‘Hero Cop’ Charged with Raping Two Women at Gunpoint
According to several reports coming out of Philadelphia, a former “hero cop” who was once rewarded for his bravery in the line of duty with a seat next First Lady Michelle Obama during a presidential speech is being held on $60 million bail (apparently one of the highest in Philadelphia history) for allegedly raping two women at gunpoint, among some other pretty terrible things.
Richard DeCoatsworth, a 27-year-old former police officer who attended President Obama’s first congressional address in 2009, has been charged with more than 32 crimes in three cases, including a domestic violence incident back on May 9 when he allegedly assaulted his live-in girlfriend. The most recent reports of stomach-churning violence from the ex-cop, however, claim that DeCoatsworth forced two women to take drugs and perform sexual acts on him.
NBC10’s account of DeCoatsworth’s misdeeds is fairly brutal, so be prepared:
A source tells NBC10 former officer Richard DeCoatsworth, 27, met one of the women at a bar on North Front Street two weeks ago, then forced her into prostitution at a Days Inn hotel along Roosevelt Boulevard.
Between 2 a.m. Thursday and Friday evening, DeCoatsworth went to the woman’s home along North Howard Street in the Fishtown-Kensington.
Once he arrived, DeCoatsworth forced that woman and a second woman, both in their 20s, to use drugs and perform oral sex on him at gunpoint, according to the source. The alleged victims reported the assault Friday only after DeCoatsworth went home, according to police.
Police raided DeCoatsworth’s house on the 2700 block of Salmon Street in the Port Richmond section of Philadelphia around 6:30 a.m. on Saturday. He was charged with rape, sexual assault, terroristic threats and related offenses. Police also confiscated drugs and guns from the home, according to a source. No word yet on what kind of drugs were removed from the home.
Bail has been set at $25 million for each of the victims in the rape cases. Another $10 million in bail was added for the May 9 domestic abuse, bringing DeCoatsworth’s grand bail total to a staggering $60 million, reportedly one of the largest in the long, sordid history of Philadelphia crime.
News of DeCoatsworth’s arrest didn’t come as a surprise to at least one of his neighbors, who, on the condition of anonymity, described him to NBC10 as “a thorn in the side of the neighborhood for so long.” Since his 2007 hero-making incident when (as a rookie officer) he chased after a suspect who shot him in the face, DeCoatsworth has had what one might charitably call a history of violence: in April 2009, his gun reportedly “went off” while he was assaulted trying to disperse a crowd, killing the suspect who assaulted him, and in September 2009, after stopping a motorcyclist, DeCoastworth and a fellow officer shot and wounded a second man who jumped on the motorcycle and allegedly drove at them (local witnesses claimed that the two suspects did nothing wrong).
In 2011, Internal Affairs investigated an alleged physical confrontation between DeCoatsworth and another officer. Later that year, DeCoatsworth retired from the police force on disability.
Source: anarcho-queer
![Eyewitness: Cops Shot Kimani Gray While He Was On The Ground, The Threatened To Shoot Me
Independent journalist Ryan Devereaux interviewed 39-year-old Tishana King, the only known eyewitness to the police killing of 16-year-old Kimani Gray in East Flatbush last weekend, revealing new and disturbing details about Gray’s last moments of life.
King, who witnessed the entire encounter from her third story bedroom window, told the New York Daily News last week that she was “certain [Gray] didn’t have anything in his hands” when he was shot, casting doubt on police claims that Gray pointed a revolver at the officers, forcing them to open fire. She also said Gray was “backing up” when “The cop took out his gun and started firing.”
In her extended interview with Devereaux (whose coverage of Gray’s shooting and protests for the Village Voice is a must read), King elaborates on what she witnessed that night.
She says that one of the officers who shot Gray continued to shoot while the teen was on the ground. According to the state’s autopsy report, Gray was shot seven times (three times in the back), so this is completely plausible.
King also reaffirmed her earlier statement that Gray never pointed a gun at the police, saying, ”I can’t say if they had one on them or not, but no one had a gun pointing at the cops.”
