Posted on 04/13/2012 9:53:42 AM PDT by dragnet2
Los Angeles Police Department officials described the shooting death of a 19-year-old man after a bizarre high-speed chase on the 101 Freeway "tragic" but defended the officers' actions.
Eight Los Angeles police officers fired more than 90 rounds, killing him.
LAPD officials will review several factors related to the incident, including communication tactics and whether the large number of rounds fired endangered other freeway motorists.
Police said they noticed Abdul Arian driving erratically near the Northridge Fashion Center on Wednesday and tried to pull him over. But he refused, instead taking them on a high-speed pursuit through city streets
He drove a black Crown Victoria, which his uncle said was a retired police cruiser that had been purchased at an auction.
During the chase, Arian called 911, and according to a partial transcript of the call released by the LAPD, he claimed to have a gun and made threats to the police.
The dispatcher, according to the release, pleaded for Arian to surrender, saying "I don't want you to hurt yourself."
Arian responded with expletives and warned that the police are "going to get hurt."
Police did not recover a gun from the scene.
After cutting across lanes, Arian stopped, jumped out of his car and began running on the freeway. Facing police while back-stepping, he extended both arms with clasped hands, a gesture captured on video by a KTLA-TV news helicopter.
But as Arian headed toward the shoulder of the freeway in the vicinity of a vehicle that had pulled over, he turned again and assumed what police called a "shooting stance." He appeared to wield a weapon. His uncle believed it was a cellphone. Sources familiar with the investigation who were not authorized to speak publicly confirmed that it was a cellphone.
(Excerpt) Read more at latimesblogs.latimes.com ...
I'm thinking of L.A. Story, where there is some annual "open shooting" day on the thruway.
It sounds like you should stop running from police and be thankful the police are such bad shops.
PS - Training is suppose to significantly reduce the effect you describe. Your suggestion supports an argument that police can't be trusted to act reasonably or professionally in high stress situations.
Let the riots begin.
Seems like a “good shooting,” in the sense of being entirely justified by what was known at the time.
It’s only a “tragedy” in that the young man probably was mentally ill. It’s a shame he had to have a meltdown like this.
Sometimes one rounds is enough, some times one round isn't enough. People don't always die after being shot even when shot in the head.
Abdul Arian - Sounds like a made up name. Like Orangello or Lemonjello
Most of them shoot Glocks, so it’s unsurprising that most of them also don’t know how to shoot at all.
Yeah, well, there's always the case of Mark Essex - "An autopsy later revealed more than 200 gunshot wounds." -Wiki
Not that Essex didn't have it coming, but...I remember reading in a true crime book that during the hunt, some cops were wounded by ricochets from the amount of rounds that they were pouring into an enclosed area.
I understand with what you're saying and tend to agree somewhat.
I used to be 100+ percent pro-law enforcement etc...Sadly, my trust has diminished substantially.
To be perfectly honest, I no longer trust government or their agents.
I'm reminded of the process of natural selection. Hopefully he hadn't bred yet.
There I was on Indiana 37, one of the routes that road merged into at several points so I decided to pull over behind some trees along the highway until this was over. Just then I saw them coming in my rear view mirror ~ made it behind the trees just in time ~ and they were shooting at each other!
While I crawled down as deep as I could get in the compartment in front of the seats ~ talk about heart beats and adrenalin ~ I was still jumped up the next day!
LOL!
Reminds me of a New Orleans shootout back around 1972 or 73.
A perp shot several cops. took refuge in the top of a cement enclosed elevator shaft. Cops continued to fire on the cement encased shaft.
Man runs from the building, is shot. Is there a second perp?
Cops throw hundreds of more rounds at the room. Then in a wild dash dozens of them rush from the stairway to the shaft firing as fast as they can. Cops are hit by police fire and fall. The elevator shaft room is empty.
All caught on live TV.
It will be impossible to determine the actual kill shot, minimizing an individual officer’s liability.
I resent that remark. Why I oughta...
One of your Roads is wrong in your post. I was trying to picture where this happened as I don't recall it. I assume you were headed south to Bloomington (returning to college). It sounds exciting but Madison Avenue doesn't cross or merge into 37.
Maybe it was long before I was conceived. I was born and raised on the South Side. :o)
Considering the financial condition of the Calefornia, somebody ought to get charged with wasting state resources or environmental contamination.
You can bet they would shoot better if the Police Union got fined for every miss.
You can’t blame the cops for taking the guy down, but for firing off 90 rounds, maybe a different answer.
You can’t blame the cops for taking the guy down, but for firing off 90 rounds, maybe a different answer.
I was the pursuer, not the pursued. Sorry that was not clear enough for you.
As far as your training comment, there is no current training regimen that I am aware of that can prepare an officer to calmly shoot the X ring out while their heart rate is at 220+ bpm and has been for 15 minutes. Been in the business for 15 years and eight years prior military experience. Other than something I read on the SF Q course, where Green Beret candidates did a force road march with a weps qual at the end and were given one minute to get their heart rate under control before the qual, I never had any training in Army Infantry on heart rate control either. Truth is, in these situations your fine motor control is shot to hell, and that is what primarily helps you to shoot accurately.
A wise senior NCO told me once that “You may have been trained in the “one shot, one kill” doctrine but the realities of combat are much different. This is why we give you six hundred rounds of ammo and coin phrases such as “suppressive fire.”
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