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Cop shoots unarmed man. Immediatley charged with voluntary manslaughter.

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brian577

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How often does this actually happen?

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-201_162...-looking-for-help-after-wreck-shot-by-police/

An unarmed man who may have been looking for help after a vehicle wreck was shot and killed by a police officer Saturday as he ran toward him, police said. The officer was later charged with voluntary manslaughter.

A statement issued by police said officers responded to a breaking and entering call on the city's east side around 2:30 a.m. Someone had knocked on the door of a residence, and the homeowner opened the door, thinking it was her husband. When she discovered it wasn't, she closed the door and called 911.

When officers arrived, they found Jonathan A. Ferrell, 24, a short distance from the home, and he matched a description given by the homeowner, police said. The statement said officers approached Ferrell to investigate the original call. Ferrell ran toward the officers and was hit with a Taser. Ferrell continued to run toward police when Officer Randall Kerrick fired his weapon, hitting Ferrell several times. Ferrell was pronounced dead at the scene.

Investigators said they think a wrecked car discovered down an embankment in nearby woods may have been driven by Ferrell, and investigators say he may have been trying to get help from the resident who called 911.
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Good to see this didn't get shielded by the Blue Wall. Accountability's really important, and when you have corruption run rampant like it sometimes can in cases like these, it gives a bad name to a lot of great cops.
 
i half expected the OP to start with "psych! He actually got a medal for it"

i guess it's good that they're charging the cop, but I'd be extremely surprised if anything more than paid vacation came of it.

It always baffles me how fucking paranoid policemen in the US are. Are they actually trained to shoot first, ask later?
 
Cop must have left his setup kit at home or something. Contains random objects that can be construed as weapons and the all important police issue sack of cover up crack. Rookie mistake.
 
Roastbeef said:
i half expected the OP to start with "psych! He actually got a medal for it"

i guess it's good that they're charging the cop, but I'd be extremely surprised if anything more than paid vacation came of it.

It always baffles me how fucking paranoid policemen in the US are. Are they actually trained to shoot first, ask later?
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They're dealing with a population armed to the teeth.
 
Good for them, although my suspicion here would be that this ends up with drugs in the victim's system, resulting in a mild plea deal. But that'd take this guy off the streets at least.
 
I work security here in Australia so I deal with cops all the time, very polite and have a good sense of humor but I get the impression cops over in the US are total cowboys, they seem to lack any judgment at all.
 
makingmusic476 said:
They're dealing with a population armed to the teeth.
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Don't even. Just don't fucking even. An unarmed man who was most likely trying to call for help with his broken down car was tazered and shot to death by someone who is paid to protect him.

There is no excuse for this level of stupidity and paranoia.
 
Roastbeef said:
i half expected the OP to start with "psych! He actually got a medal for it"

i guess it's good that they're charging the cop, but I'd be extremely surprised if anything more than paid vacation came of it.

It always baffles me how fucking paranoid policemen in the US are. Are they actually trained to shoot first, ask later?
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No. They are not
 
Longshot said:
I work security here in Australia so I deal with cops all the time, very polite and have a good sense of humor but I get the impression cops over in the US are total cowboys, they seem to lack any judgment at all.
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You can't take a few situations that hit the news and assume all cops are like that. Most if not all of cops I've seen or dealt with are exactly as you described.

makingmusic476 said:
They're dealing with a population armed to the teeth.
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I can't remember the last time I saw someone carrying a gun who wasn't on their way to hunt or required one for work. And guns are very easy to get where I live.
 
Anticitizen One said:
For what it's worth all of the cops I've met were very polite and treated me with respect
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Yeah, I've generally had good experiences. Though the circumstances in which I've run into cops were all exceptionally normal and calm.

Most trouble I've ever had is with cops who drive like dicks. Way to set an example for everybody else.
Valjean Lafitte said:
Don't even. Just don't fucking even. An unarmed man who was most likely trying to call for help with his broken down car was tazered and shot to death by someone who is paid to protect him.

There is no excuse for this level of stupidity and paranoia.
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Oh, I wasn't trying to excuse it. At all.

It's terrible that things like this happen as often as they do, and police that cause situations like this need to be held in every way accountable for what they've done. But it's also good to acknowledge that there are wider issues at play that can encourage these things to happen more often than they would otherwise.

Looking back, it probably wasn't a good idea to make that post and bring that topic into this thread.
 
A statement issued by police said officers responded to a breaking and entering call on the city's east side around 2:30 a.m. Someone had knocked on the door of a residence, and the homeowner opened the door, thinking it was her husband. When she discovered it wasn't, she closed the door and called 911.
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I know it was 2:30am, but it's sad that people feel the need to live in this sort of fear.
 
rCIZZLE said:
You can't take a few situations that hit the news and assume all cops are like that. Most if not all of cops I've seen or dealt with are exactly as you described.



I can't remember the last time I saw someone carrying a gun who wasn't on their way to hunt or required one for work. And guns are very easy to get where I live.
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Well, we've had a handful of local incidents in which cops got shot doing fairly routine stuff:

http://www.fox8live.com/story/19300...hborhood-still-reeling-after-deputy-shootings

If I were a cop, things like that would make me paranoid as fuck. But then, that's why I'm not a cop.

Edit: Goddamn it's been a year.
 
I read it somewhere else that both cops got suspended with pay and nothing more. Guess it's new charges? Dude must of been a rich white guy I guess.
 
Longshot said:
I work security here in Australia so I deal with cops all the time, very polite and have a good sense of humor but I get the impression cops over in the US are total cowboys, they seem to lack any judgment at all.
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Only because it's trendy to post threads about incidents like this right now. Making it appear far more common than it is.
 
