Tag: Darrius Stewart

Categories
News News Blog

Officer Who Shot Darrius Stewart Will Not Face Criminal Charges

Darrius Stewart

Connor Schilling, the Memphis Police officer who shot and killed 19-year-old Darrius Stewart during a traffic stop this summer, will not face criminal prosecution.

On Tuesday, a Shelby County Grand Jury declined to indict Schilling despite a recommendation by Shelby County District Attorney Amy Weirich to indict the officer for voluntary manslaughter and employment of a firearm during the commission of a dangerous felony. 

“I was confident in asking the grand jury to indict, but this is not a jurisdiction where we present cases to the grand jury for possible indictment when we don’t think an indictment is the proper result. In some jurisdictions, everything is presented to the grand jury, but that is not how this office functions,” Weirich said.

Memphis Police Director Toney Armstrong said later on Tuesday that Schilling will face an administrative hearing, possibly next week. He is still relieved of duty with pay, and that hearing could determine if Schilling should be suspended with pay or possibly terminated.

Stewart was shot on July 17th by Schilling after the car Stewart was a passenger in was pulled over for having a headlight out. Stewart was detained in the back of a squad car after the traffic stop while Schilling checked for warrants. When Schilling discovered Stewart had two outstanding warrants in Illinois and Iowa, he opened the squad car door to place handcuffs on Stewart. Schilling said Stewart then attacked him and struck him with the handcuffs. During the struggle, Schilling fired at Stewart. Stewart died from two gunshot wounds, according to the Shelby County Medical Examiner’s report.

The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation conducted an independent investigation into the case, and their report of 800 pages was submitted to Weirich’s office in August. She reviewed the report and made the recommendation to indict Schilling. But the grand jury declined to do so.

Connor Schilling

“The grand jury is an independent body. They don’t work for me. They don’t work for the DA’s office. They work for the community. It’s just like any of you who have sat on jury duty,” Weirich said.

Grand juries are made up of 12 members, selected by the administrative judge of criminal court, and they’re tasked with determining if there is probable cause to bring someone to trial. They do not decide guilt or innocence. Twelve votes are needed for an indictment.

Weirich said she has filed a petition in chancery court that would allow her office to release the TBI’s report. TBI records are not open to the public with the exception of a subpoena or an order of the court. If granted, she said she has requested that she be allowed to post the report on her office’s website.

Weirich said she has spoken with Stewart’s mother, but she declined to divulge the details of that conversation. 

“As difficult as this news will be for the community to receive, I think what has to be stressed is the process worked,” Weirich said. “The system worked. Our criminal justice system worked the way it was designed. There was an independent investigation. There was an independent review of that investigation by me and others in this office. And there was an independent presentation and decision on that work as to what it meant and what the results should be. The grand jury has spoken under its statutory authority”

U.S. Congressman Steve Cohen released a statement Tuesday night calling for the Department of Justice to open a federal civil rights investigation.

“I respectfully urge the Department of Justice to open an investigation immediately,” said Cohen. “We need to know whether any federal civil rights laws have been violated, and only the federal government has the resources, expertise and independence to give this matter the full, fair and public review it deserves.”

Categories
News News Blog

Police-Involved Deaths To Be Investigated By TBI

Any death of a suspect or detainee involving the Memphis Police Department (MPD) or Shelby County Sheriff’s Office (SCSO) will be investigated by the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation (TBI), according to an agreement signed by the MPD, SCSO, and Shelby County District Attorney Amy Weirich.

The TBI will be charged with investigating such situations, but the agency will not make recommendations or draw legal conclusions, according to the agreement. Instead, those findings will be sent to Weirich’s office for review.

“We believe this method will increase the level of public confidence in such investigations and, quite frankly, it will relieve the police and sheriff’s officers of a most-difficult task, that is, of investigating circumstances involving one of their own,” Weirich said. “We all hope this procedure will never be necessary, but it is now in place and will be the rule going forward.”

