What Happened to Anton Black?

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Speaker 7 I can't sleep to this day.

Speaker 8 I seen him begging for his life.

Speaker 9 He was George Floyd before George Floyd.

Speaker 4 With his dying breath, he told our mother that he loved her.

Speaker 11 No mother should have to witness what you witnessed.

Speaker 1 You know, he didn't attack nobody.

Speaker 7 He didn't rob a bank. He didn't kill nobody.

Speaker 4 That's that, right?

Speaker 11 Everything seems to escalate.

Speaker 4 I'm tasing him. I'm tasing him.

Speaker 12 I'm curious how many times you've used your taser as a police officer.

Speaker 11 None.

Speaker 13 You just don't tase people.

Speaker 9 I don't see any indication of malice. I don't see any indication of indifference.

Speaker 14 He needs help.

Speaker 9 Yeah. I really felt like it was a professional response.

Speaker 11 From a medical examiner's point of view, this was no accident.

Speaker 15 It's death at the hands of another. That's a homicide.

Speaker 16 I want the truth to be known about my brother.

Speaker 18 I'm Lester Holt, and this is Dateline.

Speaker 19 Here's what happened to Anton Black.

Speaker 5 It was Saturday evening, September 15th, 2018, in the small, quiet town of Greensboro, Maryland.

Speaker 24 Around 7 p.m., Denise Salah and her husband Tony were driving home from church.

Speaker 27 We could see these two black boys. The bigger boy had the smaller boy in a headlock.

Speaker 29 He put the full Nelson, picked him up, swang him.

Speaker 27 This definitely was not horseplay.

Speaker 31 At that point, did you want her to keep them in your sight?

Speaker 23 Yes.

Speaker 32 Denise and the younger boy locked eyes.

Speaker 27 And I said, Are you all right?

Speaker 27 No, he said.

Speaker 31 So you dialed up 911.

Speaker 27 I'm the one that called 911.

Speaker 4 There's an older boy who has a younger boy.

Speaker 33 He's dragging him, and the boy is crying out for help.

Speaker 22 What Denise didn't know was that the boys, 19-year-old Anton Black and a 12-year-old named Xavier, were neighbors who had known each other for years.

Speaker 37 I'll be addressing this here in a second.

Speaker 22 Within minutes, a police car arrived. Greensboro officer Thomas Webster got out.

Speaker 27 And the officer was doing nothing but standing like this on the other side of the policehood, talking to them.

Speaker 39 So, as far as you're concerned, he was acting professionally.

Speaker 4 Yes, oh, definitely.

Speaker 19 But something went wrong.

Speaker 40 There was a foot chase and a struggle. Police officers pinned Anton to the ground.

Speaker 39 Soon, emergency workers were on the scene, attempting to resuscitate Anton on the front doorstep of his home as his mother, Janelle, looked on.

Speaker 46 Not yet. Not yet.

Speaker 41 She telephoned Anton's father, Antone Black.

Speaker 11 If you've got a phone line that you're not able to see what's happening, Anton.

Speaker 7 No, but I hear what's happening.

Speaker 7 I was telling her to get him up.

Speaker 36 But it was too late.

Speaker 11 Can you tell me how and when you heard the news that your brother had died?

Speaker 47 Ah, yes.

Speaker 48 Our mother called

Speaker 16 and she said,

Speaker 48 your brother's dead.

Speaker 25 Latoya Hawley, Anton's older sister, immediately headed to the hospital to see see her baby brother one last time.

Speaker 14 He had a white sheet all the way up to his neck.

Speaker 4 And his eyes were red,

Speaker 10 like someone had smothered him.

Speaker 35 You've probably never heard of Anton Black.

Speaker 18 Neither had we. We found out about Anton while reporting on a case you have heard of, the murder of George Floyd under the knee of Officer Derek Chauvin.

Speaker 43 We learned that a controversial expert who testified in Chauvin's trial had also played a central role in Anton Black's case two years earlier.

Speaker 43 So we began to look into it and found that Anton's case, like George Floyd's, touches many pressure points in the heated debate about policing in America, especially in the black community.

Speaker 54 Our story is about the kind of incidents that occur all too often, but unlike George Floyd, seldom make national news.

Speaker 55 How are you guys doing? My name is Anton Black, and I hope you like my introduction video.

Speaker 7 Yeah, this is my baby boy, Anton.

Speaker 20 Anton was a standout athlete, voted his high school's homecoming king twice.

Speaker 7 He was a

Speaker 9 star, wide receiver on the football team,

Speaker 7 and mid-Atlantic champion in the 100, 200, and high jump.

Speaker 7 He was, you know, very exciting young man to sit.

