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Las Vegas Costco shooting ruled justifiable
- Thread starter swinokur
- Start date
Regardless of whether the police shooting was justified, it was not responsible for him to be carrying while on morphine based painkillers and Xanax. Same would go for alcohol or any judgment impairing drugs.
Also about Xanax:
Also about Xanax:
Do not drink alcohol while taking Xanax. This medication can increase the effects of alcohol. Xanax can cause side effects that may impair your thinking or reactions. Be careful if you drive or do anything that requires you to be awake and alert.
Read more: http://www.drugs.com/xanax.html#ixzz10w7iu3RT
Brian Pfleuger
Moderator Emeritus
Gee - what a surprise. I like the five bullets in the victims back.
This is a multiple officer shooting, not a single person defensive scenario.
The OTHER officer was being threatened by the deceased. He was hit "in the back" because the officers partner was at an entirely different angle and was defending his partner.
Shot placement in officer involved shooting is often irrelevant from the typical "shot in the back" scenario.
Frankly, stupid is as stupid does. Drink and take prescription drugs, wave a gun around and end up dead. I have no sympathy. Darwin's law at work.
Brian Pfleuger
Moderator Emeritus
has NEVER failed to find an officer involved shooting to be "justified."
Maybe there's never been an instance that was inappropriate?
Civil court is a completely different world. All you need is sympathy and/or a couple of "lottery ticket" jurors.
99.999% of officer involved shootings are 100% justified. It should be expected to be an exceedingly rare event to find the officer in the wrong.
No they found one bad shoot in the last 32 years. The cornor's inquest is little more than a Soviet show trial. Victim's gun was in his holster when he was killed. The LEOs gave him two conflicting orders and victim was complying with one of the commands. I will never agree that five bullets to the back could ever be justified. That the victim was using medication was not material and it is mere specultation what role that played. Expert testimony on that issue was not conclusive in any way.
Brian Pfleuger
Moderator Emeritus
I will never agree that five bullets to the back could ever be justified.
Really?
Two officers approach a suspect. The suspect faces directly away from one officer, left shoulder angled toward the other, produces a firearm and fires it toward the officer to his left.
You would say that the officer behind the suspect can not return fire because he may hit the suspect in the back?
There are times when a civilian could conceivably shoot an aggressor in the back and be justified. It's not hard at all to imagine any number of scenarios involving police officers.
This is really simple. The dead guy acted like a jack-ass. If he hadn't, he wouldn't have been shot, hell, the police would have never been called.
Were there mistakes made on the part of the officers? Probably. Who bears the ultimate responsibility? The guy who started the whole thing.
HE causes the commotion.
HE got the store evacuated.
HE acted in a manner that required police presence.
HE drew a gun, holstered or otherwise, and pointed it in a manner that was perceived as threatening.
HE is dead. C'est La Vie.
Point a gun at cops and you'll probably be dead. It's one of the simpler rules of life, really.
Now the father says that the STORE bears the brunt of the responsibility for his dead son. Give me a break. His son bears the responsibility.
Don't
Act
Like
A
Jack-Ass
When
You're
Carrying
A
Gun.
Young.Gun.612
New member
peetzakilla said:99.999% of officer involved shootings are 100% justified.
And 73% of all statistics on the internet are completely false...
I heartily disagree that virtually all officer involved shootings are justified. I'm not saying that most, or a very high percentage aren't. But based on what I've seen, the number is much, much lower than 99.999%.
That the victim was using medication was not material and it is mere speculation what role that played. Expert testimony on that issue was not conclusive in any way.
Eye witness accounts and toxicology reports would indicate otherwise. This guy was responsible for his own death. I'n glad no one else got hurt by his irresponsibility. I view him the same as a drunk driver, If he had lived, he would be guilty of a felony.
I'm not buying the he's a victim or he's a good guy excuse. Testimony from his own neighbors was negative. Read all the transcripts and make a decision based on that. Point a gun at a cop, with a holster on it or not and it is not going to end well.Guns can shoot fine in a holster.
Civil court is a completely different world. All you need is sympathy and/or a couple of "lottery ticket" jurors.
I call BS. What percentage of the public do you believe is wandering around just waiting for the opportunity to screw the taxpayers? Any qualified lawyer will tell you that on average in cases against the government, it's harder to get people to support damages than it is in a case against a person.
maestro pistolero
New member
There is no excuse for someone to be carrying weapons under the influence.
Neither is there any excuse for the pitiful, embarrassing, and tragically inept training these officers exhibited.
