Comment on Mississippi horse trainer's death stirs fears in small town

Mississippi horse trainer's death stirs fears in small town

(AP) — Fists raised in protest and at times heads bowed in prayer, hundreds of people gathered in a small Mississippi town to demand justice in the case of a black man who died after a physical encounter with a white police officer. What happened that night is intensely disputed, and has raised tensions in this small former mill town where hundreds of people turned out Sunday night for a march on the local police station demanding action. [...] Herrington's attorney, Bill Ready Jr., said Sanders had what appeared to be illegal drugs and grabbed the officer's gun during a struggle. Sanders mother and sister wore T-shirts showing an image of Sanders wearing a cowboy hat and riding a horse. Attorneys for Sanders' family paint his death as part of a larger nationwide struggle over police brutality against black men, and they see it as part of the unfinished civil rights movement in Stonewall, a town named after Confederate general Stonewall Jackson. Chokwe Antar Lumumba, the Sanders family lawyer, said authorities told relatives that an autopsy found he died from "manual asphyxiation" — strangulation. The autopsy finding doesn't necessarily mean Herrington committed a crime and accounts so far leave unanswered questions: [...] at a time when police departments are under intense scrutiny for treatment of black suspects, did race play a factor? Stonewall doesn't have cameras in police cars or on officers, putting the focus on witnesses. The lawyers for the witnesses relayed their accounts to The Associated Press but said they did not want to talk directly with reporters: [...] last week, he was working occasional shifts in Stonewall and two nights a week in neighboring Enterprise.

 

Comment On This Story

Welcome to Wopular!

Welcome to Wopular

Wopular is an online newspaper rack, giving you a summary view of the top headlines from the top news sites.

Senh Duong (Founder)
Wopular, MWB, RottenTomatoes

Subscribe to Wopular's RSS Fan Wopular on Facebook Follow Wopular on Twitter Follow Wopular on Google Plus

MoviesWithButter : Our Sister Site

More News