Speaker 9 I used to love to see him run

Speaker 7 and jump.

Speaker 21 After graduating, Anton enrolled in college.

Speaker 58 But his sister Latoya said his true passion was to build a career as a model.

Speaker 10 He had the looks.

Speaker 16 Definitely gorgeous.

Speaker 21 But in that summer of 2018, Anton's behavior changed

Speaker 7 to me all of a sudden he got

Speaker 7 moody he was crying he was upset all the time he went to hospital yes

Speaker 32 Anton was diagnosed with bipolar disorder a condition that often develops in the teenage years he spent a week in the hospital

Speaker 60 10 days after he was discharged Anton was dead

Speaker 11 no mother should have to witness what you witnessed.

Speaker 57 I never thought this would ever happen.

Speaker 7 He didn't attack nobody. He didn't rob a bank.
He didn't kill nobody. He's at his mother's door.
So all they wanted to do was go home.

Speaker 1 He's home.

Speaker 10 And you don't get off of him?

Speaker 4 That's not right.

Speaker 4 I'm sorry.

Speaker 43 Anton's family was shattered, angry, and highly suspicious.

Speaker 59 They wanted answers, and soon they learned there might be a way to get them.

Speaker 34 There was a body cam video, but the family would have to fight to see it.

Speaker 61 Coming up,

Speaker 49 what would that video reveal?

Speaker 49 You'll see in detail exactly what happened and hear how town leaders had been warned.

Speaker 16 I was angry. The community had band together to try to prevent something like that from happening.

Speaker 58 That shy smile, those dance moves, his bright future, stolen, Anton's dad says from all of them far too soon.

Speaker 7 He's the big alligator in the little pond. He's an actor.
He's a model. He's a champion runner, long jump.

Speaker 62 This boy was a good child.

Speaker 59 Anton's best friends, Devin Robinson and Zach Smith, were crushed.

Speaker 11 Zach, what was your reaction when you learned about Anton's death and how he died?

Speaker 63 I don't even know how to explain it, honestly.

Speaker 9 Never felt nothing like it, you know.

Speaker 40 I just busted out in tears because that's been my friends for so long.

Speaker 60 Christina Robinson is Devin's mother and was like a second mom to Anton.

Speaker 47 Anton was such a sweet kid.

Speaker 55 A small-town kid, I guess you could say, from

Speaker 55 Kent County, Maryland.

Speaker 47 He always had a big smile on his face to greet you. Very respectful, very driven.

Speaker 17 Christina says to understand what happened to Anton, you have to understand Greensboro.

Speaker 41 She's lived here for nearly two decades.

Speaker 17 The town has fewer than 3,000 residents. Just 7% are black.
Despite the area's deep history of slavery, Christina called it her modern-day Mayberry.

Speaker 11 Were there lingering racial issues there?

Speaker 47 Not that we had ever experienced.

Speaker 44 She says she felt safe raising her black son in Greensboro, in large part because of the police, a tiny force with just three officers.

Speaker 47 They took the time to know the people in the community. It was nothing for them to just stop by and say hi, talk to you on the street, talk to you in the store.

Speaker 29 Yeah, we hear the term community policing in this kind of community, I assume it's right there.

Speaker 47 Yeah, we had the dream.

Speaker 50 Christina became friends with Jeff Jackson, Greensboro's police chief, for 15 years before Anton died.

Speaker 11 In a small town, how much involvement do you have with the people that you police?

Speaker 13 You're involved with them every day. You know, when kids are born, you stop by people's houses and you get pictures with kids going to the prom.

Speaker 22 But not everybody in town appreciated Chief Jackson's style.

Speaker 11 There came a point where things began to change in terms of how you were viewed.

Speaker 23 Can you tell us what that point was?

Speaker 13 When Joe Noon got elected mayor.

Speaker 35 Joe Noon is the father of Anton's friend Zach.

Speaker 50 He's lived in the Greensboro area for 25 years.

Speaker 3 In 2011, Noon ran for mayor, a part-time position, and won by a single vote.

Speaker 43 You know Joe Noon from, what, high school?

Speaker 4 Yeah.

Speaker 47 I helped campaign for him and

Speaker 47 would babysit people's kids so they could go to the polls and vote.

Speaker 19 You believed in him? Mm-hmm.

Speaker 5 But Christina started to have doubts when her old friend said he wanted to change the leadership of the police department.

Speaker 11 And what were your concerns?

Speaker 64 I was getting a lot of complaints from the public and the business owners in town in reference to the police chief.

Speaker 2 Chief Jackson. That's correct.

Speaker 65 Getting a lot of complaints about speeders and people running stop signs and nothing was getting fixed.

