An eyewitness account on the Omaha shooting of James Scurlock
Last edited Tue Jun 2, 2020, 05:19 PM - Edit history (1)
A friend who lives there sent me this. It's not his account. Someone he knows who's posted this on Facebook and apparently it keeps getting taken down. I can't verify it's content. It came to me unformatted. The paragraph breaks are mine. He knows the witness and is getting the information first hand.
I attended the Black Lives Matter protests last night. Did not get to Crossroads until after 7. The crowd was large. Police were surrounding the place and limiting movement. I watched them intentionally escalate the situation more than once.
The most notable one I saw (there were others I didn't see directly) was when a dozen cops, in varying styles of riot gear, walked down Dodge from near 72nd St, walked in unison up the hill, strolled into the crowd, and started making threatening movements toward people. Seconds later tear gas was fired into the crowd right where those cops had just been harassing peaceful protesters.
It gradually escalated from there until the cops finally formed a line, declared we had to leave, and started firing tear gas into the crowd. They were firing so indiscriminately that I watched an orange lit projectile go from near Target to the roof of the Olive Garden on the other side of Dodge St.
I was never even that close to the tear gas and was coughing for over an hour. It's been over 12 hours and my eyes are still sore. And I wasn't ever even that close to the tear gas. My heart goes out to the people who were more brave than I was to be closer. Every time it happened, a dozen people were immediately running around offering milk, water, and some homebrewed mixtures. The police fired that stuff in the crowd. The crowd's response was to help each other.
Later, the police escalated so much that they lined up and started forcing people out of the area with more and more tear gas. That is when the protest moved downtown, near the courthouse and police headquarters.
That part of the evening was very different. The streets that were not shut down were filled with cars blaring their horns in support of the protest. The streets for several blocks were filled with cars and people.A large group of protesters was walking around in what appeared to be an attempt to disrupt the police efforts to corral us. They were intentionally peaceful and not causing any real problems.While walking with them, I found myself around 12th and Harney. I stood there for a while, as someone stood in the outdoor patio for Parliament Pub. That was when someone started breaking windows on the other side of the street. Protesters immediately started trying to stop the vandalism.
While walking around some more, I encountered a small group of men who had taken it upon themselves to stop the people vandalizing. After that, I found my way back to 12th and Harney, over by Parliament Pub.By then, another man had come over and was talking to the Parliament Pub guy about the damage to the businesses. I could tell from context that he owned a nearby business. It was later that I learned it was The Hive, Jake Gardner. I did not realize until I was home later that he was someone with a past history of transphobia and racism.
I tried to explain to them that the people vandalizing were not bad people. They were justifiably angry about an injustice that is not being addressed and being tear gassed for hours because they dared to stand up to that injustice.
I wandered around some more to see what was going on. When I got back to 12th and Harney, I saw some people standing in front of the business that had been one of the first vandalized, The Hive.I crossed to see what was going on, thinking it was protesters guarding a business. I saw Gardner and some other men standing in front the building. Soon after, there was a commotion just down the street.
I went to investigate that and saw a man on the ground and people helping him up. Gardner got in the face of a couple of young Black men, who were not close to the fallen man, yelling about him having pushed his 70 year old father (who was now up and moving well enough to be aggressive toward the young Black men).
Gardner accused both of breaking the windows (which had happened at least half an hour prior) and of attacking his father, who they did not appear to have been near. They denied involvement in both, and Gardner said he believed them. Despite this, Gardner stayed in their faces, yelling at them. So I stepped in between them, hoping to prevent a fight. Soon after that, Gardner lifted his shirt to reveal the gun in his pants waist. Myself, and several others told him that was a bad idea.
He pulled the gun out and began moving erratically and aggressively. He seemed very eager for a reason to use it. At one point, he made an aggressive gesture toward me in response to me saying this was a bad idea. Once he had put the gun back in his pants, the 2 young Black men attempted to restrain Gardner.
I didn't see them throw a single punch or otherwise attack Gardner directly. They were simply attempting to restrain a man who had just threatened their lives and the lives of the rest of us there. They fell into the street. Somewhere in the middle of all that, the elder Gardner also pulled out a gun, also moving erratically and aggressively. I don't why, but I keep thinking about how they appeared to be the same exact kind of gun.
I moved closer, so I could see better and figure out what to do. When I was about 10 feet away, I heard a gunshot. My instinct was to move back. Because gunshot. I quickly heard a second shot.
Gardner quickly disappeared from the scene. Myself and some others, despite our issues with the police, called them over to help the young man who needed immediate medical attention. I will never forget the look on his face as someone lifted him up, trying to help him.
He looked like he was dying and knew it. It will haunt me for a very, very long time.
Police immediately began shoving all of us back. With my hands up, still moving backward, I repeatedly said that I was a witness. I was told that if I didn't keep moving I would be charged with obstruction of justice.I told that officer in my face that I was moving back but was a witness. He said to go over across the street, with at least 30 other people, and he'd talk to me later. I spent a long time waiting for him to come talk to me, telling any officer I could that I was a witness. None of them ever even asked my name.
Meanwhile, a woman next to me was repeatedly telling them that she was a nurse and was offering assistance. The police kept telling her to get back, but she persisted, eager to help this dying person in need of the kind of help she could give. It took a few minutes of her not letting up for them to finally let her through, grabbing her by the arm and dragging her over.
A while after that, after the ambulance had come and gone, I found an officer guarding a barricade. I told him I was a witness to the shooting and asked where I should be to be available to give a statement. He took my name and phone number, adding it to a note on his phone. He said someone would contact me in the morning. I've been writing this for hours. It's now after 1 PM, and I have not received any call. James Scurlock did not pick that fight. Jake Gardner picked that fight. James was trying to disarm a man who was angrily threatening people. He died trying to protect others.
He died because Jake Gardner had a chip on his shoulder and went looking for a fight.
One noteworthy thing is the fact that Gardner bypassed several white people to pick that fight with these 2 Black men.”
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