Officer Who Shot Unarmed Trevon Cole is Cleared, Family Mulls Lawsuit
A coroner’s inquest jury ruled this weekend that the fatal shooting of Trevon Cole by a Las Vegas narcotics officer during a botched marijuana raid in June was justified, despite reports of conflicting testimony and contradictory evidence.
Cole, 21, was shot dead in front of his pregnant fiancée after officers raided their Las Vegas home on June 11. He was unarmed. It was later revealed that officers meant to target a different man with the same name, who they claimed was a major marijuana dealer. Officers were serving a search warrant on Cole after allegedly buying 1.8 ounces of marijuana from him over a five-week period.
Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department Detective Bryan Yant, who has been involved in other questionable shootings, testified that he fired the fatal shot after Cole stood up and moved his hands toward the officer “in a shooting motion.”
“Unfortunately he made an aggressive act toward me,” Yant said, according to the Las Vegas Review Journal. “He made me do my job.”
It took the jury only 90 minutes to clear Yant, even though the Review Journal and other sources report that his testimony and that of others were riddled with disturbing inconsistencies, including:
• Only one of the six officers present during the raid heard Yant give verbal orders to Cole. That officer testified that Yant said nothing to Cole about his hands.
• The bullet that killed 300-pound Cole traveled through his cheek and neck in a downward angle, leading the medical examiner to find it “highly unlikely” that Cole stood and stepped toward Yant, as Yant claims.
• Both the medical examiner and homicide detective who investigated the scene believe that Cole was crouched over the toilet when he turned toward Yant.
• Assistant District Attorney Chris Owens said the evidence suggests there was an “accidental discharge” when Yant kicked in the bathroom door. Other officers present heard both a door kick and a gunshot.
Read the full article in the Review Journal for more outrageous details about this weekend’s inquest, including egregious errors Yant made on the affidavit prior to the raid, and other apparent violations of department policy that officers made while executing the raid.
Cole family attorney Andre Lagomarsino called the inquest “a kangaroo court and dog and pony show” and is vowing to file a civil rights lawsuit, as well as a possible racketeering lawsuit, against the Vegas police department. “I think in this case I believe absolutely Detective Yant was held above the law,” Lagomarsino told the local ABC affiliate. Phil Smith from the Drug War Chronicle has more details about the possible racketeering case.
Stay tuned for updates.
Tagged with: Andre Lagomarsino and Bryan Yant and Las Vegas and Phil Smith and Trevon Cole by the author
38 comments
Sue the pants off the department. It’s a shame that the taxpayers would end up footing the bill for any payout, but it’s extremely important not to let police get away with lies. Especially tragic, deadly lies.
Someone please tell me when cops were allowed permission to have a “shot to kill” persona about them? Please tell me when cops were allowed to have a “guilty before proven innocent” initiative about their minds? THESE MOTHERF*CKERS HAVE STATE OF THE ART EQUIPMENT TO TAKE A BULLET BEFORE HAVING TO PUT A BULLET INTO SOMEONE. A GUN AS NOT SHOWN. HIS HAND MAY HAVE LOOOKED LIKE A GUN, A FAKE GUN, AND COPS ARE SUPPOSE TO ENSURE IT IS A DEADLY WEAPON BEFORE SHOOTING. EVEN IF IT MEANS TAKING A BULLET.
FUCK YOU POLICE STATE. FUCK YOU COMMUNIST.
DOING YOUR JOB IS TO PROTECT AND SERVE. YOU SERVE THE PEOPLE YOU PROTECT. WE PAY YOUR FUCKING SALARY.
I AM BEGINNING TO THINK THAT THE LAWS CANNOT STOP THIS BS.
WHAT HAPPENED TO THE CONSTITUTION?
VOTE GARY JOHNSON PRES 2012
I’ve wonder how safe the other cops are when they have a lying killer among them?
