[Peace] [from Brian Dolinar] CU Citizens Help Ms. Davis Move Out Of Bullet-Riddled House

[Stuart Levy]

This story at ucimc.org

On Saturday, August 18, 2007, Champaign-Urbana Citizens for Peace and
Justice pitched in to get Ms. Mildred Davis moved out of her house at 4
Hedge Court, nearly two months after a tragedy struck her home. Champaign
police were in pursuit of Torriano Johnson on June 24, 2007, which began in
Urbana and ended up in a stand-off at 4 Hedge Court in the Garden Hills
neighborhood in Champaign. Ms. Davis, a 62 year-old grandmother who lives
there, says police fired into her home while people outside told officers
that she and her grandchildren were inside.

Fortunately, no one was physically injured in the incident. But the
approximately 30 bullet holes that remained in her living room were a daily
reminder to Ms. Davis of the horror she experienced that night. She showed
me the chair where her children usually sit in the evenings that had been
shot by two bullets.

CU Citizens for Peace and Justice, a local grassroots organization,
immediately responded after they heard the news. Martel Miller, who is from
Garden Hills, talked to Ms. Davis to make sure she had somewhere else to
stay and he also helped to get her some food. Miller contacted the local
media and was there with them when Ms. Davis came back to her home Monday
morning to find it ransacked, she believes by the Champaign police. She had
given police a key to her home so that they could conduct an investigation.
She says the police went through her personal items and damaged her
property. What they were looking for she does not know. She says she never
knew the suspect Torriano Johnson. Ms. Davis was just an innocent bystander.

Ms. Davis was sitting in the chair of her front living room when Torriano
Johnson ran into her house. She grabbed her two-year-old great-grandson just
as police started firing into the house. She held the boy as a hail of
gunshots entered her front window and went through the curtains, just a few
feet from her. Two of her other grandchildren were in the bedroom. People
outside had told the police not to fire into the house, that people were
inside.

For several weeks, Ms. Davis had to live in the same house, with bullet
holes still in the front window and in the drapes. She told me, "Every time
I sit in this house, I look at that window. Where I could have been killed.
It gets me."

Concerned about getting the damage to Ms. Davis' home fixed, we contacted
her landlord who lives in Chicago. He told us he could not locate a
contractor while out of town. Marti Wilkinson, also of CU Citizens,
contacted the city council representative for Garden Hills, Vic McIntosh, to
ask what he could do to help. His only response was to provide a list of
contractors to do the work. Aaron Ammons wrote a letter to the
Champaigncity council appealing for their help, but only Deb Feinan
emailed him back.
The local authorities must believe that because Ms. Davis is a poor elderly
woman who lives in a black neighborhood, she does not deserve the same
attention as the wealthy white residents of Champaign.

The Champaign police have claimed no responsibility, saying it is up to the
owner's insurance to pay for the damage. Yet recently, they tried to
pressure her into taking a settlement. Adding insult to injury, they offered
her a paltry $200.

Ms. Davis says the Champaign police sent Charles Nash, Pastor of the New
Hope Church of God in Christ, along with Champaign spokesperson Rene Dunn,
to talk with her. She says Reverend Nash told her it would be "ugly" if she
took this to court. City officials then contacted her three days later
offering her a $200 check for her pain and suffering. This was, of course,
in exchange for her signature on a settlement form. Just because Ms. Davis
is a poor elderly woman who lives in Garden Hills, authorities believed she
could be easily bought. Ms. Davis rejected the settlement and is looking for
justice.

Because she is on a fixed income, Ms. Davis was unable to afford moving out
of the house. CU Citizens for Peace and Justice raised $750 from the
community for a deposit on a new rental. Carol Ammons found a house just a
few blocks away from 4 Hedge Court so Ms. Davis' foster children could
remain in the same school district. Durl Kruse lent his truck and we helped
Ms. Davis and her family to move to her new home. We hope Ms. Davis can now
live without the daily reminder of this harrowing event.



Interview with Ms. Mildred Davis on August 9, 2007 conducted by Brian
Dolinar.

*"God, Please Don't Let These People Hurt My Kids."*

Ms. Davis: As all the shooting was going on, I was sitting right here [in
her chair]. My little two-year-old great-grandson walked out that back room
and got up on this couch. I said, "Don't move. You sit there." All of a
sudden he just bust out and start hollering. I thought they had hit him. I
got out the chair and crawled over and got him off the couch and sit back in
this chair with him like this [holding him]. All them bullets was coming in
here. Could have hit me or him. I said, "Lord, they done hit my baby."

Then I had two [children] under the bed. I didn't know the other two boys
was back there until they told me, "Grandma, I heard everything you said to
God." I said, "God, please don't let these people hurt my kids."

