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Undercover
Federal
Narc
Shoots
Teen
Holding
Candy
Bar
11/15/97
A federal undercover agent working on a "High Intensity Drug Trafficking
Area Task Force" in Queens, NY, shot a local high school student when
he mistook a candy bar in the youth's hand for a gun. 17 year-old Andre
Burgess, captain of the Hillcrest High School soccer team, was walking
down 138th street in Laurelton, Queens, when the carload of Federal agents
rolled by and one officer, identified by the New York Daily News as William
Cannon, jumped out.
Cannon apparently identified himself, but, according to Burgess, gave
the teen no time to react. "I turned to see what was up, and boom,
I'm hit, and I fell to the ground." Burgess also described the callousness
with which the incident was handled even after it was discovered that he
had been unarmed and apparently wholly uninvolved in any criminal activity.
"I'm laying there, bleeding, waiting to go the hospital, and he's
shaking hands with the other cops, or agents, or whatever they were,"
he said. "He asked one of them, 'Don't I know you from some other
case?' And I'm still lying there."
DRCNet Executive Director David Borden commented, "The incident
is reminiscent of the Esequiel Hernandez killing in Redford, Texas, by
U.S. Marines. In neither case did the aggressors provide appropriate medical
assistance to their victims. Fortunately, Burgess was not fatally wounded.
But then, this is only the one incident out of many that happened to get
some press."
[Source: New York Times, 11/8]
-- END --
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Issue #19, 11/15/97
NJ Needle Exchange Continues Legal Battle: Medical Necessity Defense Rejected By Judge | Virginia Pushes Envelope on Pain Control: Medical Society Calls For Greater Acceptance Of Narcotics | Marihuana The Forbidden Medicine: Revised and Expanded Edition of the Landmark Book by Grinspoon and Bakalar | Media Alert: Magazine Does Hatchet Job on San Francisco's Reform-Minded District Attorney | Events: The Reformer's Calendar Updated -- Events Coming Right Up! | Junior High Student Suspended for Supplying Cough Drop | Drug Czar "Sends a Message" to the Pentagon Over Anti- Drug Budget: Military Reluctant To Expand Drug War Involvement | Shultz And Friedman Tell California Cops "Drug War is a Dismal Failure" | Undercover Federal Narc Shoots Teen Holding Candy Bar | Consumption of (Legal) Alcohol Plunges | 18 Students Share Needle in Science Class | 51% of Canadians Favor Decriminalization of Marijuana | Clinton Removes Syria, Lebanon from List of Problem Drug Trafficking Nations | Rheumatoid Arthritis Sufferer Gets 9-Month Suspended Sentence in England | Colorado Governor Calls for Sentencing Reform: Prefers Alternatives to Incarceration and Educational Spending | Editorial: Youth are Victims of Drug War
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