Posted on 10/21/2015 2:51:34 AM PDT by Altariel
Officals in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla., said Tuesda evening that 31-year-old Corey Jones, a well-known area musician, was carrying a gun he had purchased legally just three days earlier when he was shot and killed by a police officer early Sunday morning.
Jones was killed after his car broke down on an Interstate 95 off-ramp while he was driving home after his band played a Saturday night gig. After calling his brother and a bandmate, who came to Jones and attempted to help fix his car, Jones waited alone for a tow truck to arrive.
Around 3:15 a.m., Jones was encountered by Palm Beach Gardens police Officer Nouman Raja, who was in plainclothes in an unmarked car. Police say that Raja believed he was investigating an abandoned vehicle.
“As the officer investigated his vehicle he was suddenly confronted by an armed suspect,” Palm Beach Gardens Police Chief Stephen Stepp told reporters on Tuesday evening.
But details of what exactly occurred during that “confrontation” remain scarce. It remains unclear if Raja identified himself as a police officer, if he was carrying his badge, what if any words were exchanged between the two men and how many shots were fired at Jones. The vehicle Raja was driving was not outfitted with a dash camera, and officers with the Palm Beach Gardens Police Department do not wear body cameras.
Stepp said that Jones was carrying a handgun, which was found outside of the vehicle, and that the gun’s box and paperwork from its purchase just three days earlier were located inside of Jones’ vehicle.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
I’ve been wondering if this was a tragic error. The victim doesn’t know if he’s being spoofed by a civilian-looking guy who may be a criminal and the cop goes hot when he sees a weapon.
Dunno. Don’t know how we’ll ever know, for sure. Is there video of the incident from the unmarked car dash?
Article says no dash cam cuz it was an unmarked cop car.
Oops, overlooked that in a quick skim (as I’m always jumping, or at least most of the time, to two or three other things).
Thanks for pointing that out to me. Appreciate it.
None whatsoever. Most likely, the officer approached with gun drawn and Mr. Jones thought he was about to be robbed or murdered.
That may well be. Boy, you hate to hear about stuff like this. Tragic, tragic, tragic.
That is my theory as well. Jones didn’t realize the man in plain clothes in an unmarked car was a cop and drew his gun to protect himself from what he thought was an attacker.
Not implying anything, but when is it good practice for undercover officers to investigate abandoned cars?
Yeah, and at 3:15 in the AM?
There are abandoned cars, and then there are nice ways to make money taking abandoned “stuff”...
Maybe that is SOP there, but here, the uniforms handle it in a marked unit.
And to not identify oneself as a police officer while approaching with weapon drawn?
This story stinks.
We had an incident near me a few years back, where a girl whose car was broken down on the highway was kidnapped, raped, and murdered by a man pretending to be a plainclothes cop.
If the cop is not in uniform, and his vehicle does not have blue and red cop-lights, then he should be forbidden to approach motorists, who can quite reasonably think he's a robber.
Life lesson. Shoot first.
Tragic?
It’s criminal. Florida has had legal concealed carry since the late 1980s. No peace officer anywhere in the State of Florida has any excuse not to know that the citizens may be legally armed. This POS own testimony condemns him. He went looking for trouble, and created it. Then he killed an innocent man in cold blood.
Away with him. The Gurney and the Needle await.
[He went looking for trouble, and created it. Then he killed an innocent man in cold blood.]
If that’s how it went down, I agree with your outcome.
“Man with a gun” =/= “Bad Guy”
Cops NEED to get that fact through their thick skulls. Lives depend on it.
Here is my theory: the officer keeps odd hours for work. He was unwisely investigating an abandoned car at 3 a.m. I wonder if he had called in his stop to any dispatch?
Gun grabbers at the Washington Post be saying this whole tragedy could’ve been averted by banning citizenry gun ownership and letting officers (in unmarked cars) be the only ones who are armed (and ‘never’ use their guns in the wrong manner and ‘always’ show up in time to protect you with their gun).
Texas has had numerous ‘fake cop’ situations, trying to pull people over . Had one guy down here do that, turned it it was an undercover cop who proceeded to arrest the guy.
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