Six officers shot a homeless man 46 times after he failed to follow their instructions in a parking lot.
A police investigation into alleged police brutality is underway in Michigan after six officers shot a homeless man 46 times after he failed to follow their instructions in a parking lot.
Amateur video captures the fatal exchange between Saginaw police and 49-year-old Milton Hall after he called the police following an argument with a convenience store clerk.
Refusing to drop a knife after repeated requests, the video shows officers unleash a volley of bullets at the agitated Hall in a move his mother, Jewel Hall Milton, described as a 'firing squad dressed in police uniforms.'
Milton Hall is circled standing in the parking lot of a convenience store in Saginaw, Michigan in a encounter with police. Shot on July 1st, in the parking lot of West Genessee avenue, the investigation into the use of excessive police force by the officers has taken at least six weeks and caused anger and impatience amongst residents in the town of 50,000 in central Michigan.
Police in Saginaw said that Hall had just had a confrontation with a
convenience store clerk and in the video the 49-year-old homeless man
can be heard to say, 'My name is Milton Hall, I just called 911. My name
is Milton, and I'm pi**ed off.'
A female officer can be heard to say 'Put the knife down, put the knife down' to which Hall replies, 'I ain't putting sh*t down.'
Eventually Hall is seen to move to the left of the frame in the video and then is shot in a barrage of bullets of which at least 30 can be heard to ring out.
Officer's of Saginaw Police Department scream at Hall to drop the knife he is carrying but the homeless man refuses to follow their instructions
The six police officers begin to fire a volley of bullets at Hall who can be seen in the picture doubling up and falling to the ground
The shooting was witnessed by traffic and passers-by.
'All of a sudden, pow, pow, pow, pow, pow...and he drops,' said Anthony Baber, who was in his car in the parking lot when the shooting occurred.
Saginaw County Prosecutor Michael Thomas said to CNN that the squad of police opened fire 'because apparently, at this point in time, he was threatening to assault police.'
The County Prosecutor and Saginaw police have been involved in an investigation into the shooting and Saginaw Police Chief Gerald Cliff said that Hall was 'known to be an assaultive person' with 'a long history' of involvement with authorities, 'not only with police from our department but with the county.'
Hall had been jailed for vagrancy in the past said his cousin, Mike Washington, but, 'He was not violent'.
Jewel Hall Milton, Hall's mother said that her son was mentally ill and admitted to being furious with police in addition to her obvious distress.
Milton
Hall (left and right) was 49-years old and homeless. He had spent time
in prison for vagrancy and was known to police in Saginaw
'It appeared to be a firing squad dressed in police uniforms,' said Milton from her home in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
'There was another way. They did not have to kill him. He had not done anything. He was not violent. He was not a murderer. He was not a criminal.'
She said that before her son became homeless he was a civil rights activist, received Social Security disability payments for mental illness and had lived in the area for 35 years.
'Everybody knew him. The police knew him well,' said Milton.
'So that's another question: they knew him, so why? Why did they kill him?
Jewel Hall Milton described the shootings as a 'firing squad dressed in police uniforms.'
'I'm stunned that six human beings would stand in front of one human being and fire 46 shots.
'I just don't understand that. It's a lot of pain in that because it only takes one shot, so the question is why?'
Distraught, Milton questioned why none of the camera's in the police squad cars were operational.
'So that's the question I have and the community has it, what's taking so long?' said Milton.
'Why is not being transparent?'
CNN asked Lou Palumbo, a former Long Island police officer to examine the footage and he described it as 'a perceptive nightmare'.
'This wasn't a scenario where was discharging a weapon in their direction,' said Palumbo.
'One of the things the public has to understand, an individual wielding a knife at you at about 20 feet can be on top of you in a split second.
'The public doesn't know this because they don't do this for a living.'
Palumbo is here to lend credibility to the claim that there is any type of justification to this execution style murder of an innocent man by the police. Because there is no justification of the police's actions, Palumbo resorts to a bizarre explanation that someone can move about twenty feet in a split second. If you don't think about it, you might accept this explanation. Mikiverse Politics, however, did a quick calculation to ascertain that in metric terms, twenty feet is actually six point zero nine six metres, or approximately a sixteenth of one hundred metres.
I am employing the seemingly random comparison of one hundred metres to the aforementioned confrontation for a reason. That reason is to comprehend if Palumbo's claim is reasonable or not.
The fastest humans on earth run the one hundred metres in under ten seconds. This means that it takes Usain Bolt just under a second to run ten metres, yet, Palumbo is happy to tell you that an agitated, unfit, homeless man can run six metres in a split second, which is on par with the fastest men on planet earth.
