[Note: At that time, the mayor of Chattanooga was Bob Corker, who is a current US senator.]
Loretta: Are you concerned about how the police are perceived by the public with all of these deaths?
Detective One: I don’ care about public relations or their perception of the police.
Loretta: It is open season on black men. Can we get a copy of the training curriculum at the Police Academy?
Detective One: I can’t get that for you, but you can contact the training department, if you want to know more about the training.
Loretta: Why does it seem that police are judged at different standards than others?
Detective One: Police have killed men and they go to jail. There are many police in jail.
Loretta: I use to have a lot of respect for the police and was instrumental in getting the DARE (Drug Abuse Resistance Education) program started in Chattanooga. I wanted youth to have a positive interaction with police. That was when I directed the Drug Free Schools Program. Police are drunk with power.
Loretta: I question the strategy of the point system used in the Chattanooga Police Department. The system is only going to make things worse because police will lie on citizens just so they can get points to earn a day off. Killing citizens seems to be better than the point system, because they can immediately get a week’s vacation with pay.
[Note: The point system allowed police officers to earn points based on the number of arrests made. When they reach a specified number of points, they can earn a paid day off.]
Dwight: Are the police officers back on the beat?
Detective One: I don’t know.
Dwight and Loretta: What about the release of Leslie’s property?
Detective Two: We have a list that has items on it that we are releasing.
Dwight: What is the situation with his cell phone? I thought you told us that you did not have his cell phone. We have asked about this several times.
Detective Two: They found it the other night wedged down under the emergency brake.
Detective One: Do you know why Leslie pulled his clothes off?
Loretta: No, if he had not been killed, he could tell us.
[Note: We did not prompt Detective One for his next statement, but he made it anyway. Notice what he says about drugs in Leslie’s system (this was prior to any official toxicology report).]
Detective One: I think he had drugs in his system. My nephew, my sister’s son in Memphis, died when he was sixteen. He was using drugs. Cocaine makes you feel real hot and he took off his clothes. Some friends were trying to restrain him and he ended up dying. So, I know how you feel.
Loretta: Have you had a son killed by the police?
Detective One: No.
Loretta: Then you don’t know how we feel.
In retrospect, it was a very interesting meeting, with them mostly telling us what they found out about Leslie’s day prior to his death and to deflect guilt from those police officers. Dwight and I both thought that this was strange because Leslie was not the victim of some unknown killer on the loose, as I stated previously. It seemed to me that they had no interest in conducting an impartial, objective investigation. From my knowledge of these types of situations, it is common practice for the police to re-victimize the victim. They spend time looking for anything bad that they can use to disqualify the victim as a human being, deserving of life. When Detective One talked about his nephew, I think he was trying to make us believe that his nephew’s circumstances mirrored those of Leslie. Dwight immediately responded that he didn’t see why Detective One was talking about his relative’s death, because the circumstances had nothing to do with the investigation into Leslie’s death that they were assigned to conduct. From Detective One’s description of his nephew’s death, I don’t believe that his nephew had multiple broken bones and bruises. His nephew was not the victim of aggressive police tactics, including actions making it impossible for any human to breathe.
I also remember that Detective One tried to intimidate us, but Dwight didn’t note what he said. Dwight was quickly angered and made it clear to both detectives that we were not intimidated by them. We believed that police officers were responsible for Leslie’s death and they should be working from that premise, not that Leslie’s death was due to some unknown occurrence, without explanation. In a further display of his arrogance, Detective One reiterated that they did not have to meet with us, as though they were doing us a favor. Our immediate response was that they asked for this meeting; we did not.
Based on the dynamics of that meeting, we were even more convinced that a cover-up was in progress. The meeting did not end cordially. Prior to leaving the room, I stated that they should not call us anymore that week, because we had a child to bury and would not return to the Police Services Center that week. After that meeting, we had a dreaded appointment at the cemetery. For me and Dwight, all of our energy from that point forward that week was consumed with Leslie’s funeral and burial.
There were a few other interesting dynamics that occurred on that same day of meeting with those two detectives. Prior to meeting with them, I had a telephone conversation with Detective Two. I asked him, “When could we get Leslie’s clothes?” He stated that they were holding his clothes as evidence that Leslie was nude when the police arrived. That didn’t make any sense to me, and I told him so. I said, “We have never challenged the fact that Leslie was unclothed when the police arrived.” I stressed that because his body was nude during two autopsies and his body was not clothed while being embalmed, I failed to see how their keeping his clothes would be necessary for their investigation. There was a pause; he seemed not to know how to respond. Finally, he said that he would have to discuss it with his supervisor. He called me back and told me that they would release the clothing to us when we came out to the Police Services Center later that day.
