Sorry, I know that is in pop culture lately. But it is not factual to say a cop can just dump someone with no weapon.
There has to be ability, opportunity, and jeopardy. THOSE circumstances met can place an officer into fear of his or someone else’s life. But saying he was in fear of his life without all three of those others being satisfied is illegal and that is HEAVILY established in Federal law. It’s a standard, not a mere opinion, despite what BLM says.
She had no weapon of any kind, (no ability to inflict great bodily harm on anyone) She was squeezing through a window (no opportunity, there was no act she could perform from where she was that could inflict a deadly threat on anybody) and last, she placed nobody in jeopardy (who was in immediate risk of her attacking them?) This is not satisfied either except possibly by him.
All of those met, then congratulations, you are now in the zone of options which must be precluded before advancing to the next higher level and ending in deadly force. He didn’t have pepper spray? The didn’t have a taser? He didn’t have an expanding baton? He couldn’t have simply gone hands on and placed her under arrest as she climbed down?
If he could and should have done one of those, and simply decided to shoot her, as he clearly did, it was murder.
By the way, all of that has to happen in a cops mind in a second or less. I recommend you stay out of law enforcement if you think you can shoot with immunity by saying “I was in fear” and that’s it.
There is one hell of a lot more of that iceberg than that tiny “I was in fear” tip. There has to be a huge legal standard met before that last phrase comes into play. And it wasn’t.
Dozens of cops across the nation have been sent to prison for less.
“There has to be a huge legal standard met before that last phrase comes into play.
Certainly not disagreeing that there is a major legal standard on discharging a weapon at almost point blank range into a woman.
I’m only conveying what is being reported on the defense position by the Capitol Police Lt.’s lawyer.