20 Year-Old Unarmed Man Killed By Police In Montana

Jan 5

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Kaileb Williams

Kaileb Williams

It was New Year’s Eve. Kaileb Williams and his fiancée got into an argument. The fiancee called Kaileb’s mom to come pick her up. The mom did, and when she went into the apartment, she said that Kaileb assaulted her and then took her car with his fiancée in the passenger seat. Kaileb’s mom called the police. In response to a domestic disturbance, Kaileb was shot in the head by Missoula police officer, Cpl. Paul Kelly. Kelly is currently on administrative leave pending the outcome of the investigation, although the initial investigation found that Kelly was justified in shooting Kaileb.

Attorney Terance Perry is representing Rhenon Williams, Kaileb’s mom, and Kaileb’s fiancée. He stated that he has significant issues with the official version of the events. “I’m just going to call it like I see it. It’s execution style.”

Attorney Perry stated that the family has a markedly different story of what happened in the hour before Kaileb was killed by a single gunshot to the head.

Officer Kelly said that Kaileb was holding his fiancée hostage. The fiancée says that he was not and that she had plenty of opportunity to get out of the car if she wanted to.

Officer Kelly said that it was dark and he could not see if Kaileb had a weapon, yet he claimed to have seen Kaileb choking his fiancee, which she says never happened. Photos taken of her afterwards show no bruises or other signs of injury.

“I’m a little confused about their statement. Somehow they can see she is being strangled or held down, but they say it’s too dark to see if there is a weapon,” Perry said. “They all carry flashlights, most of the police cars I see around Missoula have searchlights. They could have lit that vehicle up like a Christmas tree if they wanted to.”

Perry said police never saw Kaileb wielding a weapon, and there was no evidence that he had a weapon.

Detective Lt. Scott Newell of the Missoula County Sheriff’s Office said that Rhenon told the dispatcher her son might have a knife. Attorney Perry said that Rhenon said no such thing.

The cops initially told Rhenon that Kaileb shot himself.

Detective Newell said the fiancee has been interviewed, and told law enforcement Kaileb was heading toward Interstate 90 and was going to drive into oncoming traffic to kill both of them. Attorney Perry said she denies making statements to that effect.

The sheriff’s investigation said Kaileb was intoxicated and had been using spice, a synthetic version of marijuana. Kaileb had a previous drug-related conviction and was on probation at the time of the shooting.

“There’s an attempt to construct a justification for the use of fatal force here,” said attorney Perry.

Read the full story at Missoulian.com

R.I.P. Kaileb

Butterfly_tears_by_Dandelion_lion

Posted on 01/05/2015, in Cases, Cops Gone Wild, Kaileb Williams and tagged , , , , , , , . Bookmark the permalink. 37 Comments.

  1. Jueseppi B. | 01/05/2015 at 5:24 am

    Reblogged this on The Militant Negro™.

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    • Xena | 01/05/2015 at 5:41 am

      Thanks for the reblog Jueseppi. Stay warm.

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      • Jueseppi B. | 01/05/2015 at 7:21 am

        I think this young man was caucasian? Hard to tell some days with race lines blurred. If he is caucasian it will be interesting to see how this is handled and what the outcome will be.

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        • Xena | 01/05/2015 at 7:42 am

          Well Jueseppi, Ethan Saylor was White. He was choked to death by cops in Maryland, and the grand jury did not indict. Remember Kelly Thomas? The officers charged with beating him to death were acquitted. Then there was the homeless guy camping who was shot and killed by cops. He was White. The list goes on and on.

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  2. mindyme62 | 01/05/2015 at 5:34 am

    What is wrong with these officers????? Is the new M.O. to shoot first and determine later if there was justification. My condolences to all who loved him.

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    • Xena | 01/05/2015 at 5:40 am

      I just read 3 other cases, 2 from the weekend; 1 in Kansas. All claim that the suspect was reaching in their waistbands but no weapons were found. It would take 5 full-time bloggers to report all these cases. They are happening too fast.