If the bullet went through his cheek and neck that means he was shot at a downward angle from behind and to the side. Therefore disproving Yant’s testimony. There is no way he stood and acted like he had a gun. It seems to me like he was executed right in front of his fiance. The jury that aquitted Yant is just as guilty as he is and they all deserve a death sentence.
I knew
He didn’t deserve to die, but he was breaking the law and a dope dealer.
Especially in a state where there is Medical Marijuana.
People can just co to a co-op and get their cannabis and don’t have to deal with slime balls like this.
California has the right idea, they are going to legalize it in November, that will put these nickle dime pot dealers out of business.
Phil he wasn’t a dealer tho they had the wrong guy
Hey dumb as-, I mean hey Phil. Read the story, don’t skim it and spew out hateful comments that are no where near legitimate.
Asshole.
And the jury is just as guilty as Yant for this miscarriage of justice.
someone needs to do something about this. can we really trust
our system of ‘justice’ to do what is right and ethical?
someone make this right. someone teach this officer a less he will
never forget.
someone. anyone.. do it.
@ JJ #2:
I agree. I believe we, the people, need to rise up and REVOLT!
This is unjustifiable! The only justice in our country is bad justice. It called Tyranny and maam, you might just have a lawsuit on your hands.
#5 your an idiot, the articles says not only was it the wrong guy, but he was on the craper, and was shot in the face. Talk about dump of death…LOL
Aside from that, I saw on my IPhone yahoo page that the DEA was trying to hire an EBONIC translater to listen in on wire taps. Really…that’s what my fucking tax dollars are being used for no ha ha ha ha ha, that’s sad an funny at the same time
We need to retaliate like these people did:
http://abclocal.go.com/kgo/story?section=news/local/north_bay&id=7623756
Ok even if this guy had been the dealer they were looking for, they’re still not supposed to be able to execute the suspect on sight. Ever heard of a little something called due process? The pigs in this country have become too trigger happy.
Aren’t there rules of engagement for every armed personnel, military or local?…’Do not fire unless fired upon?’
Every person involved should be in jail. Was the jury bought? LAWSUIT.
BANG!!! POLICE, FREEZE!!! Somehow it just doesn’t work in that order.
And yet, I am told I am psychotic for espousing self-defense. Funny, the cops cleared their man, they prove they don’t care about you or your safety. Yet, to defend yourself against them is considered psychotic bullying behavior by the peaceniks. If you think self-defense is psychotic, you pretty much deserve what you get when they come into your house. And that includes getting shot. After all, if you won’t defend your own life, why should anyone else?
“He made me do my job.”
Rabid Nazi attack-dogs, all of them.
The aquittal by jury just proves that there are still a lot of people in this country who believe that pot users should be all killed.
I’m just curious about the jury selection for this trial and how come all the forensic evidence just seems to be completely ignored.
What about a female officer who was aquitted when she shot a suspect who swung a chair at her? Chair = deadly weapon according to that officer.
How do these officers ever get their badges to begin with?
Article on yahoo.com – NYFD fireman busted for growing 100 pot plants in a Queens basement. Really???
No government and no agency will ever tell me what to do and what is right or wrong.
Free The Weed. Free The People.
“He made me do my job.”
You know what my job is if you come into my house illegally in the middle of the night?
EXACTLY. I WOULD HAVE HURT POLICE IF THEY WERE TO SHOOT MY DOGS. I WOULD KILL A TOWN OF INNOCENT PEOPLE JUST TO SAVE MY WIFE. I WOULD EASILY DIE FOR MY ONLY FEW THINGS IN LIFE THAT MAKE MY LIFE WORTH LIVING.
BASICALLY, HE ADMITTED, HE IS A THUG. HE IS GETTING PAID TO KILL SOMEONE. AS I SAID BEFORE, YOU POLICE OFFICERS GET MILLIONS AND BILLIONS AND ZILLIONS FOR STATE-OF-THE-ART DEFENSIVE GEAR. WHY WOULD YOU KILL SOMEONE?
