[Peace] My story on police killing of Richard "Richie" Turner

Mon May 1 18:22:27 UTC 2017

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http://publici.ucimc.org/the-cops-killed-richie/

*The Cops Killed Richie*

By Brian Dolinar

No matter how much training or technology, the cops just can’t stop
killing Black people. On a Wednesday morning, November 16, 2016, at
approximately 8:30 a.m., Champaign police received a call about a
“disorderly” subject, Richard “Richie” Turner, a homeless man well known by
many students and community members in Campustown.

Richie was chased by police into the back alley of Penn Station. There he
was tackled and pinned down by four officers from the Champaign Police
Department (University of Illinois Police were not involved in the
incident): Officer Christopher Young, Officer Andrew Wilson, Officer
Michael Talbott, and Sergeant Thomas Frost. Police pushed Richie’s face
into the concrete, cuffed him by his wrists and ankles, what is known as
being “hog-tied.” After a short struggle, Richie stopped breathing and laid
motionless. Richie’s death was called an accident, but his sister is not
willing to accept this explanation. “To me, it was not an accident,”
Chandra Turner told me.

What follows is a look into Richie’s death from an investigation conducted
by the Illinois State Police obtained by a Freedom of Information Act
(FOIA) request, a report released by the office of Champaign County Coroner
Duane Northrup, and correspondence with Richie’s sister, Chandra Turner,
who is determined to find out what happened to her brother.

*“Out of Sorts”*

Police were responding to a call made by a woman who later told police she
was “familiar” with Richie and saw him “almost every day.” On this morning,
Richie was in front of the Firehaus bar on Sixth Street with a bottle of
wine at 8:30 a.m.. She called police to check on him because he seemed “out
of sorts.”

When Officer Christopher Young arrived, Richie was sitting on the ground in
front of the Home Town Pantry convenience store at Sixth and Green. As soon
as he saw the police, Richie “abruptly moved around trying to stand up.” He
is described by police as “yelling” and “largely unintelligible.” After
Young approached him, Richie grabbed a construction sign and threw it on
the ground. Young “yelled” at him to put it back and told Richie to “leave
the area.”

Richie crossed the intersection at Sixth and Green and headed north. Police
then “followed” Richie yelling at him to stop. Richie is described in
police reports as “running.” But according to Richie’s sister, Chandra
Turner, he had a bad leg from falling one winter and could not have run too
fast.

Officer Andrew Wilson called an ambulance seeking an “involuntary submittal
for evaluation.” This story is partly about the failure of police to
adequately address people with mental illness, or if they should be called
upon at all to deal with people often afflicted by paranoia.

In the alley behind the Penn Station restaurant, police stopped Richie.
Officer Wilson was the first to put his hands on Richie, grabbing his right
arm. Wilson was aware of Richie’s history of “mental illness” from “several
interactions” with him in the past.

Sgt. Thomas Frost wrote in his report that Richie appeared “very manic and
was thrusting his arms up and down, back and forth. Additionally, he when
he moved his head it moved rapidly from side-to-side.” His said this
behavior was a “mirror image” from April 2016 when police took him to Carle
hospital for a mental health evaluation.

*Relax*

At this point, as Officer Young describes, they all three “fell to the
ground.” Police had Richie face down on the concrete. Officer Wilson turned
Richie’s right arm around his back. Officer Young was on top of him, with
his right knee on Richie’s left shoulder. Young wrote in his report, “I
used my right hand to stop Richie’s head from lifting/turning.” While
pushing his face into the concrete, Officer Young was “constantly telling
Richard to relax.”

Officer Michael Talbott then took hold of Richie’s legs, while Officer
Thomas Frost put a “hobble” around his ankles. A police hobble
<http://policehobbles.com/> can be tied around the feet, and then connected
by a rope to handcuffs. This restraining of an individual by hands and feet
is known as “hog tying.” This practice has contributed to other deaths in
police custody in Los Angeles
<http://articles.latimes.com/2012/jan/22/local/la-me-hogtie-20120122> and
Memphis
<http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-death-hogtied-idUSKCN0PV2HU20150721>.

Although Sgt. Frost had a Taser with him, he did not use it. Whether the
outcome would have been different is questionable, as Tasers have been
linked to deaths in custody.

“At that time,” Officer Young reported, “we noticed Richard was no longer
resisting or moving.” When police rolled Richie over on his back, “he did
not seem to be breathing.” Richie was pronounced dead shortly after being
transported to Carle hospital.

Deputy Coroner Sara Rand concluded that Richie’s death was “accidental,”
but a contributing factor was “physical and mental stress during restraint
by law enforcement.”

Police interviewed witnesses who give another perspective. Two homeless men
were nearby, and although they did not see police kill Richie, they
witnessed events before and after. One man followed police in their pursuit
of Richie and said they “tackled” him. A second man said he saw police put
Richie into an ambulance and heard one of the officers say, “who had they
knee on his neck?”

A University of Illinois student was also interviewed. In his opinion,
police were “a little aggressive” in the way “one officer kneeled on him.”

None of the four Champaign officers had body cameras.

*“Something ain’t right.”               *

Richie’s sister Chandra reached out to me after receiving the coroner’s
report. She was surprised at the test results. Richie was found to have a
minimal blood alcohol content (0.004%), he was clearly not drunk. There
were also no drugs in his system, only coffee and tobacco.

“He would not be dead if it wasn’t for [the police]” Chandra explained to
me. She pointed out that police had Richie’s hand behind his back, and his
feet tied. “They didn’t try to save him,” she said. “Something ain’t
right.”

I spoke with Champaign Police Chief Anthony Cobb about the incident. He
told me there was an internal investigation still underway and he could not
comment. Asked when his investigation would be done, he could not provide a
timeline.

Richie’s death raises the question of whether police should be used to
respond to individuals with mental illness. As I have reported, during the
1990s, Champaign County operated an award-winning Crisis Team
<http://publici.ucimc.org/how-privatization-destroyed-award-winning-suicide-prevention-program-in-champaign-county-jail/>,
made up of trained professionals who answered calls about people who were
suicidal or mentally ill, whether in the local jail, or on the street. Such
mental health services were eliminated and privatized by Sheriff Dan Walsh
soon after he came into office. Since then, CU has seen a rise of deaths in
police custody. In 2015-2016, there were three deaths
<http://www.smilepolitely.com/culture/champaign_county_facing_million_dollar_lawsuit_for_jail_death/>
in the county jail.

In recent years, out of the debate over a new jail, local mental health
services providers, county officials, and local police briefly attempted to
create a Detox Center
<http://www.news-gazette.com/news/local/2015-10-01/panel-sees-need-detox-center.html>
for people in need of drug addiction and mental health services, but the
idea has been abandoned by several bureaucratic committees.

Sunny Ture, an organizer with Black United Front UIUC, responded, “The
murder of Richard Turner is a tragedy for his family and another reminder
of the Champaign Police Department’s destructive relationship with the
Black community. The many mistakes their officers made have been obscured
and ignored because Richard was Black, poor, and homeless. His life did not
matter to Sheriff Dan Walsh who has a history of cutting mental health
services in favor of more tools of criminalization. Richard Turner’s
murderers should be held accountable for their crimes, and the Champaign
Police Department should immediately end the practice of commanding armed
officers to interact with people that have mental illness.”

-- 
Brian Dolinar, Ph.D.
briandolinar.com
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