• Hey Guest. Check out your NeoGAF Wrapped 2025 results here!

Cop shoots unarmed man. Immediatley charged with voluntary manslaughter.

Status
Not open for further replies.
Err, how is knocking on someone's door suddenly breaking and entering? That's the most confusing part.
 
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?

For the B&E part, you're assuming the cops had all the details. We have no idea what the lady told 911/dispatch, or what dispatch told the cops.

I don't disagree with the second part, but there's not much detail about how he was acting when he ran towards the cops, or how long the entire encounter even took. I just want more information.

I wonder if this story will catch much attention.
 
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.

This too. I have a feeling the story from the policeman isn't what really happened.
 
This makes no sense. Was the victim not responding to the cops? Why was he running towards them? He didn't say anything?

There was an accident (if the accident part is correct) as such he ran towards the cops because well, cops are generally supposed to help people - from the sounds of it he wasn't given a chance to say anything - he was shot while running towards them.
 
Maybe he was running towards cops because he was just in a serious accident and because they are cops?

This too. I have a feeling the story from the policeman isn't what really happened.

Also, this. I have nothing to back this up, but maybe the taser part was added in to try and make the shooting seem more justified. It really doesn't make sense.
 
Wait, they shoot him with a taser but he still continues to run towards them? Weird.
Not only that, but the cop also managed to switch from the taser to his weapon that fast? Was he holding both at the same time? This sounds odd.
 
There were multiple officers. One could have tazed him and a different one actually did the shooting.

Edit: Was it a B&E? Obviously not. Was it reported to the responding officers as a B&E? It seems likely.
 
Given that he apparently just crashed his car I doubt his thought process was anything along the lines of "hmm cops? let's attack!".

He was probably fatigued/injured and just running to who he thought were people who could help him.

Of course since he's dead we won't be able to find out if that's the case.
 
He was probably fatigued/injured and just running to who he thought were people who could help him.

Yeah...what an idiot. Believing the police (civil servants) would actually help him.

<rolls eyes>

But reading this thread, there is no shortage of people falling over themselves to give the police the benefit of the doubt here.
 
I don't care if you're white or black, don't run towards a police officer.

Clearly in this case there are issues on both sides. The woman was too paranoid, the cop was too paranoid, the person driving the car could have been intoxicated thus leading to his somewhat erratic behaviour. Even though I am the first one to bash American gun culture, I'm pretty sure given the evidence a Canadian police officer would have done the same thing.

Then of course we can question the judgement ability of Canadian Cops based on the TTC incident but that is another story altogether.
 
My guess is the lady went nuts on the phone and said someone was trying to kill her or something.

Not sure about why the guy was running at them or how a taser didnt stop him. If that part is true I suppose a huge adrenaline rush if we're not considering drugs? Sounds off.

Also taser first then gun sounds weird too unless the guys partner was tasering and the shooter was a few more feet away.
 
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.

Shoot him because he might have Wolverine claws and poison breath, and you're just two police officers.

A false frame of fear and prejudice which was shared by the officers shows an immediate problem with our policing system. This lady was wrong, and she was scared, and that set them up to be prepared to kill this guy, because he was looking for help.

And the inevitable question of "what did we expect the officers to do?" For one, not show up acting like Robocop.
 
It's just not a good idea to look to the cops for help if you're a black man having a bad day. I really hope that for once the cop here is held accountable for murdering a citizen he was supposed to protect. I won't hold my breath though.
 
I don't care if you're white or black, don't run towards a police officer.

Clearly in this case there are issues on both sides. The woman was too paranoid, the cop was too paranoid, the person driving the car could have been intoxicated thus leading to his somewhat erratic behaviour..

No there weren't issues on both sides. There were bad assumptions made by the woman and the officer that shot the young man.

And to your point about "I don't care if you're white or black, don't run towards a police officer." do you think the woman would have made the call if it was a White woman, knocking at the door? Most likely not.

