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West Virginia Cop Fired For Refusing To Shoot Black Man Holding Unloaded Gun

"You put two other officers in danger," the police chief and city manager reportedly told him.

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Time and time again we’ve read and reported incidents in which unarmed Black men and women were shot down by police. But this time, a West Virginia officer lost his job for not shooting a man who held an unloaded gun because he reportedly put other officers in danger.

On May 6, Officer Stephen Mader responded to a domestic disturbance call in Weirton, West Virginia. When Mader arrived on the scene, he was confronted by Ronald Williams, a 23-year-old Black man, reports the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Williams’ girlfriend made the call to police.

Mader, who is White, served as a Marine in the military and said he used de-escalation skills learned in training to evaluate the “whole person” before reacting abruptly he said in an interview with the Post-Gazette:

“I saw then he had a gun, but it was not pointed at me,” Mader said, who observed Williams’ handgun was in his right hand hanging downward, pointed at the ground.

According to Mader, he used a calm voice and told Williams to lower his gun. Williams responded with, “Just shoot me.”  “I’m not going to shoot you, brother,” Mader said back. Her recalled Williams flicked his wrist to get him to react.

“I thought I was going to be able to talk to him and deescalate it. I knew it was a suicide-by-cop situation,” Mader told the Post-Gazette.

But all of Mader’s training couldn’t prepare him for what happened next. Shortly after, two more officers arrived on the scene. Williams walked toward the officers, waving his gun, according to the Post-Gazette. One of the officers aimed and fired at Williams, striking him dead with a shot to the back of the head. The two responding officers were also White.

After the shooting, the Weirton Police Department engaged in a series of missteps. An investigator was brought in who promptly took a week-long vacation, and the department also refused to publicly release Williams’ name for three days.

Mader told the Post-Gazette that he took time off after the shooting, When he returned to meet with Police Chief Rob Alexander and City Manager Travis Blosser, they informed him he would be placed on administrative leave until they concluded an internal investigation into whether or not they would fire him. “You put two other officers in danger,” they told him.

“Right then I said to him: “Look, I didn’t shoot him because he said, ‘Just shoot me,’” Mader said to The Post-Gazette.

On June 7, Mader was handed a pink slip dated June 6, which read that he “failed to eliminate a threat.”

Out of frustration, Mader failed to attend a city hearing to approve the termination on June 29. He sought legal advice and was advised that because West Virginia is an “at will” state, his case would be hard to fight in court. Another told him to ask for a resignation instead of termination.

Mader told The Pittsburgh Gazette that his termination was unjustified and hired lawyer Jack Dolance on his behalf. Mader is currently studying for a commercial driving license to support his wife and two sons. He says he would jump at the chance to work in law enforcement again if an offer was on the table.

Williams’ case is still under internal investigation. Mader’s attorney and the West Virginia Civil Liberties Union have taken up a separate investigation.

SOURCE: The Washington Post, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette | PHOTO CREDIT: Getty, Twitter

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103 Black Men And Boys Killed By Police