The problem I have with the finding of justified is that it doesn't acknowledge ANY of the monumental mistakes made by the officers or the reporting security guard who exaggerated 911 call in the first place.
The reason the deceased lifted his shirt was to identify the location of the weapon, because he was being given multiple conflicting and nonsensical commands, simultaneously, from at least three officers, screaming DROP THE GUN (when there was no gun in his hands), GET ON THE GROUND, KEEP YOUR HANDS UP, STOP RESISTING (while on his knees) etc.
Now how are you supposed to drop a gun that's in your waist band without touching it? How does one get face down on the ground while holding his hands over his head? And how can someone possibly comply with all of these commands at once?
There is also a significant evdence that the officers escalated the contact unnecessarily. Of course once they had escalated and bungled the bogus call to the point where they had the guy attempting (stupidly) to surrender his weapon it was too late.
Since before and after the police arrived, he wasn't violent or aggressive, hadn't threatened anybody, and by all accounts was merely about the business of shopping. They could have, and should have initiated the contact in a much different manner.
They could have had all the cover they needed, but calmly disarmed the man, and everyone would have been much safer than they were when the cops started slinging lead. There is no doubt that the man would have cooperated. If he didn't cooperate they could have shot him anyway. He was, in fact, clumsily attempting to cooperate with the confusing and inept commands when he was shot.
These overlooked facts will be even more costly when this gets to civil court, where the taxpayers will, no doubt, be on the hook for 100's of thousands, if not millions of dollars.
If the department won't even look at it's part of the responsibility then we can expect no better from their officers in the future.
Neither is there any excuse for the pitiful, embarrassing, and tragically inept training these officers exhibited.
The problem I have with the finding of justified is that it doesn't acknowledge ANY of the monumental mistakes made by the officers or the reporting security guard who exaggerated 911 call in the first place.
The reason the deceased lifted his shirt was to identify the location of the weapon, because he was being given multiple conflicting and nonsensical commands, simultaneously, from at least three officers, screaming DROP THE GUN (when there was no gun in his hands), GET ON THE GROUND, KEEP YOUR HANDS UP, STOP RESISTING (while on his knees) etc.
Now how are you supposed to drop a gun that's in your waist band without touching it? How does one get face down on the ground while holding his hands over his head? And how can someone possibly comply with all of these commands at once?
There is also a significant evdence that the officers escalated the contact unnecessarily. Of course once they had escalated and bungled the bogus call to the point where they had the guy attempting (stupidly) to surrender his weapon it was too late.
Since before and after the police arrived, he wasn't violent or aggressive, hadn't threatened anybody, and by all accounts was merely about the business of shopping. They could have, and should have initiated the contact in a much different manner.
They could have had all the cover they needed, but calmly disarmed the man, and everyone would have been much safer than they were when the cops started slinging lead. There is no doubt that the man would have cooperated. If he didn't cooperate they could have shot him anyway. He was, in fact, clumsily attempting to cooperate with the confusing and inept commands when he was shot.
These overlooked facts will be even more costly when this gets to civil court, where the taxpayers will, no doubt, be on the hook for 100's of thousands, if not millions of dollars.
If the department won't even look at it's part of the responsibility then we can expect no better from their officers in the future.
I read the linked article...
if half of what the witnesses say is true, not the LEO's the folks at the store, then the shooting was justified in my opinion. Sad, but true....
Yes, the police could have probably figured out a way to subdue the stoned guy other than shoot him... but you know it only takes one shot from an idiot to kill someone.
The dead guy is wholly responsible for his death... unfortunately the way it reads the lawyers for the family will now be going after the Store and the officers in civil court.... lawyers.....:barf::barf:
if half of what the witnesses say is true, not the LEO's the folks at the store, then the shooting was justified in my opinion. Sad, but true....
Yes, the police could have probably figured out a way to subdue the stoned guy other than shoot him... but you know it only takes one shot from an idiot to kill someone.
The dead guy is wholly responsible for his death... unfortunately the way it reads the lawyers for the family will now be going after the Store and the officers in civil court.... lawyers.....:barf::barf:
Gotta love such generalizations!.... lawyers.....:barf::barf:
Heller and McDonald, anyone?
Anyone?
Bueller?
Brian Pfleuger
Moderator Emeritus
young.gun.612 said:And 73% of all statistics on the internet are completely false...
I heartily disagree that virtually all officer involved shootings are justified. I'm not saying that most, or a very high percentage aren't. But based on what I've seen, the number is much, much lower than 99.999%.
I really didn't think anyone would take those numbers as literal statistics. I guess I should say "virtually all" but that leaves you thinking that maybe I mean 80% is "virtually all".
