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Originally Posted by maestro pistolero
Some here are unwilling to acknowledge any shortcomings on the part of the responding officers. Acknowledging the police had a role in how this played out is not the same as them being criminally culpable.
What is perplexing, and deeply disturbing to me is the unwillingness to even consider how the mistakes that contributed to this outcome could be turned into the better training, protocol and policy. Am I to understand some of you folks think this was good police work? Really?
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I, for one, have not addressed whether this was "good" or "bad" police work.
There are two issues here.
1)Was the shooting justified in the instant that it happened?
2)Could/Should the officers have acted differently
prior to pulling the trigger?
Number 1 is not a question of how we got there. It's a question of what was the appropriate response at that
INSTANT in time. I don't believe (or disbelieve) the officers because they're officers. I make my judgement based on what I've read of the information available. I believe that at the moment that those officers pulled the trigger, they firmly and reasonably believed that they were in immediate danger of grave injury or death.
At that very singular instant NOTHING else matters.
Number 2 is a question of how we got there. First off, that responsibility still rests firmly on the shoulders of the deceased. Second, we simply do not have enough information to make that judgement. How, you may ask, can I feel that we have enough information to answer one question and not the other? Because we must know precisely what was done, moment by moment, by everyone involved in order to answer that question. There is simply too much conflicting evidence and testimony to have a clear picture of exactly how we got there. Would I use this situation to train officers? Yes, I probably would, but that is not to say that the officers involved could (or could not) have done anything better. We simply don't know. The coroners inquiry is a question of CRIMINAL responsibility on the part of the officers. I simply can not see how they could be held criminally responsible for this outcome. That would require of level of either intent or WILLFUL negligence that is simply not justified by what we do know.