18 Year Old Unarmed Black Kid shot by police officer who had posted racist messages online and
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had killed before
An unarmed black 18-year-old accused of shoplifting was killed by a police officer in Virginia who had been barred from patrolling city streets for almost three years after fatally shooting another unarmed man.
William Chapman was shot dead by Stephen Rankin, a white Portsmouth police officer, during a struggle in a Walmart parking lot. Rankin, 35, a US navy veteran trained in martial arts, was once disciplined for posting violent remarks and ? images online.
Chapman’s family likened his death to that of Michael Brown, another unarmed black 18-year-old who was suspected of a theft and shot dead following a struggle with a white officer. Brown’s death last year in Ferguson unleashed nationwide protests.
But they noted with disappointment that Chapman’s killing in April barely registered among activists and the media. “I feel alone,” said Chapman’s mother, Sallie. “Because my son is gone and because nobody is trying to help me understand why.”
The Virginia chief medical examiner’s office said in a statement only that the cause of Chapman’s death was “gunshot wounds of face and chest”. Chapman’s mother said his hands were also wounded in the encounter, a claim supported by photographs of his body reviewed by the Guardian.
Chiefs only allowed Rankin to return to frontline policing in March last year, almost three years after he killed an unarmed 26-year-old Kazakh immigrant in February 2011. Rankin was later found to have insulted the man and his family in other online postings.
A sergeant in the department at the time told the Guardian that senior commanders were formally warned by one of Rankin’s supervisors weeks before his first fatal shooting that he was “dangerous” and likely to cause someone harm.
Asked twice during a telephone interview why Rankin had been allowed to continue policing the public, Portsmouth’s police chief, Edward Hargis, repeated: “That’s a personnel matter and I can’t comment.” He added: “I’m not going to comment on what people may say, allegation-wise.”
Police refused to say whether Chapman was actually found to have stolen anything. They will still not confirm it was Rankin who shot him. However, the head of Rankin’s professional association confirmed to the Guardian he was indeed the officer involved.
Rankin fired twice after Chapman resisted an arrest at the edge of the superstore parking lot on the morning of 22 April and a struggle ensued, according to witnesses. The officer was responding to a complaint by store staff of a “suspected shoplifting”.
A funeral service was held for Chapman last month but his body has not yet been buried because his family is unable to afford the $3,600 fee, relatives said.
His shooting is being investigated by the Virginia state police, which is also carrying out an inquiry into the fatal shooting by another Portsmouth officer a month earlier of Walter Brown, a 29-year-old black man who fled a stop by drugs police.
Sergeant Michelle Anaya, a state police spokeswoman, declined to discuss any details of what happened in Chapman’s shooting. “That investigation is currently ongoing and that information is not available at this time for release,” she said in an email.
Chapman’s death was publicly overshadowed by that of 25-year-old Freddie Gray in Baltimore, Maryland, three days earlier. He is one of three unarmed black teenagers killed by law enforcement in the US so far this year, according to an ongoing count by the Guardian.
Full Story : http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/jun/01/william-chapman-unarmed-shot-dead
An unarmed black 18-year-old accused of shoplifting was killed by a police officer in Virginia who had been barred from patrolling city streets for almost three years after fatally shooting another unarmed man.
William Chapman was shot dead by Stephen Rankin, a white Portsmouth police officer, during a struggle in a Walmart parking lot. Rankin, 35, a US navy veteran trained in martial arts, was once disciplined for posting violent remarks and ? images online.
Chapman’s family likened his death to that of Michael Brown, another unarmed black 18-year-old who was suspected of a theft and shot dead following a struggle with a white officer. Brown’s death last year in Ferguson unleashed nationwide protests.
But they noted with disappointment that Chapman’s killing in April barely registered among activists and the media. “I feel alone,” said Chapman’s mother, Sallie. “Because my son is gone and because nobody is trying to help me understand why.”
The Virginia chief medical examiner’s office said in a statement only that the cause of Chapman’s death was “gunshot wounds of face and chest”. Chapman’s mother said his hands were also wounded in the encounter, a claim supported by photographs of his body reviewed by the Guardian.
Chiefs only allowed Rankin to return to frontline policing in March last year, almost three years after he killed an unarmed 26-year-old Kazakh immigrant in February 2011. Rankin was later found to have insulted the man and his family in other online postings.
A sergeant in the department at the time told the Guardian that senior commanders were formally warned by one of Rankin’s supervisors weeks before his first fatal shooting that he was “dangerous” and likely to cause someone harm.
Asked twice during a telephone interview why Rankin had been allowed to continue policing the public, Portsmouth’s police chief, Edward Hargis, repeated: “That’s a personnel matter and I can’t comment.” He added: “I’m not going to comment on what people may say, allegation-wise.”