Speaker 29 So was Chief Jackson being ineffective as Chief?

Speaker 4 Yes.

Speaker 5 Jackson says he was alarmed by the new mayor's focus, especially because violent crime was virtually non-existent in their town.

Speaker 13 He told me on two separate occasions he wanted people scared to drive through Greensboro.

Speaker 13 Honest to God, I'm not lying to you. He told me, I want people scared to drive through Greensboro.
And I went, no, no, it's not the way you police small town America.

Speaker 11 The word is that you wanted to replace him with somebody tougher.

Speaker 3 Not tougher.

Speaker 64 I want to say more proactive within the streets of Greensboro.

Speaker 43 Is that the same thing as being more aggressive?

Speaker 64 No, I wouldn't say aggressive. I would say be more proactive in police work.

Speaker 11 So tell me what you thought when you heard that Jeff Jackson, the police chief, was being fired.

Speaker 4 I would say, what do you mean?

Speaker 47 And he said they want a tougher police force. It makes you nervous because who are you being tougher on?

Speaker 47 Unfortunately, a lot of times they tend to be the black and brown kids.

Speaker 43 Young people like her son, Devin, and his best friend, Anton Black.

Speaker 40 Her worry turned to fear when she heard that the new police chief, Michael Pettio, had welcomed to the force a new officer, Thomas Webster, who had a troubling past.

Speaker 47 A lot of people were very concerned, scared.

Speaker 61 Coming up.

Speaker 47 I started to watch the video and that disturbed me. What are you bringing to this town?

Speaker 67 I went step by step as to why

Speaker 67 you would have to hate the people you serve to unleash that type of monster on unsuspecting citizens.

Speaker 21 When Dateline continues.

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Speaker 43 When Anton Black died, Christina Robinson felt as if she'd lost her own son.

Speaker 43 What hurt even more was the feeling that she'd seen it coming ever since she Googled Greensboro's newest police officer, Thomas Webster.

Speaker 47 I started to

Speaker 16 watch the video, and that disturbed me.

Speaker 4 All right, I got one. Another one floated around the store.

Speaker 44 The video, which is hard to watch, is from August 2013 when Webster was an officer in Dover, Delaware.

Speaker 42 He and another officer were responding to a call about a fight when they stopped one of the suspects, Latif Dickerson.

Speaker 21 Get the fing down and ordered him on his hands and knees.

Speaker 22 Just as Dickerson began complying, Webster kicked him in the face, knocking him out and breaking his jaw.

Speaker 50 But it took two years for that video to go public, only after Webster was charged with second-degree assault.

Speaker 67 Folks wanted answers. They wanted justice.

Speaker 38 Lamar Gunn, then president of the NAACP of Central Delaware, led protests outside the courthouse.

Speaker 69 A packed courtroom in Kent County today.

Speaker 44 At his trial, Webster testified he was afraid Dickerson was reaching for a gun.

Speaker 42 He said he meant to kick Dickerson in the upper body, but missed and kicked him in the face.

Speaker 50 After three days of deliberations, Webster was acquitted.

Speaker 12 It sends us years backwards.

Speaker 15 We're clearly not happy with this response.

Speaker 22 In an agreement with the city of Dover, Webster resigned and left with his pension, $230,000.

Speaker 67 I thought he was done.

Speaker 17 But two years later, Lamar heard disturbing news.

Speaker 50 Webster had been hired as an officer at the Greensboro, Maryland Police Department, just 25 miles away.

Speaker 67 I felt betrayed.

Speaker 15 I couldn't believe it.

Speaker 11 Did you feel the need to warn the folks in Greensboro? The moment I learned that Webster was in the process of being hired in Greensboro, I made a phone call.

Speaker 38 Lamar says he spoke with the Greensboro city manager.

Speaker 67 I went step by step as to why

Speaker 67 you would have to hate the people you serve to unleash that type of monster on unsuspecting citizens you called him a monster yes

Speaker 47 Lamar wasn't the only one to warn Greensboro officials about Officer Webster and that video my first phone call was to Joe Newton and I was like,

Speaker 47 what are you bringing to this town? Do you know about the tape?

Speaker 23 You had seen that video?

Speaker 29 I did see the video. What did you make of that video?

Speaker 65 The video was nasty.

Speaker 65 It was not good to the human eye at all.

Speaker 65 You know, I wasn't there.

Speaker 30 Nonetheless, when Greensboro's new chief suggested hiring Webster, Mayor Noon supported it, saying Webster deserved a second chance.

Speaker 43 So he was hired. That bothered Christina.

Speaker 11 You knocked on doors on the street trying to stop the hiring of Officer Webster.

Speaker 19 Yes, I.

