On Sun, 24 Feb 2008 03:49:32 -0600, w...@where.com wrote:
>(Another nigger family with a nigger troublemaker for a son now wants
>money because the punk defied police and died for his stupidity.)

>http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/tribunereview/news/fayette/s_553860.html

>Wecht testifies Uniontown boy's death 'terrible'
>By Debra Erdley
>TRIBUNE-REVIEW
>Saturday, February 23, 2008

>Michael Ellerbe died of a single gunshot wound to the back that severed
>his spinal cord, exited his chest and grazed his left arm as he ran from
>state police in Uniontown, according to Dr. Cyril H. Wecht.

>The 12-year-old boy would have been conscious for 30 to 45 seconds and
>aware that something terrible had happened as his life slipped away on
>Dec. 24, 2002, Wecht told a jury in federal court on Friday.

>The noted forensic pathologist and former Allegheny County coroner, who
>himself is on trial for public corruption, testified as an expert
>witness for the state police in the civil rights trial of two state
>troopers accused of shooting the Uniontown boy as he ran from a stolen
>SUV.

>Troopers Juan Curry and Samuel Nassan, who were cleared of criminal
>responsibility in a coroner's inquest in 2003, have testified that
>Curry's gun discharged accidentally as he fell while scaling a fence
>during the chase. Nassan, who heard the shot and saw Curry fall, thought
>his partner had been shot and fired on Ellerbe.

>Ellerbe's father, Michael Hickenbottom, is seeking damages in the civil
>rights wrongful death case before U.S. District Court Judge Joy Flowers
>Conti.

>Michigan civil rights lawyer Geoffrey Fieger, representing the family,
>has repeatedly attacked the police version of the shooting, suggesting
>that a second bullet caused the wound on Ellerbe's arm.

>Wecht discredited that theory. As jurors gazed at the autopsy photos,
>Wecht pointed out that the small scrape on Ellerbe's left arm was
>directly in line with the exit wound on his chest.

>But under cross-examination from Fieger, Wecht said it's likely
>Ellerbe's arm was moving when he was shot.

>Police have said Ellerbe repeatedly refused commands to show his hands
>as he ran.

>Wecht said Ellerbe bled to death as a result of the wound that shattered
>his aortic and pulmonary arteries and severed his spinal cord. He
>estimated Ellerbe would have remained conscious for 30 to 45 seconds,
>and would have died within 4 to 6 minutes.

>"Terrible, yes, that's a word you could use," Wecht said, responding to
>Fieger's questions about Ellerbe's state of awareness.

>Wecht was the second of two expert witnesses who testified yesterday.

>Retired Michigan State Trooper David E. Balash, a crime scene specialist
>and ballistics expert, testified for Ellerbe's family.

>Balash disputed police statements about the incident. He said the
>location of the cartridges expelled from the trooper's guns did not
>match the statements police gave about where they were when the shooting
>occurred.

>"If an individual says he's at a specific location, and I find ejection
>cartridges at a different point than they should be, then something is
>wrong," Balash told the jury of six women and four men.

>Balash said the angle of Ellerbe's wound, the lack of any evidence of
>gunfire on the fence where Curry said his gun discharged and the
>location of the cartridges all conflicted with police statements.

>Testimony is scheduled to resume Monday.