Colorado police officer WILL NOT face charges for mistakenly shooting dead a good Samaritan who....

Shove it way with your foot.

Have your gun holstered (at the very least) when LE shows up.

Be as far from the bad guy as you can get.

Having your hands up as LE approaches is probably a good idea.

 

So why can't cops be held accountable?

It's like they get a special pass because they were scared and they killed some one.

It's bs, a citizen on the street would be charged.

 

Kinda amazing how many posts seem to tacitly endorse a death sentence for holding a rifle when the police arrive.

Would it be the same if instead of shooting the perp the victim was unarmed and wrestled the rifle away from the gunman before being shot?

What if instead of a nice safe pistol that he could holster he had one of those black rifles he'd fetched from his truck?

 

Even without charges, even exonerated - as was pretty justified in those circumstances - the cop will remember killing a decent person for the rest of his life. The officer is going to need therapy, and get it from the department. He will likely quit and find another job in not too long.

What happened to the citizen is tragic. I have great sympathy for his survivors. I have a great deal of sympathy for the officer and loved ones. This is only happy for those who were not killed in the mass shooting.

 

Unless you PERSONALLY know that cop, that is all nothing more than assertion pulled out of thin air.

He might regret it for the rest of his life.
He might regret it for a couple of days.
He might not regret it at all.
He might joke about it until the day he dies.

You have literally NO idea how he feels about it.

 

Special pass? What do you expect? Again,they get a call shots fired... Instant sphincter clench before they get there with fight or flight kicking in and they ain't paid to flee. They roll up on the scene and see a body on the ground and a guy holding a rifle. Would you assume this is just someone that doesn't like to see weapons laying around and is just trying to tidy up? Or are you going to order the suspect to freeze would your weapon trained on his CM? Can you say for certain or for sure the suspect disobeyed the order? Whether by confusion or nervousness of his own?

Keep in mind, these are not soldiers they are constables. Their main training is filling out reports and securing crime scenes after the fact. You cannot expect a civilian to do any more than his training. Putting myself in his place... I can see circumstances and nuances where I would do the same. It's not a special pass to recognize this is not a superman or a demigod.

 

Name one instance in which a cop was killed by a citizen in which that citizen walked away no charges.

 

The United States does not have a national police force with uniform and consistent standards of conduct. Police are purely a state and local matter.

In some jurisdictions police are held accountable for their actions. In others they are not.

 

Well that would shatter my theory that there is a double standard regarding homicide as has been seen the last 2 years.

I get that the situation had all the components to satisfy a justifiable homicide on the surface, I am not stupid. That's why he walked

The cop still killed an innocent US citizen, if a "defender" had killed a cop in uniform or plain clothes that citizen would be fried

 

Significant but not dispositive.

If the local authorities choose to look the other way, the national media can say whatever they want. Nothing will be done. And that of course leaves aside the fact that the media protects those with whom it feels an affinity. It will ignore police misconduct, or at the very least soft peddle it if it would be embarrassing to those in charge, with whom they are aligned.

 

Ashlii Babbitt. Where the killing is mentioned at all, the man who shot her is being hailed as a hero.

They don't have to side with the police. They just have to remain silent.

 

Likewise you cannot generalize that they WILL be held accountable. It's purely a state and local matter, which is subject to change over time and is entirely subject to the political situation prevailing in that particular jurisdiction.

 

It seems to me that we are seeing more and more stories where cops show up and shoot first, ask questions afterward. Might not be quite that bad, but not far off. Active shooter situations is a big thing these days. If dispatch tells them there is an active shooter there or even someone with a gun, you should expect cops to show up expecting a fight. Anyone who carries a gun for self defense should keep that in mind.

Best advice in a similar situation I can come up with is to stand off to the side with your gun holstered and not visible. Let the cops come in and secure the scene before trying to talk to them. If you can't stand off to the side, re-holster and keep your hands visible. If you are prepared for the worst, something less than that will be less of a burden.

 

Really? Are you flipping serious?

The cops get a call that some guy is shooting people. They show up and -: wonder of wonders - there's a guy standing over a dead body holding a gun!

What do you expect their first impression will be?

 

I am not going to argue about this shooting, because there are always many details that come out when a thing like this is fully described. The DA's call here may be the only right one.

The problem I have is that, so close to always as makes no difference, that when a police officer shoots someone dead, the shooting is ruled justified and proper. Apparently police officers are pretty much perfect in that respect. I am sorry, but the older I get, the more my belief in the possibility of human perfection fades away.

 

You're probably right. What incidents did you have in mind?

BTW, I was talking about how a shooting is viewed by the legal authorities and PD's in question, NOT about the public view.