Video & Multimedia
Related: About this forumAtheistCrusader
(33,982 posts)First up, this happened a year ago.
Second, the officer didn't 'ditch' his bike, he laid it down. Unfortunately, it then flipped. In attempting to avoid the child, the officer suffered a broken leg and clavicle.
Injured, the officer tried to assist the girl anyway.
The father, and the 18 year old cousin that was with the girl when she ran out in the road attacked the officer. Kicking him in the head and other forms of assault.
The officer was entirely justified in defending himself. You kick someone with a broken leg and shoulder in the head for an accident that wasn't even that person's fault, you are an asshole. The officer had every reason to expect:
"1. When resisting any attempt to murder any person, or to commit a felony, or to do some great bodily injury upon any person; or,
2. When committed in defense of habitation, property, or person, against one who manifestly intends or endeavors, by violence or surprise, to commit a felony, or against one who manifestly intends and endeavors, in a violent, riotous or tumultuous manner, to enter the habitation of another for the purpose of offering violence to any person therein; or,
3. When committed in the lawful defense of such person, or of a wife or husband, parent, child, master, mistress, or servant of such person, when there is reasonable ground to apprehend a design to commit a felony or to do some great bodily injury, and imminent danger of such design being accomplished; but such person, or the person in whose behalf the defense was made, if he was the assailant or engaged in mutual combat, must really and in good faith have endeavored to decline any further struggle before the homicide was committed; or,
4. When necessarily committed in attempting, by lawful ways and means, to apprehend any person for any felony committed, or in lawfully suppressing any riot, or in lawfully keeping and preserving the peace. "
burnodo
(2,017 posts)AtheistCrusader
(33,982 posts)The follow-up was mostly a non-story, because the shooting was justifiable. SO there aren't a lot of details. Some details of the assault on the officer in here:
http://topinfopost.com/2013/06/19/cop-hits-girl-with-motorcycle-then-shoots-and-kills-angry-dad
Broken leg, broken shoulder, kid ok, attacked by Middleton, identified himself as an officer, etc.
http://www.opposingviews.com/i/society/crime/police-officer-accidentally-crashes-motorcycle-child-attacked-her-father-Christopher
And the 18 year old cousin that allegedly kicked the officer was charged here
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/man-charged-attacking-off-duty-hit-girl-motorcycle-shot-killed-angry-dad-article-1.1137620
http://chicago.cbslocal.com/2012/08/14/maywood-teen-charged-with-beating-cop-after-motorcycle-accident/
Actually, I take issue with the 'identified himself as police' bit. Who gives a shit. You don't have the right to attack someone like that over an accident. That's vigilantism at its finest. The man was within his rights to defend himself regardless of his employment status with the Chicago PD.
fasttense
(17,301 posts)Why did he have to lay his bike down to stop?? It makes no sense. He was in a residential area and he had to of known what the speed limit was. It's almost always 35 in a residential area.
Seems to me the cop was either speeding or was one really bad bike rider who shouldn't have been on the bike to begin with.
Then why did he have to shoot the father, of the injured girl, dead? Couldn't he have taken a less lethal aim?
How did the injured cop go to help the girl with a broken clavicle and leg? And how did the cop then end up on his back getting kicked by the father when he was up and helping the girl?
There are a lot of questions unanswered in this confrontation.
AtheistCrusader
(33,982 posts)He was repeatedly punched by the father. The 18 year old cousin kicked him.
As for laying the bike down, at 35 that's perfectly reasonable, depending on how far in front of the bike the kid ran out in the road.
No one shoots to wound. If you aren't justified in using lethal force in self defense, you are not justified in firing a gun at all. It's pure Hollywood bullshit that anyone shoots to would ESPECIALLY a trained police officer. Total urban legend/myth, and in fact, it is a crime if you try it.