Alabama Police Tased Unarmed Black Man ‘Until He Died,’ Lawyers Say
Alabama police killed Jawan Harris after mistaking him for a burglar, lawyers said.
The post Alabama Police Tased Unarmed Black Man ‘Until He Died,’ Lawyers Say appeared first on NewsOne.
Jawan Dallas | Source: Wukela Communications
An unarmed Black man in Alabama is dead after police mistook him for a burglary suspect and used a Taser on him to lethal proportions while he called for help this past weekend, lawyers say.
Jawan Dallas died Sunday following an encounter that the police claim stemmed from the 36-year-old attempting to burglarize a motor home in the city of Mobile.
However, citing a witness, attorneys representing Dallas’ family say not only was he denied the medical attention he repeatedly requested after being tased, but he also wasn’t even remotely involved in the alleged burglary.
“According to an eye-witness statement, Dallas was in his car roughly 100 yards from the alleged scene on June 2 when Mobile police responded to a 911 call reporting an alleged burglary at the Plantation Mobile Home Park around 9:45 PM,” a press release emailed to NewsOne said in part. “Startled by police, Dallas exited his vehicle and was immediately tazed by officers.”
AL.com reported that Dallas and another male were inside the car when Dallas tried to flee. That’s when the police employed the Taser, according to AL.com’s report. The taser reportedly didn’t affect Dallas.
But the eye witness said that after Dallas was initially tased, he called out for help and claimed he was experiencing chest pains, layers said.
The Mobile police narrative claims “Dallas attempted to grab the Taser from the officer,” AL.com reported. “After a brief struggle over the weapon, the officer regained control and again tased the suspect.”
Lawyers are demanding that the Mobile Police Department release any and all bodycam footage from the deadly encounter to set the record straight.
“Jawan Dallas wasn’t even near the scene but these officers decided that he was a suspect and tazed him until he died,” civil rights attorney Harry Daniels said in a statement. “This isn’t speculation. This is an eye-witness statement and if the Mobile Police Department wants to dispute they need to release the body cam video.”
Daniels added: “Jawan Dallas wasn’t a threat and shouldn’t have even been a suspect. But they killed him anyway.”
Dallas’ official cause of death has not been determined.
Dallas’ death is just the most recent time Alabama police have been in the news for all the wrong reasons.
In May, video footage was released from a 2021 incident in which Alabama police are shown using a police dog to attack an unarmed Black man they were already brutalizing. Daniels, the civil rights attorney, also represents the victim in that case.
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