Posted on 02/19/2005 8:20:52 PM PST by holymoly
CHICAGO - An off-duty correctional officer shot and killed a friend and co-worker early Saturday whom he mistakenly believed was trying to carjack a vehicle being driven by his wife, police said.
Arlin McClendon, 36, of Calumet City, was killed while trying to pull a joke on a longtime friend in an area where two dozen carjackings have occurred in less than a year, authorities said.
"It is a tragic accident, a case of mistaken identity," said Calumet City Police Sgt. Larry Smith. "The victim and the shooter were lifelong friends. They worked together."
McClendon was driving in the suburb just south of Chicago at about 1 a.m. with a colleague when he spotted an SUV that belonged to his friend.
"McClendon began honking and flashing his lights in an attempt to get the vehicle to pull over," Smith said.
What McClendon did not know was that his friend's wife was driving the SUV with the couple's 4-year-old child. His friend, who authorities did not identify Saturday, was in a third vehicle, Smith said.
Once the SUV was stopped, as a joke, McClendon ran up to it and started pounding on one of the windows, said Bill Cunningham, a spokesman for the Cook County Sheriff's Department, which runs the jail where the two men worked.
He also began pulling on a door handle.
The woman's husband did not recognize McClendon, whom he had worked with for years at the Cook County Jail, and mistakenly believed his wife was being carjacked, Smith said.
"He got out of his car and identified himself as a police officer and shot his friend," he said.
McClendon, who was shot multiple times, was pronounced dead at the scene, authorities said.
Over the last six months there have been 24 carjackings in Calumet City and "that may have played into" the off-duty officer's belief that his wife was being carjacked, Cunningham said.
The two both started working at the jail in 1992, he added.
No charges had been filed in connection with the shooting Saturday night, Smith said.
And although an investigation was pending, given the nature of the incident, it was unclear if the off-duty officer would face any criminal charges, Smith said.
Correctional officers are not issued firearms, but are allowed to carry weapons while off-duty, Cunningham said.
I don't have cable anymore but 'Scare Tactics' was airing on the Sci-Fi Channel.
Darwin award winner... I feel guilty saying that, but if I lived in carjacking prone area that would not be my idea of a joke.
I think Texas is the *only* state where you can use deadly force against a rogue cop making an unlawful arrest.
If the shooter in this case had been in the 49 other states, and NOT been a cop himself, he would be sitting in jail for felony murder of an LEO.
Maybe, maybe not. Self defense is OK in a lot of places even outside Texas.
"How does the reported know that the decedant recognized the car that he flagged down? Did he say that after he was shot to death?"
Exactly. How do they know he was perpetrating a very poor joke, instead of a genuine attempt at hijacking.
What was he doing out at 1 am in the area?
I Went to take out the trash at a clubhouse my friends and I used to hang out at. You had to take it down between these two warehouses. Really dark and creepy at night. My best friend decided to "get even" with me for my pranks and scare me. I spun around and threw a punch without thinking. He really scared me. Fractured cheekbone and eyesocket. Ambulance bill alone was over $200. I still feel bad about it.
Ignoring the fact that he shot someone without any cause, how does a guy go from banging on a car window to being a carjacker? Don't you think that is a bit of a reach? I you don't, try shooting someone who bangs on your window and tell the cops he was a carjacker and see how that works out. I will accept that there are more facts than those in the story but based on those alone, no way is the killing of someone justified, weather he is stupid or not.
It also says "He got out of his car and identified himself as a police officer and shot his friend,"....several times. What? His friend kept pounding on the window or pulling the door handle even after he called him? This one smells and once the law wakes up they will charge him because his story doesn't make any sense.
My patented "Smell-o-meter" is pegged at 100%.... something is wrong with this story...
There are people that it very stupid to pull a prank on. I remember my neighbor had just come back from combat in Vietnam and his younger brother, who was passed over in the brains department, decided to play a prank on him. The older brother was working as a bank guard and the younger went to pick him up. The younger one was in a strange car with a friend and picked up a pipe that looked like a gun barrel. He hid in the car and when his brother walked by the car, raised up the barrel to the window and tapped at the same time. This was not a brilliant move since his brother was wearing a real gun and was as jumpy as flea from being in combat. The fact that this might not of been a brilliant joke was dawning on the younger brother when he found himself staring at a loaded and cocked gun a few inches from his head. That the idiot survived his prank only served to prove that sometimes Darwin is wrong. The lesson I learned from hearing this story was that if a person wants to live to a ripe old age, they should be careful who they play pranks on.
You are assuming that because that's how someone just justified killing someone. How do we know any of that is so? It could be the guy was just going up to say hi to his friend. This is a bad shoot.
One thing I know from experience with every story where I was witness to the event, at least three facts are wrong in this scenario. You can probably believe the general gist of it, but junior detectives should be wary of assuming these are the only facts, or the correct facts.
You're supposed to lie down and die like a good citizen.
Thank God I live in an outlying county, but Illinois overall just sucks. We're looking to move to Nevada, Texas, or Idaho as soon as possible.
L
mene mene tekel upharsin
Based on this article, you know more, and have more accurate judgment than the police Sargent and the witnesses who were there? You, who thinks running up and trying to open a woman's car door wouldn't seem threatening?
Ha!
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