14-year-old with airsoft gun shot dead by Tempe Arizona police officer

[femurphy77]

Do you think most officers apprehend people with holstered guns and "authoritative" commands?
...not in today's society. Hell, some officers will upholster during vanilla traffic stops.

NSFW, Language. Start at :54

[video=youtube_share;Kb21_qI90pE]https://youtu.be/Kb21_qI90pE?start=55&end=108[/video]

 

[2A-Hoosier23]

Just pointing this out because no one else has so far: Officer never identified himself verbally, but of course his car is clearly marked as a cop car and he's in uniform. Is he supposed to verbally identify himself, like yell "Tempe Police" or something?....
to clarify:
At 37 seconds into the video the passenger door moves like he's about to get out.
3 seconds later, officer yells out "Hey".
5 seconds after that, and after radioing something, officer takes off running after the suspect who probably started running right after the cop said "hey" judging by how far he got away. And suspect never turns back to look when he's running.
So if i'm playing Devil's Advocate here (aka the kid's family's lawyer) could the argument be made that the suspect never knew it was a police officer because he didn't verbally identify, and he started running right at "Hey"? He could've conceivably been spooked just by some random person saying "hey". And can that make any difference in court proceedings or lethal force justification?

just a curious question for all the LEO's here. Have a feeling it wouldn't make any difference but thought i might ask anyway

 

[Denny347]

Just pointing this out because no one else has so far: Officer never identified himself verbally, but of course his car is clearly marked as a cop car and he's in uniform. Is he supposed to verbally identify himself, like yell "Tempe Police" or something?....
to clarify:
At 37 seconds into the video the passenger door moves like he's about to get out.
3 seconds later, officer yells out "Hey".
5 seconds after that, and after radioing something, officer takes off running after the suspect who probably started running right after the cop said "hey" judging by how far he got away. And suspect never turns back to look when he's running.
So if i'm playing Devil's Advocate here (aka the kid's family's lawyer) could the argument be made that the suspect never knew it was a police officer because he didn't verbally identify, and he started running right at "Hey"? He could've conceivably been spooked just by some random person saying "hey". And can that make any difference in court proceedings or lethal force justification?

just a curious question for all the LEO's here. Have a feeling it wouldn't make any difference but thought i might ask anyway

There is no requirement to yell "police" in most situations. It helps but not required. He could make that argument but it doesn't mean it's a good one. It "could" make a difference in civil court but it should not make a difference in the application of force.

 

[daddyusmaximus]

Well at least you know what was going through the officer's mind.

I don't, but actions are normally a pretty good indication. One that stands up in court most of the time. Especially if caught on camera.

we have a significant portion of the population who get their panties in a wad over the type of pants officers wear. The tears would flood the streets if officers actually treated every run like it could be their last.

Yeah, you're right. A lot of people up in arms about how cops behave these days. They even make stuff up about it. Every time some criminal gets himself shot the family goes on TV crying about what a good kid they were... Then again, sometimes there is some cowboy cop that will do something a bit over the top, and it gets plasterd all over the news making everyone look bad. The lefties love that crap.

I drew my weapon thousands of times having no prior information to indicate someone was armed.

This is a "trust you gut" thing that can save your life, or go real bad in the investigation afterwards. Please be careful out there.

In any case, I'll just say we have a difference of opinion, and be done with it.

 

[alabasterjar]

For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. Sad outcome but sad choices were made. Where was mother/father super vision/parenting?

Please tell me purple was implied.