Digging for Truth in the Tyquan Rivera Case

On Jan 31st, a police office was shot in the back of the head while on duty in the city of Rochester. Tyquan Rivera, a 14 year old Rochester youth, turned himself in to police custody and is awaiting trial for the crime. As the corporate media and city officials work to take questions about police-community relations (in other words police brutality) in the inner-city off the table (Commentary by Howard Eagle), evidence is appearing that this case is far from simple.

Last week, WDXK received an email—they didn't announce the person's name or school—and read it over the air, testifying that Tyquan Rivera was attacked by the police earlier that night. The email claims:

• Police entered the house where Tyquan Rivera was present by pushing themselves through the front door, without a warrent.
• The person witnessed Tyquan get punched and kicked by the police repeatedly, and saw him fall down the stairs after a police officer came up the stairs after him.
• Police then left the house without arresting or charging any of the people present. Tyquan went to get a gun, and fired into the group of police officers as they were going away.

The content of this email is being widely discussed in the city, but the corporate press have not spent any effort to report it. A commenter sums up the situation nicely:

With all that has been reported by the corporate media about the shooting, none except this radio station, have bothered to talk to an eyewitness. Yet they have made multiple judgments about the character and guilt of the young man, basically trying and convicting him in the media.