Cop and CCW Shooter Indicted

[usmarine0352_2005]

Robbinsdale cop indicted: Road rage

By JIM ADAMS, Star Tribune

Last update: December 20, 2007 - 4:46 PM

http://www.startribune.com/local/west/12666302.html

A Robbinsdale police officer was indicted today with making terroristic threats in a June road-rage incident in which another driver shot him in the leg.

Landen Beard, 27, was indicted in Anoka County District Court, where the other driver was charged Wednesday for his role in the rolling argument in Coon Rapids.

Beard's attorney, Bill Michael, said after today's hearing that he and his client were "completely surprised ... the facts as we know them don't warrant any charge." Beard declined to comment today.

Michael said Beard will plead not guilty.

Martin Treptow, 35, is charged with three felonies: making terroristic threats, driveby shooting and reckless discharge of a firearm. Treptow, who has a gun permit, has claimed he shot Beard, an undercover officer in plain clothes, to protect his wife and two children who were in his SUV that day.

Michael said Beard has a different recollection of what happened. According to Beard: After passing Treptow on the shoulder, Beard got in an argument with him. Beard pulled his gun after seeing Treptow's gun but did not fire because Treptow's wife was between them.

Michael said Beard identified himself as an officer during the shooting.

Treptow's attorney, Kurt Glaser, said the account Michael gave was "inconsistent with independent witness statements."

The two men have opposing versions of who pulled a gun first.

A county grand jury heard evidence in the case for two days last week; including testimony from Martin Treptow's wife, Rebecca Treptow, numerous officers and four civilian witnesses. Treptow voluntarily testified before the grand jury and answered a prosecutor's questions, Glaser said.

Treptow has said Beard, seated in a car right by Treptow's SUV, pointed his gun at Rebecca Treptow, seated in the front passenger seat by her husband. Their two young children were in the back seat that afternoon near Foley Boulevard and 99th Avenue, not far from Beard's home. Treptow has said Beard, driving an unmarked car, did not identify himself as an officer.

Treptow, a security business manager, reacted that day as he had been trained to do as a security guard and bodyguard, said Glaser.

Treptow drove away from the scene and called police minutes later to report the shooting near Foley and Hwy. 10. Treptow was booked and released without bail Wednesday.

Beard also was released today without bail and ordered to be booked at the jail within 24 hours.

Beard, who was on duty during the incident and had continued working undercover for Robbinsdale police, will placed on paid administrative leave until the case is resolved, said Police Chief Wayne Shellum.

Shellum has said that Beard has had no discipline troubles or complaints during his four years on the force.

Shellum described Beard as a good, steady and reliable officer with good evaluations.

If Beard is convicted of a felony charge, he would automatically lost his officer's license from the Minnesota Board of Peace Officer Standards and Training, said executive director Neal Melton.

Jim Adams • 612-673-7658

 

[Thernlund]

Hmmm... it'll be interesting to see how this turns out.


-T.

 

[Jeff White]

The system is working just as it should be. This is how most self defense incidents happen. It starts with a gesture or words, it escalates and someone is seriously injured or dead. Both parties think that they are in the right and both are shocked that they have been charged. But given my experience trying to figure out what really happened in incidents like this and who is at fault, I'm not in the least surprised that both parties have been charged.

Jeff

 

[TallPine]

After passing Treptow on the shoulder, Beard got in an argument with him.

Isn't passing on the shoulder illegal in most states ???

 

[Jeff White]

Isn't passing on the shoulder illegal in most states ???

What's that got to do with anything? From the limited information we have, this looks like a mutual combat situation. Both parties involved have been charged for their part in it.

This is how most self defense actions happen. Someone says or does something that upsets someone else, the other party responds, it escalates, both parties involved act like they are 10 years old, the next thing you know, someone is hurt or dead and self defense is claimed by all parties involved.

Treptow was not required to engage in an argument with Beard over Beard passing on the shoulder. It doesn't mention that either party was blocked in by the other one. Based on the limited information available, it seems like two armed men lost their tempers and ended up settling their dispute with guns. It's lucky that both of them are still alive and in my opinion neither one of them needs to ever be allowed to possess a firearm again. Beard says he drew his weapon when he saw Treptow's weapon. Treptow says he shot Beard when he drew his weapon. I surmise that Treptow was sitting in his vehicle at the time, so I must wonder if Treptow didn't brandish his weapon at Beard. He'd have to be pretty good to draw from a seated position and shoot Beard before Beard could shoot him with his already drawn weapon.

