This is an interesting story from Azcentral.com (linkage)
It seems police responded to a burglary call, mistook the owner for the robber, shot at the 62 year-old man and missed. I have a couple of problems with this scene:
- They mistook a 62 year-old man for a robber. Now I know 62-year olds are not very old but it does not seem to be the normal age for someone to be robbing a house. I couldn’t find the statistic to back this up but would imagine it to be around 30.
- Granted he allegedly reached into his pocket for his wallet, why would you shoot at him? Did he have a stare of a man on the edge? There were five officers in the room. Unless he had some mental issues, he was not going to pull a gun on five armed officers. Wouldn’t the dispatcher have obtained the relevant information to give to the officers that the owner of the house was an older man? Me thinks itchy trigger fingers.
- They missed?! If you are going to shoot at least hit the person. If you are shooting to protect yourself because you think the man had a gun, then take him down. That officer not only missed but also endangered the lives of the other four officers in the room. New occupation maybe?
This story makes you feel all safe inside when you call Arizona law enforcement, doesn’t it? While there are some good officers, don’t they have tests to weed out these trigger-happy poor shots?
::GR::
Do not free a camel of the burden of his hump: you may be freeing him from being a camel. ~Gilbert Keith Chesterton~
