Police Officer Mistakenly Killed Hofstra University Student in Hostage Standoff

I hate stories like this. I feel awful for that poor girl, her family and friends, the other people at the scene and the officer.

My personal belief is that the majority of the blame lies with the suspect. But then there's this

Dalton Smith, 30, a Hempstead, N.Y., resident with an extensive criminal record who was wanted for violating parole on a robbery conviction.

So glad this dirtbag was out on parole. The article is right, I do have questions about how he was being monitored, or why he wasn't still locked up. Perhaps some of the blame can be shared with lawmakers/the CJ system as well.

The police, who had been alerted to the invasion by one of the people who had escaped, initially thought that only Mr. Smith remained in the house, he said.

Kind of changes things in my opinion. Seems perfectly reasonable for the cop to enter if he was unaware of a hostage situation.

I'm not clear on what type of training cops get for these scenarios. My guess is not a lot. Perhaps they should be trained/instructed not to fire if there is a hostage, but at the same time what the hell are you supposed to do in that situation? I think it's important to remember that cops are people and can mess up just like the rest of us in a situation like this. I don't think any amount of training or screening is going to keep that from happening.

For those that are upset that 8 shots were fired, I hear ya but we don't really know if he was just blazing away at the guy while he was still holding the woman, or if the majority of those shots were after the suspect had been struck and was "going down". I don't think 8 shots is overkill at all. The whole point when you are shooting at someone is to kill them.

I don't think this was some trigger happy cop, I think this was a cop put into an awful situation who reacted the way he was trained and when a gun was pointed at him he started firing. It's easy for us to sit at our computers and speculate on motives and decry actions performed in the heat of the moment from our comfy chairs, but really put yourself in this situation. What would you have done? Run away? Stood there and get shot, even after the guy had threatened to kill the woman? What if the cop hadn't shot, was killed and then the loon shot the woman? I bet the people in here would use that as an excuse to rally against the police too.

TL;DR Blame the jackass that took the hostage, blame the fact that he was out on parole, blame the officers training but don't act like the cop went all Rambo barging into a hostage situation guns blazing. He was taken by surprise and I'm sure would have handled things differently if aware the young woman was being held.

reply to post by TheMagus

which the article calls hulking [if he were a marine would they use such terms?]*, and you call a lowlife who probably had a mom or kids somewhere, not that clean cut mainstream "sanesters" give a damn while keeping up with the joneses] lying there along with the dead hostage

Maybe you should read the article:

The authorities issued a warrant for his arrest on April 25, after he failed to check in with a parole officer. He had served multiple sentences in prison, mostly for robbery convictions, and was released on parole in February after serving a nine-year sentence.

Records: Dalton Smith was first arrested at age 16. The masked prison parolee who invaded a Uniondale home where a 21-year-old student was shot and killed was just 16 when first arrested and had a long rap sheet of crimes committed on Long Island, records show. Dalton Smith, 30, was shot and killed by police Friday morning. He had an almost 15 year criminal record.

Yeah, I don't care that he got killed. Nope, I sure don't....
Low life choose to be a career criminal.
He knew the minute he pointed that gun at the cop what was going to happen.
'Suicide by cop'
Most criminals don't want to go back to jail and he just served 9 yrs. not to mention violated his parole by not checking in, so they already had an arrest warrant out for him.



Now as to how many bullets were fired and why, I can't say being as I have never handle a gun, therefore don't know how quickly they fire.
Especially when some one has a gun pointed at you threatening your life.....I'm sure the adrenalin is pumping not to mention the fear.
Fear of being killed

Originally posted by Domo1
I hate stories like this. I feel awful for that poor girl, her family and friends, the other people at the scene and the officer.

My personal belief is that the majority of the blame lies with the suspect. But then there's this

Dalton Smith, 30, a Hempstead, N.Y., resident with an extensive criminal record who was wanted for violating parole on a robbery conviction.

So glad this dirtbag was out on parole. The article is right, I do have questions about how he was being monitored, or why he wasn't still locked up. Perhaps some of the blame can be shared with lawmakers/the CJ system as well.

The police, who had been alerted to the invasion by one of the people who had escaped, initially thought that only Mr. Smith remained in the house, he said.

Kind of changes things in my opinion. Seems perfectly reasonable for the cop to enter if he was unaware of a hostage situation.

I'm not clear on what type of training cops get for these scenarios. My guess is not a lot. Perhaps they should be trained/instructed not to fire if there is a hostage, but at the same time what the hell are you supposed to do in that situation? I think it's important to remember that cops are people and can mess up just like the rest of us in a situation like this. I don't think any amount of training or screening is going to keep that from happening.

For those that are upset that 8 shots were fired, I hear ya but we don't really know if he was just blazing away at the guy while he was still holding the woman, or if the majority of those shots were after the suspect had been struck and was "going down". I don't think 8 shots is overkill at all. The whole point when you are shooting at someone is to kill them.

