Texas officer who shot armed 93-year-old fired

The Houston Chronicle ^ | 05-10-2014 | The Associated Press

[piroque]

He may end up owning that town.

Yes, maybe a small plot of ground down at the cemetery ,if'n some of her kin find him.

[VerySadAmerican]

The guy fired 5 rounds with 3 hits. I believe this guy may have been in the right. I also believe he’s a typical trigger happy cop who should not be on the police force.

[COBOL2Java]

next time a black person waves around a loaded gun, the police will think twice about shooting.

oh, crap, I hope its a white guy with a gun if I ever get jacked, just so the police don’t hesitate to protect me.

Wow, willy! So I guess using your flawless logic, all black people are the same, huh? So Pearlie, shown here, is just as dangerous as all those other darkies, I guess...

---

I mean, you seem to be upset that the thug cop was fired for shooting Pearlie, a 93-year old woman, and you say "next time a black person waves around a loaded gun"...so you are abstracting all black people into a single class with your statement.

Then you push the envelope even further by saying "oh, crap, I hope its a white guy with a gun if I ever get jacked, just so the police don’t hesitate to protect me." So again, white people are OK to shoot?

You sure you're on the right web site?

[babygene]

I think it should be made clear to a LEO when hired, that his job was to protect ALL citizens, black, white, yellow and green. The young and the old and even the crazy’s and the criminals. And to do this without killing them.

If a cop killed a person, even in self defense, he or she wound be fired. It ‘s the cops job to be able to handle and defuse a situation, not to escalate it. If a cop can’t handle this, then we need to replace him or her with one who can.

So if your life in danger (the cop’s), go ahead and kill the perp. Knowing that you will lose your job... (still better than getting killed)

They need to have some skin in the game...

[RginTN]

This was a crazy lady who had a death wish that day.

[bike800]

Some of the comments on here are absolutely ignorant. o one has to meet deadly force with less lethal...period...none of you would...neither should police officers...

[Lazamataz]

Look, .38 is an underpowered round. Cops wear ballistic armor. If you can’t take a few puny .38 rounds from a feeble 93 year old lady, you have NO business being a cop. He should have waded in there and plucked the gun out of the lady’s hand.

[COBOL2Java]

This was a crazy lady who had a death wish that day.

And you're able to get inside her head how?

[babygene]

“This was a crazy lady who had a death wish that day.”

Doesn’t matter... It SHOULD be the cop’s job to handle ANY situation in such a way as to not leave someone dead. If they can’t do that, their not suited for the job.

[bike800]

Ahh...so now we must take the bullet first...if it hits the vest...go tackle her...if it hits the sweet spot under the arm or lower torso....well that just sux to be the cop...give me a break

[babygene]

“He should have waded in there and plucked the gun out of the lady’s hand.”

Even dog catchers don’t just kill dogs because they don’t heel, fetch or roll over...

[piytar]

I am rabidly anti-thugcop. But according to the article, she shot first. If so, this was a good shoot by an officer and an idiotic move by the town.

[wideawake]

He was railroaded by political correctness.

The perp's own nephew says she fired at the officer.

[wideawake]

You are laughably uninformed.

[COBOL2Java]

Ahh...so now we must take the bullet first...if it hits the vest...go tackle her...if it hits the sweet spot under the arm or lower torso....well that just sux to be the cop...give me a break

So I assume you are an experienced law officer? We have had posts from experienced, retired LEOs on other threads who have said that in past, similar situations, they have handled them exactly as Laz indicated. One retired LEO FreePer said that he once had to approach a drunken citizen with a shotgun who kept yelling at him "I'm gonna KILL you!" He knew that he wouldn't if he hadn't by that time, and by the time he got near enough, he grabbed the rifle away from him.

But I guess, in your world, it's better to just shoot a 93-year old woman dead...

[livius]

If somebody’s shooting at you, sorry, you shoot back. Even if you’re a cop. Contrary to popular opinion, they can’t shoot the gun out of the bad guy’s hand.

This old lady, btw, may have been fine much of the time but was probably a little nutty (Alzheimer’s often makes people very anger-prone) and had simply flown beneath the radar until she went to get her driver’s license renewed.

[Lazamataz]

Ahh...so now we must take the bullet first...if it hits the vest...go tackle her...if it hits the sweet spot under the arm or lower torso....well that just sux to be the cop...give me a break

Get brave or get off the force!

Ya contemptible weenie.

[COBOL2Java]

If somebody’s shooting at you, sorry, you shoot back.

She was shooting at him? Where in the story did it say that?

[Lazamataz]

It should be no surprise that officers view the people they initiate contact with with suspicion as well. They have to. Untill the person does demonstrates that they are not a threat to them. The trick is not painting the entire public with one brush...like some freepers do with cops. I have been a cop for 22 years. I am proud of my service. That being said, cops my age are noticing that police work is heading in a direction we are not comfortable with. The only thing we can do is train new officers in “old school” values. We are seeing young people get into police work that have different values than we do. Different ideas of what’s police should or should not be able to do. (no family values ...public schools?) I have three years to go till I can get out...i pray I make it.

BTW, I saw this post from another thread when I looked you over. You sound like a decent cop.

So I'll let you in on a secret: I was trolling you. :)

Sometimes I'm in the mood to troll a cop a little. The current crop of cops are bad news, and have made me become extremely anti-police. They dress like they are in Mogadishu, act like they are in Afghanistan, and behave like they are on Operation Desert Storm.

In America.

Not cool.

[zeestephen]

I read a summary of this yesterday.

The son says the old woman fired two shots at the cops before they shot back.

Is that true?