“WAR ON DRUGS” CLAIMS ANOTHER VICTIM …
|| By FITSNEWS || Zachary Hammond was shot and killed last Sunday night (July 26) by a police officer in the Hardee’s parking lot in Seneca, S.C.
Of course you wouldn’t have known that from reading the original police report regarding the incident … which failed to mention the shooting.
Local authorities still won’t say exactly how the fatal incident went down … and the county coroner isn’t talking, either.
Oh … and because the victim is white, there’s been zero national outcry. No rioting. No demands for “justice.” No social media hashtags saying #WhiteLivesMatter.
Ready for the most unbelievable part of the story?
The whole thing went down over a bag of weed …
Hammond, 19, was shot twice in the upper torso by the as-yet-unidentified officer – who was at the fast food restaurant in an effort to entrap 23-year-old Tori Dianna Morton in a marijuana deal. Morton was in the passenger seat of Hammond’s car when he was shot at around 8:26 p.m. EDT. She’d been lured to the parking lot in question by the officer – who was trying to arrest her for marijuana possession.
He approached the car with his weapon drawn.
According to Eric Bland – an attorney for the Hammond family – the officer’s first shot entered Hammond’s body around the left rear shoulder, forcing his body forward. The second shot entered from the rear of his left side – piercing his heart and lungs before exiting from the lower front of his right side.
“It is clearly, clearly from the back,” Bland told The Greenville News, citing autopsy photos. “It is physically impossible for him to be trying to flee or run over the officer that shot him.”
Seneca police dispute Bland’s contention that the shots came from behind. According to local police chief John Covington, Hammond tried to run over the undercover officer over with his car.
Covington says the fatal shots did not come from the front.
That’s impossible, according to Bland.
“The shots were so close in proximity to each other that it would be physically impossible unless the car was stopped and the officer came up very close to an open window,” Bland told the News. “Picture a car going twenty miles an hour and I’m fortunate enough to get a shot off, and I hit you —there’s no way I can get the second shot if the car’s going twenty miles an hour.”
Hammond is white. He was unarmed at the time of the shooting. He had no prior arrests. The officer who shot him is also reportedly white, although that’s the only information that’s been made public about him.
“We feel that releasing his name may possibly subject the officer and family to harassment, intimidation or abuse,” Covington said in a statement.
What’s also not being released? The coroner’s assessment of Hammond’s wounds. So far all he’s saying is Hammond died of a gunshot wound to the torso. He’s refused to provide any information regarding the direction of the wounds.
Oh, and if you’re thinking this senseless violence was part of some major, ongoing investigation into drug use in the area … think again.
“This investigation was not a long-term one and the situation just arose (Sunday) early afternoon by way of a confidential informant through our narcotics division,” Covington told The (Anderson, S.C) Independent-Mail.
So to recap …
A cop was attempting to entrap a 23-year-old woman in a hastily arranged, small-time marijuana deal. That deal ended with a 19-year-old getting shot twice – allegedly in the back. But police didn’t mention the shooting in the incident report, won’t release the officer’s name and have so far refused to provide any information on the fatal wounds suffered by the victim.
Again … all over a bag of weed.
This website has repeatedly written in opposition to government’s “War on Drugs,” arguing it is an unconstitutional infringement on individual liberty … to say nothing of a costly, colossal failure.
Zachary Hammond just paid for that failure with his life. But because he’s a white kid getting shot by the cops, no one cares.
UPDATE: Well, someone cares. The story is now on CNN.
96 comments
As with most of the high-profile shootings of Black suspects in recent months, if he had surrendered and cooperated with the cops, rather than trying to flee or fight, he’d probably be alive today. One possible exception I will acknowlege is if the cop were not properly and believably identified to him and he may have thought he was trying to get away from a bad guy with a gun.
Somehow, I am thinking he probably knew it was a cop.
I do concur about our generally useless drug laws which, like Prohibition in the early 20th Century, only serve to enrich and bolster orgamized crime.
Exactly, just because the kid is white doesn’t mean he didn’t participate in actively placing himself in harms way. Now if he was gay than we might could generate some Media interest.
Why don’t we encourage white bigotry, and even up the playing field?
Why don’t we encourage you to shut you sissy mouth.
Shut up is why.
If he was shot in the back it means he wasnt trying to run over the cop. If youll remember in the Walker Scott shooting in charleston, the law does not permit an officer to shoot a fleeing suspect unless that suspect poses a real threat to the immediate bystanders.
Theres also no proof that the 19 year old didnt obey commands. imagine this scenario
Random call from unknown number, stanger asks for a bag of weed, get to spot, guy gets out of car holding a gun, maybe identifies himself as police but you dont believe him since thats a common tactic for stealing drugs during a drug deal, drive off scared because drug deal gone wrong, get shot in the back twice.
