00:00:00
I can't sleep to this day. I see him begging for his life. He was George Floyd before George Floyd.
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Hey! Hey! With his dying breath, he told our mother that he loved her. No mother should have to witness what you witness.
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You know, he didn't attack nobody. He didn't rob a bank. He didn't kill nobody. That's not right.
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Everything seems to escalate. I'm tasing him, tasing him. I'm curious how many times you've used your taser as a police officer.
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None. You just don't tase people. I don't see any indication of malice. I don't see any indication of indifference.
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He needs help. Yeah. I really felt like it was a professional response. From a medical examiner's point of view, this was no accident.
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It's death at the hands of another, and that's a homicide. I want the truth to be known about my brother.
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I'm Lester Holt, and this is Dateline. Here's what happened to Anton Black. It was Saturday evening, September 15th, 2018 in the small quiet town of Greensboro, Maryland.
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Around 7pm, Denise Sala and her husband Tony were driving home from church. We could see these two black boys.
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The bigger boy had the smaller boy in a headlock. He put the full Nelson, picked him up, swang him.
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This definitely was not horseplay. At that point, did you want her to keep them in your sight?
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Yes. Denise and the younger boy locked eyes. And I said, are you all right? No, he said.
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So you dialed up 911. I'm the one that called 911. There's an older boy who has a younger boy.
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He's dragging him and the boy is trying out for help. What Denise didn't know was that the boys, 19-year-old Anton Black and a 12-year-old named Xavier,
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were neighbors who had known each other for years. I'll be addressing this in a second.
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Within minutes, a police car arrived. Greensboro officer Thomas Webster got out.
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And the officer was doing nothing but standing like this on the other side of the police, talking to them.
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So as far as you're concerned, he was acting professionally? Yes. Oh, definitely.
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But something went wrong. There was a foot chase and a struggle. Police officers pinned Anton to the ground.
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Soon, emergency workers were on the scene, attempting to resuscitate Anton on the front doorstep of his home.
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as his mother, Janelle, looked on. Not yet. Not yet. She telephoned Anton's father, Antone Black.
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You've got a phone line that you're not able to see what's happening. No, but I hear what's happening.
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I was telling her to get him up. But it was too late. Can you tell me how and when you heard the news that your brother had died?
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Ah, yes. Our mother called and she said, your brother's dead. Latoya Hawley, Anton's older sister, immediately headed to the hospital to see her baby brother one last time.
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He had a white sheet all the way up to his neck, and his eyes were red like someone had
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smothered him. You've probably never heard of Anton Black, neither had we. We found out about Anton while reporting on a case you have heard of, the murder of George
00:04:02
Floyd under the knee of Officer Derek Chauvin. We learned that a controversial expert who testified in Chauvin's trial had also played
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a central role in Anton Black's case two years earlier. So we began to look into it and found that Anton's case, like George Floyd's, touched
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his many pressure points in the heated debate about policing in America, especially in the
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black community. Our story is about the kind of incidents that occur all too often, but unlike George Floyd,
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seldom make national news. How you guys doing? My name is Anton Black and I hope you like my introduction video.
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Yeah, this is my baby boy, Anton. Anton was a standout athlete, voted his high school's homecoming king twice.
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He was a star wide receiver on the football team. Set, go. and mid-Atlantic champion in the 100, 200, and high jump.
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He was, you know, a very exciting young man to see. I used to love to see him run.
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Oh, and jump. After graduating, Anton enrolled in college. But his sister, Latoya, said his true passion was to build a career as a model.
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He had the looks. Definitely gorgeous. But in that summer of 2018, Anton's behavior changed.
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To me all of a sudden, he got moody, he was crying, he was upset all the time. He went to a hospital?
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Yes. Anton was diagnosed with bipolar disorder, a condition that often develops in the teenage
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years. He spent a week in the hospital 10 days after he was discharged Anton was dead No mother should have to witness what you witness
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No. I never thought this would ever happen. He didn't attack nobody. He didn't rob a bank.
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He didn't kill nobody. He's at his mother's door. All they want to do is go home.
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He's home. And you don't get off of him? That's not right. I'm sorry. Anton's family was shattered, angry and highly suspicious.
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They wanted answers, and soon they learned there might be a way to get them. There was a body cam video, but the family would have to fight to see it.
