Footage of Officer shooting "unarmed" man.

[Exo594]

I came across this from a youtube channel I subscribe to. What do you guys think about this? I think that the officer was justified in how he handled the situation.
Furor over footage of police shooting - SFGate

 

[Spanky46151]

Not enough info available to make the call. Way too many variables are possible to make an intelligent summation.

 

[Exo594]

Even though it was thoroughly investigated and you can read everything that happened in the article?

 

[KW730]

Even though it was thoroughly investigated and you can read everything that happened in the article?

Yes, even though. It doesn't matter what the facts are in hindsight. Split second syndrome comes into play, and as long as the officer had fear of grievous bodily harm based on what little information he was presented with and the small amount of time he had to make a decision, it's a clean shoot. None of us were in that officer's position and none of us should pass judgement on his actions.

 

[Spanky46151]

I read the story. I have no idea how accurate or complete it is. All I can go off of is the video and it doesn't lend itself to making the call. My greatest concern is why a parolee would exit a vehicle, especially one that is the subject of a police stop, with a knife in his hand. The officer had to assume it was for something more diabolical than buttering bread. Would a reasonable police officer agree that the parolee was a credible threat? That is the standard that must be applied.

 

[45calibre]

Video experts hired by the district attorney's office said it appeared Duenez initially had a knife in his hand, but that they lost sight of it and couldn't explain how it ended up in the truck bed

cop says "drop the knife" and in the vid you cant see a knife but then there is a knife in the bed of the truck?

 

[j706]

I would have shot him too just based off his actions once confronted. Not to mention if you knew his prior history and his obvious propensity for violence. Forget what the lawyers for the family said. Most of them have some far out there imaginations and are prone to exaggerate if not flat out lie.

By the way that was some good shooting.

 

[96firephoenix]

can't say, but at first glance, looks like a justifiable shooting. The officer called the man "Ernie," which to me indicates that he knows the alias, knows the person, or knows the rap sheet.

If I was being ordered out of a vehicle, I would not be scrambling out of the truck like that, especially with a knife. And why was he reaching hastily back into the car? Especially after "Don't you move, or I will shoot you!"

On a side note: 13 shots in 4.2 seconds with an 11/13 accuracy. Commendable, even on such short distance, given the situation.

 

[CathyInBlue]

COULD this be a murder in which the victim was complicit? Sure. I didn't see any knife when the officer was yelling "Drop the knife!", nor do I see a knife make its way from the cab to the bed with the decedent's assistance, but that doesn't mean there wasn't ample opportunity for the events to work out like the police said they did.

There's also the fact that the police knew the decedent intimately, he having served three stints in prison and they being staked out on that home specificly for him. He was a known quantity. When a known violent offender is drawn down on and given orders and he acts the way that this guy did, all furtive-like, then it's hard to say that he was trying to be an upstanding good citizen at that moment. He was acting more, to my eye anyway, like someone seeking a weapon in the truck with which to defend himself from reasonable force on the part of the police. If his foot was caught in the seat belt, a dubious claim, but let's go with it for now, then the safest way for the decedent to extricate himself from it was to simply let it trip him up and to fall into the nice, soft grass he fell to anyway. If he had been face down, arms out, even if leg entangled with the truck at the moment of the officer's opening fire, this officer would be Johannes Mehserle's new cell mate by now.

This case could have gone either way with me, but based on the decedent's furtive movements and known history, I'm leaning toward the cop's side.

 

[j706]

COULD this be a murder in which the victim was complicit? Sure. I didn't see any knife when the officer was yelling "Drop the knife!", nor do I see a knife make its way from the cab to the bed with the decedent's assistance, but that doesn't mean there wasn't ample opportunity for the events to work out like the police said they did.

There's also the fact that the police knew the decedent intimately, he having served three stints in prison and they being staked out on that home specificly for him. He was a known quantity. When a known violent offender is drawn down on and given orders and he acts the way that this guy did, all furtive-like, then it's hard to say that he was trying to be an upstanding good citizen at that moment. He was acting more, to my eye anyway, like someone seeking a weapon in the truck with which to defend himself from reasonable force on the part of the police. If his foot was caught in the seat belt, a dubious claim, but let's go with it for now, then the safest way for the decedent to extricate himself from it was to simply let it trip him up and to fall into the nice, soft grass he fell to anyway. If he had been face down, arms out, even if leg entangled with the truck at the moment of the officer's opening fire, this officer would be Johannes Mehserle's new cell mate by now.

This case could have gone either way with me, but based on the decedent's furtive movements and known history, I'm leaning toward the cop's side.

While video is valuable it hardly ever catches everything the officer see's.

 

[THard6]

it seems like ernie has had a run in with them a time or two..

 

[Kutnupe14]

Hard to second guess not being there, but it the vid doesn't look "helpful" to the officer, and 14 shots seems excessive.

 

[Mark-of-Scotland]

Given his prior history, the fact that he WILL re-offend and the fact that he was on parole and failed a drug test as well as having the home staked out because of domestic violence I honestly fail to see why anyone is bothered by this piece of **** being killed.

What can i say. I hope his death was slow and it hurt every moment of it.
Filth deserves no mercy. Give the cop a medal.

 

[THard6]

MENTAL EVALUATION is strongly suggested to you my fellow INGO'ER.

i'm not sure how they do it in your part of the World. but i'd just be happy if you stayed over there.. WAY OVER THERE!

Given his prior history, the fact that he WILL re-offend and the fact that he was on parole and failed a drug test as well as having the home staked out because of domestic violence I honestly fail to see why anyone is bothered by this piece of **** being killed.

What can i say. I hope his death was slow and it hurt every moment of it.
Filth deserves no mercy. Give the cop a medal.

 

[Mark-of-Scotland]

MENTAL EVALUATION is strongly suggested to you my fellow INGO'ER.

i'm not sure how they do it in your part of the World. but i'd just be happy if you stayed over there.. WAY OVER THERE!

Not really.
i just believe all rights rights to decency are given up when one commits crime and considers himself to be above and beyond society.

If you think you can trample over the rights of everyone else to fulfill your own selfish needs and wants you had better be prepared for society to strip you of your rights.

Basically provided they don't harm me or mine I'll treat them like a human with all the respect and rights that entails. Harm me or mine...well let's not go into that.

 

[Benny]

Well, that escalated quickly.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=_INYVezsm4Q

 

[Que]

Wow...

 

[IndyDave1776]

Cowardice doesn't get much worse than feeling the need to handcuff a corpse!

 

[mrjarrell]

[ame]http://youtu.be/_INYVezsm4Q[/ame]

Try this. Looks like the cop was a bit trigger happy. I didn't see any weapon or anything. Must be California.

 

[hornadylnl]

Didn't one of the families of the LA body armor bank robbers win millions because they didn't provide medical attention to the dude bleeding out? There obviously was no intent by LE to provide medical attention.