Quote:If you can explain why she was the only one with a sidearm out at that time, then i'll retract my murder charge statement.

 

 

clearly she failed. you can't tell me that three or four other officers did not feel threatened in the same situation at the same time except you.

 

 

all those officers were at the same scene at the same time seeing the same things, but she was the only one who put holes in this guy

 

 

think about that

 

Without knowing all of the facts as far as what happened, it's really hard to say if this shooting is justified or not.

 

It looks to me like this shooting was a tragedy and could have been avoided if the suspect had simply followed instructions to begin with.  That being said, there is the possibility that he was high on PCP.  The other thing that is odd is the way that his vehicle was stopped in the center of the road.  What is also odd is the video shows him walking away from the cop's car and the cop on the passenger side of her own vehicle.

 

This paragraph is purely speculation on my part, but it's possible that she rolled up on the scene, saw the position of the vehicle and the man approaching her vehicle appearing "impaired".  The man is wearing loose clothing and is clearly bigger than her.  My guess is that she told him to stop and put his hands up multiple times, and when he refused she drew her weapon and probably took cover behind her own vehicle and moved around to the passenger side.  Based on the audio from the helicopter, he finally put his hands up and started walking back towards his own vehicle, probably in response to seeing other officers arriving.

 

Now ask your self this.  The original call was to assist a disabled vehicle.  Why was said vehicle stopped in such an odd way?  There was also helicopter support as well as support from multiple other officers arriving at the scene with lights and sirens blaring.  Why such a large response for a disabled vehicle?  I believe that if the whole story was known, the responding officer probably radioed for back up.  That's not normal for a call to assist a disabled vehicle.

 

As far as the actual shooting, did the officer that discharged her weapon make a mistake?  It's looking that way based on what I've read so far.  From what I know the man was hit by both a bullet and a tazer, however it looks like from her position she didn't have a clear view of his hands and/or whether or not he had a weapon.  The tazer should have been used first, and if it didn't stop his actions, then perhaps it would be time to escalate to the next level.  Based on what I saw on the video and what I know from the news reports, she probably discharged her weapon prematurely.  I wouldn't call that murder.

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