Deaf Iraqi killed due to miscommunication about curfew

[Domitan]

My fiancee just shared this horrible news about a former coworker of hers. This coworker came to Canada a few years ago from Iraq. She has a PhD and has worked hard to make a life for herself and her family here in Canada. I met her once...superb and vital woman. Anyway, she had a deaf brother who had remained in Mosul, Iraq. This man worked as a welder, and is "culturally Deaf" (native language is Iraqi Sign Language and does not communicate orally). Very bright and innovative from what I've heard.

While this Iraqi woman worked with my fiancee, I would ask my fiancee about how she and her brother were doing. For the past year, they were both doing fine, in spite of their difficulties in both Canada and Iraq. She was hoping to find a way to bring him to Canada, and I told her that I would be happy to do what I can to make him welcome in Canada (especially as I'm a Deaffie myself). She left my fiancee's workplace to go to a different place. We had not heard from this Iraqi scholar for quite a while.

Tonight, my fiancee told me that she got a condelence card passed around at her workplace in regards to this Iraqi woman. Her brother will never come to Canada. He will never express another sign. He will never see the sun rise again. A month or two ago, he was shot dead. Why? He could not understand the curfew warning. As a result, shot dead. By who?...I do not know. I do not know if he was shot by the American soldiers. I do not know if he was shot by the Iraqi soldiers or police. I do not know if he was shot by insurgents or whoever. No matter, this innocent man is dead. All because of miscommunication. All because of the chaos wrought upon Iraq based on premise of lies and cynical hegemony. His death and many Iraqis' deaths unnoticed except for those who know him/others as well as those whose hearts can reach out to those neglected by the media and global town criers.

. .

[Son of California]

1. There are just certain stories

that light a bright fire of sadness and righteous indignation in man's heart.

and obviously, this is one of them.

[Domitan]

3. Yes, very true

This really got to me.

[babylonsister]

2. Disabled people are another part of the Iraqi population

we never hear about. And we know with that many people, there are diversely handicapped people. Thanks for highlighting this, Domitan. Gives me another reason to rebel about what's going on in Iraq, and I'm very sorry for the loss of this young man.

[Domitan]

4. .

.

[Domitan]

5. I want him to be remembered

kick

[faithnotgreed]

6. bless him and his family

what a horrible thing to happen

my cousin is deaf and i grew up with him very close as we are only a month apart in age so i especially noticed this

so many tragedies in all this so thank you for sharing his story

peace

[Domitan]

9. It's happened in former Yugoslavia

One deaf man who was part of a group taken out and lined up was shot by the Serb army, because he was unable to understand instructions...that was interpreted as defiance. This just makes me sick.

Hope it never happens to your cousin or anyone else.

[faithnotgreed]

11. there are no words are there

just keep fighting this good fight because one day the truth will win out

[Domitan]

14. No signs for this either

I'm thinking of collecting stories about deaf people who have been brutally treated like this.

[noamnety]

7. I am so sorry

We had a deaf guy shot in Detroit a couple years ago - he was in his garden with a rake, the police yelled some kind of warning to him, which he of course "ignored" - so they shot him.

[Domitan]

8. What happened to him?

Is he still around? I used to live in Detroit (actually Livonia). Wonder if I know this person?

Fucking police! I spoke to my fiancee who is a university student now. She just learned in her textbook that Western people tend to personalize any signs of "non-listening" as deliberate defiance...while in the Eastern world, people tend to assess situational factors before coming to judgement. How that rings true here.

[noamnety]

10. He died

They left him there bleeding for a while, shooing flies away from his wound, didn't call EMS, finally took him in a squad car to the hospital where he died. He did yard work for a living - they claimed he was threatening them with a garden rake - and they shot him 3 times.

Errol Shaw Sr. - age 39. They shot him in front of his niece and his mother, who were both yelling at the cops that he was deaf.

[Domitan]

12. Damn!

Has any action been taken against the police?

That name is not familiar to me, but I'll ask my Michigan mates and see if they know of him (he's only a few years older than me). Very sorry about his loss.

[Domitan]

13. I found some info on this

http://www.courttv.com/archive/trials/krupinski/background.html

Errol Shaw Sr. was at a distinct disadvantage when he met up with David Krupinski outside his Detroit home one August afternoon last year.

Shaw, who could neither hear nor speak, held a garden rake and was in a bad mood. Krupinski wore a police uniform, carried a gun and had three brother officers to back him up.

It all happened so fast — commotion, yelling, the sound of gunfire, witnesses testified last fall. When it was over, Shaw lay mortally wounded and Krupinski, a young patrolman from a family of Detroit cops, was defending himself from accusations that Errol Shaw did not have to die that warm, sunny Tuesday.

Officer David Krupinski, the son of a retired 25-year veteran of Detroit's police force, responded to 16565 Ferguson St. at about 3:30 p.m. on the afternoon of Aug. 29, 2000, to quell a disturbance. Errol Shaw Sr. was allegedly threatening relatives with a knife and chasing his children outside, officers dispatched to the scene were told.

Krupinski and his partner arrived first, followed by Officer Brandon Hunt and a fourth officer. What happened next is in dispute.

Krupinski's lawyers have said that Shaw grabbed a metal rake with a wooden handle, held it above his head and was about to strike Hunt, so he shot him. Other officers had their weapons drawn, but Krupinski was the only one to fire. He claims, according to reports in the Detroit media, that he did not know Shaw was deaf and that he ordered Shaw to put the rake down several times before firing his service weapon twice, killing Shaw.

This is Shaw


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This is the killer cop


More info on this scum:

A little more than a week before, Detroit police were involved in another brutal killing. On August 30 a police officer shot and killed Errol Shaw Jr., a mentally ill deaf mute, whom police claimed was “menacing them” with a garden rake. Shaw was 15 feet from the five police who surrounded him when he was shot twice in the chest. Family members and neighbors cried out to police that Shaw could not hear or respond verbally to their commands and told them not to shoot. But their appeals were ignored. As the father of six lay on the sidewalk bleeding, police did little to assist him and barred family members from comforting Shaw.

Deputy Police chief Herman Curry immediately blamed Errol Shaw for the shooting, saying, “He gets a rake, and he began to move toward the officers, and they ask him to drop the rake. Now the rake is in striking position. The officers, for their safety, fire two shots.”

In the aftermath of the shooting it was revealed that the officer who killed Shaw, 23-year-old David Krupinski, had been arrested in January 1999 in nearby Dearborn for brandishing his police pistol, using racial slurs and threatening to shoot a black motorist during a traffic dispute. Moreover, before joining the force Krupinski had allegedly been a gang member and known as a bully by his neighbors. He was hired over the objections of police recruiters, because his father was a senior cop.

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2000/sep2000/det-s15.shtml

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OH fuck! Krupinski not guilty!

http://www.detnews.com/2001/metro/0108/12/-266195.htm

While I can see that Errol needed to be subdued, there were many ways that he could have been restrained without killing him. Lousy system there!