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      • mindyme62 | 01/05/2015 at 5:42 am

        My hope is that the problem isn’t too big to repair. There has to be a way to hold officers accountable.

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        • Xena | 01/05/2015 at 5:52 am

          That’s the thing Mindyme, there’s no justice. First, cops should not be dishonest in their reports. That’s the first stressful battle that victims and their families have to overcome. Then, investigators independently rule that the shooting was justified. If citizens make enough noise for state prosecutors to take the case before a grand jury, they don’t get indictments.

          Until that system changes, they will not be held accountable and to top it off, they get a paid vacation pending investigation.

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          • mindyme62 | 01/05/2015 at 8:02 am

            The fact they lie on their reports is proof they know they did something wrong

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          • Xena | 01/05/2015 at 10:24 am

            Mindyme, isn’t that the main reason why trust is betrayed? You probably already know that I’m a Judge Judy fan. I see people on her program who bring in police reports and many say that the officer who wrote it omitted something, or paraphrased their words in a manner where it wasn’t what they said. Judge Judy goes by the content and always says that it was written by an officer of the law.

            In other words, it’s not just those reports when an officer involved shooting is involved, but also other reports that they write that have a negative outcome in even simple, civil cases. They want to reduce a half-hour conversation into 2, 5 sentence paragraphs. If they do that when their own actions are not involved, we can only imagine the things they make-up in reports when they are trying to CYA.

            Yeah — they know that they did something wrong, and they know that any lay person trying to prove the misrepresentations is going to have a difficult time convincing a judge and jury that the report contains lies. Remember Marcus Jeter and the fathom second video showing that his hands were up and he wasn’t reaching for the officer’s gun? Had he not had an attorney who knew how to do a public information request to get that video, Jeter would be serving time in prison for something he didn’t do — but because the cop wrote it in his report.

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        • racerrodig | 01/05/2015 at 12:52 pm

          Absolutely. I believe any cop who shoots someone other than in….say….a running gunfight, a bank robbery shootout, or a blatantly obvious situation where there was a life & death issue MUST be arrested.

          If they are charged immediately with MS 2 as a minimum, it might stop the bleeding so to speak since they may not be able to beat the charges at trial. Not everyone gives cops a free pass anymore.

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  4. shyloh | 01/05/2015 at 6:01 am

    Xena do you know this person as well? https://twitter.com/justsaying1963 You can delete if you need too. Just wondering. Not too friendly with me. I think she responded to a twitter I twittered of one of your blogs. <— does that even make sense? Ha!

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    • Xena | 01/05/2015 at 7:05 am

      Shyloh, never heard of the person. I remember a similar handle by someone who posted on the Conservative Treehouse during the Zimmerman case. None of them like Blackbutterfly7; I wouldn’t expect them to. For some reason, they assumed that I would want them to be my friend. Imagine that! Because my Twitter account is protected, they can’t see who follows me or who I follow. So, they come here and spend their time checking to see who comments and if they’re on Twitter, then they follow those people hoping to see if they and I are following each other. If they can harass them because of me, they think it will severe our relationship. They are classic bullies.

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  5. yahtzeebutterfly | 01/05/2015 at 7:07 am

    Thanks for bringing this case to my attention, Xena.

    The changing stories by the police to justify the the killing of Kaileb represent a red flag. All of their excuses do not add up. It is good that the family has attorney Perry representing them.

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  6. Envy | 01/05/2015 at 8:21 am

    Reblogged this on sXe The Edge.

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  7. Xena | 01/05/2015 at 10:32 am

    “It wasn’t right for them just to kill him for no reason at all, like we called you for help and instead of coming to help us you destroyed us,” she added.

