South Carolina slaying stirs image of Old South - Police not charged in store shooting (GLOBE TITLE)

NORTH CHARLESTON, S.C. - In the tragic end, it wasn't a lynch mob that killed Edward Snowden.

After he tried using a jammed handgun to fend off an alleged attack by four white men, the 35-year-old black Army veteran died on the floor of a local video store, cut down by the gunshots of two white police officers who had been summoned to the scene.

This is quite tragic, and very sad for a family and a community.....
BUT... the Boston Globe is the LAST newspaper in the USA with any correct perspective on southern culture and heritage.

This was a case of poor police work; the possible language barriers, and poor communication from the video store owner--dispatcher--- officers on scene... served as death warrant for the victim.
Sad indeed...

Regards,

I live in North Charleston,, 95 percent of the crime here is done by blacks,, and this story is bullsh*t,, the guy had a gun in his hand when the cops arrived,, the amount of crime done to whites and blacks by blacks is unreal here,, there is also a large number of black cops who do a damn good job in North Charleston and there really is no problem here with police relations among any group,, the cops don't go around shooting people for no reason,, we have had white people shot by the cops where the incident had been questioned and the media never made a federal case out of it,, a couple of years ago less than a mile from my house a large groups of blacks beat a white man so badly he suffered severe brain damage,, they beat him because they wanted to beat a white person,, they admitted this,, no hate crime was talked about and we never saw Jesse Jackson,, wonder why??

A couple of points here. First, the deceased should have known that "warning shots" are bull. If you pull out that firearm you have decided it is a life and death situation and the attck must stop immediately. He should have dropped at least one of his attackers. The testimony of the store owner is what I tend to believe in this situation. If his testimony is what is reported here then I must say that the cops should be facing manslaughter charges. At best it is another case of a totally innocent man being killed by LEO's. IMHO it is probably not racial. It is, however, most likely generated by the mindset of many officers that a civilian with a gun is a bad guy. There have been too many incidents of both white and black plainclothes officers being shot by other officers nationwide to cavalierly state the officers are blameless. A man is dead. That man did nothing illegal. The case should be investigated.

Stay well - Yorktown

My thoughts, exactly. If the attackers could see that the weapon was jammed, why couldn't the police? The writer of the article is taking every possible precaution to ensure that this is seen as a racially motivated police shooting, though.

It seems likely that the responding officers would have shot anyone on the scene holding a weapon, no matter what color he was.

This guy made so many mistakes I don't know where to begin.... Had he shot one or all of his attackers he would have been in the wrong, having already escaped to his vehicle. HE went back into the situation (armed). We can argue all day about the quality and care of a semi-auto and ammo preventing jams but when a wheel gun doesn't fire once just point and click.... Warning shots are for the police to use. All of the 220 gr jacketed, segmented, cavity points in my possession have "scumbag" written on them. I refuse to shoot innocent pavement, air, etc. The first indication that I am armed will be the muzzle flash, sparing the above mentioned scumbag the pain of lamenting his poor choice of victim selection. Last, and certainly not least, never...EVER point your weapon at the police. It should be back in its concealed carry position to minimize mistakes on their part.

Interesting that if it's a white cop in New York under questionable circumstances, it's a renegade racist cop. If it's a clouded situation down here, it's our whole culture. They neglect to say that the Charleston police chief is black who has spoken out vocally calling 'racial profiling' crap. I'm sure he sees this situation with a completely different angle. BTW, LL2, what does he say about this incident?

When we were at Seabrook in May prior to the meeting, there was an article about this in the P&C. It seemed clear then that this guy contributed to his own outcome in a big way.

I have never shot anyone. However, I have responded to disturbances like this and it is choatic beyond all belief. It is not reasonable to believe that the officers can have control of a scene like this in 2 seconds after arrival. If I responded to a disturbance with shots fired, I would be definitely on edge when I saw someone with a firearm. Don't forget, this man was behind the counter and apparently next to the clerk. From the position of the officers he could have been directly threatening the clerk. Therefore, deadly force is justified. Officers do not always have to give a warning if in their view the threat was imminent and the warning would further jeopardize the civilian present. Most freepers are reasonable when it comes to officer involved contacts. Give the agency involved an opportunity to take this through the system. Many innocent people are killed unintentionally when at the time the actions appeared to justified. It is very easy to find out the WHOLE story later, when everything is calmed down. However, I cannot rule out that I would have behaved any differently than the officers with the information presented in this article. I was angered that the title indicated the 'old south' policing which disappeared many years ago. I suspect this may have directed some of the antagonistic thoughts on this topic. I recommend that those of you who are anti police attempt to do a ride along with your local agency. Get to know officers in your area. Not the young, aggressive ones! They try my patience! Once people learn the other side of the badge, they tend to be more understanding, not forgiving, understanding. Patience is what is needed, not attack. Police are humans first. They understand that they have a narrow area of tolerance. But, they still want to live. No one ever said this job was one that you SHOULD die in! Reasonable effort is measured by all the factors at the time, not what is learned weeks and months later.

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