SENECA, South Carolina — The U.S. Justice Department has opened a civil rights investigation into the July shooting of Zachary Hammond by Seneca police.
19-year-old Zachary Hammond was on a date July 26 when he was fatally shot twice by a police officer while at the parking lot of a Hardee’s in Seneca, South Carolina.
From The Huffington Post: Lt. Mike Tiller killed Hammond on July 26 during a minor marijuana sting. Police have maintained that Hammond accelerated his vehicle toward Tiller after refusing a command to show his hands, causing the officer to fear for his life. Tiller fired two shots at near point-blank range into the open driver’s side window, and autopsies have shown that the bullets struck Hammond in the back of the left shoulder and left side. An attorney for Tiller claimed his client needed to use lethal force “in order to stop the continuing threat to himself and the general public.”
From CNN: Hammond’s death has not generated the same national outcry as the deaths of Michael Brown, Eric Garner and others. Black Lives Matter, an activist community that is working to end what it says is the systematic targeting of black people by police, has been sharing Hammond’s story on social media as another example of police brutality while also asking why Hammond’s death has not prompted outrage by other groups.
Meredith Clark, an assistant professor at the Mayborn School of Journalism at the University of North Texas who is conducting research on the Black Lives Matter movement, told the Los Angeles Times the lack of outrage over Hammond’s death did not appear to be race-related. She said the lack of compelling video or a history of brutality complaints with the police department was more of a reason the story did not reach national levels.
