Posted on 03/08/2006 7:07:14 PM PST by SmithL
NEWARK -- The man fatally shot by Newark police on Tuesday afternoon was armed with a toy gun, though the officers who confronted him were too far away to make that distinction, Police Chief said Wednesday.
Officer Anthony Heckman fatally shot Victor Macias, 33, outside Newark Square shopping center on Thornton Avenue near Cedar Boulevard after Macias refused repeated orders in English and Spanish to drop the weapon, said Police Chief Ray Samuels. Heckman, who fired four shots from an AR-15 rifle, was crouched between 40 and 50 feet away from Macias when he fired, the chief said.
Heckman and Sgt. Steven Holbert had been summoned to the shopping center at 4:25 p.m. by reports of a man brandishing a gun and acting erratically. They found Macias standing in front of Chavez Meat Market, where he approached the officers, displaying a silver object that appeared to be handgun, the chief said.
When the man refused to drop the gun, Heckman fired four shots, Samuels said. The chief said videotape of the incident, taken by a surveillance camera at the meat market, confirms the officers' account of the incident. Employees of several businesses in the shopping center also told The Chronicle that they heard the officers repeatedly, and loudly, instruct Macias to drop the gun.
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
Suicide by cop.
It's becoming very popular.
…the cops did what they do best.
Look, if school teachers are too stupid to tell the difference between an aspirin and an illegal narcotic, certainly the cops should not be able to quickly identify a toy gun.
Agreed - both are too stupid to adequately perform their jobs.
HOWEVER, when a bunch of 'em are pointing guns at you and screaming "DROP IT" in half the dog-languages of the U.N., I shouldn't think it matters whether it's a real gun, a fake gun, a balloon on a string, or Mother Mary's vibrator - YOU DROP IT. You FIND things to drop just to SATISFY them.
This is a shocking story. The cops hit the target ?!
AR 15 rifle? Don't they mean "assault weapon"?
"Heckman fired four shots", Didn't they mean to write "sprayed and prayed"?
Just translating this piece if it were about a homeowner.
Silly! It was the cop who had the AR-15, therefore it's a rifle. It's only an assault weapon if you or me own it.
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