Fusebox said:
I was wondering that. Probably just forward momentum, might have had extra adrenaline from the car crash too
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Concussion also can make people do weird things. If he had one from the crash, and was in 'omg get help' mode, he might not have realized he was in danger.
 
Good... Too many people use guns to solve their problems. Even cops. Even a slight hint of danger results in them starting to shoot.
 
How were they responding to a breaking and entering when the man knocked at someone's door and was shut out? I see no breaking nor any entering there.



.
 
Longshot said:
I work security here in Australia so I deal with cops all the time, very polite and have a good sense of humor but I get the impression cops over in the US are total cowboys, they seem to lack any judgment at all.
Click to expand...

Well it's also because US cops can pull a gun out whenever they feel. Drawing a gun in Australia can without proper cause put you under investigation. You do it as a last resort, not a first.
 
makingmusic476 said:
They're dealing with a population armed to the teeth.
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pro-tip, disarm the population.

scrap the 2nd amendment, and jail Gun Manufactures who sell guns in the blackmarket.

The guy probably lost his cell phone during the car crash, I place my phone in a cup holder. the car impacted, for sure the phone would have flew
 
Tragic overreaction by the cop and the woman as well. Article makes it sound like the car accident itself could have been fairly serious, so the victim may have been acting erratically if he was already injured.
 
The victim

f01otRr.jpg


8uQVr.Em.138.jpeg
 
MThanded said:
The victim

f01otRr.jpg


8uQVr.Em.138.jpeg
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So a large athletic man. It's definitely wrong that he was killed, but I'm not sure what I would have done if I had been the cop responding to a possible B&E late at night, and had a man like that come running at me, who presumably didn't respond to verbal commands, and then ignored a tazer as well.

As always, it feels like we're missing some important details. As it stands, I think I would want the cop to lose his job, but prison time is probably not needed.
 
Palmer_v1 said:
So a large athletic man. It's definitely wrong that he was killed, but I'm not sure what I would have done if I had been the cop responding to a possible B&E late at night, and had a man like that come running at me, who presumably didn't respond to verbal commands, and then ignored a tazer as well.

As always, it feels like we're missing some important details. As it stands, I think I would want the cop to lose his job, but prison time is probably not needed.
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The threat of having a physical altercation with someone is not justification for shooting them. Cops are expected to have to subdue people. This isn't Fallujah.

LOL at the people waiting to hear the cop's race for this to "make sense". We have a bunch of facts, just not ones people can run with and make assumptions.
 
Palmer_v1 said:
So a large athletic man. It's definitely wrong that he was killed, but I'm not sure what I would have done if I had been the cop responding to a possible B&E late at night, and had a man like that come running at me, who presumably didn't respond to verbal commands, and then ignored a tazer as well.

As always, it feels like we're missing some important details. As it stands, I think I would want the cop to lose his job, but prison time is probably not needed.
Click to expand...

Shoot first ask questions later. Details like what?
 
Ferrell ran toward the officers and was hit with a Taser. Ferrell continued to run toward police when Officer Randall Kerrick fired his weapon, hitting Ferrell several times.
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A taser has a range of 10m at most.
So what in the hell happened? Did they draw taser and gun at the same time? Fired taser and then immediately shot him? 10m is 1-2 seconds at most.
 
Palmer_v1 said:
responding to a possible B&E late at night
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This is the particular that I keep coming back to. It wasn't a B&E. It was a man knocking on a woman's door late at night. (I don't think his race is important at this point, it was a woman interacting with unknown man at 2:30am.) She opened the door without coercion, and was able to shut the door on him apparently without struggle. Wrongly reporting it as a "possible B&E" elevated the situation to where the cops were expecting a high tension situation.

When in a severe accident or a similar situation, television and film have forever shown me scenes of people desperately running towards cops, shouting, and with arms waving in the air. I've never been in such a situation, but if I were, that's exactly what I would've done as well. Maybe he was incorrectly trained to believe that police are who you run to when you're having trouble, when that's not necessarily the reality we have right now. Maybe he forgot that he was black?
 
I highly doubt the woman calls B&E on a white 24-year old that rings her doorbell.

Besides, it wasn't even a Breaking and Entering -- it would have been just Entering. The dude fucking knocked.

I hate people.
 
jimi_dini said:
A taser has a range of 10m at most.
So what in the hell happened? Did they draw taser and gun at the same time? Fired taser and then immediately shot him? 10m is 1-2 seconds at most.
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That bit got me as well, with the range of a taser the cop must have made one very quick judgement to fire the real gun, I wouldn't ne surprised if the victim was merely carried forward after the taser due to momentum.

Such a shame, to survive what sounds like a very bad accident, then to have a door shut on you and the cops called on you when trying to get help, and then getting tasered, shot and killed by the police when you ran towards them to get help.

I mean good grief.
 
Palmer_v1 said:
So a large athletic man. It's definitely wrong that he was killed, but I'm not sure what I would have done if I had been the cop responding to a possible B&E late at night, and had a man like that come running at me, who presumably didn't respond to verbal commands, and then ignored a tazer as well.

As always, it feels like we're missing some important details. As it stands, I think I would want the cop to lose his job, but prison time is probably not needed.
Click to expand...

reilo said:
I highly doubt the woman calls B&E on a white 24-year old that rings her doorbell.

Besides, it wasn't even a Breaking and Entering -- it would have been just Entering. The dude fucking knocked.

I hate people.
Click to expand...

Indeed.
 
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