These two fine examples of the firearms community for reasons known only to them, decided to act out the Brady/VPC's dire warnings about shootouts over traffic disputes if shall issue CCW was passed.

Being passed on the shoulder is not a big enough personal slight to escalate into a gunfight, not by a mature person anyway.

Jeff

 

[bear71]

I live about two miles from the place where this happened. Funny thing is I was the victim of a road rager motorcyclist (for driving too slow) in the same area about a month after this incident happened. He challenged me to a fight and I called the police. The police said there was nothing they could about this motorcyclists which is a very standard response. Police aren't effective until people are dead or hospitalized.

Road rage is occuring in Minnesota because our roadways are in a shambles, thousands upon thousands come to the metropolitan every month from the outstate areas to live here and the traffic patterns cannot support the increased population. We're about twenty years behind.

One driver doing the speed limit of 55 miles per hour will gather 40 or 50 vehicles behind them each with basically a car length between them. The one driver will refuse to move over and hence anger develops. We have thousands of ignorant drivers here who still think they're out on the farm.

Hey Jarvis, yer not in Kansas anymore.

 

[Zundfolge]

Michael said Beard identified himself as an officer during the shooting.

Here's a question for the LEOs and legal types here.

Does just yelling out "Dammit I'm a COP!" constitute "identifying" one's self? Or would he have to produce a badge in order for it to count as "identifying himself as an officer"?

I can yell "I'm a COP!" or "I'm Joan Rivers!" but that doesn't make it so.

 

[20nickels]

Sounds like it will come down to who (needlessly) brandished their weapon first. The other can claim self defense. That fact Beard is an officer should be irrelevant.

 

[alsaqr]

One idiot decided to play the other idiot's silly game.

 

[Geno]

Take s a bigger person to walk away, even when right, and sometimes especially when right.

 

[DMK]

Treptow was not required to engage in an argument with Beard over Beard passing on the shoulder.

If Beard was passing Treptow on the shoulder (Since he was on duty, I'll give him the benefit of the doubt and assume he was doing this in an official capacity, meaning he needed to be elsewhere. Of course, he may have just thought he was above sitting in traffic), then he should not have stopped to engage Treptow either, unless a gun was drawn or Treptow's vehicle was used in a threatening mannor.

It seems to me that both men had opportunity to de-escalate this situation and failed.

On the surface it sounds like two men with fragile egos acting like adolescents. They should probably both be charged.

We'll probably never know how and why it actually happened.

 

[Thernlund]

Isn't passing on the shoulder illegal in most states ???

What's that got to do with anything?

Might come up in trial. Why was Beard passing on the shoulder? Did he have a reason unrealted to the incident that followed? Or might this be an indication that he was actively trying to engage Treptow?


-T.

 

[DoubleTapDrew]

Seems escalation of the argument by either/both parties would put a kink in their argument of "self defense". Either way it casts a bad light on both LE and CCW'ers.
The brady bunch will have a field day with "SEE every little argument or road rage incident turns into gunfight with your eeevil weapons of death-OMG-for the children-what a world-save the whales-assault cars!"

 

[TallPine]

Quote:
Isn't passing on the shoulder illegal in most states ???

What's that got to do with anything? .... This is how most self defense actions happen. Someone says or does something that upsets someone else.......

I think you answered your own question.

Definitely two stories going on here. Both cannot be true.

 

[NASCAR_MAN]

If Beard was passing Treptow on the shoulder (Since he was on duty, I'll give him the benefit of the doubt and assume he was doing this in an official capacity, meaning he needed to be elsewhere.
==============================================

Yeah...Beard's official duties were so urgent that he had time enough to stop and get into a shoot-out with Mr. and Mrs. John Q Public.

 

[El Tejon]

Who at THR has that signature that (paraphrasing) "you lose your right to defend your honor and get angry once you holster a pistol"?

A life of peace is the best life.