Speaker 47 Christina drafted a petition to reverse Webster's hiring because it just didn't feel like he was a good fit for our community.

Speaker 42 Her petition didn't work.

Speaker 43 The town council, comprised of five white men, decided Webster would remain on the force. Though he didn't have a vote, Christina was furious with her old friend, the mayor.

Speaker 10 Do you remember what you told him?

Speaker 4 That if anything happens to

Speaker 47 my son or to one of my kids because I mean it was like the community mom

Speaker 47 that I was coming for all of them.

Speaker 45 I'll be able to miss in here so I can six months later it was Officer Webster who responded to that 911 call and initiated the chase that ended with the death of Anton Black.

Speaker 16 I was angry because I could see how the community had band together to try to prevent something like that from happening.

Speaker 35 Anton's family wanted answers and thought Webster's body cam and Anton's autopsy report might provide them.

Speaker 16 We were asking for just what happened and no one was talking to us.

Speaker 25 So they called attorney Renee Swofford for help.

Speaker 70 That was the hardest thing I have ever done in my legal career is when I went to that home and met the family and saw Janelle Black.

Speaker 9 I will never forget what she looked like.

Speaker 11 What kind of information were you getting or maybe not getting from authorities?

Speaker 70 We weren't getting any information.

Speaker 25 So Renee enlisted the help of an investigator who learned the basic details.

Speaker 5 Anton had spent that afternoon at the park playing basketball, where he'd ran into Xavier, the 12-year-old neighbor he'd known for years.

Speaker 71 The Anton I knew was sweet.

Speaker 35 Xavier spoke about the Anton he knew with a Maryland state police investigator.

Speaker 71 Yeah, he was nice. Back then, I could have walked around this whole town with him, and he'd be perfectly fine.

Speaker 26 But that day, Xavier said while he and Anton were walking home from the park, Anton started roughhousing.

Speaker 71 Soon we hit the first spot at the bridge. That's when he got me in Haylock.

Speaker 19 Xavier was afraid Anton was going to throw him off the bridge.

Speaker 71 Yeah, I kept telling him, let me go, bro.

Speaker 4 So when the lady pulled out, she was like, you want me to call the cops?

Speaker 71 I said, yeah, because I can't swim call the cops.

Speaker 54 But nothing in Xavier's statement explained Anton's death.

Speaker 4 Without answers, Anton's family grew more outraged, especially because Officer Webster remained on the job.

Speaker 16 We spoke to the town council members. We begged them to put Webster on leave.
We even said it wouldn't matter if it was paid and

Speaker 16 they wouldn't hear our cries.

Speaker 72 All right, good evening everyone.

Speaker 5 Finally, four months after Anton's death, the Greensboro Town Council met to discuss Webster's fate.

Speaker 72 We have to go in a closed session.

Speaker 5 While Mayor Noon and the council deliberated behind closed doors, Anton's supporters went across the street to a church to await their decision.

Speaker 72 Time going by is not helping. It hurts so bad.
You have no idea who they took from us.

Speaker 60 Christina Robinson's Mayberry had begun to unravel.

Speaker 73 We had officers that cared, that were invested, and if those officers were here on that day, it would have never escalated to the level that it was escalated to.

Speaker 72 The fact of the matter, Anton Black is a black teenager. The fact of the matter, he lost his life in the custody of white police officers.

Speaker 34 And then came the news.

Speaker 72 Okay, they ready?

Speaker 21 The town council had made a decision.

Speaker 72 All in favor say aye, aye.

Speaker 72 All opposed say nay.

Speaker 25 Officer Webster was put on administrative leave with pay.

Speaker 35 For Anton's family, it was just the first step.

Speaker 28 This is an injustice to my child.

Speaker 35 They still didn't know how Anton Anton died.

Speaker 2 That was about to change.

Speaker 61 Coming up.

Speaker 7 I can't sleep to this day.

Speaker 8 I seen him begging for his life.

Speaker 7 You know, he was holling mommy.

Speaker 7 They never moved. They never got off of him.

Speaker 57 When I opened up the door, how come they didn't let him up?

Speaker 47 It just seemed so unreal and unnecessary to me.

Speaker 50 The body cam video goes public.

Speaker 66 Hey, hey, I'm tasing him.

Speaker 12 I'm curious how many times you've used your taser as a police officer.

Speaker 11 None.

Speaker 41 In the months after Anton Black's death, his family and friends turned their anger into action.

Speaker 36 They formed a group, the Coalition for Justice for Anton Black, and they took to the streets.

Speaker 69 He was such a beautiful person. Till this day, we still do not have answers.

Speaker 17 Anton's family had been asking for the body cam video of his encounter with Officer Thomas Webster to be released.

