Kentucky Dopers: Cop on Cop Shooting Insight

In Bowling Green this week, a confrontation of some kind ended with an off-duty Court Security Officer shooting and killing a former Warren County Constable.

http://privateofficernews.wordpress.com/tag/a-former-warren-county-constable/

Now, Constables aren’t generally troublemakers in my experience, and cops generally don’t simply shoot people for no reason, regardless of what some people say.

Yes, in the last 200 years, a cop here and there has turned out to be, or turned into, a criminal and committed crimes. That’s a different discussion entirely.

The deceased Constable was obviously well-regarded by friends and the community, and even has a Facebook page calling for justice, presumably meaning the arrest and conviction of the shooter.

The problem I have with that is that no one seems to have much information on what actually happened. From what I can gather from news snippets here and there is they may have had words, the Constable got in his truck to leave, and the CSO pulled a badge and gun, presumably identifying himself as an LEO, then shot the Constable in his truck. It’s not been said whether the Constable was armed, or trying to run over the CSO, or exactly what triggered, ahem, the shooting.

The CSO has not been arrested, and the KY State Patrol is investigating.
Friends of both men consider them to kind, gentle, reasonable men.

None of this has made it far past Kentucky, news-wise. I only know of it because a friend of mine was friends with the Constable.

I’ve been searching, but virtually every news source says the same thing, and that’s very little.

I’m sure this story is much bigger in Bowling Green, so I ask you Bluegrass Dopers: What happened? Have you heard any more than “A shot B, and we’re still thinkin’.”?

Inquiring minds want to know.

Just talked to a relative who watches the WBKO news a couple of times a day. You’ve got the gist of it. They’re not talking beyond saying he’s on administrative leave. His lawyer is claiming self-defense. There are some threads over on Topix that might have some gossip, but you care way more than I do if you are able to wade through that garbage. I tried, but didn’t find it worth it.

I did find this, that has some discussion from witnesses: http://www.wbko.com/news/headlines/Nearby-Business-Talks-About-Witnessing-Shooting-193702591.html

Terminology can differ greatly between states. But using the definitions from here I would have said neither were actual cops. Those who work in courts here that have full police powers are Sheriff’s Officers that go through the same training as any other police officer. Court security officers would not have full police powers. And the other guy was a* former *constable. In most places which I’ve seen that use the term constable its some sort of part time position that hands out subpeonas or executes warrants, not an actual police officer as most would think of the term. Is that the way it is in Kentucky? I’m not judging either (don’t have enough information for that) I’m just trying to understand the situation.

The sheriff’s pageidentifies certified court security officers as different from deputies, and Kentucky’s constablesappear to be a unique breed of almost unpaid LEO, although they are elected by their district.

I’m just wondering why all the instant love for the shootee, and none for the shooter. They seem to be on roughly equal footing, yet one is a “victim”.

Ya’ll keep me posted!