Louisiana Police Officer Indicted for Negligent Homicide

[walker2713]

This happened in early December, but the video has just been released in the last couple of days.

http://www.knoe.com/home/headlines/Officer-involved-in-West-Monroe-shooting-pleads-not-guilty-294261831.html

[John Hearne]

Does anyone know what the initial call was for?

[Hambo]

Various news articles said nothing, but I did find one site that said the initial call was for loitering.

[walker2713]

Apparently the homeless man was intoxicated, belligerent and harassing employees in the convenience store.....

[Leroy Suggs]

That was disturbing.

[Plan]

Hopefully the actual police "interview" in full (not just the segments shown here) consistented of more than ridiculously leading and yes/no questions...

[SecondsCount]

It would be nice to hear some audio. If the homeless guy was acting belligerent and threatening, then that would have given the officer a reason to draw his gun, and when the HG reached for something, a reason to shoot.

[Dagga Boy]

Well, at least it was fast. Wonder what his splits were?

Seriously....not enough info or background, but emphasizes that these are complicated problems without textbook solutions. Also indicative of why it is so critical to remain in the evaluation phase as long as possible, and why getting the gun out of your face is critical in order to give you the most visual input as possible while you are still in the evaluation phase.

[jnc36rcpd]

The article has a link to an edited version of the interview with the officer. He states that the suspect said "Boy, you're going to have to shoot me" before attempting to access the cell phone. While there are not a lot of media "facts" about this incident, but my guess would be someone who wanted to scare the officer as so many offenders do.

I agree with Darryl about holding suspects at low ready. It allows better view of waistband and hands. You're less likely to unintentionally shoot the suspect if you trip or are assaulted by a third party. Most people realize that you consider them threatening. If need be, you can escalate to pointing the weapon at the suspect.

Given the limited information, perhaps distance and cover might have helped the officer. The only other option might be to close the distance and going for aggressive hands-on control. Of course, that might be considered excessive by the prosecutor with the benefit of hindsight.

Of course, I suspect the tactic adopted by officers in this jurisdiction will be to slow their response to in-progress calls. Really, that is the most effective approach to avoid shooting a suspect, armed or not.

[popo22]

Its really difficult to make any type of judgement from the blurred image in the video, just can't see what the Officer saw.

[WOLFIE]

Well, at least it was fast. Wonder what his splits were?

Seriously....not enough info or background, but emphasizes that these are complicated problems without textbook solutions. Also indicative of why it is so critical to remain in the evaluation phase as long as possible, and why getting the gun out of your face is critical in order to give you the most visual input as possible while you are still in the evaluation phase.

Excellent post