Another police shooting in the U.S. of A
Discussion
There are plenty of countries, including European, where trying to drive off after trying to run down an armed police officer will result in shots being fired.
I am not saying that is what happened in this case but if you have tried to kill an police officer and flee the scene, you deserve all you get IMO.
I doubt that is what happened in this case though, because the release of the dashcam footage would have supported the officer's account of events if it was accurate.
I am not saying that is what happened in this case but if you have tried to kill an police officer and flee the scene, you deserve all you get IMO.
I doubt that is what happened in this case though, because the release of the dashcam footage would have supported the officer's account of events if it was accurate.
jogon said:
If you had read the article you will have noticed from his parents private autopsy report he was shot in the back which is a little tricky if you are trying to run someone over in a car is it not?
Only if you're in a Caterfield with no reverse gear. Or perhaps he'd just made an attempt on the officer's life and was turning around for another go.Edited by jogon on Sunday 9th August 06:24
Another police shooting, maybe he was going to run them over with his wheelchair.
Warning viewer: discretion is advised.
http://anonhq.com/bloody-police-officers-open-fire...
Warning viewer: discretion is advised.
http://anonhq.com/bloody-police-officers-open-fire...
Kaj91 said:
I certainly can't see the victim repeatedly pointing anything at the cops, nor do I see a firearm.
Cop expert defends shooting of man in wheelchairUSA TODAY NETWORK Esteban Parra, The (Wilmington, Del.) News Journal 7:27 p.m. EDT October 5, 2015
Mike Lewis, sheriff of Wicomico County, Md., who teaches police tactics, said based on news accounts and a cell phone video posted to YouTube, Wilmington police officers acted correctly when four officers shot Jeremy McDole to death as he sat in his wheelchair.
“Usually we get it right. Sometimes we get it wrong,” Lewis said. “But I see absolutely nothing wrong that the (Wilmington) officers did in this particular case.”
Officers were responding to a 911 call about a man who had shot himself, said Lewis, noting that the man “already made a decision to end his own life.”
The officers not only have a duty and responsibility to go and render aid to the injured individual, but they must also make sure that the individual doesn’t shoot any innocent bystanders, including the officers responding to the scene.
“These police officers are ordering him clearly on the video tape to drop the gun,” Lewis said. “The amateur videographer, who’s videotaping this with his cellphone, you can hear him say ‘Drop the gun, cuz.’ ‘Get your hands up.’
“So he’s making his own independent observations.”
Yet McDole refused to drop the gun, Lewis said.
“Police officers make split-second decisions that affect the lives of our citizens and everyone else out there in harms way,” he said. “The safety of a suspect, who is attempting to resist or disobey the commands of a law enforcement officer, while risking many more lives other than his own puts police officers at a no win situation.”
Jeremy McDole
Jeremy “Bam” McDole, 28 (Photo: Brown, Robin (Wilmington))
Lewis called this situation an “urgent circumstance,” where police are reacting with limited knowledge other than being told the man had shot himself.
“These circumstances do not permit lengthy discussion or deliberation out on the street,” he said.
Police have a use-of-force protocol they go through before shooting someone. The protocol includes verbal commands, stun guns, batons and pepper spray – deadly force is the final step. While police are provided these steps by their departments, an officer is given discretion in going from verbal commands to deadly force if the person becomes a deadly threat.
The Wilmington officers had every right to use deadly force, especially after repeatedly ordering the man to drop the gun and raise his hands, Lewis said.
He added that there is no legal obligation for a suspect to shoot first, but said that “cemeteries are full of police officers across this country who hesitated to pull that trigger and were waiting for the suspect to shoot first. Consequently, they lost their lives.”
Ninety-eight police officers have died in the line of duty so far this year across the country, according to the Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund, which tracks officers’ deaths so their names can be enshrined on a Washington, D.C., memorial.
Of those who have died this year, 29 were gunned down – this includes Greg Alia, a Forest Acres, S.C., officer who was killed Sept. 30 after he and three other officers responded to a mall on a report of a suspicious person.
“It’s not a good feeling,” Lewis said of killing someone. “It absolutely eats your insides out that you have to take a human life. But one thing that’s changed dramatically over the years with suspects is that they have been emboldened, they have become very defiant and the rules are no longer adhered to.
Lewis took a life during a 1996 traffic stop.
Then a Maryland State Trooper, he smelled marijuana and asked 26-year-old Keith Hill to get out of the car. When he tried to arrest Hill, the two began to scuffle. The two wrestled, and Lewis said Hill tried to remove the trooper’s holstered gun. Lewis said he kept ordering Hill to stop, yelling at him that whatever he was trying to do was not worth what was going on.
After a brief chase, Hill got back into his gold 1994 Lexus and drove toward Lewis.
Lewis squeezed off a round at the approaching Lexus, then fired three more shots as the car neared before diving out of its way and into the path of two trucks darting south on U.S. 13. Lewis thought either the Lexus or the trucks were going to finish him off.
Lewis survived, but Hill was fatally struck by at least one bullet. Lewis was cleared of any wrongdoing and returned to duty after mandatory administrative leave.
The 32-year police veteran said the day will forever be with him. Lewis previously told The News Journal he remembered Hill was a father, a sibling and a son, but he also thinks about his family and what being killed would have meant for them.
“I tell police officers they have a duty and responsibility to come home every day that they go to work,” he said. “It’s up to them to use their skills. It’s up to them to use their training. It’s up to them to use their God-given powers of observation to rapidly assess a split-second situation when they are out on the street.”
McDole's family has disputed reports that he had a gun or had shot himself. As for people who question why officers did not employ other tactics, such as use stun guns, Lewis said getting within 10 feet of the subject would have placed officers in a “death zone.”
“They were already in the kill zone of this suspect. No idiot is going to pull a Taser out on a man armed with a 38-caliber revolver or any other weapon.”
Lewis added that any cop who pulls out a Taser during a gunfight “has no business wearing a uniform.”
“He not only puts his life in danger, he puts the life of innocent civilians in danger,” Lewis said.
“These police officers were put in very difficult situations, but I commend them for having the courage to pull the trigger,” Lewis said. “Because had they not had the courage, one or four police officers might be dead on that street today.”
Lewis' comments on the rights of everyday citizens to possess guns for self-defense briefly made him the subject of controversy late last year.
In two video interviews posted on YouTube, Lewis expressed strong disappointment with the Firearms Safety Act of 2013, a stringent gun control law passed in Maryland in the wake of the 2012 Newtown, Conn., school shooting.
In one of the videos, from Delaware television station WRDE, Lewis said: "Who am I to tell them what they should or should not protect their families with?" Who am I to tell them they shouldn't have a magazine with 30 rounds behind the door when some thug is trying to break into their home? ... If you start coming into people's homes to disarm them solely because you believe they don't have a Second Amendment right to bear arms, you better stand by. It will be, without a doubt, a civil war."
Comments from Lewis' videos went viral and prompted a campaign by the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence to have his police training certification revoked. Lewis later clarified that he and his deputies would abide by any state or federal laws.
Contributing: Brian Shane, The (Salisbury, Md.) Daily Times
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