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Coming up... What would that video reveal? You'll see in detail exactly what happened and hear how town leaders had been warned.
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I was angry. The community had been together to try to prevent something like that from happening.
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shy smile, those dance moves, his bright future stolen, Anton's dad says from all of them far
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too soon. He's the big alligator in the little pond. He's an actor. He's a model. He's a
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champion runner, long jump. This boy was a good child. Anton's best friends, Devin Robinson
00:07:39
and Zach Smith, were crushed. Zach, what was your reaction when you learned about Anton's
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Devon and how he died. I don't even know how to explain it, honestly. Never felt nothing like it, you know?
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I just bust out in tears because that's been my friends for so long. Christina Robinson is Devon's mother,
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and was like a second mom to Anton. Anton was such a sweet kid. A small town kid, I guess you could say,
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from County, Maryland. He always had a big smile on his face to greet you. very respectful, very driven.
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Christina says to understand what happened to Anton, you have to understand Greensboro.
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She's lived here for nearly two decades. The town has fewer than 3,000 residents.
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Just 7% are black. Despite the area's deep history of slavery, Christina called it her modern-day Mayberry.
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Were there lingering racial issues there? Not that we had ever experienced. She says she felt safe raising her black son in Greensboro, in large part because of the
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police, a tiny force with just three officers. They took the time to know the people in the community.
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It was nothing for them to just stop by and say hi, talk to you on the street, talk to
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you in the store. Yeah, we hear the term community policing in this kind of community.
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I assume it's right there. Yeah, we had the dream. Christina became friends with Jeff Jackson, Greensboro's police chief, for 15 years before Anton died.
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In a small town, how much involvement do you have with the people that you police?
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You're involved with them every day. You know when kids are born, you stop by people's houses and you get pictures of kids going to the prom.
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But not everybody in town appreciated Chief Jackson's style. There came a point where things began to change in terms of how you were viewed.
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Can you tell us what that point was? When Joe Noon got elected mayor. Joe Noon is the father of Anton's friend, Zach.
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He's lived in the Greensboro area for 25 years. In 2011, Noon ran for mayor, a part-time position, and won by a single vote.
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You know Joe Noon from, what, high school? Yeah. I helped campaign for him and would babysit people's kids so they could go to the polls and vote.
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You believed in him? Mm-hmm. But Christina started to have doubts when her old friend said he wanted to change the leadership of the police department.
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What were your concerns? I was getting a lot of complaints from the public and the business owners in town in reference to the police chief.
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Chief Jackson. That's correct. Getting a lot of complaints about speeders and people running stop signs and nothing was getting fixed.
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So was Chief Jackson being ineffective as chief? Yes. Jackson says he was alarmed by the new mayor's focus, especially because violent crime was virtually nonexistent in their town.
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He told me on two separate occasions he wanted people scared to drive through Greensboro.
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uh honestly god i'm not lying to you he told me i want people scared to drive to greensboro and i
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went no no it's not the way you police small town america the word is that you wanted to replace him
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with somebody tougher not tougher i'm going to say more proactive within the streets of greensboro
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is that the same thing as being more aggressive no i wouldn't say aggressive i would say be more
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proactive and police work. So tell me what you thought when you heard that Jeff Jackson, the
00:11:25
police chief, was being fired. I was like, what do you mean? And he said they want a tougher police
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force. It makes you nervous because who are you being tougher on? Unfortunately, a lot of times
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they tend to be the black and brown kids. Young people like her son, Devin, and his best friend,
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Anton Black. Her worry turned to fear when she heard that the new police chief, Michael Petio,
00:11:52
had welcomed to the force a new officer Thomas Webster who had a troubling past A lot of people were very concerned scared Coming up
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I started to watch the video and that disturbed me. What are you bringing to this town?
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I went step by step as to why, why you would have to hate the people you serve to unleash that type of monster.
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on unsuspecting citizens. When Dateline continues. When Anton Black died, Christina Robinson felt as if she'd lost her own son.
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What hurt even more was the feeling that she'd seen it coming. Ever since she Googled Greensboro's newest police officer, Thomas Webster,
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I started to watch the video, and that disturbed me. All right, I got one. Another one fled around the store.
