Ohio Police justified in fatal shooting, Grand Jury determines

ATS has a wide variety of stories covering Police and general law enforcement action. More often than not, these are highly negative in nature and, frankly, so are the actions of the Police many of the stories feature.

I bring this to share as one a bit different and something to give perspective to the other side of Police work. This is the side the public doesn't usually see and from knowing Cops, I've found them to be very reluctant to even discuss outside fellow cops. Of the many stories and wild tales a cop has to tell? Things like this one don't usually make the highlights.

It's a tragic tale but, in this case, it's a tragedy of the suspect's own making from start to finish. I'm glad this went to Grand Jury though. Without that review and oversight, some may always have suspected something darker to the events of this evening. They were bad enough as it was, but it seems fairly straight forward to what happened here.

Kevin Bailey, Age 22 at the time of this shooting.

Solon, Ohio

Police pulled Kevin Bailey over in a routine traffic stop for an illegal lane change, when this went badly. The lead Officer smelled what he thought was Marijuana in the car and asked Bailey about it, at which time he said he didn't smoke. Obviously that put him on alert that more was to come than a simple ticket if he had anything else to hide.

Dispatch advised the first officer that Bailey had a criminal history and caution was advised, so a backup unit was requested and arrived in short order. When asked to step out of the car, Bailey rolled up his window and turned on the engine. He then proceeded to take off down the road, making it only a quarter mile or so before being pinned by a cruiser and stopped.

He had no intention of going to jail for any reason that night. In fact, he's among those few...those very dangerous few...who willingly choose to die rather than be arrested again, as he stated himself.

About a minute before the fatal shootout, Bailey sent his mother a text message reading, “I love u I’m gone I’m fena die I’m not going back to jail.”

I can't begin to imagine what it must have been like to get that text, knowing your boy is still alive at that moment ...but by distance and circumstance, there is absolutely nothing you can do, as a parent, to stop what is clearly about to happen. I believe it was almost cruel to have sent that, in fact, given how it went.

The Dash Cam captures the moment when he's stopped and before he emerges from his vehicle. The last moment he could have decided to end this differently, but chose not to.



He was also not your typical shooter, firing blind and just spraying to hope he hit something. Given the adrenaline and passion of the moment, his shooting was better than many cops we read about in reports.



Now, how can we be absolutely certain as to what happened here? Well, there is a Dash Cam video of the whole event, which is available at the link below. Some things are a bit beyond what I wish to embed and that is among that material. It's worth watching though.

The roadside image above comes from the video...as does this shot. This, is a Cops absolute worst, bar none, worst nightmare, I am sure. This, or something like it, must be what cops see when they have work related nightmares of scenarios that could go badly.



A total of 11 rounds were fired into the police units with one Officer hit in the arm and vest. In an odd twist, his Badge was hit with one of the rounds fired.

Amazingly, the whole incident from initial stop to shooting took roughly 8 minutes. Such a short time for such a terrifying series of events and so much going wrong at once.

As the investigation went on to confirm, Bailey exited his vehicle and immediately opened fire before Officers could exit their own vehicles to respond. He clearly meant to kill them and given the shot pattern to the windshield as seen above? I'm frankly surprised he didn't in at least one case.

Kevin Bailey died of 4 gunshots to the head and torso. Therein lay the tragedy. I'm sure jail isn't pleasant, but it's not worth killing or dying over and especially not on a penny ante charge like it appears he had to face on his recreational activities.

This is a story of a side folks usually don't see, as I opened with. Here is hoping it's a side that remains as unusual to the average Cop to see as it is for the general public in news reports. Some cases earn the term "Suicide By Cop". This one though? This was no suicide, as his shooting indicated. This was putting down a killer before he could find success and hit something vital.

Thoughts?

Sources:

Daily News

Fox 8 - Cleveland

dang, Its a good thing these "thugs" dont know how to shoot a hand gun and only do it with one hand on the gun.

reply to post by camaro68ss


Well, they say a routine traffic stop is actually the most dangerous think a Cop does. I guess this shows why.

Agreed on the way gangbangers and average criminals hold their guns though. I always shoot one hand, some with both right and left, each time I go to the range precisely so this doesn't happen if I have to use one for real. Missing is worse than not having a gun at all. You might get mercy points for just being pathetic if you don't have one. If you have one and miss? They other guy IS killing you, if he wasn't going to already.

I only shoot a magazine or so on each hand that way at the end of my range time but it helps. Left handed shooting is my weakness, as with so many. I DID try shooting sideways "Gangsta" style one time. I had to see what that was all about and if I could hit anything that way. Oh I hit something alright. The bullet? I have NO idea where it went.....but I hit myself right in the forehead with a burning hot brass casing.

I guess I confirmed my suspicion that most gangbangers don't spend long afternoons becoming intimate friends with their guns in a real sense of shooting them for accuracy.

The decision to run from the police or lash out is understandable and morally justifiable in certain conditions. The long history of abuse of people of color by predominantly white LEOs is indisputable. It causes a fatalistic mindset to manifest in situations that an uninvolved person might view as benign. An animal in a corner if you will.

So when will the fascist LEO's go too far? They've already made it clear they don't follow laws they don't agree with? Now what?