Posted on 11/17/2013 9:12:06 AM PST by moonshinner_09
Shocking dashcam video shows the moment two cops open fire on a car being driven by a mom with CHILDREN in the back as she fled the scene after a heated altercation
A shocking dashcam video shows the moment a New Mexico state trooper opened fire on a minivan with five children inside after a route traffic stop went horribly wrong. Now the New Mexico State Police have opened an investigation into the conduct of the troopers - and driver Rihanna Ferrell and her 14-year-old son are facing charges. The traffic stop took place south of Taos, New Mexico, on October 28 - but it has sparked local outrage after the video from a state police dashcam went public. SCROLL DOWN FOR VIDEO
Footage shows the officer casually walk up to the vehicle and begin speaking with the driver. When the officer walks away, presumably to run the license and registration and decide whether to write a ticket, the van takes off. A short chase ensues before the driver again relents and the van makes its way to the side of the road.
The officer at this point has had enough. He storms up to and opens the driver’s side door while ordering the driver out of the vehicle. She refuses and a struggle ensues as children inside the Ford can be heard screaming. The driver’s son, 14, according to ABC News, gets out of the van but thinks better of the idea as the cop pulls a Taser on him.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
The shots were fired by the backup cop, freshly arrived at the scene, who was unlikely to know about the kids.
Watch the video. The backup cop walks up to a scene where the first cop had his taser drawn pointing at the car, and then starts smashing the window. The car the peels off. The cop could reasonably assume that there was a criminal in the car. This still does not excuse blindly firing into the car.
Then again, I strongly suspect most of the kids in the car will have criminal records within a few years.
Maybe she didn’t want to get anal probed / raped by these cops. NM LE has a bad reputation for this. My opinion ... these donut munchers had NO right to fire on a car with ANY innocents in it ... especially children.
“What in the hell type of training are these police getting ?”
Clearly, not firearms training.
Fortunately, for the spawn of the ‘Tarded DriverPerson.
No excuse for shooting at the vehicle but the woman is a moron.
Let’s see. “We don’t know the whole sttory.” won’t work because the whole story is recorded. “She made a threatening gesture” won’t work because she’s driving away. guess we’ll have to go with “We’re cops we can shoot anyone at any time for any reason and we missed out on killing that woman in DC last month so we’ll do the same here.” Yep that works
I TOTALLY agree with you with one caveat. Namely, popping off rounds at a mini van full of kids is most likely the DUMBEST thing I have ever seen in my life!
Trying REEEEEAAAAALLLLL hard to give the cop doing the shooting the benefit of the doubt, maybe he just pulled up on the scene, didn’t hear the kids and therefore in the heat of the moment did not know they were in the vehicle.
But, when you think about it, firing into a car not knowing WHO is in it is just as bad.
I read an interesting article awhile back. It said that cops were more likely to overreact (shoot unnecessarily, use the baton unnecessarily, etc) when they were working in pairs. Less overreactions occurred when the cop was working alone.
That's kind of the opposite of what you'd think. I wonder if there is such a thing as a police "mob mentality."
Would be interesting to know what she had in that minivan besides kids that would cause her such angst...
Have they stopped teaching cops the whole “arresting” people thingy? Just kinda pull out guns and shoot...dogs ..deer..people whatever.
That poor woman in the Mall in Washington who was shot dead had a child in the car too.
Not one of these cops, who responded as backup, thought to use their vehicle to block this woman’s van?
Was it really worth the escalation for going, what, 16 mph over the limit? Scaring the kids to the point that they got out of car to protect their mother? Busting out windows and shooting at the vehicle? I agree the driver was an idiot. She should have just taken the ticket and she had a part in the escalation.
Maybe the cops thought she was Miriam Carey’s sister, so it was ok to shoot into it car with children in it.....just sayin’
The cop was foolish to shoot.
The shooter could see that a cop was working on the windows with a non-lethal weapon, and that the other cop was behind and prepared, so for him to run up and start shooting into the fleeing car, seems reckless and panicky, a leap into mass killing escalation, on a minivan full of kids and their (whacked out) mom.
As someone from the old “yes, sir” school, where you always treated the cop with respect once you were caught or busted, I am amazed at the total indifference of the mother and teen son, to the authority of police and procedure as they are performing a stop.
It is one thing to stand up for your rights, to argue your case when the situation calms down, but that isn’t what they were doing, they were just too self important to be bothered with all this law and guns, and arrest, and fleeing, and felony resist, etc., they seemed to have no idea of the context of their actions and aggression.
A family in a min-van, but kind of feral and primitive.
At one point two kids got out to fight the officer she was struggling to get away from. That’s not going to make a cop feel good. A report on Fox News about this yesterday said that drug paraphernalia was found in the car. If it was just pot paraphernalia and that was the reason she freaked out she is doubly stupid. I’m pretty sure that would only be a misdemeanor in NM. A ticket with no arrest.
Interesting thoughts there. I suppose you could come on the scene and not realize kids were there.
If a car is driving away, is that grounds for lethal force? Solely, I don’t believe so.
I carefully looked at this video, and it does appear that the Officer was shooting at the left rear tire.
bttt
“I carefully looked at this video, and it does appear that the Officer was shooting at the left rear tire.”
I hear about shooting at the tires, but I wonder how many times that actually works vs. how many times they hit something they didn’t mean to.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.