Would the cop have shot her running towards him in distress? Most likely not.

The problem here is profiling. Plain and simple. If the woman and the cop had given the young man the benefit of the doubt, things wouldn't have gotten out of control.
 
Clearly in this case there are issues on both sides. The woman was too paranoid, the cop was too paranoid, the person driving the car could have been intoxicated thus leading to his somewhat erratic behaviour. Even though I am the first one to bash American gun culture, I'm pretty sure given the evidence a Canadian police officer would have done the same thing.

Yeah, and the cop could have been a white supremacist too, let's make more baseless speculation.
 
The victim

f01otRr.jpg


8uQVr.Em.138.jpeg

Okay... it makes sense now.

I wasn't sure why everyone else involved were treating victim like a dangerous criminal
 
No there weren't issues on both sides. There were bad assumptions made by the woman and the officer that shot the young man.

And to your point about "I don't care if you're white or black, don't run towards a police officer." do you think the woman would have made the call if it was a White woman, knocking at the door? Most likely not.

Would the cop have shot her running towards him in distress? Most likely not.

The problem here is profiling. Plain and simple. If the woman and the cop had given the young man the benefit of the doubt, things wouldn't have gotten out of control.

Given the behaviour of the victim though, he didn't give himself much of a chance to be given the benefit of the doubt.

Cops are trained to profile, that is how they can assess a situation. Even if the cop can suspend his disbelief about the supposed break and enter (which is easy to do given the conduct of a sane person) it is not easy to suspend your disbelief when someone who is running towards you and gets tasered doesn't stop running.

Every single thing the victim did was inviting the cop to assess him the way he did.
Running towards a cop at night? Check
Not stopping when a cop aims a taser at you? Check
not stopping when a cop hits you with said taser? Check
Proceeding to CONTINUE RUNNING after these things have happened? Check

These are not things sane people do. Even in a compromised emotional state, at what point do you stop and think to yourself "gee, I should really calm down". By accounts this person was not suffering from life threatening injuries, and even if they were, it stands to reason that no one in a state of panic over what they percieve to be life threatening injuries would submit themselves to the physical retaliation of a police officer.

If for example the victim had no arm and was running towards the cop because he required a Tourniquet, wouldn't it be a bit more conducive to simply scream for help while running towards the officer to let him know you're in pain? I don't think it is reasonable to assume that this persons mental state was so compromised by the crash that they essentially act in such a way that force the police officer to mistake them for a possible perpetrator (in this case, demonstrating what could be analgously related to cocaine related symptoms)

Your assertion that profiling is the issue is simply not giving enough credence to the actual facts on hand. There are a multitude of issues, not the least of which is the behaviour of the victim. This is not meant to excuse the behaviour or lay blame, this is simply meant to be cognissant of the facts that lie before us.
 
We need to also know the race of the police officer before this makes sense.

The thing is... it doesn't matter. American society has been programmed very thoroughly, at large, to see dark skin as a threat. Even black people aren't immune to this programming... sure it can be less affective but their not immune.
 
Okay... it makes sense now.

I wasn't sure why everyone else involved were treating victim like a dangerous criminal

So...you weren't sure why people were treating him like a "dangerous criminal", you saw that he was Black and now "it makes sense now"?

Sounds you are saying that because he was Black, it makes sense that they thought he was a "dangerous criminal"?

What are you saying exactly?
 
Given the behaviour of the victim though, he didn't give himself much of a chance to be given the benefit of the doubt.

Cops are trained to profile, that is how they can assess a situation. Even if the cop can suspend his disbelief about the supposed break and enter (which is easy to do given the conduct of a sane person) it is not easy to suspend your disbelief when someone who is running towards you and gets tasered doesn't stop running.

