NAACP still has a lot of questions left to be answered

Friday, Nov. 20, 2009

There must be other ways of fighting crime in our community, and shooting citizens after a routine traffic stop must be the last resort.

The recent shooting in Pisgah has left a lot of us wondering what went wrong. The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People feels that there were other options available to the police other than shooting Cornelius Warren eight times for attempting to flee.

Our concerns are also exacerbated by what we saw on the videotape shortly after the shooting and the video footage we saw on the news. They were not the same. There were things left out of the news media's reporting of the traffic stop and this concerns us deeply. We still have a lot of questions that have not been answered.

The police officer at the scene said that he saw a bag being tossed into the back seat through full-tinted windows. A bag was produced and he said that this was not the bag he saw, so if this is true, how did the drugs get into a locked compartment in the car?

After Mr. Warren was stopped, a search dog was brought in to identify any drugs in his vehicle. The dog searched the car, and no drugs were detected. Why then didn't this routine traffic stop come to an end at this point? Also, the two gentlemen in the car were never handcuffed and never searched for any weapons.

Our question here is what danger were the officers faced with if no weapons were found on the driver or his passenger? Then, it was reported that nearly $16,000 worth of drugs was recovered by the police officers, yet the dog did not detect any drugs?

We are not police officers nor have we worked with trained dogs but yet another question comes to mind. Why didn't the dogs detect drugs in the car given the quantity the police recovered?

The NAACP wants a crime-free community like everyone else in our community. We don't want drugs in our community, and we want to do everything we can to keep Charles County a place where citizens can live without the fear of being victimized.

Our statements regarding the shooting incident have been raised because of our concern for the safety of all citizens in Charles County including the police officers. We want to have confidence in our sheriff's office that they will serve and protect us and use violent force as a last resort.

Unfortunately, a man has lost his life and seven children are without their father, a wife is without her husband, a mother and father are without one of their sons and brothers and sisters are living without one of their siblings.

Mr. Warren was more than a shooting victim, he was a citizen of Charles County and did not deserve to die at the hands of the very people who have been sworn to protect and serve our community.

William M. Braxton, Waldorf

The writer is the president of the Charles County branch of the NAACP.