SOMEONE GET SOMEONE HIGH UP TO TAKE ON THIS STORY. BEYONCE, ELLEN, THERE HAS TO BE SOMEONE WHO CAN GET THIS ON TV AND OUT.
this is a fucking joke how the fuck can the jury clear him when the coroner said himself it was unlikely he moved at him in that fashion? with other testimonies i mean cmon this cops story doesnt make sense.. un fucking believable someone had to die because not only did they get the wrong guy but they felt the need to be trigger happy. its just rediculous… i cant believe he will get away with something like that.
jury tampering. happens all the time in mafia trials, why not cops? they facilitate organized crime anyway.
I had to take a barrage of AK rounds in Iraq while sitting in a Humvee. All waiting for permission to fire. Scared for one of those rounds to penetrate my body. Rules Of Engagement is what the Sgt. Said when I said please lets haul ass. Against a foreign enemy. I thought that if we had that “courtesy” or whatever you want to call it for those who are REALLY trying to kill us. I thought here at home we gave OTHER american citizens the same courtesy? Oh wait…he didnt have a gun. He wasnt even the dude Yant swore he was. & Yant has killed before? Yeah….Nevada has a Blackwater too. The Police dept. The Kill Squad…and an Ounce and a Half is all it takes to get you targeted for death. Damn Shame.
I didn’t write this but it fits so very well.
We are all being terrorized because of a minority of vociferous small minded bigots believe they have rights over our bodies.
We can either ask the Tooth Fairy to stop people taking drugs or we can decide to regulate them properly. Prohibition is not regulation, it’s is a hideous nightmare for all of us and our families, except of course for the lowest life forms amongst us.
Because Drug cartels will always have an endless supply of ready cash for wages, bribery and equipment, no amount of tax money, police powers, weaponry, wishful thinking or pseudo-science will make our streets safe again. Only an end to prohibition can do that! How much longer are we willing to foolishly risk our own survival by continuing to ignore the obvious, historically confirmed solution?
Debating whether a particular drug is harmless or not is missing the whole point. Is marijuana dangerous? I simply don’t care if it is or isn’t. If someone wants to destroy their lives with drugs, that’s their business, not anybody else. Their lives aren’t ours to direct. We can certainly voice an opposition to drug use… but who are we to imprison people over it which ultimately we do if we support prohibition.
Why on earth does anyone think it’s acceptable to want to control certain behaviors, such as the bedroom habits or choice of poison of fully grown adults? Isn’t it high time we evolved enough to get past this crap? Surely we need to accept, that the only way to truly be free, is that you agree, in return, to allow other people to be free, even if it offends your personal sensibilities. What’s more; if it’s not directly hurting you and you forbid it, then you can be sure that it will create unforeseen circumstances, which WILL have an adverse affect on YOUR well being! — Actually, a large proportion of those arising circumstances may not come as such a surprise to those of us who are capable of paying due attention to historical precedent.
If you support prohibition then you’ve helped trigger the worst crime wave in history.
If you support prohibition you’ve a helped create a black market with massive incentives to hook both adults and children alike.
If you support prohibition you’ve helped to make these dangerous substances available in schools and prisons.
If you support prohibition you’ve helped raise gang warfare to a level not seen since the days of alcohol bootlegging.
If you support prohibition you’ve helped create the prison-for-profit synergy with drug lords.
If you support prohibition you’ve helped remove many important civil liberties from those citizens you falsely claim to represent.
If you support prohibition you’ve helped put previously unknown and contaminated drugs on the streets.
If you support prohibition you’ve helped to escalate Theft, Muggings and Burglaries.
If you support prohibition you’ve helped to divert scarce law-enforcement resources away from protecting your fellow citizens from the ever escalating violence against their person or property.
If you support prohibition you’ve helped overcrowd the courts and prisons, thus making it increasingly impossible to curtail the people who are hurting and terrorizing others.
