Hoss

http://www.cnn.com/2006/US/02/01/pol...ing/index.html

I don't know how many of you saw this on the news the other night, but I watched the video of the shooting and it appeared to me that the kid was being fully cooperative with the officer when he got shot. Now, I'm normally on the officer's side when stuff like this happens, but in this case it looked like the cop REALLY messed up.

Anyone else see the video? What do you think?

PistolWhipt

That is the way it looked to me also. He appeared to be cooperating with what the deputy was instructing him to do. Didn't see anything that would give anyone a reason to shoot him once ... let alone, what ... 6 times or something like that ??

PISTOL

Hoss

I think he only shot him three times, but yes, I agree. On the video you could clearly hear the kid telling the officer that he was in the military and he was on his side. The officer told the kid to get up and he said, "Okay, I'm getting up." As he started to rise the cop opened fire.

Maybe the FBI investigation will reveal something that justified the shooting, but it looked like a bad shoot to me. The officer's conduct after he shot the kid isn't going to help him court either. As he rolled around on the ground moaning in pain the cop kepting yelling, "Shut the [expletive] up!!"

Not good. Luckily the guy lived.

Badfish740

I'm sure I'll catch some flak for this but there's just not enough evidence. Here are a few things I'd like to see come to light:

1. Do we know for a fact that the officer told him to get up? When the video first came out I remember seeing the "get up get up" command attributed to "off camera voice" or something. Then I saw it later attributed to the officer.

2. The video is very dark-how do we know if the airman ever reached for something, made a threatening gesture, etc...?

3. Why was the driver leading police on a 100+ mph chase? Why was the airman with that guy?

4. Who was videotaping the scene? It clearly wasn't an in car camera.

Now I'm not saying that this guy deserved to be shot. I even saw his high school guidance counselor on the Today show saying what a selfless, polite, and upstanding individual he was. That's a lot to say for a high school kid. I know plenty of guys (myself included) that may be good guys now but were the kind of jerks that everyone thought would end up in prison back in high school. Also, of course he was just back from Iraq so you have to give him credit for that. I dunno-I would just like to see those four questions answered before the media and the public crucifies either one.

displacedtexan

Sure looks like he was doing as instructed. He said he was unarmed, and on the deputies side.

You shoot to stop the threat. He sure didn't look or sound like a threat.

dslchk_cowgirl

It's been on the news every morning here. The video was not an in car camera. It was a home video that someone took because it was happening outside their home. At first only one station had access to it, and eventually everyone else got a copy of it. Because of the darkness of the video it is hard to see exactly what is happening. I've seen that thing about 10 times now over the last week and I still can't tell if there was any reason for the cop to shoot that guy, it's just too hard to tell what's happening.

usmc2311

The driver came out and made a statement the other day saying that he was sorry for what he did and it was a reckless thing to do. The morning AM talk show from LA guys are calling him the 'Emperor of the Inland Empire' because if it works out that he did nothing wrong and was complying with the police, he's gonna own San Berdo county.

mkinla

I've been trying to find a link with the video that high lights the service man going into his inside jacket pocket several times, and he clearly does it right before he was shot. I'm not saying if it was right or wrong but based on that I would have probably shot him also. Just my .02 cents...

Lrdchaos

That's just normal cop stuff though.... I work for the fire dept in the city where I live and see that kind of stuff all the time. If you have a car wreck or domestic it takes the cops forever to get there, but have a shooting or car chase you have 20 cops in a matter of a couple of minutes. Looks like this cop had his hair trigger set a little light on this ordeal. Also, how can you shoot someone at point blank range 3 times and not kill them.....was he even looking at the kid when he shot, or did he have his eyes closed?

Shovelhead

The video is so dark that it's very difficult to see exactly what happened.
I didn't see where it looked like the Airman was reaching for anything.

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la...home-headlines
Not gonna make a call, that's the Judge's & Jury's job.
I'm sure that all parties involved were OD'ing on adrenaline after a 100+ mph chase.

herb

The cops on paid leave of absence. If he wasn't a cop he'd be in jail awaiting trial.

RVT223

How does an LE officer manage to shoot a suspect three times and NOT kill the individual being shot? Further evidence that most LE are poor shots at best...remember the Kehoe brothers? And I agree that there will be hell to pay for that officer and the county if this ever goes to civil trial. Sucks that the taxpayer will be footing that bill if it goes that far. And conversely could or would the DA prosecute the officer in question if necessary? If it was a civilian we would be looking at an enourmous bail figure and having the book thrown at us. Go figure.

Shovelhead

Next time you're at the range punching neat little holes in paper targets.......
Have someone shoot back at you and see how it affects your aim and concentration.

herb

??????????????????? did i miss something? I didn't undestand that the officer was returning fire.
If that is the case that would put this into a complete different perspective.
In this case the Iraq soldier should be in jail waiting trial just like the cop should have been if he hadn't been returning fire.

phox_mulder

We need to remember that the video shown on TV is what the media wants us to see.
We don't see the before, or the after, just the shooting.

I'm betting that it will end up a justified shooting,
but there will still be a civil suit against the officer and the department.

There was an incident around here a while back,
similair circumstances, chase followed by the perp getting out of the car when the officer ordered him to.
He chose to grab a shiny cylindrical object as he was exiting the vehicle, so the officer fired, killing the perp.

Turns out that the object was a bud light can, but at the time (dark) the officer just saw something shiny in the guys hand, and rightfully fired.

Internal Affairs cleared him, but the family later sued in civil court.


phox