Posted on Apr 7, 2015
Police officer charged with murder in South Carolina after shooting unarmed man in the back. What do you think of cases like this?
66.6K
727
326
24
23
1
As if the act of murder wasn't bad enough, the end of the video shows him handcuffing the victim... who may have been still alive, and walking away. Watching how care free he was about the whole thing, including walking away at the end, leads me to believe that this isn't the kind of thing a good cop just did on a bad day. I imagine that this police officer has victimized people to various degrees throughout his entire career. How his peers on the force have not done anything about it is a little worrisome. Law enforcement do so much good in this country, it's so unfortunate to see this be how they are perceived by so many.
More on the story: http://www.cnn.com/2015/04/07/us/south-carolina-officer-charged-murder/index.html
Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kXO3Ix_GIyI
More on the story: http://www.cnn.com/2015/04/07/us/south-carolina-officer-charged-murder/index.html
Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kXO3Ix_GIyI
Police
Murder
Law Enforcement
Posted 9 y ago
Responses: 111
2
2
0
bad cops like this put good cops in jeopardy that cop should have ran after that guy and tackled him shooting him was unnecessary
(2)
(0)
2
2
0
I hear all the time that police have a tough job and they have to make split second decisions but that shouldnt be an excuse. if they are able to make mistakes and not have any repercussions for making the wrong one, then the importance is lost. The sad thing is, i'm sure this has happened many times before. its just now that we have the right to film police we are seeing more videos like this. on a side note, please remember fleeing from an officer is not enough grounds for them to shoot you in the back.
If there wasnt this video footage, all the lies told in the report would have had this cop still working his job
If there wasnt this video footage, all the lies told in the report would have had this cop still working his job
(2)
(0)
1
1
0
I see why people are up in arms over this. I think a TASER would be sufficient, BUT NOT a single one of us was on the scene. Not one of us knows what happened or what led the officer to be going after him in the first place. Not one of us knows why the man who was shot refused to comply with the officer's directions.
In nearly every one of the Police Shooting videos I have ever seen, the shooting could have been avoided IF the individuals involved with officers had simply done as the officer instructed. Stop, Put down the --whatever, hands up, all not really tough requests.
I understand that in some of the minority communities, there is way way more Police on civilian incidents. There is way more interaction between inhabitants and Police because the police get called to those neighborhoods way way more times than they get called to my neighborhood. There is no one on my street selling drugs and normally anyone that breaks into a house out in the boonies where I live, well the homeowners normally shoot the bad guys themselves. But there is also, in those neighborhoods more likelihood of resistance, armed, and unarmed to the direction of Police.
I hate to say it, but, in most of the videos that I have seen, had the individual that ended up shot or beaten just SHUT UP and done what the officer told them to do, allowed the Officer to gain control of the situation, and then worked it out, they would still be alive today. There is no denying that some officers go too far too fast and have a god complex, but that is not the case in every one of them.
In nearly every one of the Police Shooting videos I have ever seen, the shooting could have been avoided IF the individuals involved with officers had simply done as the officer instructed. Stop, Put down the --whatever, hands up, all not really tough requests.
I understand that in some of the minority communities, there is way way more Police on civilian incidents. There is way more interaction between inhabitants and Police because the police get called to those neighborhoods way way more times than they get called to my neighborhood. There is no one on my street selling drugs and normally anyone that breaks into a house out in the boonies where I live, well the homeowners normally shoot the bad guys themselves. But there is also, in those neighborhoods more likelihood of resistance, armed, and unarmed to the direction of Police.
I hate to say it, but, in most of the videos that I have seen, had the individual that ended up shot or beaten just SHUT UP and done what the officer told them to do, allowed the Officer to gain control of the situation, and then worked it out, they would still be alive today. There is no denying that some officers go too far too fast and have a god complex, but that is not the case in every one of them.
(1)
(0)
1
1
0
Not to be devil's advocate, but wasn't the guy initially trying to flee because he didn't want to go to jail for unpaid child support?
(1)
(0)
SSG(P) (Join to see)
Hard to determine when things are happening. No one's going to say, "I don't want to go to jail because of [insert]."
(1)
(0)
CPT Ahmed Faried
even the SCOTUS which has generally given a carte blanche to LEAs when it comes to employing deadly force has ruled against police shooting a fleeing suspect. The only exception is if the suspect was armed and thus poses a danger to others. In this video the suspect was not armed.
(0)
(0)
1
1
0
I don't think it is common, nor do I think it is rare. It disturbs me that we are militarizing our police force and it is changing how they view and handle the public. A militarized police force views the public as the enemy. I'm concerned that our police have had their jobs morph from being public servants whose motto was "to serve and protect" to public sector employees tasked with putting the FORCE into law enforcement. They seem to have forgotten who pays their salaries and far too many view the public they serve as perps needing to be arrested for every minor infraction of the law. In their defense, they have to deal with an increasingly lawless public that makes their jobs both difficult and dangerous.
What disturbs me most about this particular incident is that the police escalated a situation that could have been handled differently and then tried to cover up the wrongdoing.
