Posted on 06/11/2013 11:03:11 PM PDT by Arthurio
FORT WORTH (CBSDFW.COM) - A widow is seeking answers after her husband was shot and killed on his own property by Fort Worth police officers early Tuesday morning. “I think the police made a terrible mistake,” said Kathy Waller.
She said that a loud noise and bright light woke up her and her husband, 73-year-old Jerry Waller, shortly after midnight on Tuesday. He grabbed a gun and headed to the garage, she said, where Jerry Waller was then shot by police officers who were investigating a burglar alarm.
Waller thinks that the officers reacted too quickly. “Somebody just got a little trigger happy, and away they go,” she said.
Cpl. Tracey Knight with the Fort Worth Police Department explained, “He was armed with a handgun and officers feared for their safety. They felt threatened, and that’s when they shot him.”
The burglar alarm was sounding in a neighborhood next to the Woodhaven Country Club in east Fort Worth. A spokesperson with the Fort Worth Police Department said that it is not clear why the two officers who responded to the call were at the Waller home — since it is across the street from the house where the alarm went off.
(Excerpt) Read more at dfw.cbslocal.com ...
People need to start buying body armor. We’re caught in the middle of a war between two rival gangs, the cops and the criminals, and neither of them minds killing us one bit. One gang of thugs justifies it by saying “I feared for my life” and the other by saying “He dissed me.”
After stories like this, can't this be changed to "The officer was armed with a handgun and the citizens feared for their safety. They felt threatened, and that’s when they shot him."?
Yep.
If they’re on the wrong property, they have no authority, are mere trespassers, and they should be stripped of their sovereign immunity.
The situation is getting so bad that we’d be better off simply firing all public “professional” police forces, installing all law enforcement authority in the county sheriffs, and deputizing responsible citizens without pay in our communities.
When the lawsuits come down for this crap, guess who is going to pay? The taxpayers. Not the dumb-as-stump cops, but the taxpayers. The dumb-as-stump cops probably won’t even miss a single donut break.
Two rookie cops, no supervisor. No announcement at front door to inquire as to “alarm” that they were responding to (when our alarm has gone off this has been the standard police response). Total failure of training, including how to respond with a potential armed individual.
LOL!!! Good question!
A few years ago I would have called this comment nuts. I am awake now. You're right.
If they had had a dog and it had appeared, no doubt the police would have blasted it, too. Why do you think they issue them guns?
Of course they SAID they announced that they were police. Right before they murdered the man.
Courts have ruled that the police are under no obligation whatsoever to save anybody’s life. So cops are being trained to view their own lives as more important than other people’s lives. They are also are being trained to be paranoid instead of smart. The only thing that matters is that they go home at the end of the day. See a dog? Shoot it. See a man holding a gun? Shoot him. Just say ‘I feared for my life.’ No repercussions. Maybe some paid time off. That’s why being a cop has become just another job in some ways. Except you get to tell people what to do and carry a gun.
Are you suggesting that law enforcement place armed, law-abiding citizens on the same level as they are? C'mon now! You know law enforcement officers are "trusted" by the state to be honest and professional. Meanwhile, they are legally permitted to LIE TO YOU to get information.
Oh, and you only need to look at the clown circus bullshit going on in Orlando to see what happens when an armed citizen tries to preserve his own life and shoots a thug-wannabe punk black teenager.
“The new ROE must be, “Shoot anything that has a gun. Immediately.””
That how they are training now, that hesitation will get them killed, that restaint will get them killed. See a gun shoot first, justify it later. Above all, go home at the end of your shift no matter what. These guys are well armed, wearing body armor and working with a partner in an area where many innocent citizens own guns. They can afford a little restraint.
The original article I read was he was ordered to put his weapon down. He complied and raised his hands, The action seemed to be over, so the old guy was picking his gun back up to go back inside his home and was shot. It was not pointed at the officers.
A little communication would have gone a long way!
“The original article I read was he was ordered to put his weapon down. He complied and raised his hands, The action seemed to be over, so the old guy was picking his gun back up to go back inside his home and was shot. It was not pointed at the officers. A little communication would have gone a long way!”
Its understandable that an armed man suddenly appearing during a search for a burglar could be mistaken for a threat, but not if they had already talked to him.
Do you have a link? I have not seen this anywhere, and we would all like to read it.
http://dfw.cbslocal.com/2013/05/29/rookie-police-officer-shot-fort-worth-homeowner-six-times/
Waller, 72, was shot six times in the chest after he went outside to investigate bright lights outside of the bedroom on Havenwood Lane.
Investigators say he had a handgun, but sources tell CBS 11 News that he had put the gun down and then picked it back up before he was shot.
Too much emphasis on “Offizier Sicherheit.” What we need is a little “citizen safety.”
Lord, bring your peace to this man’s widow. :(
Heck, there’s people willing to justify it if kittens are shot.
(Mom: Officer shot kittens in front of my kids
http://www.wtsp.com/news/watercooler/article/320703/58/Mom-Officer-shot-kittens-in-front-of-my-kids )
No doubt, we’ll be hearing justification for this in 3...2...1....
Those “no hesitation targets” are clearly working.
Thanks for the link. Good work.
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