Shot By Police-Miami, FL

Although shot on assignment back in 1992, due to the recent wave of shooting of African Americans in the United States by the police, I thought it was not only relevant but rather appropriate to bring this picture out of mothballs to clearly demonstrate that this type of police behavior is not only not recent, but has been a pattern of racist behavior by police for decades. This young man (18 years old at the time) was shot by the stray bullet of a policeman in pursuit of someone else (a black man), leaving him paralyzed from the waist down. The county awarded him $50,000 but by the time the courts and the lawyers were paid, he and his family were left with less than $17,000. While I was talking with his father I noticed him drifting off into his own world. I quietly turned and took the shot. Made with a Nikon F and a Nikkor AI 35mm f/1.4 lens on Tri-X film, this image is one of the most depressing images I've ever made and perhaps on of the most uncomfortable stories I've ever had to cover.