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November 18, 2002
MEDIA STATEMENT ON POLICE KILLING OF CHRISTOPHER BURNS
Welcome to our press conference and rally to express our deep concern and outrage over the November 1st death of Christopher Burns at the hands of the Minneapolis Police Department.
By now, most people have heard the familiar story advanced in the media, that Christopher Burns and his significant other, Bernadine McWhorter, were arguing. There were four children in the house at the time. Two of those children called 911 to ask for help with what was undoubtedly a heated argument, but one that did not involve physical violence. Police arrived at the scene and handcuffed Mr. Burns, who they report suddenly became limp and lifeless.
However, members of our organization have been in touch with the family, both here and in Chicago, and they say this is not what happened. In fact, it appears that many things about this incident are not what they appear to be.
First, we are concerned that police, when called to assist in a non-violent domestic situation, would handle one of the participants in an argument in such a way as to result in his death within six or seven minutes of their arrival.
Secondly, we are concerned that the five police officers who were involved in the incident that led to Mr. Burns' death left the scene prior to the arrival of paramedics and prior to Sheriff Deputies coming to the scene to begin their investigation. We would like to know who authorized or advised those officers to leave and why two officers who were unfamiliar with the incident were posted at the scene when the paramedics and Sheriff's Deputies arrived. We would also like to know why, contrary to media reports, no officers on the scene provided first aid to Mr. Burns. We have been told that police officers are no longer to be first responders. We would like to know when that policy change was initiated and why the public was not notified of this change.
Next, we have a concern about the way the children in the household were treated by police after the incident. You have to remember that there were four children present when Mr. Burns was killed. These children were severely traumatized by the incident. They needed to be in a nurturing setting, with access to a supportive parent. Instead, we are told by the children that they were taken to an interrogation room for some time period and questioned by police, without the benefit of a parent or child welfare worker, in violation of police policy. They were treated as if they had done something wrong. One child has stated that he was told to say something that wasn't true. To this day, the children are in severe trauma over this incident and their treatment by police. We would like to know how the police department can justify this unconscionable treatment of these children.
Finally, there is grave concern over the handling of Mr. Burns' autopsy by the Hennepin County medical examiner. We understand, of course, that in all deaths of this nature an autopsy must be performed by the medical examiner. Did you know that there is a policy that the medical examiner hold the body for six days to allow for an independent autopsy if the family chooses to arrange one? In this case, however, Mr. Burns' body was sent to a funeral home and embalmed without the knowledge or permission of his family within two days of his death. This has been corroborated to us by both the family and the mortician. This action on the part of the medical examiner has severely curtailed the ability of the family to seek an independent medical examination of Mr. Burns. Why was this done? What is the medical examiner trying to hide?
In light of the level of misconduct apparent by the actions of many people involved in this case, we are demanding a Federal investigation into Mr. Burns' death. After witnessing many dead-end investigations by the Hennepin County Sheriff's Department into conduct by Minneapolis police, we no longer trust them to engage in an honest investigation. The egregious nature of Mr. Burns' death demands that Federal authorities step in.
We further demand the prosecution of all police officers involved in Mr. Burns' death. We believe that a true investigation of Mr. Burns' death will lead inescapably to the conclusion that he was murdered by police and we demand that the police officers involved be prosecuted accordingly.
Finally, we demand the firing of all supervisory staff or police leadership who were involved in any way in sending officers away from the scene or otherwise engaged in what appears to be a deliberate cover up of the circumstances of Mr. Burns' death. |
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