The most horrific aspect of the interview is King’s description of Gray crying in pain as he lay on the ground begging for his life:
After the gunfire subsided, King claims the officer who “did the most shooting” put his hands on his head “like, ‘Oh my God.’” She describes him as “the main shooter.”
“That’s the one I was focused on,” she explained. “He just kept shooting while [Gray] was on the ground.” When asked how close the officer was when he was shooting Gray, King said, “right over him.”
“I thought he was dead,” King said. That’s when Gray began to scream. “‘Help me. Help me. My stomach is burning. Help me. They shot me,’” she said the teen cried out. Friends have said Gray was approximately 5’6″ and weighed at most about 100 pounds. King described him as “frail” and said she was surprised he was not killed instantly. “I didn’t think anybody could take those amount of bullets,” she added.
Outraged by what she saw, King shouted out of her window at the police. The shooting officer responded by threatening to shoot her:
“I just remember screaming out the window ‘Why?! Why so much?!” King recalled. She claims the “main shooter”‘s partner–”with the short haircut”–responded.
“He started waving his gun up at our windows, myself and my neighbor. ‘Get your F-ing head out the window before I shoot you.’” King said she and her neighbor “jumped back.”
“I told the authorities that,” she said. “You threatened our lives and we didn’t even do anything.”
The officers, identified as Sgt. Mourad Mourad, 30, and Officer Jovaniel Cordova, 26, have been placed on desk duty until the investigation into Gray’s death is complete.
According to court records, both have been accused of civil rights violations in five federal lawsuits, costing the city $215,000 in settlements.
“In each case, Mourad and Cordova attempted to cover up their misconduct by falsifying and fabricating evidence,” the lawyer who filed four of the five lawsuits told the New York Daily News.
Sgt. Mourad is accused in one of the lawsuits of an illegal stop and frisk that landed an innocent man in Rikers Island for four months. Another complaint alleges that Mourad and others pulled a man’s pants and underwear down during a frisk.
Allegations against Officer Cordova include handcuffing a driver by shoving him facedown into a puddle during a car stop and punching a man in the face during an illegal stop, resulting in three stitches.
Furthermore, both officers have been awarded for their involvement in past non-fatal shootings.](http://24.media.tumblr.com/013166ae41a3d912d07cfbab18d9fbe0/tumblr_mjw11o0VgV1r4vpxio1_1280.jpg)
![Israeli Officer Makes Post On Facebook About Killing Arabs Week Before Fatally Shooting Palestinian Father
One week before he shot Palestinian motorist Ziad Jilani in the head at point blank range, Israeli border policeman Maxim Vinogradov expressed on Facebook his wish to kill Arabs and Turks. And on his profile on another social media site, Vinogradov identifies himself as belonging to the extreme right, expresses his love for violence, names “undocumented Arab workers” as his favorite sport, his hobbies as “hitting and destroying things,” and for the category of favorite food, he lists “Arabs.”
The Israeli border police claim that on 11 June 2010, Jilani attempted to run them over in a terrorist attack in the Wadi al-Joz neighborhood of Jerusalem, and, fearing for their lives, they shot to kill in accordance with police procedures. The Israeli state prosecutor agreed with police claims and refused to press charges against Vinogradov and Police Superintendent Shadi Har al-Din, both of whom admitted to shooting Jilani. Jilani’s family is now pursuing justice for Ziad in Israel’s highest court.
“If it was a terrorist attack, why would Ziad bump into the group of police officers at such a slow speed? Not a single police officer spent one night in the hospital because of their injuries. It was not even a major accident,” said Bilal Jilani, Ziad’s brother.
“They know they [the border police] were wrong, because if my husband had been a terrorist, the government of Israel would have demolished my house, and they wouldn’t be giving me a widow’s pension,” Moira Jilani, Ziad’s wife, said. But the question, of course, is whether the officers acted properly based on information they had at the time, or if there was wrongdoing sufficient to press criminal charges.](http://25.media.tumblr.com/cdd2d461aa2bc145d35757cc6f47dafc/tumblr_mjqs16ukCZ1r4vpxio1_1280.jpg)
