Unarmed student shot dead by cop after asking, ‘Oh, you’re going to shoot me?’

The Daily Caller ^ | 12/10/2013 | Robby Soave

[PAR35]

Robert Cameron Redus is an honors student

I think the writer should have used 'was' instead of 'is'.

[octex]

Never seen one walk away after being attacked...never. Nor should they...ever
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Agree.

And, Knarf and others......STOP referring to the 22-23 y/o as a “kid”. He was an adult man (and possibly larger than the cop).

Article on this I read on FR Monday indicated the cop was after him for speeding and finally pulled him over about 1 mile from the campus. It also indicated that the cop’s video cam had previously been reported as inoperative and needed to be fixed.

In the same situation, after being assaulted and hit with the baton, I would have kept shooting until the criminal was down and no longer a threat.

I don’t take up for LEOs that shoot harmless dogs, break down doors to enter homes of innocents, etc., but it’s sad to see how many here demean the LEO for what appears to be self defense against physical assault.

[bike800]

Assuming of course that he had access to such a device.

[wku man]

"Bootlicker."

Wow...that one really took a lot of thought, didn't it? Go back to DU.

Scouts Out! Cavalry Ho!

[wku man]

You wear your bias against cops on your sleeve, and if you were the prosecutor, that alone would be enough to convince a jury to acquit. Furthermore, you have no evidence as to the cop's guilt, only an anecdotal, emotional argument that any third-year law student would destroy in five minutes or less.

There is a perfectly reasonable explanation as to why a good kid would go off on a cop...he could very well have been lit on some kind of mind-altering drug. Toxicology will prove or disprove that. I'll wait until some facts come in before I convict the man.

Yeah, I know...facts are inconvenient and not any fun for cop-haters.

Scouts Out! Cavalry Ho!

[privatedrive]

Dunno what really happened. BUT - instead of the cop “being placed on leave pending an investigation”, shouldn’t he be “in custody pending an investigation”. God forbid that this cop is really crazy and he kills somebody else.

[drypowder]

You are partially correct, my cop bias is only for those cops who use their badge to abuse their authority. I’m not trying to be haughty but at the very least especially with law enforcement, it should be what is right, not who has the authority. Authoritarian minded cops are corruptible if not already corrupt and all too often the citizen(s) pays the price for their Little Tin god mind set. I know some good cops and I know some really good cops and I’m sure we all know cops who should not be cops at all.

[Altariel]

Where is the evidence of bruises from the baton? Produce the photos.

[wku man]

You don't know the man, you weren't a witness to the incident, so how can you pass judgment on him other than you have a hatred of cops? You don't know him from Adam...so how can you say he's an authoritarian? You don't know anything about his work history (other than what you've read from third-party sources), so how can you characterize him as a "tin-god"? Answer: you are prejudiced against all cops, and would make the same characterization of any cop in a similar situation, regardless of the fact that you don't know the facts.

I can think of a high-profile case recently in which the defendant had killed someone, and was convicted in the court of public opinion long before he was eventually acquitted. Care to guess which case that was? Give you a hint: your argument against the cop in this story makes about as much sense as the arguments of Jesse Jackass, Al Charlatan, and The Obammunist in the other.

Scouts Out! Cavalry Ho!

[drypowder]

I agree with the Stand Your Ground law and it may well be this university cop felt his life was in immediate danger. According to the cop’s report released this morning, the student was pulled over for driving erratically. The cop said he was trying to put handcuffs on the student and had instructed the student to get on the ground 52 times. In the process the student somehow took position of the cop’s baton and was about to strike him. The cop shot him 5 times. A witness said right before they heard shots fired they heard the student say, “so you’re going to shoot me now”?? Maybe it’s just me but that sounds like there’s a skunk somewhere in this woodpile. However, you are right, in general I don’t trust cops but I do believe they have a right to go home healthy at the end of their day. Your comparing me to Jesse shakedown Jackson and Big mouth Al Sharpton, come on, really?

[TalBlack]

He took the cops baton , hit the cop, and then the cop got it back? Makes zero sense. If the average guy hits someone more than twice with a baton he’s edging fairly near to a murder charge.

Just a guess based upon the oddness of the back and forth baton that failed somehow to at least put the cop out of action, but I’d say that the cop is one of those ‘authoritah’ types and the baton is his primary option to menace anyone he happens to think needs to show more respect.

And like a lot of chickenshit cowards the cop isn’t anywhere near tough enough to keep the baton away from anyone who tries to take it, rather, he is expecting his badge to do that for him and in this case it didn’t.

[trisham]

Yep and I suspect at this point the cop wasn’t going to get into a wrestling match over the pistol. He may have lost that one also.

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Yes. These confrontations happen much more quickly than many may imagine. Someone under attack hasn't minutes, or even seconds, to formulate a response.

[trisham]

Agree, mostly speculation. Have to say that a cop who's had 8 jobs in 8 years though ..... something stinks there. As for anything else all we have to do is wait -- eventually the truth comes out. Just have to be patient enough to wait for it.

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Agreed. I do wish that we had video of this event, but I am hopeful that there is enough evidence to either exonerate or convict this officer.

[rabidralph]

Just last month a student at Liberty U., also a Christian college, was shot to death by a police officer or campus cop. Very strange.

[wku man]

"A witness said right before they heard shots fired they heard the student say, “so you’re going to shoot me now”??"

Is this witness credible, or just another drunk or high college student who has a chip on their shoulder about cops? It seems to me the witness' credibility needs to be established before we decide if his or her story is worth a wooden nickel.

"The cop said he was trying to put handcuffs on the student and had instructed the student to get on the ground 52 times. In the process the student somehow took position of the cop’s baton and was about to strike him. The cop shot him 5 times."

Actually, according to the story, the cop said the student did beat him with his own baton. I wasn't there, though, so I'll wait until the results of the investigation to be released before I decide what I believe.

Despite the cop's dash cam being off/inoperable, police officers do carry voice recorders, the audio from which should be used to corroborate/disprove the officer's story. However, we're not going to hear it any time soon, because no police agency in the nation comments on ongoing investigations. So again, we're all going to have to chill out and wait for the facts to be made available.

"Your comparing me to Jesse shakedown Jackson and Big mouth Al Sharpton, come on, really?"

No, I'm not comparing you to them, just your argument. It's highly speculative, biased, and overly emotional. You do know which case I'm referring to, don't you?

Scouts Out! Cavalry Ho!

[RitchieAprile]

you appear to ... hate cops..

[drypowder]

speculative, biased, and overly emotional

Well I guess you got me figured out. Police State Ho!! Oh, BTW, Merry Christmas to you.

[wku man]

"Oh, BTW, Merry Christmas to you."

Likewise...God bless you and yours.

Scouts Out! Cavalry Ho!