Cop shooting of white teen in Hardee's sting gets lesser media attention; lawyer sees racial reason
A lawyer for the family of a teen shot and killed by police in a Hardee’s parking lot says most people have never heard of his client, and there’s a reason for that.
The teen, 19-year-old Zachary Hammond, is white. “If Zachary were black, the outpouring of protest and disappointment from the public and the press would be amazing,” lawyer Eric Bland tells the New York Times. “You wouldn’t be able to get a hotel room in upstate South Carolina.”
Hammond was killed by police in Seneca, South Carolina, in a drug sting on July 26, according to the Times and stories by the Post and Courier and FoxCarolina. Hammond’s family says the youth was shot from the side and back, contradicting claims that police fired their weapons as he tried to drive his car over a police officer. The family says the target of the marijuana sting was the woman in the car with Hammond.
There was dashboard video, but the Post and Courier’s freedom of information request for its release was denied. The Times suggests the lack of video may also be harming interest in the case.
A lawyer for the officer who fired the shots said the officer had to “push off” the car to keep from being run over, and he fired two shots “to stop the continuing threat to himself and the general public.” Police say a powdery substance consistent with cocaine was found on Hammond’s body.
The U.S. Justice Department is investigating after Bland wrote a letter (PDF) claiming a witness saw an officer pull Hammond’s body from the car, walk to his police car where he took something from the trunk, and then place the item under Hammond’s body. The letter also says a police officer with a neighboring police force said Seneca officers celebrated the shooting of Hammond by lifting the dead youth’s hand and high-fiving it.