Obey all commands.
This is seriously how home invasions go down. Someone kicks in the door wearing all black police gear you can buy off amazon, yells “POLICE”, puts you in hand cuffs and then robs you at gun point claiming they are looking for evidence, youre lucky if they dont assassinate you when its over
Again, the police should know people’s rights before getting a badge.
And the boy shouldn’t have tried running over a police officer.
Just how did he KNOW he was police officer?
WYFF reported that the officer was in uniform. I think they have already archived the article.
how do you get shot twice, close range, high torso in the shoulder by a person you are running over?
He said it was from the side window.
OBEY
SUBMIT
WE ARE ALWAYS RIGHT
DO NOT QUESTION AUTHORITY
ALL LAWS ARE JUST
EVERY SHOOTING IS JUSTIFIED
FEAR US
WYFF reported that the officer was in uniform.
Seems like everytime the cops kill someone while wearing cameras, their story doesn’t match the footage and they try to suppress the release. How often are they lying when they aren’t on film? Looks like they lie and get away with murder all the time. Now the cops who raided the dispensary and used marijuana while doing it are trying to suppress that footage as well after lying about what happened. FTP. Film the police every time you see them. I hope these cops get the same thing they gave him.
Black lives matter… just those. None of the other ones.
Officer will get away with murder just like ex-Woodruuf SC Police Officer Todd Knight did when he shot a lady in the side of her head when he said she tried to run over him at a traffic stop. In that case the stop was on a hill. The driver bailed. The victim was a front seat passenger who was trying to get control of the car rolling down the hill when Knight came back to the car after chasing the driver on foot. He shot her 2 times thru the driver’s side window because he feared for his life. By the way the victim was 5 months pregnant so he killed two people. Both parties were white. Victim’s family settled with the City of Woodruff for $750,000.
I don’t know you get your news, but it’s been all over my feed and social media for days now. I guess it takes a fucking riot to get you fucks to pay attention?
Wrong. It has been local news, emphasis on local. There has been no national coverage for this whatsoever and the reasons for that are obvious. It was the same thing in the Gilbert Collar and Dillon Taylor killings at the hands of police. The riots you are talking about are only the result of collective grievance-mongering that is instigated by way of national headlines. And no, they don’t get us to pay attention, they expose the agenda behind the headlines.
I see Fits took my links down. I guess his ego is a big as these bad cops…
Folks has an ego? Who knew?
Fox news has run it on their page.
“Again … all over a bag of weed.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z_dzDb5v744
Verbal commands and badges mean nothing to me by a person in street clothing. I want to see a commission card before I believe a person is an officer of the law other wise I am in fear for my life and will act accordingly if challenged. Better to be judged by twelve than carried by six.
Be careful playing that card lest you wind up like this guy and the ones before him. I am not saying don’t try and be certain if it is a cop or not, just use good judgment in making that assessment. Even if the cop is not identifying himself as he should, you could wind up as dead as this guy and that is obviously not a good thing.
It’s usually a good idea to follow orders of a man pointing a gun, cop or not.
True, at least until I have ascertained that he isn’t a cop and then wait for him to be momentarily distracted by whatever.
With that attitude JayJay will never see twelve unless he is a fat ass and they have to double up on pallbearers. This is moot because reports say the officer was in a black and white or one was on the scene.
Staying would have got him judged by 12. Running got him carried by 6.
“As with Black suspects in recent
months, if he had surrendered and cooperated with the cops, rather than
trying to flee or fight, he’d probably be alive today.”
So true.
How about Police do their fucking job and stop playing Wild Wild West?
They did he didn’t do what they ask this is no different then the blacks just recently killed.
the key to this is the cop was undercover, meaning plain clothes, he reportidly got out of the car with his gun drawn.
He wasnt in uniform and didnt provide any documentation that he was a police officer. for all they knew he was a gunman trying to rob them and fled for fear of their lives
“Covington has said the undercover officer pulled up beside Hammond’s car
to buy the drugs, and the officer in uniform was coming up to help with
any arrests when Hammond drove his car toward the lawman.”
Sounds like a hit and run attempt to me.
WYFF did report that the officer was in uniform.
With civil forfeiture laws and the war on drugs, cops may as well be robbers themselves.
How about Police do their fucking job and stop playing Wild Wild West?
Why all the Escape Club hate?
Finally, a sane comment. Stop the fucking cop worship people, only a coward shoots an unarmed person in the back. What kind of society accepts having to walk on eggshells around armed cops? Careful, don’t breathe too quickly or scratch your nose or you’ll be shot to death! Fuck off.
you say the police would not tell what happened and then you quote the chief telling what happened.