Every single thing the victim did was inviting the cop to assess him the way he did.
Running towards a cop at night? Check
Not stopping when a cop aims a taser at you? Check
not stopping when a cop hits you with said taser? Check
Proceeding to CONTINUE RUNNING after these things have happened? Check

These are not things sane people do. Even in a compromised emotional state, at what point do you stop and think to yourself "gee, I should really calm down". By accounts this person was not suffering from life threatening injuries, and even if they were, it stands to reason that no one in a state of panic over what they percieve to be life threatening injuries would submit themselves to the physical retaliation of a police officer.

If for example the victim had no arm and was running towards the cop because he required a Tourniquet, wouldn't it be a bit more conducive to simply scream for help while running towards the officer to let him know you're in pain? I don't think it is reasonable to assume that this persons mental state was so compromised by the crash that they essentially act in such a way that force the police officer to mistake them for a possible perpetrator (in this case, demonstrating what could be analgously related to cocaine related symptoms)

Your assertion that profiling is the issue is simply not giving enough credence to the actual facts on hand. There are a multitude of issues, not the least of which is the behaviour of the victim. This is not meant to excuse the behaviour or lay blame, this is simply meant to be cognissant of the facts that lie before us.

Even if you still want to excuse the shooting, the officer could have shot him in the leg instead of killing him.
 
I hope she lives with guilt of contributing to a man's death.

Why would you hope for this? What exactly did the lady do wrong that you would want her to feel partly responsible for the guys death?

I don't feel it's reasonable for her to think that someone is going to be murdered when she calls 911. I also don't think she's at fault for calling 911. If you feel like you're in danger or you need assistance that's what 911 is for.
 
Given the behaviour of the victim though, he didn't give himself much of a chance to be given the benefit of the doubt.

Cops are trained to profile, that is how they can assess a situation. Even if the cop can suspend his disbelief about the supposed break and enter (which is easy to do given the conduct of a sane person) it is not easy to suspend your disbelief when someone who is running towards you and gets tasered doesn't stop running.

Every single thing the victim did was inviting the cop to assess him the way he did.
Running towards a cop at night? Check
Not stopping when a cop aims a taser at you? Check
not stopping when a cop hits you with said taser? Check
Proceeding to CONTINUE RUNNING after these things have happened? Check

These are not things sane people do. Even in a compromised emotional state, at what point do you stop and think to yourself "gee, I should really calm down". By accounts this person was not suffering from life threatening injuries, and even if they were, it stands to reason that no one in a state of panic over what they percieve to be life threatening injuries would submit themselves to the physical retaliation of a police officer.

If for example the victim had no arm and was running towards the cop because he required a Tourniquet, wouldn't it be a bit more conducive to simply scream for help while running towards the officer to let him know you're in pain? I don't think it is reasonable to assume that this persons mental state was so compromised by the crash that they essentially act in such a way that force the police officer to mistake them for a possible perpetrator (in this case, demonstrating what could be analgously related to cocaine related symptoms)

Your assertion that profiling is the issue is simply not giving enough credence to the actual facts on hand. There are a multitude of issues, not the least of which is the behaviour of the victim. This is not meant to excuse the behaviour or lay blame, this is simply meant to be cognissant of the facts that lie before us.

Annnnd my point, that you seem to have glazed over in this retort, is that if it was a White woman doing all of those things, it likely wouldn't have escalated to death.

The woman wouldn't have assumed the woman knocking at the door was B&E. And a cop wouldn't have shot (tazer or lethally), imo.

She would have rightfully gotten the benefit of the doubt from the onset.

THAT is the problem. Most of your post is based on speculation and profiling and I'm saying that is why this young man is dead.

And there is no shared blame by the victim.
 
Why would you hope for this? What exactly did the lady do wrong that you would want her to feel partly responsible for the guys death?

I don't feel it's reasonable for her to think that someone is going to be murdered when she calls 911. I also don't think she's at fault for calling 911. If you feel like you're in danger or you need assistance that's what 911 is for.

LOL.