Police refused to say whether Chapman was actually found to have stolen anything. They will still not confirm it was Rankin who shot him. However, the head of Rankin’s professional association confirmed to the Guardian he was indeed the officer involved.
Rankin fired twice after Chapman resisted an arrest at the edge of the superstore parking lot on the morning of 22 April and a struggle ensued, according to witnesses. The officer was responding to a complaint by store staff of a “suspected shoplifting”.
A funeral service was held for Chapman last month but his body has not yet been buried because his family is unable to afford the $3,600 fee, relatives said.
His shooting is being investigated by the Virginia state police, which is also carrying out an inquiry into the fatal shooting by another Portsmouth officer a month earlier of Walter Brown, a 29-year-old black man who fled a stop by drugs police.
Sergeant Michelle Anaya, a state police spokeswoman, declined to discuss any details of what happened in Chapman’s shooting. “That investigation is currently ongoing and that information is not available at this time for release,” she said in an email.
Chapman’s death was publicly overshadowed by that of 25-year-old Freddie Gray in Baltimore, Maryland, three days earlier. He is one of three unarmed black teenagers killed by law enforcement in the US so far this year, according to an ongoing count by the Guardian.
Full Story : http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/jun/01/william-chapman-unarmed-shot-dead
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? man they can't even bury him. Gotta find a way to donate to the family now that's ? up I couldn't imagine if that was my son & I couldn't afford to bury him
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Stephen Rankin: the military-trained officer who killed two unarmed men
Before Officer Stephen Rankin fatally shot 18-year-old William Chapman, when an autopsy found the first unarmed man he killed was shot 11 times, residents of this city in southern Virginia voiced their dismay on the website of a local newspaper.
For a while, his Facebook avatar was a screen print of a photograph depicting a Serb left hanging from a lamp post by invading ? forces in 1943.
Rankin was a good fit for the Portsmouth police department, a force that maintains a strong military streak by drawing a large proportion of recruits from troops departing the vast US navy base in neighbouring Norfolk.
Rankin arrived in Virginia after his own stint in the navy, where he had previously been stationed in Everett, Washington, and worked as a master-at-arms responsible for security. He left in 2007 as a petty-officer second class.
It was in the military that Rankin received his law enforcement training, during an intensive six-week course at the US naval base in Kings Bay, Georgia.
Rankin told attorneys during questioning in 2012 that he was deployed to Ash Shuaybah, Kuwait, where the US base Camp Spearhead served as a staging post for the invasion and occupation of Iraq. After five years of service, he joined the Portsmouth police department in August 2007.
Rankin hails from San Bernardino, California, where at 20 he was convicted of driving a motorcycle without a full licence, according to court records.
Portsmouth officials said he was given three internal awards in 2009 and 2010 for outstanding performance and handling a crime scene with a large crowd. However, one officer who worked alongside Rankin said he was unsteady. “He was afraid of his own shadow,” said the officer, who has since left the department.
And several complaints were filed about his use of force, according to a police supervisor in the department at the time. The retired supervisor told the Guardian that senior commanders were formally warned by Rankin’s lieutenant weeks before his first fatal shooting that he was “dangerous” and likely to cause someone harm.
Asked twice during a telephone interview why Rankin had been allowed to continue policing the public, Portsmouth police chief Edward Hargis said: “That’s a personnel matter and I can’t comment.”
Lawyers for Denyakin’s family said his mother rejected an offer of a settlement of several hundred thousand dollars shortly before the verdict was reached.
By then, Rankin had used his online persona to make his feelings about their legal action perfectly clear.
“22 mil wont buy your boy back,” he wrote. Elsewhere he noted most Americans couldn’t hope to earn such sums in an entire career, “let alone a habitual ? working as a hotel cook”.
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One morning late this April, Rankin encountered Chapman at the edge of the parking lot of Portsmouth’s Walmart. Store staff had reported a shoplifting, and Rankin suspected Chapman was the culprit. Police still refuse to say whether the 18-year-old was actually found to be carrying any stolen merchandise.
According to two construction workers who were building another store at the same mall that morning, a struggle ensued when Chapman broke free of Rankin, who was trying to handcuff him against a parked car at 7.35am. Rankin’s Taser appeared to be knocked from his hand, the workers said.
During another online discussion of Denyakin’s killing back in 2011, Rankin had in any case dismissed suggestions that he should have used a stun gun to subdue a combative arrestee rather than opt for deadly force.
“Assuming the officer is confident he can hit the target the first time in the less than one second he has to make the choice and fire, the Taser can still fail if one of the probes doesn’t connect, a wire gets broken, or any number of other reasons,” wrote Rankin.
