Work the afternoon shift at work. Passed by this intersection towards first call and noticed police responding, driving up on the curb to avoid cars. At the corner, in the parking lot of a partystore a white male was being escorted towards his car by a police officer. I can only assume he was the bystander, though I don’t know for sure. He looked upset, he wasn’t cuffed, but the cop had a hand on his back. As I drove just a bit further, I saw the victim. Laying in the middle of the parking lot, police keeping a wide swath around him clear as county paramedics and firetrucks made their way towards the scene. There was no blood, just a motionless body. Disturbed me just a bit. Apparently he was frantic thinking someone was trying to kill him and was trying to get into other people’s cars. A police officer responded, got him cuffed with the help of a bystander, then shot him. That cop is going to have a bit of explaining to do. Drove by later, on my way back and everything was taped off. Has anyone else experienced something like this?
:eek:WTF?!! Why would a witness say that in the first place?! I hope and pray that there is security camera footage of the incident, and that if what the witness says is true, that it cannot be suppressed.
Its in the video on my link. Kind of messed up for a cop to shoot a guy in cuffs. Couldn’t see cuffs, his leg was propped up. He was still, very still.
Yes . . . A guy I grew up with was shot to death by the police while fleeing, though I didn’t see it happen-- but I guess you’re asking if any of us have seen someone die. That happened back in January. I made a thread about it here.
I covered the cop beat for several years on a couple of newspapers here in Colorado. Saw lots of dead bodies, mostly auto accident victims, being taken out of vehicles. I saw a drowning victim way too up-close and personal – the body was being taken out of the recovery boat, the deputies lost their grip and the corpse tumbled over on top of me. Had a little trouble sleeping for a while after that.
Local police shot a man to death when he tried to attack them with his car, about 10 years ago. It happened three blocks from my house. I was there about a half-hour after it happened. I saw the body, but what I remember is the bullet holes in the car. They weren’t sprayed all over like you see in the movies. There were three shot groups – one for each officer – in the glass of the car.
Otherwise, a few murder victims, a suicide or two. Never actually saw anyone die, though – well, wait a minute, yes I did. My father-in-law, but that was because his aorta burst. He just grabbed his chest, shouted “Oh!” and keeled over. Thats all there was.
Wow. I can’t wait to hear the results of the investigation.
My first impression is that the officer used his sidearm when he meant to use his Taser. It’s happened a few times over the years. That’s why I carry mine opposite of my pistol, so I can’t draw it with my strong hand accidentally.
Sorry you had to see something disturbing, Bruce Wayne. I think a lot of our job as cops is to see stuff like that so the rest of the world doesn’t have to see it.
Thalion, if your theory is correct, do you think this indicates a guy put on a badge who shouldn’t have? I mean, worst case scenario, the officer just flat panicked and grabbed his weapon; but even if his brain said “Taser” and his hand accidentally found his sidearm, that has to be an “Oh, my God what have I done!” that will last a lifetime. Should this guy have been in uniform in the first place? Could “the system” that hired him, trained him, and put him on the street be liable for ruining two lives?
I know, I know, we’re all speculating here, and there is a long, hard investigation that has to be done. And that’s why I want to throttle the fucking TV producer who allowed the “witness’” words “He didn’t need to die like that” to be aired. I understand, she’s a little traumatized by what she saw, but to allow her to pass judgement like that on the air – just another in very, very long line of irresponsible moments in TV “news”.
I used to drive commercial routes for the local newspaper. I remember one night, about 2 a.m., I came across an accident scene on a main thoroughfare. Coming across such scenes wasn’t unusual, but this was the only time I actually saw one of the victims. The police had the right two lanes blocked off, (it was a three lane road), and they were directing traffic through the left most lane. As a result we were traveling very slowly and I looked to my right and saw what looked like a middle aged man lying motionless in the middle of the road. There was a blanket or something covering him from the waist down and he appeared to not be wearing a shirt. I wasn’t completely sure he was dead, there wasn’t any blood or anything, but no one seemed to be tending to him despite the fact there was an ambulance and paramedics on the scene at the time.
