John Crawford Walmart Shooting: Cop Accused Slain Black Man’s Girlfriend Of Drug Use, Lying
After police gunned down 22-year-old John Crawford III in a Beavercreek, Ohio, Walmart store on August 5, police grilled Crawford’s distraught girlfriend for 94 minutes, aggressively accusing her of lying and using drugs, and threatening to throw her in jail as she tearfully swore she was telling them the truth — all before ever revealing to the 26-year-old Tasha Thomas that Crawford was dead.
When Detective Rodney Curd finally gave Tasha the terrible news about her boyfriend’s slaying, he blamed Crawford for his own death by police gunfire.
“As a result of his actions, he is gone,” Curd bluntly declared, causing Thomas to collapse in tears.
Video of the police interrogation of John Crawford’s girlfriend shortly after cops shot him was released by Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine to the Guardian newspaper. The Guardian had filed a public records request for the video of the confrontational interview.
The video of the questioning of Tasha Thomas by Curd can be viewed at this link.
Crawford had taken a BB gun off a Walmart shelf and was in the pet supply aisle talking on his cell phone to the mother of his two children as Thomas shopped elsewhere in the store. But another shopper, 24-year-old Ronald Ritchie, who is white, called 911 to report that Crawford was waving what Ritchie said was an AR-15 assault rifle and pointing it directly at customers.
Security video later released showed that Crawford did not point the BB gun or brandish it in any threatening manner. Ritchie then admitted that he never saw Crawford pointing the supposed weapon.
The FBI synchronized audio of Ritchie’s 911 call with the video, revealing stark discrepancies between Crawford’s unremarkable behavior and the frightening descriptions that Ritchie gave to a 911 operator.
But when police arrived, the video showed that Officer Sean Williams opened fire on Crawford within seconds, killing him.
A grand jury in September ruled the Walmart shooting of John Crawford “justified” and issued no indictment of Williams.
But as seen in the video, Curd treats Thomas as if she, herself, is a criminal, accusing her of lying when she tells him Crawford did not own a gun or bring one to the store, and that he went to Walmart for the innocuous purpose of buying chocolate and marshmallows.
“You lie to me and you might be on your way to jail,” Curd tells Thomas.
He bangs the table with his hand demanding to know where Crawford “got the gun,” and accuses Crawford of threatening to “shoot that b***h,” meaning the mother of his children, LeeCee Johnson.
Curd also tells Thomas, before revealing that Crawford is dead, that he believes she is under the influence of alcohol or drugs, telling the already-traumatized woman, “Your eyes are kind of messed-up looking.”
Thomas swears to God and on the lives of her three kids that she is telling the truth.
The Walmart police shooting of John Crawford III happened just four days before the death of unarmed black teenager Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, a case which sparked nationwide demonstrations when the officer who killed Brown was exonerated by a grand jury.