He once again elected to open fire, fatally wounding Chapman. Portsmouth police and state investigators have so far declined to say how many times Rankin pulled the trigger this time. “The cause of death is gunshot wounds of face and chest,” Donna Rice, an official in the chief medical examiner’s office, said in an email.[/b]
However, Chapman’s mother, Sallie, claims her son’s hands were so badly wounded in the encounter that funeral workers told her they could not meet her request to lay them across his chest. “As a mother, I can’t do that to you,” she quoted one funeral home staff member as telling her. It is unclear how his hands came to be injured.
The construction workers, Paul Akey and Leroy Woodman, gave slightly different accounts of what happened to local television crews. Akey, 59, said Chapman “went nuts and started whaling” on Rankin during the arrest, and was then shot when he “came at” the officer, who had retreated. Akey said Rankin was “in the right”.
But Woodman, 27, described the encounter as “a tussle” and appeared to suggest Chapman was felled before he could clash with the officer. Both construction workers, who have since been interviewed by police, declined to comment to the Guardian.
“[Rankin] stepped back a couple steps and the guy, he pulled his shirt off and took a couple steps towards the cop like he was ready to fight,” said Woodman. “So the cop opened fire and that was the end of it.” Chapman was pronounced dead at 7.45am.
The officer had been back on the beat only for a little over a year. When he returned to work in June 2011 after two months of paid leave following the shooting of Denyakin, he was made to wait another two years and nine months before commanders allowed him to return to frontline policing. He was confined to the office and paperwork.
Rankin told attorneys for Denyakin’s family in 2012 that he had received standard firearms training in the navy, including classes from the National Rifle Association on being a pistol instructor. Less typical, however, was his qualification in the Marine Corps martial arts program.
Rankin’s resume states that in 2005 he received a grey belt in the program, which trains US marines, and other naval officers working alongside them, in hand-to-hand combat. To earn the grey belt, officers must be proficient in a range of fighting techniques intended to “stun the aggressor” and “stop an aggressor’s attack”.
Among these techniques are chokeholds designed to render an aggressor unconscious, hip throws to fell them, along with chin jabs, karate chops, elbow strikes, knee strikes, axe stomps and a series of different kicks.
Through the professional association that represents him and 4,000 other police officers in Virginia, attorneys for Rankin did not respond to a request for comment.
http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/jun/01/stephen-rankin-military-trained-officer-william-chapman -
Dude is a Marine trained martial artist....but he still felt threatened for his life by an unarmed 18 year old.
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Dude is a Marine trained martial artist....but he still felt threatened for his life by an unarmed 18 year old.
They are just looking for reasons to ? black men. Like its a ? badge they can add to their uniform.
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But but but Tom Hanks son said ? on social media.
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Some of these supervisors need to go to jail, along with the police officer.
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But we shouldn't feel better when cops get bodied tho. FOH
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not_osirus_jenkins wrote: »
I don't even think they are looking for reasons cause based on how the so called judicial system is working they don't need a reason. IMO they are looking for or creating situations where they can ? black men.
They know before hand they won't be charged and if they are charged they getting off. With that knowledge they don't need a reason just need a situation where they can ? . -
Another case of someone wanting to feel like a cowboy
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Wait is the cop still on the force?
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kingofkingz wrote: »Wait is the cop still on the force?
They are declining to comment so I have to assume they haven't terminated him since the killing in April. -
dam shame...officer still out there patrolling
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http://hamptonroads.com/2015/08/portsmouth-commonwealth-attorney-will-pursue-indictment-fatal-officerinvolved-shootingPortsmouth Commonwealth Attorney will pursue indictment in fatal officer-involved shooting
The Virginian-Pilot
© August 27, 2015
PORTSMOUTH
The Portsmouth Commonwealth Attorney's Office will seek an indictment in the fatal shooting of William Chapman II by a police officer, officials announced today.
Chapman, 18, was killed April 22 outside the Wal-Mart on Frederick Boulevard.
According to multiple sources, Chapman was shot and killed by Officer Stephen D. Rankin -- who in April 2011 killed another man in Olde Towne. At the time, Rankin said he shot and killed Kirill Denyakin because he felt threatened. He said Denyakin charged at him and refused to take his hand out of his pants.
The office also announced that it will not pursue any criminal charges in the fatal officer shooting of Walter Brown III.
Brown, 29, was killed March 24 inside his house following a police chase.
Officials concluded after their investigation into the incident that "the officers involved in the shooting of Walter J. Brown III were justified in their use of force," according to today's release. -
It was in the military that Rankin received his law enforcement training, during an intensive six-week course at the US naval base in Kings Bay, Georgia.
You gotta be ? kidding me.