Upon the occurrence of such a death, according to the agreement, the police department or sheriff’s office shall:

* immediately notify the TBI and DA’s office

* secure a crime scene perimeter with access limited to emergency medical personnel, medical examiner personnel and TBI personnel 

* detain and hold any arrested persons pending the arrival of TBI personnel

* identify and separate all eye witnesses for subsequent interview by TBI 

The agreement also outlines TBI responsibilities, including:

* initiating an investigation in accordance with state law and TBI policy

* dispatching of any TBI personnel necessary for proper conduct of such an investigation

* issuing investigative reports and summaries to the DA’s as appropriate in the investigative process 

* submitting final reports to the DA’s office for review without an opinion on whether the force used, if any, was justified.

The July 17th police-involved shooting of Darrius Stewart was investigated by the TBI, and the agency has wrapped up the investigation and forwarded its findings to Weirich, but she hasn’t yet made a decision on the case.

In that case, Stewart was shot and killed by Memphis Police Officer Conor Schilling after the car Stewart was a passenger in was pulled over for having a headlight out. Stewart was placed in the back of a squad car after the traffic stop while Schilling checked for warrants. The police account of what happened says that, when Schilling opened the squad car to handcuff Stewart, the man kicked the door and tried to attack the officer. Shortly after the warrant check, police reported that Stewart had been shot and an ambulance was called for. Stewart later died at the Regional Medical Center.

Categories
Art Exhibit M

A Die-In at the Brooks Museum

CREDIT: Andrea Morales

Andrea Morales

Memphis Arts Brigade protestors at the Brooks Museum

This past Wednesday, a collective known as The Memphis Arts Brigade staged a die-in at the Memphis Brooks Museum of Art during a mayoral candidate meet and greet, hosted by the museum and ArtsMemphis. An hour into the candidate event, a member of the Brigade who was costumed as a police officer grabbed the mic and shouted, “Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!” Twenty-four protestors then fell to the ground, covering their bodies with signs bearing the names of each of the 24 people killed by Memphis police in the past five years. 

The protest comes on the heel of local actions surrounding the death of Darrius Stewart, an unarmed 19-year-old Memphis man who was shot and killed by police officer Connor Schilling in July. 

Paul Garner, one of the protest’s organizers, said, “We were at the mixer to use performance and art as a way to direct the conversation to include police accountability and police violence.” Garner also said that reactions to the protest were mixed: “The performance was met with applause, but that faded quickly and people went back to schmoozing. There were people stepping over people to get cheese and crackers. There were some who appreciated the message and others who didn’t understand.” 

A die-in calls for protesters to lie prostrate on the ground as if dead. The form of protest gained popularity during the Iraq war and has recently become one of the most visible symbols of the Black Lives Matter movement.

Brooks Director Emily Neff commented, “Art museums like the Brooks are a great and safe place for conversations to be happening about contemporary social, cultural, and political issues.”

The Memphis Arts Brigade said that, though they don’t usually announce their actions beforehand, they have more protests planned for the near future. 

Memphis Arts Brigade

Categories
News News Blog

TBI Delivers Report on Darrius Stewart Shooting

Darrius Stewart

Shelby County District Attorney General Amy Weirich is now in possession of the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation’s (TBI) 800-page report on the Darrius Stewart investigation. But Weirich said at a press conference on Thursday morning that she had not yet read the report or determined if charges would be filed against Memphis Police officer Connor Schilling.

Stewart was shot on July 17th by Schilling after the car Stewart was a passenger in was pulled over for having a headlight out. Stewart was placed in the back of a squad car after the traffic stop while Schilling checked for warrants. The police account of what happened says that, when Schilling opened the squad car to handcuff Stewart, the man kicked the door and tried to attack the officer. Shortly after the warrant check, police reported that Stewart had been shot and an ambulance was called for. Stewart later died at the Regional Medical Center. 

Shortly after the incident, Weirich asked the TBI to investigate, and the results of that nearly month-long investigation were delivered to Weirich this morning.

Weirich said she would begin reading through the report today and will eventually make a determination as to whether or not criminal charges against the officer “are warranted under the state of Tennessee.” She would not give a timeline as to when she might be ready to make that decision, but she asked the public for patience during the process.

“At the appropriate time, some, if not all, of the report will be made available to the public,” Weirich said.

She said the TBI report contains all manner of witness statements, interviews, an autopsy report, and forensics reports.