I'd bet that it's 99%, anyway. That still leaves 1 in every 100 that would mean that the cops are criminal. That seems impossibly high to me.
Regardless, the fact remains that the deceased is responsible for his own death in this instance.
The officers may or may not have made errors in judgement or millisecond decisions that proved to be wrong. No matter what, they would never have had to make those decisions were it not for the actions of the deceased.
Costco is not responsible. The officers are not responsible. The deceased IS responsible.
Wildalaska
Moderator
No they found one bad shoot in the last 32 years. The cornor's inquest is little more than a Soviet show trial. Victim's gun was in his holster when he was killed. The LEOs gave him two conflicting orders and victim was complying with one of the commands. I will never agree that five bullets to the back could ever be justified. That the victim was using medication was not material and it is mere specultation what role that played. Expert testimony on that issue was not conclusive in any way.
You were there and heard all the testimony, yes?
By the way, your analogy of ANY US inquest or court case to the Soviet Show trials (which one? Zinoviev et al, Radek's, Buhkarins?) is so historically inaccurate as to be laughable.
WildijustlovetherhetoricincopbashingcasesAlaska ™©2002-2010
Using your "logic" no one outside of attendees of the entire coroner's inquest could have an opinion. I read what was available to me and will not be ordering transcripts from the court reporter. My analogy was hyperbole so I never intended a direct correlation to a specific so called Soviet show trial but I am concerned that in 32 years there has been only one bad LEO shoot as determined by the cornoner's inquest. The expert witness testimony I read was conflicted and in the end my opinion is that the victim died needlessly.
P.S. Love your nonsense tag line from a pedophile/sodomite.
P.S. Love your nonsense tag line from a pedophile/sodomite.
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maestro pistolero
New member
The desire to completely absolve officers is understandable, but ignores the real facts of the case. Mistakes were made that caused this man's death, period. The dynamic approach was all wrong.
He wasn't violent, hadn't been ask to leave, therefore never refused to leave, and he hadn't threatened anybody. His crime was having a gun, and the bad luck to be confronted by officers whose training was spotty, to be blunt.
It was only after the fact, the prescription drugs were made into an issue. There was no suspicion that he was under the influence until the character assignation campaign was begun by the department in order to deflect the attention from mistakes made at the bungled call.
The situation became multiple times more dangerous for everybody when the officers arrived, drew their weapons and caused chaos by escalating the drama instead of wisely observing, assessing and de-escalating. Prior to the police arriving, there was no threat observed, or articulated by ANY witness.
Sorry. I can't go with the police on this one. We don't have a death penalty for the use of prescription drugs, unless the behavior warrants it by brandishing or threatening someone. In this case the behavior clearly did NOT.
Scott was attempting to comply with a stupid, nonsensical and under the circumstances dangerous order: "Drop the gun". One cannot drop a gun that one is not holding. When he did surrender the weapon, it was still in it's holster. This is the point at which he was shot.
The whole thing stinks from moment of the exaggerated 911 call the security made to Metro, to the very public character assassination campaign in the local paper only days before the inquest, where they quoted the man's estranged ex-wife in order to discredit him. Pathetic.
And we STILL have not seen video from the state of the art remote camera system that Costco was boasting about only weeks before. Why not?
He wasn't violent, hadn't been ask to leave, therefore never refused to leave, and he hadn't threatened anybody. His crime was having a gun, and the bad luck to be confronted by officers whose training was spotty, to be blunt.
It was only after the fact, the prescription drugs were made into an issue. There was no suspicion that he was under the influence until the character assignation campaign was begun by the department in order to deflect the attention from mistakes made at the bungled call.
The situation became multiple times more dangerous for everybody when the officers arrived, drew their weapons and caused chaos by escalating the drama instead of wisely observing, assessing and de-escalating. Prior to the police arriving, there was no threat observed, or articulated by ANY witness.
Sorry. I can't go with the police on this one. We don't have a death penalty for the use of prescription drugs, unless the behavior warrants it by brandishing or threatening someone. In this case the behavior clearly did NOT.
Scott was attempting to comply with a stupid, nonsensical and under the circumstances dangerous order: "Drop the gun". One cannot drop a gun that one is not holding. When he did surrender the weapon, it was still in it's holster. This is the point at which he was shot.
The whole thing stinks from moment of the exaggerated 911 call the security made to Metro, to the very public character assassination campaign in the local paper only days before the inquest, where they quoted the man's estranged ex-wife in order to discredit him. Pathetic.
And we STILL have not seen video from the state of the art remote camera system that Costco was boasting about only weeks before. Why not?
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