Autopsy confirms West Oaklander Patrick Gaston killed by police last week

PNN staff spoke with Martin after a call came in from PNN’s comrades in struggle, Just Cause Oakland, about the murder of Patrick Gaston, 34, lifelong resident of Oakland, who was killed by the police near the Campbell housing projects in West Oakland last Thursday.

“There were multiple witnesses to the assault by police,” said Adrow, who is a member of Oakland-based economic justice organizers Just Cause. He went on to outline the starkly different versions of the story – the claims by Oakland police that Gaston died because he choked on a bag of pills that he had in his mouth at the time of arrest versus the accounts of over 10 witnesses who said that Gatson died due to a murderous assault by a group of police officers.

“One officer had his knee in his back while Patrick was in a chokehold, and another one was punching him over and over again,” Adrow added. By all of the witnesses’ accounts, Gaston was unarmed and willingly surrendered to police when confronted. Adrow explained further that when he arrived on the scene they were already administering CPR and that he, who had been trained in CPR, assessed that there was something very suspect about the situation.

“As of the release of the second autopsy, we can rule out for sure the death by strangulation story that the police claimed last week,” Adrow said. Since the family’s last press conference and vigil, they have secured representation by civil rights attorney John Burris.

This week, the second autopsy, performed by an independent investigator, corroborated the story reported by witnesses that Patrick was killed by police assault rather than the choking incident reported by Oakland Police Chief Tucker last week in a closed press conference.

“OPD has been harassing folk in the Campbell projects for a long time,” PNN Youth in Media staff writer Laurence Ashton said. After I received the calls into POOR, I contacted Laurence to see if he would want to collaborate on this story. He immediately referenced his experience as a young Black man barely surviving the Oakland police and the thug lyfe to his studies in POOR’s Poverty Studies training program, which made him aware of the larger picture, i.e., that the whole trap is underwritten by the Capitalist Lyfe.

“You know, the cops (are) increasing their presence and assaults to protect the new yuppie residents of West Oakland, the small-time neighborhood dealers upping the ante of their game to get mo and mo cash to pay the realtors and landowners, and the people getting more and more desperate behind all of it. The whole mess results in more deaths of poor folks of color and more freed-up land to grab.” To which I added, “And the corporate media adding up the death count on its front pages like its ‘po’ folks die bingo.’”

“He was a drug user, but nothing he was doing was worth a death sentence,” Adrow concluded.

Before we said goodbye, Marcus made a point of thanking POOR and the SF BayView for our work and support and wished me and mine a “blessed Thanksgiving.” I put the phone down, dazzled at his depth of strength and sanity in light of his family’s tragedy, unable in that moment to even conceive of a semi-decent day ahead much less thanks-taking while these kinds of atrocities increase on our streets. At least in the old days the colonizers pretended to offer food and supplies before they killed us and our families.

Read more about issues of poverty and race written by the people who face them daily at http://www.poormagazine.org.

http://www.sfbayview.com/112305/nothinghedid112305.shtml