If you support prohibition you’ve helped evolve local gangs into transnational enterprises with intricate power structures that reach into every corner of society, controlling vast swaths of territory with significant social and military resources at their disposal.
if I shot the officer i would be sentenced to death. FUCK ALL COPS!!!! worst of all the jury though they let this murdering pig get away with it. America i am ashamed of you
Holy Smokes. Imagine that. Cleared in a questionable shooting from the cororner’s inquest. How deep and how high does the corruption go?
Rev.sLeezy
Yea… How many men die at the hands of the law? How men die at the hands of each other? Their needs to be vice prescriptions to drugs. Where people can get different drugs safely, and it would be viable for people to get pot growing licenses. Also jobs as clerks at the pot stores, and jobs as security personnel at the pot stores. There will always be illegal trading of goods. No matter what they are, but there can be safer alternatives to this trade. And maybe that would’ve kept this guy from being murdered by the police. And it would keep other people from murdering each other. Lets get real, prohibition doesn’t work, but it’s not meant to work. They want to keep the poor killing each other, then imprisoning them. It’s freaking sick!
i have lost all hope for humanity.
revolution people.
If a police officer such as the one having caused this individuals death has already had questionable shooting instances in his file ALREADY, then first and foremost he should be removed from the department and the family should sue the Las Vegas Police Department for every dime they’re worth. Don’t get me wrong. Police officers are needed throughout this country and most departments operate well within the law. Individuals like this officer and police who get cleared of wrongdoing dating back to Rodney King have absolutely no excuse for being cleared. They’re even more guilty than the individuals that they try to prosecute. I pray that Mr. Cole’s family files a law suit that makes both Las Vegas and the nations police departments to sit up and take notice. Crimes like these can”t and won’t be tolerated. As for Officer Yant, all I can say is you”ve gotten away with excessive force on three occasions ALREADY !! Three strikes and you’re out. How about finding another line of work like prison time for the hell you’ve caused three families now !!!!!!
What the hell was the jury thinking? That guy needs to be in jail getting his butt slammed!
“This could be the first trumpet, might as well be the last, many more will have to suffer, many more will have to die, don’t ask me why.” — “Natural Mystic” by Bob Marley
Don’t ask me why this suffering and dying has to continue. It doesn’t HAVE to continue, it simply does. As Skip (#31) said, police officers are needed. But what we NEED are laws AND those who enforce them to actually “serve and protect” the public, not serving their own desires and protecting themselves from punishment.
Cops have killed so, so many innocent American’s it’s time we had a national memorial service deticated for those who lost their lives to evil cops. Every single time a cop gets killed they have a tax paid event so I think it’s time we the people who the cops are killing have a special day to remember our fallen brothers and sisters.
Wow this is f*cked up! I hope they put those pig f*cks out of a job! And punish them! I hope u guys start getting the idea sooner on how corrupt our system is!!!!!!!
Normally, I’d consider this poor judgment by Yant, but a horrid mistake. More of a problem they had the wrong guy (They didn’t notice he looked diff than when they bought the stuff from him?) But the fact this trigger happy cop has been involved in questionable shootings before, makes me wonder why he hasn’t been fired. Either this guy has the worse luck ever, or he’s clearly doing something wrong on each case. Which makes him 100% guilty.
And clearly the court was doing somebody a favor.
I don’t give a rat’s ass if he was a big time dope dealer as you say, Phil. It was Marijuana, not heroin, methadone, alcohol, lethal prescriptions from a doctor! And also, I have been informed, that it unfortunately is sometimes cheaper to get it from an outside source than from a co-op, as they can charge what they want, and are often getting ripped off to boot from a co-op. People are going to shop where they can afford, and or get a better deal.
The slime balls are the bureaucrats who won’t change the laws to keep real criminals behind bars, like pedophiles, rapists, animal abusers/ murderers, etc., and the judges who keep letting them off, but will keep nonviolent criminals behind bars, not caring if THEY lose everything they have for.
What in the hell is this cop getting off for? Corruption, of course.
This is just vile, a young man is dead because the feds will not stop pissing away our money on the War on Drugs, that has been proven time and time again to be not working. These bozos killed a man over a substance that is less toxic than Tylenol.
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