Unarmed black teen Christian Taylor killed by white police trainee

By Fusion Staff  |  August 8, 2015 | 10:36pm
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Just days before the anniversary of Michael Brown’s death, 19-year-old Christian Taylor became the 696th person and the 179th black man to be killed by a police officer in 2015.

Two police officers encountered Taylor at an Arlington Buick GMC dealership sometime after 1 a.m. local time Friday morning, the Associated Press reports.

Arlington police spokesperson Sgt. Paul Rodriguez said that they were responding to a burglary call and alleged that Taylor had driven an SUV through the window of the dealership showroom.

According to a police statement obtained by the AP, an unspecified “altercation” took place. That is when officer-in-training Brad Miller, who is white, shot Taylor.

Taylor was a Division II college football player at Angelo State University in San Angelo, Texas. He died at the scene of the crime.

Taylor’s family and friends have expressed disbelief at this story.

“They say he’s burglarizing the place by running up in there? Nuh-uh. Something doesn’t sound right,” Clyde Fuller, Taylor’s great uncle, told The Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

Many have tweeted links to a 12-minute audio file hosted by mnpoliceclips.com, which the website claims is from Friday’s Arlington Police dispatch. In the audio file, police report shots fired less than two seconds after they make visual contact with the “guy with a straw hat on”—presumably Taylor, if the audio is authentic.

A friend posted a picture of an SUV that he alleges was Taylor’s, calling into question the Arlington Police department’s claim that it was driven into the dealership showroom.

Family and friends have expressed their love for Taylor and their grief over losing him. One friend recounted a time Taylor dropped off a meal from Sonic practically unsolicited.

More disturbing, and tragic, are Taylor’s own prescient tweets. On July 30, just over a week before he was killed, he tweeted: “I don’t wanna die too younggggg.”

Over the past year, Taylor tweeted four times about the fear and disappointment he felt about the police.

Brad Miller, the Arlington police officer who killed Taylor, has been placed on paid administrative leave.

Molly McArdle is a contributing writer at Brooklyn Magazine and a native of the District of Columbia.

 
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