by Deputy Diva

In Homer, Louisiana, the man pictured above, Mr. Bernard Monroe was only hosting a cookout for his family and friends when police suddenly appeared and moments later shot him to death.

Four witnesses said he was sitting outside his home in the late afternoon on Feb. 20 — clutching a large sports-drink bottle — when two police officers pulled up and summoned over his son, Shawn.

Shawn Monroe, who has a long record of arrests and convictions on charges of assault and battery but was not wanted on any warrants, reportedly ran into the house.

One of the officers, who had been on Homer’s police force only a few weeks, chased after him and reappeared moments later in the doorway, the witnesses said.

Meanwhile, the elder Monroe had started walking toward the front door. When he got to the first step on the porch, the witnesses said, the rookie officer opened fire, striking Monroe several times.

“He just shot him through the screen door,” said Denise Nicholson, a family friend who said she was standing a few feet away. “After [Monroe] was on the ground, we kept asking the officer to call an ambulance, but all he did was get on his radio and say, ‘Officer in distress.’ ”

The witnesses said the second officer picked up a handgun that Monroe, an avid hunter, always kept in plain sight on the porch for protection. Using a latex glove, the officer grasped the gun by its handle, the witnesses said, and ordered everyone to back away. The next thing they said they saw was the gun next to Monroe’s body.

“I saw him pick up the gun off the porch,” Marcus Frazier said. “I said, ‘What are you doing?’ The cop told me, ‘Shut the hell up, you don’t know what you’re talking about.’ “  SOURCE

It should be noted that Mr. Monroe had throat cancer and as a result could no longer speak.   This case is very remniscent of the case in Atlanta, Georgia broke in which narcotics officers mistakenly entered the home of 92-year-old Kathryn Johnston and shot her because she was holding a revolver.  They then proceeded to plant marijuana in her basement to try and justify their raid on a ’suspected drug house.’

And I almost don’t know what outraged me more… the fact that this man was shot down like a dog in front of his family no less, or this police Chief’s unsympathetic response:

That is how it should be, responded Homer Police Chief Russell Mills, who noted the high rates of gun and drug arrests in the neighborhood.

“If I see three or four young black men walking down the street, I have to stop them and check their names,” said Mills, who is white. “I want them to be afraid every time they see the police that they might get arrested.

“We’re not out there trying to abuse and harass people — we’re trying to protect the law-abiding citizens locked behind their doors in fear.”

Homer police maintain Monroe was holding a loaded gun when he was shot, but would not comment further.

I am just glad that the family got this story in the national media.  Hopefully they can eventually achieve some sort of justice and this city will be shaken up so that nothing like this ever happens again.