Why would you ask uniformed Police Officers who are investigating a crime to step back? That would be highly suspicious and the first step on the road to being an offender for acting like an offender.
Wagonman I am going to interject a small bit of speculation just based on the facts as they have been reported, my knowledge of the neighborhood, and the limited knowledge I have of LE procedures. Bear with me but;
When you guys walk up to a door in a poorly lit area (these apartments entrances are mostly quite dark) and it appears that there were at least 3 officers, would you not possibly be shining your maglights, streamlights, etc. at the door to be certain you saw even the most slight details? I think I would.
I will assume that at least one of the officers would/could have done so.
I think it Might be possible that one of the cars might have had alley/spot lights pointed at the area, but judging from the small clip of video I did not see strobes or beacons in operation. and most LE and fire/rescue in our area, don't use sirens at 0300 unless absolutely necessary. with this in mind, I will also speculate that if I open that door in a dark room and look out, all I will see will be figures with lights pointed at me and little else.
Next, I am gonna speculate on "state of mind". This young man, a former MP, was
just back from the sandbox, I can only imagine that his "spidey sense" is just as acute if not moreso, as any street copper, and certainly more than the average Joe. I will admit that I have no idea what procedures the active duty MP's use, but I will speculate that possibly when encountered by such a scenario his first command might be "Step Back" so that he can evaluate the possible threat before taking further action. ( mind you from a dead sleep only seconds before) I do not think any of this is beyond the realm of possibility, and likely was the way it played out. He wanted to ascertain who was in his yard, and why they were there before securing his pistol from "low ready".
Is this really that hard to imagine that almost anyone might do the same? And would that be unreasonable? I somehow do not think so. And once he secured the weapon, or disarmed completely, could this not have been sorted out by a bit of level headed conversation rather than charge a man for assault with a weapon for merely securing his own perimeter.
I have always stipulated that there is enough blame to go around on this PARTICULAR incident
That may be true, and I will not totally disagree at this point in the game, but I am leaning toward the opinion that this MP might not have acted as irrationally or hell, even at all, had this been handled a bit more professionally. And his actions look less like those of an "offender" and more like an MP.
I think this mans training had a lot to do with the way he approached this situation. I am pretty sure these guys do not simply react the way an average Joe would. I will also posit that
your training might lead you to react similarly if you were confronted with a similar scenario at, say a hotel room
outside of your jurisdiction?
