Multicultural Echoes - English SCOTT RUSHING Peace Officers or Provocateurs? lmagine you find yourself in a claustrophobic bathroom with blood dripping down your chest from a bullet hole? There is no place to flee. You are alone. You are in pain. You don't know who shot you. You were helping friends on the patio of a building one evening when the gunman comes through the bushes, dressed in black, gun out. You tried to knock the gun out of his hands in a try at self-defense, but the gunman shot first. You stumble into the bathroom of the building to give yourself first aid. Maybe you can save your life, but you can't breathe. You realize through the throes of fear, panic, and pain that you may be dying and that this may be your last few hours on this earth. Suddenly, you hear voices outside the bathroom door telling you to come out to get medical help, but you wonder if the voice is coming from the gunman who just shot you. You yell at the person that you have a gun, in a feeble attempt to scare off the man, but you don't have any weapons. It is a bluff. You are covered in your hot blood that has now pooled on the bathroom floor. The voice from the other side of the door responds that he has a gun too! You decide not to leave the bathroom to face the gunman. You decide there is safety inside the bathroom and a menacing shooter outside. You stay put, praying you will get rescued. A few minutes later you hear the loud barking and whining of a dog. Another man's voice is heard, He is telling you his dog will bite you if you don't come out. The growling and barking noise increases. You are confused and you ache all over and you can't think straight. Without warning, the door bursts open. You crouch behind the door, the only place you can hide from this frenzied dog. Three men and a dog attack you. One man in a uniform pulls you from behind the door. Another man tries to choke you and has his powerful hands around your neck, the dog is off the leash moving between your legs, biting you. You have a piece of the toilet tank as your only weapon and flail in 74 Multicultural Echoes - English a weakened attempt at self-defense as these men grab you around your shoulders and wrists. The attack dog's jaws are between your legs, biting you to the bone ofyour left leg as you slip and struggle to escape the attackers... but you are slipping on the tile floor covered in your blood. Your last words you ever utter is a cry out that you are dying. A few seconds into the attack the "peace officer" who was choking you pulls out his pistol, puts the barrel against your throat at the trachea, and pulls the trigger. As you begin to furn and fall the officers hold you up as the shooter fires a second shot in the back ofyour head while pressing the barrel to your flesh. A body now lies on the floor in a pool of blood and water, face down in a prone position, unmoving and after being shot three times, choked, and bitten. "Peace officers" are hovering over the body with guns pointing down. One officer decides to use his taser, to "give a ride," saying they are worried the suspect is playing possum and planning to jump up and attack a room full of armed "peace officers." Moments after the body jerks from 50,000 volts of electricity the "peace officers" handcuff the bleeding wrists, and brutally drag a body from the bathroom to the hallway where an emergency rescue team confirms there is no sign of life. This is the story of the final moments of the life of my son, Tyler Scott Rushing. He was killed by "peace offi.cers" and an armed security guard. Tyler was a man of peace. He loved art and photography. He was not on drugs, and he had no criminal history. He was not homeless. He had hundreds of fiiends. Wild animals are treated better than my son. Bears and mountain lions get tranquilizer darts. My son was viciously attacked by "peace officers" using lethal weapons. The "peace officers" had legitimate non-lethal options to rescue Tyler from that tiny bathroom but they preferred to see "action." Consider the fact that the "peace officers" initiated the rescue by using a hyperactive biting dog ...on a medical rescue of a wounded man! I say my son should be alive today but the culture of law enforcement to use lethal weapons led these 75 Multicultural Echoes - English "peace officers" to become provocateurs unconcerned about "protecting and serving" a critically wounded man. This unnecessary killing is an altogether too frequent occurrence in law enforcement interactions with civilians in this country and the madness must stop, Tyler Rushing i, I
Fallen Victims of Local Officers in Butte County, California Tyler Rushing Brianne Sharpe Andrew Thomas Gabriel Sanchez Desmond Phillips Stephen West Myra Micalizio