OK: Tulsa LEO Charged with Manslaughter

[C-dub]

A person can be scared of many things. Maybe she was scared of him or maybe she was scared of what she might be forced to do or maybe she was scared of the aftermath of what she might be forced to do. Unless she elaborates, we may never know.

[Smokey613]

I could swear I posted this before, but I can't find it now.

It appears she might have been justified in shooting him. Just something to consider instead of condemning her out of hand.

http://bearingarms.com/bob-o/2016/09/22 ... -crutcher/

Your article seems to contradict it's self. In one sentence the author says the window being up or down is a red herring, in another he says she shot when the victim reached inside the car ( insinuating the window was open and that is why she shot). Every close up I have seen of the window shows it clearly closed. Why would she be so scared with all the back up she had?

This is why....

http://bearingarms.com/bob-o/2016/09/20 ... inkheller/

[Excaliber]

Your trigger finger reacts the same as your non-trigger finger, and when he fired his taser she may have flinched and tightened her grip, causing the trigger finger to tighten as well.

There is a good article on the incident and SMR here https://www.policeone.com/training/arti ... ng-Points/

And a dated but still pertinent and related article from Force Science Institute: http://www.forcescience.org/fsnews/3.html.

Part of it briefly describes a study by Christopher Heim that included 33 male and 13 female officers of varying years of service who were given a SIG P226 equipped with sensors on the grip and trigger. This was a live role-play scenario where they were sent one at a time into a room to arrest a "suspect" following departmental regs and acting in way they thought appropriate. During the scenario, 34 of 46 officers drew the SIG; one intentionally fired. Of the other 33, all insisted their fingers never went inside the trigger guard, per protocol.

The sensor data showed that seven of the 33, over 21%, had touched index finger to trigger with enough pressure to activate the sensor. The officer who chose to shoot said he'd kept his finger well clear of the trigger until the moment he decided to fire. But the sensor data showed he'd touched the trigger twice before firing, and had let let his finger rest on the trigger for a significant period of time before intentionally pulling it.

Nobody can have enough training and practice. Unfortunately, not many PDs have the resources to provide extensive, ongoing firearms training for any but possibly speciality officers, like SWAT. I'm not going to pull this thread off topic, but I believe the environment we're seeing now will force many law enforcement departments to reallocate budgetary funds--they are unlikely to get new funding--for individual interaction and social training, taking the budget money from other areas. Social sensitivity training is not going to do a thing to improve firearm discipline under stressful conditions...and may even get some officers killed because they will wait to deploy their weapons until after they should have.

As the article above shows (I recommend reading the whole thing) the factors behind unintended discharges are much more complex than most folks realize and keeping the finger outside the trigger guard is not the perfect panacea it sounds like because that may be much harder to do under stress than one would think.

Awareness of this as an issue affects everyone who carries or even occasionally uses a gun.

[vjallen75]

What happened to the case of shooting a black man shot in his car and slumped back in his car. I think he was also a CHLer. Was there any charges?

Sorry for the late reply. From my google search this is the best article I found.

http://www.nbcdfw.com/news/national-int ... 17351.html

[n5wd]

Interesting. It looks like they've skipped the grand jury option and just flat out charged her. So, who pays for her defense?

Most police officers belong to some sort of union (or in Texas, where public safety unions are prohibited, an "association") which provides for legal coverage in the event that they're charged with a crime resulting from their on-the-job actions.

[philip964]

http://www.click2houston.com/news/jury- ... -black-man

Police officer found not guilty today.