Explain to me why she felt in danger when a young man came to knock on her door that she needed to call 911 for a potential B&E?

If he was trying the enter her residence by kicking in the door or climbing through the window, fine.

I have had strangers of all types knock at my door. You know what I do? I ignore them and they go away. I don't call 911 for B&E...

Sounds like she made assumptions about the young man...why do you think that was?
 
Why would you hope for this? What exactly did the lady do wrong that you would want her to feel partly responsible for the guys death?

I don't feel it's reasonable for her to think that someone is going to be murdered when she calls 911. I also don't think she's at fault for calling 911. If you feel like you're in danger or you need assistance that's what 911 is for.

She reported it as a breaking and entering instead of telling the police what the guy said about being in an accident. That is wrong. Even if she's paranoid and believes the guy is lying, you don't make shit up when calling the police.
 
So...you weren't sure why people were treating him like a "dangerous criminal", you saw that he was Black and now "it makes sense now"?

Sounds you are saying that because he was Black, it makes sense that they thought he was a "dangerous criminal"?

What are you saying exactly?

The thing is... it doesn't matter. American society has been programmed very thoroughly, at large, to see dark skin as a threat. Even black people aren't immune to this programming... sure it can be less affective but their not immune.

Be it Treyvon or the poor man who was shot in his own drive way while going to his car to get something (or the many numbers of stories we've seen in this thread or the many more we haven't seen but have known someone who fell victim OR the many more we don't know about), this isn't some revelation to me.

There's typically a piece of the puzzle that always seem to be common thread and it's a tragic dark piece. It sickens me to know that when in peril (hell, when living out a normal everyday life), instead of thinking of a way to simply get to a better place, I have to be thinking of a way to not appear aggressive/offensive by simply existing.
 
Based on the description of what happened, in the original post, I was not surprised he was shot and killed. This was before I found out he was black. Granted, the cops are the ones writing the description.
 
Be it Treyvon or the poor man who was shot in his own drive way while going to his car to get something (or the many numbers of stories we've seen in this thread or the many more we haven't seen but have known someone who fell victim OR the many more we don't know about), this isn't some revelation to me.

There's typically a piece of the puzzle that always seem to be common thread and it's a tragic dark piece. It sickens me to know that when in peril (hell, when living out a normal everyday life), instead of thinking of a way to simply get to a better place, I have to be thinking of a way to not appear aggressive/offensive by simply existing.

Oh ok.

I thought you were saying that it made sense and they were justified in seeing him as a threat, which made me say...wat.

Now I see what you mean.
 
Even if you still want to excuse the shooting, the officer could have shot him in the leg instead of killing him.

This point is patently false. There has been much debate over this so please do not even begin. Police officers are trained to aim for the chest when discharging their firearm. When use of the firearm is necessitated, this is meant to kill an individual. This should be evidenced in the fact that the police officer attempted to subdue the victim first before resorting to mortal force.

On a personal note, having used firearms in supervised circumstances myself before. I know just how hard it is to try and aim for an individual body part. Do you know why the firing ranges have target reticles over the chest of the picture and not the hand, hip or head? It's because there is actually a reasonable chance of you hitting those things.


Annnnd my point, that you seem to have glazed over in this retort, is that if it was a White woman doing all of those things, it likely wouldn't have escalated to death.

The woman wouldn't have assumed the woman knocking at the door was B&E. And a cop wouldn't have shot (tazer or lethally), imo.

She would have rightfully gotten the benefit of the doubt from the onset.

THAT is the problem. Most of your post is based on speculation and profiling and I'm saying that is why this young man is dead.

And there is no shared blame by the victim.

