole.
Attorney Samuel Starks announced plans to file a federal
lawsuit on Jan. 10 charging Crenshaw with violating Brown's
civil rights. "We believe this officer used excessive force,
unreasonable force and he caused the death of this young
man."
Both Robinson and Starks made mention of the Malice Green
case in Detroit. There, in 1992, two police officers bludgeoned
a motorist to death with their flashlights.
According to Atlanta Police Chief Beverly Harvard, Crenshaw
has been placed on "administrative leave."
On Jan. 10, well-known Atlanta criminal defense lawyer Ed
Garland filed a federal civil lawsuit, charging Crenshaw with
violating Brown's civil rights. The lawsuit states that in
addition to repeatedly striking Brown on the head with his
flashlight, Crenshaw kicked the prone man several times in his
upper body.
It further claims that Crenshaw "left him lying on the
ground bleeding for an extended period before providing or
calling for any medical attention."
The family is also considering filing suit against the city.
During Crenshaw's 10 years in the Atlanta Police Department,
eight complaints of excessive force had been filed against him.
No disciplinary measures are known to have been taken by police
authorities.
This article is copyright under a Creative
Commons License.
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