Hmm....
Posted on 07/22/2012 9:32:41 PM PDT by Altariel
Maybe if the police officer had arrived just a minute later, the young man would still be alive.
That’s what the friends and family of Destin Thomas say, after Columbus police confirmed yesterday that it was one of their own officers who shot and killed Thomas while responding to a 911 call he had made on Tuesday morning.
Police gave few details yesterday about what happened between the 21-year-old Thomas and Officer William Kaufman, a 17-year veteran, citing the ongoing investigation.
They said that Kaufman shot Thomas twice, in his hip and chest. Thomas died at the scene.
“The fact that they’re trying to justify it, no apology or nothing, (just saying), ‘Oh, we’re just doing what we were trained to do,’” said Thomas’ cousin Derek Harris, 24. “I didn’t know you were trained to kill the person you were supposed to help.”
Police also said yesterday that they’ve charged a man who they had said earlier was thought to be involved in the break-in at Thomas’ Far East Side apartment — the reason that Thomas had called police.
David J. O’Neal, 19, of Shaker Heights, Ohio, is charged with grand theft auto, vandalism and receiving stolen property — all fourth-degree felonies — as well as a count of obstructing official business, a fifth-degree felony.
All of those charges are in connection to a stolen police cruiser that authorities say O’Neal took from an officer who was patrolling about a half-mile from Thomas’ apartment on Tuesday afternoon.
So far, O’Neal hasn’t been charged in the break-in, though Sgt. Rich Weiner, spokesman for Columbus police, said other charges could be filed. O’Neal was in the Fairfield County jail tonight under $500,000 bond.
Thomas was found with a gun next to his body, but police haven’t said where that gun came from or whether Thomas even had it in his hand when he was shot.
His roommate and cousin have both said that Thomas didn’t own a gun, and they think he somehow got the weapon off the men who broke into his apartment at 7277 Brooke Blvd.
Thomas’ roommate, DelShawn Walker, 22, said his friend had no interest in guns. “He said on several occasions, ‘I don’t plan on getting a gun. I don’t need one,’” he said.
Walker and Harris are angry with police. Thomas was the one the police were supposed to be protecting, they said.
“If (the officer) didn’t show up on time, he’d still be alive today, because he did their job for them (by chasing the burglars out),” Harris said.
Police have said that Officer Kaufman saw Thomas and another man run from the apartment. A neighbor said that a third man also ran from it, though police so far have arrested only O'Neal.
When Thomas called 911 at 8:46 a.m. Tuesday, he said in a whispered voice that people had broken into his apartment and he could hear them talking.
O’Neal was caught several hours later when Police Officer Billie Camp-Donovan saw him and recognized him as a suspect wanted in connection with the break-in. She jumped from her cruiser to chase him, and he doubled back and stole the cruiser, police say. Camp-Donovan then fired six gunshots at the cruiser, though she didn’t hit O’Neal.
The county prosecutor’s office will review both officers’ actions.
Walker and Harris wonder why, if Thomas was holding a gun when he ran from his apartment, the officer didn’t ask him to put it down. Knowing Thomas, they said, he would have immediately.
“I honestly believe he was trying to tell them, ‘I’m the one who called you,’” Walker said. “But they didn’t give him a chance.”
Police officers, though, say they have little time to sort out a situation when someone is holding a weapon.
Because of the rash of recent police shootings, officers held a demonstration of how they handle confrontations with armed people for media representatives at the Police Training Academy today.
Columbus Police Chief Kimberley Jacobs said it’s impossible for officers to predict what a person intends to do when that person approaches with a weapon.
“We have to be able to react in instantaneous fashion,” she said.
Asked if she was concerned that Thomas might have been wrongly shot, she said it “would be concerning if someone who has no (malicious intent) toward an officer was shot.”
“But we can’t predict that, and we can’t know that when someone has a gun in their hand.”
That explanation is little comfort to Thomas’ friend and cousin.
No I don’t. But I do know the person who was relating the incident to me. Additionally, I do know the reputation of the apartment complex, I am aware, as anyone who lives closely to this misplaced section 8 housing area, of the crime rate, and the thugs who live there? Irrelevant of that, there were quite a few eyewitnesses to the event. Do you have an objective source other than the family and friends of the victim, who are being interviewed in this article?
The article mentions other individuals, including at least one neighbor who saw the victim fleeing.
In other words, there are third party witnesses available and the police, as the journalist points out, haven’t accounted for why the gun was found next to the victim’s body.
Since it was the police who, by their own admission, shot him because (they claim he) had a gun, it is the police’s versions of the story that is suspect in this instance.
No second amendment supporting conservative believes that mere possession or holding of a gun warrants one’s immediate execution.
Period.
If your “friend” supports the Second Amendment, it would be wise for him to denounce this Bad Shot, on principle.
Oh stop it, I am not in the mood for a second amendment debate with this story. The police responded to a call in a very unstable neighborhood, with a reputation for drugs and violent crime. A person came out of the apartment where the call had been made from, he was brandishing a weapon. There were two other suspects running away and he was the only one with a weapon, which he refused to drop. It is being investigated and I am sure Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson will get it resolved.
Actually you are inventing details.
Let me remind you:
“Thomas was found with a gun next to his body, but police haven’t said where that gun came from or whether Thomas even had it in his hand when he was shot. “
Even if Thomas had a gun (which hasn’t been established) he has the second amendment right to self-defense. Since it has not been established that he was pointing any gun at police or running toward the police, the officer who shot him is guilty of murder.
The second amendment is a very important consideration in this case. “He had a gun in his hand/in a holster” should NEVER be appropriate justification, by any government employee, for shooting a citizen.
It’s certainly possible, given that the Official Story (tm) was apparently not pieced together at the time the police department was contacted for their input.
Hmm....
Ok dude back off. I have no personal knowledge of the events and you don’t either. Do not post to me again and do not accuse me of “inventing details” you are simply out of line.
>> “Police officers, though, say they have little time to sort out a situation when someone is holding a weapon.” <<
.
That’s why they’re paid such ridiculously high salaries. It’s time they either get competent enough to justify those salaries, or get fired and sent to jail.
Actually you did invent a detail: That he was “Brandishing” a weapon.
No such ‘fact’ has been established by any independent investigator.
.
There you go. The cop had to shoot somebody, might as well have been this guy.And what the hell, he bears a resemblence to the perp; he has two legs, two arms, and one head, so why pick at nits.
>> “It’s apparently best to call 911 after the shooting stops and the guns are cleaned and put away.” <<
.
Actually, its best not to call 911 at all.
Just call the police business number, and request an officer to come to take an incident report.
.
She tried. Those bullets have to stop somewhere,Should some poor soul be in their path, well, it is just not their day.
I did not “invent” that information. It was reported in the newspaper, in the news and originally stated by the police, that he was carrying a weapon when he came running out of the apartment. You are correct, no such fact has been established by an independent investigator because at this point THERE ISN’T AN INDEPENDENT INVESTIGATOR.
You are the kind of policeman I was raised around. It is a pity that there no more like you.
She is probably affirmative action.
The officer ought be fired and prosecuted as should his bosses in the police department.
###
That’s what should happen.
What will happen is; the shooter will get an extra two weeks of paid vacation while the cops “investigate”. Then they will say the shooter did nothing wrong, the victim was at fault, and they will all go back to work just like before.
Nothing to see here. Move along.
A good Freeper would have stated it as “alleged,” not as fact.
What the hell is your problem? You want the last word pal, you got it.
I thank you my FRiend.
I needed that.
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