Daniel Talbot and Sean Sawyer Updates

Robert Iacoviello, Jr. (My Fox Boston)

Something Just Doesn't Add Up II
More information has come out of the ultra-secret case of Daniel Talbot - the Revere police officer who was killed while "socializing" behind Revere High at the end of September this year. There were various parts of the case that did not sit right with me (and a lot of other people from what I have read and heard.) Questions have remained unanswered: why were the officers hanging out behind Revere High at 1:30 in the morning? Why did they believe that their faces would arouse trouble at neighborhood bars? Why were search warrants sealed (which was later ruled as illegal)? What about the alleged confession? Who made it? My confidence in the prosecution's case waned even more as more pieces of information have been released as the case begins to enter the trial phase. It was revealed that a fourth police officer was at the scene - not just any officer, a sergeant. To make it even weirder, the other officers involved (Officers Soto and Bruzzese) in the incident have returned to work after being placed on administrative leave, but Sergeant Evan Franklin (the fourth officer) has not been allowed to return to work and remains on paid leave. What was Franklin's role in the whole incident? Good luck getting an answer. All we know is, according to the prosecutor, "When the shooting started, he left." When asked about why he was not back on duty like the others on the scene, Revere police spokesman Captain Michael Murphy said it was a departmental decision, adding "It's sort of an open-ended thing."

So what is the official story from the prosecutor? Apparently Derek Lodie was cutting through the Revere High area when he got into an argument with Talbot and his group. Words were exchanged, Lodie called up Robert Iacoviello Jr., a 20 year old from Revere, who came back to the park with Lodie and as Talbot and Soto approached Lodie, Iacoviello shot Talbot in the head. Soto shot back, missing both Lodie and Iacoviello, then went to tend to Talbot. What was their commanding officer, Sergeant Franklin, doing at this time? We do not know. Did the men identify themselves as cops? We don't know, but I'd imagine if they did the prosecution would try to hammer that point home. After killing Talbot, Iacoviello called up accomplices (who? the prosecution will not say), who helped him break up the gun and dump it in various storm drains. More questions: Why did the group get into an argument with Lodie? Why did they not identify themselves as cops? Why did they not call for uniformed, sober officers? Again, the prosecutor needs to explain these things, because the story he weaves seems to have holes in it, especially with so much information being withheld initially. Additionally, how much more do we not know about this case, given that Sergeant Franklin's presence was just recently released? I say turn this over to the feds so that no politics (or, at least, minimal politics) play into this.

Justice for the Tirado Family?

A memorial for Jayson Tirado (Free Republic)

Thanks to Xavier, the commenter on the Tirado post, for alerting me to new information regarding his friend's murder. It appears that Sean Sawyer was at a bar with an unnamed woman from the Queens DA's Office who says that all Sawyer drank was Coke - for 12 hours. Now, in my mind, it does not seem difficult to verify this story. Take a look at Sawyer's tab from the bar (if he paid with a credit card) or, if he paid with cash, talk to the bartender (who surely must remember Sawyer and this unidentified woman if they were there from the time Sawyer got off work [5 p.m.] to the time that Tirado was shot [7 a.m. the next day]). As far as X's assertion that Sawyer is "banging" the woman from the DA's office, the Post article that he linked to in his comment does not directly say that. It says that Sawyer argued with his wife before going to the bar with, as the Post puts it, his "lady friend." I will let you come to your own conclusions on that one. The Post article also points out that it is unclear how much time the pair spent together and when they split up. So we have a huge chunk of critical time before the incident happened during which Sawyer's whereabout and actions are unknown (don't forget the nearly 19 hours after the shooting when Sawyer pulled a disappearing act.)

The pressure on the NYPD has been mounting as of late, with shootings of unarmed black men occurring more frequently. The treatment of these officers after the shootings is also a bit prejudiced, with the cops always earning the benefit of the doubt (Sean Sawyer's case is the epitome of this). I have also read on various threads, etc. that this seems to be a New York phenomenon, with people suggesting that police are underpaid and undertrained. This may be true, especially considering that other police departments do not shoot the amount of unarmed dark-skinned people that the NYPD does (or, if they do, then it is not being reported on). Just look at the Sean Bell case and another case that is extremely similar with a white correctional officer up in Rhode Island. It would be interesting if someone (because I do not have the time right now) put together a data sheet of shootings of unarmed suspects in large metropolitan areas, broke it down by race, and then looked at it per capita to see if New York really does have a disproportionate amount of unarmed shootings of suspects, and if race plays a part in these incidents.