Family files civil lawsuit in Barmore case

Official Press Release (Courtesy of Mannuscript blog)

A lawsuit was filed against the City Rockford and Rockford police officers ODA POOLE and STAN NORTH relating to the August 24, 2009 shooting death of Mark A. Barmore at a Rockford Day Care Center and Pre-school connected to a church.

The Complaint alleges that Officers Poole and/or Stan North presented themselves at the door of the day care center with guns drawn from the outset, looking for Mark A. Barmore who had gone inside after casually speaking with several people outside, including pastors and counselors.

In the middle of the afternoon, while children were present, the officers proceeded through the day care center, guns drawn, into “Toddler Rooms” and other rooms of children looking for Mark Barmore. They determined that he was in a windowed storage room behind a closed door. They kicked the door open and ordered him out of the storage room and into a play area outside the storage. Children were in the outer playroom at the time.

According to witnesses, including the pastor’s wife and 17 year old daughter, Mark Barmore exited with his hands raised and without a weapon. As he exited he was fired upon and struck once in the neck, in what was determined by independent autopsy to be a superficial wound. After he fell to the ground, and lay face down, he was shot 3 times in the back at point blank range. According to witnesses, and as can be clearly seen by photos attached to the complaint, Mark Barmore had no where to run based upon the configuration of the room and was unarmed. Photos attached to the complaint clearly show 3 bullet entrance wounds to Mark Barmore’s back which witnesses say were delivered as he lay defenseless on the ground. There were no exit wounds on the front of his torso.

Attorney Larry R. Rogers, Jr., of Power Rogers & Smith, P.C. in Chicago and one of the attorneys for the Barmore family stated, “The physical evidence doesn’t lie. Mark Barmore had no weapon, no where to run, and he was in a church day care center, yet he has 3 large caliber, police issued bullet wounds in his back which, according to a pastor’s wife were fired by an officer as Mr. Barmore lay on the ground. If this isn’t an unjustified use of excessive force by an officer, then what is?”

Attorney John F. Lyke, a former Cook County prosecutor who prosecuted several murders in Chicago and who also represents the family stated, “If we all had blindfolds on and were given these facts, it could be described as an execution style murder and we would want the murderers arrested, jailed and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. Yet here we are, 6 weeks later and no findings have been reported and no arrests have been made and the investigation is ‘ongoing.’ Why? Solely because it involved police officers. While all policemen are not bad policemen, some are. These police officers killed this young man and must be held.”

Officer Poole, the officer believed to be the one who fired the fatal shots into Mark Barmore’s back has had several shooting incidents in the past 5 years that he has been on the force, one of which also involved the death of another black citizen.