Tag: Police

Dec 3

2018

No prosecution in deadly police shooting

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Editor’s note: The clip above shows the key minute of the encounter between police and Rafael Rivera. A second clip below expands on that video. In an announcement Monday, Erie County District Attorney John Flynn said the Buffalo police officer who fatally shot Rafael “Pito” Rivera in September did nothing wrong and will not be prosecuted. That doesn’t mean the matter is settled, however. Rivera’s family has served a notice of claim, in anticipation of a wrongful death lawsuit against the city and police department. In addition, the family’s attorney said he plans to ask the state Attorney General to[...]

Posted 5 years ago

Oct 9

2018

State finds police fault in Lehner drowning

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A state investigation into the drowning of Buffalo police diver Craig Lehner identified numerous problems with the policies and procedures of the city’s Underwater Recovery Unit. The report by the Public Employee Safety and Health Bureau of the state Labor Department concluded that Lehner drowned last October after his tether line became snagged on a boulder about 25 feet under water. The safety bureau faulted the police department on a number of fronts, including the inadequate training and equipping of Lehner. The findings mirror previous reporting by Investigative Post, which determined Lehner was not sufficiently trained or equipped to drive in the rapid[...]

Posted 6 years ago

Oct 5

2018

Heaney discusses fatal police shooting

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Jim Heaney discusses his coverage of the fatal police shooting of Rafael “Pito” Rivera with Susan Arbetter on The Capitol Pressroom. Heaney also noted the absence of concern, much less criticism, from elected officials or most activist organizations in the city in the face of the death of three men of color in encounters with Buffalo police since March 2017.  

Posted 6 years ago

Sep 19

2018

Police policy seen as lacking on de-escalation

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The Buffalo Police Department’s use of force policy lacks “important provisions” and is “very weak” on the de-escalation of crisis situations, two national experts have told Investigative Post. The shortcomings, first documented by Investigative Post two years ago, are again open to question following the fatal shooting of Rafael “Pito” Rivera, 32, by a police officer last week. Video tape shows Rivera was running away from police when he was shot three times, including once in the back. No gun is readily visible on Rivera in the video, although police maintain he was in possession of a handgun and posed[...]

Posted 6 years ago

Sep 15

2018

Video shows deadly police shooting

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 A video of the shooting of Rafael “Pito” Rivera shows he was running from police when an officer shot him twice at close range, according to an Investigative Post review of the footage. The video shows Rivera falling as he turns off Plymouth Avenue into the parking lot of the former School 77 about 3:15 a.m. Wednesday. He crawls several feet, gets up and runs several steps until a police officer about 10 to 15 feet away fires two shots. Rivera falls to the ground, motionless. Rivera does not point a weapon at officers in the video, which shows[...]

Posted 6 years ago

Sep 14

2018

Attorney: Video shows “bad shoot” by police

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Rafael “Pito” Rivera was running from police and posed no threat to officers when one of them shot him several times in the back, the attorney representing Rivera’s family has told Investigative Post. Steve Cohen made his claim of a “bad shoot” based on a video taken from a surveillance camera that captured the shooting at 454 Plymouth Ave., on the city’s lower West Side. Cohen said he viewed the video early Friday evening with the family. “There could be no interpretation of that video that [concludes] Mr. Rivera was pointing a gun at the police when he was shot,”[...]

Posted 6 years ago

Sep 13

2018

Attorney senses a police coverup is afoot

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Steve Cohen – a civil rights attorney retained by the family of Rafael “Pito” Rivera, who was shot dead by police Wednesday – told Investigative Post he suspects Buffalo police are engaging in a coverup. Cohen, in an exclusive interview with Investigative Post, said police have been uncooperative, to the point of refusing to allow the Rivera family to view the body or provide basic information about the fatal encounter. Police, he said, are typically quick to share information in the case of justifiable shootings. “When the police refuse to interact with the family, refuse to interact with the family’s[...]

Posted 6 years ago

Jul 2

2018

Lehner family sues over police diver’s drowning

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The family of Officer Craig Lehner filed a wrongful death lawsuit Monday against City Hall and the Buffalo Police Department. Lehner drowned during a dive training exercise in the Niagara River last October with the department’s Underwater Recovery Team. The lawsuit contends the city and police department “violated and departed from” the rules and regulations guiding dive training. Several of the allegations in the filing are similar to the findings in an Investigative Post story published earlier this year, which exposed shortcomings in the dive team’s training, equipment, and safety procedures. The lawsuit, filed in state Supreme Court, contends: Lehner[...]

Posted 6 years ago
Investigative Post

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