Update on shooting

James Grooms III
GROOMS, James III, departed this life July 15, 2009. He is survived by his four children, Shilique, Anquanne, Jaya and Makayla; parents, Peggy Harris and James Grooms (Goldie); siblings, Tisha Grooms, Tracy Harris, Demetra McLauren (Timothy), Shawn Sheppard (Richard), Brittany Grooms and Kadeem Grooms; grandmother, Lillian Goode; five nieces, two nephews, two aunts, four uncles; special friend, Shanelle Whitaker; two best friends, Jason and Michael James; other relatives and friends. Remains rest at Mimms Funeral Home, 1827 Hull Street Rd., where the family will receive friends Monday, 6 to 7:30 p.m., and where funeral services will be held Tuesday, July 21, at 11 a.m. Rev. Ronald C. Taylor officiating. Interment Oakwood Cemetery.

Richmond Store owner grateful for man who shot robber

By REED WILLIAMS

Published: July 15, 2009

Three days after Mustapha Kassou was shot in an attempted robbery in his store in South Richmond, he said that he owed his life to the man who ended the ordeal by shooting the robber.

Yesterday, Kassou returned to Golden Food Market on Jefferson Davis Highway for the first time since he was shot there Saturday afternoon.

Kassou said the masked robber walked into the store shortly after 1 p.m. and seemed startled to see about eight people inside. The robber told everyone to get on the floor, and then he fired at Kassou and hit him twice, he said.

"When the guy shot me, I was waiting for him to finish me," Kassou said. "I was knocked down behind the cash register."

The other armed man pulled a six-shot revolver from his holster and told the robber to drop his weapon, Kassou said. When he didn't, authorities say, the man shot the robber once in the torso, took the robber's gun and called police.

Witnesses told police it appeared the robber ran out of bullets and tried to reload. Some people in the store told the man to finish off the robber, witnesses reported.

"Everyone was telling him to kill him," Kassou said, "but he said, 'I can't do it.'"

Saturday's incident was the second such shooting at the store in a month.

The two shootings at Golden Food and the fatal shooting of a shopkeeper last month in another store just blocks away have alarmed some nearby residents, although police say the number of violent crimes along the Jefferson Davis corridor has been declining since May.

Councilwoman Reva Trammell, whose 8th District includes the corridor, and police Cmdr. Steve Drew will hold a public safety meeting for Jeff Davis-area business owners tonight from 6 to 8 at the Satellite Restaurant, 4000 Jefferson Davis Highway.

Kassou was released from the hospital Sunday, but he was limping and in obvious pain yesterday. He sat inside his store with family members, but he kept the front door locked. He said the shootings have made him scared of almost everyone.

He said he was struggling with whether he should reopen the store. He does not know how he would support his wife and two children if he chooses to keep the store closed.

Kassou said he is considering returning to his native Morocco. He said he is an American citizen and has lived here about 20 years and loves this country.

"It's not worth it anymore," he said, adding that he will arm himself if he reopens the store.

Kassou said he still is alive because of God -- and because of the man who drew a .45-caliber Western-style revolver and ended Saturday's robbery by shooting the gunman.

"He saved a lot of lives," Kassou said. "He was like an angel who came to save everybody."

Authorities say the robber was wounded after he shot Kassou and fired on customers.

Neither Kassou nor the police would identify the man who shot the robber. Authorities said an initial investigation indicates the man acted lawfully when he shot the robber.

Police have charged James Grooms III, 30, of South Richmond with attempted robbery, use of a firearm and possession of a firearm by a felon.

He remained in critical condition last night at VCU Medical Center.

A woman who said she is one of Grooms' relatives declined to comment when reached by phone yesterday.

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Contact Reed Williams at (804) 649-6332 or rwilliams@timesdispatch.com .

http://www.timesdispatch.com/rtd/news/local/crime/article/ROBB15_20090714-222605/280016/

Do Police Have a Duty to Protect You?

Legally, NO.

