Posted on 09/10/2019 11:43:34 AM PDT by righttackle44
The names of two officers involved in the shooting of three children in Hugo, OK have been released over a week after the tragic incident took place.
Hugo Police Department detectives Billy Jenkins and Chad Allen have been identified as the officers who opened fire on a vehicle driven by William Devaughn Smith, 21, whom they suspected of robbing a pizza shop. The bullets struck three of the four children sitting in the back seat.
“My 4-year-old daughter was shot in the head, and she has a bullet in her brain, and my 5-year-old has a skull fracture,” mom Olivia Hill told KFOR. “My 1-year-old baby has gunshot wounds on her face. My 2-year-old wasn’t touched with any bullets.”
Police claim they began shooting because Smith was attempting to run them over with his truck, but many dispute this argument, saying officers simply could have moved out of the way rather than opening fire, especially into a vehicle containing children. It should also be noted that officers were in plain clothes that day, meaning Smith very well may not have known the two men approaching him with guns were police.
(Excerpt) Read more at ebony.com ...
newspaper delivery ladies nearly killed and their car shredded by trigger-happy LAPD . Their vehicle didn't even resemble the suspect's.
Was Smith, the driver, killed? What happened to him???
“As a youngster I learned to respect LE but also learned to not give them unqualified support.”
I don’t give anyone unqualified support or trust. Currently, I’m not happy with a couple or three of my doctors.
People screw up. In this case, I’ll wait to hear others’ sides of the story. It looks bad for the cops, though.
Detectives. Probably had coat and tie on. And I assure you they were wearing a badge on their belt. Please Don’t judge until you know all the facts.
“Although that uncertainty does NOT justify trying to run the men over with his vehicle.”
Sure it does.
The citizen was in fear for his life that the armed men were going to open fire and guess what? That fear was 100% justified by the actions of the armed men.
And hold onto your outrage for a moment...
Now imagine that the armed men had run up on a cop from another jurisdiction and that they had shot the kids of another cop.
How would you feel then?
And the police chief sent detectives in an unmarked car why?
(Free disclosure, I have been an opponent of unmarked cars for thirty five years. I believe that the public is best served by the old black and white recognizable patterns and that each state should standardize such a pattern)
I think he was plenty justified. If I were facing individuals who I didn't know pointing guns at me, my foot would be standing on the gas.
I don’t see many stories from Ebony.
> Police claim they began shooting because Smith was attempting to run them over with his truck <
That’s the key point right there. The video might show that was really the case. Then it was a good shoot.
Or the video might show that the cops were well off to the side. Then it was a bad shoot.
Or the video might show that the cops were kinda off to the side. In that case a jury will have to sort it all out.
I remember the riots in Hugo about 40 years ago. A bad time for them. Still an unsolved ambush of a policeman there.
BFD.
And I assure you they were wearing a badge on their belt.
BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAhahahahaha!!!!
Like that's even remotely visible or noticeable in the 500 milliseconds you have to decide your response.
Our public SERVANTS need to learn some respect for We the People.
What you said.
> Suppose you’re in your car with your children … and suppose a bunch of dudes in plain clothes run up and start pointing guns at you … <
That’s a good point. And I wouldn’t automatically assume that they were the police just because they yelled “police”.
Woops! That was Idabel OK, just down the road from Hugo.
If Smith just committed a robbery of the pizza place and was fleeing from police and one of the children dies, Smith will be charged with murder or manslaughter.
re: “Incidents such as this have caused me to withdraw unqualified support for law enforcement officers. Way too many incidents such as this are happening, with police packing their version with lies and false reports.”
Yeah, I hear ya.
Hauling your kids to a robbery - NOTHING wrong with that ...
People who commit pizza store robberies are not there after the pizza. They want the money in the till or the safe. Typically they will point a loaded gun at the head of the clerk or the manager making it clear that they will kill in order to obtain the money.
The article seems to say very little as to the disposition of the robbery case.
Hope those kids are OK now and that the mother chooses better daycare providers for her children.
It is Hugo, Oklahoma after all. That part of the world along the Red River is pretty close to no-man’s land. Tom and Grassy Lake, Oklahoma are at the functional end of the earth on the way to Texarkana.
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