Speaker 38 And in January 2019, weeks after Webster was put on leave, Maryland's Governor Larry Hogan ordered it to be made public.

Speaker 5 The video, initially shown to reporters, captured the final moments of Anton's life.

Speaker 58 It starts with Officer Webster talking to Xavier and Anton.

Speaker 28 No.

Speaker 63 No, I am. Okay, stop.
He's not my brother, bro.

Speaker 4 Stop. Say everything.

Speaker 4 That's not my brother.

Speaker 5 Right before Webster turned on his camera, Xavier told him that Anton was schizophrenic, which wasn't accurate.

Speaker 22 Anton had been diagnosed with bipolar disorder.

Speaker 41 When Webster went to handcuff Anton, he gave the officer an odd response.

Speaker 4 I look, put your hands back.

Speaker 22 put your hands behind your back.

Speaker 34 And began to run away.

Speaker 50 Webster radioed the dispatcher.

Speaker 51 The black male wearing all black just fled on foot.

Speaker 75 Apparently, he is a

Speaker 37 schizophrenic.

Speaker 31 Three other men joined the pursuit, two off-duty officers from nearby jurisdictions who happened to be in the area, along with a civilian on a motorcycle.

Speaker 41 Anton ran to his home and locked himself in a car outside.

Speaker 31 Officer Webster arrived moments later, and without saying a word, he drew his baton and smashed the driver's side window.

Speaker 21 Then he fired his taser.

Speaker 66 I'm tasing him, tasing him.

Speaker 46 But it didn't work.

Speaker 5 Anton grappled with the men up a ramp toward his front door as he cried out for his mother.

Speaker 46 Thank you!

Speaker 4 You are officer! He's schizophrenic. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 31 The officers then wrestled Anton to the ground.

Speaker 7 Don't hurry my mom.

Speaker 4 Hey, grab him.

Speaker 46 Pull it out from under him.

Speaker 5 With the help of the civilian who had a Confederate flag on his motorcycle helmet.

Speaker 9 He's cuffed.

Speaker 75 And let him sit there a second. Okay, everybody, take a breather.

Speaker 5 Anton's mother, Janelle, heard the commotion and stepped outside.

Speaker 50 Webster began speaking with her.

Speaker 75 Anton here tried to abduct a 12-year-old and then fled from the police.

Speaker 5 Anton, handcuffed and on his stomach, was kicking his legs.

Speaker 24 So Webster decided they should shackle them too.

Speaker 3 I got shackles.

Speaker 40 Anton continued to cry out.

Speaker 4 I love you.

Speaker 5 You'll be better if you don't fight. Calm down.

Speaker 35 Officer Webster told Anton's mother he wasn't in any legal trouble.

Speaker 14 He needs help. Yeah.

Speaker 4 So he's not getting packed up. No.
No, no, no, no. We're going to put him in the hospital.

Speaker 22 Anton went limp.

Speaker 4 Anton. Anton.
Come on, buddy.

Speaker 5 That's when EMTs were called, but they could not revive him.

Speaker 7 I saw,

Speaker 7 and that's why I can't sleep to this day, I seen him begging for his life.

Speaker 7 You know, he's hollering mommy. They never moved, they never got off of him.

Speaker 57 When I opened up the door, how come they didn't let him up? I'm standing right there.

Speaker 47 It just seemed so unreal and unnecessary to me.

Speaker 47 And

Speaker 4 when I saw him go limp in the video, they still didn't get off of him.

Speaker 43 I got him. I got him.

Speaker 60 Christina blamed the police, but she knew many of her white neighbors sided with the officers.

Speaker 42 Has it split the community?

Speaker 4 It definitely did.

Speaker 10 Along racial lines?

Speaker 47 Yes, definitely did.

Speaker 36 We patrolled a lot.

Speaker 24 One white person who did think the police did something wrong was former Chief Jeff Jackson.

Speaker 5 When we asked him about the video, he said the deadly situation could have been avoided entirely.

Speaker 13 I learned years ago it was a whole lot easier to talk people into handcuffs than to fight them into handcuffs.

Speaker 36 He took us to where Webster first encountered Anton to show us how he might have handled it.

Speaker 52 So let's move out of the way.

Speaker 13 Find out what's going on. Start slowing this thing down.

Speaker 5 Slowing things down was important, Jackson says, especially because Webster had been told Anton was mentally ill.

Speaker 75 Apparently he is a schizophrenic.

Speaker 8 When Anton ran off, Jackson says Webster should have just let him go and instead made sure Xavier was okay.

Speaker 52 I was like, where's the victim?

Speaker 13 What happened to him? The 12-year-old boy, you just letting him, where's he at?

