I was thinking the same. 
I was also thinking the parents are thinking of 
.
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Thatâs old smokey. Had a run in twice with him in grade school. Lit a fire under my a$$ that I never forgot.
More kids should probably meet old smokey at least once.
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@Raymond169 Welcome to the community!
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Everyone can watch and make own judgment now.
This is tough.
Another life lost in stupid circumstances.
Was it good shoot? Yeah, it should be if we see how dynamic the situation was. But having 2 adult LEOs over 1 guy already on the ground we may ask the question - was the shot needed to be fired?
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Hell YES! Skippy was covering his concealed weapon, ran when called upon to allow a search and brandished what could be presumed to be a weapon. No tears for skippy!
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Even if it were a ârealâ firearm, shooting at him while another officer was on top of him struggling to subdue him was very dangerous to the officer on the ground. In none of the videos could I ascertain where the perpâs pistol was. Thankfully, the officerâs handgun jammed after the first round, and none of the other officers fired upon the two on the ground.
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I have no issue with use of force, nor even if it was a âfakeâ firearm, but it appeared to me that the officer fired while another officer was on top of the perp, struggling to subdue him. How could he be sure the round would hit the perp not his fellow officer? Also, if his firearm had not jammed, how many more rounds would he have fired into that melee?
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Doesnât really matter in this situation. The single shot he got off seems to have been enough.
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I agree the one shot was effective, but if he had fired multiple rounds, aka mag dumps, as is typical by LEOs, it likely would have ended entirely different, with the officer on the ground being shot, too. Luckily, he wasnât hit by the one round the other officer did fire.
I have no issue with shooting a perp with a firearm, or even when it turns out to be a âfakeâ firearm or bb/pellet gun or other replica arms. My issue is only that in this instance the officer on the ground could easily have been the victim, not the perp. The officer was fortunate that his round only hit the perp.
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If a frogs legs were longer he might not bump his butt when he landed.
We get it you donât like the shoot!
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Yes, the outcome was fortunate for the officers involved.
I hate these stories. My friend and I were idiots in high school and did stupid crap with pretty real looking airsoft guns all the time. You know what we didnât do? Point them at cops or really anyone else who could either take it as a threat and kill us or be completely traumatized because they thought someone was pointing a gun at them.
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You also probably did not commit armed robbery with them, as these perps were suspected of doing.
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Nope. Canât say we even ever thought about committing armed robbery in general.
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My son was in middle school when my wife received a call from the principalâs office. My son threatened someone that he would bring a gun to school.
When my wife called me about it, there was a brief pause then we both laughedâI understand itâs no longer a laughing matter now.
Those were my pre-gun owner days. Like my dad, I encouraged my son to use my tools and scrap wood to learn some skills. Like me, his first project was a gun (a pistol, mine was more ambitious, Sgt. Saundersâ Thomson).
It was a teachable moment that we revisited when I became a gun owner.
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I agree with @Dave17 that it was a very risky shot given the other officer was on top of the suspect in a rapidly shifting struggle.
What I canât tell from all the jumpy videos is what exactly was happening in the moment just before the shot was taken. If the shooting officer noticed that the officer on top of the suspect was failing to get control of the weapon or was unable to keep the suspectâs hands away from the weapon then I could see the officer having to weigh the risk of hitting one of his his coworkers vs the risk of the suspect being able to get hands on the weapon and using it against his coworkers. There is no way in this situation that they could have known it wasnât a real weapon.
That would be a very tough split second decision to have to make. Fortunately none of the officers were seriously injured. Unfortunately one of them has to deal with the legal and psychological fallout of killing a kid who made some incredibly bad choices.
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On the other hand, just to argue with myself:)
If the officer on top clearly had control of the weapon or the suspects hands, then taking the shot would be an unnecessary risk to the nearby officers.
But I canât tell from the video what is going on. It is quite likely that the shooting officer could not be sure either. So as I said above. A very tough judgement call with potential risk to the other officers no matter which choice was made.
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