Deaf Mute shot by Dumb cop

Many years ago, I was involved in a situation with a deaf-mute person that almost ended tragically. (BTW...Is that politically correct? Should I be saying Hearing Impaired Inarticulate person?)

Anyway. We get a call of a "burglary in progress". A woman in the affluent county area says a man is trying to get into her house. I and an assist car proceed....
While enroute, we are told by dispatch that the woman says the man has a gun.

(Actually, she said SHE had the gun , but the dispatcher fumbled the information)

So, my assist car gets there moments before I do. As I step out of the car, I see the other officer with his gun out, pointing it at an individual who is very tall, rather ratty and demented-looking, and who is advancing on the other officer, waving his arms wildly, and making inarticulate noises.

This while the officer has his gun pointed at the guy's nose.

When I step out of the car, the guy appears to calm down and back off a bit...

Turns out.... Fellow is indeed a deaf mute, and a "street person". He finds the homeowner's wallet lying on the sidewalk downtown. He takes it on himself to return it, taking a bus all the way to west county and tracking down the address to knock on the door..... Much to the woman's panic.
(we had him write this all out.)

So...Everybody happy, no harm done. Fellow had his heart in the right place but it would have been so much easier to simply hand the wallet to the nearest city copper.

I'm convinced that had I been delayed more than a few seconds, the other copper would have shot the guy.
(he was a rookie)
 
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Cops are seeking eyewitnesses to the chase and the stop/shooting. The neighbor witness changed his story. Initially he said that several minutes elapsed between the stop and hearing a gunshot. Then he changed his story to say that only seconds elapsed. The victim also has a criminal record for resisting arrest.

Harris was found guilty of resisting an officer in 2010 when he lived in Connecticut, according to public records...
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http://www.charlotteobserver.com/news/local/crime/article96565352.html
 
William Parcher said:
Cops are seeking eyewitnesses to the chase and the stop/shooting. The neighbor witness changed his story. Initially he said that several minutes elapsed between the stop and hearing a gunshot. Then he changed his story to say that only seconds elapsed. The victim also has a criminal record for resisting arrest.




http://www.charlotteobserver.com/news/local/crime/article96565352.html
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Gee.
Ya think maybe somebody who needs his hands to communicate might be trying to do just that, and it gets listed as "Resisting arrest" because maybe he couldn't hear the guys who were hitting him with sticks yelling "STOP RESISTING"?
 
rwguinn said:
Gee.
Ya think maybe somebody who needs his hands to communicate might be trying to do just that, and it gets listed as "Resisting arrest" because maybe he couldn't hear the guys who were hitting him with sticks yelling "STOP RESISTING"?
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We don't know the details of that incident or the trial. We can imagine that it was certainly known at trial that he is deaf. That is the time for "not guilty" or dropped charges. But that didn't happen.

Gee, ya think maybe a deaf man really did resist arrest?
 
William Parcher said:
We don't know the details of that incident or the trial. We can imagine that it was certainly known at trial that he is deaf. That is the time for "not guilty" or dropped charges. But that didn't happen.

Gee, ya think maybe a deaf man really did resist arrest?
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2 different events, two different states. The resisting charge was a single charge, in a different state than the misdemeanors he was found not guilty of (which was in Florida)
And we don't know that he had an interpreter at the Connecticut trial. He certainly didn't get one in Charlotte
 
Bikewer said:
.....
I'm convinced that had I been delayed more than a few seconds, the other copper would have shot the guy.(he was a rookie)
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Especially if the guy had tried to reach into his pocket to pull out the wallet.
 
rwguinn said:
Gee.
Ya think maybe somebody who needs his hands to communicate might be trying to do just that, and it gets listed as "Resisting arrest" because maybe he couldn't hear the guys who were hitting him with sticks yelling "STOP RESISTING"?
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"Resisting arrest" seems often to be the kind of blanket charge that allows a cop to lock somebody up just because he feels like it. After all, it only requires the officer to claim the subject was resisting: no physical evidence, no injuries, etc. Even if the charge is dropped, it means a night in jail and an arrest record.
http://www.criminaldefenselawyer.com/crime-penalties/federal/resisting-arrest.htm
 
Look what we have here. The guy has major damage to the front of his car and it's missing the left front tire (riding on the rim). In that condition it's difficult to drive and exceed a highway speed limit. This suggests to me that the damage occurred after the speeding and during the police pursuit. Reports say the pursuit was about 7.2 miles and he stopped on his own street (but not in his driveway). Deafness doesn't prevent a person from feeling and seeing what is going on. It seems as if he was intentionally fleeing from the state trooper.
 
Light23 said:
Was he blind too? Police lights are pretty hard to ignore...

Sent from my SM-G935F using Tapatalk
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Does that matter in the US?

Some years ago I had occasion to travel to SF. Our hostess was clinically blind but drove us everywhere. It transpired that she retained a driving licence by sending her husband down to DMV to check out the eyesight charts in use. She would then learn the sequence by rote and regurge it from memory. All she needed was the big ass letter at the top as a key and thereafter she could recite the letter sequence from memory. I am pretty sure there could have been fifty flashing blue lights in her rear view mirror and she wouldn't have noticed.

