He has the gun in his hand, down by his side. He didn’t make a move with it. He was probably thinking it was a home invasion. Not a good shoot. And no, you really don’t get to just shoot because the guy answers the door armed. This is a bad as those two female cops in Houston who mag dumped on that woman answering her door.
The mere sight of a gun doesn’t make it a free fire zone.
It might have reasonable for the cop to suspect that the kid was meaning to do him harm...given that it was a "domestic" that he was called to.
Yes,it also would have been reasonable for the kid to fear that this was some kind of home invasion...in which case it would have been reasonable for him to have a gun.
IMO the single most important factor here is the cop having been directed to the wrong apartment.
It's perfectly legal to answer your door with a firearm (provided one isn't brandishing it or pointing it without provocation). It's not unheard of for home invaders to announce themselves as law enforcement, delivery men, utility workers, etc.
This airman was shot for a perfectly legal act; however, the filthy cowardice of the deputy has now been matched by the equally filthy bottom feeding of Crump.
The family would have been far better advised to seek a reputable, lower profile attorney.
“””””The mere sight of a gun doesn’t make it a free fire zone.”””””
This is what I mean when I say that cops need to know they have to accept a certain amount of risk to be a cop, they cannot just kill every possible threat in front of them and then try to sort out what happened.
It was the duty of that cop to endure and cope with that airman having a pistol at his side in his own home, and handle it, the greater burden of accepting risk was on the man who was working at that moment, the cop, not the homeowner.
“ He has the gun in his hand, down by his side. He didn’t make a move with it. He was probably thinking it was a home invasion. Not a good shoot. And no, you really don’t get to just shoot because the guy answers the door armed. This is a bad as those two female cops in Houston who mag dumped on that woman answering her door.
The mere sight of a gun doesn’t make it a free fire zone.”
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Your good post bares repeating. I would also note that while, as the chief says, the deputy didn’t cover the peephole with his hand he DID step aside out of the field of vision of that peephole. So the airman could not see who was loudly knocking on his door.
“The mere sight of a gun doesn’t make it a free fire zone.”
Especially in a jurisdiction where holding a firearm in your own damned house is an absolutely legal and justifiable thing to do!
The cop who did this needs to hang. And any other jerkoff with a badge who thinks they have a right to mag dump on a law abiding citizen also needs to hang. Screw them, screw their badges, screw their ‘safety’, and screw their magical costumes!
Any more urban police departments are the domestic standing army our forefathers warned us about.
* They stop people without cause and demand their papers.
* They force their way into people’s homes without warrants.
* They arrest people without actual charges.
* They almost always cover up their crimes.
* They fear cameras even more than they fear guns.
* They’re all too frequently bullies who get off on beating people.
* Too many urban police openly and flagrantly hold the Constitution in contempt and openly smear anyone asserting their rights as a ‘Sovereign Citizen’ and then they use the Sovereign Citizen’ smear as justification for violating someone’s rights.
If we have come to the point where we have to fear getting murdered by the damned police and in our own homes then it is time to put an end to the modern experiment of policing.
Restore Constitutional Carry and let law abiding citizens deal with our problems on our own.
If we need a crime report we’ll talk to our elected and accountable sheriff and his modest staff of deputies.
If you're a cop it does. You'll find people right here on FR that think that "officer safety" trumps the 2nd amendment every time. If a cop sees a 'gun', he can kill anyone with impunity regardless of what the 'gun' actually turns out to be.
Being a cop isn't even one of the top 10 most dangerous jobs in the country. It may not even be in the top 20.
It does nowdays. I'm surprised in an open carry state there aren't more kills like this. Possibly a different level of training to recognize a threat. I have answered my door early morning years ago with gun in hand, held about the same as pictured with no problem. I held it pretty well the same as this victim did with an openly visible empty trigger guard. Will probably relegate down to a training issue. No matter to the victim, no matter who they blame the poor man is dead.
Really bad shoot. My SOL is career LEO, detective/investigator, POST instructor; my daughter is a career prosecutor in major a metro area. We are all disturbed by the fact that the airman’s gun was clearly pointed down when LEO opened fire.