Video shows police shot Ohio man ‘on sight’ as he leaned on toy gun in Walmart

The police officers abusing qualified immunity from personally being sued needs to be addressed so that blatant misuse can be ended in cases such as this.

Sure I don't want frivolous lawsuits to be enabled either - maybe strong community based and elected civilian oversight boards can get first crack at remanding cases to the courts when its obvious misuse of official power has occurred.

I am thinking something like this would limit the outright murders of civilians and SWAT raids gone wrong because the officers would know misconduct would come with severe personal penalty.

As it stands now there is an apparent lack of responsibility with police officers due qualified immunity.

originally posted by: theantediluvian


Bearing Arms.

Meanwhile the husband calls the cops and gives an embellished account of their PERCEPTION and the cops show up and shoot a man who is completely unaware of wtf is going on?

Your link above could have been written by me. There's a second page there that covers _SWATting_ and that's the conclusion I jumped to as well. I'm not fooled ... and neither are you. My personal fear of finding myself in such a situation is why I retired and pinned my badge to a plaque.

A little surprised it took three weeks for this to surface on ATS. That's got me scratching my head.

originally posted by: Pimpish
a reply to: Urantia1111

People ought to know better than to wander around the store carrying one

Why? As long as he's not threatening anyone with it or pointing it at anyone or anything, it's legal in Ohio to open carry.

The people who should know better are the police. Of course, if he was pointing it at people and such then it adds a different spin to the story. But, even if he was pointing it at people, if the rest was true and he was just leaning on it like a cane with his back to the police and they shot him, that's still unacceptable whether he was threatening people with it or not.

But then we get back to the idea of not being an idiot when open carrying your firearm.

I live in Arizona and it's legal to open carry here, and i do most times. I wear my sidearm when I go into Wal-mart and have hundreds of times and nobody gives me a second look.

If I walked in carrying an assault rifle then I would get worried looks and most likely a phone call would be made.

If you buy a real gun OR pellet gun at Wal-mart they come in a box and that's how you carry it out of the store. Pellet guns at Wal-Mart are sold in the sporting goods section near the real guns and NOT in the toy isle.

I'm not saying the cops didn't act in the wrong here but there are other factors to consider also.

And "NoH8". that was the most idiotic and ignorant post I've seen today. I am sure the guy (marine) didn't call just to see some guy killed. How ignorant .

a reply to: chiefsmom

Let's begin here: A "POG" is any Marine who is not an infantry Marine and a "GRUNT" is any Marine who holds or held the job of 03xx-infantry.

The Marine that called it in was more then likely a P.O.G and had no idea what a rifle looked like since boot would have been the only time the Marine had seen one.

a reply to: loam

What the hell is up with 4 shootings going down in Walmart within a month? There is the man in Ferguson,MO, the man in Columbia, SC, the man in Kansas, and now Ohio.

I have adamantly said that Ferguson was a social experiment. I still stick to that opinion, seeing as how incidents are taking place in Walmart, a place with its only security and in some places police force, yet police are now coming into these places and gunning people down in Toy Gun isles. The hell?

a reply to: Eyemin

A "POG" is any Marine who is not an infantry Marine

Thisshould be included with such description.

a reply to: loam

Where are all the open-carry activists on this one?

Don't they have videos of 2nd-amendment folks proudly walking around Walmart, explaining to people how they have the right to do so?

Surely they would defend the right for somebody to open-carry a toy.

originally posted by: Eyemin
a reply to: chiefsmom

Let's begin here: A "POG" is any Marine who is not an infantry Marine and a "GRUNT" is any Marine who holds or held the job of 03xx-infantry.

The Marine that called it in was more then likely a P.O.G and had no idea what a rifle looked like since boot would have been the only time the Marine had seen one.

And every year when they have to go to the range for rifle re-qual.

It doesn't matter if the guy who made the phone call was a Marine, Seal, or a member of Delta Force. What matters here is what's on the video feed. If the guy was in the toy section pointing the pellet gun at people, then police intervention is more then warranted.