Your argument hinges on the fact that a police officer would conduct himself differently if the person was a woman. Clearly that is a valid point to make as relatively speaking, a male police officer has much less to fear from a woman assailant than a male one. However, since the victim is not a male, your argument is moot and not worth pursuing. My original allusion to "Black or White" was my way of pointing out that given the independant set of circumstances, the victim was doing themselves no favours and a sort of "prejudicial" profiling has not taken place. The victim's actions were a contributing factor to his death and thus does share some of the blame in the situation. Once again, I am not trying to place blame, but the courts do recognize proportionality of contribution to the outcome of a situation in both civil and criminal preceedings

Now, to entertain your point though, It would be unrealistic to say that a man and woman should be profiled in the same way, clearly they will be dealt with differently in different circumstances. However this could also be predicated on the sex of the officer as well. Would a female officer resort to deadly force against a female running towards them? Possibly. This of course depends on the size of the assailant, weather conditions, etc. Suffice it to say, If I was a Male cop and I saw another adult male running towards me, regardless of their size, I would know that they are capable of incapacitating me and possibly killing me by sheer chance, and that is not a risk i would take, especially once I have employed preventative measures that have had no effect. Were I a female officer, I can only surmise that I would feel the same way about a man, and possibly the same way about a woman.
 
LOL.

Explain to me why she felt in danger when a young man came to knock on her door that she needed to call 911 for a potential B&E?

If he was trying the enter her residence by kicking in the door or climbing through the window, fine.

I have had strangers of all types knock at my door. You know what I do? I ignore them and they go away. I don't call 911 for B&E...

Sounds like she made assumptions about the young man...why do you think that was?

Are you a male between 15-35? I am and if I heard a knock on my door at 2:30 am I would either ignore it or try to see who it is before I opened the door. Calling the police wouldn't be on my list of things to do.

Having said that I still can't find her at fault for calling 911. My wife has been robbed at gun point and our cars were recently broken into and she saw the person in the car when she was up walking with our 2 year old son. She is now afraid to walk out to the car at night. If she heard noise at night and I wasn't home I would be Ok with her calling 911, and if they made a mistake and killed someone trying to check on her I don't think she would in any way responsible for asking for help.
 
Are you a male between 15-35? I am and if I heard a knock on my door at 2:30 am I would either ignore it or try to see who it is before I opened the door. Calling the police wouldn't be on my list of things to do.

Having said that I still can't find her at fault for calling 911. My wife has been robbed at gun point and our cars were recently broken into and she saw the person in the car when she was up walking with our 2 year old son. She is now afraid to walk out to the car at night. If she heard noise at night and I wasn't home I would be Ok with her calling 911, and if they made a mistake and killed someone trying to check on her I don't think she would in any way responsible for asking for help.

You're missing the point. She could of called 911 and said what was actually happening. Not LIE about a potential B&E.
 
Your argument hinges on the fact that a police officer would conduct himself differently if the person was a woman.Clearly that is a valid point to make as relatively speaking, a male police officer has much less to fear from a woman assailant than a male one. However, since the victim is not a male, your argument is moot and not worth pursuing. My original allusion to "Black or White" was my way of pointing out that given the independant set of circumstances, the victim was doing themselves no favours and a sort of "prejudicial" profiling has not taken place. The victim's actions were a contributing factor to his death and thus does share some of the blame in the situation. Once again, I am not trying to place blame, but the courts do recognize proportionality of contribution to the outcome of a situation in both civil and criminal preceedings

Why? Because women aren't capable of violent behavior? No, it's because they are profiling a woman to not be a threat and the male to be one.

It is my opinion that profiling gets inflated further when the person is a Black male, based on the societal perspective on Black men.

Now, to entertain your point though, It would be unrealistic to say that a man and woman should be profiled in the same way, clearly they will be dealt with differently in different circumstances. However this could also be predicated on the sex of the officer as well. Would a female officer resort to deadly force against a female running towards them? Possibly. This of course depends on the size of the assailant, weather conditions, etc. Suffice it to say, If I was a Male cop and I saw another adult male running towards me, regardless of their size, I would know that they are capable of incapacitating me and possibly killing me by sheer chance, and that is not a risk i would take, especially once I have employed preventative measures that have had no effect. Were I a female officer, I can only surmise that I would feel the same way about a man, and possibly the same way about a woman.

