Quote:Sounds like a cop with terrible judgement to me. We will likely see his resignation and a large settlement to the victim and that will be the end of it.


As far as criminal charges go, I doubt anything significant is likely. At least, not the serious felony some will demand. Two important factors are either missing or very hard to prove here. One, any kind of murder charge would have to prove intent to kill. The officer didn't even intend to shoot him and shot him by missing someone else. Also, police are trained to shoot center mass, not to kill, which may be a fine line to the general public, but its a big deal if you are going to charge someone with murder. And two, the actual result of the gunshot wound will dictate charges. A minor flesh wound, which this sounds like it is, will be judged differently in court that a serious or critical bodily injury. Because there was no intent and just a minor injury, a felony is unlikely. Maybe a prosecutor could go after some lesser felonies like reckless/negligent discharge of a firearm, but that would probably eventually get pled down to a misdemeanor.


In the end, just fire the cop and pay the man.