Posted on 08/02/2011 9:39:54 PM PDT by quantim
RAPID CITY, S.D (AP) -- A western South Dakota police officer was killed and two others were seriously wounded after a shootout with a man during a routine stop, authorities said late Tuesday.
Officer James Ryan McCandless, 28, was pronounced dead at a local hospital, Rapid City Police Chief Steve Allender said. Officer Nick Armstrong, 27, was in critical condition after undergoing surgery, and the third officer, who was shot in the side of the face, was listed as stable. His name hasn't been released.
Gunfire erupted about 10 minutes after the three officers approached four people at an intersection. Allender wouldn't say exactly what the four people were doing, only that their behavior was "suspicious" and that alcohol may have been involved. One man pulled a gun and fired several shots, Allender said.
(Excerpt) Read more at hosted.ap.org ...
Another member of our line of defense loses his life. Prayers up for his family.
There is a lot of this weird stuff happening.
I think society is under huge pressure and this stuff is bubbling at the edges.
My how times have changed. The first thing I look for when I see stories like this is whether the race/religion/political affiliation of the shooter is mentioned in the first few sentences. What the heck?
Interesting, the name of the injured suspect was not released.
Damn!!
Traffic stops and domestic violence. Two of the most dangerous situations a police officer get into.
RIP Officer McCandless
Was reading another thread about how being a cop is no more dangerous than falling off a stool at Dunkin’ Donuts.
These officers were doing their job. It’s dangerous. Thank God for them, and my sincerest condolences to all their families. They make it easier to sleep in a comfortable bed at night, instead of building a fire to ward off the wolves.
DK
Seems rather odd, since even the typical drunk driver is generally named in stories involving death and injury.
Three officers at the stop, makes you think they expected trouble.Now we will see if the judicial system works.
If “routine stops” are so dangerous (to our unionized “heroes”), maybe they’d save a lot of trouble by waiting to stop people until there was a darn good “non-routine” reason.
These pretext traffic stops kill policemen. And they seem to be the trigger for violence.
In a situation like this, three or four officers would be the norm. The call for backup usually gets a quick response.
One Rapid City police officer is dead and two others wounded after a routine stop turned deadly.
James Ryan McCandless, 28, a six-year veteran of the department, was pronounced dead shortly after arriving at Rapid City Regional Hospital.
Nick Armstrong, 27, underwent surgery and remains in critical condition. A third officer, whose name was not immediately released pending notification of his next of kin, was shot in the face and is stable.
A Native American male in his 20s is the suspected shooter. Police didn’t release his name Tuesday night because of uncertainty about the suspect’s real identity, Police Chief Steve Allender said.
The officers had stopped a group of four subjects at the corner of...”
Read more:
I'm confident they know exactly who this is.
In any event, if it's an Indian suspect, the reservations nowadays can be a little scary, as some of them have basically declared war on law enforcement. In some cases, they need to go in with multiple car loads of LEO's, just to serve a warrant.
Let me tell you about pretext stops.
I had a guy drop a pay phone in mid-sentence and run at the sight of my patrol car.
I would have a hard time articulating what crime he might have been committing but since I prefer to live in reality, I went down the street, turned around, and looked in the alley for him.
I was unable to find the guy, who I assumed had a big warrant or similar, and lurked in the shadows waiting for him to come back.
I wasn’t able to find him.
Had I been in the outside lane instead of the inside lane when we he ran, I would have been on his heels going down the alley.
I wasn’t, so I didn’t turn down the alley and face the ambush that was waiting for me.
4.5 hours later he was shot dead by my co-worker...his name was Maurice Clemmons and he had killed 4 officers 48 hours earlier.
That sir is not a pretextual stop, but it is basically what these officers had (per the story). That is a police officer seeing something suspicious and investigating it. It is not racial bias, profiling, a pretextual stop, or any other such non-sense.
These officers saw something suspicious and went to check it out. They paid some high prices. I can see nowhere in the article any shred of detail that would lead one to believe they did anything wrong legally or morally.
I think your take on it is wrong and you owe their memories an apology.
One of my coworkers was just out in South Dakota visiting family on the “rez” and he said that the drug violence is getting pretty bad.
There are problems on the Pine Ridge rez that go well beyond a “little scary.”
No such thing as a “routine stop.”
RIP
A Native American male in his 20s is the suspected shooter.
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That was my first thought when I saw the headline.
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