If confirmed by police, the admission would eliminate one of the chief justifications for police using deadly force against Crutcher.
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Not necessarily, because the police may not have been able to see that the window was rolled up, AND Crutcher had already demonstrated his willful decision to disobey lawful police
orders by moving away from them and walking to his vehicle.
But don't police have a responsibility to ensure that Crutcher represented a threat to their safety or the safety of others before they shot him? Isn't that the threshold for using deadly force? Where was the threat?
Agreed, this one seems a bit of grey area.... Cops are clearly telling him to stop, he keeps disobeying, gets to the car... and did something... whether window was rolled up or not... don’t know, nor did the cops on scene I am sure.. so if they believed he was reaching into the vehicle they were going to react to that...
The fact he was tazed and shot at the same time, clearly shows that cops perceived some action he engaged in as threatening.
I am not defending an innocent man being killed, but I don’t care who you are, or what color your skin is, if you disobey multiple armed officers repeatedly when they are giving you orders, the odds of it not going well for you increases.
I know if I was a cop on sight and a suspect was returning to his vehicle and defying orders, and I perceived him reaching into his vehicle, odds are pretty high I’d shoot as well, regardless of skin color of the suspect.