Raheem Howard, 21, of Baton Rouge, is now being released from jail after two months after a cop named Yuseff Hamadeh claimed that he was being shot at by Howard, according to WBRZ 2. Howard was being held at East Baton Rouge Parish Prison.
Howard has since maintained his innocence that he never fired shots at Hamadeh or was even armed in the first place. Baton Rouge Police also revealed in their investigation that Hamadeh never turned on his body camera and that is a violation.
Police also obtained footage from a nearby neighbor’s house and it showed that only one gun shot was fired from Hamdeh’s car. Baton Rouge Parish District Attorney Hillar Moore has since stated that due to lack of evidence, Howard will not be charged. The two-month sentence ended up being another lack of justice for an unarmed black man.
Hamadeh’s only punishment was paid administrative leave but that’s sadly no surprise considering how interactions between police and black people in America go these days. Howard deserves to be fairly compensated for being unjustly imprisoned for a crime he didn’t commit.
Flip the page for news video of Howard being released.