Posted on 02/19/2012 10:16:11 AM PST by Altariel
By AUDREY BARNES/myfoxdc
CULPEPER, Va. - Investigators are trying to figure out what led to a police shooting that killed a 54-year-old woman in Culpeper.
A telephone pole on North East Street is where police say the confrontation between Patricia Cook and a five-year veteran of the Town of Culpeper Police Department ended.
Ironically, it began about 75 yards up the street outside of the church Cook attended. And if you had to pick a person least likely to be shot and killed by police, the victim's next door neighbor said it would be Patricia Cook.
“She’s always talked really nice, and always smiling and laughing with you,” said Robin Herndon, a neighbor of Cook’s. “It’s just a shock.”
Investigators say she was shot and killed by a Culpeper Police officer responding to a call about a suspicious person at around 10 a.m. Thursday.
“Some sort of altercation took place and some shots were fired. The vehicle ended up traveling south on North East Street about 75 yards and ended up striking a telephone pole,” said Town of Culpeper spokesman Wally Bunker.
After the initial shots, witnesses said Cook drove her Jeep up North East Street, taking out a street sign before hitting the light pole. There are unconfirmed reports from witnesses that the officer fired more shots as Cook tried to drive away.
Instead, Herndon says Cook, a petite woman with blond hair always in a neat bun, didn't have children of her own, so she would make gifts for her neighbor's children, and always took the time to say hello.
Virginia State Police are in charge of the investigation now. The officer is on paid administrative leave.
Police have not said how many times Cook was shot or what might have prompted the officer fire his weapon.
Wow you are ignorant about the law.
First, the initial news reports all have the reporters saying that the witness said the officer’s hand was inside the vehicle. He later changed that story.
Second, an officer does not have to turn on a blue light to detain someone or to initiate an encounter with someone. In fact, if she was in the parking lot and he responded, it would be extremely unusual for him to pull up and turn on his blue light. It is far more likely that he would get out of his car and approach the person on foot and initiate a conversation or encounter.
She was not supposed to be at that parking lot. Period. A person called in a complaint for a reason. The officer has a duty to investigate that complaint.
Reasonable suspicion is a very, very low standard. If she wasn’t supposed to be there and was on the scene when the officer arrived, he would have had more enough to investigate her further.
We don’t know yet what transpired after that contact leading up to the officer shooting. What we do know is that the witness changed his story, and the media doesn’t appear to have done due diligence in vetting him. Further the spacing of the rounds from the photographs is consistent with the officer being dragged.
I understand that you libertines hate the police and believe that license is synonymous with liberty. However, our founding fathers didn’t share that view.
So if she had been sitting on your private property, what would you have done? Left her alone?
Asked her if she needed help. Perhaps if necessary I would have asked her to leave.
Tempting to extrapolate backwards from the eye-witness report
and posit that he drew his gun when he left his car.
They have the most dangerous job in the history of the universe ya know.
I've never put my self forward as an expert.
I posted the view of a lawyer/former police officer for discussion.
I understand that you libertines hate the police and believe that license is synonymous with liberty.
I understand that casting lies and insults is tempting when trying to make a point.
No dashcam. What a surprise.
Killing was Feb.09, earliest reports I see from the next day, Feb.10,
show him telling the same story as he does 4 days later.
The only 'contradiction' I see reported is on Feb.10 ...
"An eyewitness to a fatal police shooting in Culpeper, Virginia is contradicting the State Police version of the story."
link
I made no logical fallacies. Personal attacks, on the other hand, are a sign that one has failed to think through his position logically.
Why should we believe the story of a government employee who is personally responsible for the murder of a law-abiding, *not detained* private citizen? Why should we not view it with as much skepticism as any other criminal’s version of events?
Feb 15, 2012
http://www.nbc29.com/story/16941006/special-prosecutor-to-handle-culpeper-shooting
It’s real crazy.
We’ve got cops who won’t chase clear criminals because of fear of high speed crashes. yet this ‘comply or die’ mentality with average citizens any non-compliance has them unloading their magazine into them.
Everyone needs to have a dash cam on their vehicle especially if you drive alone a lot. For accidents and avoiding liars in the other car, and for capturing incidents with police.
They are geting better and becoming less expensive. You can get a decent quality that has a decent internal battery, and SD card holder for recording, for $40. 120-140 degree capture and has a mic to capture audio. Amazon has decent ones for $40.
“It sounded like gunfire...multiple shots in rapid succession,” said Forster. “I saw the police officer running up the street following the Jeep.” . . .
“The officer went directly to the driver's side...it appeared that he may have tried to talk to the driver,” continued Forster, “there was no attempt to administer first aid...the occupant clearly didn't need medical assistance.” . . .
Forster saw the officer walking away between two other officers. “He looked totally distraught,” said Forster who heard the officer say repeatedly, “why did she do that, why did she do that.” . . .
“It struck me as weird...when the cop came running up the street, he had his gun holstered,” said Forster. “It would seem that if he thought the suspect dangerous he would have had his gun drawn..clearly the victim was no threat to him.”
“It's horrific...this is really, really upsetting to me.”
http://culpepertimes.com/news/2012/feb/09/one-dead-culpeper-shooting/
You absolutely did. If you are too ignorant to figure out what fallacies you committed, then that is far more indicative of your vendetta than anything else that I can point out.
By the way, making statements such as “murder” and “criminal” can lead you open to a defamation action.
“What would you do if you were being dragged down the street?”
There isn’t a car window in the world fast enough to catch my arm in it. Not a manual one, and not an electric one. Not if I’m awake at the time...
That is all I need to know to realize something stinks here.
Uh huh. Internet keyboard warrior and all.
Funny thing is there is this happens all the time. It’s quite easy to be dragged by a vehicle, and it doesn’t even require your arm to be rolled completely up in the window.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eOnCzoOotEk&feature=related
http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=048_1242939116
http://articles.boston.com/2011-12-26/metro/30556641_1_lowell-driver-traffic-officer-police-officer
http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/12/08/2537700/miami-springs-officer-dragged.html
I have about 112,000 other results that I could post for you, but I think you get the point.
So he comes up to the Jeep to question her. They talk, then argue, then she starts to leave. At that point why didn’t he just take down her license plate number?
It would have been easy enough to find her since she lived in town, and it is probable he knew that from their conversation.
Thanks...
I’m getting a ‘502 – Bad Gateway’ error on the link.
Thank you for your interest in this Virginia story. I’ll send you the article. There is another link to the “Print” version also...
http://culpepertimes.com/news/2012/feb/09/one-dead-culpeper-shooting/print/
You’re avoiding the question.
Why should we believe the version of the story told by the government employee responsible for the death of a law-abiding woman who was not being legally detained? Particularly when no evidence has been produce to corroborate his story?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.