“MOVE ALONG … NOTHING TO SEE HERE”
No charges will be filed at the state level against the police officer who shot and killed a South Carolina man over a bag of weed – even though the government continues to be substantially less than forthcoming about the details of the case.
S.C. tenth circuit solicitor Chrissy Adams made the announcement this week. A federal investigation into the shooting is ongoing, and Adams is refusing to release any information related to her decision until that probe has concluded.
Acting on an anonymous tip, Seneca, S.C. police officer Mark Tiller shot and killed 19-year-old Zachary Hammond in the parking lot of a fast food restaurant in July … over ten grams of marijuana.
Tiller claims Hammond was driving toward him at the time of the shooting. An attorney for Hammond’s family claims that’s impossible – citing an independent autopsy report which concluded Hammond was shot in the back. It’s believed the dashcam video might clear up this dispute – although that information hasn’t been released to the public.
Tiller was not wearing a body camera at the time of the shooting.
This case is yet another example of the ridiculousness of America’s failed “War on Drugs” – and the lack of transparency and accountability of those who claim to be fighting it.
Stay tuned … we plan on speaking with those closest to this case in the very near future (and pressing Adams’ office for information).
Whatever we uncover, though, the fact remains this shooting never should have happened.
Even if you subscribe to the anti-liberty view that recreational pot use should be outlawed, in what universe is entrapping a citizen over ten grams of weed a proper prioritization of law enforcement resources?
Whatever the evidence shows, this shooting never should have happened …
UPDATE: The dash cam video has been released.
55 comments
Like with everything else in SC, if the truth is to come out or justice prevail it will have to be the result of federal intervention. We’re unable (or unwilling) to clean up our own messes.
We’ve been that way since at least 1860. Why change now?
Just watched the video…no way that cop is in danger….and he didn’t give the kid a second to make a decision. This is going to be a fiasco if someone doesn’t punish him
“Tiller claims Hammond was driving toward him at the time of the shooting. An attorney for Hammond’s family claims that’s impossible – citing an independent autopsy report which concluded Hammond was shot in the back. It’s believed the dashcam video might clear up this dispute – although that information hasn’t been released to the public.”
Is that voice in your head showing videos, too?
Shot in the head, two seeds to blame, rolling joints – a deadly game.
Also there was cocaine in his pocket and in his system, Would Hammond have acted differently if he had not been in possession of and under the influence of cocaine? Hammond acted-Tiller reacted. No one can argue that Hammond acted legally when he tried to flee from Law Enforcement.
cocaine is not germane to this argument, we are talking about when is it ok for a cop to kill somebody.
I was responding to someone else’s comment about rolling joints. Try to keep up with the conversation.
High times, at Seneca High, don’t touch that joint, else you’ll die.
This sounds eerily familiar -The War On Drugs Is Over;The Drugs Won
http://www.wistv.com/story/1445614/former-richland-deputy-charged-with-1979-molestation
“The story you were trying to access could not be found on our mobile site”
Kid allegedly shot twice in the back for a doobie and story pulls in maybe 10 comments
Kid pulled out of desk and it is Armageddon all over again
You DO know that the Seneca case made as much national news when it occurred, as this Spring Valley incident? By the way, kid was not “pulled” out of a desk. She was body slammed while in desk, onto the floor. Then lifted up like a sack of potatoes and flung to the front of the room.
That was great color commentary. You should overdub the video and post to the Youtubez. It would be 100% more LOLZ.
Hey LawDog, it was not color commentary. It was fact. His actions and your cavalier attitude on police brutality is precisely why there is less and less respect for law men.
You DO know that I was referring to comments on this blog, not MSM coverage, dumbshit
By the way if you read the comments on the Armageddon incident at Spring Valley your view is neither conclusive or inconclusive
Like all assholes no two are alike butt all are similar
Yes, I meant butt, not but, you stupid fuck
The kid that was shot was white, that’s why. no race card can be played
You just played it.
cant play one when there isn’t one dumbass, the blues are for crybabies
Maybe because the shooting had nothing to do with his race…
exactly, and neither was the school incident but it doesn’t stop people from calling it racial.
You got it!
Armageddon…
Desktopplapse
well that is because there are not a lot of assholes talking about how cool the cop was for putting down an animal
Summary execution. Watch the video.
Ya gotta zig zag, like the papers.
Hey, are you running on a “Rocky Mountain High” ..??
He was executed. Chrissy Adams is obviously unfit for her position. The statement by the city administrator is disturbing. The coverup is obvious. That fat little piece of shit with the crappy sleeve tattoo who shot the teenager, he should be in jail.
The officer cannot justify why he couldn’t get in his car and pursue, or just issue a warrant for the kid based on eluding and whatever else.
This is the result of militarization of police. They are trained to kill you, without hesitation. Just google “no-hesitation targets” to see what I am talking about. Federalization and dehumanization of law enforcement is the greatest threat to our future besides corruption.
Chrissy Adams and the Seneca “establishment” are probably very proud of themselves for their “victory”. Corruption.
In reality, they have blood on their hands. Just like the officer. They committed murder and then covered it up, and then forced it down our throats as justice.
This is what the future looks like in America. Where corrupt scumbag solicitors and local officials decide who gets murdered, who can get away with murder, and do everything in their power to prevent a fair and open investigation.
This is not the America that we grew up in.
And that CHILD was murdered over a bag of weed.
I agree with some of your statements.
Did you know the local coroner in SC can rule cause of death as suicide ‘due to an intentional lethal confrontation with law enforcement’?
