Wednesday, June 09, 2010

Examiner: Norton on Feds in Joyner Invest.

The Examiner's Bill Myers interviews Eleanor Holmes Norton regarding the Federal Prosecutors brought in from Philadelphia to investigate the Park Police shooting of Trey Joyner in an alley off Holbrook Street about a year ago.  Park Police were operating in the area as park of a Federal task force effort called Operation Safe Streets.

Park Police responded to an initial report of a man with a gun. Officers stated that Joyner pulled a gun on them, while some of Joyner's family and friends have accused the Officers of shooting Joyner in the back while he was unarmed. A gun, allegedly belonging to Joyner, was recovered from the scene.

Joyner was already on law enforcement's radar as he was expected to be indicted only days later in connection with the 2008 triple murder of Duane Hough, Johnny Jeter and Anthony Mincey over what appears to have been a dispute at a nearby gas station. Jeter and Mincey were both developmentally disabled. Joyner was thought to have lent some form of assistance in the slayings.  William McCorkle (22) was arrested for the three murders.

Side note:

McCorkle had been wearing a court ordered ankle monitoring bracelet at the time, but had tampered with it by wrapping it in aluminum foil. McCorkle was also believed to be involved in the Kenilworth triple shooting that occurred during the violent summer of 2008 that rocked Trinidad (the theory was that the Kenilworth shooting was part of a revenge cycle tied to the Trinidad shootings). Check out the City Paper story that raises questions about a possible link to some of players here, and Jordan Howe, the man shot by Orlando Carter over a costume jewelry bracelet.

Back to the Norton interview:

Norton stated that this was the first time a District resident had ever been killed by a Federal police officer. That actually seems amazing in itself. From the article:

"An early review by Justice Department civil rights lawyer Roy Austin --a veteran of the D.C. U.S. attorney's office -- cleared Park Police officers of wrongdoing in Joyner's death, sources have told The Examiner, but the Justice Department says its civil rights investigation is ongoing."

Interesting read. Oh, and you might want to watch this disturbing video of a riled up crowd following the shooting of Trey Joyner.

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UPDATE
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I first wrote alley off Morse. I meant off Holbrook, and behind Morse. Here's link to photos of the street memorial to Trey Joyner.

1 comment:

Frank said...

When the police are cleared of wrongdoing, I hope Norton spends as much time and energy standing up for the police.

The independent review is a waste of taxpayer money. Even if the report clears the police, you won't be able to convence those people that good boy Trey did wrong.