I don't think this was some trigger happy cop, I think this was a cop put into an awful situation who reacted the way he was trained and when a gun was pointed at him he started firing. It's easy for us to sit at our computers and speculate on motives and decry actions performed in the heat of the moment from our comfy chairs, but really put yourself in this situation. What would you have done? Run away? Stood there and get shot, even after the guy had threatened to kill the woman? What if the cop hadn't shot, was killed and then the loon shot the woman? I bet the people in here would use that as an excuse to rally against the police too.

TL;DR Blame the jackass that took the hostage, blame the fact that he was out on parole, blame the officers training but don't act like the cop went all Rambo barging into a hostage situation guns blazing. He was taken by surprise and I'm sure would have handled things differently if aware the young woman was being held.

Thanks so much........

Some peoples hard core views here just really blows my mind.
Especially the part where they think the cop enjoyed killing them and that's part of the reason why he became a cop.
Also said the cop wouldn't feel guilty......such BS!!

Some one doesn't like cops very much, I take it.

But had it not been for Mr.Smith resorting back to his criminal career, rob their house, used her as a shield, pointed the gun at the cop,the young lady would still be alive.

Sad situation all the way around......

Oh my goodness! So, the blame falls on the shoulders of the police officer? Yes, he intentionally missed the suspect and got his jollies off of killing the hostage? That is the vibe I am getting from a few posts? No blame on the suspect whom invaded a private residence, held the occupants at gunpoint, and violated parole? That guy is the menace here, and the blame rests on his shoulders. He ought to be villified, and ostracized. This was a freak accident. This is not some Hollywood movie where the good guys always win, but real life. I feel bad for the young lady, her family, and the officer. Case closed!

I didn't know their were so many sharpshooters on ATS..next time their is a hostage situation do something about it vs passing judgement from a keyboard. Oh wait, much like me you can't so keep feeding yourself the "just shoot to disarm" BS I see on TV.

It'd doesn't surprise me here that their are people looking to blame everyone but the one person responsible for this chain of events.

It's a pretty simple scenario really..if the suspect never broke into the house and took a hostage then this horrible story never happens..Don't blame the poor innocent suspect though as as he was probably just a felon for doing a few drugs here or there or maybe something minor like a DUI.

Damn Muricans.. Why cant you just love your suspects and ask them in your nicest voice to please stop.

Originally posted by CosmicCitizen
What a coward to take the shot. He probably went on autopilot and shot at the bad guy's center mass.....right where her head was. Better to have taken a bullet for her even tho the perp was probably just trying to make the cop back away....to shoot at the cop would have been to fulfill a death wish anyway (he just wanted to escape alive).

SSHHHH!!! do not bring "Insanity", "UnReason",
and that most painful of maladies: Empathy, here

the "sane" are already in a ferment.
one would think the officer were actually on trial here,[a rarity in "rea life", given the polemics...
or is that histrionics?:puz"

RMFAO... Fighting for his life! [and not winding up having a "hulking" and very aggressively
touching cellmate, deliciously ironically named smith]


if one is going to armchair, one should go all the way and Become, though albeit temporarily ,
ALL of the characters, not just pick a side, hmmm?

the disgust and loathing i feel for mr smith AND this cop, when putting myself in their shoes, are of roughly the same quality and quantity , missed opportunities, bad decisions, etc...

of course the cop gets away with murder, paid leave, the "respect of his peers", which makes him a "winner".
both cowardly douches, walking quite similar paths, yet quite different endings...

i suppose it all depends on which club/gang you're in.


but pay me no heed,
as I am completely "Mad".

reply to post by snarky412


In this particular incident, if it's confirmed that Smith pointed his weapon at an officer ?
Then I do see it your way, but not with out reservations. Everything being so corrupt
these days. I don't trust the cops the way I once did and for damn good reasons.

Originally posted by opethPA

Originally posted by TheMagus
reply to post by opethPA

 

you should read Aliensun's post following yours
and rethink yours.

unless you are "sane" of course, in which case nothing will help

Except it's easy for everyone to sit here and say ,"it should have been done this way"

All the people that think they would have only used 2 shots when your life was at risk let me know next time you are in a situation like that.

1 person and 1 person only is accountable for this horrible story and that is the criminal that decided to break the law. The officer didn't choose to be in that situation, the victim didn't, the roommate that escaped and called the police didn't. The felon caused this problem and no one else.

No its not, that's why they have been trained

He should have backed off, also, if he wasn't prepared to negotiate in a hostage situation, he should have NOT gone and try to handle the situation.

He feared for his life, more than he feared for her's, that's reality right there, he could not keep his cool.

