Oxford police department has responded at midnight to the police shooting in Dallas, Texas, asking for prayers for Dallas police department.
Its police chief, Joey East, also shared his thoughts on the recent shooting with a Facebook post on Mississippi Association of Chief of Police’s page.
“It is with a broken heart that I write to each of you about the events that have unfolded over the last several days around our nation and the horrible calculated attack on our brothers and sisters in Dallas. I know that it seems that our profession is under attack and I guess, in some ways, it is. We have to remember that we are the true servants of our communities. We are the lions protecting their cubs, the sheep dog protecting its flock. We will rise above this, but we as a profession must remind our officers that we cannot and should not ever forget who we are, or blame the sheep for what a wolf does. We have to stay the course, to fight the good fight, always remain the professional and continue to move forward for the greater good.
I have the greatest job on earth and that is to be a law enforcement officer that gets to serve with such honorable men and women like yourself. I pray that God will keep us humble while giving us courage and wisdom to deal with what lies ahead of us over the coming weeks, months and possibly years. We will turn these horrible events around and win our communities over. I thank each of you for all you do. You are all my heroes.”
Respect Honor Integrity
Joey”
Oxford police department and its chief, Joey East, are replying in reaction to multiple police shootings that have begun to break out recently since last night.
During a protest in Dallas, two snipers shot into the crowd of protesters and police officers.
WTVA reported that on Thursday, July 7, five Dallas police officers were killed after a shooting took place during a protest in downtown Dallas. Seven other unknown officers were shot and sent to the hospital.
According to reports from NBC News, there were initially three suspects in custody, while a fourth, 25-year-old Micah Johnson, was killed. The other three involved shooters have yet to be identified.
The Dallas shootings sprung up due to the recent shooting deaths of Baton Rouge resident, Alton Sterling and Minnesota resident, Philando Castile.
Sterling was shot dead outside of a convenience store in Baton Rouge, Louisiana on Tuesday, July 5. The Washington Post reported that Sterling was selling CDs outside of the convenience store with the store owner’s permission. However, Baton Rouge police received an anonymous tip of a man in a red shirt selling CDs and waving a gun around. Two officers who responded to the report engaged in a fatal altercation with Alton Sterling.
Castile’s deadly encounter with police happened Wednesday night around 9:00 p.m. Castile’s girlfriend, Diamond Reynolds, was able to broadcast the encounter on Facebook Live, while her four-year-old daughter was in the back seat.
“Please, Officer, don’t tell me that you just did this to him,” Reynolds said on her video. “You shot four bullets into him, sir. He was just getting his license and registration, sir.”
The officer involved in the shooting death of Castile was Jeronimo Yanez. Yanez was placed on administrative leave while the investigation continues.
President Barack Obama gave a statement about the recent shooting deaths.
“When incidents like this occur, there’s a big chunk of our citizenry that feels as if, because of the color of their skin, they are not being treated the same, and that hurts, and that should trouble all of us,” President Obama said in a statement on Thursday after arriving in Warsaw for a NATO summit. “This is not just a black issue, not just a Hispanic issue. This is an American issue that we all should care about.”
The Governor of Mississippi, Phil Bryant released a statement on his social media.
“I have ordered all U.S. & State of MS flags to be flown at half- staff until sunset July 12 in honor of #DallasPD.”
More information will be made available as the story continues.
Rykia Bernard is a senior broadcast journalism major at the Meek School of Journalism and New Media. She can be reached at rmbernar@go.olemiss.edu.
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