I keep reading comments on many of the forums discussing this case referring to Mesherle as an “officer”, and so many assume he is a policeman, but to my knowledge, he is a BART security guard.
Now, a well trained police officer wouldn’t make the mistake of pulling his gun, thinking it was a taser (according to my son-in-law, who knows these things).
S-I-L said that the training for a security guard is not as extensive, and he nay have been carrying both weapons on the same hip. Police have the taser on one hip, and the gun on the other.
So, I can easily see where an inexperienced and less than perfectly trained security guard could have easily made a tragic mistake, and my heart goes out to him.
I suggest we all pray for him, and his family. Leaping to conclusions is what “a town without pity” does. And we don’t want FreeRepublic to be that unkind, short-sighted, and “quick on the trigger”, do we?
BART police are fully sworn police officers, just like any other municipal police officer in the state. They aren’t just “security guards” like you see in the mall. Now... whether their training is satisfactory or not... is another question for another time.
BART police officers are fully sworn peace officers that have the same powers of arrest as city police officers and county sheriff's deputies. In addition, BART officers attend the same police academies and receive continuous police training.