Police Killed These Seven Washingtonians. Here Are Their Stories, And The Family Left Behind

Police Killed These Seven Washingtonians. Here Are Their Stories, And The Family Left Behind

Over the past five years, police have killed more than two dozen Black Washingtonians. None of their deaths garnered the attention of Breonna Taylor, Michael Brown, or George Floyd. And yet—police killings of African Americans in Washington go back decades, brutalizing those left behind, who have searched for answers they suspect would have come easily to white residents. Today, though, amid a national reckoning around police violence, some of these loved ones have renewed hope that even as they’ve had to relive their personal traumas, this time it may not be in vain. Here, seven families spotlight the lives they ...

Archie “Artie” Elliott III December 8, 1968–June 18, 1993 Age: 24 Manner of death: Shot 14 times while handcuffed and seat-belted Artie Elliott was driving home from his construction job when a District Heights police officer named Jason Leavitt pulled him over. According to media reports and court records, Elliott failed sobriety tests and admitted he’d been drinking. Leavitt handcuffed him and called for backup. A Prince George’s County officer, Wayne Cheney, arrived. They strapped Elliott into the front seat of a cruiser. The officers said they were talking by the passenger side when Elliott pointed a handgun at them ...

D’Quan Young October 14, 1993–May 9, 2018 Age: 24 Manner of death: Shot five times D’Quan Young died outside the Brentwood Recreation Center in Northeast DC. His killer was an off-duty cop. The Metropolitan Police Department has said that Young confronted the officer, who was on his way to a party nearby, and the confrontation escalated to a firefight. Police have not determined who fired first. Young was shot five times. Prosecutors declined to press charges, saying they couldn’t prove that the officer hadn’t been acting in self-defense. The officer returned to work. (He subsequently left the agency in 2019.) ...

Marqueese Alston September 8, 1995–June 12, 2018 Age: 22 Manner of death: Shot at least six times DC police officers were patrolling the Washington Highlands neighborhood when they came across Marqueese Alston, recently home from prison after a robbery conviction. The cops thought he had a firearm, according to statements by Metropolitan Police chief Peter Newsham. As they chased him down an alley, Newsham has said, Alston produced a gun and shot at them. Officers returned fire, killing him on the spot. By early 2019, both the MPD and the US Attorney’s Office for DC had decided not to take ...

Alonzo Smith January 2, 1988–November 1, 2015 Age: 27 Manner of death: Cardiac incident while pinned under an officer’s knee Alonzo Smith was a teacher’s aide at Accotink Academy, a Virginia school for children with special needs, and planning to return to college for a degree in social work. His last Facebook photo was of himself in a classroom, captioned “I’m all in for these kids.” Two days later, authorities said, Smith was seen around 3:30 am running shirtless and shoeless at a Southeast DC apartment complex, yelling for help. Police stopped him in a stairwell. The officers were “special ...

Terrence Sterling January 31, 1985–September 11, 2016 Age: 31 Manner of death: Shot twice Terrence Sterling, an HVAC repairman, was on his motorcycle on U Street around 4:20 am when police saw him driving at “dangerous speeds—sometimes estimated at 100 miles per hour or more,” according to a statement from the US Attorney’s Office for DC. Police pursued him, then caught up at Third and M streets, Northwest, and blocked his path. MPD officer Brian Trainer tried to get out of the car, when Sterling “revved his motorcycle,” accelerated toward Trainer, and crashed into the cruiser. Trainer fired two rounds ...

Ralphael Briscoe November 21, 1992–April 26, 2011 Age: 18 Manner of death: Shot twice in the back Ralphael Briscoe was outside an apartment building in Southeast DC on the afternoon that DC cop Chad Leo and several other officers approached him in their unmarked Ford Explorer. They were patrolling as part of a plainclothes gun-recovery unit often accused of doing “jump-outs”—confrontations that critics liken to stop-and-frisk and that they say amount to racial profiling. (The Metropolitan Police Department denies using such tactics.) Briscoe was talking on his phone, according to witnesses who testified in a civil wrongful-death suit. The officers ...

Gary Hopkins Jr. June 5, 1980–November 27, 1999 Age: 19 Manner of death: Shot in the chest On the last night of his life, Gary Hopkins Jr., a student at Prince George’s Community College, went to a dance at the West Lanham fire station, wearing his late father’s lizard-skin shoes. At the end of the evening, a fight broke out. According to Prince George’s County police, a tipster told them that someone in the car containing Hopkins and his friends had a gun—which was not true. Police confronted Hopkins. One officer drew his gun and, according to witnesses, held it ...

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https://www.washingtonian.com/2020/...are-their-stories-and-the-family-left-behind/