By Chris Menahan
Mobs rioted in Memphis and attacked police on Wednesday night after 20-year-old Brandon Webber was shot and killed by police for allegedly ramming them with his vehicle and exiting his car with a weapon.
Webber, whom the media is highlighting was an “honors student,” said on Facebook Live in a reportedly now-deleted video that police “gone have to kill me” hours before he was shot.
Webber was wanted by police for allegedly “cold-bloodedly” shooting a man 5 times on June 3 and stealing his car.
Extended video of his Facebook Live stream shows it started with Webber lighting up a blunt and ended with him talking about how the police “gonna have to kill me homie.”
“I ain’t even gonna lie, Ima do they ass so bad,” Webber added before bursting into laughter.
The pregnant girlfriend of a 20-year-old black man who was shot dead by U.S. Marshals during an attempted arrest outside his family’s home went into labor as riots broke out in the streets of the working-class Memphis neighborhood where he was killed.
Brandon Webber was shot and killed by officers on Wednesday night as they tried to arrest him for multiple warrants, including violent felony offenses, outside his home in Frayser in North Memphis.
Shortly before he was shot on Wednesday, Webber posted a live video on Facebook that showed him in a car, rapping and apparently smoking a marijuana cigarette. In the video, he looked out the window and said he saw police.
With a laugh, he looked directly into the camera and said the officers would ‘have to kill me.’ The video appeared to have been removed from his Facebook page late Thursday morning.
The Tennessee Bureau of Investigations said officers went to his home at about 7pm to look for Webber who had outstanding warrants, including the violent felony offense that occurred on June 3.
Officers said they saw Webber get into a vehicle and that he then proceeded to ram task force vehicles several times before exiting with a weapon. Marshals then opened fire on Webber. He died at the scene, according to officers.
CNN reported Thursday that 36 officers were injured after what they referred to as “demonstrators” reportedly “threw bricks at police and vandalized squad cars.”
“All those hospitalized have been released,” CNN reported. “Three people have been charged with disorderly conduct and one of them also with inciting a riot.”
According to the media, the real story here was an “honors student” with a “pregnant girlfriend” being shot by police just for being black.
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