This was later confirmed by an older officer who called in during the 3rd hour.
Why did the cops even have their guns drawn?
What did Scott do that had them ordering him to the ground in the first place?
Sounds like the Costco employees all have their story straight.
Great information in the article.
Since the COPS suspected Scott was on some kind of drugs and was reportedly ‘slow’ to respond , why didn’t they give him more time to ‘grasp’ what was happening and get DOWN on the ground?
What is not in this article is an explanation for why there were seven shots fired, and why FIVE of them were in the BACK.
One person claimed that they saw the shooting, and that one of the cops walked up after he was on the ground and fired a final shot into his dying/dead body.
According to the autopsy, one shot was fired from the rear, starting near his butt and going upward, indicating that he was shot after hitting the ground.
ping
That's putting it extremely mildly!
Why didn’t Samantha Sterner, Scott’s girlfriend, show up at the coroner’s inquest? If she had what she thought was the truth, I would think she’d want to shout it from the rooftops.
ping
Kangaroo court, costco EMPLOYEES are well rehearsed, cop well rehearsed, DA controlling the affair, no cross examination = no search for the truth. A crooked attempt at a whitewash.
I can’t imagine that Scott was this screwed up that he tripped, was paranoid, had bleeding knuckles, couldn’t fill out a Costco application.
Is it against the law to be irritated with some high school dropout Costco employee for confronting you? If it is come cart me away because yesterday I told the Verizon customer service associate that he needed to learn more about his job because it was clear he didn’t know enough to do it now.
I don't like how some folks here are commenting on the appearance of the Officer Mosher. From the story it appears that he is a Marine (retired or Reserve or what I don't know) and also an advocate of concealed carry and the 2nd Amendment.
It also appears that there was no video recording in Costco that day. Why it has taken this long for this to come out is beyond me.
Are they paranoid? Trigger happy? Lacked training?
Don't know....
Here's a link to his father's blog.
According to the article:
“Officer William Mosher, the first of three officers who fired shots at Scott and the first to pull his trigger, was again on the witness stand Friday to answer questions from interested parties. “
...
“But he said that given the circumstances — that Scott had raised a weapon at him — he had no choice but to respond with deadly force.”
...
“In the background of a call to 911 played for the jury, Mosher can be heard yelling, “Put your hands where I can see them now. Drop it! Get on the ground! Get on the ground!””
My opinion:
From the 911 tape played in the courtroom indicates that Officer Mosher could not see Erik Scott’s hands {”Put your hands where I can see them now.”). Officer Mosher testified “given the circumstances — that Scott had raised a weapon at him — he had no choice but to respond with deadly force.”
From the 911 tape, it is apparent that Scott had the weapon in his hand when the officer could see his hands, because the officer, after ordering Scott to “Put your hands where I can see them” immediately yells “Drop it!”.
From the pictures at the link, the weapon was in its holster. At least one of the officers was close enough to touch Scott, so he must have been close enough to see whether the weapon was holstered. Was the officer who touched Scott one of the three who shot him?
Finally, the article states “The shooting wouldn’t have happened, he said, if Scott had complied with the commands issued by police to get on the ground.”
Scott’s hands were not visible to the officer. Officer requests Scott show his hands. Scott apparently complies, because the officer can now see something in his hands. Officer requests Scott drop what is in his hands. Officer also requests Scott get on ground.
So Scott complied with the first request. Officer states that he would not have been shot had he complied with the third request (”Get on the ground”). This at least implies that Scott complied with the request to drop the weapon.
Strangely, the officer does NOT state that he was shot because he refused to drop the weapon, but that he was shot because he refused to get down on the ground.
Just a few more weeks on paid vacation and he can go out and plug a few more citizens. Yee-haw!
Just a few more weeks on paid vacation and he can go out and plug a few more citizens. Yee-haw!
The fact that Erik Scott has a 1800 mg of Morphine in his system tells me he was SERIOUSLY doped up and a long time addict. 1800 mg could kill some people
Hospice patients dying don't get that much morphine on a daily basis typically.
Having that much morphine as well as other mind altering drugs in your system certainly made a bad situation deadly.
I would have to think if he was not so doped up this "might" have had a different ending or even never happened in the first place.
I still think the cops are a bunch of trigger happy JBT's just by the simple fact they shot him in the back while he was dying on the ground.
All three cops at minimum should be fired for incompetence
Armed, drunk, and stupid is no way to go through Cosco.