Posted on 10/16/2019 3:07:46 AM PDT by Navy Patriot
I have to wonder how it was relayed from the initial call to the police responding. Did they get the call as a welfare check or possible prowler or break-in or what? I mean I know the neighbor who called the police said he wanted them to check into it because her front door had been open for hours, but did that get relayed to the police responding? If it had been a break-in, the fact that the door had been open for hours would be a clue that the perp(s) had probably left long ago.
I feel sorry for the man who made the call. He thought he was doing the right thing. Now he must feel that if he’d minded his own business, she’d still be alive.
The cop thought he could kill anyone he wanted to, and the civilian in the home could NOT:
Fear for his life or the lives and safety of others in the home.
Act to protect life or property.
Own or possess arms.
Handle arms in his home.
Be in his home at 2:30 AM
Arrange doors or screens for his comfort.
Be advised of the presence of trespassers.
Be suspicious of persons sneaking around his home at 2:30 AM.
Or play video games with his Grandchild.
Yep, those rights are reserved for valuable people like said cop.
Cowardice precluded that.
Yes, it means that.
The cop never announced himself at the home.
No, the cop was not “investigating a possible burglary” because he was called on a health and welfare check, which generates a responsibility (which he refused to comply with) to call inside the home to see if people were alright as his first action.
On a health and welfare check, the assumption going in is that the homeowner is inside the home. Perhapse incapacitated, or something...but they are there. You don’t sneak around the house in the dark and shoot whomever you see. Okay well you obviously would, but I wouldn’t and neither would any police officer following procedure.
From the Dallas Morning News:
“Lt. Brandon O’Neil, a Fort Worth police spokesman, said at a brief news conference Sunday afternoon that two officers had been dispatched to the home in the 1200 block of East Allen Avenue after a neighbor made a call early Saturday to the nonemergency police line. They arrived about 2:30 a.m. and walked into the backyard.”
“A neighbor, James Smith, said he had called a nonemergency line to ask police to do a welfare check when he noticed the front door was open at the home where Jefferson was.
In audio released Sunday, Smith told a dispatcher that it wasn’t normal for his neighbors to have “both doors open at this time of night.”
Smith said he didn’t know what happened inside the house after police arrived.
“All I know is my neighbor died unnecessarily at the hands of the Fort Worth Police Department,” he said.
There was no sign that anything violent was going on inside the house before the officers arrived, he said.
“All they had to do was announce who they were and if she heard them, she’d probably come to the door to see who was at her front door,” Smith said.”
Nonemergency line, welfare check, open structure. Cops had no need of stealthy approach.
Right now *I* have all my windows and doors open to let the smell of my burned bagel out of the house. Does that give the cops the right to shoot me?
Basically what that means is that in a particular situation I might not accept the validity of a certain law,as it's applied in *that* case,and as a result I,as a juror, might reject instructions that the judge might give to me during,or at the end of,the trial.
In *this* case I'm inclined to believe that if the kid's account is accurate then the cop just might have been justified,morally if not legally,to fire.
This woman absolutely should not be dead. I think it's far more likely than not the cop handled this case...the approach to the house for example...badly.If so then he could certainly be accused of serious negligence.
Again,assuming that the kid's account is accurate,I could see the cop deserving time in prison for major negligence...but I don't see anything close to "murder" as *I* define the word..
And,quite frankly,I wouldn't care what Texas law might say.
see Post #26
Fortunately for the rest of us, Texas law matters because this incident happened in Texas.
The cop was NOT morally or legally justified in firing. He had not identified himself, he was illegally trespassing on her property and was just another thug at that point. Are thugs morally justified in shooting their victims?
Have you even watched the bodycam video at all? We don’t have to rely on the kid’s testimony at all.
I hope you have bulletproof screens, Dean’s partner is still out there.
And my question is, did all that information get relayed to the police in the patrol car?
Here’s the dispatch call and the video take from the officer’s body cam.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JBngqltcXRQ
This guy needs to be under the jail.
So if we should ever meet I'll make it a point to point a gun at you (no,it won't be real but it will *look* real) and we'll see how you react.
It all depends on the accuracy of the kid's statement.
Pointing a firearm, by accident or design, at a LEO doesn’t usually end well.
Reportedly the officers spoke with the original caller prior to approaching the house for the welfare check. If the information didn’t get passed on, it wasn’t anyone else’s fault but the officers’.
Police need to announce and identify themselves.
Snooping around the bushes of somebody’s house is a BAD idea.
His body cam should also show the woman pointing a gun.
Police negligence? Very probably. Murder? No way! (assuming that the kid's giving an accurate account).
And,as I said before,I don't care how Texas law might define it.
I don’t, but my local Texas police department is well aware of Texas Penal Codes and doesn’t do crap like this FWPD officer did. I have actually been the recipient of a welfare check phoned in by a family member after I deliberately went no contact with them; the local officers came straight to my open patio door and knocked on the frame whilst identifying themselves as police and calling my name. Strangely, they did not skulk around the outside of the house...
The cop murdered that woman.
No the cop had no right to be a prowler. There was no law enforcement procedure that allows skulking around a home gun drawn when you are sent on a health and welfare check because the call by it’s nature assumes that the residents are there but not necessarily okay.
The officer was there in the dark doing something that was likely to provoke a defense response from the residents, then shot the resident when that response occurred. All while never announcing himself until the moment he was killing the resident.
That’s not just a mistake.
There aren’t that many jurors as incompetent as you, and you would never get an acquittal by your proudly proclaimed stupidity...just a hung jury.
This time it might not end well for the cop as well.
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