I wondered why [that man] had run up in here. It was kind of warm. I didn't
have my air on so I left open the door in the evening. My friend's out there
sitting drinking coffee. I was sitting just like this. And I seen all them
lights coming around the corner. I said that's a lot of police cars behind
one car. And by the time I said that, the man jumped out of the car, right
where your car parked, with the car running and jumped out and left the door
open and run on in.

My friend was sitting on the porch, where he sits all the time, he was out
there drinking coffee. This man pulled up. [My friend] told him, don't go in
there with that. He just picked him up, set him to the side, and came on in.


BD: Did you see him carrying a gun?

Ms. Davis: He had it in his hand when he come in the door. I was sitting
right here. He said, "I'm going out your back door." I said, "Go ahead." I'm
not going to tell nobody got a gun they can't go out my back door. What
would I tell him that for? I said, "Go on out."

BD: Did you see him shooting?

He didn't shoot period. Now what he did to them [before] I don't know. I
don't know what he did. I didn't care.

What really got me, when that man run in the door, they were right behind
him and started shooting. People was starting to tell them, "Don't shoot in
there. That lady in there with her grand-kids." They stood right there and
shot [pointing at the front window]. They did that.

Even my grandson that had got out of here, the ten-year old, he was standing
there hollering and crying, "My grandma and brothers are in there." But they
still shot.

[Johnson] never shot period. Not here. Its not my problem what he did
nowhere else. My problem was when he runs through here and they start
shooting at him and people was telling them I was in here. That's what is my
problem.

It hurt me for a person to do a person like that. Because I'm human just
like anybody else. If it would have been their family, they would have been
there. I don't believe they would have shot in the house like that if people
started to tell them that somebody was in there. The [neighbors] across the
street were telling them I was over here with them kids. But they still were
shooting. Why would you just stand there and shoot if people are telling you
I was in there?

I didn't have my mind on nothing but worrying about them kids. I could have
been killed and they wouldn't have nobody. That stuff hurts. I sit and cry
about it now. The didn't care, the way I feel. They didn't care. I been
trying to figure it out, but I can't.

*"They Didn't Say Nothing To Me."*

When I went out, they sent me across the street. "Go this way." I went that
way and there was a girl that knows me. She says, "Ain't you feeling bad?" I
said, "Yes, I am." I could hardly see, my blood pressure had run up so high.
When the ambulance got here my blood pressure was 270 over 150. I could
hardly see.

They wanted to take me to the emergency room. I said, "No. I'm not going
nowhere until I know them other kids out that house." They said, "We are
going to have to take you, you're going to have a heart attack." I said,
"I'll just have to have one. Because I'm not leaving until they come out."

My daughter came over to the ambulance. She said, "The kids are alright. The
man surrendered." They said, "Are you willing to go now?" I said, "Yes, you
can take me now."

I went to the emergency room. Didn't nobody come up there, no police
officers, nobody came there from the time I went there until the time I
left. Nobody came there to see how I was or to tell me nothing about whether
they had got the man or nothing. They didn't say nothing to me.

*House Ransacked *

I got [the children] and I took my daughter home. She kept them with her. I
stayed over at a friend's house. The next morning, the kids needed clothes.
I called my case worker. Martel [Miller] had called me told me to come over
here [her home], the news people was going to be here. When I got here, they
was out there waiting for me. When I got here, they came in.

They had all my clothes on the hangers laid down on the floor in the
closets. Why would the police [be] going in your closets. I had clothes
folded up, in boxes, like my towels and stuff. I don't have no dressers yet.


That really pissed me off. I walked in here Monday morning with all my stuff
laying on the floor. Some of it didn't work no more. The DVD games I had
bought were broke. And them games are not cheap.

They broke a lot of my stuff. All my necklaces and stuff I had in a round
thing sitting on my walnut stand. All of my earrings, everything else on the
floor. All my papers from the DCFS office out of a little plastic thing that
zips. All my papers on the floor. I can't find my kid's birth certificates.
I can't be paying money out to get no birth certificates.

They ain't got no business knocking out everything in your house. I'll never
believe that man (Johnson) took that stuff out of there and knocked it on
the floor. I'll never believe that.

When I returned home that Monday morning to get clothes for my kids, my
refrigerator was sitting over there. I had just got through shopping that
night. All my food had thawed. I hadn't been here since I had left because
they were to investigate, whatever they were doing, I don't know what they
were doing because I wasn't here. They asked for a key. I gave them my door
key. I had to keys. They had a key and I had a key. And I had not been in
here. When I opened that door that Monday morning when I got here, with
Martel and them, and my case worker from DCFS, everything was just pulled
out and thrown around. And I don't think that's right.

