Riots Follow Shooting of Unarmed Black Teenager in Missouri

The riots in the wake of the fatal shooting of a black teenager by police in Missouri, again illustrate racial tensions in America.

The suburb of Ferguson, Missouri, has seen two nights of rioting by residents who have been protesting the shooting of an unarmed black teenager.

Reuters reported on how more than 50 people have been arrested in the protests that followed the death of Michael Brown, 18, in the predominantly black St. Louis suburb on Saturday after what police officials claimed was a struggle with a gun in a squad car.

USA Today reported officers in riot gear lobbed tear gas at crowds angered by the shooting.

Some protesters said they were outraged that Brown appeared to have been shot dead as he was holding up his hands up in surrender, calling the shooting the latest in a “long history of police harassment of area minorities.”

The FBI opened a civil rights investigation into the controversial case, and St. Louis County is also investigating the shooting.

Police have not detailed why Brown was in the police car in the first place. At least one shot was fired during the struggle, and then an officer fired more shots before leaving the car, police said.

As an experienced Norfolk wrongful death attorney, I am well aware that these kinds of incidents are not confined to Missouri or the Deep South. Over the last few years there have been a handful of controversial police shootings of black men. I am representing the families of two of them.

David Latham, 35, was shot at least eight times by a Norfolk police officer on June 6. The shooting occurred at Latham’s home on West 30th Street. Mr. Latham’s family said he suffered from mental illness and the family had called police for him to get medical attention.

I have also filed a lawsuit over the fatal police shooting of Joshua “Omar” Johnson, an unarmed black man in 2013. I am relieved Norfolk has not seen any of the scenes seen in the Mid West, but while the police shootings of unarmed black men continue, so too will the questions about disparate treatment by law enforcement officers.

Cooper Hurley Injury Lawyers help family members bring wrongful death cases in Virginia over the loss of a loved one, be it in a car crash, a fall or by an act of violence. Call Cooper Hurley Injury Lawyers at 757.455.0077 or see CooperHurley.com.