Pennsylvania police fatally shoot 12-year-old at her home

[niyad]

Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania police fatally shoot 12-year-old at her home

Police constable attempting to ‘enforce an eviction order’ fired a shot at Ciara Meyer’s father that passed through the man’s arm and hit her, officials said


Tuesday 12 January 2016 19.41 EST



A police constable in Pennsylvania killed a 12-year-old girl when he fired a shot at the girl’s father that passed through the man’s arm and hit her, officials said on Tuesday. Ciara Meyer was pronounced dead at her home on Monday morning after Constable Clarke Steele attempted to “enforce an eviction order” on her family in Duncannon, north of Harrisburg, according to officials.

Steele has voluntarily suspended himself, according to Bill Stoessler, spokesman for the Commonwealth Constables Association, where Steele is a member. Constables in Pennsylvania are independent officers that can be elected or appointed, Stoessler said. They are not part of any broader law enforcement agency and work primarily for the lower-level courts in the state.

Steele was recently re-elected to his position, Stoessler said. Stoessler said Steele was “shattered” by Ciara’s death and that he was cooperating fully with state police.
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Ciara is the 21st person and the first child to be killed by law enforcement in 2016, according to an ongoing Guardian investigation. The Guardian launched the project, The Counted, to track killings by law enforcement in the US due to the lack of reliable federal data on the issue. In 2015, at least 1,138 people were killed by police, according to the investigation.

http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/jan/12/police-fatally-shoot-ciara-meyer-12-pennsylvania