It’s too very long to post all of the important parts here, so you’ll need to go read this article about 18-year-old Justin Jackson who was killed by city police after he fired on them and killed their K-9 dog.

His family, despite Justin’s history of violence and crime, refuses to believe their angel did what the cops say he did. The most important parts:

Mr. Jackson began shooting, hitting the dog twice. Police Chief Nate Harper said yesterday that bullets recovered from the dog were consistent with Mr. Jackson’s gun, a .357-caliber Magnum.

The officers, who were not injured, returned fire. Mr. Jackson died of gunshot wounds to the head and chest, according to the Allegheny County medical examiner’s office.

At his parents’ house in the West End yesterday, Mr. Jackson’s relatives gathered to mourn. In addition to grief, they expressed anger over what they believe was an unjustified shooting. Many family members do not believe he had a gun and theorized that police shot both the K-9 and Mr. Jackson.

Donald James Jackson, his father, said he has witnesses to back up this theory, but he did not want to provide their names yesterday.

He said witnesses told him that they saw one of the officers hover over his son’s body and he suspects the officers planted a gun and other evidence there.

“Eyewitnesses, evidence at the scene and trace evidence from the crime lab will prove beyond doubt he had the gun,” said Lt. Daniel Herrmann of Major Crimes. Chief Harper said that the gun recovered from Mr. Jackson had been reported stolen in 2006 from a home in Elliott.

The family said even if Mr. Jackson did have a gun, it did not warrant police fatally shooting him. In their view, the officers may have shot Mr. Jackson to make him pay for killing the dog.

Denise Bazemore, his aunt, said she was infuriated at the way the police reacted.

“Is a dog’s life worth more than a human life?” she asked.

Mr. Jackson had planned on going to night school and getting his GED, his father said.

“He decided he wanted to make a change in his life,” he said. “At the hands of the city police department, it was taken away.”

Dear Jackson Family. In your suffering for your loss, you must come to acknowledge some truths, truths that may be easier to see once the grief clears:

1. Police officers would rather shoot themselves point blank in the knee cap than intentionally shoot their own K-9 dog. I promise you it is true.

2. If you are standing across from a person with a gun and that person begins firing that gun, you are not concerned with whether he is firing the gun at the dog or at you. You will fire your gun back every single time. I promise you it is true.

3. The police do not carry around stolen guns just in case they need to plant one on a body. Your son had a gun. I promise you it is true.

4. You son had his life taken away, not at the hands of the city police, but by his own hands when he chose to fire his weapon. I promise you it is true.

5. A dog’s life is not worth more than a human life, but as awful as it sounds, in my currency, the life of a police officer protecting his city and his own life, is worth more than the life of a criminal shooting a gun at him. I think it is true.

6. There are absolutely incidents all over the nation in which police officers wrongfully accuse and/or kill young black men. This is not one of those times. I promise you it is true.

7. You loved your son, but he went down the wrong path and that is why he is dead. Admitting that doesn’t mean that he was a bad son.

It is the truth.

Category: Downtown happenings | May 9, 2008 | | ShareThis