‘Starbucks-Quick’ Justice for White Lives: A Philli Cop Murdered a White Child on March 1st, Video was Released March 6th, Cop was Identified and Fired on March 8th and Charged w/Murder Today

NO NEED FOR WHITES TO BEG, DANCE OR SING FOR JUSTICE IN A WHITE OVER BLACK SYSTEM b/c IT’S RARE THAT NON-WHITE COPS GET AWAY WITH MURDERING WHITE PEOPLE.

From [HERE] A Latino Philadelphia police officer who was fired after he fatally shot a 12-year-old boy in the back in March has been charged with murder in connection with the shooting, the authorities said Monday.

Larry Krasner, the Philadelphia district attorney, said at a news conference on Monday that the officer, Edsaul Mendoza, was arrested on Sunday and had been charged with first-degree murder, third-degree murder, voluntary manslaughter and possession of an instrument of crime. He was being held without bail, Mr. Krasner said.

The boy, Thomas Siderio, was fatally shot on March 1 in the city’s Girard Estates neighborhood, according to the Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office.

At a news conference in March, Danielle Outlaw, the Philadelphia police commissioner, said that four plainclothes officers were completing an investigation in South Philadelphia on March 1 when they saw two youths.

On March 8th the Philadelphia inquirer identified the officer involved as Edsaul Mendoza (apparently journalists discovered his name after they actually did their own independent investigation into the incident. That is, they didn’t simply parrot and rely on police narratives - because a white child was involved. The police and the media have also had no problems or delay with posting the [former] officer’s photograph.)

One week after the incident the cop he was promptly fired apparently without a whole lot of fuss from the Philadelphia police Union, which is usually rigorous with its defense of cops, at least when they murder non-white people.

Mr. Krasner said on Monday that the four officers were surveilling the neighborhood from inside an unmarked police vehicle. They were not looking for Thomas when they saw him and a 17-year-old boy whom the authorities identified only as M.K.

The unmarked police vehicle slowed down and circled the block, Mr. Krasner said, and when it returned, Thomas fired a shot at the car just as its emergency lights turned on.

Brian Collins, an assistant district attorney, said at the news conference that there were “diverging accounts” among the four officers about why they had pulled up next to the boys. Two officers testified that they stopped them as part of a stolen firearm investigation. The other two said that, in addition to the investigation, they also made “a traffic violation stop” because the boys were riding bicycles the wrong way in the street, Mr. Collins said.

Mr. Collins said a grand jury noted a Philadelphia police directive that says plainclothes police officers are not supposed to make routine traffic stops.

After the shot was fired, three of the officers took cover, and Mr. Mendoza “began what can be fairly called a tactically unsound foot chase” of Thomas, Mr. Krasner said. As the chase began, another officer fired one shot “at no target in particular,” and Mr. Mendoza fired three shots at Thomas, Mr. Krasner said.

Thomas was unarmed when the last two shots were fired, having discarded the gun about 40 feet away, Mr. Krasner said. Immediately after he fired the final shot at Thomas, who by that time was on the ground, Mr. Mendoza told a fellow officer that the boy had tossed the gun and pointed to its location, Mr. Krasner said.

“When Officer Mendoza fired the third and fatal shot, he knew the 12-year-old, five-foot-tall, 111-pound Thomas Siderio no longer had a gun and no ability to harm him,” Mr. Krasner said. “But he fired a shot through his back nonetheless that killed him.”

Thomas was later pronounced dead at a hospital, the authorities said.

When Mr. Mendoza fired the third shot, Mr. Krasner said, he was about half a car length away from Thomas and “would have had the opportunity” to clearly see him.

After the shooting, Mr. Krasner said, Mr. Mendoza gave an “untruthful statement” about his position when he fired the final two shots.

“When people make untruthful statements about what happened that are crucial to understanding the death of another person, in the law, that can be interpreted to indicate guilty knowledge, a sense that you need to cover something up because you know that what you did is illegal,” Mr. Krasner said.

Conor Corcoran, a lawyer representing Thomas’s father, whose name is also Thomas Siderio, said that he believed there was not “conclusive evidence” that the boy had fired a gun.

“Until all that information comes to light, I still think it’s very premature and reckless to speculate that my boy even fired a gun to begin with, but we’ll see,” Mr. Corcoran said, referring to Thomas.

In a statement on Monday, John McNesby, president of Lodge No. 5 of the Fraternal Order of Police, said that Mr. Mendoza, “like every other citizen, is entitled to due process, and we are confident that our judicial system will protect this officer’s constitutional right to a fair trial.”

Because the shooting was still being investigated, Mr. Corcoran said it was too soon to speculate on what damages the family would seek. But he said that “for sure, the Philadelphia Police Department is unfortunately going to have to pay for the death of this child.”

There is footage of the shooting that has not been publicly released that Mr. Krasner described as “very, very disturbing and very difficult to watch.”

Mr. Krasner said investigators were looking into other possible factors that had yet to be confirmed, including “indications” that Mr. Mendoza had told Thomas to drop the gun before the boy did so and to “get down” after he dropped the weapon.

The investigation is unfolding at a time when police departments across the country have come under increased scrutiny over accusations of misconduct. In Philadelphia, protesters took to the streets in October 2020 after two police officers fatally shot Walter Wallace Jr., a 27-year-old Black man who was armed with a knife. The city later agreed to pay $2.5 million to settle a wrongful-death lawsuit filed by Mr. Wallace’s family, The Philadelphia Inquirer reported.