These guys aren’t angels, but still we have cops violating protocol and killing suspects:
A dozen Cleveland police supervisors face internal discipline charges stemming from a chase that saw officers fire 137 shots and kill a fleeing driver and his passenger, the city’s police chief said Tuesday….An internal police review showed that both officers and supervisors broke department policies. The chief said a review is continuing into whether any officers will be disciplined….Some officers also thought the two were armed and some told state investigators they were frightened and feared for their lives.
Both the driver, Timothy Russell, 43, and his passenger, Malissa Williams, 30, had cocaine in their systems and criminal records. But no weapon or shells were found in their car.
Drunk, on coke, and not stopping for officers. None are good decisions, but I don’t know if it warrants a hail of gunfire, also while the deceased weren’t angels, I’m curious how the cops decided they were such a danger.
I’m split on this one, it’s hardly the LA Death Squad shootings of anything that might be a pickup truck, but I am thinking of those cases.
I always compare the criminal being chased against all the other criminals not being chased. Cost/benefit analysis applies.
Is one criminal chased (and perhaps but not always caught) among the whole population of criminals not chased that night worth the cost?
Practically never.
While I understand the officers’ need to make it home safely, in my heart of hearts I don’t think I can excuse this one.
No guns were found, but even if guns were found, that in itself is not good enough cause to unleash a hail of gunfire on the car. Neither is the cocaine in their systems – and really, how could the cops know that was there? – OR the alcohol, OR their criminal histories.
The only thing I see that the cops could reasonably SUSPECT that night was drunk driving. Does that necessitate opening fire?
I try to give the benefit of doubt, but based on what I see reported here, sorry, I’m having a hard time buying it.
So cops need 137 rounds to take down two people, but “untrained” citizens would never need more than 10?
So the driver had a history of arrests for attempting to evade police by vehicle or on food, but the police doing the chase didn’t know that at the time. Both had measurable cocaine in their blood, but the police didn’t know that.
Scene 1 of the evening is a “traffic stop” in a high-crime area (allegedly for turning without signalling), when the suspects were pulled over by an unmarked police car. Lately the city of Cleveland has been warning people to be cautious of unmarked “police” cars, because of assaults on women by fake officers. All we know about that stop is the word of the officer involved, who didn’t have a dashcam and was patrolling without his partner — but according to his testimony they fled as soon as they saw him, not in uniform, emerge from his unmarked car. He pursued only until losing sight, and did not record or report this traffic stop until interviewed in the investigation of the shooting. (hmmm…)
Scene 2: Subsequently they are driving along on one of the main thru roads of the city, (mind you at an unreasonably high speed according to police standing on the sidewalk that they passed), and then there is an unmarked car (with flashing grill lights?) behind them again. They either don’t notice or choose to ignore it, and as they slow for a turn they are accidentally rammed by that police car. (how noticeable would grill flashers be if the police car was tailgating that closely?) As the “chase” progresses more unmarked cars join, but the many marked police cars that are involved with the chase are never in the lead positions. The go up the drive to the school parking lot, and as they slow to turn into it once again they are rammed, causing their car to mount the curb of an island. At this point a guy in plain clothes jumps from the lead chase car to a position directly in their path, and starts shooting at them. (Justified as self defense, because having placed himself in their path they are now driving straight at him thus “using their car as an offensive weapon”.) Their only escape is back down the drive where they came into the school, and that is where they are each struck by about two dozen rounds from the police officers forming the circular firing squad.
We all know that people can be completely oblivious to their surroundings, especially cars behind them. It may well be that the first they knew they were being followed was when they were rammed. I was once tailgated for 5 miles on a moonless night by a police car that was waiting for an excuse to pull me over, It was scary, because I had no idea it was a police car until the light bar came on. I just knew there was an aggressive driver that was fixated on me and wouldn’t overtake even though we were on a four-lane and I was scrupulously going exactly the speed limit or less.
I do think that the police honestly thought that the backfiring of the suspects car was “drive-by” gunfire as they passed the justice center. But to me it is an open question whether the suspects were fleeing for fear of arrest or whether they were fleeing because they were genuinely in fear of fake or bent police.
Everything known about the incident:
http://www.ohioattorneygeneral.gov/bcishootingreport