Only police officers should have guns

[liberty]

Only police officers should have guns so that tragedies don’t happen:
__________________________________________________________________________


NEW YORK (AP) — An off-duty federal law enforcement agent who died while confronting a pharmacy robber was picking up his elderly father's cancer medication, a New York congressman said Sunday.

Veteran agent John Capano had chased down the suspect inside the store and was trying to subdue him on the ground when he died, said Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y. The robber, who was also shot to death, was identified Sunday by police as 43-year-old James McGoey of Hampton Bays.

"John was with him on the ground wrestling," said King, who has spoken with local authorities and Capano's family. "Next thing you know, shots are fired."

McGoey went into Charlie's Family Pharmacy in Seaford, a small shorefront Long Island town, at about 2 p.m. on New Year's Eve, police said. He announced a holdup and was given what he came for: painkillers and money.

Capano, a trained explosives expert who had served in Iraq and Afghanistan, confronted McGoey as he tried to leave the store. Meanwhile, an off-duty NYPD officer and a retired Nassau County police officer who happened to be at a deli next door were alerted that someone was trying to rob the pharmacy, King said.

"This is a horrible confluence of events," King said. "They both hear this guy saying there's a robbery going on. They get their guns, they go next door."

It's not clear who shot either man. Capano, 51, died of a gunshot wound at a hospital. He was a 23-year veteran of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives who taught U.S. military and local forces in Afghanistan and Iraq how to investigate blasts, said Rory O'Connor, assistant special agent in charge in the ATF's New York office.

"He was a veteran agent who did his job well," O'Connor said. "Even though off-duty, he felt the need to take action in an attempt to protect the public."

Capano lived in nearby Massapequa and was married with two children. His father, Jimmy Capano, was a retired NYPD detective and the "unofficial mayor" of Merrick Road, the main thoroughfare in town and the street where his son was killed, King said.

"Everybody in Seaford knows the Capanos," said King, who has lived in the town for 40 years. "They're good, solid people."

On Saturday night, King spent half an hour with Jimmy Capano, who is 82 and was about to run out of his cancer medication.

[dales]

Here is a URL reporting the above story, draw your own conclusions.

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/federal ... e-1.999455

[liberty]

Here is some I failed to cut and past:


His death is the latest in a string of shootings of off-duty officers in the New York area who were responding to a crime.

In May, a New York Police Department officer shot to death an off-duty colleaguewho was carrying a gun while chasing a suspected car thief in East Harlem.

In March, an off-duty transit authority officer shot a Nassau County police officerwho was in plainclothes and carrying a rifle while both men were responding to a crime in the town of Massapequa Park.

And in 2008, Westchester County police officers killed an off-duty officerfrom suburban Mount Vernon while he intervened in a fight.

[dgs49]

So they are not certain that the Bad Guy shot John?

I guess the basic question is, should an armed off-duty cop confront an armed robber, or simply allow him to flee? Maybe it's not a simple question.

I'm wondering what this means: "Only police officers should have guns so that tragedies don’t happen."

What about off-duty police officers? What about robbers? By definition, they are armed, and one suspects that they are not concerned about the illegality of carrying a weapon.

I'm missing the point.

[liberty]

So they are not certain that the Bad Guy shot John?

I'm wondering what this means: "Only police officers should have guns so that tragedies don’t happen."

.

"It is sarcasm. It means just because someone is a police officer that fact does not make him superior; he is just as likely to screw up as a person with less training. Functionally an off duty officer who is not recognize by his colleges is no better than a citizen with a concealed carry permit. Perhaps federal officers, other than calling the police, should stay out local police matters."

[rubato]

"It is sarcasm. It means just because someone is a police officer that fact does not make them superior; they are just as likely to screw up as a person with less training. Functional an off duty officer which is not recognize by his colleges is no better than a citizen with a concealed carry permit. Perhaps federal officers, other than calling the police, should stay out local police matters."