    This time in Kansas. Family called 911 for help, and a cop killed 23-year old John Paul Quintero who was out of the SUV, on the allegation that he reached for his waistband for a knife that turns out, was in the back seat of the SUV.

    http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2015/01/kansas-family-calls-police-for-help-with-belligerent-son-and-now-hes-dead/

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  8. Sue Dreamwalker | 01/05/2015 at 10:52 am

    Oh dear… I am so so pleased our Police do not carry weapons and the gun laws are so very different here in the UK..
    What is going on with these trigger happy people????
    So many sad stories..

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  9. Xena | 01/05/2015 at 1:21 pm

    40 year old Boston police officer Michael Doherty has been suspended following an off-duty incident in which he beat an Uber driver and a bystander while screaming racial slurs. Doherty has been charged with assault and battery, and using a motor vehicle without authority.

    The interesting thing about this story is that when the cops arrived, they focused attention on the 2 victims and let Doherty get away. Doherty was taken into custody at his home.

    http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2015/01/boston-police-arrest-off-duty-cop-who-screamed-racist-slurs-while-beating-uber-driver-and-bystander/

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    • yahtzeebutterfly | 01/05/2015 at 3:28 pm

      If our society does not realize we have a major policing problem across the U.S. with so many racist, out-of-control officers, we are going to be in serious trouble.

      We need to start paying attention to just who the LE people are who screen applicants. Why are so many bad cops allowed to join the ranks and why aren’t they weeded out if they misbehave?

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      • Xena | 01/06/2015 at 3:02 am

        Yahtzeebutterfly,

        If our society does not realize we have a major policing problem across the U.S. with so many racist, out-of-control officers, we are going to be in serious trouble.

        What has happened is that the majority of the population has been led to believe that those killed by cops deserved it. The same applies to those brutalized by cops who didn’t die. Remember Rodney King? That is the idea I conveyed in the article American Holocaust. When society is led to believe that the lives of some citizens are not important because they are burdens on society, then victims are placed on trial rather than the killers and killers are found to be justified.

        We can now add the intoxicated to the list of the mentally ill, disabled, homeless, and minorities.

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    • mindyme62 | 01/06/2015 at 1:20 pm

      I just saw this!

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  10. peni4yothot | 01/05/2015 at 1:53 pm

    My word, smh!

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  11. towerflower | 01/05/2015 at 3:05 pm

    Then you had the case of the off duty NYPD officer who assault a subway worker.
    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/01/05/mirjan-lolja-off-duty-cop-nypd-subway-worker-attack_n_6417860.html

    I think the PD’s pysch exams need a BIG makeover.

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  12. chuquestaquenumber1 | 01/05/2015 at 9:52 pm

    Hello Xena, I hope you have a productive yr. Plus win more awards. This post once again shows you believe in humanity for humanity. Here is a unarmed white guy killed by police. You call for justice for Williams. Not Good for him,Blacks get this all the time. You want for his family what you wanted for the families of Trayvon,Mike Brown,John Anderson,Renisha,Tamir,etc Justice. No false BGI here.

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    • Xena | 01/06/2015 at 2:33 am

      chuquest,
      Thanks for your kind words. It seems pretty simple to me — right is right and wrong is wrong. What is wrong for any is wrong for all. Isn’t that what is meant within the concept of the “rule of law”?

      We have come to a point in this country where all citizens need to come together and speak up. I’d like to see the families of all victims, regardless of race, come together and tell their stories. Maybe someone who is into documentary films can start that process.

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  13. Xena | 01/06/2015 at 7:49 pm

    Officer who killed unarmed John Quintero killed before.

    Witnesses to the death of John Paul Quintero have identified a photograph of Wichita Police officer Elizabeth Martin as the officer who shot the unarmed 23 year-old. Martin is the same officer named in a lawsuit for fatally shooting Karen Jackson in July of 2012, where Martin and another officer claim Jackson approached them with a knife, despite the fact that Jackson was generally confined to a wheelchair and incapable of moving quickly.

    http://revolution-news.com/kansas-police-shoot-kill-unarmed-23yr-old-john-quintero/#prettyPhoto

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