Texas town shaken by officer shooting 93-year-old

Associated Press ^ | 05/09/2014 | PAUL J. WEBER

[Rusty0604]

Friends say 93-year-old Pearlie Golden still shopped at the grocery store and greeted friends with a jubilant "Hey, baby!" Now they and the mayor of this small Texas town want the police officer who shot and killed her gone.

Robertson County District Attorney Coty Siegert said a preliminary autopsy shows Golden was shot twice in the body and grazed by a third bullet. It's the second time Stem has shot and killed a suspect since joining the department in 2012, Siegert said.

"There's no justification. Any police officer would know not to kill a 93-year-old fragile woman when they could have backed off," said William Foster, 64, a retired professor in Hearne. "She was no threat to him."

[ozarkgirl]

Yes, it’s gotten that bad.

Yes it has gotten that bad. My hair dresser had an "altercation" with her ex where her ex pushed her down and then her 14 year old daughter layed into the ex. She said in the past she might have called police but she was afraid to call police and ended up taking care of it herself, he finally left. She was afraid she and her daughter would end up in jail.

Police used to try to de-escalate and just tell him to leave but with today's rules - they probably all would have ended up in jail - if they didn't get shot. Pathetic. And we can't blame it all on the police, they have stupid laws they have to follow as well.

[Starstruck]

This is a town of less than 5000 people. If you have killed 2 in the last couple of years, it is time to move on, justified or not.

[Safetgiver]

A 93 year old with a gun can kill you just like a 13, 17 or other...Oh, Horseshiite! In 1974 I had a drunk, 67 year old man with a shotgun on me as I got out of my cruiser. It pissed me off so I walked onto his porch with him yelling “ I’ll kill you! I’ll kill you!” I knew if he hadn’t by then, he wasn’t going to. I knocked the 12gauge way, turned his backside to me and kicked his ass so hard he knocked himself out on the front door jamb. I arrested him for Public Drunkenness and let him sleep it off. I’ve taken knives off many, men and women and only had to shoot three in 17 years (higher percent BACK then than NOW). I was, proudly, a PEACE officer not a transplanted urban anti-terrorst. THEY should only shoot Muzzies.

[ConservativeMan55]

Not what I’m saying at all.

The difference isn’t just having a gun on your person.

The difference is.. you NEVER point a gun at someone or something unless you are planning on pulling the trigger.

I’m not saying whether this lady did one way or another. I’m asking. The story left out too many details for me to make a judgement is all I’m saying.

[wbill]

yep. Poorly written story. Only thing that I got out of it is that a Grand Jury cleared the cop....and Prosecutors can get a Grand Jury to indict anyone.

So - in the absence of other evidence, I gotta go with the cop on this one. Subject to more review.

[Will88]

Not enough information. Article doesn’t even state why a 911 call was made from the residence, and few details of incident that led officer to shot.

But the same officer killing two people in a couple of years...

[deport]

snip
News 3 has learned the person who has called 911 is Pearlie Golden's nephew. A few days ago,
the Texas Department of Public Safety refused to renew her driver’s license. The nephew was
trying to take her keys away. Golden got upset, grabbed her gun and threatened him.

When Officer Stephen Stem arrived, he asked Golden to “put down the weapon and then
ultimately fir(ed) his own sidearm, wounding Miss Golden.”
end snip

Elderly Woman Shot & Killed By Hearne Police Officer

This is the second time Stem has been involved in a deadly shooting
since July 22, 2012 when he was employed.

[DouglasKC]

Some police really need to take lessons in customer service...seriously. Any man under 70 could have taken the correct attitude with a 93 year old and charmed the pants off her...along with her gun...in about 10 or 15 minutes of talking through the door.

Many cops get it. They're the ones that have "boring" shifts. It's because they havepeople skills and can de-escalate situations without a gun.

[expat1000]

Age of the victim or perp, as the case may be, if armed, is immaterial.

[ClaytonP]

Thanks, now we know what the “target” looks like

[logi_cal869]

????????????????????????????????

You egregiously simultaneously misread the statement, the quote and my comment.

I'll throw you a bone and presume you haven't yet sought out coffee:

Any police officer would know not to kill a 93-year-old fragile woman when they could have backed off,"

Unless you only occasionally poke your head out of a cave, you would know that this situation is becoming all too tragically common. I venture to state that hardly a week goes by without at least a couple reports of officers shooting unarmed civilians. Most specifically, the statement itself is moronic, as he refers to 'any' police officer when THIS police officer did NOT back off.

I expect an apology.

[wita]

If that isn’t the damnedest explanation of proper peace officer response, I don’t know what is.

[sbark]

couldn’t the nephew have walked away for a day......instead of calling 911

[Rusty0604]

I think part of officer training should include watching episodes of “Andy Griffith”.

[februus]

At 93 years old, any person would use up whatever energy they possess in
roughly 1/2 an hour - and if they were hallucinating enemies or something
- the absence of further threats would help to tamper down whatever
adrenaline was charging them up in the first place. So the cop should have
used caution and simply backed off and protected the woman’s neighbors and
let nature run it’s course. If an arrest had to be made this is one time to
wait them out. Next time the old gal headed for the grocery store unarmed
you detain her. Pop. 4,500? Not much chance this cop needed to treat the
situation as imminently threatening to the point of firing 3 or more shots
meant to kill.

Sounds like a doofus to me.

[jaydubya2]

"then what choice did he have?"
Retreat, take a defensive position, analyze the situation maybe?

[ConservativeMan55]

Why would he retreat? He was called there for a purpose and you’ve got a woman who is apparently out of her mind waving a gun around.

If he were to retreat and that woman were to kill 3 people.. then he’d be in trouble for leaving.

It’s a no win situation!

[matthew fuller]

I really think that this SOB should be tried and executed for capital murder.

[Gaffer]

This is indeed a story representative of a lot of what we see about LEOs today and their oppressive attitudes and willingness to cover up the truth.

However, reading this AP article by Weber, I cannot make any sense from it. It is a disjointed, unconnected hodgepodge of useless information and vague statements with absolutely no follow up. Bad thought, reasoning, preparation and writing from someone who purports to be a journalist.

[rw4site]

You have my apology. I’ve had my coffee, but I’m also getting on up there in age. Dammit!

Sorry, I did misread your post.

Head low, crawling back into my cave.