“And by SRPD and deputy Gelhaus rules if you flinched ..”
NOT what the story said. If the story was changed as you describe above, I would agree that the cop is at fault.
That doesn’t change the fact that the story, as given, doesn’t have enough info to place blame.
And you never did answer my question of what would you do.
So what would you do if YOU asked someone to drop their weapon and they turned to face you w/weapon in hand?
That doesn’t change the fact that the story, as given, doesn’t have enough info to place blame.
I agree with you that we don’t have ALL the facts and therefore we can’t find Gelhaus guilty, to a legal certainty, as of Nov. 7, 2013.
And, as I have commented before on this issue, I pretty much support the cops in terms of giving them “the benefit of the doubt” in the tough situations that they face daily.
Notwithstanding any of the foregoing though, I think we do have enough information to assign preliminary blame for this incident on “policy” of this police department and “training” at this police department in combination with an officer who has a tenuous record.
I for one do not believe that it should be “policy” of a police department to call it “legal” for a cop to open fire like this cop did. Let’s break one second into 1,000 parts. This cop fired at .1000 instead of .7500. Then, incredulously he just kept firing some ten more rounds into the kid! In other words, he appears to have shot a lonnnnngggggg time before he should have even if the kid had been armed which it turned out he was not. And, why did he keep on firing? Ultimately, Gelhaus will be found to have fired too quick but in a “policy” environment that encourages “shoot first” ask questions later.
Finally, a kid is dead that did not a damn thing wrong and that fact we do have today and it can’t be remedied by an apology or money or anything. He’s dead. And, Gelhaus will have to live with his concsience for the rest of his life which some would argue is a fate worse than death. I simply cannot imagine killing a 13 year old completely innocent kid! I think I would want to join him.
Besides that the Cop said the magic words "I was in fear for my life."
Free to empty the gun into a Kid with a toy gun.