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The video, which is hard to watch, is from August 2013, when Webster was an officer in Dover, Delaware.
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He and another officer were responding to a call about a fight when they stopped one of the suspects, Lateef Dickerson.
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Get on the f***ing ground! And ordered him on his hands and knees. Get on the f***ing ground!
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Just as Dickerson began complying, Webster kicked him in the face, knocking him out and breaking his jaw.
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But it took two years for that video to go public, only after Webster was charged with second-degree assault.
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Folks wanted answers. They wanted justice. Lamar Gunn, then president of the NAACP of Central Delaware, led protests outside the courthouse.
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A packed courtroom in Kent County today. At his trial, Webster testified he was afraid Dickerson was reaching for a gun.
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He said he meant to kick Dickerson in the upper body, but missed and kicked him in the face.
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After three days of deliberations, Webster was acquitted. It sends us years backwards. We're clearly not happy with this response.
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In an agreement with the city of Dover, Webster resigned and left with his pension, $230,000.
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I thought he was done. But two years later, Lamar heard disturbing news. Webster had been hired as an officer at the Greensboro, Maryland Police Department, just 25 miles away.
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I felt betrayed. I couldn't believe it. Did you feel the need to warn the folks in Greensboro?
00:14:46
The moment I learned that Webster was in the process of being hired in Greensboro, I made a phone call.
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Lamar says he spoke with the Greensboro city manager. I went step by step as to why you would have to hate the people you serve to unleash that type of monster on unsuspecting citizens.
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You called him a monster? Yes. Lamar wasn't the only one to warn Greensboro officials about Officer Webster and that video.
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My first phone call was to Joe Newton. And I was like, what are you bringing to this town?
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Do you know about the tape? You had seen that video? I did see the video. What did you make of that video?
00:15:35
That video was nasty. It was not good to the human eye at all. And, you know, I wasn't there.
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Nonetheless, when Greensboro's new chief suggested hiring Webster, Mayor Noon supported it,
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saying Webster deserved a second chance. So he was hired. That bothered Christina.
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You knocked on doors on the street trying to stop the hiring of Officer Webster.
00:16:01
Yes. Christina drafted a petition to reverse Webster's hiring. Because it just didn't feel like he was a good fit for our community.
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Her petition didn't work. The town council, comprised of five white men, decided Webster would remain on the force.
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Though he didn't have a vote, Christina was furious with her old friend, the mayor.
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Do you remember what you told him? That if anything happens to my son or to one of my kids, because, I mean, it's like the community mom, that I was coming for all of them.
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Six months later, it was Officer Webster who responded to that 911 call and initiated the chase that ended with the death of Anton Black.
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I was angry because I could see how the community had been together to try to prevent something like that from happening.
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Anton's family wanted answers and thought Webster's body cam and Anton's autopsy report might provide them.
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We were asking for just what happened and no one was talking to us. So they called attorney Renee Swofford for help.
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That was the hardest thing I have ever done in my legal career is when I went to that home and met the family and saw Janelle Black.
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I will never forget what she looked like. What kind of information were you getting or maybe not getting from authorities?
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We weren't getting any information. So Renee enlisted the help of an investigator who learned the basic details.
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Anton had spent that afternoon at the park playing basketball where he ran into Xavier the 12 neighbor he known for years the Anton I knew was sweet Xavier spoke about the Anton he knew with a Maryland State Police
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Investigator yeah he was nice back then I could have walked around this whole town with him and
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he'd be perfectly fine but that day Xavier said while he and Anton were walking home from the park
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Anton started roughhousing. Soon we hit the first spot at the bridge. That's when he got me in headlock.
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Xavier was afraid Anton was going to throw him off the bridge. I kept telling him, let me go, bro.
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So when the lady pulled out, she was like, you want me to call the cops? I said, yeah, because I can't swim. Call the cops.
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But nothing in Xavier's statement explained Anton's death. Without answers, Anton's family grew more outraged,
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especially because Officer Webster remained on the job. We spoke to the town council members.
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We begged them to put Webster on leave. We even said it wouldn't matter if it was paid,
00:19:05
and they wouldn't hear our cries. Hi, good evening, everyone. Finally, four months after Anton's death, the Greensboro Town Council met to discuss Webster's fate.
