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In New York, tensions after the death of a black man killed by the police


In the Crown Heights neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York, where an unarmed Black was killed by police on April 4.

A black man was shot dead by New York police on Wednesday, April 4, in Brooklyn. He was holding a pipe which the officers mistook for a weapon. The drama sparked significant tensions in the predominantly African-American neighborhood of Crown Heights, amid still heated controversy over police violence.

The incident took place shortly before 5 p.m. local time. During a press briefing, a police official, Terence Monahan, explained that his men had intervened after receiving “Three different calls” signaling “A man with a gun pointed at passers-by”. He claimed that surveillance cameras “Corroborated” this description of the facts.

When police arrived on the scene, the individual reportedly took “A shooting posture, both hands on the object pointed towards [ces derniers] ». Four police officers then fired at him, releasing ten bullets and killing the man, identified as Saheed Vassell, 34, according to the newspaper. Daily News. It then turned out that the object was not a weapon but “A pipe with a kind of button”, a reconnu M. Monahan.

50e Luther King death anniversary

Shortly after the tragedy, dozens of people gathered on the scene, in a sometimes tense face-to-face with the deployed police. Many shouted and denounced the behavior of the police, according to images broadcast live on Facebook. According to several local media, the victim was a regular in the neighborhood, presenting mental disorders but not violent.

This incident, on the day of the 50e anniversary of the assassination of Martin Luther King, comes as protests have followed one another in recent days in Sacramento, California, to denounce the death of Stephon Clark, an unarmed young black man shot dead by law enforcement on the 18th March.

Read also The heirs of Martin Luther King, new figures in an endless fight

Several American cities have gone up in flames in recent years after police blunders of which African-Americans were the first victims. In October 2016, the New York police caused a stir after killing a woman with mental disorders in her apartment in the Bronx. The policeman involved had been charged, before being acquitted after a trial in February.

The World with AFP

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