What disturbs me most about this particular incident is that the police escalated a situation that could have been handled differently and then tried to cover up the wrongdoing.
(1)
(0)
Capt Jeff S.
As a citizen it frustrates the hell out of me every time I have dealt with the police in recent years because I get the impression they don't want to do their jobs. The laws favor the perps over the victims.
While riding my Harley near North Myrtle Beach, I was being tailgated by a car that was trying to push me into the car in front of me to get them to go faster. Trouble is, on a street bike, you don't stop as fast as a car. It would have been unsafe for me to do that. I kept a semi-safe distance and that wasn't enough for the driver who was about 10 feet off my tail at 40mph. So I pointed at the no passing lines and waved my hand telling the car to back off. Traffic slowed and the car got even closer and the woman driver was getting into a fit of road rage. So I stopped. And the car stopped 2 feet off my rear fender. I started to dismount to explain to the driver that I can't stop like a car and that her driving was going to get me killed. At that point she decided it was time to go and when I had one leg off the bike she decided to take off and pushed the bike over on top of me and fled the scene. I got her plates and still to this day have them memorized. 372 LCD (NC). I called the police and explained what happened and this, no kidding, is what he told me. "If I write her a ticket for fleeing the scene of an accident, in all fairness I have to write you 3 tickets: one for driving too slow, one for stopping for no reason, and one for dismounting your vehicle in a roadway." I was speechless.
A witness who was in the car behind me gave me her phone number and said she'd be willing to testify on my behalf. I explained this to the cop. He didn't want the phone number and made no attempt to contact her.
How could this guy determine that I was driving too slow? I couldn't go any faster than the car in front of me and there was a line of cars in front of them! Stopping for no reason? There was a sloping drop off and loose gravel shoulder full of holes and washouts and it would have been real easy to dump the bike had I pulled off the road. Dismounting my vehicle for no reason? This lady was going to get me killed. If I for any reason had dumped the bike, she wouldn't have had time to react before running over me.
I failed and still fail to see the logic in the officer's argument. He said that if I had been injured, which I didn't think I was at the time, it would have been a different story. Later when I took my pants off, I discovered I was bruised every color of the rainbow from my knee to my crotch where my 800 lb bike rolled on my thigh.
The officer didn't care that I had a witness. He didn't bother to call her and verify any of the details, nor did he try to contact the woman whose car ran over me. In fact, before he'd even take the license number from me, my description had to perfectly match the vehicle (and it did). I could see that he rrreally did not want to write the lady a ticket. I have to wonder who she was... Was she the wife of a cop or fireman?
So this is what he was going to do to help me out: He was going to write up the traffic scene as if I was pulled over on the side of the road and the car struck and ran over my bike in a hit and run which I could claim on MY insurance. I declined. I'm sorry, you're going to falsify a report so that you don't have to write me 3 bogus tickets if I ask that you write a ticket on the person that ran me over so that their insurance can cover the damages? What gives?!!
Our laws favor the perps at the expense of the victims. It makes NO SENSE that a guy who wasn't even witness to the event can ignore the testimony of other witnesses and determine that I was driving too slow! In the end, I told him just to forget it. I have soft saddle backs and she broke the turn signal and bent the rear fender. The saddle bags collapsed and didn't sustain damage. My deductible was higher than the damage to the bike and I repaired it at my own expense. I can't say that I came away from that experience seeing the police in a better light.
While riding my Harley near North Myrtle Beach, I was being tailgated by a car that was trying to push me into the car in front of me to get them to go faster. Trouble is, on a street bike, you don't stop as fast as a car. It would have been unsafe for me to do that. I kept a semi-safe distance and that wasn't enough for the driver who was about 10 feet off my tail at 40mph. So I pointed at the no passing lines and waved my hand telling the car to back off. Traffic slowed and the car got even closer and the woman driver was getting into a fit of road rage. So I stopped. And the car stopped 2 feet off my rear fender. I started to dismount to explain to the driver that I can't stop like a car and that her driving was going to get me killed. At that point she decided it was time to go and when I had one leg off the bike she decided to take off and pushed the bike over on top of me and fled the scene. I got her plates and still to this day have them memorized. 372 LCD (NC). I called the police and explained what happened and this, no kidding, is what he told me. "If I write her a ticket for fleeing the scene of an accident, in all fairness I have to write you 3 tickets: one for driving too slow, one for stopping for no reason, and one for dismounting your vehicle in a roadway." I was speechless.
A witness who was in the car behind me gave me her phone number and said she'd be willing to testify on my behalf. I explained this to the cop. He didn't want the phone number and made no attempt to contact her.
How could this guy determine that I was driving too slow? I couldn't go any faster than the car in front of me and there was a line of cars in front of them! Stopping for no reason? There was a sloping drop off and loose gravel shoulder full of holes and washouts and it would have been real easy to dump the bike had I pulled off the road. Dismounting my vehicle for no reason? This lady was going to get me killed. If I for any reason had dumped the bike, she wouldn't have had time to react before running over me.
