Execution

[Gob]

[BoSoxGal]

Official version released to the press:

A 49-year-old man in a wheelchair was killed Sunday morning after Mesa police shot him during an altercation, authorities said.

The man had been riding in his wheelchair on the sidewalk about 9:15 a.m. near Main Street and Williams when Mesa police officers spotted him from their vehicles and pulled over to stop him, Mesa Police Department spokesman Sgt. Tony Landato said. Officers had been looking for the man, who police said has had several drug-related run-ins with police, because they knew he had a felony warrant for narcotics.

After confirming the warrant was still active, officers were making arrangements with the jail to accommodate the man’s wheelchair when one of the officers noticed he was fidgeting with his waistband, Landato said. Officers searched him and found two knives sheathed in his waistband under his shirt.

Officers took the knives but one noticed a bulge around his side that turned out to be a holstered gun, Landato said. When the man realized the officers had seen the gun, he reached for it. [This is the key language that will exonerate the cop who shot him.]

The officers began fighting with the man when he put his hand on the gun, and in the process one officer fired his gun at least once, striking the man, Landato said. He died on scene. None of the officers were injured.

[Lord Jim]

If the guy had a gun, this looks like a "good" shooting to me...

This wasn't some random person in a wheel chair...

This was a known drug dealer who was armed...

A guy sitting in a wheel chair is every bit as capable of firing a gun as a guy standing on two feet...

Others might be prejudiced about this, but I for one will not insult this man's ability to pose a real and present threat simply because he is "differently abled"...

[Gob]

You're a card Jim!

[Joe Guy]

Why didn't they just shoot him in the wheel?....

[rubato]

A lot of cops there for the self-defense excuse to fly. He is in a wheelchair, an officer positioned behind him could have controlled his hands.


Cops shoot people at the first plausible excuse because that's what they want to do. If they went into an encounter like this with a different set of priorities the outcomes would be different.


yrs,
rubato

[MajGenl.Meade]

You'd know... being an expert 'n all.

[rubato]

You'd know... being an expert 'n all.

Putting aside your petty personal hatreds and trying to think might be of benefit to you.


There were three officers on the scene. Someone in a wheelchair is easily physically controlled and not a flight risk. They killed him because they had a plausible excuse had no other goal.



yrs,
rubato

[Lord Jim]

Cops shoot people at the first plausible excuse because that's what they want to do

Good lord what pure ass gas...

an officer positioned behind him could have controlled his hands.

It's a real shame you weren't there to rush the guy and "control his hands" while he was reaching for his gun, since apparently that's what you think the cops should have done...

We don't know what was going on before the video started that led to the first cop (after yelling "drop the gun") shooting the perp in the leg. but from that point forward we see and here the cops repeatedly yelling "show us your hands!" and "put up your hands!" orders that he not only ignores, but he proceeds to reach into his pants to pull out his gun.

So to review:

Guy has gun. Cops know he has gun. (He was afterall the neighborhood drug dealer, well known to the police)

Cops tell him repeatedly to raise his hands.

Instead of raising his hands, he goes for his gun.

Cops shoot guy.

This one really isn't complicated. (In fact if anything, it looks like "suicide by cop" more than anything else, given the really stupid choices the drug dealer made.)

I am frankly disgusted by the way every single media outlet I have seen, print, online, on television, has sensationalized and focused on the "wheelchair" aspect of this. They are doing the public a gross disservice by presenting the story in that way.

Given the known facts and sequence of events in this case, (which I detailed above) the fact that this guy was sitting in a wheelchair is ABSOLUTELY IRRELEVANT to what took place. He was a paraplegic NOT a quadriplegic. His hands and arms worked just as well as anyone elses- as he demonstrated by reaching for his GUN....

Sitting or standing makes no difference to the set of facts...

The fact that he was in a wheelchair should be in the last paragraph of this story, along with other completely irrelevant details like what he was wearing. NOT blaring in every headline and lead.

The honest, accurate headline for this story is:

"Man Ignores Police Orders And Reaches For Gun; Cops Open Fire"

[oldr_n_wsr]

Cops shoot people at the first plausible excuse because that's what they want to do

Yeah, I'm sure they woke up that morning and said, "I'm going to shoot someone today. Better yet, I'm going to shoot someone in a wheelchair today".
Yup, that's what they wanted from the get go.

[Lord Jim]

It's just his ignorant, broad brush bigotry rearing its ugly head again...

[oldr_n_wsr]

It's just his ignorant, broad brush bigotry rearing its ugly head again...

It's Friday, lets be nice.

[Joe Guy]

Hey Everybody!

Get up off yo' feet!!

Don't think!

Now say something stupid!!

That's it...

Now spin!

Y'all are doin' the Rubato Shuffle!!

[rubato]

I'd be interested to hear the opinions of other police officers about this.


yrs,
rubato

[MajGenl.Meade]

I just asked one. He said your opinion isn't worth shit.

But I stood up for you.

[Lord Jim]

It's just his ignorant, broad brush bigotry rearing its ugly head again...

It's Friday, lets be nice.

I'll be nice to rube tomorrow...

It's National Be Kind To Idiots Day....

[rubato]

I just asked one. He said your opinion isn't worth shit.

But I stood up for you.

Drunk? Are you suffering from dementia? Your posts are devolving into slobbering idiocy. Even worse than the usual hate-claque productions.


I said officers, plural, because I was interested in a range of opinions.



yrs,
rubato

[MajGenl.Meade]

Oh yeah. I forgot to finish. He said your opinion isn't worth shit. But I stood up for you and said it is.

[rubato]

Brutish and stupid, as jokes go. But it allows you to suck ass to LJ Joe Guy and Old n Wiser so there's that going for it.

Moral dwarfs.


yrs,
rubato

[Lord Jim]

I just asked one. He said your opinion isn't worth shit.

But I stood up for you.

Drunk? Are you suffering from dementia? Your posts are devolving into slobbering idiocy. Even worse than the usual hate-claque productions.


I said officers, plural, because I was interested in a range of opinions.



yrs,
rubato

Wow, you're in rare form today rube...

Boldly blazing new trails in utter cluelessness...