Oh, Baltimore. Home of what must be one of the worst police departments in the United States. Once again you are in the news, this time for a cop shooting an unarmed man – this time a white man – after stopping him for who the hell knows why? The same cop, a decorated veteran of the force and a “Major” (whatever that means) then threatened to shoot the wounded man’s brother for daring to want to stop his sibling’s bleeding.
All this occurred to 40 year old, John Rau, a resident of Southwest Baltimore, on Monday night in front of the his nephew and other witnesses.
John Rau was with his brother Monday night when he was stopped by police Major Byron Conaway, although the police department has not said why, reported WJZ-TV.
“All the guy said was, ‘What’s your name, sir?’ and I was like, ‘For what?’ and then he jumped out of the car with his gun and told me to put my hands up,” Rau said. “(The officer asked), ‘What you got in your hand?’ I had a cigarette in one hand, and I just put my hand in my pocket, because I was just putting chapstick on, and I said 10 times, ‘It’s chapstick, only chapstick, officer.”
Witnesses said the officer, who is black, shot the 40-year-old Rau, who is white, in the thigh when he reached into his pocket.
Black Lives Matters has been warning us for a while now that our police forces are out of control. Unfortunately not enough white people think this is a big concern. Perhaps what happened to Mr. Rau and his family might help them change their minds. Or not.
Ronald Birmingham, Rau’s brother, said Conaway threatened to shoot him, too, when he tried to assist his wounded brother.
“The officer clearly stated to me, ‘I got a bullet for you too,’” Birmingham said. “I said, ‘My brother’s bleeding,’ (but) he said, ‘Back up,’ and he kept pointing the gun and me and pointed the gun at my brother.”
Rau is lucky to be alive. If the bullet fired into his leg had pierced a major artery he likely would have bled out on the street. Although the official police story is that Major Conaway immediately rendered aid to Mr. Rau, his family and other witnesses dispute that claim. To date, the Baltimore police have refused to state why Rau was stopped in the first place. As of today, Conaway is on paid leave and has ten days to provide a statement to the “police department’s Special Investigation Response team.” Whether he will be charged for this shooting is anyone’s guess, but I suspect not. After all, the victim/suspect(?) admits he reached into his pants to pull out a – chapstick. Sounds justified to me. As we all know, people have been killed for less by your friendly neighborhood police officers.
