A manslaughter charge seems appropriate. I expect the cops are busy trying to come up with a fig-leaf explanation (“exigent circumstances”) for why the cop felt it necessary to break the door down.
Bodycam has been released of the Roger Fortson shooting.
The bodycam seems to show Roger opening the door with a gun in his hand pointed at the ground. The deputy immediately fires a half dozen shots at him–and then after shooting him tells him to drop the gun.
Sounds like a skit we did in high school, a parody called “Drag-It”. Detective Joe Thursday’s standard M.O. was to shoot someone dead on sight, wait three or four seconds and then say “stop or I’ll shoot!”
I think I missed it where the NRA has come out strongly in favor of this black victim’s gun rights, especially to carry in his own home, and strongly condemned the cops. Can someone post that piece from the NRA?
From the video that has now been released, the deputy only knocked, and identified himself twice as from the Sheriff’s office, then the airman opened the door. The problem for the airman may have been that he wasn’t certain it really was sheriff’s deputies, which may be why he answered the door with a gun in his hand (pointed down, but still). And now that he’s dead, no-one will be able to say why he did that.
Edited to add: the original AP story was wrong in several of these particulars. Apparently they relied on what the woman on the video call at the time reported.
Edited again: it seems unusual for the body cam footage to be released so quickly, perhaps the sheriff’s office felt like it was so obviously exculpatory that they wanted to get it out as soon as possible.
If I’m at home and I’ve done nothing wrong at all, just having a video call with my girlfriend, and someone out of the blue knocks and says “sheriff’s office”, I might also be suspicious.
Are you allowed to own a handgun in Florida? Can you carry it in your home? What’s the point of a handgun if you have to open the door unarmed or else you might get shot by the police?
I can’t believe the sheriff’s office thinks this favors them! It’s like those Georgia murderers who released the video of them murdering that runner thinking it helped them. Sheriff’s office: Look! He’s Black and he has a gun! Obviously, we should have killed him.
This is the same department that employed the deputy who unloaded into the back of his unit at a cuffed suspect because an acorn fell in his hood.
They don’t hire the brightest of folk.
The airman probably looked out the peephole to see who was there–but the deputy put himself on the side of the door where he couldn’t be seen. If the airman had seen that it was a deputy there, it’s very doubtful he would have had the gun in his hand.
As to the deputy saying it was the Sheriff’s department, first he may not have heard it through the door and second home invaders/ burglars will lie about this.
Did we have the video here where a sheriff’s deputy started firing where an acorn fell on his police car? This was the same department.
So… we have a world where every unexpected knock in the door means get ready to repel an intruder with force, but if the intruder is a LEO now you are the threat that must be put down with force.
And of course the LEO gets trained to stand aside and not let the occupant get a good look at you before barging in.
We now really want to know WTH their use-of-force training looks like…
To be fair the blood work proved that that acorn was high on the cocains and the marijuanas and the cough syrups.
I thought it was always “hopped up on angel dust” because that makes you impervious to pain or some bullshit.
Also, it was an acorn of color.
I would say that this is probable, but neither of us can say by how much. 60/40 or 90/10 or something else?
Well, here is a case where the police weren’t as good at shooting:
“No shape” refers to mentally, not physically:
… but his defense said the medication he was given made him mumble and unable to keep his eyes open. He had another opportunity on Friday, but his attorney Justin Leary, said he still wasn’t fit to go before a judge. “I don’t think he’s mentally equipped right now to go forward,” Leary said. A mental examination was requested and Porter was scheduled to return to court on May 15.
After reading this thread I think if anybody knocks on my door and claims to be the police, I’m calling 911 to verify it before I open the door. Same thing if an unmarked car attempts to pull me over.
Of course, if you don’t open the door right away the police will just break down the door and rush in, guns drawn. Then they’ll mistake the phone in your hand for a gun and fire a couple of warning shots into your chest.
From your link:
A chase ensued, joined by officers from Norway, Oxford and Paris, sheriff’s deputies and state police in a mostly rural part of Maine about 48 miles from Portland
(bolding mine)
I don’t think this is the right way to name places, specially not small places in the middle of nowhere. It gives me strange ideas about international police cooperation.
It is a strange story anyway. If it was a movie I can imagine Jerry Lewis in the lead role and Louis de Funès as the police officer. Both of which are not meant as a compliment.
You’re allowed to open fire from your moving vehicle because someone threw a water bottle and your car, in Florida.
I appreciate the ideas here, but it doesn’t really make me feel safe to know that these people were still walking around before the word came down.