Posted on 09/03/2015 12:41:31 PM PDT by Citizen Zed
PORTSMOUTH, Va. — A Virginia police officer who shot and killed a man in a Wal-Mart parking lot has been indicted on charges of first-degree murder and using a gun in a felony.
Portsmouth Circuit Court records show a grand jury indicted city officer Stephen D. Rankin on Thursday.
Eighteen-year-old William Chapman II was shot April 22. Virginia State Police said the shooting occurred when an officer responded to a call from Wal-Mart security about shoplifting, and a struggle ensued. Chapman is black. Rankin is white.
(Excerpt) Read more at abcnews.go.com ...
First degree? For a line-of-duty shooting? Sounds like overkill.
And evidence will prove the officer innocent and more blacks will riot due to a bad guy resisting arrest.
I will wait until more info comes out to pass judgement.
I’ve been a peace officer. There is a defined use of force allowed continuum in most states’ laws. When a struggle has ensued, that level is awfully high.
Rankin shot Chapman in the head and chest outside a Walmart superstore on the morning of 22 April. The pair had engaged in a physical struggle after Rankin tried to arrest the 18-year-old on suspicion of shoplifting, according to police. Witnesses said Chapman broke free and then stepped back towards the officer aggressively before being shot twice. The 18-year-old was the second unarmed man shot dead by Rankin in Portsmouth. An autopsy indicated Chapman was not shot at close range.
It seems that a couple of times a week there is a police black interaction called into question.
My problem is the way the Media uses vague phrasing like “and a struggle ensued” to cover up the truth. As you would know from experience, struggles don’t just “ensue”, one person deliberately attacks another.
And as we’ve seen in the Trayvon case, usually what the media really means by this phrasing is to say “the black criminal suddenly attacked the cop without warning, but we can’t say that, cuz it makes blacks look bad”.
What if black cops are called to deal with blacks, and white on white.
Maybe they pair up black-white in patrol car for this purpose?
The severity of the criminal charges do not match the facts of the event (as described in the article).
Sounds to me like this is an intentional overcharge in order to get the jury to acquit. Once acquitted, the officer can not be retried.
PC effort to try avoid the appearance of favoritism.
A struggle ensued, and the officer is charged? I don’t get it. At least presented with these facts.
Smart DA. Indicted, so no riots. Overcharged, so no conviction. By then the rioters will have moved on.
I take everything said by the MSM with a giant grain of salt, but...
This guy ends up at the morgue in handcuffs, shot in the face, and the chest?
Something doesn’t add up.
Plus the last guy he shot 11 times because he wouldn’t take his hands out of his pants (no weapon?).
Sounds like this cop may be a little trigger happy.
I’ll withhold judgement on this one until I see some more evidence.
Dead or alive, he’s probably still black. Maybe a little ‘ashy’...
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