The local news stations and newspaper said that the girl was holding some cocaine.
Pair that with the fact that this news is quite dated I’d suggest that you do your own reporting or just leave it be. Bashing MSM and then using their reporting reeks.
Aside from that, it sure sounds like the kid got shot in the back. Sad as it is, stay out of risky situations and you don’t become a statistic.
this happened last week its not that dated considering the coverage other police shootings get.
wheres the sled investigation?
If SLED works at its usual pace, that’s months and months away.
There you go trying to inject logic into Folks’ dream of drugs for the masses. Did the individual know why he was driving the girl to a certain spot? If he did, then regardless of whether he, you or anyone agrees with the law, there were consequences that could (and did) occur for his actions.
Kickers to remain nameless take note. Drugs are bad mmkay.
Story trended nationally all weekend. Lots of outrage.
If you stick your head in the sand, the lack of outrage is almost deafening.
End the foolish War on Drugs and these episodes stop.
We should legalize cocaine, meth, GHB, and all other drugs? No more prescriptions for morphine and Xanax?
That’s the toughest question. I agree that both the war on drugs, and poverty for that matter, have been profitable to too many people on all sides without very good results. Legalizing them without enforcing personal responsibility would be even worse. I’m afraid the bad guys/profiteers/Government would just adapt to a different business model.
You are on to it — excellent points.
We should legalize cocaine, meth, GHB, and all other drugs? No more prescriptions for morphine and Xanax?
Yes.
Yes
This was a pot bust gone wrong.
End asset seizure and these episodes stop.
…and many more (yet different) escapades begin.
Yes, let’s just make them all legal…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WeYsTmIzjkw
Billions for the drug war, pennies for treatment.
#whitelivesdontmatter
He was targeted because he was white.
Probably because he was a redneck kid.
Rednecks are being persecuted!
Have been since black became too easy. It is an IQ thing.
“White kid dead. Zero outrage.”
I am not sure why you decided to lead with a headline that has nothing to do with your position he was a victim of the failed war on drugs. This was a race baiting headline. If you are saying there are people who believe the kid was killed because he was white, and noone is doing anything about it, then yes their should be protests in the street. Otherwise what is your point? There are black people and hispanic people killed all the time without protests, The protests occur when there is a perception or history of racism.
Click bait.
That’s the only reason race was brought into a cop story.
Thanks for stating the obvious. Will is only interested in generating traffic to his website and the easiest way to do so is to have useless, nonsensical headlines like this designed to stir racial hatred/passions of the lowest common denominator resulting in clicks and stupid comments from the usual collection of misanthropes, idiots, miscreants, uneducated, ignorant, uninformed redneck slobs who spend all of their waking hours (sober or drunk) on the fitsnews website, waiting to comment on every story. 99.999% of the comments are racist in tone regardless if race is involved in the article or not.
For all of his high handed preaching and moralistic palave, Will a/k/a sic willie or whatever the hell he calls himself these days, is no better than the scums who regularly troll his website.
Hey, don’t judge us. Not all of us are deranged psychopaths like GrandTango and Flip.
“I am not sure why you decided to lead with a headline that has nothing
to do with your position he was a victim of the failed war on drugs.”
He’s trying to stir the racists up again, the confederate flag issue brought them here in droves. Remember though, only Sharpton and Jackson do race hustling for money!
Why zero outrage? Being in the heart of tiger town, maybe he was wearing a Gamecock t-shirt.
One a week. On average a SC cop kill one person a week. Sometimes it’s a valid shot. Sometimes not. Ooops – our bad. We’ll do better next time.
WYFF had this on their site for a while. SLED is investigating and supposedly there is a video from the Hardees. It is my understanding that Hammond did have prior arrests in Greenville. SC has done a good job of charging officers that used unnecessary force in recent months. Charleston, Columbia, and Aiken come to mind. They also go overboard from time like they did in Orangeburg.
Check the SC Judicial web site for Oconee, Pickens and Greenville counties for the answer to your comment about priors.
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A pig’s got to get “street cred” somehow and there are not as many blacks in the upstate. Sometimes a convenient redneck has to do.
According to Eric Bland – an attorney for the Hammond family – the officer’s first shot entered Hammond’s body around the left rear shoulder, forcing his body forward. The second shot entered from the rear of his left side – piercing his heart and lungs before exiting from the lower front of his right side.
“It is clearly, clearly from the back,” Bland told The Greenville News, citing autopsy photos. “It is physically impossible for him to be trying to flee or run over the officer that shot him.”
