We all learn from other’s mistakes. Here we have another, unfortunately “deadly” lesson:
(BTW: what the reason they have to advertise skin’s color? Does it change anything?)
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That’s pretty frightening… 
how horrible for her family and for the neighbor who was just trying to help. Not going to help the community’s confidence in their LEOs either.
As to the focus on race - the “heavily edited” state of the video might be making it difficult to tell if it’s a racial bias issue or not. Without evidence to suggest it is, it’s CNN’s bias that racial bias is a predominant factor… and that’s an agenda.
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Apparently CNN wanted to once again put on display racial hatred and once again and be one to throw a hand grenade first. Black lady - White police man is what they want the messaging to carry. In my view, there was no reason to say Black Woman because she was alone and not in a group of people. It’s like saying that spotted Beagle puppy. Well all Beagles are spotted. And White police man instead of Police Officer because nobody was there at that point in time except the officer and the occupant in the house. It’s just maddening to me, that cop was doing what a concerned citizen asked the dispatcher. Also; we’re going to see the Sharpton’s and the Black Lives and everyone else now even before the Fort Worth Police internal affairs investigation is complete.
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I agree. Apparently race should not be a factor in this “courtesy checkup” by the LEO. However, I am curious as to way there seems to be an asserted “effort” on the LEO to mentioned that they observed a weapon in the bedroom. This is Texas and every law abiding citizen has the right to defend their home. This young lady is doing something I’ve done many times when I’ve heard a noise in my backyard…I go investigate. Especially, if I have my young kids with me in the house. There is NO excuse for a LEO to discharge his firearm in this case. Especially when he/she was accessing the homeowner’s property. This homeowner should have been give the benefit of doubt. More importantly, it is the duty of the LEO to identify themselves (snooping around in someone’s backyard) for their safety. Anyhow, just my two cents.
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And, the media quickly glossed over the fact that the officer had been on the Force not even 2 years. I agree with @Zee, this won’t help the confidence and relationships with the authorities. I won’t lie, my first reaction was “what’s up with Texas cops.” That is an unfair assessment, of the officers. It’s just like when 1 gun owner makes a bad decision, and the media demonizes us all.
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@45IPAC That’s so right Chet, When an Officer is called for a courtesy check or anytime for an inside a home call there should be Two Officers for safety for all parties.
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I’m curious what the typical LEO response is to something like this? From the articles I saw, it said the officer parked a block away and walked to the residence and came around the back of the house. Kinda sneaky-like…
I understand that the LEO might not want to tip off the criminal that the police are there until they can do a good reconnoissance (how many, where, are they armed, etc). This is very good and useful, assuming there is actually a burglary in progress.
But… sneaking around like that, they look like… well, criminals scoping out a place. And in the event there is not a burglary, well… we see how that turned out.
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If the police approached this as a home invasion, they would have started with a perimeter search and worked their way in toward the home. They do not immediately head in the open front door.
This is one that we really need to NOT Monday morning quarterback it and wait until a thorough investigation is done including what was reported by the caller, what dispatch told the responding officers, what the officers observed upon arrival and what the officer who took the shot saw, said and did leading to the shot the killed the homeowner.
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Some disturbing things here:
The neighbor did not call 911, but the regular police phone number.
Apparently, the officer did not identify as police.
He apparently shot quickly after giving instructions.
The firearm in the house was apparently not near the victim.
He shot through a window, and did not enter the open door. Why did he not move from line of sight of the window?
This event occurred shortly after the trial of a Dallas officer for murdering a black ma in his own home.
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I fully agree. We, myself included, are far to quick to judge, based on our own prejudice and less than factual reporting by the media. I would like to see the whole race reference thing go away but certain media outlets are agenda driven. I pray for the young lady and her family and for the former officer.
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Unfortunately it works. Simply imply that race is a factor and a story immediately grows wings.
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One serious flaw I see in police training around the country is that cops simply bark orders rote without even thinking about what’s coming out of their mouths.
In this case he says “put your hands up”, she does and I’ll pretty well guarantee you what he saw was her raising a weapon to fire.
Another real common problem is that when you have multiple officers on a scene several of them will be shouting commands at the same time and often those commands are very different.
In this case I suspect what really happened was that he had his finger on the trigger and just twitched when she started to raise her hands.
I doubt this was “murder” as much as a negligent homicide or involuntary manslaughter.
If anything this simply emphasizes the very real need to keep your finger out of the trigger well period unless you are firing.
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@WildRose. I agree Charles, I see videos on YouTube and you know police need some kind of training or retraining for that. Of course on the other hand every situation is not the same if they’re running after the criminal elements I don’t expect them to be nice. When I was shot down in Chicago in 2016 the police were very very nice to me. I did not take my gun that day because well Chicago you know and I wasn’t going to get robbed I made my mind up so I fought the guy overwhelming his punk self and I got his gun from him he shot my left index finger off and I still miss my finger but I’d rather lose a finger than be dead. And I don’t know why police don’t patrol two to a car anymore seems like they should be much more effective than one to a car. Chicago has two officers in a car I think it’s standard. But I’m not sure if it’s policy either in the entire city.
I personally have been driving since junior or senior year high school so like 1965-1966 and have never been stopped once and never even had a moving violation or parking ticket but we’re talking about training here not me. I hope things improve with police relations everywhere. I was brought up to respect police my generation us Baby Boomers
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Same here and the cops are pushed into an ever more precarious position.
The public becomes less and less trusting of police and sees the police ever more as racist enforcers who hate the public.
The public gets more and more defensive and more and more prone to use force to resist police or to attempt to outright try and murder them.
The police get more and more of an “Us against them” mentality as a result and get ever more aggressive when dealing with suspects.
Today cops are more than ever on the defensive and feeling like their badges are targets and to a large extent rightly so.
I was raised the same as you were, respect and innate trust for those in uniform and I’m far more likely to help them than I am to get sideways with them on any issue or under any circumstance.
At the same time I recognize that it’s not their job to be our friends it’s their job to find violations to justify tickets and arrests.
The cops are however the professionals and it’s up to them to do the retraining necessary to avoid escalating situations that never should be escalated to start with.
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Some years ago, a few weeks after our mother’s funeral, we five siblings were staying in close touch by phone. Our youngest sister went unresponsive for several days so we called the local police for a wellness check. They went to her address, found her car in the driveway, and knocked on the front door several times. Finding the front door locked, they went around the house checking windows and the rear door, all of which were also closed and locked. After knocking again and getting no response, they phoned our oldest sister (geographically the closest) and gave her their report. They then asked her to come to the house so that a family member would be present when they made entry. The officers waited for her then the three of them entered at the same time.
And that’s my one and only experience with LE wellness checks. I suppose different departments have different protocols.
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^^^ That’s an outstanding article @RocketPak … it gets to exactly the right points.
The increasing use of things like no-knock warrants for red flag laws (where the person will have no reason to expect the people breaking into their home are law enforcement instead of a home invasion) is going to make this much, much worse.
I don’t see the relationship and trust between the public and the police improving in this environment 
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I would argue that the also face a “us against them” mentality from a lot of the more troubled areas as well.
How do we combat this as a country?
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One of the biggest factors from the article that discussed this tragedy to me:
Nobody identified themselves as law enforcement.
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If there is nothing hidden behind this story (hopefully not), I would blame poor training.
Twilight, trash inside the house, figure (with “gun”) at the window - that would definitely made me scared.
Perhaps that was Officer’s first intervention, and he was not prepared correctly for it?
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