Posted on 01/23/2017 4:18:04 PM PST by Leaning Right
Brenda Thompkins awoke early Sunday morning to find a stranger standing near the bed in which she and her ex-husband, Christopher Thompkins, were sleeping on the second floor of his Larimer home. *snip*
When officers tried to enter the house from the front porch, someone inside began shooting in their direction, Toler said. Officers returned fire, killing the 57-year-old homeowner later identified by the Allegheny County Medical Examiner's Office as Christopher Thompkins.
(Excerpt) Read more at triblive.com ...
Sad case. And I don't know if I can fault the cops here. Moral of the story: If the police are responding to your house, make very sure they don't mistake you for a bad guy.
But it is not clear if the homeowner even knew the police were on scene.
Oh, and the intruder was arrested, and was charged with criminal trespass. It would seem to me that he should be charged with murder. His criminal act set everything in motion.
I thought any death that occurs as a result of a crime was attributed to the perpetrator.
Perhaps the police shouldn’t fire blindly into an occupied home...
Know your target before aiming and before firing.
Police at fault.
Any chance the intruder was the wife’s boyfriend?
Funny... how you always get the quick posts in these threads about this reckless type of shooting as not being the cops fault. It's like 'Ho Hum' a guy lost his life because 'what's a girl to do' type excuse. Sad.
If the above were not the case, perhaps the cops shouldn't have been so trigger happy here.
Cops gonna cop.
An ex-wife that says they shot the wrong guy when they shot her ex.
Now there’s a rarity.
“Sounds to me like the homeowner opened fire on the cop, thinking he was an accomplice?”
That’s what I understand to have happened.
Couple of miles away from where I live, bad neighborhood, lots of shootings.
Would not like to be in charge of policing that area.
That is what’s called a “holding charge.” Used to keep the perp in jail while the DA figures out what else to charge the perp with...
Shooting into a probably dark house knowing there are innocent people inside...If anyone deserves to be dead it certainly isn't the homeowner...Those cops are too stupid to be cops...
Ok, I am good with waiting for this to shake out before judging. Way too many strange things about it in the article. Supposedly the homeowner is an ex-con and supposedly he shot at the intruder but the intruder was not injured??? The intruder was in the bedroom upstairs but then ran away (downstairs)? Owner retrieved the gun from his mother (downstairs) then tries to shoot intruder? Police are on scene? Police thought he was shooting at them? There is more to this than has been revealed.
+1
As I recall, in college, a guy fell asleep in his apartment, accidentally leaving the (front I think) door not secured or slightly ajar. Someone called the cops to check it out. Cop arrived, upon entering, startled the (unarmed) guy who sat up in bed. Bang. Apartment-renter dead.
See my post 14. You seem to know something about the area. Any thoughts from reading the full article. Could be another case of poor journalism but it seems like a strange story to me.
“See my post 14. You seem to know something about the area. Any thoughts from reading the full article. Could be another case of poor journalism but it seems like a strange story to me.”
Time of day, neighborhood,and neighborhood lead me to side with law enforcement with this one.
I don’t think the homeowner was in any way at fault, just a bad circumstance.
It should be standard procedure that when a cop enters a house, the cop car’s roof lights go on, and stay on. Plus maybe a blast or two from the car’s siren. Let everyone in that house know the cops are coming in.
This seems like a very sensible thing to do. I wonder why it isn’t done as a matter of routine, especially after dark.
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