Cop told me 'I hope you ... die,' shot suspect says
Posted: September 9, 2014 - 11:33am
PITTSBURGH (AP) -- A black man shot and paralyzed by a white Pittsburgh police officer while trying to drive away from a traffic stop testified that one of three officers involved told him afterward repeatedly, "I hope you (expletive) die."
Twenty-one-year-old Leon Ford of Shaler is on trial in Allegheny County on aggravated assault and other charges in the November 2012 traffic stop in which he was shot five times and paralyzed from the waist down.
Ford has sued the city and three white officers involved in the stop, accusing them of violating his rights and using excessive force.
But police allege in the criminal case that Ford endangered the three officers when he tried to drive away until one of the officers, who was kneeling in the passenger seat, shot him to stop the car.