All this is irrelevant as the shooter here was male and the victim male.And no, in most circumstances, when a woman appears to be in distress, the first instinct isn't to shoot (tazer or otherwise) if your "police are trained to profile"stance is true.

Police and the woman assumed this young man was a threat from the the get-go.
 
You're missing the point. She could of called 911 and said what was actually happening. Not LIE about a potential B&E.

Being wrong about a situation and lying are two different things. If there's something in the story that says she had a conversation with the victim, he explained the situation, and then she called 911 and said he was trying to break into the house then I would agree with you. But if she opened the door, realized there was a person on her doorstep that wasn't her husband, and then shut the door and called 911 because she was afraid that someone is trying to get in- that's not lying, it's being afraid and asking for help. You can complain that there's no valid reason for her to be afraid and I can see your point in that, but I don't know her mental state or life experiences so I'm not going to criticize her for it.
 
A 20-something year old white kid would not have been considered as threatening as this black kid was. That is profiling and why it's a problem. There's a benefit of the doubt that whites get that isn't afforded to blacks.

Remember the white guy who went crazy and was in his front yard, wearing a robe, and shooting a loaded gun. The police were called. This armed crazy man was tazed 3 times and eventually taken to jail unharmed. We all know goddamned well that if it had an armed crazy black man he would have been killed on the spot and everyone would have blamed the black man for having a really bad day and scaring the cops.
 
Are you a male between 15-35? I am and if I heard a knock on my door at 2:30 am I would either ignore it or try to see who it is before I opened the door. Calling the police wouldn't be on my list of things to do.

Having said that I still can't find her at fault for calling 911. My wife has been robbed at gun point and our cars were recently broken into and she saw the person in the car when she was up walking with our 2 year old son. She is now afraid to walk out to the car at night. If she heard noise at night and I wasn't home I would be Ok with her calling 911, and if they made a mistake and killed someone trying to check on her I don't think she would in any way responsible for asking for help.

I have no issue with her fearing for her safety for whatever reason...fine.

She told the police she was the victim of a possible B&E based on a knock at the door.

She lied.

If she had to call the police, she could have said, "There is a mysterious man knocking at my door. I'm concerned. Can you send a patrol to check it out?" not "Someone is trying to break into my house. Please help me!"
 
I have no issue with her fearing for her safety for whatever reason...fine.

She told the police she was the victim of a possible B&E based on a knock at the door.

She lied.

If she had to call the police, she could have said, "There is a mysterious man knocking at my door. I'm concerned. Can you send a patrol to check it out?" not "Someone is trying to break into my house. Please help me!"

You might know more than I do in this situation and I can certainly admit when I'm wrong. Where is the 911 tape where she said what you quoted there? I only read the linked story in the OP so I might be missing information.

In the end I would hope she feels empathy for the person who died, I just don't think she should feel responsibility. The bottom line is a policeman shot an unarmed person looking for help, in my opinion the policeman should take all the blame.
 
You might know more than I do in this situation and I can certainly admit when I'm wrong. Where is the 911 tape where she said what you quoted there? I only read the linked story in the OP so I might be missing information.

In the end I would hope she feels empathy for the person who died, I just don't think she should feel responsibility. The bottom line is a policeman shot an unarmed person looking for help, in my opinion the policeman should take all the blame.

The OP story clearly calls it out. See bolded:

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.

She heard a knock, opened the door, saw it wasn't her husband, closed the door.

Then called 911 to report a B&E.
 
Err, how is knocking on someone's door suddenly breaking and entering? That's the most confusing part.

Well you see when we knock on doors, we have a +80 str and the door actually breaks...hence B&E.

The cop messed up, he should have sprinkled some crack on the victim.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top Bottom