Hog Wild: CHP Shoots Unarmed Carrick "Eric" Vigen 55 Times

From the Modesto Anarcho: http://www.modestoanarcho.org/2011/07/hog-wild-chp-shoots-unarmed-carrick.html

Local law enforcement claimed it's latest victim as three CHP officers gunned down and killed an unarmed mentally disturbed man with semiautomatic rifles, shooting him 55 times, several miles south of Modesto, [California].. The shooting happened on Saturday, June 18th, on Crows Landing and West Main.

From the Modesto Bee:

The officers involved were Sgt. Ian Troxell, a 12-year CHP veteran; Jonathan Box, who's been with the agency 3½ years; and Adam Percey, a 2½-year employee, according to Sgt. Anthony Bajaran, a Stanislaus County Sheriff's Department spokesman. The shooting happened within minutes of officers arriving.

According to Vigen's family, Eric had bipolar disorder and was in a manic state before the shooting. He also made comments that he wanted to get into a shootout with the police and that he was armed with a weapon. Thinking that law enforcement could help her son as they had done in the past, Eric's mother called police and told them that he was possibly armed and in need of help. Eric's family was given the murderous details of his untimely death when Sheriffs gave the family their report.

Amadou Diallo

In 1999, New York man Amadou Diallo was shot by NYPD when they stopped him as he was entering his residence. When told to put his hands up, Diallo raised up his wallet as well. Police opened fire and killed the 23-year old Guinean man, shooting him 41 times. His murder and the acquittal of the officers involved kicked off large protests across the New York area. Sean Bell, another unarmed black man, was shot 51 times in 2006 after coming out of bachelor party in Queens, NY. Bell was killed and two others were injured and his murder brought three detectives to trial who were later found not guilty. Like the Diallo case, Bell's killing brought thousands into the streets. Both of these incidents are worth noting because they involve the killing of two unarmed men who were shot a large amount of times by several cops, just as Eric Vigen was. Also, in both of these cases the police were completely exonerated by the 'justice' system. Media coverage on the shooting of Eric has been slim and the Modesto Bee has not even allowed online public commenting on their article. And while Diallo and Bell's murders received national attention, there has hardly been any outrage over Vigen's murder even though he was shot even more times than both of them. It's clear that when the Modesto Bee can't present a story from the side of the police, they don't want to tell it at all.