Justice to probe cop killing of white teen

The Department of Justice announced it will investigate a police officer’s fatal shooting of a white teen in South Carolina, after the boy’s family pleaded for feds to look into the matter with the “same intensity” they would for a black individual killed by an officer.

The Hill reported FBI field officers in Columbia will join the U.S. Attorney for South Carolina and the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division to investigate the death of 19-year-old Zachary Hammond, whom police say was shot on July 20 after he tried to run over an officer, Seneca Police Lt. Mark Tiller, with his car.

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His parents, however, tell a different story and insist their son did not represent a harm to others. They’ve asked the feds to step in and have a look “with the intensity and thoroughness as it has demonstrated in other interracial settings,” CNN reported.

An attorney for the family, Eric Bland, said in recent statements Hammond, who wasn’t armed, posed no risk to the public “other than a possible minor possession of marijuana,” and the officer, who’s also white, had no cause to shoot him in the parking lot of a local restaurant, the Hill reported.

Bland also said, NBC News reported: “There was no warrant for his arrest. There was no APB for him or his car. There was no murder or [life] that was in danger if shots were not fired and the automobile continued on to leave Hardees [restaurant]. There was no AMBER alert. There was no ticking-bomb situation. This is clearly made up. It is ridiculous.”

Hammond’s parents asked in a press conference for police to release the officer’s dashcam video.

“We just want answers,” said Angie Hammond, the news outlet reported. “We have no clue as to what happened.”

And her husband added: “Our son deserves that, and we deserve that as a family.”

Part of the family’s outrage was fueled by the fact police took two weeks to release the name of the officer who shot Hammond, calling him an attempted murder victim, NBC reported.

A just-released autopsy found Hammond was shot in the side, a fact that counters what law enforcement authorities previously reported.

Fox Carolina, meanwhile, reported Tiller’s personnel file shows no disciplinary issues.