Waller didn't drop his gun and instead raised it at Hoeppner who proceeded to fatally shoot the senior citizen seven times.
According to the autopsy report, Waller suffered three hits to his chest as well as single shots to his abdomen and hand. Two other bullets grazed his wrist and forearm.
'I don't know who the guy is,' Hanlon says. 'The guy came out with a gun. He wouldn't put the gun down. He pointed it at Hoeppner. Hoeppner fired.'
Waller was found in his garage and pronounced dead at the scene.
Waller's widow and the rest of his family released a statement of their own as well, saying they would not comment on the grand jury's decision until their independent investigation into the shooting finished.
Just remember the new rules:
You screw up, you pay
The government screws up, you pay
You can’t lie to the government
The government can lie to you
Fort Worth PD is really full of these guys. Has been for decades.
Defending your home can sometimes prove fatal.
To defend your home from the police or the state could prove fatal with no consequences for the murderers.
I'll get the popcorn anyways........
As terrible as this decision appears, at least it was taken by a JURY instead of a police chief, or a prosecutor.
The Chief is delusional. Justice and the healing process have not even begun. Hopefully, the killers and their Chief will be held to justice somewhere in the future.
What happened - was he wearing a dog costume?
The should make the family pay for the blood to be cleaned off the officers clothes, and for the ammo.
At least the police got to go home that night. /sarc
Bad guys - stupid criminals with long hair
Good guys - stupid criminals with short hair
Am I understanding that correctly? The cops got a search warrant to investigate a burglary?
That does not sound right.
He may not have heard them. Either way, the bastards were at the wrong house and killed an innocent man. They should be fired and sent to prison for manslaughter at the very least.
That’s BS! -— police need to be held accountable for such negligence...and I’m a former LE officer...it’s just the right thing to do...they screwed up - and a citizen died...
As usual, the police absolve themselves of all wrong doing.
Looks like we’ll have to expand the rules for cops to
“There’s no situation that cannot be made worse by the presence of a cop and if they screw up and go to the wrong address, the encounter could be deadly!”
Latest vaseline JB story for wolfie. (He might look into buyin’ the stuff in 55 gallon barrels....lots of play lately!)
Years ago, a man, not in uniform, pointed a gun at me and ordered me to freeze. I didn’t. Then there were cops in uniform all over me. He demanded to know why I didn’t freeze. I screamed at him, “You weren’t in uniform. You never identified yourself. I thought I was being mugged.”
My guess is, they never identified themselves. Their story may be a lie. But only they know and they’ll probably convince themselves that they did.
I also have to question the grand jury on this one. Someone made a mistake and that was pure negligence and the LEO did in fact kill a totally innocent man, that is homicide. So by definition a negligent homicide did occur. The castle doctrine, SYG, self defense, and the fourth amendment all fall on the side of the guy who was shot.
I believe that this was an accident, BUT, those responsible for this accident must be held legally and criminally responsible. Responding LEO's in the future must know that a mistake of this kind will have very harsh and real consequences.
The IA investigation in this incident should be open to the public. The DA should be required to release all information obtained in interviews and during investigation. The public should be made fully aware of what happened before and after this homicide and why charges were not brought against the LEO who pulled the trigger. There should be an unobscured view of exactly who made what mistakes and how it all went down.
All of these things will come out in a civil case anyway. We the people pay for all of this and the information should be public.