Phillip Pannell
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Phillip Pannell was an African American teenager killed by Police Officer Gary Spath in Teaneck, New Jersey on April 10, 1990. Pannell was fleeing police when he was shot; Spath was later charged and acquitted on charges of manslaughter[1]. The case created controversy over the issues racial profiling and police brutality.
The African-American population in the Northeast corner of Teaneck grew substantially in the 1960s, accompanied by white flight triggered by the blockbusting efforts of local real estate agencies. As this de facto racial segregation increased, so did tensions between residents of the Northeast and the predominately white male Teaneck Police Department.
On the evening of April 10, 1990, the Teaneck Police Department responded to a call from a resident complaining about a group of teenagers, one of whom was reported to have a gun. After an initial confrontation near the Bryant School and a subsequent chase, Phillip Pannell was shot and killed by Gary Spath, a white Teaneck police officer. Spath said he thought Pannell had a gun and was turning to shoot him. Many witnesses said Pannell was unarmed and had been shot in the back.
Protest marches, some violent, ensued, with most African Americans believing that Pannell had been killed in cold blood, and White residents insisting that Spath had been justified in his actions. Spath was ultimately acquitted on charges of reckless manslaughter in the shooting. The incident was an international news event that brought Reverend Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson to the community and inspired the book Color Lines: The Troubled Dreams of Racial Harmony in an American Town, by Mike Kelly.
