ater that he has been under surveillance by the FBI and police since he was 15. After the downfall of the Black Panthers he later joined MOVE, a black militant anti-police group and wrote about police corruption for over 20 years. He was a cab driver, after getting robbed one night he started carrying a gun.On December 9, 1981 Mumia was driving his taxi,when he saw police officer, Daniel Faulkner a 6ft heavyset man, beating his younger much smaller brother to a bloody pulp with a 17inch flashlight. There is a lot of speculation on who shot the first shot, and whether or not Mumia even fired a shot at all. When police arrived they found Mumia sitting on a curb 4feet away from Faulkner, with a bullet in his chest wound.On the way to the hospital in the paddy wagon police beat Mumia. Mumia is charged with 1st degree murder, which is capital murder when the victim is a police officer.No matches were ever found between Mumia’s gun and the bullet that killed Faulkner. Police never tested Mumia’s hands to determine whether he had recently fired a gun or smelled his gun barrel to see if it had recently been fired. Ballistics report proves that the gun found on Mumia was a .38 caliber the weapon that killed Faulkner however was a .44 caliber weapon.While at the hospital lying on the floor police officers claimed Mumia shouted out that he killed Faulkner. According to the testimony of Priscilla Durham a hospital security guard and former best friend of Faulkner, Officer Gary Bell said at the 1982 trial. But officers interviewed before hand never mentioned this “confession” in any of the police reports for more than two months.Officer Gary Wakshul who had been with Mumia since the paddy wagon ride to the hospital claimed Mumia hadn’t said a word the entire ride. Sixty-four days later he changed his original statement to match the other officers. He claimed he had forgotten, and had figured it wasn’t ...