 

[NASCAR_MAN]

Quote about Beard's actions from: http://www.twincities.com/ci_7774082?source=most_viewed&nclick_check=1

A hair stylist at a nearby strip mall, who had a view of the street, told police the following: "And the African-American gentleman was hanging out of the window kinda yelling at the guy in the car sayin', 'I'll (expletive) kill you. ... I don't care about jail. ... I'll (expletive) kill you. I don't care about jail.' ... I heard that like three times."

http://www.startribune.com/local/west/12666302.html

A 19-year-old Anoka woman said she saw the man later identified as Beard driving next to another vehicle and leaning out his window as he repeatedly swore and threatened to kill the other driver, adding, "I don't care about jail."

Several witnesses said they saw Beard getting out of his car next to Treptow's SUV and then heard a shot and saw Beard fall back into his car.

A 50-year-old Blaine woman waiting in traffic behind Beard's maroon Monte Carlo said Beard was waving something that she couldn't identify in his hand as he began getting out. Then she heard a pop from Treptow's SUV and saw Beard fall back into his car, then to the ground. His car rolled into the back of a nearby pizza restaurant.

===================================================

Hmmm...and this after Beard decided to start passing traffic on the right shoulder - clearly against the law.

In my part of the woods, we call people like Beard "Scumbags".

 

[MarshallDodge]

One idiot decided to play the other idiot's silly game.

I can agree with that statement.

 

[cassandrasdaddy]

a 60 plus year old neighbor of mine s\hot his 40 year old next door neighbor at the end of a long fued that started over burning leaves. and the old man truly thought he was justified in shooting the neigbor in the belly in the neighbors driveway. he went next door ande when cops came he thought they were gonna take his statement prior to charging the guy he just shot.
in court the wounded guy summed it up real well. he said 2 grown men didn't act grown and both of it will regret it the rest of their lives

 

[Richmond]

self defense

This will be an interesting case to follow. The grand jury testimony, of course, is secret, but the reports and trial court are not. Hopefully, as a more complete picture develops, we can all learn something.

This is how most self defense actions happen. Someone says or does something that upsets someone else, the other party responds, it escalates, both parties involved act like they are 10 years old, the next thing you know, someone is hurt or dead and self defense is claimed by all parties involved.

This is spot on - I have the unfortunate duty of explaining the law of self defense to defendants who are convinced that they are "in the right". Most cases are precisely as quoted above - two guys who are engaging in mutual combat who, at some point in the interaction can point to something the other guy did that was offensive.

Sometimes, while self defense is not available as a legal defense, it may mitigate an actor's culpability and affect either charging or sentencing decisions.

But - bottom line is that the one fight you know you cannot lose (or get criminally charged for your role in) is the one you walk away from.

 

[usmarine0352_2005]

Since Beard was a police officer, he should usually be held to a "Higher Standard", and know that getting in a shouting match and pulling out a gun isn't very professional.

 

[Autolycus]

I agree. As a LEO he should be held to a higher standard as he is trained better than a CCWer. I am sure many would agree.

 

[Jim K]

If the witness statements are to be believed, the officer (Beard) was clearly out of control. A police officer shouting something like "I am a police officer, pull over" or "you are under arrest" is OK; an officer shouting "I am going to kill you" is beyond the pale and is an unlawful threat in anyone's book. Even if the other person "started it" in some way, that officer needs to be an ex-officer and get some serious help before he goes berserk and does kill someone.

Is this yet another instance of race entering the picture? African-American (and other minority) officers need to be careful that they do not react improperly to name-calling or other provocations.

Jim

 

[Jeff White]

The officer is being held to the same standard everyone else is. Even if he is acquitted, which I doubt, he will probably be fired. However if he was totally at fault, why was the civilian charged? I think (based on the very limited information available) that it's a clear cut case of mutual combat. Both parties are at fault, and both parties are charged. And I have no doubt, that both parties believe they were acting properly.

I don't think there is any need to make this a race issue or a cop bashing issue. There is no evidence that Beard was acting under color of law. He's just another hothead with a gun. When one of you perfects the robocop artificial intelligence software and mates it with a very advanced robotic body, then and only then may you expect perfect conduct from everyone hired into a position of trust. As long as you hire human beings to do that job, you risk having them be susceptible to the same human weaknesses as everyone else.

Jeff

 

[cassandrasdaddy]

undercover cops sometimes get too good at the role they play. an undercover in fairfa did that and crossed the line several times as a result some otherwise good cases got tossed.