Protests over BART shooting turn violent { Riots in Oakland }

Guy wouldn't have gotten shot if he hadn't been involved in a "scuffle" of some kind.

Always good to behave one's self at times ~ particularly when the cops are armed.

I can't say enough about firearm safety ~ cops in the heat of a situation are definitely going to get into some serious trouble if they have both a taser and a pistol. Give them carbines and tazer ~ the difference should be sufficient enough for them to identify which weapon they want.

At the same time, if a guy is down, and cuffed, why tazer him?

My neighbor (and friend) is a local LEO and last weekend I had a chance to show him this video and ask him what he thought of the whole occurrence.

He agreed that it appeared to be a case of the cop thinking he was drawing his tazer and ending up with his gun instead.

However ....

He then went on to tell me that there is really no possible way a well trained officer would ever confuse the two even in a stressful situation. The officer's gun would most likely be in a level 2 or 3 holster, requiring certain motions to "unlock" the pistol from the holster's grip. The tazer is most often carried in a simple level 1 type holster requiring only a thumb strap. The two can't be confused easily (as he showed me with his issued weapons).

Then there is the point that a person usually carries his pistol on his strong arm side (right handed = right side of hip). The tazer would be on the opposite hip and therefore un-natural to grab, requiring an officer to think about what they are doing during the action. The gun, on your strong side, is as natural as grabbing your car keys out of your pocket with the proper training.

Anyway if what I just typed made any sense, after watching the video it appears to me to be an accident. If the cop meant to shoot the suspect, he would have to have been a cold blooded killer (I don't know him, maybe he is but I give him the benefit of the doubt).

I agree with you about the whole tazer + pistol thing. It seams that you hear more and more that officers turn to the tazer even when a suspect is merely "unpleasant" to deal with and it seems to be resulting in quite a few unintended deaths.

Whatever happened to an officer quieting an agitated suspect with an application of some "hickory-stick shampoo"? The offending party may have a little bump on the melon and need a couple of stitches but they practically never died and usually learned a lesson in the process.

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