It would appear that the police told the guy to put the weapon down. He didn't. It doesn't take Steven Hawkins to figure out what happens next. The getting up part of the story could very well happen, but it's not that important since the guy reportedly tossed the gun aside after getting shot. (he probably thought the cops were joking BECAUSE it was a pellet gun)

****WARNING RANT AHEAD****

As for people not calling in 911. Well I don't think I need to point out that people would rather play stupid then do their part in up holding the law. Stitches for Snitches I think is their excuse, but really if people want this stupidity to stop then maybe the average citizen should take a stand against crime instead of just calling the police only when its convenient. Most crimes get ignored because people "don't want to get involved", but then turn around and complain with the police have to intervene in the situation. In this case the caller is being attacked because he did the right thing? Sometimes people....sometimes?

a reply to: Snarl

Touche

a reply to: loam

Question: Why was it that the cops were on the scene if the guy was only talking on a cell phone and leaning on a toy guy? Let's have the rest of the story. As usual, key details are missing so that we cannot make a judgment or even sense of this case like so many other.

Wow we're getting at least one story like this a day now it seems like. Is the media just reporting on it more or is it just a domino effect?

a reply to: Guyfriday
I think that the caller is being attacked, because, according to reports, his story, along with the police story, is not matching what is on the actual video from store security.

And until the video, minus the actual shooting, is made public, not one of us will actually know the truth.

originally posted by: Snarl
A little surprised it took three weeks for this to surface on ATS. That's got me scratching my head.

This story broke the day after the Michael Brown shooting. I wrote a rather emotional post about it, which was overshadowed by the clamour to comment on the Brown incident.

www.abovetopsecret.com...

The surveillance video will tell all, in this case. It will show the demeanor of both the deceased and the Marine, as well as the reactions of other customers.

originally posted by: lonweld
a reply to: Benevolent Heretic

It seems like we should ban the cops carrying guns. Here lately they seem to not care enough about human life.

In that case we'd see a lot of cops die. There are some cases where using a gun is the better option, example: Gang shoot outs.

We need to protest and as a group, make it known that we want cops to wear badge cameras. Everywhere. It's a win-win. It'll cut down on police brutality, and cut down on criminals acting out and blaming cops.

Also, I'm saddened that this b/s has made it's way to Ohio. It can turn around and go right back to where ever it came from.

First let me say that starting this very moment, no cop should be allowed to go out into the field without a bodycam and rubber bullets in his gun. Magazines with real bullets should be carried by all officers, but only used in situations where a suspect is confirmed to be armed with a gun.

Having said that, I'm noticing a very disturbing trend as far as the media is concerned. Cops kill an average of 400 people a year in the United States, yet the vast majority of those incidents that receive national attention involve a black man. Why is that when cops kill more white people than anyone else?

I'm not saying this case doesn't deserve national attention, it most certainly does. I'm just curious as to why there seems to be so much bias as far as what's considered news worthy and what isn't.

a reply to: loam

he is a marine?

uh oh our front line is portly.

originally posted by: Bone75
First let me say that starting this very moment, no cop should be allowed to go out into the field without a bodycam and rubber bullets in his gun. Magazines with real bullets should be carried by all officers, but only used in situations where a suspect is confirmed to be armed with a gun.

Totally agree.
There's no reason to shoot someone who is unarmed. I mean, cops carry tasers and pepper spray for those exact circumstances, right? They're trained to shoot as a last option, right? So why are so many cops reaching for their guns so quickly?

here's the toy gun on Walmart.com

More like a replica, so I can see someone fooled by it...the black version looks even more realistic IMO. Not sure what color this guys was playing with when he got shot & killed.



a reply to: Benevolent Heretic

a reply to: RedParrotHead

Well I hate to jump to conclusions without having seen the video for myself, but If he was leaning on it like a cane, then how hard would it have been to aim for the gun?

a reply to: Bone75

Good question...if his hand was wrapped around the barrel and the stock was on the floor then for sure the cops had plenty of time to act differently. But if he had his hand on the grip/finger on the trigger and the barrel to floor then he could have leveled it on someone pretty quickly I guess.