Police Shooting of Pre-Teen in Cleveland Caught on Surveillance Video That Contradicts Cops Claims
So says Reason’s Ed Krayewski. Honestly, I can’t tell. While the police officer shoots pretty quickly, the kid looked to me to be going for his fake gun. Or, at least, his hands appeared to be moving that way.
November 28th, 2014 at 3:16 pm
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wwYVJ4W7DPo
Clearly just a choirboy handing out leaflets for his church on his way from bible study to volunteering at the soup kitchen.
Yeah, the cop shot quickly. So? I’m pretty critical of cops and their modern methods but come on, they knew they had a potentially crazy guy with a gun walk right toward them and reach for his waistline. Any reasonable armed person would think “oh fuck he’s about to shoot at me” and shoot him.
I don’t expect cops to let people hurt or kill them just because I disagree with many of the things they do.
Watch the behavior of the cops during and just after the shooting. The cop who shot was absolutely scrambling to get behind his cruiser for cover, which tells me he thought he was in real danger, and the other cop also behaved in a very wary manner. They also didn’t just pump him full of lead, but fired a few shots and covered him when the threat was ended, which tells me they didn’t just panic.
The fake gun is not obviously fake at a glance, and in that situation I would probably think it was real too.
As I said I am not a cop cheerleader, but I’m not going to twist the truth for an agenda either. Looks like a fairly clean, if unfortunate shoot to me.
November 28th, 2014 at 5:39 pm
I can’t fault them. The youth was pointing the gun at individuals walking past. All reports indicate that the police officers were never told the gun was fake.
Tragic. However, I don’t think the outcome was easily avoided.
November 28th, 2014 at 9:46 pm
Rule 5 (or whatever number we’re up to): When cops are around, empty your hands, never move your hand near any gun-looking object our your waist.
Sad, we must train kids 5 and above in that rule instead of depending on better police training.
I’ve seen commenters, who claim police experience, pointing out the veteran created the situation by rolling up close to the kid putting the rookie in the line of fire before he opened his door.
November 28th, 2014 at 10:40 pm
Is the dispatch call released? I can’t really tell from this video. The call the officer received may have played an important roll in why they rolled up like that. I’m sure by the law of averages there are good dispatcher out there, but sometimes information is left out and/or commentary added in as an afterthought.
November 29th, 2014 at 2:40 am
Yeah who knows what happened while the time lapse camera was jumping forward between frames taken.
Not a cop fan but its not a clear cut case at all.
SteveA
November 29th, 2014 at 10:35 am
Was this child the most recent victim of “swatting?”