Countless court cases attest to this fact.  The police have a duty to investigate the crime but not to protect the victim.  Ironically, once they take a suspect into custody, they do have a duty to protect him or her even from themselves.

The first case which established the general rule that police have no duty under federal law to protect citizens is DeShaney v. Winnebago County Department of Social Services.   In this case, Petitioner is a child who was subjected to a series of beatings by his father, with whom he lived.   Respondents, a county department of social services and several of its social workers, received complaints that petitioner was being abused by his father and took various steps to protect him;  they did not, however, act to remove petitioner from his father's custody.  Petitioner's father finally beat him so severely that he suffered permanent brain damage and was rendered profoundly retarded.   The U.S. Supreme Court dismissed this case with this statement: There is no merit to petitioner's contention that the State's knowledge of his danger and expressions of willingness to protect him against that danger established a "special relationship" giving rise to an affirmative constitutional duty to protect.  

Likewise, Warren v. District of Columbia is one of the leading cases of where police were absolved from protecting the victims, who called the police and reported a crime in progress.  They phoned the police several times and were assured that officers were on the way.  When after 30 minutes they went to check on their friend who was assaulted, they became the next victims.  The facts before the court were: For the next fourteen hours the women were held captive, raped, robbed, beaten, forced to commit sexual acts upon each other, and made to submit to the sexual demands of their attackers.  See: The Police: No Duty To Protect Individuals

The three women sued the District of Columbia for failing to protect them, but D.C.'s highest court exonerated the District and its police, saying that it is a "fundamental principle of American law that a government and its agents are under no general duty to provide public services, such as police protection, to any individual citizen."Warren v. District of Columbia, 444 A.2d 1 (D.C. Ct. of Ap., 1981).

It gets worse in Freeman v. Ferguson a police chief directed his officers not to enforce a restraining order against a woman's estranged husband because the man was a friend of the chief's. The man subsequently killed the woman and her daughter.  

In Riss v City of New York, 22 N.Y. 2d 579, 293 NYS2d 897, 240 N.E. 2d 860 (N.Y. Ct. of Ap. 1968), the judge acknowledged that the city's gun laws prevented her from arming herself but the case was still dismissed.  

Peter Kasler states, "Because the police have no general duty to protect individuals, judicial remedies are not available for their failure to protect. In other words, if someone is injured because they expected but did not receive police protection, they cannot recover damages by suing ... Despite a long history of such failed attempts, however, many, people persist in believing the police are obligated to protect them, attempt to recover when no protection was forthcoming, and are emotionally demoralized when the recovery fails. Legal annals abound with such cases. "Police Have No Duty To Protect Individuals

Related Cases: 
Calogrides v City of Mobile, 475 So. 2d 560 (S.Ct. Ala. 1985), 

Morris v Musser, 478 A.2d 937 (1984), 

Morgan v District of Columbia, 468 A.2d 1306 (D.C. Ct. of Ap. 1983), 

Davidson v City of Westminster, 32 C.3d 197, 185 Cal. Rptr. 252, 649 P.2d 894 (S. Ct. Cal. 1982), 

Chapman v City of Philadelphia, 434 A.2d 753 (Sup. Ct. Penn. 1981), 

Sapp v City of Tallahassee, 348 So.2d 363 (Ct. of Ap. Fla. 1977), 

Simpson's Food Fair v Evansville, 272 N.E. 2d 871 (Ct. of Ap., Ind.), 

Silver v City of Minneapolis, 170 N.W.2d 206 (S.Ct. Minn. 1969), 

Keane v City of Chicago, 98 Ill. App.2d 460, 240 N.E.2d 321 (1968). 

Bowers v DeVito, 686 F.2d 61 (7 Cir. 1982),  

Balistreri v. Pacifica Police Department 901 F.2d 696 (9th Cir. 1990). 

McKee v. City of Rockwall, Texas, 877 F.2d409 (5th Cir. 1989), cert. denied, 110 S.Ct.727 (1990). 

Thurman v. City of Torrington, 595 F.Supp.1521 (D.Conn. 1984).