Speaker 35 The reason Jackson wouldn't have worried about Anton fleeing, he knew him.

Speaker 74 He'd watched Anton grow up and worked with him and his friends to launch a youth group.

Speaker 62 If Anton took off running, it's like, okay,

Speaker 13 I know where you live.

Speaker 62 I know where your mom's at.

Speaker 4 Okay.

Speaker 74 A perfect example, he says, of the benefits of community policing.

Speaker 5 Jackson says Webster made the situation even worse when he smashed that window.

Speaker 13 You keep escalating this, you busted a window. If he's having a schizophrenic episode, you just keep exciting it and elevating it.

Speaker 52 What's wrong with walking, going up there and going?

Speaker 11 I just want to talk to you.

Speaker 13 What's wrong with just keeping it low-key?

Speaker 66 Hey, hey, I'm tasing him.

Speaker 62 Taser, taser,

Speaker 12 I'm curious how many times you've used your taser as a police officer.

Speaker 11 None.

Speaker 11 Now, you're the police chief who lost his job, so a lot of people will see it through that lens here and that this is kind of, you know, Monday morning quarterbacking.

Speaker 13 You can have your opinion. This is my style of policing.
I did it for 15 years here.

Speaker 4 Stop it, I'm gonna go back.

Speaker 25 So what did Webster have to say about what happened that day?

Speaker 19 A lot.

Speaker 37 His behavior was so erratic and dangerous that we had to get him into custody.

Speaker 61 Coming up.

Speaker 31 The window.

Speaker 37 Is he going to do something dangerous in this vehicle? Is he retrieving a weapon?

Speaker 2 The taser.

Speaker 37 My end goal was to get him subdued.

Speaker 4 Stop!

Speaker 4 Stop it!

Speaker 37 He wasn't responding to orders to stop resisting.

Speaker 9 I think it meets a professional standard.

Speaker 21 When dateline continues.

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Speaker 28 Stories of love and betrayal, of secrets revealed, of the men and women who stand between evil and justice. Every twist and turn can now be heard in Spanish, with new mysteries arriving every week.

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Speaker 5 A day after Officer Webster's body cam footage was released, the Baltimore Sun wrote an editorial saying there was no justification for such aggression by the police.

Speaker 34 And not everyone was happy about that.

Speaker 11 In 2019, you wrote a letter to the Baltimore Sun about this case. What was the point you wanted to make?

Speaker 9 The point I wanted to make, and I think it's a point that I could have made in any number of cases involving law enforcement officers, is that there is

Speaker 9 an urgency to judge the actions of police officers before all the facts are known.

Speaker 41 Jason Johnson is president of the Law Enforcement Legal Defense Fund, which provides support to officers charged with crimes.

Speaker 51 The black male wearing all black just fled on foot.

Speaker 11 After watching that video, how would you describe

Speaker 11 Officer Webster and the other officers' actions?

Speaker 9 I think they responded to, you know, a very difficult situation.

Speaker 5 He said Anton Black's death was a tragedy, but he said none of the officers were to blame.

Speaker 9 I don't see any indication of malice. I don't see any indication of indifference to Mr.
Black's health or well-being. And so I think it meets a professional standard.

Speaker 14 He needs help. Yeah.

Speaker 4 So he's not getting packed up. No.
No, no, no, no. We'll come back to the hospital.

Speaker 9 They seemed to recognize that this was primarily a mental health emergency. They seemed empathetic in their communication, both with Mr.
Black and with Mr. Black's mom.

Speaker 9 I really felt like it was a professional response.

Speaker 5 But Johnson did question some of Officer Webster's choices.

Speaker 31 Like when he smashed the car window.

Speaker 9 I do think that that is the one key moment that I think there's fair criticism. An objective observer could look at that and certainly could question.
I think the questions are reasonable ones.

Speaker 42 Was tasing a good option in this case?

Speaker 59 I think the use of the taser was objectively reasonable.

Speaker 9 I don't think that it was the best choice, candidly.

Speaker 5 Officer Webster, through his attorney, declined multiple requests for an interview with Dateline, but he did speak on the record.

Speaker 9 Did you happen to be working on September the 15th?

Speaker 30 Yes, sir, I was.

Speaker 23 After Anton Black's death, the Maryland State Police launched an investigation and interviewed Webster about what happened that night, starting with the initial 911 call.

Speaker 37 A child being held against his will, unlawful, you know, some sort of unlawful imprisonment.

Speaker 24 Once on on the scene, he said he reassessed the situation.

Speaker 37 This was being treated as a psychiatric emergency, that this was going to end up being a medical emergency first,

Speaker 37 versus a fleeing suspect.

