‘Take him out:’ Sheriff gave order to kill unarmed man to protect patrol cars

Sure. Of course he should have.

And not doing so is absolutely wrong, and the guy deserves to be punished for it.

But does that warrant killing him, or its sincere and intentional attempt?

 

Yeah man, I don't see how anybody is defending this. My mind is legitimately blown.

 

I hope they throw the driver of the truck under the jail. Clearly, he's wrong.

But....he's driving an old pickup truck, pulling a huge and fully loaded trailer that's missing a tire....on what looked to be an almost completely empty highway, in broad daylight....and surrounded by a minimum of four police cruisers - including one in front and one immediately beside him.

Where was he going to go, exactly?

And the city cop actually rammed his trailer on the second collision (might be totally justified, just saying it wasn't the driver ramming cop cars in every instance).

 

But he did ram vehicles.

And he might have been a danger prior to cruisers escorting.

Cars in front were having to run off the road.

Do you control your vehicle well when forced off the highway and into the grass?

I’m not a defender of law enforcement by any means, and this would not have been my preferred option.

That doesn’t make it wrong.

 

Anyone who has ever been forced off the highway, or rolled a vehicle due to leaving the road, knows or should know the danger, and the probability of serious bodily harm and death.

People were forced off the road. That creates a danger.

Would law enforcement share some of the blame if someone had died this time? Absolutely.

The fact that nobody else did doesn’t mean law enforcement did the wrong thing here. It could have happened the next mile.

 

But all the same, I can't trust that sheriff's judgement based on his own stated love of giving orders to kill.

 

True. And I don’t dispute that. He doesn’t seem level headed enough to lead. But he’s probably elected, right?

 

Looks like he was shot while his truck was stopped and stuck down in a ravin. Judge, jury and executioner.

 

Shots were fired while on the road, before the truck leaves the road.

You can hear it in the audio, both the shots and the officer stating shots fired, and the chief telling to use force and end this pursuit.

Driver was struck in the head, and that caused the vehicle to exit the road, and hit the trees.

 

At the 3:16 mark he his head is head high and his arms are on the steering wheel while he drives into the ravin. He then continues to drive down the side of therein for yards. It doesn't appear that he has a bullet in his head.

 

He is shot and killed around 3:28.

 

He is in the ravin when he is shot

[video]

 

Yes; in the ravin. No threat to others.

 

The shooting begins on the road, after striking and spinning out the lead cruiser.

That was the immediate threat.

 

One, that’s not a ravine. It’s the shoulder. At best, we can call it the buffer.

The first shots are fired around 3:16, while on the road way. He is pushed or carries himself off the highway and on to the shoulder, and is attempting to steer back on when he is struck in the head around 3:28, and then takes a hard right through the buffer.

 

I wasn't sure who fired the shots during the pursuit (cops or bad guy).

 

Exactly.

In trying to get away under those circumstances he is posing a threat to the public. The threat doesn't have to be to the cops. Their threat (or danger) is getting him stopped and off the road.

 

Jesus

 

Yea, he shoulda took the wheel.

 

Should be investigated as to why he didn't. Negligence.