https://www.instagram.com/tv/CAQhrFdJISa/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link
My friend shared this horrible video with me today. A cop using an assault rifle to kill an unarmed man. This is simply murder.
Not that this doesn’t appear to be a completely unnecessary use of lethal force, but it should be noted that the incident in question took place in 2018.
Do you have a link to a story that’s not a video? I don’t want to watch the video; but I’d like to know what the story is.
True. Apologies I should have mentioned that but it never occured to me.
The man murdered was the boyfriend of my friend. The video was from police body cameras apparently released on discovery from a lawsuit. Ill try to find a story.
Try this one. Also a video, and you can’t see a gun—at least I couldn’t—but there’s some helpful text below in the description. Video: - YouTube
YouTube won’t let me cut and paste the relevant text. A brief summary: pink 9mm handgun found in shorts pocket of deceased. Same gun responsible—per ballistics comparisons—for one fired bullet, another fired bullet fragment, and 8 fired 9mm cases found at the scene. Police were not required to see if the deceased had a gun in his hand when they fired; the deceased’s movement of his hand to his waist area, in a manner deemed by the officer to be like he was reaching for a weapon, was sufficient. Good guess by the officer. Of course, the camera shots are so grainy compared to what an eye sees there, that an officer may very well have seen a weapon in Ross’s hand.
Thanks, both of you. The text of both of those gives more info, though there’s still a lot missing.
The police don’t seem to be claiming that they saw him with a gun; only that he was running from an area where shots had been reported to have been fired, and that they afterwards found a gun on him (which his family is disputing.)
The gun they said they’d found on him had fired shots; but apparently at least some of the shots fired previous to the arrival of the police had come from a different gun. It’s not clear from the text whether there’s evidence that there were two shooters (not counting the police), or for that matter whether there’s evidence that there wasn’t. It’s not clear from the text whether there’s any other evidence that Ross did, or didn’t, have that specific gun; or whether any attempt was made to check into the history of the gun. I presume that the shots fired earlier didn’t cause anyone any injury, because I’d hope the articles would say so if they had; but that’s not spelled out either.
What does seem clear is that the police shot a man who was running away from them and had no gun that was visible to them at the time.
Gray Ghost, I don’t see how the gun could have both been visible to the officer when the officer shot, and have also been found inside Ross’s pocket after his death. If he had it out of the pocket so as to make it visible, how would it have gotten back into the pocket?
ETA: madsircool, I’m sorry for your loss.
Even if the suspect does have a gun, the police should not be allowed to shoot until they have tried de-escalation.
Thank you, Thorny Locust.