A black officer in St. Louis is suing the city after he was shot by a white cop after he had already identified himself as a police officer!
Officer Milton Green filed a civil rights lawsuit on Monday after he was left disabled from a gunshot wound given to him by a white cop in 2017. Green says he was shot by his fellow officer after he had already identified himself as an officer, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports.
Green was working on a car in his driveway in June 2017 when he heard a car crash following a police chase. He claims one of the suspects ran into his yard and pointed a gun at him, which prompted Green to pull out his department-issued gun and yell “Police! Drop your gun!” The suspect reportedly took off and as Green attempted to chase after him, he was stopped by another officer.
Green said the white officer ordered him to drop his gun and get on the ground, which he did. But Green says as he was trying to tell the officer that he too was a cop, the white officer told him to “shut the hell up and stay on the ground.” A detective on the scene recognized Green and told him to grab his gun and come talk with him. It was at this moment when Green says he stood up and was suddenly shot in the forearm by officer Christopher Tanner. The shooting left Green injured and unable to return to work.
Green said he told Interim Police Chief Lawrence O’Toole the whole story while he was at the hospital. But O’Toole told the media that Green was the victim of “friendly fire.” However, Green believes that if he were a white cop, he “wouldn’t have gotten shot.”
“How did he not see my badge in my hand?” Green told the St. Louis Dispatch. “My gun was pointed down, and the other officers were calm. The detective told them who I was and told them not to shoot.”
After the shooting, Green claims he was bullied by fellow officers on social media and didn’t receive any financial assistance from the St. Louis Police Officers Union, which has raised money for indicted white officers. Green’s attorney, Javad Khazaeli, said he believed his client was “abandoned” by his fellow officers and forced to wait on his pension because the city is allegedly hiding a second police report about the incident.
“If I was white, I feel like I would have been taken care of,” Green said. “That’s how I feel.”
Green filed a civil rights lawsuit against the city, the St. Louis Police Department, and the white officer who shot him alleging unreasonable seizure, excessive force, battery, negligent infliction of emotional distress and failure to train and supervise, News One reports.
“It’s kind of an eye-opener what you find out about the department,” Green said. “The people you think will come check on you who don’t. The department creates a separation. It makes me feel like less of an officer. I’m glad that God has spared my life. He could have kept shooting.”
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