Free Thought Project – by Rachel Blevins
Dallas, TX – Disturbing body camera footage has been released from the shooting of a man who police claimed was mistaken for a thief as he sat in the vehicle he owned.The video shows that when the man was approached by an officer, he attempted to comply before he was shot twice in the back.
Lyndo Jones is lucky to be alive after his encounter with police in November 2017 left him with severe injuries that forced him to spend several days in the intensive care unit. It has taken several months, but some footage from the night Jones was shot has finally been released, and it shows that the officer who confronted him was agitated from the start.
Officer Derick Wiley, a 10-year veteran of the Mesquite Police Department, started by approaching the vehicle with his gun raised, pointed at Jones, who was sitting the driver’s seat.
“Put your hands up! Or I will f—king shoot you,” Wiley yelled as soon as Jones started to slowly open the door.
“Get out of the truck and get on the ground! Get on the ground,” Wiley continued, and Jones appeared to comply, although it was clear that the man was confused as to why he was being confronted and screamed at by a police officer.
Jones attempted to speak, and Wiley immediately yelled, “I don’t give a f—k… get on the ground. Put your hands on your head!”
Jones complied, and Wiley then walked over to him and started saying “Turn over. Turn over on your stomach. F—king turn over.”
The body camera turns so that Jones is out of view, and Wiley can be heard yelling, “Stay on the ground before I shoot you!”
Jones could then be heard responding, “Yes sir, yes sir. I’m on the ground, man.”
Wiley continued to yell at Jones, even though the footage shows that he was clearly complying with the officer’s orders. He appeared to escalate the situation by pushing his left foot into the man’s back, even though Jones was laying on the ground with his hands behind his back, and he did not look like he was trying to flee.
As soon as Wiley began using force, Jones turned his head and asked, “What are you doing, man? What are you doing?” and the officer responded by placing his hands on Jones’ throat.
As soon as Wiley tried to choke him, Jones then began scooting backward and got to his feet. Instead of lunging at the officer or making any moves towards him, Jones backed away and began pleading with Wiley and begging him not to shoot.
Wiley wasted no time and responded by firing two shots at Jones, hitting him in the back.
The most disturbing part of the video occurs after Wiley has just fired his weapon when Jones collapses to the ground and is seen writhing in pain. Even though it is clear that Wiley is on the ground, and his mobility is limited because he was just shot—therefore he poses even less of a threat to the officer—Wiley continues to yell.
“451 shots fired,” Wiley yelled into his radio, and then because his colleagues were listening, he continued to yell at Jones as if Jones was a threat to him, “Stay on the ground! Shots fired! I will shoot you again!”
The video ends as Wiley screams one final command, for Jones to put his hands behind his back, and the injured man is seen attempting to do so, even though he must have been in an incredible amount of pain, and no one was attempting to call in any aid for him.
As The Free Thought Project reported, police then continued to violate Jones’ civil rights, and while he was in the ICU recovering from the gunshot wounds, his attorneys claimed he was treated like a criminal, chained to the bed and forcibly interviewed by police when his legal counsel was not present.
Six days, ICU, no charges …. chained to the bed while fighting for your life after being shot for no reason at all. #LyndoJones pic.twitter.com/eyaWsR9DEw
— S. Lee Merritt, Esq. (@MeritLaw) November 15, 2017
The problem is that Lyndo Jones did nothing wrong, and was not a criminal. He was sitting in the truck he owned and was attempting to fix the vehicle’s alarm when he was approached by police. Any sane person who was suddenly confronted by a police officer with his gun pointed at him and then ordered to get on the ground immediately even though he had done nothing wrong, would be confused, disoriented and wanting to ask questions.
On top of that, for Wiley to claim that he “feared for his life,” because a man he thought was a burglary suspect attempted to comply with his orders and then wanted to move away when the officer started to use unnecessary force against him, is absurd.
While Lyndo Jones is lucky to be alive, the shooting left him with a long path to recovery and a lifetime of medical problems. Derick Wiley has since been fired from the Mesquite Police Department for use-of-force violations, and it is not clear if he has been hired by another department.
Wiley has been charged with aggravated assault for shooting Jones and could be facing between five years and life in prison and up to $10,000 in fines. A report from CBS DFW noted that District Attorney Faith Johnson has said her office plans to “seek the maximum” sentence against the former officer.
Watch the body camera footage from the shooting:
F’g low IQ psychopathic pig with the limited vocabulary of a tyrant. ACAB
Try to resist kidnapping and assault from ME and I WILL shoot you.
Mesquite officers are the most corrupt officers in the Dallas area. Even locals, as well as cops in many other local cities in the Dallas area, warn people not to confront cops in that area and they themselves try not to travel in that town because it’s so bad. So this doesn’t surprise me. Unless you live in that area, they don’t want you there and will run you out of town or worse as is this case.
No surprises here; just another psychotic pig killing an innocent person to vent his frustrations. It will continue, and worsen, until enough people start shooting back. Such is the nature of tyranny.