Speaker 43 Webster said he had good reason to smash that window.

Speaker 37 Is he going to do something dangerous in this vehicle? Are we going to have, is he retrieving a weapon? As for the taser, my end goal in deploying the taser was to

Speaker 63 get get him subdued.

Speaker 43 When it didn't work, Webster says they had no choice but to wrestle Anton to the ground.

Speaker 4 Stop!

Speaker 4 Stop!

Speaker 37 He wasn't responding to orders to stop resisting,

Speaker 37 and he was very, very difficult to hold on to because of his strength.

Speaker 46 At the end of the hour-long interview...

Speaker 37 Is there anything else that you want to say?

Speaker 46 Webster didn't express regret.

Speaker 43 Instead, he said he was grateful.

Speaker 37 I was very fortunate to have as many people there to help, including the civilian motorcyclist. And, you know, it could have been a more protracted, longer struggle.

Speaker 36 A struggle he says he couldn't have handled alone.

Speaker 37 If it had just been Mr. Black and myself, I'm not sure that we would have been able to take him into custody

Speaker 76 as safely.

Speaker 5 Safely, of course, is not a word Anton's family would use to describe how it ended.

Speaker 34 They think a crime was committed and not by Anton.

Speaker 11 So what should happen to Webster in your opinion?

Speaker 57 He needs to go to jail and don't get out.

Speaker 7 Lord, have mercy.

Speaker 17 The death of Anton Black raised so many difficult questions about race, mental illness, use of force, theories of policing.

Speaker 35 And now, Anton's family was about to get answers about how he died and whether anyone would be held accountable for his death.

Speaker 61 Coming up.

Speaker 11 From what you've learned from the Anton Black case, what is the proper manner of death?

Speaker 22 Homicide.

Speaker 15 Anton Black was in a fight and lost. And

Speaker 15 that is a homicide.

Speaker 59 Four months after Anton Black's death on his own front doorstep, the autopsy report came out.

Speaker 5 The manner of death, accident.

Speaker 7 It's an accident. You begging for your life and they don't get off of them.

Speaker 1 How is it an accident?

Speaker 17 The report was co-signed by Maryland's then-chief medical examiner, Dr. David Fowler.

Speaker 19 You'll want to remember his name.

Speaker 17 It said that while it was likely that the stress of the struggle contributed to his death, no evidence was found that restraint by law enforcement directly caused or significantly contributed to it.

Speaker 17 The cause of death, it stated, was a heart defect, and a significant contributing condition was bipolar disorder.

Speaker 41 The day after the autopsy report was released, the county prosecutor announced no charges would be filed.

Speaker 7 You took somebody's life and you don't even get charged.

Speaker 16 It's kind of like they were exonerated as soon as Anton's autopsy report was signed.

Speaker 17 The role of a medical examiner was yet another issue captured in the harsh light of Anton Black's death.

Speaker 76 Our role in legal cases plays a huge part.

Speaker 5 Dr. Roger Mitchell is a former chief medical examiner for Washington, D.C.

Speaker 21 Today he's head of pathology for Howard University and an expert in investigating deaths like Anton's that occur in police custody.

Speaker 15 He was breathing, running, talking before the fight, and he's no longer breathing, talking, running, and he dies.

Speaker 5 Dr.

Speaker 51 Mitchell says even if Anton had a heart defect, the reason he died was due to that struggle.

Speaker 15 Men laying on him that are twice his size.

Speaker 15 That heart issue could now show itself to be fatal.

Speaker 43 His bipolar condition was listed as a contributing cause.

Speaker 10 Did that make sense to you?

Speaker 15 In the case of an altercation with another person that leads to death, I'm not quite sure why the bipolar is on the death certificate.

Speaker 42 Anton's autopsy noted petichia and hemorrhages, often a sign of asphyxiation.

Speaker 15 If there's an asphyxial component, if he's, you know, able to breathe under these law enforcement officers, we can't see that, right?

Speaker 11 From what you've learned from the Anton Black case, what is the proper manner of death?

Speaker 15 Homicide. Anton Black was in a fight and lost, and

Speaker 15 that is a homicide.

Speaker 50 Which is not the same as a murder.

Speaker 31 And it doesn't mean Webster or anyone else committed a crime.

Speaker 11 Whether they did anything wrong, that's a legal matter.

Speaker 15 That is correct.

Speaker 51 Here is where Anton Black's case intersects with George Floyd's.

Speaker 5 When former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin went on trial for murder, his defense called an expert witness.

Speaker 15 I was watching it live from my office.

Speaker 22 Chauvin's expert was none other than Dr.

Speaker 38 David Fowler, the same medical examiner who co-signed Anton Black's autopsy report.

