The Killing of Leonard Deadwyler
On May 7, 1966, 25 years before Rodney King was brutally beaten by the LAPD, a 25-year-old African American man named Leonard Deadwyler was shot and killed, in his own car, by a Los Angeles police officer. When his pregnant wife, Barbara Deadwyler, believed she was going into labor, Leonard Deadwyler was in a rush to drive her to the nearest county hospital– which was 20 miles away. Leonard was speeding, and he drove through multiple red lights without stopping. Before he reached the hospital, LAPD Officer Jerold M. Bova pulled over the car in response to the reckless driving.
Bova claimed that when he walked up to the car during the traffic stop, with his gun drawn, the Deadwylers’ car started rolling, and in response, he leaned into the car to try to get Deadwyler to stop and accidentally shot Leonard Deadwyler. Four other officers involved in the police chase before Deadwyler was finally pulled over claimed that they heard Bova fire the shot while the car was moving. However, Barbara Deadwyler recounted that the car actually did not move when they were pulled over and that her husband was trying to explain the situation when Bova shot him. She stated that Leonard had willingly stopped the car and was trying to ask if the police could lead them to the hospital. Further, contrasting with Bova’s testimony, Bova’s partner recalled that Leonard Deadwyler’s last words were, “My wife is having a baby.”
After Leonard Deadwyler was killed, the state did not press charges against the police involved, so Barbara hired Johnnie Cochran to sue the city. Deadwyler lost the $3 million wrongful death suit, and Bova was not found guilty; in fact, he later on became in charge of the West Los Angeles Division of the LAPD.
Despite his loss in this case, the outcome helped Johnnie Cochran gain prominence and motivated him to focus his career around the goal of preventing the American justice system from continuing to fail African American people. In addition, the killing of Leonard Deadwyler led to other changes. In response to this incident, the LAPD directed officers not to physically reach into cars of suspects, the way Bova had done just before shooting Deadwyler. This tragedy also brought attention to the absence of a closer hospital to their location in South Central, which had played a part in Leonard Deadwyler’s completely unnecessary death, leading to activism and protests, and eventually to the construction of the Martin Luther King, Jr. Multi-Service Ambulatory Care Center (later the Martin Luther King, Jr. Community Hospital).
This case is a really strong example of how incredibly unjust the police shootings are because there was no threat being posed to Bova and he had no reason to shoot Leonard. In one of the OJ Simpson documentaries, Leonard's wife explained that Leonard had told the officer that they were trying to get to the hospital; from this one most likely assumes that someone is hurt or sick and therefor in no state to attack a police officer. In my opinion, the worst part about this case is that Bova was found not guilty because it demonstrates that the police could get away with just about anything avoiding all responsibility for their actions.
ReplyDeleteThis is a really well-written post! This case is unfortunately one of the many fatal shootings of African Americans by police officers that act out of "self-defence". This case relates to the shooting of Michael Brown, as it was assumed that Brown was in possession of a weapon, where officer Darren Wilson therefore assumed that he was in danger and had to act in self-defence. Unfortunately, in both the Bova case and the Michael Brown case, the police officer has been found not guilty, bringing light to the issue of a potentially corrupt police system.
ReplyDelete