I failed and still fail to see the logic in the officer's argument. He said that if I had been injured, which I didn't think I was at the time, it would have been a different story. Later when I took my pants off, I discovered I was bruised every color of the rainbow from my knee to my crotch where my 800 lb bike rolled on my thigh.
The officer didn't care that I had a witness. He didn't bother to call her and verify any of the details, nor did he try to contact the woman whose car ran over me. In fact, before he'd even take the license number from me, my description had to perfectly match the vehicle (and it did). I could see that he rrreally did not want to write the lady a ticket. I have to wonder who she was... Was she the wife of a cop or fireman?
So this is what he was going to do to help me out: He was going to write up the traffic scene as if I was pulled over on the side of the road and the car struck and ran over my bike in a hit and run which I could claim on MY insurance. I declined. I'm sorry, you're going to falsify a report so that you don't have to write me 3 bogus tickets if I ask that you write a ticket on the person that ran me over so that their insurance can cover the damages? What gives?!!
Our laws favor the perps at the expense of the victims. It makes NO SENSE that a guy who wasn't even witness to the event can ignore the testimony of other witnesses and determine that I was driving too slow! In the end, I told him just to forget it. I have soft saddle backs and she broke the turn signal and bent the rear fender. The saddle bags collapsed and didn't sustain damage. My deductible was higher than the damage to the bike and I repaired it at my own expense. I can't say that I came away from that experience seeing the police in a better light.
(0)
(0)
Maj Mike Sciales
Too late to help, but you should have taken the tickets and gone to court with your witness. The cop was wrong for trying to intimidate you - he was just lazy and didn't see the event as a big deal. I'm an advocate for putting a camera anywhere you can - goPro helmets have helped lots of bikers and exposed a lot of bad police work. Another great free app is called "CopWatch." If you get pulled over you hit the button and it starts recording - you can even have it instantly uploaded to YouTube so it can't be deleted. I just think it's a sad and sorry state of affairs when citizens need to even consider protecting themselves from the Guardians of the good order, but it is time.
(1)
(0)
1
1
0
The police officer made a terrible decision in this case. He was clearly running away and unarmed. He should be charged and prosecuted. However I will say this, STOP RUNNING FROM THE POLICE!!!!! He shouldn't have ran and put himself in that spot to begin with, he didn't deserve to lose his life, but he shouldn't have ran.
(1)
(0)
Maj Mike Sciales
Absolutely. Stand still. You take the ticket and go to court. If the cops want to cuff you, let them. Your redress for wrong doing is a civil law suit.
(0)
(0)
1
1
0
1
1
0
What pisses me off about this case and so many others this past year is how CNN and other new medias will talk to "witnesses", get their statements on air and go from there. What happened to the process of justice. In this case the mayor and police chief had taken the right steps, yet news medias want more and more and they present personal statements which shouldn't be aired, but taints public opinions. People like race baiting Al Sharpton continue to stick their nose in places it doesn't belong. From what I've seen and hear, the authorities are doing the right thing, so let justice take it's course.
(1)
(0)
Maj Mike Sciales
I understand. In the old days we had to wait for investigations and reports and things sort of fade from importance. However, in 2015 we have video footage and in this case we saw exactly what happened. Every person is fully qualified to watch that video and make their own conclusions. In the old days, juries were composed of witnesses to an offense -- they decided whether the event was lawful or not based on what they saw. Well, based on what I saw and given my experiences, I'd not hesitate to say this shooting was not within any departmental guidelines or Use of Forces regulations I've ever read. This is a "sentencing" case. The question becomes "are there mitigating circumstances to help a jury understand the reason for the cop taking a firing range stance and putting 8 rounds towards the guy? This could be something like "I'd received a report of a similarly described male who committed a violent rape and I got confused, thought it was him." or "I just didn't want to chase him because I can't run very far." Point is, the video shows the guy died. It shows he died as a direct result of being shot, not a heart attack or an intervening meteor strike or something. It shows he was shot in the back while running away and the only person shooting was the cop. Yes, this is about what punishment to fit the crime.
(0)
(0)
1
1
0
The officer was wrong, and just my view after viewing the view, from pull over, to fleeing, and the eventual shooting. The officer was very calm, did not seem to be in any danger and when and if the perp tried to gain possession of his tazer, then he could have used deadly force. However, it was dropped as he attempted to flee, thereby ending his need for lethal force. He had the vehicle, he had the drivers information, and the fleeing just amounted to more charges. My view, and mine alone, the dept. was correct for dismissing and charging him with homicide, also adding to it was his attempt to stage the scene by laying the tazer closer to the body. He has no honor and has made all police officers look suspect.
(1)
(0)
1
1
0
CPO (Join to see)
Tried to post a brief summary of Tenn. V. Garner... The fleeing felon case law. Basically same scenario only in Garner the victim was 15 or 16 I believe.
(0)
(0)
SSG (Join to see)
PO1 Christopher Hazel This USC decision will be in the news all throughout this guys trial. Its called stari decisis , finally someone who actually did some research on precedent law
(0)
(0)
Read This Next
Continue with Facebook 
Continue with Google