Then there was the matter of what to do with Leslie’s car. Dwight and I had already discussed the car, which was a stick shift and an older model vehicle than either of us drove. We knew that Leslie had the car for only a short period and had not finished paying for it. Neither Dwight nor our younger son Stefan, nor I, had any use for the car. As you might imagine, the matter of the car was of little concern to us. Our major issue was dealing with our anger. Police department officers had killed Leslie and, in our opinion, the department was already showing signs of a cover-up. Also, we sensed no indication from any police officials that they were sympathetic or cared, in any way, about what we were experiencing or that Leslie was dead. Our feeling, in regard to the car, was that we did not authorize them to take the car, so we had no responsibility for it.
During the telephone conversation prior to the meeting, Detective Two had said, “You all will have to come and get the car. We have it on the back lot, but we need our space on the lot. If you don’t get it, we will have it towed, and you will have to pay the towing fee and storage cost to get the car.” His tone was very cold, rude, and arrogant, with no sensitivity to the fact that we were parents still in shock from the trauma of losing a son. My first statement to him was “We are not prepared to take the car today.” Then I immediately reflected on his arrogant attitude and quickly followed up with a second statement. I said, “We don’t need or want the car; you can give it back to the car dealer for all we care; we don’t want it.” I could tell that he was shocked by my response, because his first verbal reaction was “Uh, uh, uh.” He then stated that he would have to check on that, because they had never had this type of situation before, in which a family refused to take possession of the car. I believe that incident was just one of many in which our family’s interactions with them were different from prior experiences with other families in their numerous in-custody death cases. We were determined that we would not respond to the bullying practices that had probably worked so well for them in the past. Even today, thirteen years later, I have no idea what the
y did with the car. Even though Detective Two had threatened us, we have never been billed for any expenses related to the car.
To retrieve Leslie’s belongings, we had to go to a location down the street from where the meeting was held. Detective Two met us there. When we arrived at that location, I noticed Leslie’s car on the lot. I asked to examine the car. Detective Two said that he could take me to the car but that it was completely empty because they had removed everything. I insisted that I still wanted to go out to the car. I guess it was just an emotional thing. I knew that the driver’s seat was the last place that Leslie had sat. In my mind, I felt that I would be able to somehow feel his presence. So, Dwight went into the building to get Leslie’s other belongings and Detective Two and I went out to the car. To my amazement, there was a cassette tape placed on the driver’s seat. The tape was from the music group the Police, titled “Every Breath You Take.” At first, I was speechless when I picked up the tape and read the title. Then I showed it to Detective Two and said, “This is exactly how Leslie died. The police took his breath away.” He made no comment.
I still have that cassette tape. I have two feelings about that incident. One is that police officers were mocking Leslie’s death. It was as though they were saying to us, “Yes, we killed him and there is nothing you can do about it.” The other thing I felt is that, somehow, Leslie was confirming how they killed him. Even after death, he was speaking to me to let me know how he died. I now understand when people say that chills ran through their body. That is what I experienced. Even Detective Two appeared to be shocked that the tape was left on the seat, in a position in which we could not have avoided seeing it. I think the detective actually believed the car was empty. The tape was left there for us to see, because no one knew that we would refuse to take possession of Leslie’s car. That incident was just another example of the cruelty of some of “Chattanooga’s finest.”
After viewing the car, the detective and I joined Dwight inside the building, as he was waiting for Leslie’s other belongings. The property staff brought out several bags to give us. We signed for them and left the building. From those bags, there was only one clothing item that we retrieved: a baseball cap that Stefan had given Leslie as a Christmas gift. Leslie loved baseball caps, and he wore this particular cap on the day of his death. The last memory that Stefan has of his brother is Leslie wearing this cap, as he was waving good-bye to him. Stefan wanted the cap buried with Leslie. We discussed this with the funeral director, who complied. Immediately before the final closing of the casket, that ball cap was placed inside.
The Chattanooga Police Department continued to regard Leslie’s death as a mystery, even after two medical examiners, after completing detailed autopsies, independent of each other, concluded that Leslie’s death was a homicide. Furthermore, in 2004, there were sixteen homicides in Chattanooga, and Leslie’s death on January 2 was listed as the first for that year.28 I feel that I am among countless numbers of mothers who are suffering because of the murder of an unarmed son or daughter.
Summaries of Selected Other Accounts of How Leslie Vaughn Prater Died
There were eyewitnesses to Leslie’s homicide. We have not spoken to everyone who saw Leslie take his last breath. I will share the accounts of two eyewitnesses who volunteered to speak with us. I will refer to them as Witness One and Witness Two. Many Chattanooga residents fear potential harassment, or even worse, from the police. People often supported us in secret ways, by sending cards of encouragement or telephoning us; approaching us with kind words at church, in a restaurant, or at the mall; or contributing money to help us fight for justice, but they would not come out publicly when we held a rally or a march. Unlike us, they still lived in Chattanooga and feared repercussions. In one instance, a former high school classmate told me that she thought it was awful what those officers had done to our son, but she couldn’t come to our march because she worked for the city and feared the loss of her job. Unfortunately, gone are the days of courage like that of the people who participated in the Montgomery bus boycott. Most people don’t get intimately involved in these controversial issues until it directly impacts them, or unless there is a dynamic leader who can inspire and motivate people to action, as the late Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. did. But after fifty-three years, there seems to be a resurgence of another civil rights movement, which began in 2014. The homicides of unarmed Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, and Eric Garner in New York,29 followed by release of the movie Selma,30 ignited a new social justice call to action.
