[Cops gonna Cop] Cop shoots caretaker of autistic man playing in the street with toy truck

Wait, so there defense is:
1: We wanted to shoot the innocent autistic guy?
2: We are not skilled enough to hit our intended target?

Yeah, that gives me a lot of confidence.

 

Wow. Parts of this story make little sense. Like if the officer that shot the black guy was trying to shoot the autistic guy holding the toy truck, why did the police handcuff the black guy they were trying to protect from the autistic guy? And why so long to render medical assistance? And if the police officers, armed with rifles, were close enough to hold a conversations with the black guy, why did one end up firing at the autistic guy from an angle that would "unintentionally" strike the black guy he supposedly was trying to protect? And why did the officer that shot the black guy, initially answer the question "why did you shoot him, answer "I don't know" instead of "I was trying to protect the black guy but accidentally shot him"?

 

If they "didn't think Kinsey was a bad guy" and accidentally shot him while trying to hit the autistic man, why on earth would they handcuff Kinsey? Their story makes no sense.

 

Because it really doesn't have too.

Any ole story will do . .

Rocket River

 

I always handcuff someone after I accidentally injure them

 

I've said it before, but this isn't a problem of individual cops. It is a problem of a system which, in trying to promote police officer safety, has turned cops into paranoid, shell shocked, trigger happy nuts. They think everybody is out to kill them and if they don't pull the trigger at the slightest provocation they are taking unnecessary risks. Their job is dangerous, but not nearly so dangerous as they seem to believe. You have a greater risk of death managing a landscaping service (really).

Self preservation is so high on their list of concerns, that shooting innocent people is an acceptable, if unfortunate, outcome of being safe.

There needs to be a culture change. Some police seem to grasp this, but many more have seen Ferguson, BLM, Dallas, etc. as proof that they are under siege and they need to double down on using their guns to make sure they are protecting themselves.

These things are going to keep happening as long as police departments from the top down continue to preach paranoia and fear in the name of safety. Individual cops are just doing what they are being taught as well as they are capable of doing so.

 

I think they freaked out after shooting the guy. Then they just went on auto-pilot and do what they routinely do: cuff everyone involved.

 

Cop was looking at the guy through a scope - how could he not see that toy?

 

If there was no video of the incident the cop wouldve just said the black guy threatened him. They needed to arrest him to make the story realistic.

 

Making up excuses will further erode trust in the police.

I'm usually on the cops' side in case of doubt, but when there is clear wrongdoing, there must be consequences.

 

Apparently the cop was a SWAT team member. Presumably they have to be better marksman than a common cop.

 

And...let him bleed on the ground for 20 minutes.


These police unions are getting more ridiculous by the day.

Why was Kinsey handcuffed, if they were trying to shoot the autistic man?
Why WOULD THEY SHOOT AN AUTISTIC PERSON who doesn't have a weapon?
Where did cop train at?
Why aren't they releasing his name?

 

I read the police statement as more of an explanation than an excuse. Even if it makes little sense, it makes the most sense out of any other scenario to me.

The cop was still wrong to fire on them. Fortunately for him, nobody was fatally hit. He should still be kicked off the force and face whatever charges can be levied against him.

Good thing there was video evidence of this happening. We need more transparency in policing. I wonder what happened to the video of when the shots were fired. I don't really buy that the cops didn't hear Kinsey, either. You can hear what he says on the video even through the wind.

As for the ambulance not arriving for 20 minutes, maybe the situation wasn't controlled until then. I hope they at least applied first aid care after calling the ambulance and before it arrived.

 

Through a scope the truck looked huge... and they worried about another Paris truck attack.

 

We absolutely do. There is a huge trust issue. There is also a huge issue with lack of proper training.

I know not to have any police involvement when someone is having some mental issue. I know there is a lot of focus on race, but IMO, how cops handle folks that are autistic or folks with some mental issues is a bigger problem that when addressed, will benefit all and will improve the racial bias issues.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/sf/investigative/2015/06/30/distraught-people-deadly-results/

 

Right, so you cuff the "black" guy who's lying on the ground wounded, leave him there bleeding for 20 minutes yet don't cuff the guy you were shooting at? That's their story and they are sticking to it, eh? You know what - at times like this when you are clearly in the wrong the best course of action is to simply STFU. Jesus! The mere fact that they cuffed the black guy means that they were shooting at him. I hope he sues that city back into the stone age - where this police force belongs.

 

Perhaps the police were afraid of getting close enough to the seated autistic white guy that was heavily armed with the toy truck to cuff the autistic guy...

 

From what I've read, both of them were cuffed.

 

Hard to know how the whole encounter went, but this feels like the crux of the problem. They showed up and hid behind police cruisers and were unwilling to get close enough to assess the situation. If that's true, it's not just the one r****d who fired for no reason, it's the police force that thinks this is how these calls should be handled.

 

Oh well then, that makes it all better...

I'm still trying to wrap my head around the idea that a (so called) trained SWAT office using a rifle WITH A GODDAMED SCOPE could not look through the scope and see that the guy sitting up was holding a toy truck. That alone should have told him that deadly force was not warranted. And just why was this dumbass even carrying a rifle if he can't hit something 150 feet away? Not 150 yards - 150 feet.