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We have to go in a closed session. While Mayor Noon and the council deliberated behind closed doors, Anton's supporters went across the street to a church to await their decision.
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Time going by is not helping. It hurts so bad. They have no idea who they took from us.
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Christina Robinson's Mayberry had begun to unravel. We had officers that cared, that were invested, and if those officers were here on that day,
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it would have never escalated to the level that it was escalated to. The fact of the matter, Anton Black is a black teenager.
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The fact of the matter, he lost his life in the custody of white police officers.
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And then came the news. Okay, they're ready. The town council had made a decision.
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All in favor, say aye. Aye. All opposed, say nay. Officer Webster was put on administrative leave with pay.
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For Anton's family, it was just the first step. This is an injustice to my child.
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They still didn't know how Anton died. That was about to change. Coming up. I can't sleep to this day.
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I've seen him begging for his life. You know, he's a hollering mommy. They never moved.
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They never got off of him. When I opened up the door, how come they didn't let him up?
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It just seemed so unreal and unnecessary to me. The body cam video goes public. Hey, hey, hey.
00:21:01
I'm tasing him. I'm curious how many times you've used your taser as a police officer.
00:21:06
None. In the months after Anton Black's death, his family and friends turned their anger into action.
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They formed a group, the Coalition for Justice for Anton Black, and they took to the streets.
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He was such a beautiful person. Until this day, we still do not have answers. Anton's family had been asking for the body cam video of his encounter with
00:21:45
officer Thomas Webster to be released and in January 2019 weeks after Webster was put on leave Maryland's governor Larry Hogan ordered it to be made
00:21:56
public the video initially shown to reporters capture the final moments of Anton's life it starts with officer Webster talking to Xavier and Anton
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All right, listen, you're not his brother? No. No, I am. He's not my brother, bro.
00:22:14
Stop. Stay right there. That's not my brother. Right before Webster turned on his camera, Xavier told him that Anton was schizophrenic, which wasn't accurate.
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Anton had been diagnosed with bipolar disorder. Put your hands behind your back.
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When Webster went to handcuff Anton, he gave the officer an odd response. I love you.
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Put your hands behind your back. I love you. Put your hands behind your back. And began to run away.
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Webster radioed the dispatcher. Black male wearing all black just flat on foot. Apparently he is a schizophrenic.
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Three other men joined the pursuit. Two off-duty officers from nearby jurisdictions who happened to be in the area,
00:22:52
along with a civilian on a motorcycle. Anton ran to his home and locked himself in a car outside.
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Officer Webster arrived moments later, and without saying a word he drew his baton and smashed the driver's side window.
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Then he fired his taser. I'm tasering him, tasering him. But it didn't work. Anton grappled with the men up a ramp toward his front door as he cried out for his mother.
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Thank you! You were always there! Please skip your front. Yeah, yeah, yeah. The officers then wrestled Anton to the ground.
00:23:32
That was really my mom. Grab your leg and pull it out from underneath. With the help of the civilian who had a Confederate flag on his motorcycle helmet.
00:23:40
He's cuffed. Let him sit there, Sig. Okay, everybody take a breather. Anton's mother, Janelle, heard the commotion and stepped outside.
00:23:48
He's at my door. Webster began speaking with her. Anton here tried to abduct a 12-year-old and then fled from the police.
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Anton, handcuffed and on his stomach, was kicking off. legs so Webster decided they should shackle them too.
00:24:04
I got shackles. Anton continued to cry out. Shackles in the trunk of the car. I love you.
00:24:10
You'll be better if you don't fight. I'm down. Officer Webster told Anton's mother he wasn't in any legal trouble.
00:24:17
He needs help. Yeah. So he's not getting locked up. No, no, no. We're going to get him to the hospital.
00:24:23
Alright. Anton went limp. Anton! Anton, come on, buddy. That's when EMTs were called, but they could not revive him.
00:24:34
I saw him, and that's why I can't sleep to this day. I seen him begging for his life.
00:24:41
You know, he was a hollering mommy. They never moved. They never got off of him.
00:24:45
When I opened up the door, how come they didn't let him up? I'm standing right there.
00:24:49
It just seemed so unreal and unnecessary to me. and when I saw him go limp in the video, they still didn't get off of him.
