Posted on 10/21/2015 2:51:34 AM PDT by Altariel
But to answer your question, it's not.
Exactly.
.....and what if he WASN'T a police officer? (Unmarked car, your car broken down and a man approaching with gun drawn? What would YOU do? The cop could have been the victim on this one).
Good point, couldn't he call it in?
Sounds suspicious....
Calling backup in the form of a uniform and a black-and-white would be the intelligent thing to do. An honest armed citizen will NOT see that as a lethal threat. Quite the contrary, in fact.
The cop acted stupidly and recklessly, putting himself in a situation wherein a reasonable person would see him as a deadly threat.
Then he killed a citizen.
What do we call that, under the law?
Most people would be wary/on high alert if stuck on the side of a freeway late at night. A ripe target for passing thugs looking for easy pickings. At that hour, anything other than a tow truck or cop car pulls up, any sane person would have a hand on their sidearm.
Walking into a gun-drawn situation without a call for backup? Does not smell right.
Negligent homicide?
That's the bottom line right there! This citizen's death was caused by the cop's negligent actions. The citizen's family should file a huge lawsuit. And if I were the DA, I'd look into charging the cop.
We don’t get too many visibly armed black guys in PBG - that’s more prevalent down in WPB. (just stating the ‘stereotype’ - what probably was going through officer’s head). PBG is fairly quiet - low percentage of violent crimes. With that said - I think it was a bad reaction by the officer - overreaction (ya think?) and ended tragically. The stupid part of this tragedy is that it plays well into the Obama/Confiscators/Liam Neeson/Julianne Moore/Al Sharpton meme that it’s going to become a circus down here very shortly.
Exactly...The cop should have called a marked car...He was off duty, probably saw an opportunity to pick up some unscheduled overtime pay...Negligence on his part...And it doesn't say if the cop was drunk...They probably never checked...
I think the word you’re looking for is ‘murder’.
When I lived there, I hated 95 at night. The rest stops were downright scary. Would opt for the Turnpike when possible.
Of course, that was over a decade ago. I didn’t even have a cell phone. It might be better now.
25-35 years ago the cop could be excused for expecting the car to be a drug mule. But, I gather those days are over.
Why can't an unmarked car have a dash cam? A lot of people have one. Just about every car in Russia has one (to combat crooked cops, BTW). Sounds awfully convenient.
Wonder if the officer was looking for “unclaimed possessions of some value” when he was confronted by the owner?
Dead men tell no tales.
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