Posted on 12/03/2018 10:53:07 AM PST by BenLurkin
A man killed by an officer who mistook him for a gunman at an Alabama mall was shot three times from behind, according to an anatomical review conducted by a forensic pathologist at the request of the slain man's family.
Police were responding to reports of a shooting Thanksgiving night at the Riverchase Galleria in Hoover, a suburb of 95,000 people south of Birmingham, when an officer fatally shot 21-year-old Emantic "EJ" Bradford Jr., 21. Police initially blamed Bradford, who they said had a gun in his hand and was responsible for shooting two people at the mall. They later retracted that statement and identified Erron Brown, 20, of Bessemer, as the gunman. Besser was arrested by U.S. Marshals in the Atlanta area Thursday.
National civil rights attorney Ben Crump, who is representing Bradford's family, released the findings of the independent anatomical review during a press conference Monday at The Rock, the church Bradford attended in north Birmingham. The Rev. Jesse Jackson also attended.
Crump said the findings indicate Bradford was shot three times, all from behind -- once in the back of the head, once in the back of the neck and once in the lower right back, near his hip. He said those findings were significant because they indicated Bradford was moving away from officers at the time he was shot. Witnesses have said Bradford, who was licensed to carry a gun, was trying to help usher others away from the gunfire, Crump said.
(Excerpt) Read more at cbsnews.com ...
Some LEOs are over eager to put notches on their guns
I don’t think it’s that, most are just not the well-trained machine that the left tries to tell us they are when pushing gun control!
I have been a pretty successful competitive handgun shooter since I was just our of college, at the very best, the average LEO is slightly worse than the average guy walking into a gun shop. If the officer is an enthusiastic ‘gun guy’ they will be skilled and professional, if not, they lack confidence and skills, which leads to these ‘shoot first and sort it out later’ events.
IF he had his gun OUT in his hand, while he was pushing people “to safety”, to a police officer it could have looked like he was rounding up hostages.
If so, it would be reasonable to shoot him from behind.
Tragic, but reasonable. You might even argue that he couldn’t yell “stop, put your hands up”, because of the fear that the “gunman” would just start shooting his hostages.
I have no idea if the person had his gun out at the time. But as much as it is “legal” to have your gun out, at that point it may be the thing that causes a fatal mistake.
Actually there are still very few; you just hear about every single one of them now, because of advances in communications, and the hyper-focus on evil cops and implied racism.
And its not thst I dont think he had good intentions or anything like that. Its that a good guy responding this way can be shot by cops who have no idea if they are a criminal, or defending against criminals.
no...many cops are former military and its hard to untrain them to become peace officers. How much you wanna bet this cop was prior service Marine or Army?
“no...many cops are former military and its hard to untrain them to become peace officers. How much you wanna bet this cop was prior service Marine or Army?”
I don’t think many people think about the past training of law enforcement officers and how it affects their behavior.
Our county just elected a new sheriff and one of the first things on his agenda is hiring more deputy sheriffs. Good, we need them. However hubby is concerned because his pool will be from the prison system.
Hubby warned me when he heard it, be extremely careful if I’m pulled over in the future, because I will be dealing with someone trained to be a bully, expecting instant obedience.
I can understand that very well. One son is ten year prison guard, his nature now automatically is intimidating, and he automatically expects his opinion to be right and accepted.
Other son is ex-law enforcement, deputy sheriff. His training was much more extensive, focusing on law, rights, and respect for community. Much focus on de-escalating a situation.
Hubby is ex-military, MP, and ex-Federal Law Enforcement and then ex-security.
I can clearly see the differences on how they all handle people.
Good advice.
I doubt that. It’s not from military training, it’s a lack of training and bad judgment.
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