Three Mississippi police officers have been charged with second-degree murder over the death of a Black man who they brutally pulled from his car, body-slammed on the ground, and repeatedly hit in the head.
Back in January 2019, Desmond Barney, Lincoln Lampley, and Anthony Fox claimed they were looking for suspects connected to the fatal shooting of Rev. Anthony Longino, a pastor who had been shot in a robbery that happened in front of his church. But instead, they brutally attacked 62-year-old George Robinson. The two other men who were actually involved in the shooting were later arrested and charged with Longino’s murder, The Daily Mail reports.
A witness who saw the incident said Robinson was sitting in his car in front of his house when three officers approached him. The witness said the officers struck Robinson in the head with a flashlight, body-slammed onto the ground, and then stomped on his chest and stomach several times. Multiple sources said Robinson recently suffered a stroke, which made his movements slow, the outlet reports. “They just snatched him. They were brutal,” one of Robinson’s neighbors said. Robinson was intensive care for two days before he died from bleeding on the brain, which was caused by the officers’ blunt force trauma to the head.
The officers were indicted by a grand jury in the death of Robinson. The Daily Mail reports that the indictment was passed down by a Hinds County grand jury on August 5 and accuses the officers of “willfully, unlawfully and feloniously” causing Robinson’s death, the outlet reports. On Thursday, all three officers posted bond after turning themselves in. According to Jackson Police Chief James Davis, the officers arrested Robinson on misdemeanor charges of failing to obey a police officer and resisting arrest. Initially, the officers were placed on administrative leave during an investigation that the department and the FBI launched. Afterward, the officers were later reinstated, however, Fox and Barney moved on to work for the Clinton Police Department.
The officers’ lawyers claim “evidence will show that the officers are not guilty.” Their lawyer, Francis Springer, said, “These officers did exactly what they are trained to do and used an appropriate level of force,” Springer said. Robinson’s family has since filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the officers. In response to the officers’ charges, Robinson’s family says they just want the policemen to tell the truth. “All they need to do is own up to what they did,” said Robinson’s sister Bettersten Wade. “We’re just asking them to just be honest. Don’t put it on nobody else, or don’t say this, or don’t say that. We are just trying to find out the truth.”