Originally posted by snarky412
But I will not sit in judgement of the cop nor do I believe he enjoyed it, as you are implying.
That's just ludicrous .....

Not all cops are bad people

I sit in judgement of a system that doesn't prepare a cop to handle or know when he can't handle a situation and instead request support, THAT we can judge.

Why are there so many trigger happy cops these days? get a knife out, bang! get a garden hose which is mistaken for a gun? bang! be deaf and fail to drop down to the floor when requested, bang!, it is almost funny. Be taken hostage and guy points the gun at the cop? bang x 8, never mind people around, he's not to serve and protect you, he's to serve and protect himself, at any cost, would you be saying the same if she was your sister?

Think, is that guy going to kill her if the cop tries to get close? will he get rid of his own protection? why did he felt he needed to point the gun to the cop?

Originally posted by snarky412He will have to live with the guilt for the rest of his life.

He will sleep just fine after this. In fact he feels even safer because one more non cop is off the planet.

Originally posted by snarky412 Cops are human like the rest of us.

Not for the past decade or so.

Originally posted by snarky412No cop wants this kind of blood on their hands.

As long as the blood isn't theirs they really don't care.

reply to post by snarky412


I think it's all well and good to have a distrust of police, but the knee jerk reaction every time something is posted about police on this site is embarrassing. There are so many idiots online. I bet if you posted a video of a police officer saving a child's life but labeled the thread cop shoots innocent bystander, there would be a ton of posts saying what a disgusting pig the officer must have been.

I get that ATS attracts a lot of anti establishment types. I get that many have a distrust for any type of authority figure. Shoot, I do too. What I don't get is the complete inability to look at things in a rational manner. If the cop doesn't tickle a suspect into submission with a feather, they are automatically a horrible person/ on steroids/ a psychopath (ATS makes me facepalm with the complete misunderstanding of the term)/ a former high school bully/ a former high school nerd who wants revenge/ uneducated/ etc.

Some kid in this thread said that another poster was a fascist/sociopath because they dared to defend the cop.

Originally posted by opethPA

Originally posted by Visitor2012
Hat's off to the police for, once again, making a bad situation worse.

Right..i see...

Suspect points a gun at you ..I am sure you would have kindly asked him to stop or maybe you would have gone Jack Bauer on him and shot him in the hand disarming him..cause that's realistic.

I love the arm chair captains on ATS.


"Authorities say Smith, who was wearing a mask, invaded the home Rebello shared with her twin sister and two others during the pre-dawn hours on Friday.
At some point, a female roommate of the twins was able to leave the home and call police, a police spokesman told CNN on Friday.
When a police officer arrived, Smith was holding a gun to Rebello's head, Roach said.
He told the officer he was going to kill Rebello, and then turned the handgun toward the officer, she said.
The officer, fearing for his life, drew his gun and fired, Roach said."

edit on 18-5-2013 by opethPA because: (no reason given)

What in the world are you going on about? Thats your scenario not mine. The Cop, afraid for his own life, shot the victim! He sure didnt make it better now did he?

What would I expect? A professionally trained cop who can tell the difference between a perp with a gun, and an innocent girl's head. Don't give me that 'He's scared for his life" excuse either, a cop who empties his clip like a wild cowboy, the moment he gets afraid? He would be a danger to himself, and in this case, a danger to others.

Originally posted by Visitor2012

Originally posted by opethPA

Originally posted by Visitor2012
Hat's off to the police for, once again, making a bad situation worse.

Right..i see...

Suspect points a gun at you ..I am sure you would have kindly asked him to stop or maybe you would have gone Jack Bauer on him and shot him in the hand disarming him..cause that's realistic.

I love the arm chair captains on ATS.


"Authorities say Smith, who was wearing a mask, invaded the home Rebello shared with her twin sister and two others during the pre-dawn hours on Friday.
At some point, a female roommate of the twins was able to leave the home and call police, a police spokesman told CNN on Friday.
When a police officer arrived, Smith was holding a gun to Rebello's head, Roach said.
He told the officer he was going to kill Rebello, and then turned the handgun toward the officer, she said.
The officer, fearing for his life, drew his gun and fired, Roach said."

edit on 18-5-2013 by opethPA because: (no reason given)

What in the world are you going on about? Thats your scenario not mine. The Cop, afraid for his own life, shot the victim! He sure didnt make it better now did he?

What would I expect? A professionally trained cop who can tell the difference between a perp with a gun, and an innocent girl's head. Don't give me that 'He's scared for his life" excuse either, a cop who empties his clip like a wild cowboy, the moment he gets afraid? He would be a danger to himself, and in this case, a danger to others.

edit on 20-5-2013 by Visitor2012 because: (no reason given)

What I'm going on about is the people here blaming the cop vs blaming the person responsible for causing this chain of events which is the criminal and no one else.