Posted on 12/15/2016 5:26:32 AM PST by jiggyboy
Slightly after midnight on Monday, police in Bakersfield, Calif., received a call concerning a man thought to be brandishing a weapon in a residential neighborhood.
Shortly after police arrived, 73-year-old Francisco Serna - who family members said was suffering from the early stages of dementia - walked out of his home and into his driveway. When Serna, who was unarmed, did not comply with officers' orders to remove his hands from his jacket pocket, one officer fired seven shots at him, killing him.
-- snip --
The 911 call came from a household on the block where Serna resided. A woman who lived there arrived home just after midnight. She was unpacking the car when Serna approached her.
Serna asked why she was at her house, according to Martin, and then asked if he could get into the car. Throughout this conversation, Serna kept one hand in his pocket.
The woman noticed a black- or brown-handled object sticking out of hispocket that she took to be a gun. She rushed inside and told her boyfriend, who called the police.
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
Many posts there thinking that it couldn't have been that "simple", for lack of a better word, were correct.
I leave it to others to add keywords to this post.
Oops, that should be “Bakersfield grandfather” not “SF grandfather”. A sloppy error on my part.
Cops are out of control. There’s no reason they couldn’t have just walked up and talked to the man.
You’re absolutely right. The next guy that pulls something similar, why you just mosey on up and talk to the man.
CC
You think shooting a senile old man seven times for carrying a crucifix is appropriate?
Cops need to clean up their act.
Did the cop know it was just a crucifix or was that found out *after* the shoot?
Show me where, in the job requirements, that cops must be psychic and omniscient, please.
Obviously a tragic scenario and one that should have had a better outcome.
Any encounter in the dark raises concerns, any report of possible weapon raises concerns and, deny it as the MSM tries, the current spate of police ambushes has got to weigh heavy here.
Anyone who has gone through the “Shoot / No Shoot” training can tell of the difficulty in making split-second LIFE-DEATH decisions. Yet even the best of these cannot cover all scenarios AND there is a very real difference between a test and real life.
The facts we know are probably insufficient to put ourselves in the place of the victim or police. Knowing (after the fact) that the victim had dementia is fact unknown to the police but an unknown is how was the victim dressed? Could they tell by outward appearance his age or was he wearing something like a hoodie that leaves an appearance that could range in all ages?
While this sounds like I am only taking the police side, I am also troubled by a near emptying of the magazine by the shooter. Seven shots sounds a lot like a panicked action and that is NOT a desired encounter outcome!
FWIW, I wonder if the woman and boyfriend know the family of the victim. There’s going to be a civil suit, and if I were the coos, I’d want to make sure this wasn’t a set up, with the elderly gentleman a victim in more ways than one.
coos=cops
We could reduce these suspicious shoots if the cops were forced to wear body cams 24/7. No dash cam or body cam in this case, so we have to go by the cops’ word. Note the cop was new and had never fired his gin before in the line of duty.
Yes, but did the grandfather actually fire the Crucifix at them?
That was one very afraid cop. He had the advantage of driving up on the guy and most likely was using his patrol vehicle for cover. As he crouched behind the hood of his car aiming his weapon at the guy, he would’ve started yelling “Let me see your hands!!!” over and over. When 73 year old man, who obviously was confused, didn’t comply, the cop then became even more scared and figured the best thing to do was to shoot the 73 year old seven times.
Im as big a supporter of the police as anyone here but this s**t scares me. Used to be that the cops would walk up to the old guy and talk sense into him. This was no hulking, obviously dangerous thug!
Maybe the police officers were vampires, ever think of that?
We don’t know what the cops were told by the person making the phone call. Seeing the transcript of that call would be helpful. So would knowing more about the victim’s backround. Some dementia sufferers can be violent. It would be interesting to know if the elderly gentleman had been reported to the police for anything previously. There is a whole lot we just don’t know yet.
If the cop is not a Christian....
An old, obviously confused guy wandering around, brandishing a crucifix - and you are defending the rookie cop emptying his gun into him?
Seven times? Did he go to boot camp with John Winger and Dewey Oxburger (Stripes)?
Sounds cold, but I'll be wary if I get a large crucifix for a Christmas present.
Gallows humor...sorry.
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