Black teenager killed by police in U.S. on eve of Ferguson anniversary

Xinhua

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On the eve of the one-year anniversary of the Ferguson unrest, trigger by the killing of a black teenager Michael Brown by a white police, another similar incident occurred in the northern Texas city of Arlington.

Christian Taylor, a Texas college football player and a 19-year-old black, was fatally shot by an officer during a burglary call on Friday.

Arlington police chief Will Johnson said the police were contacted on Friday at 1:05 a.m. local time and were notified of an alleged burglary attempt as a jeep had driven onto the showroom floor.

When officer Brad Miller and his partner entered the dealership, Taylor, who was caught on the private surveillance cameras, was allegedly jumping on parked cars before he was ultimately shot.

They spotted Taylor in the building and believed a felony burglary was in progress, Johnson said, adding that Miller fired his weapon four times after an altercation with Taylor.

The medical examiner has ruled Taylor's death a homicide and determined the cause of death to be gunshot wounds to the neck, chest and abdomen.

However, no video footage of the scene was currently available to confirm the police report. FBI is requested by the police to do an exhaustive investigation.

Police said they would release 911 calls, scanner traffic and all video surveillance after all statements were taken, which is likely to occur within the next 7 to 10 days, the police chief said.

The shooting came amid increased scrutiny nationwide of police use of force, particularly in cases involving black suspects.

The Arlington officer was identified as Brad Miller, a 49-year-old white with no police experience before joining the department last September after graduation from the police academy last March.

He is placed on administrative leave, a routine in such cases.

The shooting, another one in which the white police has killed an unarmed black for insufficient causes, resonated on social media, with posts questioning the official account that Taylor was committing a robbery and asking why there was no video of the altercation.

Ferguson was the start of a year of turmoil and outrage as one black suspect after another died at the hands of U.S. police.

The both obvious and latent racism that hasn't stopped even after the United States elected its first black president is probably the ugliest and most embarrassing face the world's richest country refrain from displaying to the rest of the world.

According to the conclusion about Ferguson of the U.S. Justice Department, the police, largely white, have for years systematically bullied and harassed the minority black citizens, using traffic stops and other arrests for minor violations to collect fines.

Anger still lingers on a year after Brown was killed, for neither a grand jury nor federal justice officials called for criminal charges against the police who shot him dead.

Taylor's family was shocked and angry when they heard of his death. His father Adrian Taylor described his son as a young man with no real problems who often helped the homeless.

He questioned police's excessive use of force, saying that even if his son did wrong, he should not have had to die.

"What he'd done, ain't no way right," he said. "But to shoot an unarmed man? You're a police officer, you're trained to take down men with your hands. You have your Tasers, you have your clubs, whatever there is. Unarmed, a 19-year-old, and you shoot to kill?"

Taylor's great uncle Clyde Fuller said he didn't believe that Taylor committed a crime as he is a "good kid."

"They say he's burglarizing th place by running up in there? Nuh-uh. Something doesn't sound right," Fuller was quoted as saying. Enditem