00:25:03
I got him, I got him. Christina blamed the police, but she knew many of her white neighbors sided with the officers.
00:25:10
Has it split the community? It definitely did. Along racial lines? Yes, definitely did.
00:25:16
We patrolled a lot. One white person who did think the police did something wrong was former Chief Jeff Jackson.
00:25:22
When we asked him about the video, he said the deadly situation could have been avoided entirely.
00:25:28
I learned years ago it was a whole lot easier to talk people into handcuffs than to fight them into handcuffs.
00:25:35
He took us to where Webster first encountered Anton to show us how he might have handled it.
00:25:40
Let's move out of the way, find out what's going on and start slowing this thing down.
00:25:44
Slowing things down was important, Jackson says, especially because Webster had been told Anton was mentally ill.
00:25:51
ill. When Anton ran off, Jackson says Webster should have just let him go and instead made
00:26:00
sure Xavier was okay. I was like, where's the victim? What happened to him? He's a 12-year-old
00:26:07
boy. You just let him, where's he at? The reason Jackson wouldn't have worried about Anton fleeing,
00:26:13
he knew him. He'd watched Anton grow up and worked with him and his friends to launch a youth group.
00:26:20
If Anton took off running, it's like, okay. I know where you live. I know where your mom's at. Okay.
00:26:27
A perfect example, he says, of the benefits of community policing. Jackson says Webster made the situation even worse when he smashed that window.
00:26:38
You keep escalating this. You busted a window. If he's having a schizophrenic episode, you just keep exciting it and elevating it.
00:26:47
What's wrong with walking, going up there and going? I just want to talk to you.
00:26:53
Yeah. What's wrong with just keeping it low key? Taser, taser. I'm tasing him. Taser, taser, taser.
00:27:03
I'm curious how many times you've used your taser as a police officer. None. Now, you're the police chief who lost his job,
00:27:11
so a lot of people will see through that lens here that this is kind of Monday morning quarterbacking.
00:27:16
You can have your opinion. This is my style of policing. I did it for 15 years here.
00:27:22
Stop under arrest. So what did Webster have to say about what happened that day? A lot.
00:27:27
His behavior was so erratic and dangerous that we had to get him into custody. Coming up.
00:27:37
The window. Is he going to do something dangerous in this vehicle? Is he retrieving a weapon?
00:27:43
The taser. My end goal was to get him subdued. Stop! Stop! Under arrest! He wasn't responding to orders to stop resisting.
00:27:55
I think it meets the professional standard. When Dateline continues. A day after Officer Webster's body cam footage was released,
00:28:13
The Baltimore Sun wrote an editorial saying there was no justification for such aggression by the police.
00:28:20
And not everyone was happy about that. In 2019 you wrote a letter to the Baltimore Sun about this case What was the point you wanted to make The point I wanted to make and I think it a point that I could have made in any number of cases involving law enforcement officers
00:28:36
is that there is an urgency to judge the actions of police officers before all the facts are known.
00:28:45
Jason Johnson is president of the Law Enforcement Legal Defense Fund, which provides support to officers charged with crimes.
00:28:52
Is the black male wearing all black just foot on foot? After watching that video, how would you describe Officer Webster and the other officers' actions?
00:29:02
I think they responded to a very difficult situation. He said Anton Black's death was a tragedy, but he said none of the officers were to blame.
00:29:11
I don't see any indication of malice. I don't see any indication of indifference to Mr. Black's health or well-being.
00:29:18
And so I think it meets the professional standard. He needs help. Yeah. So he's not getting locked up?
00:29:24
No, no, no. We'll move into the hospital. They seemed to recognize that this was primarily a mental health emergency.
00:29:30
They seemed empathetic in their communication, both with Mr. Black and with Mr. Black's mom.
00:29:35
I really felt like it was a professional response. But Johnson did question some of Officer Webster's choices.
00:29:42
Like when he smashed the car window. I do think that that is the one key moment that I think there's fair criticism.
00:29:49
An objective observer could look at that and certainly could question. I think the questions are reasonable ones.
00:29:54
Was tasing a good option in this case? I think the use of the taser was objectively reasonable.
00:29:59
I don't think that it was the best choice, candidly. Officer Webster, through his attorney, declined multiple requests for an interview with Dateline.
