By Tamantha Hip-HopVibe.com Staff Writer
Another day, another hashtag. Cops fatally shoot 16-year-old, Julius Tate Jr., during a sting operation in Columbus, Ohio. Police claim that Julius had a gun at the time of the shooting, but his girlfriend says he unarmed. She is now being charged with his murder. Yes, you read that correctly.
Via BET:
On Dec. 7, undercover police set up a sting operation in connection with a series of armed robberies. Police set up a meeting on social media to buy something from Julius Tate Jr. on the day he was shot.
Police say Tate drew a gun on an officer during the meeting.
“The suspect approached the officer, produced a weapon, robbed the officer,” Columbus police spokesperson Sgt. Chantay Boxill told WCMH-TV. “At that time the cover officer fired at the suspect.”
However, attorney Byron L. Potts, who is representing Tate’s family, says a sworn affidavit from an eyewitness directly contrasts the SWAT officers story.
Potts says the eyewitness claims that police brought Tate, who was allegedly unarmed at the time, to the corner outside of his house. The officers then pulled the trigger, and then went back into the house to retrieve a gun, said the witness.
Days after Tate was pronounced dead, his girlfriend, Masonique Saunders, was charged in connection with his killing.
According to police, Saunders “played a role” in the robberies, which ultimately led to Tate’s death.
“Under what historically has been called ‘felony murder,’ which means that you’re still responsible for a murder if you cause the death of another as an approximate result of committing certain kinds of serious offenses,” police spokesperson Denise Alex-Bouzounis told WOSU.
Saunders’ mother believes police charged the 16-year-old with aggravated robbery and murder because she was planning to testify against the Columbus Police Department.
Police are so crooked nowadays. Whether she played a role in the robbery or not, she did not kill Julius, an officer did. These crooked police can plant drugs and weapons on black victims and claim their lives were threatened, but whose the real threat? Who can police the police?