Categories
Letter From The Editor Opinion

Nothing From Nothing …

Sometimes on Tuesday morning, I stare at my laptop, looking for words. Sometimes, I say to myself, “I got nothing.”

So, what I can say about two young men who were killed in encounters with area police officers last weekend? Not enough is known about either case at this point to be able do anything but ask the obvious question: Why were trained police officers unable to subdue two unarmed men who had not committed a crime without hog-tying or shooting them?

In the case of Darrius Stewart, the 19-year-old man shot by a Memphis cop who claimed he was attacked with his own handcuffs, we have the small comfort of knowing the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation (TBI) is going to examine the incident rather than the district attorney’s office, which is notoriously cozy with the Memphis Police Department (MPD). The case, of course, is further inflamed by the fact that the officer involved is white and Stewart was black.

I say “small comfort” because TBI records are sealed by state law, so we won’t be privy to whom they interviewed, what the witnesses’ and officers’ testimonies were, etc. unless TBI decides to release its evidence. We can only hope they will conduct a transparent and unbiased inquiry that sheds real light on the case. That doesn’t always happen.

You may remember an incident in 2013, in which a young black man, Steven Askew, was sleeping in his car outside his girlfriend’s apartment, waiting for her to get home. Two MPD officers knocked on his car window, then shot him a couple dozen times in the back. The officers claimed they killed Askew because he pulled a gun on them. The incident was investigated by the DA’s office, which cleared the cops of wrongdoing, even though one of the officers had a lengthy and ugly history of misconduct, anger-issue counseling, and departmental reprimands. Even though the officers used very questionable police techniques.

Askew’s family filed a multi-million-dollar lawsuit against the department and the city — which I predict they will win. This case was pre-Ferguson. If it had happened last week, I have no doubt the TBI would have been involved at an early stage rather than leaving the case for the local DA to resolve.

Meanwhile, down in Southaven, there was the case of Troy Goode, a young man who was acting erratically in a strip mall after leaving a Widespread Panic concert. Police eventually subdued Goode, hog-tied him, and sent him to a hospital, where he died shortly after arriving. Goode was apparently asthmatic and on hallucinogens, which could have contributed to his death, but hog-tying is not a smart police technique. The city of Memphis paid several million dollars to settle a police hog-tying death a few years back.

Stewart’s family has retained counsel, and I would be very surprised if a lawsuit isn’t filed. There’s no word yet on whether Goode’s family will take legal action, but I wouldn’t bet against it.

Being a police officer is a harrowing and difficult job. Mistakes get made, sometimes fatal ones. Anger and emotion spring up to fill the void of losing a loved one. Speculation and premature conclusions abound. Lawsuits get filed. Then settlements happen, settlements which often cost taxpayers millions. But the dead are still dead.

Last weekend, two young men died; now two families are in pain. Beyond that, I got nothing.

Categories
News News Blog

MPD Does Not Have Passenger Policy For Traffic Stops

Darrius Stewart

Darrius Stewart, the 19-year-old Memphis man who was shot and killed by Memphis Police officer Connor Schilling, was a passenger in a car pulled over for having a headlight out.

The driver of the vehicle reportedly got off with a ticket, but police on the scene put Stewart in the back of a squad car while running a check for active warrants. The police account of what happened says that, when Schilling opened the squad car to handcuff Stewart, the man kicked the door and tried to attack the officer. Shortly after the warrant check, police reported that Stewart had been shot and an ambulance was called for. Stewart later died at The Med. Some have questioned whether or not the police should have even been checking on warrants for a passenger.

When asked if the Memphis Police Department (MPD) had a policy in place on dealing with passengers during traffic stops, MPD spokesperson Karen Rudolph said no set policy exists.

“There is no policy in place that says to or not to check passengers in a vehicle; however, it is common practice for officers to identify those they come in contact with during a traffic stop or while on the scene of any other type of call. The person may be requested but not compelled to provide identification or other information,” Rudolph wrote in an email to the Flyer.

In a press conference Wednesday morning, Memphis chapter NAACP president Keith Norman said they were looking into the rights of passengers in traffic stops.