00:30:08
But he did speak on the record. Did you happen to be working on September the 15th?
00:30:14
Yes, sir, I was. After Anton Black's death, the Maryland State Police launched an investigation
00:30:20
and interviewed Webster about what happened that night, starting with the initial 911 call.
00:30:28
A child being held against his will, unlawful, you know, some sort of unlawful imprisonment.
00:30:33
Once on the scene, he said he reassessed the situation. This was being treated as a psychiatric emergency, that this was going to end up being a medical emergency first.
00:30:44
Okay. versus a fleeing suspect. Webster said he had good reason to smash that window.
00:30:52
Is he going to do something dangerous in this vehicle? Are we going to have, is he retrieving a weapon?
00:30:57
As for the taser... My end goal in deploying the taser was to get him subdued. When it didn't work, Webster says they had no choice
00:31:09
but to wrestle Anton to the ground. Stop! Stop! He wasn't responding to orders to stop resisting, and he was very, very difficult to hold on
00:31:23
to because of his strength. At the end of the hour-long interview... Is there anything else that you want to say?
00:31:32
Webster didn't express regret. Instead, he said he was grateful. I was very fortunate to have as many people there to help, including the civilian motorcyclist,
00:31:43
and it could have been a more protracted, longer struggle. A struggle he says he couldn't have handled alone.
00:31:52
If it had just been Mr. Black and myself, I'm not sure that we would have been able to take him into custody safely.
00:32:01
Safely, of course, is not a word Anton's family would use to describe how it ended.
00:32:07
They think a crime was committed and not by Anton. So what should happen to Webster, in your opinion?
00:32:15
He needs to go to jail and go get out. Lord have mercy. The death of Anton Black raised so many difficult questions about race, mental illness, use of force, theories of policing.
00:32:29
And now, Anton's family was about to get answers about how he died and whether anyone would be held accountable for his death.
00:32:38
Coming up From what you've learned from the Anton Black case What is the proper manner of death?
00:32:46
Homicide Anton Black was in a fight and lost And that is a homicide Homicide Four months after Anton Black death on his own front doorstep the autopsy report came out
00:33:12
The manner of death, accident. It's an accident. You're begging for your life and they don't get off of it.
00:33:20
How is it an accident? that. The report was co-signed by Maryland's then Chief Medical Examiner, Dr. David Fowler.
00:33:28
You'll want to remember his name. It said that while it was likely that the stress of the struggle contributed to his death,
00:33:35
no evidence was found that restraint by law enforcement directly caused or significantly
00:33:41
contributed to it. The cause of death, it stated, was a heart defect, and a significant contributing condition
00:33:49
was bipolar disorder. The day after the autopsy report was released, the county prosecutor announced no charges would be filed.
00:33:59
You took somebody's life and you don't even get charged. It's kind of like they were exonerated
00:34:04
as soon as Anton's autopsy report was signed. The role of the medical examiner was yet another issue
00:34:11
captured in the harsh light of Anton Black's death. Our role in legal cases plays a huge part.
00:34:18
Dr. Roger Mitchell is a former chief medical examiner for Washington, D.C. Today he's head of pathology for Howard University
00:34:26
and an expert in investigating deaths like Anton's that occur in police custody.
00:34:32
He was breathing, running, talking before the fight, and he's no longer breathing, talking, running, and he dies.
00:34:42
Dr. Mitchell says even if Anton had a heart defect, the reason he died was due to that struggle.
00:34:49
Men laying on him that are twice his size, that heart issue could now show itself to be fatal.
00:35:00
His bipolar condition was listed as a contributing cause. Did that make sense to you?
00:35:05
In the case of an altercation with another person that leads to death, I'm not quite sure why the bipolar is on the death certificate.
00:35:14
Anton's autopsy noted petechiae and hemorrhages, often a sign of asphyxiation. If there's an asphyxial component, if he's, you know, able to breathe under these law enforcement officers, we can't see that, right?
00:35:28
From what you've learned from the Anton Black case, what is the proper manner of death?
00:35:34
Homicide. Anton Black was in a fight and lost, and that is a homicide. Which is not the same as a murder, and it doesn't mean Webster or anyone else committed a crime.