Witness One initiated the conversation with us. Weeks after Leslie’s death, Dwight and I were walking around the crime scene. A woman called out to us and asked if we were Leslie’s parents. Possibly she had seen us on television after his death. We affirmed that we were his parents. She asked if we would come up to her apartment, because she wanted to talk with us. She lived in an upstairs apartment in the building next to the alley where Leslie died. According to Witness One, she saw him drive into the area, get out of his vehicle, and take off his clothes. She called the police, because she felt the man needed help. She stated that she regretted calling them. She said, “I didn’t know they would come and kill him.” Also, she was surprised later to realize that she knew Leslie. She didn’t recognize him that night, because it was dark.
When the first officer who interacted with Leslie arrived, Witness One noticed that the officer was talking to Leslie and the two of them started walking toward his car. When other officers arrived, Leslie was surrounded by them, and immediately the physical contact began. Leslie was taken to the ground. She was on her back porch at that time but went back into the house to attend to her crying baby. When she came back out on the porch, there were officers next to her building involved in a discussion. She said that they seemed nervous and were talking about what they were going to do. She overheard them state that the man was dead. She also noted that a lot of people had gathered to see what was happening. She suspected that many of them were probably from neighboring houses and apartments. Also, a funeral home across the street was hosting a viewing. She believed that some of the onlookers were funeral home staff and people attending the family hour. Witness One told us that the police had interviewed her. During that interview, they kept trying to get her to say that she feared for her life and that of her baby when she saw Leslie. She said that she refused to say that because she didn’t feel threatened at all but only wanted to get help for Leslie.
Witness Two contacted us through a mutual friend. As fate would have it, I actually knew this person. According to our mutual friend, he wanted to tell us what he saw, but he didn’t want people to know that he met with us. He also feared losing his job. He gave the friend a number for us to contact him. We followed up with that information. We met with him on the afternoon of February 16, 2004, in a Sunday School classroom of a local church. He witnessed the beating of Leslie and saw Leslie take his last breath. He saw an officer kicking him, while others were holding him down. I asked him if Leslie said anything. Witness Two was the one who told me that Leslie said, “It’s not over.”
Dwight took notes to document our discussion with Witness Two. The following are excerpts from those notes that include our questions and the response of the witness:
Question: What did you observe when you got on the scene that night? Where was our son at that time?
Response: When I arrived on the scene, I noticed that there were four officers who had him on the ground and he was groaning and moaning. There were two officers on each side of him. They were pinning him down with their knees. Your son was facedown and his hands were handcuffed behind his back. The black officer was down near his legs.
Question: What else did you observe on this night?
Response: The policemen kept their knees in his back until he stopped moving. I do believe your son would have been alive today if they had let him get up after they handcuffed him, but they kept him facedown on the ground
. There was a fifth officer that walked up onto the scene and put his foot on the back of your son’s neck or shoulder. After doing this, he then walked back toward the police cars.
Question: Do you know who he was or his rank? Did you see his car?
Response: No, I didn’t know his name or rank. His car was parked farther down the road.
Question: Were there any police vehicles near our son?
Response: There were approximately nine cars in the area. An officer who works the Alton Park area drove one of the cars. There was a car, I believe #135, that was parked on the street. Another car that was driven by a police sergeant (car #303) was parked near the scene.
Question: What was the sergeant from car #303 doing?
Response: I noticed several things about this person. First of all, he went to his car and got a stun gun. He walked toward the scene and he turned and went back to the car. He put the stun gun back in the vehicle.
Question: How do you know it was a stun gun?
Response: I knew what it was when he was walking toward your son. He was testing it and I could see the arc.
Question: We were told that no one had a Taser on the scene.
Response: I am telling you what I saw.
Question: Did you happen to see the name of this police sergeant?
Response: No, I didn’t get a chance to see his name, but I remember car #303.
Question: You mentioned some other things you noticed about the sergeant. Please tell us the rest.
Response: After he had put the stun gun back into the vehicle, he went to the trunk of the car and pulled out something white. I don’t know if this item was pants or a blanket. He closed the trunk and walked toward the scene; then he turned around and went back to the car and placed the item back into the trunk. This same sergeant later came over to the funeral home and asked if they had a sheet.
Question: Did this seem strange to you? Did it seem strange that he would put things back into the vehicle without using them?
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