Reasonable?
Saginaw Assistant Manager of Public Safety Phillip A. Ludos said he watched the CNN segment, but declined commenting on the footage.
'It's an ongoing investigation and there's possible civil litigation,' said Ludos, who oversees the police and fire departments. 'We've got no statement, one way or another.'
A police investigation into alleged police brutality is underway in Michigan after six officers shot a homeless man 46 times after he failed to follow their instructions in a parking lot.
Amateur video captures the fatal exchange between Saginaw police and 49-year-old Milton Hall after he called the police following an argument with a convenience store clerk.
Refusing to drop a knife after repeated requests, the video shows officers unleash a volley of bullets at the agitated Hall in a move his mother, Jewel Hall Milton, described as a 'firing squad dressed in police uniforms.'
Milton Hall is circled standing in the parking lot of a convenience store in Saginaw, Michigan in a encounter with police. Shot on July 1st, in the parking lot of West Genessee avenue, the investigation into the use of excessive police force by the officers has taken at least six weeks and caused anger and impatience amongst residents in the town of 50,000 in central Michigan.
A female officer can be heard to say 'Put the knife down, put the knife down' to which Hall replies, 'I ain't putting sh*t down.'
Eventually Hall is seen to move to the left of the frame in the video and then is shot in a barrage of bullets of which at least 30 can be heard to ring out.
Officer's of Saginaw Police Department scream at Hall to drop the knife he is carrying but the homeless man refuses to follow their instructions
The six police officers begin to fire a volley of bullets at Hall who can be seen in the picture doubling up and falling to the ground
'All of a sudden, pow, pow, pow, pow, pow...and he drops,' said Anthony Baber, who was in his car in the parking lot when the shooting occurred.
Saginaw County Prosecutor Michael Thomas said to CNN that the squad of police opened fire 'because apparently, at this point in time, he was threatening to assault police.'
The County Prosecutor and Saginaw police have been involved in an investigation into the shooting and Saginaw Police Chief Gerald Cliff said that Hall was 'known to be an assaultive person' with 'a long history' of involvement with authorities, 'not only with police from our department but with the county.'
Hall had been jailed for vagrancy in the past said his cousin, Mike Washington, but, 'He was not violent'.
Jewel Hall Milton, Hall's mother said that her son was mentally ill and admitted to being furious with police in addition to her obvious distress.
'There was another way. They did not have to kill him. He had not done anything. He was not violent. He was not a murderer. He was not a criminal.'
She said that before her son became homeless he was a civil rights activist, received Social Security disability payments for mental illness and had lived in the area for 35 years.
'Everybody knew him. The police knew him well,' said Milton.
'So that's another question: they knew him, so why? Why did they kill him?
Jewel Hall Milton described the shootings as a 'firing squad dressed in police uniforms.'
'I'm stunned that six human beings would stand in front of one human being and fire 46 shots.
'I just don't understand that. It's a lot of pain in that because it only takes one shot, so the question is why?'
Distraught, Milton questioned why none of the camera's in the police squad cars were operational.
'So that's the question I have and the community has it, what's taking so long?' said Milton.
'Why is not being transparent?'
CNN asked Lou Palumbo, a former Long Island police officer to examine the footage and he described it as 'a perceptive nightmare'.
'This wasn't a scenario where was discharging a weapon in their direction,' said Palumbo.
'One of the things the public has to understand, an individual wielding a knife at you at about 20 feet can be on top of you in a split second.
'The public doesn't know this because they don't do this for a living.'
Palumbo is here to lend credibility to the claim that there is any type of justification to this execution style murder of an innocent man by the police. Because there is no justification of the police's actions, Palumbo resorts to a bizarre explanation that someone can move about twenty feet in a split second. If you don't think about it, you might accept this explanation. Mikiverse Politics, however, did a quick calculation to ascertain that in metric terms, twenty feet is actually six point zero nine six metres, or approximately a sixteenth of one hundred metres.
I am employing the seemingly random comparison of one hundred metres to the aforementioned confrontation for a reason. That reason is to comprehend if Palumbo's claim is reasonable or not.
The fastest humans on earth run the one hundred metres in under ten seconds. This means that it takes Usain Bolt just under a second to run ten metres, yet, Palumbo is happy to tell you that an agitated, unfit, homeless man can run six metres in a split second, which is on par with the fastest men on planet earth.
Reasonable?
Saginaw Assistant Manager of Public Safety Phillip A. Ludos said he watched the CNN segment, but declined commenting on the footage.
'It's an ongoing investigation and there's possible civil litigation,' said Ludos, who oversees the police and fire departments. 'We've got no statement, one way or another.'
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