A former Virginia police officer and U. S. Navy veteran, whose trial for murder begins this week, told a witness, ‘this is my second one,’ after killing an unarmed 18-year-old black man in April 2015.
While unclear whether or not the jarring statement amounted to a boast, the camera on ex-Portsmouth Officer Stephen Rankin’s Taser recorded him saying this to a Walmart employee mere seconds after he fatally shot unarmed teen and alleged shoplifter William Chapman in the store’s parking lot in April 2015.
Rankin had, indeed, killed another unarmed man, Kirill Denyakin – under circumstances similarly and sufficiently questionable to earn three years’ administrative leave – just four years prior to the shooting for which he now stands accused of first-degree murder.
During the final pretrial hearing on Tuesday, the Guardian reported, Rankin’s lead defense attorney, James Broccoletti, argued the former officer’s ‘statement is not probative of anything,’ in an unsuccessful attempt to have it suppressed.
Prosecutors countered to Judge Johnny E. Morrison they should not have to ‘sanitize the evidence’ surrounding the fatal shooting.
This post was published at The Daily Sheeple on JULY 27, 2016.
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