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Federal Probe Demanded in Firing Squad Shooting by Saginaw Police: Unarmed, Homeless Black Man Shot 30 Times by Officers

From [HERE] and [HERE] A City Council member today called for a federal probe of a Saginaw police shooting that killed a homeless black man on July 2.  The shooting about 85 miles northwest of Detroit is being investigated by Michigan State Police.

Councilman Norman C. Braddock said he’s not satisfied with the ongoing state probe examining the shooting of Milton S. Hall, a 49-year-old man who police say was acting aggressively with a knife in a plaza parking lot on July 1. Witnesses tell a different story. 

Mechelle Evans was at the Riverview Plaza on Sunday with her kids. Her son walked out a door before her and told her there were police outside. When she walked out, Evans said she saw several Saginaw Police officers and a man standing in front of them. "When I came out their guns were drawn. The dogs were out and the man was standing right by the wooded plant stand area in the front of the parking lot. "They were yelling 'get down, drop your weapon!' There was so much commotion," she said. Evans froze. Her kids stood still. She said the man was frozen, too."The man was not moving. He was just standing there looking. I think he was scared of the dogs and the yelling," she said. 

Evans said she didn't witness the man go after police. "They opened fire and unloaded on him," she said. "When they opened fire it sounded like a bomb went off. We ran back in the store and it had to be maybe 20 or 30 shots, well at least that is what it sounded like."

Destiny Williams was also in the shopping center and said she heard the gunshots, then saw "the man lying down."

Councilman Braddock demanded a federal probe into the shooting during an emotional evening when about 60 residents packed the standing-room only council chambers at City Hall, where witnesses to the shooting and outraged citizens alike said the killing — which reportedly involved police shooting more than 40 times at Hall — was not justified.

Braddock said he’s received several calls from constituents who say they witnessed the shooting. The councilman said those conversations paint a portrait of an unnecessary shooting. “This community is traumatized,” Braddock said. “I'm traumatized.

"Every person who tells me they saw this happen, they say the same thing," he said. "It's like a horror movie."

Braddock said each conversation featured details “consistent” with other eyewitness accounts.

Seals said some citizens have compared the shooting to watching someone "gunned down by a firing squad.”

The councilman said he wants city officials to approach prosecutors with Bay City’s federal court "and have them look into an investigation of their own." 

Two other black men have been fatally shot by police officers in Saginawthis year. State troopers fatally shot Keontae Amerson, 24, on March 23 after Amerson opened fire on them. A few weeks later, Saginaw police officers shot and killed Andre Jones, 18, as he was attempting a home invasion and aimed his weapon at the officers.