Even the text description in the article doesn’t sound close to the officers’ testimony. I can confidently say that I have never seen anyone take a cell phone out of their pocket, and thought they were pulling a gun.
The other issue is that they were primed to think he had a gun since they were pursuing him in connection with a shooting. The other problem is he failed to do what most who get killed by cops don’t do, follow their instructions. If they tell you to get on the ground just fucking do it immediately. Doesn’t matter why or what else you think. Follow their instructions to a T and you’re a lot less likely to get injured.
Of course! Except that I don’t own a gun, and the excuses for shooting people I’m looking for are neither the same excuses nor the same people as these characters.
Aurora officer. Gotta clarify. There are bad cops and then there are the worst ever, Aurora are in top running for worst and can't seem (or don't want) to clean up their shit. They also killed Elijah McClain by commanding medical responders to drug him to death in a scenario that shouldn't be possible.
Don't understand why we keep letting these shitstains off.
Cops are always hiding behind the same lame shield, "the officer fired in self defence", "the suspect appeared to have a weapon", "the officer fired when there was a credible threat to his life"...
It's all fucking bullshit. The officer fired because he was a big fucking pussy who was too afraid of black people to do his job, and instead killed an innocent he was supposed to protect.
In war you have rules of engagement, generally it tends to include something like "don't fire unless you're fired upon", as you don't want to accidentally start a war. That seems like a sensible code to me, and I think it's pretty crazy that we would say that to soldiers, but not police. A fighter pilot can track another aircraft, knowing full will that it is armed, and if they are not cleared to engage, they still manage to stand down every time. Perhaps police just need clearer rules. Don't fire unless fired upon, or else it's murder. That would be clear. Since apparently you can't take the racist out of the cop, then we can at least take the decision making out of his hands.
Firing because you see someone who might be armed... That's just deportable, it's criminally incompetent. I don't care if you're afraid for your life, if you were afraid for your life because you thought you saw a gun, quit the force. Today.