Black horse-trainer's death raises tensions in Mississippi
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| Pallbearers bring out the casket containing the body of Stonewall, Miss., resident Jonathan Sanders following his funeral services Saturday, July 18, 2015, at the Family Life Center in Quitman, Miss. Sanders, who had been driving a horse and buggy died after a fight with a Stonewall police officer. |
STONEWALL, Miss.
(AP) -- It's a tiny little memorial in the yard of an aging mobile
home in a down-on-its-luck Mississippi mill town. Poster boards with
votive candles form hearts, there are silk flowers and red, white and
blue balloons. There's a sign demanding "Justice 4 Jonathan."
Here
on Artesia Avenue is where Jonathan Sanders died after 10 p.m. on July
8, following a physical encounter with a white police officer for the
town of Stonewall. What happened that night when Sanders - a 39-year-old
black man riding in a two-wheel buggy pulled by a horse - crossed paths
with Kevin Herrington - a 25-year-old part-time officer - is intensely
disputed.
Lawyers for the Sanders family and
witnesses who live in the mobile home say Herrington engaged in an
unprovoked attack on Sanders after the two saw each other at a
convenience store about a mile across town. C.J. Lawrence, the lawyer
for three witnesses, said Sanders was doing nothing illegal and didn't
resist while Herrington choked him to death.
A
lawyer for Herrington, though, said the officer found Sanders with what
appeared to be illegal drugs.
Sanders and Herrington struggled in the
grass and Sanders grabbed Herrington's gun from his holster, only to
drop it in the grass, attorney Bill Ready Jr. said.
Trying
to sort out the facts are the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation and
the FBI. Herrington is on unpaid leave and left town on a family trip,
Ready said. Sanders' survivors - including a mother, sister and two
children - buried him Saturday.
Authorities
are asking for calm while they finish investigating. But there were
already two protests last weekend attended by hundreds in this town of
1,100 near the Alabama line.
Another protest
is planned Sunday, as attorneys for Sanders' family paint his death as
part of a larger nationwide struggle over police brutality against black
men, and they see it as part of the unfinished civil rights movement in
Stonewall, a town named after Confederate general Stonewall Jackson.
Chokwe
Antar Lumumba, the Sanders family lawyer, said authorities told
relatives that an autopsy found he died from "manual asphyxiation" -
strangulation. He said the manner of death was homicide, not accidental.
A spokesman for MBI said the agency doesn't discuss ongoing investigations.
The
autopsy finding doesn't necessarily mean Herrington committed a crime
and accounts so far leave unanswered questions: What triggered the
encounter? Was Herrington using necessary force, or was Sanders the
victim of an overly aggressive officer?
And at a time when police departments are under intense scrutiny for treatment of black suspects, did race play a factor?
Stonewall
doesn't have cameras in police cars or on officers, putting the focus
on witnesses. Clarke County Sheriff Todd Kemp said one witness is Rachel
Williams, a jail guard in neighboring Lauderdale County.
Lawrence,
the witnesses' attorney, won't confirm her name, or describe the
others, except to say they are related and also distantly related to
Sanders by marriage. Lawrence said the witnesses sought lawyers because
they fear for their safety. Lawrence is a law partner of Lumumba, the
Sanders' family attorney.
Also present at the
time of the death were Herrington and his wife, Kasey Herrington, who
was riding that night in his police car.
The
lawyers for the witnesses relayed their accounts to The Associated Press
but said they did not want to talk directly with reporters: The
witnesses say Herrington drove up behind Sanders and flashed his blue
lights, causing the horse to rear. Sanders fell off the buggy and chased
the horse, while Herrington ran up and grabbed Sanders by the strap of a
headlamp he was wearing that had fallen around his neck. They say
Sanders fell to the ground in a fetal position, trying to relieve
pressure on his neck but otherwise not resisting, while Herrington lay
atop him and put him in a chokehold.
The
attorneys said one witness went outside and pleaded with Herrington to
release Sanders. He refused until his wife retrieved his gun. Then
Herrington directed his wife to radio for backup. When Herrington
finally released Sanders, witnesses say he was unconscious and that
blood came out of his mouth.
Ready disputes
significant parts of that account. He said a struggle began after
Herrington found Sanders with drugs and Sanders tried to run.
"It is my understanding that Mr. Sanders fought back and actually grabbed the officer's gun," Ready said.
He
also said that Sanders outweighed Herrington, making it hard for the
officer to subdue Sanders. He said Herrington did not intend to harm or
kill Sanders.
"This was just an unfortunate result of an encounter between him and Mr. Sanders," Ready said.
State investigators have so far only described what happened as a physical "altercation."
Lawrence
said his witnesses deny Herrington found drugs, or that Sanders grabbed
the officer's gun. He and Lumumba say Kasey Herrington retrieved the
gun from her husband's holster while he restrained Sanders.
Sanders
has a history of drug troubles. He was convicted in December 2003 for
selling cocaine and went to prison until May 2007. He was arrested again
in April for allegedly possessing cocaine. A lawyer who was
representing Sanders said authorities were trying to seize his Chevy
Tahoe and some cash. Ready noted that if Sanders had drugs, his bond on
the earlier charge could have been revoked and he would have had to stay
in jail until the charges were resolved.
Herrington has been described as both an excellent police officer and a "Rambo" who held a grudge.
He
graduated from a police academy in nearby Meridian in December 2013.
Until last week, he was working occasional shifts in Stonewall and two
nights a week in neighboring Enterprise. Ready said he also has a full
time job as industrial worker, but wouldn't be more specific.
Enterprise
Police Chief Joey Moulds said Herrington is a conscientious officer who
kept on good terms with people - even after he'd written them
citations.
Moulds said there were few complaints about Herrington and said he was very non-confrontational.
"I
would have to put him at the top of the list. He's the most humble
person I know of, extremely humble, extremely responsible," Moulds said.
But
Eddie Crosby, who lives near Enterprise, thinks otherwise. Crosby said
Herrington pulled him over multiple times this year to the point where
Crosby felt Herrington was harassing him. He wrote a complaint to Moulds
and the mayor and complained in a letter published in April by a local
newspaper. He didn't include Herrington's name - describing the officer
only as a "Rambo" type - but confirms he was referring to Herrington.
Afterward,
Crosby said Herrington would flash his police lights at him and
recently ticketed him for rolling through a stop sign.
"If
he got it in for you he was going to have you," Crosby said. "I could
understand the first time but you just don't stop somebody and make up
an excuse."
Friends of Sanders describe him as
a horse-lover who made a living buying, training and selling the
animals.
He lived next to his mother on a wooded side-road. Clifton
Follins, the neighbor, said Sanders's two children didn't live with him
but frequently visited.
"Ever since he's been big enough, he loved those horses," said Follins, 69.
