District Attorney Seth Williams on Thursday absolved two Philadelphia police officers of criminal wrongdoing in the shooting death of motorist Brandon Tate-Brown in Mayfair last December, but some critics still weren’t satisfied with the outcome of the prosecutor’s investigation.
Later Thursday, a group of protesters shouted over and stormed a public meeting involving Williams and Police Commissioner Charles Ramsey in Lawncrest, prompting 10 arrests. On Friday, derogatory messages toward police showed up on the sidewalk in front of Police Headquarters. Someone had scrawled the epithets in colored chalk.
Not to be outdone, about a dozen police supporters gathered at Frankford and Cottman avenues in Mayfair on Saturday to wave signs such as “Blue Lives Matter” and to pay tribute to recently slain Officer Robert Wilson III.
“We do have serious issues that need to be addressed. There’s no question about that,” Ramsey said after order had been restored during Thursday’s town hall-style meeting at Lawncrest Recreation Center. “But it takes serious people to solve those problems. And you can’t do it by pushing and shoving.”
The Tate-Brown case has been a local cause celebre for police critics, including Tate-Brown’s family and friends, who have drawn comparisons to recent police-involved fatal shootings in Ferguson, Missouri, and Staten Island, New York. But contrary to those other cases, Tate-Brown had a gun and was reaching for it when an officer from the 15th district shot him, Williams found.
According to the Pennsylvania Crimes Code, police officers are permitted to use deadly force “if the officer reasonably believes that it is necessary to prevent the use of deadly force against himself or others.”
“In this case, the (firing) officer’s actions were not in violation of the crimes code,” Williams said.
The confrontation began when two 15th district cops stopped Tate-Brown’s car on the 6700 block of Frankford Ave. at about 2:45 a.m. on Dec. 15. Police said he was driving without headlights. As officers questioned the motorist, who was alone, one of them saw a handgun tucked between the center console and front passenger seat.
The officers asked Tate-Brown, a 26-year-old ex-convict from Frankford, to exit the car. But Tate-Brown then made a move for the passenger side of the vehicle. The officers struggled with him near the car and in the street until Tate-Brown freed himself and tried to reach into the passenger side of the car, witnesses said. One of the officers shot once. Tate-Brown suffered a head wound and died at the scene.
“All the evidence indicates that Mr. Tate-Brown, after repeatedly struggling with officers, appeared to be reaching for an illegal handgun at the time he was shot,” Williams said.
The prosecutor’s office reviewed statements from multiple eyewitnesses and police officers, exterior surveillance video from three nearby businesses, DNA evidence, ballistic evidence and “extensive physical evidence,” Williams said.
Police recovered the gun, which had been reported stolen in July 2013 in South Carolina. Tate-Brown’s DNA was found on the weapon. As a convicted felon, he was banned from possessing the gun under any circumstances.
Skeptics, notably the Tate-Brown family’s attorney, have accused authorities of inconsistency in their accounts of the incident. The attorney released surveillance video of Tate-Brown driving with his headlights on earlier that night. Critics have also claimed that news video of the crime scene after the shooting shows that Tate-Brown’s headlights were on. According to the DA’s findings, the police claimed that Tate-Brown’s parking lights or “running lights” were on but that his headlamps were dark.
Tate-Brown’s family and supporters have called for an independent investigation of the incident.
Authorities have not released the names of the officer who shot Tate-Brown or his partner. In accordance with police department protocol, the shooter was placed on administrative duty during the department’s internal investigation of the case.
That officer was returned to patrol duty weeks ago after the department concluded its investigation and found no wrongdoing on the officer’s part. ••