Speaker 37 Potentially carbon monoxide poisoning.

Speaker 36 Dr.

Speaker 26 Fowler told the jury that despite Chauvin's knee on Floyd's neck, in his expert opinion, the manner of death was undetermined.

Speaker 15 I was appalled. I began writing an open letter, an open letter that called for an investigation in all deaths in custody in Maryland.

Speaker 25 In September 2021, Maryland's Attorney General launched a review of all in-custody death cases during the 17 years Dr.

Speaker 36 Fowler served as the state's chief medical examiner.

Speaker 5 Of the 1,300 cases on that list, the AG's office determined about 100 required further examination.

Speaker 15 If Anton Black Black is an accident and George Floyd is undetermined,

Speaker 15 then how many other cases that we have no idea about are accidents and undetermined?

Speaker 5 Amid all the unanswered questions that still linger in this case, there is one remarkable statement made by of all people, Jason Johnson, who makes his living defending the police.

Speaker 9 I can tell you with some degree of certainty that Thomas Webster should not have been a Greensboro police officer at all.

Speaker 17 It turns out that 2013 kick was only part of Webster's past.

Speaker 30 We obtained his internal affairs file.

Speaker 5 During his 10 years as an officer in Delaware, it lists 32 incidents involving a use of force. 26 were with African Americans, and all but 10 involve Webster deploying his taser.

Speaker 8 But the Maryland Police Commission that certified Webster to work in Greensboro didn't have that information.

Speaker 3 An investigation found that Chief Michael Pettio, the man who hired Webster, intentionally withheld it.

Speaker 50 Eleven months after Anton's death, Webster was decertified as a police officer and fired.

Speaker 77 Let's call the case of state versus Petio.

Speaker 22 Chief Pettio was charged with misconduct in office for making factual misrepresentations.

Speaker 5 He pleaded guilty and was given three years' probation by a judge who let Pettio know how serious his crime was.

Speaker 77 You dishonored yourself. You violated your position of public trust.
Your omissions were, as I've said, purposeful and more importantly, harmful.

Speaker 29 Is his prosecution enough?

Speaker 16 No,

Speaker 16 no, it's something, but it's not enough.

Speaker 35 And so, in Anton's memory, his family fought to change the law in Maryland.

Speaker 5 to make police misconduct records public.

Speaker 69 The veil of secrecy around police records has prevented transparency and accountability.

Speaker 56 In September 2021, Anton's family and supporters held a press conference the day before a new law was enacted.

Speaker 48 It's been three years now and we're still grieving.

Speaker 41 They called it Anton's Law.

Speaker 49 My son was George Floyd before George Floyd.

Speaker 56 In August 2022, three days after we first broadcast Anton's story, his family held a press conference to announce they had settled a civil suit against the town of Greensboro and other officials.

Speaker 43 The settlement included changes to use of force policies.

Speaker 51 Plus, the family received $5 million.

Speaker 24 They later settled with the state of Maryland and Dr. David Fowler for $100,000.

Speaker 35 The Coalition for Justice for Anton Black received $135,000.

Speaker 43 In the settlement, neither the state nor Dr.

Speaker 74 Fowler admitted any wrongdoing.

Speaker 38 But for Anton's grieving parents, no amount of money will ease their pain or their outrage.

Speaker 28 And there's no justice?

Speaker 9 Nobody's charged.

Speaker 75 If it hadn't been for Lester Holt in Dateline, it wouldn't never have got out.

Speaker 47 It'll always be a tragedy because in Anton's case, it didn't have to happen.

Speaker 5 There are many lessons to be learned in the wake of Anton Black's tragic death about policing and pain,

Speaker 49 friendship, and forgiveness.

Speaker 11 Do you hold Joe Noon responsible at all in the death of Anton?

Speaker 4 Um,

Speaker 47 no, I know his heart, and I know that he cares about my son. I know he cared about Anton.

Speaker 11 Do you feel any responsibility? for this tragedy?

Speaker 34 I do.

Speaker 65 Just as a human being, as being the mayor too, and a friend of Anton and his family.

Speaker 65 I do. It sits with me every day.

Speaker 23 Do you feel that perhaps you left Anton down?

Speaker 65 I feel

Speaker 65 that

Speaker 60 I probably let everybody down.

Speaker 11 How do you want us to think of and remember Anton?

Speaker 7 As a good child, a good son.

Speaker 7 A good citizen.

Speaker 16 I want Anton to be a symbol of what could happen to anyone's child.

Speaker 16 I want Anton to be remembered forever.

Speaker 52 That's all for now.

Speaker 17 I'm Lester Holt.

Speaker 31 Thanks for joining us.