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17 year old killed by officer responding to noise complaint

joejoejoe

Regular Member
Joined
Jan 12, 2010
Messages
319
Location
Vancouver, WA
Don't know if you saw this yet? Kinda sickening to think you have a threat at your door and walk out with a gun only to realize the bad guy is a cop... and he really does kill you.

http://reason.com/blog/2010/09/03/teen-shot-dead-by-police-in-no#commentcontainer

Last Sunday night, police in Morganton, North Carolina shot and killed 17-year-old Michael Sipes. The officers were responding to a noise complaint called in by a neighbor in the mobile home park where Sipes lived. His mother says there were three children in the home on the night Sipes was killed, and were likely he source of the complaint.

According to Sipes' mother and others in the house, the police repeatedly knocked on the door to the home, but never identified themselves. They say both Sipes and his mother asked more than once who was outside. A neighbor who heard the gunshots also says he never heard the police identify themselves. Police officials say the officers did identify themselves.

According to those in the trailer at the time, as the knocks continued, Sipes retrieved a rifle, opened the door, and stepped outside. That's when Morganton Public Safety Officer Johnny David Cooper II shot Sipes in the stomach "four or five times."

More here and here. Profile of Sipes here. The story is still fresh, but at first blush he certainly doesn't seem like the kind of kid who would knowingly confront police officers with his rifle.



Joe~
 

Dreamer

Regular Member
Joined
Sep 23, 2009
Messages
5,360
Location
Grennsboro NC
What will be very interesting is when we find out if the cruiser's dash cams were functional or not during this incident...

Let's hope they dont use the same sort of police cameras they use in MD. You know, the ones that automatically erase their tapes when the LEOs do something questionable...
 

chiefjason

Regular Member
Joined
Jan 29, 2009
Messages
1,025
Location
Hickory, NC, ,
What will be very interesting is when we find out if the cruiser's dash cams were functional or not during this incident...

Let's hope they dont use the same sort of police cameras they use in MD. You know, the ones that automatically erase their tapes when the LEOs do something questionable...

The car was several houses away, no blue lights on. Likely no dash cams in this PD either. It's he said, she said right now.
 

buzzsaw

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Jul 1, 2008
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189
Location
Sneads Ferry, ,

Sam

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Joined
Jan 25, 2010
Messages
147
Location
Dallas, ,
If he didn't fire at police then I feel sorry for him. Either way it's a terrible thing to happen.

on a side note, I always answer my door with a pistol at my side out of plain view. I can't see aswering with a rifle unless my intentions were to intimidate.
 

Smith45acp

Regular Member
Joined
Oct 16, 2009
Messages
434
Location
NC
If he didn't fire at police then I feel sorry for him. Either way it's a terrible thing to happen.

on a side note, I always answer my door with a pistol at my side out of plain view. I can't see aswering with a rifle unless my intentions were to intimidate.

I do the same thing when there is an unexpected knock.

I've heard stories of search warrants executed at wrong addresses, or just based on lousy intel. I'm always within reach of my pistol and upon hearing a loud bang like a door getting kicked in its the first thing I'm reaching for.
 

chiefjason

Regular Member
Joined
Jan 29, 2009
Messages
1,025
Location
Hickory, NC, ,
Hey Chief, would that be the same SBI that has been using the phony crime lab blood evidence to convict individuals over the past few years????

My understanding is that the blood evidence part of the SBI lab is all that was investigated. Hopefully the rest of it is better. I'm not holding my breath though. I find it odd that the gun shot was not part of any of the witness statements I have read. I guess we'll see.
 

spinner

Regular Member
Joined
Jul 7, 2010
Messages
68
Location
burlington NC.
I don't know the true fact's yet but this seems like It only tells the police version, and sounds like any another generic letter written by a lawyer to cover there ass. Every time something happens involving the police it seems like they go to the filing cabinet under CYA and pull out the same document, change a couple of words, and release a statement, " OUR " police dept. is looking into the matter and " WE " will get all the " TRUE " facts in the incident.
 

papa bear

Regular Member
Joined
Jul 25, 2010
Messages
2,222
Location
mayberry, nc
on a side note, I always answer my door with a pistol at my side out of plain view. I can't see aswering with a rifle unless my intentions were to intimidate.

a rifle may have been all he had, not everyone has a handgun

i have had both bg and leo knock on my door at odd times. i always have a gun in my hand. guess the leo around here have better sense than i give them credit for

i wonder how the shoot through the door rule would have applied in this situation
 
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