Posted on 07/13/2010 4:07:32 AM PDT by marktwain
LAS VEGAS -- The three Las Vegas police officers involved in Saturday's shooting at a Costco have been identified.
Officers William Mosher, Joshua Stark and Thomas Mendiola shot and killed Erik Scott at a Summerlin Costco. Officers say Scott had a weapon and pointed it at them.
Mosher has been with Metro for five years. Stark and Mendiola have been with Metro for under two years. All are assigned to the Metro's Northwest Area Command.
This isn't the first time Officer Mosher has been involved in a shooting. In April of 2006, Officer Mosher and Officer John Wiggins shot and killed Aaron Jones. According to police, Jones rammed his car into Wiggins while trying to escape arrest. Jones died at the scene.
A coroner's inquest into the 2006 shooting found Officers Mosher and Wiggins justified.
Police say they were called to the scene of Saturday's shooting when Scott started damaging store merchandise and had a gun visible inside the store. When officers arrived, people were leaving the store and an employee pointed out Scott to police.
Police say officers saw Scott's weapon and told him to lay down on the ground. They say he pulled the gun out at pointed it at an officer. That's when police opened fire.
Emergency workers transported Scott to UMC, but he died a short time later. A second gun was found on Scott during transport.
But Scott's attorney contradicts what police say happened. Attorney Ross Goodman, son of Las Vegas mayor Oscar Goodman, says Scott did not point his gun at police or act in a threatening manner. He says eyewitnesses have reached out to him contradicting Metro's story. He is still waiting to see surveillance video of the incident.
The three officers involved in Saturday's shooting have been placed on paid administrative leave pending the outcome of a coroner's inquest.
You actually believe this line of BS? If he was so crazy why then didn’t store security isolate him? Why was he allowed to leave with the rest of the customers? Why didn’t any of the customers notice a crazy man, hell, I can hear people disciplining their kids from 5 aisles away! If he was so crazy why did the patrons have to be TOLD to leave the store? I don’t need anyone to tell me to leave when someone is going beserk, do you? He had to be pointed out to the police by the employee once outside, he obviously wasn’t acting bizarre then. Do you get that frightened at the site of a gun? Jeez, I feel better knowing people around me are armed!
“The witness said he looked to reach for the gun to remove it”
Look, I feel sorry for this guy, it doesn’t seem like he was a criminal, but that was a dumb move.
If there was a second volley while he was down on the ground like the 1st witness said, then I hope the cops are jailed, but I don’t think they will be.
Oh please. Do you really believe that garbage?
Thank you! I find it hard to believe that this man was the ONLY person in the store armed? Don’t believe that one. I do believe that someone such as yourself would have reacted if the man was going crazy!
Previous posters on other threads regarding this story have mentioned that the best way to surrender to the cops if you are legally carrying is to put your hands up, let them know you are armed, do not move, and tell them where the weapon is.
The downside to that is having three cops all shouting different instructions to you, which is possibly the case here. Drop it, don't move, get down. All distinctly different and mutally exclusive actions.
Standard practice should be for the senior, or initial officer on the scene being the only one giving instructions to the perp.
The cop was close enough to come up behind him and tap him on the shoulder! 2 of those responding had less than 2 yrs. on the force! Not exactly lots of experience there!
Both of my brothers were cops, in major cities, they will be the first to tell you there are a lot of yahoos on the police force. When you have to beg for recruits you don’t necessarily get the cream of the crop!
Glad to hear it. One thing we need to consider — split second judgments will always cause human error. I hope people can be forgiving for honest tragic errors. That might take a while.
The guy was damaging/rampaging in the store and had an exposed gun, creating panic to the people around.
There are so many errors in your account that it's hard to even know where to begin.
1. There is no evidence that he was "damaging/rampaging" anything in the store. The Costco employee claimed that, but witness accounts say nothing more than he was placing water bottles in his cart.
2. He had a concealed carry license AND Nevada is an open carry state.
3. The only person that "panicked" was the Costco employee who didn't like the fact that he was carrying concealed. Other customers didn't think anything was wrong until the cops started shooting.
How do you know he was RAMPAGING in the srore?
Store Sorry.
I read the same thing....sounds like he was on a rampage to me! /s
The idiot costco employee is the start of this terrible chain of events. I hope he gets some pain out of this for causing the tragedy.
Yeah, like the recent case of the cops tasering a bedridden 80+ yr old woman hooked up to an oxygen tank because she made a threatening movement from the bed! Oh, and they stepped on her oxygen hose as well denying her breath........Nice, makes me feel safer! NOT!
They ask the man to get on the floor, and according to the eyewitness, he moved his arm instead.
Seems to me that there is a magical sequence of words necessary to get through it without getting bruised, tazed, and/or ventillated. "I have a gun legally concealed..." is theoretically liable to get you killed.
"Dear Police person, I understand that your union-protected right to be able to clock out at the end of your shift and go home clearly trumps my right to not bleed out here on the sidewalk. In that spirit, I am obliged and honored to inform you that my shirt currently conceals a manually-operated gizmo that you may or may not personally approve of despite its legal and constitutional status. I shall to touch it, think of touching it, or think of you thinking that I'm thinking of touching it lest I become an impediment to your above mentioned right to clock out and go home. Please feel free to restrain me in the most embarrassing and demeaning way possible so you can feel safe, warm, and loved while removing the offending object from my waistband. I simply ask that you kindly be aware of the disposition of your index finger while performing this action as my body currently has a sufficient quantity of holes. Did I mention that this pavement tastes wonderful? Thank you and please accept my pledge of $50 to the PBA."
That ought to do it...hopefully.
Wow, I didn’t read that part, about being so close.
I freely admit that, when I'm off my own property the only times I do not have two firearms on me are:
Pain? That person is an accessory to murder. They should get prison time.
Yep, that kind of pain will do too. Apparently the employee is female?
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