00:35:47
Whether they did anything wrong, that's a legal matter. That is correct. Here is where Anton Black's case intersects with George Floyd's.
00:35:57
When former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin went on trial for murder, his defense called an expert witness.
00:36:04
I was watching it live from my office. Chauvin's expert was none other than Dr. David Fowler, the same medical examiner who co-signed
00:36:15
Anton Black's autopsy report. Potentially carbon monoxide poisoning. Dr. Fowler told the jury that despite Chauvin's knee on Floyd's neck, in his expert opinion
00:36:26
the manner of death was undetermined. I was appalled. I began writing an open letter, an open letter that called for an investigation in all deaths in custody in Maryland.
00:36:39
In September 2021, Maryland's Attorney General launched a review of all in-custody death cases during the 17 years Dr. Fowler served as the state's chief medical examiner.
00:36:53
Of the 1,300 cases on that list, the AG's office determined about 100 required further examination.
00:37:01
If Anton Black is an accident and George Floyd is undetermined, then how many other cases that we have no idea about are accidents and undetermined?
00:37:13
Amid all the unanswered questions that still linger in this case, there is one remarkable statement made by of all people Jason Johnson who makes his living defending the police I can tell you with some degree of certainty that Thomas Webster should not have been a Greensboro police officer at all
00:37:33
It turns out that 2013 kick was only part of Webster's past. We obtained his internal affairs file.
00:37:42
During his 10 years as an officer in Delaware, it lists 32 incidents involving a use of force.
00:37:49
26 were with African Americans, and all but 10 involved Webster deploying his taser.
00:37:56
But the Maryland Police Commission that certified Webster to work in Greensboro didn't have that information.
00:38:03
An investigation found that Chief Michael Petio, the man who hired Webster, intentionally withheld it.
00:38:10
Eleven months after Anton's death, Webster was decertified as a police officer and fired.
00:38:18
That's called the case of State v. Petiot. Chief Petiot was charged with misconduct in office for making factual misrepresentations.
00:38:27
He pleaded guilty and was given three years probation by a judge who let Petiot know how serious his crime was.
00:38:35
You dishonored yourself. You violated your position of public trust. Your omissions were, as I've said, purposeful and more importantly, harmful.
00:38:45
Is his prosecution enough? No. No, it's something, but it's not enough. And so, in Anton's memory, his family fought to change the law in Maryland to make police misconduct records public.
00:39:00
The veil of secrecy around police records has prevented transparency and accountability.
00:39:06
In September 2021, Anton's family and supporters held a press conference the day before a new law was enacted.
00:39:15
It's been three years now, and we're still grieving. They called it Anton's Law.
00:39:22
My son was George Floyd before George Floyd. In August 2022, three days after we first broadcast Anton's story,
00:39:31
his family held a press conference to announce they had settled a civil suit against the town of Greensboro and other officials.
00:39:39
The settlement included changes to use of force policies. Plus, the family received $5 million.
00:39:46
They later settled with the state of Maryland and Dr. David Fowler for $100,000.
00:39:52
The Coalition for Justice for Anton Black received $135,000. In the settlement, neither the state nor Dr. Fowler admitted any wrongdoing.
00:40:04
But for Anton's grieving parents, no amount of money will ease their pain or their outrage.
00:40:12
And there's no justice. Nobody's charged. If it hadn't been for Lester Holt and Dateline, it would never have got out.
00:40:21
It'll always be a tragedy because in Anton's case, it didn't have to happen. There are many lessons to be learned in the wake of Anton Black's tragic death
00:40:34
about policing and pain, friendship and forgiveness. Do you hold Joe Noon responsible at all in the death of Anton?
00:40:47
Um, no. I know his heart, and I know that he cares about my son. I know he cared about Anton.
00:40:56
Do you feel any responsibility for this tragedy? I do. Just as a human being, as being the mayor, too, and a friend of Anton and his family.
00:41:08
I do. It sits with me every day. Do you feel that perhaps you let Anton down? I feel that I probably let everybody down.
00:41:20
How do you want us to think of and remember Anton? As a good child, a good son, a good citizen.
00:41:30
I want Anton to be a symbol of what could happen to anyone's child. I want Anton to be remembered forever.
00:41:40
That's all for now. I'm Lester Holt. Thanks for joining us.