An attorney for Diante Yarber’s family called it the worst case of “excessive and unnecessary force” he’s ever seen.
A lawyer representing relatives of an unarmed black man killed in a hail of police bullets in a California Walmart parking lot accuses officers of profiling, stalking and unjustifiably shooting him.
Diante “Butchie” Yarber, 26, who had been driving his cousin and friends to a Walmart in Barstow, died when police fired what witnesses told The Guardian sounded like more than 30 bullets. A passenger was seriously wounded.
“They saw a car full of black people sitting in front of a Walmart, and they decided that was suspicious,” Lee Merritt, an attorney representing Yarber’s family, told the paper. “They just began pouring bullets … It’s irresponsible. It’s dangerous. It’s mind-boggling, the use of force.” He said Yarber was hit “an estimated two dozen times.”
The San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department said Barstow officers opened fire after the driver of a black Mustang, wanted for questioning in a recent crime involving a stolen vehicle, suddenly reversed in a getaway attempt, crashed into two patrol cars and “accelerated toward the officers.” Police had been sent to the Walmart lot to investigate “a call of a suspicious vehicle,” the sheriff said in a statement.
Officers involved in the April 5 shooting have been placed on paid administrative leave, police said.
Dale Galipo, an attorney representing Marian Tafoya, 23, a back seat passenger seriously wounded in the shooting, said officers weren’t in the path of the Mustang, so they had no justification to open fire.
Video footage of the car after the shooting shows what appear to be many bullet holes. There’s also minor damage to the front bumper and driver’s side fender, but it’s unclear whether that happened prior to the incident:
Yarber’s aunt, Aleta Yarber, said the car belonged to her son, who was a passenger in the vehicle, and hadn’t been reported stolen. She said her son “has not been able to say much of anything” since the shooting, because “it was very traumatizing.”
Yarber was a “loving, caring and a friendly person,” said Samantha Robledo, who has a 7-year-old daughter named Naliyah with Yarber. “Our relationship was like no other,” she told HuffPost. Yarber also has daughters ages 9 and 1.
A lawyer representing relatives of an unarmed black man killed in a hail of police bullets in a California Walmart parking lot accuses officers of profiling, stalking and unjustifiably shooting him.
Diante “Butchie” Yarber, 26, who had been driving his cousin and friends to a Walmart in Barstow, died when police fired what witnesses told The Guardian sounded like more than 30 bullets. A passenger was seriously wounded.
“They saw a car full of black people sitting in front of a Walmart, and they decided that was suspicious,” Lee Merritt, an attorney representing Yarber’s family, told the paper. “They just began pouring bullets … It’s irresponsible. It’s dangerous. It’s mind-boggling, the use of force.” He said Yarber was hit “an estimated two dozen times.”
The San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department said Barstow officers opened fire after the driver of a black Mustang, wanted for questioning in a recent crime involving a stolen vehicle, suddenly reversed in a getaway attempt, crashed into two patrol cars and “accelerated toward the officers.” Police had been sent to the Walmart lot to investigate “a call of a suspicious vehicle,” the sheriff said in a statement.
Officers involved in the April 5 shooting have been placed on paid administrative leave, police said.
Dale Galipo, an attorney representing Marian Tafoya, 23, a back seat passenger seriously wounded in the shooting, said officers weren’t in the path of the Mustang, so they had no justification to open fire.
Video footage of the car after the shooting shows what appear to be many bullet holes. There’s also minor damage to the front bumper and driver’s side fender, but it’s unclear whether that happened prior to the incident:
Yarber’s aunt, Aleta Yarber, said the car belonged to her son, who was a passenger in the vehicle, and hadn’t been reported stolen. She said her son “has not been able to say much of anything” since the shooting, because “it was very traumatizing.”
Yarber was a “loving, caring and a friendly person,” said Samantha Robledo, who has a 7-year-old daughter named Naliyah with Yarber. “Our relationship was like no other,” she told HuffPost. Yarber also has daughters ages 9 and 1.
...r.i.p. I'm sick of these pussified ass swine . For every situation like this nothing won't change until its eye for an eye and they fear the repercussions for every unarmed/innocent black person that they murder in cold blood.
