Tag: bad shooting

Tony Timba

I just want to put this out here so *I* don’t forget. I somehow hadn’t heard of Tony Timba until like two weeks ago. This is an egregious Floyd like case of a man killed by cops. But only Floyd, here there was also a cover up and there was no accountability. Cops did nothing…
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“Stop the car or I’ll step in front of it”

This was not a good shooting. And cringe-worthy from an officer’s perspective. From the suspect’s perspective, well, he’s dead. I’m quoted in this article. The background is the car popped up on a stolen car list (I think from an automated license plate reader). The officer is told to investigate. The car is in a…
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Dogs, Data, and Dastardly Deeds

Nick Selby and I talk about all this and more on our latest Quality Policing Podcast. Here’s the bad shooting we discuss. It’s not much in the news because there’s no racial angle to it. The officer was criminally charged today. I would say this might be third worst shooting of all time (Walter Scott…
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Terence Crutcher shooting

I’ll cut right to the chase, I think this is a bad shooting; but not as bad as many people seem to think. (In my very first sentence, I probably just pissed everybody off.) Terence Crutcher wasn’t armed. And I don’t think he was an imminent threat when he was shot. Therefore it wasn’t reasonable.…
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Hands up don’t shoot

“As long as I got my hands up, they’re not going to shoot me. This is what I’m thinking. Wow. Was I wrong.” What the f*ck? Charles Kinsey is almost obscenely complaint. And unarmed. Does anybody have a link to a video that shows the moment he’s shot? I’d like to see it. But unless…
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Philando Castile

This police-involved shooting is bad. And unlike the killing of Alton Sterling in Louisiana, I’m willing to call this one before the polls have closed. This more recent shooting in Falcon Heights, Minnesota reminded me of Joseph Schultz. Schultz, you probably don’t remember because you’ve never heard of him, got shot in the face in…
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Courage, not fear

I still can’t believe this guy got shot down by a cop playing whack-a-mole with his service weapon. The D.A. said: The evidence in this case shows the shooting to be accidental, and possibly negligent, but not criminally so. “This shooting is not justified, but also not criminal.” I don’t know if I buy the…
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Perhaps the worst police-involved shooting ever

I don’t say that lightly. There have been some bad ones. Click on this link or you can jump to about 0:50 sec on this: Andrew Thomas, the victim, a drunk driver, is paralyzed. He is white. So is Paradise, California. 1:35: “I got a male in the car refusing to get out.” Maybe, you…
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Bad shooting in Gardena, California

Usually when I get called from the media about a police-involved shooting I expect I’m going to have to explain how a reasonable police officer might perceive a potentially lethal threat. Not here. This is a bad shooting: The killing happened two years ago. The video was just released. The officers faced no legal consequences.…
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“You’re doin’ fine, Oklahoma!” Not.

A 73-year old man, Robert C. Bates, liked to play cops and robbers. He thought he was going to get to Tase a bad guy. But instead of holding his Taser, Bob was holding his personal gun. Bang. You’re dead. Oops. Bates wasn’t a real cop. He was a “reserve deputy sheriff,” which isn’t necessarily…
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