Myself and my colleague were so disturbed by her erratic driving that we ended up volunteering to drive her car to wherever we had to go.

Regardless of whether we were present or not, if the cops had tried to pull her over, likely she would be a failure to stop case and a pursuit would ensue. She simply would be unaware of it.
 
abaddon said:
Does that matter in the US?

Some years ago I had occasion to travel to SF. Our hostess was clinically blind but drove us everywhere. It transpired that she retained a driving licence by sending her husband down to DMV to check out the eyesight charts in use. She would then learn the sequence by rote and regurge it from memory.
....
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That's truly scary. Why didn't you turn her in to the DMV before she killed herself or somebody else?
 
William Parcher said:
Look what we have here. The guy has major damage to the front of his car and it's missing the left front tire (riding on the rim). In that condition it's difficult to drive and exceed a highway speed limit. This suggests to me that the damage occurred after the speeding and during the police pursuit. Reports say the pursuit was about 7.2 miles and he stopped on his own street (but not in his driveway). Deafness doesn't prevent a person from feeling and seeing what is going on. It seems as if he was intentionally fleeing from the state trooper.
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Maybe so, and maybe he should have gone to jail for it. The question is whether the unarmed driver could have been doing anything to deserve getting shot dead. The cop getting mad isn't a license to kill.
 
ponderingturtle said:
He wasn't obeying orders and was gesticulating madly what else do people expect a cop to do in that situation?

It isn't like it is that uncommon for the police to shoot deaf people for not obeying their commands.
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How does this mean shoot?
 
Riight... resisting arrest...

I'd like to remind the ladies and gentlemen of the jurry, that while resisting arrest CAN cover situations like assaulting an officer, it is then an ADDITIONAL charge. I.e., had the guy committed assault and/or battery, THAT would have been the main charge.

Getting ONLY resisting arrest on your record pretty much just means he either tried to flee or struggled during arrest. Just about anything else would mean a different charge too.

Now I have no problem imagining that a deaf guy would not stop when a police officer shouts at him, or that he'd try to use his frikken hands while the officer wants to cuff him. Because that's how he flippin' communicates. And since he never actually was sentenced for it, it would kinda point that way.

But let's dismiss that as a personal speculation.

In the worst case scenario, he may have run away and/or struggled to free himself. That's it. That's the worst case scenario.

I fail to see how that minor mis-demeanor would make him such a dangerous felon that a shooting is warranted. Hell, it's even in the name. It's a misdemeanor, not a fellony.

WTH next? Shoot to kill because someone once got ticketed for jaywalking?
 
William Parcher said:
We don't know the details of that incident or the trial. We can imagine that it was certainly known at trial that he is deaf. That is the time for "not guilty" or dropped charges. But that didn't happen.

Gee, ya think maybe a deaf man really did resist arrest?
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He failed to comply promptly with the officers orders, that is plenty to get a resisting charge added in many cases. It is not uncommon for the police to injure or kill those who are deaf or do not speak english.
 
Bob001 said:
Maybe so, and maybe he should have gone to jail for it. The question is whether the unarmed driver could have been doing anything to deserve getting shot dead. The cop getting mad isn't a license to kill.
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well, but after you chase a person for almost 12 km, the person stops, gets out, and doesn´t obey your commands, you have lots of reason to think that person is a criminal and to fear for your own life.


when cops don´t shoot because they are too afraid of Human Rights Groups.
the guy in red shirt is an off duty cop. He had already shot the guy in the leg for failing to comply his orders. The guy kept refusing to comply his orders, pretending he was a good guy and trying to get the car papers to show the cop. Yeah, papers, right.
 
AcesHigh said:
well, but after you chase a person for almost 12 km, the person stops, gets out, and doesn´t obey your commands, you have lots of reason to think that person is a criminal and to fear for your own life.


when cops don´t shoot because they are too afraid of Human Rights Groups.
the guy in red shirt is an off duty cop. He had already shot the guy in the leg for failing to comply his orders. The guy kept refusing to comply his orders, pretending he was a good guy and trying to get the car papers to show the cop. Yeah, papers, right.
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Which is why the people who think the cops could have possibly acted incorrectly in Tamir Rice are nuts. They need to shoot anyone at the merest hint of any wrong doing. The system didn't fail it worked as intended. But the scum still got a big payout for their kids wrongdoing.

And they way they charged decorated cop Sean Groubert for shooting someone who was suddenly moving is the hight of wrongness and proof of the war on cops
 
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Bob001 said:
That's truly scary. Why didn't you turn her in to the DMV before she killed herself or somebody else?
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Yes, even if you're just past legally blind, driving is extremely unsafe. You can get around in daylight if you know your way, but you might not see a person in or near the street if their clothing color blends in. On any unfamiliar roads you'll be hopeless, and any street sign that isn't identifiable by shape and color (detours, lane closures) will be meaningless.
 
Many reports have the trooper saying that the guy was advancing and not following commands. After fleeing a police stop with vehicle damaging (hit and run?), that is the recipe for a "Perfect Storm".
 
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