“We have questions about what are the rights of a passenger under the rule of law during a mere traffic violation,” Norman said. “Should officers have the right to question everyone in the car? This can lead to inappropriate contact with citizens who have not committed a crime.”

On Wednesday afternoon, Mayor A C Wharton released a statement on the need for a clear policy on questioning, searching, and detaining passengers in cars at traffic stops.

“I’ve not gotten a clear answer,” said Wharton. “I have asked Director [Toney] Armstrong to do a thorough review and make sure we immediately get a clearly understood policy as to when it is standard operating procedure or permissible to question, detain and search a passenger. Police stops are made every day and officers need to know this.”

“This not just about the Stewart case. We have heard assertions about ‘driving while Black’, now we hear questions about ‘riding while Black’. The public wants to know what the courts say about their rights as passengers, what MPD policy is, and what’s being taught in the police academy. These are the questions I’m being asked and that we need answers to,” Wharton said.

The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation is currently looking into the case. Schilling has been relieved of duty pending the outcome of the investigation.

Categories
News News Blog

NAACP Expresses Support for TBI Investigating Police Shooting

Darrius Stewart

In a press conference at First Baptist-Broad on Wednesday morning, Keith Norman, president of the Memphis chapter of the NAACP, said the organization supports the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation (TBI) looking into the police shooting death of Darrius Stewart.

Norman said the organization helped state Representative G.A. Hardaway in crafting a bill to mandate that all police-involved shootings in the state be investigated by the TBI rather than by police departments in their own jurisdictions.

“No local body should should do an investigation of a police shooting. An independent body should investigate,” Norman said. 

On Monday, the Memphis Police Department and Shelby County District Attorney Amy Weirch announced that Stewart’s Friday night shooting death by Memphis Police officer Connor Schilling would be investigated by the TBI rather than by the MPD. The decision has been criticized by some because TBI files are sealed from the public. Many are calling for more transparency in the investigation.

Norman said he supported that transparency, and he urged citizens to push for a change in the law that would require TBI documents to be made public.

“I would encourage all citizens to get involved in petitioning for a change in the law so that findings could be made public,” Norman said.

Norman said the NAACP will also be looking into protocol for dealing with passengers in cars during traffic stops. Stewart was riding in a car that was pulled over for having a headlight out. 

Norman said that people should remain calm while the investigation is underway. Stewart was placed in the back of a squad car during the traffic stop while Schilling checked for warrants. The police account of what happened says that, when Schilling opened the squad car to handcuff Stewart, the man kicked the door and tried to attack the officer. Shortly after the warrant check, police reported that Stewart had been shot and an ambulance was called for. Stewart later died at The Med. Some have questioned whether or not the police should have even been checking on warrants for a passenger.

“We have questions about what are the rights of a passenger under the rule of law during a mere traffic violation,” Norman said. “Should officers have the right to question everyone in the car? This can lead to inappropriate contact with citizens who have not committed a crime.”

Categories
News News Blog

Memphis Police Officer Involved in Stewart Shooting Identified

Connor Schilling

The Memphis Police Department (MPD) has identified Connor Schilling as the officer who shot 19-year-old Darrius Stewart during a traffic stop last Friday night.

Schilling, 26, was hired by the MPD in June 2012. He has been relieved of duty pending an investigation of the shooting.

Stewart was shot by Schilling after the car he was a passenger in was pulled over for a headlight being out.  Stewart was placed in the back of a squad car after the traffic stop while Schilling checked for warrants. The police account of what happened says that, when Schilling opened the squad car to handcuff Stewart, the man kicked the door and tried to attack the officer. Shortly after the warrant check, police reported that Stewart had been shot and an ambulance was called for. Stewart later died at The Med. Stewart’s family has reported that the warrants were a case of mistaken identity. Some have questioned why a passenger would have gone through a warrant check anyway.

Schilling, who worked in the MPD’s Ridgeway precinct, had a previous suspension for a DUI arrest in Southaven in July 2014 , but criminal charges were dismissed in that case. He did, however, receive departmental charges after the incident. His personnel file also contains one excessive force case in 2013 that was found to be not sustained by the MPD.

Yesterday, the MPD announced that the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation (TBI) would take over the investigation into Stewart’s death.