Trayvon Martin’s death 10 years on: Tragic timeline of shooting victims on anniversary
SATURDAY marks the 10-year anniversary of Trayvon Martin's tragic death at 17 years old.
While Martin was not killed by a police officer, his death was one of the founding events of the movement against police killings of Black men in the US.
The unarmed Black teen was shot dead by neighborhood watch volunteer George Zimmerman on February 26, 2012.
He was walking home from a 7-Eleven in Sanford, Florida, after buying Skittles and an iced tea when he was confronted by Zimmerman.
After a physical altercation, Martin was shot in the chest.
Zimmerman went on trial charged with second-degree murder over the teen's death; he claimed that he shot Martin in self defense.
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He was found not guilty on all counts by a six-person jury, a controversial acquittal that led to widespread protests in more than 100 cities.
Since Martin's death, police killings of unarmed Black Americans have continued to rock the nation.
Michael Brown
In August 2014, teenager Michael Brown was fatally shot by ex-cop Darren Wilson.
Brown's death sparked public outrage and months of protests in Ferguson, as demonstrators called for an end to police brutality.
The teenager was shot after Wilson told him and a friend to get out of the road.
Wilson alleged that Brown came toward him menacingly, and claimed self-defense.
Nearly six years later, in July 2020, a St Louis prosecutor announced that Wilson would not be charged.
Tamir Rice
Just months after Brown's death, 12-year-old Tamir Rice was shot dead by police Officer Timonthy Loehmann after he was found playing with a pellet gun outside a recreation center in Cleveland, Ohio in November 2014.
Loehmann and officer Frank Garmback were dispatched to the recreation center after a man who was waiting for a bus called 911 and said a “guy” was pointing a gun.
He said the person appeared to be a juvenile and that the gun could be “fake,” but the dispatcher did not pass that information onto the officers.
The officers said that Rice reached for the toy gun before he was shot and that they demanded several times that he put up his hands.
In December 2020 the Department of Justice announced that federal criminal charges would not be brought against the two Cleveland cops as the video footage of the shooting was too low quality for prosecutors to definitively determine what happened.
Eric Garner
Garner was also killed by police in 2014.
The 43-year-old died in New York City after he was restrained by officer Daniel Pantaleo during his arrest for allegedly selling loose untaxed cigarettes in June 2014.
Distressing footage of the incident showed him pleading at least 11 times, but officers remained on top of him until he fell unconscious and died.
His final words “I can’t breathe” became a rallying cry for the Black Lives Matter movement prompting protests across the country.
Pantaleo initially escaped criminal prosecution but was fired by Police Commissioner James O'Neill five years later, in August 2019.
Walter Scott
The following year, in April 2015, Walter Scott, 50, was fatally shot in North Charleston, South Carolina, by cop Michael Slager.
Slager had stopped Scott for a non-functioning brake light.
Slager was charged with murder after a video revealed he shot Scott from behind while the victim tried to flee the scene.
In December 2017, he was sentenced to 20 years in prison.
Alton Sterling
In July 2016, father-of-five Alton Sterling, 37, was shot “several times” outside a store in Louisiana after being confronted by two Baton Rouge Police Department officers.
Disturbing footage filmed by witnesses, shows the victim being tackled to the ground by one of the cops who were responding to a call about a black man selling CDs and reportedly threatening someone with a gun.
In the video, one of the policeman can be seen reaching for his gun and pointing it at the man’s head before two shots are heard.
Following a post-mortem examination, it was concluded that Sterling died from gun shots to the chest and back.
The killing sparked mass-protests outside the store in Baton Rouge with the angry crowd chanting "black lives matter."
Philando Castile
The same month as Sterling's killing, school canteen worker Philando, 32, was shot seven times by Jeronimo Yanez during a traffic stop.
Yanez opened fire on Philando when he pulled him over for a broken brake light.
The shocking death sparked outcry across the country after Castile's girlfriend Diamond Reynolds broadcast the immediate aftermath on Facebook Live, telling viewers how her boyfriend had just been shot dead in the car beside her.
Yanez was found not guilty in June 2017.
Stephon Clark
In March 2018, father-of-two Clark, 22, was shot by police in his grandmother's back garden in March 2018.
The cops who shot him were responding to a call of someone breaking car windows.
The shooting was captured on a body cam video released by police, who claim he was moving towards officers in a menacing way.
An autopsy commissioned by his family shows most of the eight bullets fired struck Clark in the back, contradicting the police's version of events.
Breonna Taylor
Frontline medic Breonna Taylor was shot dead by police at her home in Louisville, Kentucky, in March 2020.
The 26-year-old was accidentally shot during a drug raid on her house
According to a lawsuit filed by her family, her killing was the result of a botched drug-warrant execution.
Cops were looking for suspect Jamarcus Glover, who reportedly dated Taylor two years earlier.
But the man was arrested in a separate raid ten miles away on the same night officers broke into her apartment.
When Taylor’s boyfriend Kenneth Walker – who was not the man wanted by cops – fired one shot with his legally held weapon, claiming he thought they were burglars, three officers returned fire with a hail of bullets that killed Breonna.
The cops were not charged with Taylor’s death, prompting protests in the Kentucky city.
George Floyd
Also in 2020, 46-year-old George Floyd was apprehended by police after a convenience store clerk claimed he tried to use a fake $20 dollar bill.
While Floyd tried to get back to his car, ex-officer Derek Chauvin pulled him out of the vehicle and kneeled on the back of his neck for nine minutes.
Shocking footage of the incident posted to social media shows Floyd groaning in pain before muttering the words, "I can't breathe".
Chauvin was arrested on May 29.
The former cop was convicted of second-degree murder, third-degree murder, and second-degree manslaughter charges over Floyd’s death last month.
Floyd's death sparked protests across the country.
Daunte Wright
Dad-of-one Daunte Wright, 20, was killed by an ex-cop Kimberly Potter in Minnesota in April 2021 during a routine traffic stop.
The veteran officer allegedly killed Wright after she confused her gun and Taser.
Police Chief Tim Gannon described the shooting as an "accidental discharge."
Potter, who was accused of murder, claimed she mistook her gun for a taser.
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On February 18, 2022, a judge sentenced Kim Potter to 16 months in prison.
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