Black man - The African Mirror

Apr

2024

Louis Gossett Jr., first Black man to win best supporting actor Oscar, dead at 87

LOUIS Gossett Jr., the first Black man to win an Academy Award as Best Supporting Actor, has died aged 87, a family statement confirmed without revealing the cause of death. The Oscar-winning actor's roles ranged from an enslaved man in the TV mini-series "Roots" to a no-nonsense drill sergeant in "An Officer and a Gentlemen." In "Sadat," he had the title role, playing the Egyptian leader who made peace with Israel. Gossett, who was also a producer, director, social activist and the founder of the Eracism Foundation to combat racism, died at a rehabilitation centre in Santa Monica, California, the…

Dec

2023

By JOSEPH AX and STEVE GORMAN

Three Washington state police officers acquitted in killing of Black man

WORLD

THREE Tacoma, Washington, policemen were acquitted of homicide charges in the 2020 killing of Manuel Ellis, a Black man whose dying pleas for breath during a struggle with officers bore grim parallels to the murder of George Floyd weeks later. Officers Christopher Burbank and Matthew Collins were found not guilty of murder and manslaughter charges, while a third officer, Timothy Rankine, was found not guilty of manslaughter following a trial that lasted more than two months. Ellis' family members and their supporters expressed anger at the outcome of the first such case brought against law enforcement officers under a new…

Jul

2022

By JASON LANGE and JONATHAN LANDAY

Ohio police officers shot fleeing Black man dozens of times, lawyer says

WORLD

POLICE killed Jayland Walker, a Black man in Ohio, by shooting him dozens of times as he ran from officers following a traffic stop, a lawyer for his family said, citing a review of police body-worn camera footage due to be made public. In comments published on Saturday by the Akron Beacon Journal, attorney Bobby DiCello described the video as "brutal," and said Walker's relatives worried that protests this weekend could turn violent. The shooting was the latest in a spate of killings of Black men by law enforcement in the United States that critics say are unjustified, including the…

Apr

2021

By The African Mirror

Lawyers say Andrew Brown Jr. hit with ‘kill shot’ to head

WORLD

LAWYERS for the family of a Black man killed by sheriff's deputies in North Carolina during an attempted arrest said yesterday that an independent autopsy showed he died from a 'kill shot' to his head as he tried to drive away. Andrew Brown Jr., 42, was struck with multiple bullets in the arm before the fatal shot to his head, lawyers for the family told a news conference held to release the findings of an independent autopsy. "It was a kill shot to the back of the head," said Ben Crump, one of the attorneys. The fatal shooting of Brown…