Americans are zoning in — and weighing in — every week on what cops are up to. They’ve had to, because cameras are everywhere — in phones, on dashboards and on officers’ uniforms.
And with social media at everyone’s fingertips, Ferguson, Staten Island and North Charleston have gone from hidden hamlets to headlines.
Here are some police incidents that made news over the weekend — some that went wrong and some that went right.
Police custody death in Baltimore
Freddie Gray was in perfect health, his lawyer said, until police chased and tackled him over a week ago. On Sunday he died, hours after protesters rallied at Baltimore police headquarters on his behalf.
Cell phone cameras were running, as the 27-year-old screamed, and officers pulled him to a van, his legs dragging behind him — one looking strangely twisted.
Gray landed in a shock and trauma clinic, where he fell into a coma, attorney William Murphy, Jr. said. Then came emergency surgery. “He clung to life for seven days,” Murphy said.
Police said officers were working in an area known for violent crime and drug dealing, and when they approached him, Gray ran. But there was no evidence Gray had committed a crime, when he was tackled, Gray’s lawyer said.
On the eve of Gray’s death, Baltimore’s mayor, Stephanie Rawlings-Blake said there would more answers about his arrest, although she warned that a thorough investigation takes time.
Police might give them to her at a press conference on Monday.
Suspect’s fatal shooting in Tulsa
“Oh! I shot him! I’m sorry!” Robert Bates could be heard saying over another officer’s body cam recording. He fired his pistol at a suspect instead of a Taser. Bates said it was a mix-up.
Since then, he has been accused of being an underqualified hobby cop.
Over the weekend, his lawyer, Scott Wood, released documents he said verify some of Bates’ training as a law enforcement officer. They show Bates had one Taser training class over a six-and-a-half-year period, took three firearms training classes and qualified 10 times, from 2009 to 2014, to use a handgun.
His evaluations say he got along with other officers and related well with the public.
Wood said Bates has done enough to qualify as a reserve deputy. The sheriff’s office has been mum on the documents so far, but that may end on Monday, when Sheriff Stanley Glanz steps up to a microphone.
Unarmed motorist’s death in Hummesltown Borough
Video may tell more on Monday of how an unarmed motorist was shot in the back by a police officer, should prosecutors be allowed to release it. The defense is trying to block the release.
The emissions sticker on David Kassick’s car was expired. That’s what first caught the attention of Lisa Mearkle, a police officer in Hummelstown Borough, Pennsylvania, who ordered Kassick, 59, to pull over on February 2.
Instead, Kassick hit the gas, then he ran on foot. Moments later, he lay dead on the ground in a yard near a relative’s home. Mearkle was arrested on a homicide charge following a state police investigation into the shooting.
Mearkle has said it was self-defense. The video and audio taken by a camera in the Taser she used on Kassick is said to have recorded him refusing to show her his hands. Then she fired two shots into his back.
He died.
Officer restraint in New Richmond
Officer Jesse Kidder could have opened fire on a man on Thursday, and likely would never have heard a breath of the protest.
Police released body cam video on Saturday revealing an example of officer restraint in New Richmond, Ohio.
Kidder was chasing a homicide suspect. The man could have been armed, and he charged Kidder. But the officer backed away after calling for reinforcements. The man kept coming, reaching into his pockets, threatening to kill Kidder, if Kidder didn’t kill him.
Kidder even fell down, while walking backwards. It could have been a “suicide by cop,” but backup arrived, and the man surrendered.
Burning car rescue in Kinnelon
The overturned convertible was smoldering, when police pulled up to it on a New Jersey roadway. The driver was pinned inside — and unconscious.
Not knowing when the car might burst into full flame, they scrambled to save her, while a police dash cam rolled. CNN obtained the footage from affiliate WPIX.
Kinnelon Police Officers Mark Ehrenberg and Ricky Ferriola cut the seat belt from her, then dragged the woman’s limp body away from the crash to start emergency medical care. Not a minute later, flames licked out of the car.
Two more minutes — an explosion. All three were lucky to escape the flames.
The woman was taken to hospital and survived. She has been reportedly charged with drunk and reckless driving.