Off-duty officer wounded by fellow cop in north St. Louis shootout ST. LOUIS - An off-duty police officer was shot by a by a fellow cop overnight in St. Louis' North Pointe neighborhood. One suspect was also injured. The incident began around 10 p.m. when a police license recognition system spotted a car stolen from Maryland Heights last week. Authorities used spike strips to stop the vehicle. Three people in the car fired shot at officers. A short time later, the car stopped at Park Lane and Astra Avenue where additional shots were fired. One suspect, a 17-year-old male, was shot in the ankle. Two guns were reportedly recovered. A second suspect, who ran a short distance, was taken into custody. He was not injured. Officials say the off-duty officer, who lives in the area, heard the commotion and came out of his house to assist. Police on the scene told the off-duty officer to get on the ground and surrender. He complied with their commands. When another officer recognized him and told the others to let him get up, another officer shot him. The 38-year-old officer was taken to the hospital with a gunshot wound to his arm. He is listed in good condition. He is an 11 year veteran of the force. The attorney for the wounded 38-year-old African-American police officer is making strong statements after police investigators say they shot one of their own. "This is the first time that we are aware, that a black professional, in law enforcement, himself being shot and treated as an ordinary black guy on the street. This is a real problem," said attorney Rufus J. Tate Jr. A 36-year-old white male officer did not recognize the off duty officer. He told city police investigators he feared for his safety. He fired a shot, hitting the off duty officer in the arm. "In the police report, you have so far, there is no description of threat he received. So we have areal problem with that. But this has been a national discussion for the past two years. There is this perception that a black man is automatically feared," said attorney Rufus J. Tate Jr. Tate claims the wounded officer had identified himself and complied with officer`s commands. A third suspect is still at-large. It's unclear if the on-duty officer is on administrative leave. ---------- They shot him like he was an ordinary black guy!
Wow, they finally admitted to their unwritten policy. I mean, it was less secret than the secret Starbucks menu, but you hardly ever see corrupt organizations fess up, even as a Freudian slip.
perhaps because black men are (statistically) more likely to be violent. Math is no excuse to assume that they are by any means, but in a city with the demographics being 50/50 (is is Augusta GA as just one example) fully 90 percent of the violent crime will be committed by blacks. If this is the norm across the US (not saying it is by any means) then odds favor blacks being more violent than whites on average. Disagree? Don't bitch at me, bitch at the statistics - maybe the math is bigoted.
As usual the media leaves out parts of the story. The off duty officer showed up out of uniform with a gun. That's why the other police told him to get on the ground. They didn't know who he was until he was identified. The off duty officer than got up with gun in hand as the officer who shot him is pulling up to the scene. This officer doesn't know the off duty officer is cleared by the other officers. He sees a non-uniformed person he doesn't recognize with a gun in a situation where police used spike strips to stop a car where the people in the car had been shooting at the police and after the car was finally stopped more gun shots were exchanged between the officers and the bad guys. Frankly this off duty officer, without a uniform on, was a fool to come outside with gun in hand. He almost got shot by all the other cops who were there before the officer who actually shot the off duty cop actually arrived on scene. Remember the police on scene had just had two shootouts with the people in the car. They had no idea what the intentions of the off duty police officer was until another officer identified him.
Who is black. While being black. Because he was black. If had been a cracker with a gun, they would've been like "oh, Jethro's here to help! Thank you, citizen! ".
"Police on the scene told the off-duty officer to get on the ground and surrender. He complied with their commands. When another officer recognized him and told the others to let him get up, another officer shot him." Poor reading comprehension or did you consciously skip over this part?
so you disagree with the math? Please explain where I am wrong. If you can, I stand corrected. I so you are disputing the math? Are you saying that statistically blacks are less likely (as a percentage of the population in any city) to commit violent gun crimes compared to other demographic groups? And are you saying that just by bringing up these statistics that I am a bigot? If I am wrong, I stand corrected, but please show statistics to prove me wrong.. I am not wrong, then shut the fuck up.
But remember kids, only police or other APPROVED GOVERNMENT PERSONNEL should have guns. Because they've been trained and know what they're doing.
No you stupid fuck. #1 The officers on scene put him on the ground not realizing he was an officer. #2 An officer then recognized him and they let him up. #3 The officer who shot him drove up to the scene after the off duty officer got off the ground. The shooting officer wasn't there when the off duty officer was ordered to the ground or when the off duty officer was allowed to stand up after being identified. #4 The officer who shot the off duty officer did not know the other officers had already identified and cleared him. This is why I said: As usual the media leaves out parts of the story. This is a bad sentence: "When another officer recognized him and told the others to let him get up, another officer shot him." It cause dumb asses like you to think the officers let him up and than immediately shot him. It didn't happen like that. The officer who shot the off duty cop had nothing to do with the officers who ordered the off duty cop to the ground than recognized him and let him get up.
Zombie's point is that this summary of events omits key details, and the details omitted make all the difference in interpreting what happened. It's one thing if the guy is laying on the ground amidst several officers, one tells him he can get up, and another goes "Whoa!" and shoots him. It's quite another if the details are as Zombie relates them: the officer who fired was arriving on the scene immediately following a shootout and saw an unknown person with a gun. In any event, I see nothing that indicates race was any kind of factor. The cop who fired may or may not be justified based on an examination of the circumstances, but this looks like a mistake made in a stressful, chaotic moment. The "it-wouldn't-have-happened-if-he-were-white" argument is untestable. The reality is that if the victim were white, you would never have heard about it to begin with.
"In any event, I see nothing that indicates race was any kind of factor. The cop who fired may or may not be justified based on an examination of the circumstances, but this looks like a mistake made in a stressful, chaotic moment. The "it-wouldn't-have-happened-if-he-were-white" argument is untestable. The reality is that if the victim were white, you would never have heard about it to begin with." - Paladin but race issues sell news papers! You have to keep the pot stirred. Find that "hot button" and keep pressing it full speed ahead!
^oldfella, one of these days you really must spend the 8 seconds that it takes to learn how the quoting feature works.
You seem to be expending a lot of anger to agree with the point I was making that he shot a guy without knowing the situation.
Didn't Carroll O'Connor once comment on the failure of many Archie Bunker fans to grasp the irony of the character?
Nah, I generally argue against "average joe" LEOs having lethal options as well given how rapidly that becomes their default immediate response.
Y'know what? I think the only thing that's going to fix this shit is if we have threat assessment scanners and a sentient pacifist AI in the guns. Unless the guy is really, really, REALLY coming at you, and throwing off aggressive brainwaves, the gun locks the trigger, and goes "nope, fuck you".