UPDATED: 8:32 p.m. ET, Jan. 26, 2021 -- Police shooting and killing Black males is all but a centuries-old American tradition among law enforcement in the U.S. But the fact that this apparent rite of police passage is still thriving in 2021 and only seems to be gaining momentum instead of slowing should give any American citizen pause as an increasing number of Black people -- especially males both young and old -- continue to be added to a growing list of victims with what seems like a new shooting every week. An 18-year-old Black teen was shot and killed on Jan. 9 where officers said they pursued Xzavier Hill on I-64 in Virginia for speeding. Virginia State Troopers claim that Hill attempted to make a U-turn and became stuck in the median. When they approached Hill's vehicle, police said they gave Hill multiple commands to exit and show his hands. Troopers opened fire on Hill claiming that he brandished a weapon. https://twitter.com/smellllanie/status/1351404494505062401?s=20 But Hill's family are demanding the release of the bodycam footage echoing demonstrators in their demand for transparency and accountability. The two troopers involved in the shooting have been placed on administrative leave, according to VPM.org. Multiple petitions have been launched advocating for the Goochland County District Attorney to bring forth charges. Frederick Cox, 18, was shot by a plain clothes Davidson County deputy on Nov. 8, 2020 while attending a funeral in High Point, North Carolina. The deputy was on hand to investigate the murder of Jonas Thompson, the man who was being laid to rest. Sadly, shots broke out during a drive-by shooting at the funeral. Police claim the deputy fired his weapon after observing Cox was armed, but his family states he was stuck several times in his back, refuting the police's claim. https://twitter.com/AttorneyCrump/status/1352402762689032197?s=20   Patrick Warren Sr. was killed on Jan. 10 after an officer responded to his family's attempt to contact mental health professionals when they noticed his behavior changing at their home in Killeen, Texas. But it was unclear why the Killeen Police Department officer felt the need to not only Taser Warren -- a 52-year-old unarmed man -- but also actually shoot him to death. Scroll down to read more about Warren. https://twitter.com/SirOlSkool/status/1349411070964850693?s=20 A 39-year-old man named Carl Dorsey III was fatally shot in South Orange, New Jersey on New Year's Day, according to RLS Media. Police claim they were responding to a call when an officer shot and killed Dorsey with a 9mm gun during a confrontation. A gun was recovered at the scene while another officer was hospitalized with injuries due to the incident. Little information is known about what led to the shooting, but the Attorney General's office has launched an investigation. https://twitter.com/TheTornadoNews/status/1346624067886067713?s=20 Minneapolis police released bodycam footage along with the name of a shooting victim, identified as 23-year-old Dolal Idd. Idd, a Black male, was the first police involved death in the city since George Floyd. https://twitter.com/PaulBlume_FOX9/status/1344701216199225347?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1344701216199225347%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fnewsone.com%2F4070328%2Fminneapolis-cops-involved-in-first-police-killing-since-george-floyd%2F Police claim Idd was pulled over as a felony suspect during a traffic stop on Wednesday. He died of multiple gunshot wounds after police say he fired at officers. His manner of death is homicide, according to a news release obtained by CNN. Idd's death stirred up community concern due to the ongoing deaths of Black people at the hands of police, along with his family disputing the police's account of events. 47-year-old Andre' Hill was shot and killed by Columbus, Ohio police following the murder of Casey Goodson Jr. Hill was holding a cell phone, not a weapon, when his life was tragically taken. https://twitter.com/nbc4i/status/1341952374156496901?s=20 Prior to that, police in southeastern Texas killed Joshua Feast by shooting the 22-year-old Black man in the back while he ran away, posing no mortal threat to law enforcement. https://twitter.com/AttorneyCrump/status/1337573103300472832?s=20 Less than a week earlier, police in Ohio killed Casey Goodson Jr. by shooting him in the back after apparently mistaking the Subway sandwiches he was holding for a gun. Whether the shootings were justified or not, the same use of lethal force against Black suspects is rarely seen with white people suspected of doing the same or worse. Case in point: A young Black man named Rodney Applewhite who was looking forward to meeting up with his family in Arizona, was shot and killed by New Mexico State Police en route to their annual Thanksgiving celebration on Nov. 19, according to Searchlight NM. However, Applewhite's family say they have been shut out of receiving information regarding his death, sans a sparse press release by the the New Mexico Department of Public Safety describing the incident. According to police, authorities attempted to pull him over during a traffic stop, to which Applewhite fled. According to authorities Applewhite, 25, attempted to disarm an officer during detainment and was fatally shot. https://twitter.com/DillonBergin/status/1331668726857416704?s=20 On Nov. 13 in Cocoa, Florida officers with the Brevard County Sheriff's Office opened fire at close range at a vehicle that did not appear to be directly threatening the lives of the officers involved. The car was being driven by Sincere Pierce, 18, and had A.J. Crooms, 16, inside as a passenger. Both teenagers died. Dashcam footage suggested there was no need for lethal force. The families of Pieces and Crooms have complained police haven't given them any information about the shooting. https://twitter.com/AttorneyCrump/status/1329156935753592833?s=20 Marcellis Stinnette, 19, was killed on Oct. 3 when police in Waukegan, Illinois, shot at a car he was a passenger in. Police claimed they were forced to shoot in self-defense because the car reversed toward the officer who shot them. However, witnesses said the police officer hit them with his car before he opened fire. Prior to that, officers in Washington, D.C., killed Deon Kay,18, by shooting him in the back. The Metropolitan Police