Shot and gasping for air, Tulsa police officer tells dying man, ‘F__k your breath’
In the video, the suspect is on the ground. There is a gunshot, and someone says, ‘Oh. I shot him. I’m sorry.’ The dying man says he can’t breathe. The cop says, ‘F__k your breath!’
The gymnastics involved in order to copulate with your own breath must be pretty difficult . . .
Seriously, though, it seems like there’s a new one of these every other day or so. It’s getting insane.
At least the other cop said he was sorry, and basically ‘Oops!’
Wonder why Barney Fife had his gun out in the first place. Suspect was down on the ground and was being cuffed.
Like the BART incident from several years ago, this sounds like a case of taser-vs-gun confusion on the part of the officer: he intended to tase him (even calling “Taser, Taser!” before pulling the trigger) and in the heat of the moment, he instead grabbed his gun.
It doesn’t appear to be murder, but it’s nothing less than felonious ineptitude on the part of the officer. Like Mehserles (the officer in the BART incident), this officer should expect to be convicted of manslaughter and serve some time in prison.
Yeah. Actually using the taser would have been gratuitous violence, itself.
Well, it’s the same excuse. I’m still not sure I can believe that either officer is as stupid as they claim to be.
news said taser was in a chest holster.
The shooter was a 73 year old volunteer deputy, not a regular member of the police force. There are several mentions that he was a “pay-to-play” guy - by making loads of donations to the police force, he got to play with tasers and pistols and pretend he was a real cop. One CNN article I heard on the radio queried whether he had had any training.
There’s also the question of why he would be pulling a taser any way, when the other officers had the guy down on the ground.
And, what was a wannabe cop doing along on a major drug bust?
And, did the numerous donations he made to the local police force have anything to do with their decision not to charge him with anything? It was the DA who laid the manslaughter charge, not the police, who said the shooting was just an accident.
Lots of questions.
:smack: I thought this was a different one. So many people getting killed by cops these days, it’s hard to keep them straight.
The wanna-be is being charged with manslaughter at least. The department should have some sort of culpability in this, though. Seeing how early street cops retire, that guy had no business being out there. Want to help in the file room? Fine.
I wonder if there really are more shootings taking place, or if it seems that way due to more and faster coverage, and national coverage where there wasn’t any just a couple years ago.
They put volunteers on the street with weapons? WTF?
Regular sheriff’s deputies must retire at 63. Reserve sheriff’s deputies have no age limit. There are 3 levels of reserves, based on training. Bates was in the highest category, with months of training. Also was not a drug bust but an illegal firearms selling bust.
Just so it’s clear, I think a 73 year old person should not be a reserve deputy. This is apparently fairly common across the country, though - due to budget constraints. (They aren’t paid, furnish their own equipment, etc.) Sheriff Stanley Glanz has been the sheriff in Tulsa County for over 25 years and is a power unto himself (Don’t know if that’s true for any sheriff in office that long or not.) Bates is his personal friend. Here is a quote from The Daily Beast today :
This Tulsa County voter thinks that this is disgusting.
ETA : I meant reserve, volunteer deputies are common across the country.
Thanks for the corrections; I was going by yesterday’s report I heard on the radio in the car. I see that CNN is now saying that he did have the training, and it was a gun bust: Did volunteer deputy in Tulsa shooting pay to be a cop?
What!?! I mean, I know you guys over there have some pretty deranged ideas about law enforcement, but really? That? Someone who is too old and/or unsuited to be a policemen can just pay to become kinda like one? A self-selecting group of wanna-be vigilantes who have no doubt seen one (hundred) too many Westerns and Rambo movies?
Let me guess: the county he ‘worked’ for were too starved of proper tax resources to pay for enough police, so they took pay-to-play volunteers. How close did I get?
So now the go-to line is no longer “He went for my gun”.
It is now “I thought it was my Tazer”.
(same argument used by the BART rent-a-cop)
Not very. :rolleyes:
Tulsa county has a pretty big population. ( million +/- IIRC ) in the metro area which is partly in other counties.
I do not know their current staffing condition but I imagine they have the same troubles most midsized cities have. 
Google is your friend. 
Yes, and Google brings up this CNN article on volunteer deputies, which says:
And here’s the report referred to in the CNN article, prepared by the International Association of Chiefs of Police: Volunteers in Police Service Add Value While Budgets Decrease
My underlining. Based on that report, it does appear that in general, tax cuts and cuts to police budgets have resulted in more use of volunteers.
Law enforcement volunteers should be armed with nothing beyond a radio to call for real cops. Period.
A 73yr old? Good God, who’s running the damn asylum? How can anyone, at any time, believe this was a good idea?
Everyone responsible for this person being armed and on the street in uniform should be sued into bankruptcy, in my opinion.
a volunteer might be OK with nonlethal weapons provided they get training which is repeated and tested for at the same level as hired officers.