Police and Costco both. Personally I’ve moved to blaming Costco more than the police though.
All it takes is a Costco employee embellishing what was really going on and police show up ready to take down an active shooter, even if there isn’t one. If the police response’s information was bad then it’s not really their fault.
Now on the other hand if the police said “drop your weapon” and Erik couldn’t “drop” his weapon without first reaching for it, and that got him shot, then yes the police share some blame. But majority of the blame I still hold on Costco.
Strangely it’s the Costco security tapes that didn’t work. That tells me that the tapes showed something different than what the employee said and that Erik wasn’t yelling, ripping open packages and throwing stuff around. Suddenly Costco security says “oh huh” and the tapes get mysteriously glitched.
I don’t normally hope for corporate lawsuits, but if I’m right in my theory I hope Costco ends up paying Erik’s family and girlfriend a lot of money for the rest of their lives.
Have the 911 tapes been released, or have they “disappeared” or equipment “malfunctioned”?............
I gotta quibble with you on this. What's the first rule for shooting, whether you're in the forest or at the range or in a crowd, know what you're shooting at. If I'm on a jury and somebody says "the minimum-wage guy said a guy in a yellow shirt was going crazy, so when I saw a guy in a yellow shirt I reflexively emptied my revolver", I'm not buying it.
Yeah, a lying Costco employee would put the store on the hook. Disgusting, but it looks like they are happily complicent in murder.