How did this dude become a cop with only six weeks of training?
There's ? in the University of Pheonix who put in more work. -
Yeah I know loads of people train at kings bay and are on the streets in like 2 1/2 months
( its 30 minutes away from me) -
it's crazy i dont even remember making this thread...this was a whole summer of unarmed black people ago
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http://hamptonroads.com/2015/08/portsmouth-commonwealths-attorney-will-pursue-indictment-fatal-officerinvolved-shootingPortsmouth Commonwealth's Attorney will pursue indictment in fatal officer-involved shooting
By Scott Daugherty
The Virginian-Pilot
© August 28, 2015
PORTSMOUTH
Portsmouth prosecutors said Thursday they will seek an indictment against a police officer involved in a fatal shooting outside a Wal-Mart earlier this year.
A spokeswoman for Commonwealth's Attorney Stephanie Morales declined to comment on the case or to identify the officer who shot William Chapman II in April. Sources, however, have identified him as Stephen D. Rankin, a Portsmouth officer who shot and killed another unarmed man in April 2011 in Olde Towne.
"It is sad the city officials in Portsmouth did not take more deliberate steps to protect the citizens of their city after that first shooting," said Jon Babineau, an attorney representing the Chapman family. He noted that Rankin returned to regular duty only on March 1, 2014. "They let Portsmouth down."
Nicole Belote, an attorney for "the officer involved in the shooting of William Chapman," said there is a chance the grand jury will not indict her client.
"It is our hope that the grand jurors take their oath to 'diligently inquire' seriously and consider all of the circumstances involved and make a decision based on the facts," she wrote in an email. "It is our strong belief that if the grand jurors do so, they will agree to not return a true bill."
The announcement comes in the midst of a national focus on police shootings. High-profile deaths of young black men in the past 13 months at the hands of police in Ferguson, Mo., and Baltimore resulted in riots.
Charges against officers in such cases have been rare.
Mayor Kenny Wright declined to comment on the announcement, as did a spokeswoman for the Portsmouth NAACP. A police spokeswoman offered a short statement.
"We will allow justice to take its course," said Detective Misty Holley, adding that the department planned to begin its administrative investigation into the shooting.
Chapman, 18, of Portsmouth, was shot and killed about 7:30 a.m. April 22 in the parking lot of the Wal-Mart on Frederick Boulevard. According to an autopsy obtained by The Virginian-Pilot, Chapman was shot twice, once in the face and once in the chest, and pronounced dead at the scene. His body was taken to the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner with his hands cuffed behind his back.
A separate state toxicology report indicated Chapman's blood showed no traces of alcohol or drugs.
The shooting occurred less than a month after another Portsmouth officer shot and killed 29-year-old Walter Brown III in his house after a car chase. Prosecutors said Thursday they would not pursue charges in that case.
State police investigated both shootings at the request of former Portsmouth police Chief Ed Hargis.
To date, investigators have released little information about the Chapman shooting. In a news release from the day of the shooting, a state police spokeswoman said store security had called police about a shoplifter leaving the building. Shortly thereafter, a Portsmouth police officer arrived and approached a black man he saw walking across the lot.
A struggle ensued and the officer shot the man, the release said.
Witnesses said police performed CPR on Chapman.
Babineau, a former paramedic, questioned how officers were able to properly perform CPR with Chapman's hands cuffed behind him.
"It doesn't work like that," he said. "You have to have the person's back on a hard, flat surface."
Witnesses also said there was a close-quarters fight between Chapman and the officer. The autopsy, however, revealed "no evidence of close-range fire to visual inspection."
Assistant Chief Medical Examiner Wendy Gunther said a definitive ruling would have to be made by the state's Department of Forensic Sciences.
In 2011, Rankin fatally shot Kirill Denyakin after responding to a burglary call on Green Street in Olde Towne.
Rankin said Denyakin charged at him and refused to take his hand out of his pants. He was struck 11 times, according to the autopsy.
A grand jury cleared Rankin of wrongdoing in that shooting. Denyakin's family filed a civil suit in federal court, but a jury ruled in favor of the officer.
Rankin came under fire shortly after the shooting for making several Facebook posts. One included an image of a lynching. Another post displayed a punk band's song title, "Mommy Can I Go Out and ? Tonight?"
The department launched an internal investigation into the Facebook posts, but a police spokeswoman declined to comment on its outcome.
If the grand jury indicts the officer, he will be the second in Hampton Roads to be charged this year for shooting a citizen while on patrol. In June, a special grand jury indicted Norfolk Police Officer Michael Carlton Edington Jr. on one count of voluntary manslaughter.
Edington shot and killed 34-year-old David Latham on June 6, 2014, after responding to a 911 call.
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