West Virginia Police Officer Fired for not shooting gun toting man?

[countryclubjoe]

Hi Folks

Please confirm the title of my post... I was driving home when I caught the tail end of the story. Supposedly a police officer was FIRED for not using deadly forced against a man with a gun (fake gun)?

Please say it isn't so.

Regards
CCJ

 

[countryclubjoe]

http://www.post-gazette.com/local/r...not-fire-at-man-with-gun/stories/201609090080

Thank you for the link. Another black eye for law enforcement. This shoot first mentality is becoming the norm and not the exception.
This should be an interesting story to follow, I read where the chief stated that the fired officer was actually fired due in part to other incidents on his record.

 

[solus]

the really sad perspective is the terminated officer did not speak up to his fellow officers to stand at the ready but stand down telling the officers the suspect apparently wanted to die that day.

that he states they were justified deplorable

ipse

 

[color of law]

But just then, two other Weirton officers arrived on the scene, Mr. Williams walked toward them waving his gun — later found to be unloaded — between them and Mr. Mader, and one of them shot Mr. Williams’ in the back of the head just behind his right ear, killing him.

This has me scratching my head.

 

[MAC702]

Very interesting article. He was probationary, so apparently could be fired for any/no reason, but I'll bet he could have a defamation case against the city and the police chief for their public comments.

 

[davidmcbeth]

Very interesting article. He was probationary, so apparently could be fired for any/no reason, but I'll bet he could have a defamation case against the city and the police chief for their public comments.

http://www.sjlaboremploymentblog.co...orker-who-filed-his-own-discrimination-claim/

I think that this guy would likely have a slam dunk wrongful termination lawsuit. While I do not see the public policy exception to the at-will employment relating to the desire of the agency to have its people kill on sight of a person purporting to have a gun w/o using any discretion; I think that its against public policy to do so...and a new exemption to the at-will employment would be created.


This guy hit the jackpot !

 

[countryclubjoe]

Very interesting article. He was probationary, so apparently could be fired for any/no reason, but I'll bet he could have a defamation case against the city and the police chief for their public comments.

Probationary, usually probationary officers have a partner on shift with them until their probationary period is over however I guess different departments have different procedures. In my humble opinion the young ex officer has a decent case for a lawsuit.

I can see his counsel now informing the jury that his client was fired for NOT KILLING another human being.. CASE CLOSED.

Regards
CCJ

 

[WalkingWolf]

This will bite the department in the arse every time there is a shooting. Every ambulance chaser will rub their nose in it forever.

 

[countryclubjoe]

This will bite the department in the arse every time there is a shooting. Every ambulance chaser will rub their nose in it forever.

Great point WW, also it would appear that the departments policy towards public safety is simply shoot, shoot,shoot or be FIRED...

Their motto seems to be " kill in the name of public safety"... Unreal.

Regards
CCJ

 

[utbagpiper]

I could understand terminating a cop who demonstrated he was unable or unwilling to use deadly force when it was truly needed. Failing to protect his own life, that of another officer, or of an innocent bystander or victim because he just couldn't bring himself to pull the trigger would be grounds to terminate an officer.

But from the article it doesn't sound like that was the situation at all. The (now former) officer assessed the situation and determined the man was trying to commit suicide by cop, but wasn't posing an immediate threat.

That the man was "armed" is not the end-all-be-all of making such a determination. But the media sure loves to focus on that don't they? Most of us are visibly "armed" on a regular basis, though we tend to keep our guns holstered rather than having them in our hands. On the flip side, a couple of large men can present a deadly threat to most individuals despite being "unarmed". A single, committed man can present a deadly threat to a large portion of the population even if unarmed.

Not a good day for the WV Police Department involved here.

Charles

 

[countryclubjoe]

A bit off topic but 34k a year seems rather low. Just saying.

 

[OC for ME]

St. Louis PD
Population: 354,361
City’s Average Salary: $40,630

Starting Salary for Police Officers: $37,514
Cost of Living Rank (in a 1-100 list): 23
Average Commute Time: 21.5 minutes
Job Growth Rank (in a list of 372 Highest Growth Cities): 179
Unemployment Rate: 9.2

!20K population on Weirton. $34K seems pretty darn good.

 

[user]

Chances are that action was taken to protect the guy who actually did the shooting - by treating the cop who didn't shoot as the bad cop, they're reinforcing the idea that the cop who committed the murder was the good guy who took action when necessary. That's important when someone files suit for wrongful death - and keep in mind that the system doesn't really care about either cop, they're treated as disposable commodities; I think that what's really going on here is that the PD and county want to be able to defend against and win a lawsuit by whatever means possible.