In fact, FBI Director Blames Citizens with Cameras for for the recent surge in murders taking place in cities across the country.
https://photographyisnotacrime.com/2015/10/fbi-director-blames-citizens-with-cameras-for-increase-in-homicides/
Only 224 of 18,000 law enforcement agencies around the US reported a fatal shooting by their officers to the FBI last year, according to previously unpublished data obtained by the Guardian, which sheds new light on flaws in official systems for counting the use of deadly force by police.
The Counted, an investigation by the Guardian to report all deaths caused by police in 2015, had already logged deadly shootings by officers from 224 different law enforcement agencies by 10 April this year. Crowd-sourced counts in 2014 recorded deaths at a similar higher rate.
Stephen Fischer, a spokesman for the FBI, said exclusions were inevitable because the program remained voluntary. “We have no way of knowing how many incidents may have been omitted,” Fischer said in an email.
In an extensive review of all data on “justifiable homicides” by police collected by the FBI from police departments between 2004 and 2014 found:
No police departments from the state of Florida reported any homicides by officers, meaning deaths caused by police in the country’s third-most populous state were not logged by the FBI. The New York police department, by far the country’s biggest, submitted data for just one year during the past decade.
The FBI records only basic personal details of each person killed and not information such as whether they were armed with a weapon – a critical factor in ongoing debates over the use of force by police around the country.
A chaotic approach was applied to recording other high-profile deaths over recent years. Some were logged, some filed to a separate category with general homicides without noting the subjects were killed by police, and others were ignored.
An increase in the number of homicides by police publicly reported by the FBI over the past five years was effectively matched by a rise in the number of individual departments reporting any homicides, casting doubt over purported trends in the data.
Details of other controversial deaths that prompted protests were entered incorrectly in the FBI database, damaging government efforts to monitor demographic information about people killed by police.
http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/oct/15/fbi-record-police-killings-tamir-rice-eric-garner
Good points — you have to record all incidents fully and on a level playing field, so to say. Otherwise anyone can twist the final product to suit their purposes, for whatever their personal goal is.
Thanks, that’s a lot to think about….interesting
How about the Cocaine in his pocket and in his system?
would that warrant murder?
if it is ok for cops to shoot somebody in the head for having a bag of pot and cocaine, half the students on college campuses be dead in short order, it would be another holocost
People keep saying it was only weed. I am correcting their misinformation. The cocaine in his system was impairing his judgment and most likely contributed to his decision to escalate the situation by fleeing.
?
Hammond was allegedly attempting to flee the scene of a drug sting. Authorities said Hammond drove his vehicle at officers, but an attorney for the family has said Hammond was struck in the back, and that he vehicle was not moving when he was shot. Officer Anthony Moon, who responded to the scene of the shooting but was not present during it, resigned from the department during an internal investigation on August 7. The Justice Department opened a civil rights investigation into Hammond’s death on August 12.
http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-interactive/2015/jun/01/the-counted-police-killings-us-database#zachary-hammond-659
Three US states have legalized recreational use of marijuana, 14 states have decriminalized possession of the herb, and 23 states have legalized medical use. In 2014, marijuana was a $2.9 billion dollar industry and researchers are projecting $11 billion and $22 billion in 2017 and 2020 respectively. Prior to the surge in this new and lucrative market, marijuana was found at the center of another profitable business. In fact, the business of imprisoning black men in non-criminal marijuana possession violations was and is still a primary source of income for many states.
http://blogs.naturalnews.com/marijuana-related-arrests-became-civil-rights-issue/
This is how S.C. really works. Crooked Law Enforcement and Lawmakers constantly covering up for murdering pigs.
Really sad story . . . .
Hey Will its hard to call this case entrapment when the idiots in the car accidently texted an off duty officer from another department to see if he wanted to buy drugs from them. That officer then forwarded the info to Seneca PD. They set themselves up.
Dash cam video has been released. I don’t think the officer should have fired.
http://www.1063word.com/No-Charges-Filed-in-Officer-Involved-Shooting-in-S/22113544
if no other reason, he could have killed the passenger.
Just a passing thought, but wouldn’t it have been better for the cop to take down the veeeehicle deeescription and have him pulled over and arrested? I dunno, but just thinking – sometimes the weapon’s best left in the sleeve.
Just watched the video over on WIS. That cop shot him from the driver’s window and was never in danger of being hit. Reminds of the stupid College Police in Ohio who shot the drunk black guy who was driving away. I didn’t know we execute people on the spot for trying to flee – especially for minor crap.
Possession of cocaine is a minor offense?
if you are one of the ones dealing it or using it they think it is
I’m certainly not a Cop Hater, but any fair minded person who sees that dashcam would determine this to be a bad shoot.
In essence it’s legal for cops to shoot unarmed people, in the back even, as they are trying to flee. The prosecution of Walter Slager is an aberration. Cops shoot unarmed people in the back on a regular basis and get away with it.
Good God, the dissonance could not be more striking between this and the desk push. I don’t know whether to put my head down on my desk in shame like the kids in the video or to burst in to tears like the girl that no doubt had her dead friend’s blood splattered on her.
When an officer of the law pulls a gun, you don’t pull off and run. Corny but true. Fight it out later in court if you think it’s justified. But yes sir/ma’am in the present.
But if I decide to run…and I’m unarmed…is it ok for the office to shoot me in the back twice and murder me on site?
No.
well it looks like if the car in gear it is ok for the cop to execute the driver on the spot.
We need to legalize the weed. Love the sinner, hate the sin. Make churches safe havens for legal weed, to fill the pews and plate again. Jesus toked! Amen!