On Saturday, Jan. 22, 2010 20-year-old Raheim Malik Brown was shot and killed by the Oakland Unified School District’s police force near a Skyline High School dance. Police statements and media have reported that Brown tried to stab an officer with a screwdriver, and a second officer shot Brown five times – once in each arm, once in his chest and twice in his head – in defense of his partner.

On Thursday, Feb. 3, outside the OUSD headquarters, Brown’s mother, Lori Davis, spoke at a press conference. Calling the killing an “assassination,” she was horrified by the excessive use of force by school police officers. Davis believes that Sgts. Barhim Bhatt and Jonathan Bellusa, the two cops identified at the press conference as the two involved in Brown’s killing, should “never be able to work in another police department ever.”

Tamisha Stewart, the only civilian witness to the killing, who was in the car with Brown outside the Skyline High dance, spoke for the first time publicly about the event. The screwdriver Brown was accused of using as a weapon, according to Stewart, was being used in an attempt to hotwire the car, and it “never left the ignition.”

While hotwiring a car might be cause for police attention, it is not cause for five bullets, including two to the head. Stewart added, “There was nothing that Raheim did that he deserved to die.” According to statements at the press conference, after Brown was killed, Stewart was beaten badly and jailed for almost a week.

An Oakland teacher’s union representative also spoke at the Thursday press conference, saying that the union had voted to “support fully an independent investigation” into Brown’s killing and the OUSD Police Department.

Brown was one of three people killed by police in a single week in Oakland. In early 2010 former Oakland Police Chief Anthony Batts called on the FBI for an external investigation into the November police
killing of Derrick Jones. As initial police statements contrast sharply with Stewart’s account of Brown’s killing, further investigation into this case might also be warranted.

On the morning of July 22, 2010 at around 11:30, 16 year old James Rivera was assassinated in premeditated murder, according to his family and witnesses. According to James Rivera’s mother police came to her house late at night/early morning before the murder and terrorized the family. Police held guns at 2 even younger children and told them they were going to kill him.

Later, according to friends, he was pulled over then released and then chased. As he crashed into a fence and made a u turn , police rammed the back of the blue van which caused the van to go out of control. The van went onto a lawn of a corner house on Salters Dr. and Bancroft Way, finally crashed straight into the garage wall where the van seemed to be lodged into.

Officers exited their vehicles and asked James to exit the van twice but 2 seconds later they began to shoot. Over 30 rounds have been estimated to be found. They executed those rounds with 9mm handguns and fully automatic M-16 assault riffles.

Witnesses say that the ambulance arrived with out their sirens and left without them, as if there was no urgency. The people believe that he was dead at the scene. They saw officers pull him out and slap his face and then do nothing.

Reporters are saying that police stated the pursuit began at 10:30
after finding the van that had been part of a carjacking with a shotgun. It has not been said if this was the van, and the police do not mention any previous encounters with James Rivera. The media has yet to report the truth, i know we heard the people speak the truth and that’s not what they are printing.

People came out in rage of what they had just witnessed. “NO JUSTICE NO PEACE” the people chanted until the officials Chaplin later came to them and asked them to be quiet.

In the Stockton Record Stockton Police Spokesperson Pete Smith agreed that the crowd was “upset and very vocal about their concerns” but was also recorded threatening the community “Let officers complete their investigation and not unduly create any other situations that would need any kind of police investigation”

Although the people continued to chant after the Chaplin told a couple that it would do them no good, people realized the importance of speaking up for injustices like this one.

The Stockton police officers involved in the shooting were Officer Eric Azarvand, a 14-year department veteran; Officer Gregory Dunn, with the department eight years; and San Joaquin County sheriff’s deputy John Thomas Nesbitt, with 11 years at the sheriff’s department.

UPDATE:

On January 6, 2012 Mothers Cry for Justice, James Rivera family, Ernest Duenez family, Oscar Grant Committee, Modesto Copwatch , MDS /SDS [Movement & Students for a Democratic Society] & Nation of Islam united to sponsor a spirited and loud protest action in downtown Stockton demanding answers from the DA who has remained silent about the police killing of unarmed youth & adults.  Ms. Dionne Smith-Downs, James Rivera’s mother gave an impassioned and powerful speech demanding jail for the cop murderers and justice for James.  It was militant action with no arrests even though the police mobilized and pushed back the rally for a few minutes before leaving.

STOCKTON: January 6, 2012 Family, Community &
Activists Demand Justice for James Rivera.