Department defended the officers involved by saying in a press release that "one of the [two] suspects brandished a firearm" while fleeing. (A little more than a week earlier, Kyle Rittenhouse, a white 17-year-old, illegally armed himself with an assault rifle, brandished it in front of police and lived to tell about it without sustaining any injury.) Protests quickly ensued and the Washington Post reported that some community residents "questioned the police account." https://twitter.com/berniebromanny/status/1301330337524592641?s=20 Kay's killing came one day after the Democrat & Chronicle reported that police in Rochester, New York, suffocated a 41-year-old Black man to death while he was in mental distress months ago. Daniel Prude was "lynched" by police, his brother said about the March 23 incident when cops tried to restrain the naked man who was suspected of being under the influence of drugs. Video of the killing was made public by lawyers representing Prude's family, which has called for the officers involved to be arrested and charged with murder. The video is extremely graphic and should be viewed with disrection. https://twitter.com/Telegraph/status/1301466316352761856?s=20 Similarly, police in Texas on Aug. 25 killed Damian Daniels, a military veteran who was shot twice in the chest in front of his newly purchased home after cops were dispatched there to perform a wellness check last week on someone they knew suffered from mental illness. The lawyer representing his family said Daniels was a combat veteran who suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder and was previously “the subject of four mental health-related calls” without incident. https://twitter.com/MeritLaw/status/1300772683769171971?s=20 All of the above incidents were preventable, but perhaps none more so than the shooting of Dijon Kizzee, who police targeted for an unspecified "vehicle code violation" while he was riding his bike Monday in Los Angeles. When he fled on foot, police shot him multiple times in the back under the purported guise that Kizzee had a gun. However, civil rights lawyer Ben Crump, who is representing Kizzee's family, tweeted a video of the shooting that threw into question the police's account. https://twitter.com/AttorneyCrump/status/1301238367821205505?s=20 Kizzee's killing came about a week after the death of Trayford Pellerin in Lafayette, Louisiana, on Aug. 21. The 31-year-old was shot and killed as he tried to enter. convenience store, where cops responded to reports of a man with a knife. While details were still being sorted out, it's tough to imagine multiple police officers armed with both lethal and nonlethal weapons who have been trained to de-escalate situations like these legitimately fearing for their lives in the face of a man with a knife. [caption id="attachment_4002256" align="alignnone" width="1024"] Trayford Pellerin, at right. | Source: Treneca Pellerin / GoFundMe[/caption] Pellerin was killed just two days before police in Wisconsin shot Jacob Blake, a 29-year-old Black man, in his back multiple times. Amazingly, Blake -- who was unarmed when he was shot -- survived his shooting. Those two shootings followed the deadly police violence against Black people like David McAtee, who was killed while demonstrating after the in-custody killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis on Memorial Day. McAtee, also unarmed at the time of his death, was a businessman in Louisville, Kentucky, where police had recently killed Breonna Taylor in her own home. McAtee was killed when police and the National Guard recklessly returned fire from people shooting at them, hitting McAtee fatally. It was the latest botched response for a police department buried in scandal. [caption id="attachment_3952732" align="alignnone" width="622"] Source: Twitter[/caption] McAtee's death came days after Floyd was purportedly suspected of forgery, a nonviolent crime that certainly didn't warrant Minneapolis Police Officer Derek Chauvin handcuffing him and kneeling on the 46-year-old Black man's neck until he died. On May 6, police in Indianapolis shot and killed Sean Reed, a 21-year-old U.S. military veteran who was unarmed. Unbeknownst to the cops, Reed was live-streaming the episode on Facebook, a circumstance that allowed the police to be recorded joking about the shooting. https://twitter.com/heyarielouise/status/1258190713210036224?s=20   Some of the other victims' names include but certainly aren't limited to: Tamir Rice; Botham Shem Jean; E.J. Bradford; and Michael Brown. But two of the most recent names that can tragically be included in this deadly equation are Michael Dean, a 28-year-old father who police shot in the head on Dec. 3, 2019, and Jamee Johnson, a 22-year-old HBCU student who police shot to death after a questionable traffic stop on Dec. 14, 2019. One of the most distressing parts of this seemingly nonstop string of police killings of Black people is the fact that more times than not, the officer involved in the shooting can hide behind the claim that they feared for their lives -- even if the victim was shot in the back, as has become the case for so many deadly episodes involving law enforcement. In a handful of those cases -- such as Antwon Rose, a 13-year-old boy killed in Pittsburgh, and Stephon Clark, a 22-year-old killed in Sacramento, both of whom were unarmed -- the officers either avoided being criminally charged altogether or were acquitted despite damning evidence that the cops' lives were not threatened and there was no cause for them to resort to lethal force or any violence for that matter. Crump, who has been retained in so many of these cases, described the above scenarios in his new book, "Open Season," as the "genocide" of Black people. As NewsOne continues covering these shootings that so often go ignored by mainstream media, the below running list (in no certain order) of Black men and boys who have been shot and killed by police under suspicious circumstances can serve as a tragic reminder of the dangers Black and brown citizens face upon being born into a world of hate that has branded them as suspects since birth.

West Virginia Cop Fired For Refusing To Shoot Black Man Holding Unloaded Gun  was originally published on newsone.com

Ronald Williams , Stephen Mader , Wierton Police Department

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