Date: Sat, 14 Apr 2001 19:19:57 -0400
From: Chuck0 <chuck-AT-tao.ca>
Subject: Fwd: Reuters 04/14 ~  Police injure three after funeral in Cincinnati






-------- Original Message --------
 Subject: DC: Reuters 04/14 ~ Police injure three after funeral in
          Cincinnati
    Date: Sat, 14 Apr 2001 18:38:58 EDT
    From: RebelGrasshopper-AT-aol.com
Reply-To: RebelGrasshopper-AT-aol.com
      To: revolution_now-AT-egroups.com,
          dc-AT-lists.tao.ca,positiveforce-AT-egroups.com,
          movementau-AT-egroups.com



Police injure three after funeral in Cincinnati


CINCINNATI, April 14 (Reuters) - A woman and two young girls were struck
on
Saturday by beanbags fired by police in violence that broke out shortly
after
the funeral of a young black man who was killed by a white policeman a
week
ago.

Several witnesses told reporters that the incident seemed provoked by
police
zealousness to clear the Over-the-Rhine area near where the funeral was
conducted and prevent disorderly crowds from forming.

Demetrius Lowry, the mother of a 7-year-old girl who was hit in the leg
by a
beanbag, told Reuters: "That could have started a riot right there. We
weren't doing anything except walking to a barbecue store when this
police
car pulled up and the cops jumped out and started firing."

Also injured were her 11-year-old niece and a woman from Louisville,
Kentucky, who bled from a leg wound and was treated at the scene.

Minutes later, a large police contingent arrived at an intersection near

where the incident took place and used rifles to disperse a crowd that
had
congregated after the funeral. A tense standoff ensued, but no shots
were
fired as clergymen and officials of the National Association for the
Advancement of Color People met with police to calm the situation.

Earlier, hundreds of mourners streamed peacefully past a coffin bearing
the
body of 19-year-old Timothy Thomas.

Uniformed police officers were conspicuously absent near the New
Prospect
Baptist Church in a largely black neighborhood just a short distance
from the
alley where Officer Steve Roach, who is white, killed Thomas on April 7.

Thomas, who was unarmed but running away, became the 15th young black
crime
suspect to be killed by Cincinnati police since 1995 and the fourth
since
November. Roach has said he thought Thomas was reaching for a weapon.

The killing triggered violent protests until an 8 p.m.-to-6 a.m. curfew
was
imposed on Thursday. City officials said on Saturday that the curfew
would
remain in place on Easter eve.

18:17 04-14-01

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