Seneca police dispute Bland’s contention that the shots came from behind. According to local police chief John Covington, Hammond tried to run over the undercover officer over with his car.
Covington says the fatal shots did not come from the front.
That’s impossible, according to Bland.
“The shots were so close in proximity to each other that it would be physically impossible unless the car was stopped and the officer came up very close to an open window,” Bland told the News. “Picture a car going twenty miles an hour and I’m fortunate enough to get a shot off, and I hit you —there’s no way I can get the second shot if the car’s going twenty miles an hour.”
The undercover cop was named Lee Harvey Oswald.
Here is the problem with this statement “According to Eric Bland – an attorney for the Hammond family .” He is a paid advocate for the family of the deceased. SLED will conduct a fair and impartial investigation. Just like they did with Walter Scott, Just like the trooper in Columbia. Just like they always do. They will turn the results over to the solicitor. He will decide whether or not to charge anyone. That is where the problem could occur. That is where the decision was made not to charge the black officer that shot the elderly white man that was getting his cane out of the back of his truck on a traffic stop several years ago.
It wont be impartial unless theres media attention, otherwise it gets swept under the rug as a justified shooting and the evidence is sealed and the public never sees it
Don’t bet on it. Mark Keel is by the book and harsh with the facts. The problems often are with the local prosecutors or when local officials like Lott investigate one of their own for a shooting that occurred in a different county.
FOIA keeps closed investigations from being sealed.
Send the story to Libertarian blogger Radley Balko at The Watch at the Washington Post if you want some national coverage.
Obviously, white people must not mind getting shot down like dogs the way black people do.
It must be a variation on the Plantation Massa Syndrome; everything an authority figure does to them is fine….that’s how you want the black people to react, right?
You fat, dumb ass.
I suggest you go back to the drawing board and try do find a better retort thank that.
I suggest you go back to the drawing board and come up with something better than telling people to go back to the drawing board.
Shoot first then ask questions later. Yeah, that’s it. The old factory patent line, “They tried to run over me.”
I am outraged….but was the white kid unarmed and was the officer that shot him black? That would be comparing like for like if Fits is attempting to draw parallels on racial lines of police shooting unarmed citizens.
However, if Fits is just plain upset that nobody cares about when white people die…I would disagree. Fox News went wall to wall for weeks with Natalie Holloway…
That is the best you got?
I suggest you go back to the drawing board and try again.
Bullets fly in a bud bust? Seriously? Doesn’t anyone see how absolutely stupid that becomes. Should have given them a joint and smoked it with them in the parking lot. Then no one would have gotten shot.
Yep, even better, it stimulates the economy because Hardee’s would have had to satisfy their munchies.
National Media:
Huffington Post
Fox News
Numerous local news outlets from outside of the upstate
Numerous blog sites
Twitter
I think FITS point is that this never opened on the national news broadcasts for the 3 big networks. There satellite trucks haven’t shown up in Clemson like they do for a FSU game when the college football JV Championship (ACC) is on the line. This hasn’t gained the same attention that Walter Scott did.
So are you lamenting the lack of outrage in the white community, or asking why black organizations aren’t displaying outrage? The truth is what national awareness exists about #ZacharyHammond should be largely credited to #BlackLivesMatter activists and Black Twitter. As far as the white community, I can only say that I have personally spread the word about this shooting, mostly because I’ve already been organizing around issues of police reform. Don’t know where the rest of my community has been, though.
It’s time that SC Legalizes Marijuana. Waste of Police Resources and STOP these tragedies.
Coroner’s Report released.
http://www.wyff4.com/news/New-autopsy-findings-released-in-death-of-teen-shot-by-officer/34550522
Autopsy results are on WYFF
Seems like everytime the cops kill someone while wearing cameras, their story doesn’t match the footage and they try to suppress the release. How often are they lying when they aren’t on film? Looks like they lie and get away with murder all the time. Now the cops who raided the dispensary and used marijuana while doing it are trying to suppress that footage as well after lying about what happened. FTP. Film the police every time you see them. I hope these cops get the same thing they gave him!
I’m outraged. The media led us to believe this only ever happens to black teens, but this is CLEARLY a racist shooting by a racist cop. I’m going to burn down a local convenience store and steal a weave tonight.
Has Obama weighed in on this shooting and how many representatives did he send to the funeral?
His family is raising the issue, I can only imagine how much it is costing them or what connections they might have.
This is a very sad story close to home for me. Mixed autopsy results, the GF was the one selling MJ — seriously when does a DEA officer need to approach someone selling MJ. Aren’t there far more dangerous drugs on the street? The young boy who died wasn’t even selling, but the girl in the car with him last I read.
This story needs more attention – too many SC police involved shootings IMHO.