Friar Bijou wrote:
In before gbaji rationalizes this shooting, too.
Hey. I can rationalize anything. If he altered evidence (which appears to be the case), then he's in deep hot water. The actual shooting, depending on circumstances, may not be unjust though. Although, assuming the claim that he never shouted a warning is true, he's in deep hot water on that one too.
In most jurisdictions, police officers can shoot a fleeing suspect if they believe that this is the only way to effect an arrest *and* the person is suspected of committing a violent felony offense. In other words, if you run from the cop, he isn't required to just let you get away if the only other option is shooting you. And yes, struggling with the officer and attempting to grab his gun is a violent felony offense. The problem is that he has to reasonably believe that shooting the subject is the only way to prevent him from escaping. Which probably wasn't the case here. Also, he has to attempt to effect an arrest without shooting the subject, which at a minimum would require saying something like "stop or I will shoot". The man in question was 50, right? So the officer presumably could have chased him down. And if it's true that he never warned the guy that he was going to shoot him if he didn't stop running, that's a massive no-no.
Reporting aside (they tend to slip on the terminology), I'd assume he'll be charged with negligent homicide, and not actual murder. Murder tends to require either premeditation, or an act of anger. Of course, if they can show that he was pissed off at the guy and in some kind of rage when he fired, then maybe he gets murder. Hard to say with the minimal information we have. As always, I'm hesitant to make broad assumptions based on the initial information we have from the media. That always tends to be the most sensational version of events.
But yeah. The video is pretty damning. Unless we're missing something, he's probably cooked.