Posted on 05/08/2015 7:29:52 AM PDT by Former Fetus
CHARLESTON, S.C. (AP) — Authorities are investigating the still-hazy circumstances surrounding the shooting of a black homeowner by a white sheriff's deputy, and planned to meet with community leaders Friday to discuss what happened.
Two Charleston County Sheriff's deputies encountered the homeowner at the rear of his mobile home in Hollywood, South Carolina, on Thursday as they were responding to a 911 call about a home invasion, Charleston County Sheriff's Maj. Eric Watson said.
The man was either leaving or standing at the back door of the house and was armed. One of the two deputies shot him after he refused to drop his gun, Watson said.
In the ambulance, the man told police he had exchanged gunfire with two suspects who fled the home on bicycles.
>>SNIP<<
The homeowner underwent surgery for a neck wound, but his condition early Friday was not known.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
Maybe because his dog was still alive?
You appear to be under the impression that the cops who claim he refused to drop his gun are telling the truth.
I would imagine his adrenaline was still going from the altercation with the intruders. Maybe he wasn't thinking straight. Maybe he just froze. People can be unpredictable in those circumstances.
Looks like a clearly justified shooting by the deputies, but glad the guy seems to be OK.
Or, never mind on the “seems to be OK part.” I had assumed as much based on the fact that the guy was talking to the officers in the ambulance, missed the part where the article said his condition is unknown. Hope he’s OK.
These days you cannot be sure the uniformed ones who scream drop the gun, are in fact the good guys. Perps will do this too.
There are a lot of assumptions at play here, and several questions to answer - did he, in fact, refuse to drop the gun? Did the officers identify themselves? Were there, in fact, intruders who fled on bikes?
That's why there will be an investgation. But, as it stands now, if everything happened as reported, looks to be a justified shooting (and hope the guy's OK).
Because he was just in a gunfight, he was terrified, and he had no idea if his assailants were still in the area.
So should he have dropped his gun? I suppose. But I fully understand why he didn't. Furthermore, a cop had better be darn sure of his who his target is before pulling the trigger.
Good point. Also, had I just chased two intruders from my home and exchanged gunfire with them, and two other guys showed up, guns drawn and asked me to drop my gun, I can’t say for sure whether I would even notice if the guys were in uniform or not. Hard to predict how one will respond in a situation like that.
If the homeowner would have shot the two men in magic blue costumes after yelling at them, not sure if they were the criminals or not until after the shooting, would he be arrested??
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I just don't know about that. On one hand, the homeowner did call the cops, so he should have expected them. On the other hand, there is no report of the homeowner brandishing his gun or threatening the cops in any way.
And while the homeowner should have expected the cops, the cops should have expected an armed - and very agitated - homeowner.
If I were the DA on this one, I'd have to think about it for a bit.
True, although in these circumstances, "who his target is" is a man who refused to drop his weapon. There is plenty to investigate here, but at first glance, this looks like a situation where I'd find it hard to blame either party. I fully understand why the guy didn't drop his weapon. And I fully understand why the officers perceived him to be a threat and fired.
Why wouldn’t he drop the gun when the cops arrived?
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Because he was just in a gunfight, he was terrified, and he had no idea if his assailants were still in the area.
So should he have dropped his gun? I suppose. But I fully understand why he didn’t. Furthermore, a cop had better be darn sure of his who his target is before pulling the trigger.
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Spot on analysis. The deputy who did the shooting does NOT belong in uniform IMHO. He (or she?) suffers from potentially deadly poor judgement at best or, at worst, from a pathological desire to engage in a shooting whenever an opportunity arises. Some cops are “bad” and need to be weeded out.
NO ONE comes into my house and tells me to drop my gun.
I agree, 100%. As I said, the above is just an initial take, based on what was reported. There is plenty to investigate here - did the officers identify themselves? What was said? How long after they ordered him to drop the weapon did they fire? Was he just holding the weapon or was it pointed at the officers? What did he say?
And more. Definitely not an open-and-shut case in either direction, but based on the initial reporting, I'd lean towards "nearly-tragic but justified shooting," and just hope that the guy is OK.
- The shooting took place in broad daylight, at 11 am. I don't know why, but I assumed based on the initial article that the shooting was at night.
- The victim had been on the phone with 911 for eight minutes, and apparently gave detailed descriptions of the intruders.
- The officers seemed unsure, immediately after the shooting, whether the victim was one of the suspects or the victim of the home invasion. Although they also said that there were two suspects still on the loose, so perhaps they did know he was not one of the suspects.
All in all, this is going to be a messy investigation....
Here in Texas police have shot 5 veterans since January who were inside their own homes and had committed no crimes. The police showed up for whatever reason (usually neighbor called) and saw them in their own homes with weapons and swat’ed them.
Do you have links to those stories or maybe what cities this occurred in? I am in Texas and have not heard any specific mentioning of veterans being shot in their homes other than your post. Just looking for more info here.
Weve been over this. Cops should know better than to tell someone to DROP a gun. It can easily go off if dropped nd then they will shoot the homeowner.
They can order he put the gun down.
Dropping a loaded firearm is idiotic. And as trained officers they should know someone dropping a loaded gun can potentially cause it to go off.
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