The kid's clothes was all down. I've got pictures of it. All the clothes in
each one of these closets was out on the floor. What else you looking for? I
don't know the man. The man don't come here. Whoever he is. I wouldn't know
him now. They don't have no right to do that. They going to holler about
what it was they were looking for. What you looking for? I ain't never been
involved in nothing. Why would they just come running through here like
that? That's not right. That pissed me off.

*Adding Insult to Injury *

When I got home these cards was sticking in my door.  I talked to him
[handing me one of the cards].

BD: [Reading the card] Lieutenant Joe Gallo.

Yeah, he told me talk to Larry [Kraus] about my stuff that was damaged and
that they would pay for it. Larry told me write down what was damaged and
bring it to him. I didn't do it right then because my mind wasn't even on
that. I was too thankful to be alive and didn't none of my kids get hurt.
That's all that mattered to me right then.

BD: I heard a couple people came over from Champaign?

I had an appointment with Pastor Nash on Friday [August 3, 2007]. Pastor
Nash come over here, and some Dunn lady [Champaign police spokesperson Rene
Dunn.]. Him and her come over here. I didn't know he was bringing her with
him. I don't know her anyway. When he got here, he introduced me to her.

Pastor Nash told me, "I'm pleased that the police are going to pay for your
stuff." He said, if you go to court, he said "Things could get ugly." He
said, "You know, some people were here that weren't supposed to be here." He
said, "They are going to say stuff in court." I feel that they were trying
to scare me. You see, I don't know nothing about no law.

When Pastor Nash came he said, "What would your stuff cost, give me a
price." I said, "I don't know. I'll call you back."

I called Larry [Kraus] back. He said "I'm going out of town and [won't be]
back until Friday." I told him my legs were bothering me. He said, "Well
send somebody to get it." I told my daughter to go get the paper and don't
sign nothing. I told him I wanted to read the paper myself so I could see
what they were talking about. So my daughter went and got the paper. He
called me back, when he was supposed to be going of town. I asked him, "What
do I have to sign this paper for?" He said, "To pick up your check." I said,
"I am not going to sign no paper for no check." Because I was not going to
accept $200. [See settlement letter below.]

I told Larry, "What is $200 going to buy? That can't even buy my kids' game
back. They shot a hole in my cabinet back there. He told me I could patch
that up, and they'll give me a cover for my chair. I said, "It wasn't like
that when you come here."

That chair [the one I was sitting in], that's where my kids sit at night.
They shot twice in that chair. They had to cut it to get some bullets out.
[See photo.]

My two-year-old boy, every time the police drive by, he thinks they're
coming back here. They keep riding by. They told me they were going to watch
around.

Every time I sit in this house, I look at that window [with bullet holes
still in it and the curtains]. Where I could have been killed. It gets me
[she begins crying and our interview comes to a close].




* *

*RELEASE AND WAIVER*

[This settlement letter was given to Ms. Davis to sign]


I, Mildred Davis, hereby accept $200.00 (two hundred dollars) in full
compromise settlement and satisfaction of and as sole consideration of the
final release and discharge of any and all action, claims, causes of action
and demands whatsoever that now exist, or may hereafter accrue, against the
City of Champaign, its officers, employees and agents and all others, and
any other person in connection with the incident which occurred on *June 24,
2007 *involving the Champaign Police Department which resulted in damage to
the contents of the house located at 4 Hedge Court, Champaign, Il 61820 and
which I claim that above named persons or parties are legally liable in
damages; which legal liability and damages are disputed and denied. I agree
that this Release and Waiver shall apply to all unknown and unanticipated
expenses, injuries, and damages resulting from the aforementioned incident
as well as those now disclosed and shall be binding upon me and my heirs,
executors, administrators and assigns. I do further covenant, warrant, and
agree not to make further demands nor institute any suit or proceeding,
whether in law or equity, arising from or connected with any loss, injury or
damage that I may sustain as a result of the aforementioned incident. The
delivery of this release and waiver is in exchange for payment of $200.00.
NO ORAL REPRESENTATIONS OR INDUCEMENTS have been made to me on which I rely
upon to sign this agreement.

I have read and understand all of the RELEASE AND WAIVER FORM, and by
signing below indicate my voluntary concurrence with its terms.

Name:              __________  Date: __________**

Address:           __________

Phone:              __________

-- 
Brian Dolinar, Ph.D.
303 W. Locust St.
Urbana, IL 61801
briandolinar at gmail.com

(See also the moving day photo at:
       http://www.anti-war.net/pictures/davis-move-aug07.jpeg
)