A tragic story indeed from this past Wednesday night. Important details are not yet clear. The reports I've read mention that the Police arrived on the scene after multiple 911 calls and found a woman with 2 children outside the home shouting "He's got a gun!" Inside the home a Phoenix homeowner had been detaining an intruder at gunpoint in a room when the Police went in & ordered everyone out of the home. As the homeowner was walking down the hall carrying his gun a Police Officer mistook him for the intruder they had been called about & shot him multiple times, though the homeowner is expected to survive. The wounded intruder was found afterward in the room the homeowner had come out of. The officer is now on routine administrative leave while an investigation into the incident is underway.
More here from Fox, ABC, AZCentral, and AZFamily.
Friday, September 19, 2008
AZ: Phoenix Homeowner Mistakenly Shot by Police
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6 comments:
Doesn't seem to be any great fault on the LEO's part, though I'd bet ambulance chasers have already contacted the families of BOTH hospitalized men.
Yeah, almost every TV show has a cop/agent yelling "Put down the weapon!" repeatedly, but TV also sometimes the "good guy" putting away his/her own weapon while the "bad guy" retains his/hers because of a "hostage situation" - bah.
I do believe that I have learned a lesson here. Off the bad guy before the cops show up so you can put your gun away.
It was self defense. If I hadn't shot him I would have been shot by the keystone PD trying to protect me.
I like Jay's comment. lol. When I was stationed in England, there was a story circulating about police shooting a homeowner that was holding a table leg- he was doing some work around the house and got confused for holding a rifle. I don't know if I believe that or not, but I've never forgotten it as an example of how dangerous hoplophobia can be.
From your post, it sounds like the woman was dang near hysterical. This is another good thing to remember and train for- communication with the 5-0 to avoid getting shot, oneself. If that was his wife, she should have said her husband was detaining the crook. Hindsight being 20/20, I bet the homeowner wished he had a cell phone with him and was on the line with 911 himself...
another reason why I NEVER am armed without having a cellphone on my person as well. Eric brings a good point.
This was a failure on both the gun-owner's and LE's part.
Dispatch should've found out more information about the situation (including a description of the homeowners') and LE should've asked and the gun-owner should've known not to walk towards LE with a gun in his hand.
The blame is 50/50.
This was a failure of law enforcement to do the one thing they were supposed to do - protect the homeowner. The homeowner was not breaking any laws and he was doing what was likely the only thing he felt comfortable doing while this perp was in his house - remaining armed. Dispatch should have made it very clear to the responding officers what the situation was before they sent them in guns ablazin'.
By the way "thebronze", I doubt it's the police department's policy to just mow down anyone holding a gun, even if they don't represent any kind of threat. I believe a simple "Police! Drop the gun!" has a very immediate impact on anyone holding a gun - especially a law abiding citizen.
This was an absolute complete failure of law enforcement.
Please check out this link http://www.cato.org/raidmap/ and let your local elected officials know what you think about no knock police raids.
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