Attorney Lee Merritt Paint a picture of what Really happened to 23 year-old Tavis Crane, shot dead by Arlington Police.
Another unarmed black man was killed by police yesterday in Arlington, Texas. The narrative put together by law enforcement, and subsequently spread by the media, is of a hardened criminal who ran over an officer twice while attempting to evade arrest before being put down by another cop. You would be hard pressed to find any information besides references into the well being of the officer or the criminal background of the decedent. It would require quite a bit of digging to learn that the man was killed in front of his two year old daughter and the child’s mom. I have yet to read anywhere that his front seat passenger was his life long friend and that he and the other passengers have a very different account of what happened the evening he was killed. This is what I have learned so far:
Tavis Crane was pulled over on a routine traffic stop after his daughter discarded a candy wrapper from the window of his moving car. He and his passengers were I.D. by a female officer who discovered an outstanding warrant for Mr. Crane. She called for backup and two officers arrived to the scene. Each officer took a position around the car, two on the driver side and one on the passenger side. Mr. Crane was instructed to step out of the car. Concerned about getting his child home, Mr. Crane refused. This is when things escalated.
Mr. Crane’s front side passenger was instructed by an officer with his gun drawn to reach over and shut the car’s engine off. At the same time another officer on the driver side rear had opened the back door of the car and climbed behind Mr. Crane. He began shouting commands at Mr. Crane as well. Mr. Crane reached over to shut off the car and shots began to ring out. Tavis body slumped backwards with the first shot and the car began to roll forward (no one in the car saw an officer run over by the vehicle but that likely occurred at this point after Tavis was shot) The car crashed into an embankment and everyone was pulled from the car. Tavis Crane died in the streets.
Policing is a dangerous job … as is being black in America. The out pouring of well wishes for the officer who was injured by the rolling car is contrasted by the total disregard for the family of the black male who was killed. Disregard for child he and his girlfriend are expecting in March. Disregard for the mother who lost her son. Disregard for his twin brother who lost his other half. Disregard for the eye witness testimony of his friends and family that saw this killing firsthand.
We do not know exactly what happened here. We do know another unarmed black man was killed after a routine traffic stop. We also know that mechanisms exist to provide oversight and transparency when there is an officer involved shooting. Instead of maligning the dead and muting the voices of the black community, why not simply utilize the body camera and dash camera footage that exist for such a time as this? Arlington Police Chief Will Johnson has said that body cameras do not build trust between the public and law enforcement. He is right. The public, especially the black public, find it difficult to trust law enforcement’s selective and torpid release of video footage. The tools exist for transparency but far too often we can only see what law enforcement wants us to see, when they want us to see it. This is the opposite of transparency.
So I caution the community not to jump to conclusions. The facts are not necessarily as they are portrayed in the media. They are also not necessarily the unjustified and unnecessary use of force we have grown accustomed to. We don’t know. Unfortunately none of the passengers in the car “went live” on Facebook. Lately, this seems to be the only true transparency available.
Please say a prayer for the family of Tavis Crane as they seek justice.
By: Lee Merritt | VIA. FACEBOOK
Star-Telegram Article
Officer-involved shooting 1700 Spring Lake Dr. 14-year veteran female officer run over by suspect twice. Suspect shot & pronounced deceased pic.twitter.com/KttFsfNCuC
— Arlington Police, TX (@ArlingtonPD) February 2, 2017