I haven’t commented on the story on the concealed carry holder who was gunned down by Las Vegas police, until all the details came out, but it’s looking like the police definitely have some problems with their story. To be sure, when the guy was confronted by a store employee about the gun, he should have responded by saying “Oh, I didn’t realized guns weren’t allowed in here,” and taken his business elsewhere. But being shot is typically not the penalty for trespassing. Facts and statements made about the incident conflict, and on the surface it appears to me he was likely given conflicting commands by the officers, and was attempting to disarm himself. Normally, this would be something that should be sorted out by a jury in a criminal trial. At least that’s how it would be handled if it were a civilian shooting. But will it go that far? At the least, there will probably be a civil rights lawsuit.
20 thoughts on “Looks Like a Civil Rights Suit”
Comments are closed.
Sebastian,
In no account of the story had I heard the patron was confronted by an employee rather a frantic man with a gun call was made at the sight of his firearm. The patron was unaware until confronted by the police.
The account linked to above states that.
Sad, sad story!! A real heart sinker. Almost hard to believe, even though it happened!
I’ve read a couple of articles about Scott’s shooting and their accompanying comments now, and I’m really surprised by the number of people that think he did something wrong by bringing two guns on a shopping trip in a “nice neighborhood.” If someone decides to carry a gun for self-defense, there really isn’t a time and place where one shouldn’t carry one if legally allowed, as there’s no time and place that’s guaranteed to be free of violent crime. Once one decides to carry a gun, a little proactive thinking would lead one to realize that guns, being mechanical devices designed by humans, are prone to failure and it just makes sense to carry a back up. I carry a back up almost every time I leave my house, and I know most cops do, too. It certainly doesn’t make him a trigger happy cowboy itching for a gunfight like some would claim, especially as it was the cops that did all the shooting and not him.
And the police will get away with murder yet again.
Sadly Shawn is probably right……..
Why is it when a citizen shoots a cop it’s murder, but when cops shoot a citizen who has committed no crime it’s ‘justifiable’?
I’ve read a few different versions of this story. This story contains some interesting information. [ URL pointing to Las Vegas Review-Journal removed due to them being total putzes ]
I hope the family lawyer can subpoena then out of the police – but I doubt the security tapes will ever been seen. They are probably already destroyed.
Yes, this is a bad situation.
My personal thoughts are that the police (who could have handled this much better) were whipped into a froth by the hoplophobic sales associate telling he hoplophobic manager that ‘Oh my God there’s a man with a gun!’, who then told the relatively untrained security guard, who then called 911.
I’ll just bet that if the 911 tape were to be released, we’d hear the security guard reporting a man with a gun running through the store tearing up everything in sight, taking drugs and washing them down with beer from the store’s coolers.
When 911 happened, the first thing I thought was that now the cops will be empowered and driven by thinking there is an osama under every bed, and a terrorist on every grocery aisle.
I have seen extreme response by a number of LE agencies and this adds one more story to the list.
It is unfortunately probable that a temporary move to LV is in the cards for us. This does not make me happy.
I thought you were killing links to the Las Vegas Review Journal?
You’re right, I am.
I find it interesting that the security camera recordings were all of a sudden “unusable”.
Comrade: The Davidian compound was covered by seven video/sound/light towers. The morning of the final assault all the video mysteriously went dead. So believe it.
You’d almost want to believe there was at least one honest person at the Costco. If I were in charge of loss prevention, and the police came in and took possession of my tapes, then suddenly claimed they were “unstable”, I’d certainly go to the media with that at the least, and probably take it up with the feds too.
I think the answer here is for citizens of each state to put an amendment to their state’s constitution on the ballot that says all police officers have to wear video/audio recording devices at all times while on duty, and any time the recording system is ‘unusable’ any and all court cases will be decided against them.
I agree with divemedic. Because right now we’re all guilty until proven guilty. As for there being an honest person in the Costoc organization, CEO of Costco is a wingbat liberal, and is a heavy donor to the Democratic party. He’s based in Seattle for crying out loud. As far as his type is concerned, justice was served on Erik Scott.
I’d like to hear your take on the testimony today of the officer that fired first. There were also a ton of witness, along with a gun in a holster laying on the ground after the shooting. At first when reading your post and the articles I was so mad at the cops. Really mad. Really pissed. Now, after this latest testimony, I’m not so sure. It is really bad that there isn’t any video of this. But so far, we haven’t had ANY witness come forward with a different story than the cops except for the girlfriend. And then she didn’t show up today. It really sounds like this guy was drugged up. Frustrating for everyone, all the way around.
That’s one reason I’m reluctant to jump to conclusions until all the facts are out.