Have you ever thought of taking a college writing course? Improvement would not be difficult.

yrs,
rubato

[loCAtek]

Other times, an off duty officer does a lot of good;

CBS

(AP)

SALT LAKE CITY - Former police officer Chris Willden didn't hesitate when he realized children were trapped in an upside down car in an icy Utah river. He pulled his handgun, pushed it up against the submerged windows and shot out the glass.

Then he reached inside.

"I was trying to grab arms, but I couldn't feel anything," Willden said. "I'm thinking ... what are we going to do?"'

But he turned to see up to eight other passers-by had scrambled down the embankment to help after coming upon the accident along U.S. 89 in Logan Canyon on Saturday afternoon.

Highway Patrol Lt. Steve Winward said that after shooting out a window, the rescuer cut a seatbelt to free one child. He said the rescuers helped turn the Honda Accord upright in the Logan River.

They lifted the car enough to free the three trapped children.

The driver, Roger Andersen, 46, of Logan, had lost control of the car as he tried to brake while heading northbound in slippery conditions. His 9-year-old daughter and 4-year-old son were trapped along with a second 9-year-old girl.

"(The driver) was panicked, doing everything he could to get in through the doors, but they wouldn't budge," said Willden, who had jumped into the water with his own father.

"I remember thinking to myself, 'You're going to see some dead kids, get ready.' I've got three of my own and it was going to be (an awful) start to the New Year."

Willden said he tried unsuccessfully to open windows and doors. He then used his firearm just as he had done in training for his current job as a bodyguard and Department of Defense contractor.

One of the girls had found an air pocket and was breathing fine but was trapped in her seat belt. Willden cut it with a pocket knife and pulled her from the rear passenger window.

He said the other two children were lifeless, the boy upside down in his car seat and the second girl floating in the front passenger compartment. Both were pulled from the vehicle.

Buzzy Mullahkel of North Logan told the Deseret News of Salt Lake City that the boy wasn't breathing and didn't have a pulse but was revived when another passer-by performed CPR.

"Emotions started taking over when he started to breathe. Everybody started to cheer. Lots of tears and clapping," said Mullahkel, a father of a 4-year-old.

Willden, 35 of Ogden, was wrapping up his bleeding forearms cut by the broken window when he heard cheers.

"That was awesome," he said. "I knew that's where the little boy was."

He would later learn both the boy and his sister, who were flown by air ambulance to Primary Children's Medical Center in Salt Lake City, had survived.

Bonnie Midget, a hospital spokeswoman, said Sunday both are doing well after spending the night in intensive care. They were taken out of intensive care Sunday but still in the hospital, listed in fair condition as they recover from hypothermia.

Winward said the father and the second girl escaped injury.

Mullahkel said the scene reminded him of another heroic rescue in Logan earlier this year. In that case, bystanders lifted a burning car off an injured motorcyclist and pulled him to safety. The motorcyclist survived and is recovering from his injuries.

"It was eerily similar," Mullahkel told the Deseret News. "Those men in the river just even now blow my mind. Look at these gentlemen, these men in this river in the middle of winter."

Willden said simply there was a mission to be accomplished.

He noted that both he and his father are both former military/civilian police officers, while his sister and mother are emergency medical technicians.

"It's in our family to go out and help others," he said.

[liberty]

[quote="rubato

Have you ever thought of taking a college writing course? Improvement would not be difficult.

yrs,
rubato[/quote]


I have considered that, but it would only have an minimum impact on the end result. And besides now I don’t have the time. You may have noticed that I can write fairly well at times; it is a mystery to me as well. I don’t understand how whole words and phrases can just disappear from my writing. At any rate, I have learned, that a calendar can be more usefully that anything else; a better text is produce when I write on one day and proof read on the next. Here is something interesting: I have no trouble writing my maintenance reports I have to submit at the close of each call.


http://www.dyslexiaassociation.ca/engli ... exia.shtml