By The Vanguard
DENVER, CO – Another story about police shooting and killing someone holding a “weapon” that turned out to actually be a harmless object is being reported by Reason Magazine.
The Denver Police Department (DPD) earlier in August shot and killed a man armed with a marker after the officer (whose name has not been released) said she thought Brandon Cole, 36, was holding a knife.
Reason writes now DPD has admitted Cole was not holding a weapon at all.
“Through the investigation, it was determined that the object Mr. Cole had in his hand during the interaction with the officers was a black marker,” Denver Police Commander Matt Clark said.
Clark said police were “responding to a 911 caller who said they thought they saw a man push his wife out of a wheelchair. When two police officers—one male and one female—arrived on the residential street where this had allegedly taken place, they found a woman sitting on the street nearby an empty wheelchair and observed a man ‘reaching into the driver’s area of a vehicle,’” said the Reason story.
The female officer said Cole had “an object that she believed to be a knife,” said Clark, and moved toward her. The male officer tasered him but it didn’t have any effect, so the female officer fired twice. He was hit twice and was pronounced dead at the hospital.
Reason’s story added, “Body cam footage shows a small child standing just behind Cole on the sidewalk when the officer shoots.”
News reports said the body cam footage also showed Cole’s wife, who has not been identified and who was sitting on the sidewalk next to a wheelchair, shouting “Don’t pull your gun out on my husband, please!”
Gianina Horton, co-director of the Denver Justice Project, a long-running police reform organization, said it might be unrealistic for officers to expect their tone can make a difference. Cole’s wife’s first statement to officers— “Don’t pull your gun”—says it all, Horton told Denverite.
“That in itself is an indication of the expectation of the role of law enforcement in Black and brown communities, and the mistrust and the fear around safety,” she said. “Your uniform is a trigger already for Black, brown and Indigenous community members.”
“The officer who shot Cole seems to face little repercussion for killing a man for holding a marker and endangering a small child. She will complete the department’s reintegration program before returning to a patrol assignment,” said officials.
Cole leaves behind three children, according to NBC News.
