Probing for answers

With people across America still protesting the deaths of two black men killed by police in Ferguson, Mo., and Staten Island, N.Y., and counterdemonstrations being held to support police for their hard work, Philadelphia District Attorney Seth Williams telephoned a grieving mother Tuesday.

Williams explained to the mother of Brandon Tate-Brown how he would carry out his investigation of how her 26-year-old son was shot and killed during a police stop on Frankford Avenue in Mayfair. It should be noted that Police Commissioner Charles H. Ramsey made a call to offer his condolences to Tanya Brown-Dickerson on Feb. 18.

Those phone calls were important. They send a message not just to a mourning mother, but to all of us, that every life matters. That message may become even clearer if Williams' ongoing investigation can answer lingering questions about how Tate-Brown died.

Police say Tate-Brown was stopped by two officers in the early morning hours of Dec. 15 for driving without headlights. The officers noticed a handgun on the car's console. A struggle ensued after Tate-Brown got out of the car. He broke free, moved to the passenger side of the vehicle, tried to retrieve the gun, according to the officers, and was shot.

The two unidentified officers were subsequently cleared in a police investigation, which relied on the accounts of undisclosed eyewitnesses and videos recorded near the scene, and they have returned to street duty. However, the case was turned over to the district attorney for additional review.

Tate-Brown's family and their attorney don't believe the police account. They say the gun could have been planted after he was shot. They also say a video of the altercation that they saw shows Tate-Brown running away from police when he was shot. Video also shows the headlights of Tate-Brown's car were on, they say, invalidating the police's stated reason for stopping him.

With so many people in this nation still struggling to accept the exoneration of the officers involved in the shooting of Michael Brown in Missouri and choke-hold death of Eric Garner in New York, it's important that Williams find the truth about how Tate-Brown died. That truth is just as important to the officers who went back to work with a cloud of uncertainty still hanging over the heads.

It has always been hard to be a police officer, but it is even more so today, as evidenced by the slayings of two New York officers shot by a man who claimed to be reacting to the Ferguson and Staten Island incidents. President Obama has appointed a task force to study how to improve police-community relations. What happens next in the Tate-Brown case should provide valuable insight.