The revelation wasn’t just a Perry Mason moment in court. But he did know that the Los Angeles sheriff’s department had a history of violent gang-like cliques that glorify violence for its own sake and pressure deputies to break the rules so they can prove their bona fides and “earn their ink” in the form of just such hidden tattoos. Sweeney hadn’t known about the tattoo in advance. We suspect there are a lot of victims of this gang John Sweeney Between 10 and 20 deputies at the Compton station had the same tattoo, he acknowledged. After some hesitation, Aldama showed an elaborate image on his calf of a frightening skeletal figure wielding a rifle. Next, Sweeney asked Aldama if he had a tattoo. At first Aldama said he did have ill feelings, then changed tack and said he’d misunderstood the question. Again, no gun was ever found.Īt a deposition hearing in May, Sweeney asked one of the officers, Samuel Aldama, if he harbored racial animus toward African Americans, and Aldama spent close to five minutes struggling to give an answer. Again, the officers claimed to have seen a gun. Sheldon Lockett had been standing with a friend outside his godmother’s house in broad daylight when, according to eyewitnesses, the officers showered him with racial abuse, repeatedly used a Taser on him and shoved a night stick into an eye socket, causing him permanent damage. Sweeney later learned that the same two officers had delivered a savage beating to another young black man in Compton a few months earlier. And it hit me that something was going on, that they were doing this to become a member of something or to gain favor … because this is not policing.” “He’d gone out to buy a Sprite and a single. No reason!” Sweeney said in an interview with the Guardian. But no gun was ever found at or near the scene, and Taylor was not suspected of being involved in criminal activity when the officers approached. The police claimed that Taylor had been wearing gang colors – Compton is the birthplace of the notorious Crips and Bloods – and had pulled a semi-automatic handgun from his waistband. The casket was eventually taken to its final resting place, and some family members were allowed to leave the scene to finish the service.ĭeputies remained on scene as the investigation was ongoing.To Sweeney, who had cut his teeth as an associate of the legendary civil rights lawyer Johnnie Cochran, the 2016 killing smacked of an execution, the work of renegade police officers reveling in violence for the sake of it. Some of the people who were part of the fight spilled out into the street in front of the businesses, and they were trying to tell them to please leave the property.Īs soon as authorities arrived, they shut down the funeral service, which angered family members more. People in nearby businesses said they heard the arguing - and then the gunfire - and were panicked inside their stores, locking their doors. One family member was killed and two others were wounded. The argument turned into a fist fight, the witness said, and then a family member pulled out a gun and started shooting family members. An argument erupted between family members inside of the church, a witness said, and then the fight spilled outside into the back parking lot of the church. The body had been flown here for the service. Witnesses told ABC7 that family members were inside of the church attending the service for a loved one who died in Louisiana. at Holly Avenue and Compton Boulevard.Īccording to a witness, the shooting happened behind the church, Holy Trinity. (KABC) - A shooting erupted outside a Compton church on Friday afternoon during a funeral, according to witnesses. A shooting erupted outside a Compton church on Friday afternoon, reportedly during a funeral.ĬOMPTON, Calif.
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