It wasn’t the first time I’d seen a dead body, I’ve attended funerals with open caskets before, but there was something very different about this and I’d be lying if I said it didn’t affect me greatly.
My best friend is a cop, I have yet to ask him about the odds of accidentally shooting someone, when the taser was the plan. I have heard about this before. Thalion’s explanation did seem fairly rational to me, his precaution against it also seemed wise. The victim was probably mentally disturbed or maybe he was on some kind of crack cocaine binge. I have yet to see any updates on the investigation, its only been less than two days. I’m assuming the witness was telling the truth. The cop may have meant to tase him to calm him down, but shot him instead.
Re Cisco: I’m glad my incident wasn’t as nearly as up close as yours.
Irresponsible to whom? She was there, it was her opinion based on what she witnessed, not based on a secondhand account, right? So to whom does she owe a duty to keep silence?
It’s not responsible to air comments like that for an investigation that has a good chance of ending up being decided by a jury that is supposed to be impartial. I don’t think she did anything wrong by saying what she said, but I think journalists should try to keep judgmental commentary like that out of news programs.
If it happened exactly like you’re speculating, the cop would be guilty of manslaughter, right? Or am I getting the term confused? What’s the charge for “accidentally killing someone while making a bonehead mistake that no reasonable person would make?”
I’ve seen several open caskets at funerals, enough for me to never want to do so again. Better to remember the guy (or gal) in life, rather than as a waxy, ghoulish presence in a casket.
I was on a police ride-along once and we arrived very quickly at the scene of a drug-related shooting. The guy couldn’t have been dead for more than a minute or two, and there was surprisingly little gore, but the shooter was gone. Never heard if they caught him.
I also saw some pretty nasty homicide crime-scene photos when I was a prosecutor. Not my favorite memories.
Many years ago I had an apartment where my window looked out over a one way street. One night I saw a car going the wrong way down it. Another car going the right way had to swerve, and ran into an apartment building’s front steps. (It was years before they were repaired.) The guy driving the swerving car got out and ran. People got out of the wrong-way car and shot him seven times.
Apparently the shooters were cops, and the deceased was a known car thief. I knew a few people who got on the news and said it was police brutality, but they were pretty much boneheads. To this day I have no opinion.
Update: According to a deputy I know, the man was not cuffed and he was trying to get the officer’s gun when he was shot. A different story than the witness’s.
No, not necessarily. As much as we want everyone to believe it, we’re not perfect. Mistakes are made, and because what we do can often be so very critical, the mistakes can be huge and with tremendous consequences. It wouldn’t mean this is a bad cop or poor training, just a terrible mistake at the worst possible time.
I can’t imagine making that mistake, but I’ve been on the job over 20 years and I can’t remember the last time something actually rattled me. If you haven’t been at it very long, you can make big mistakes even if you are prefectly suited to the job.
Oh, no doubt! I know officers who were emotionally wrecked by killing someone in a completely justified shooting - I can’t imagine what it would do to you to kill someone accidentally.
Fortunately, it appears this isn’t what happened in this case. There is still the one in San Francisco that does appear to be a case of using a gun when the officer meant to use the Taser.
Interesting. Is there no standard for how cops carry all their stuff? (Sorry that sounds like a childish question). But I guess I sort of assumed it was sort of the same for everyone with only variances for whether or not ou’re left-handed or right-handed.
Like if your belt makes a circle around your waist: gun at 2 o’clock, cuffs, at 4 o’clock, taster at 9 o’clock… and all cops had roughly the same configuration. That’s not the case?
Nope. Some departments may have a policy on where things are carried, but there is no industry standard. My department adopted a policy a few years ago specifying exactly where on the belt everything had to be positioned and we fought like hell to get that repealed. Each officer sets things up where they work best for him or her.
When I started, I carried two separate cuff cases on the back of my belt. After a few years this lead to a sore back, so now I have a double cuff case on the front of my belt.
I know some departments require that the Taser has to be carried where it can only be drawn with the non-gun hand. My department doesn’t require that, so some of the guys carry it on their weak side but turned so they “cross-draw” with their dominant hand.
Why would a witness say that in the first place?! I hope and pray that there is security camera footage of the incident, and that if what the witness says is true, that it cannot be suppressed.