Fort Worth police shoot elderly man

[Keith B]

Homeowner was wandering around outside with a gun in his hand while neighbor's alarm was sounding.

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[The Annoyed Man]

What a horrible story.

[Diesel42]

With respect Keith, it's my neighborhood. Mr Walker was in his garage watching the property with the alarm sounding. Woodhaven has a proactive neighborhood watch. I don't know what actions Mr Walker made. I hope the investigation determines what happened. This is a very sad incident for Woodhaven.
Nick

[Middle Age Russ]

What a horrible turn of events. Our prayers go out to all involved.

[Oldgringo]

Not everybody should have guns and that includes some coppers.

[Keith B]

With respect Keith, it's my neighborhood. Mr Walker was in his garage watching the property with the alarm sounding. Woodhaven has a proactive neighborhood watch. I don't know what actions Mr Walker made. I hope the investigation determines what happened. This is a very sad incident for Woodhaven.
Nick

Yes, very terrible situation and my thoughts and prayers go out to the family, friends and the officers involved. Both officers were reported to be rookies with less than a year each. I know he was in his garage, but still falls back to the point of if the police show up to a possible burglary in progress call, don't be near there with a gun in your hand. Adrenaline is pumping, low light situation, misheard commands, etc all can lead up to a bad outcome.

[Target1911]

Tragic for all involved

[puma guy]

Very tragic incident. When all the details come out it will be interesting to discover what actions the officers took to deal with the alarm across the street before ending up such a great distance from that house and the street, down what looks like a long driveway to a garage that faces to the rear of the victims property. I doubt there is any video so we'll only have one side of the story. Usually there's a generalized statement such as the actor wouldn't drop his weapon or used it in a menacing way. Only heard how tragic it was for the victim/family and the police officers from the spokes person. Wandering around on your property with a visible weapon in the dead of night is certainly not advisable.

[gthaustex]

So very sad. My thoughts and prayers go out to all involved.

[gigag04]

I could totally see this happening and it sucks from all angles. Officers routinely park farther away, and often around a corner from in progress calls to approach tactically. It would be easy to startle a well meaning citizen who is focused on the house. I'm not saying this happened, but I could see so many possibilities leading to that outcome with no wrong intent by either party that it just sucks.

[johncanfield]

From what I've read about commercial airline crashes, there are a sequence of problems and errors occurring that singly wouldn't be an accident cause, but when combined together create a disaster situation. Here we have new officers, it's dark, senses are on high alert, and who know what other contributing factors there were. Very sad situation for everybody.

On another note, I don't consider age 72 to be elderly now that I'm in my 60s .

[rp_photo]

Lesson learned here is to stay indoors when a threat is perceived in the area.

[VMI77]

Wandering around on your property with a visible weapon in the dead of night is certainly not advisable.

Seriously? On MY PROPERTY? Then we may as well all be disarmed if the police can come on our property and kill us just because we have a gun ---which btw, is not illegal. On occasion I wander around my property in the dead of night with an AR15 in hand --I don't think that gives the police the right to shoot me. Also, the accounts say he was standing in his garage, not wandering around. Here's what we know for sure, as most of the comments following the article reflect: if the situation was reversed, and this man, on his OWN PROPERTY, had mistakenly shot a police officer wandering around in the dark with a gun in his hand because he felt "threatened," he'd be in jail right now, he'd be charged with murder, and he'd go to prison. It wouldn't matter that he felt threatened, that it was dark, that he didn't realize they were police, that it wasn't intentional, or that he was on his OWN PROPERTY.

[Keith B]

Wandering around on your property with a visible weapon in the dead of night is certainly not advisable.

Seriously? On MY PROPERTY? Then we may as well all be disarmed if the police can come on our property and kill us just because we have a gun ---which btw, is not illegal. On occasion I wander around my property in the dead of night with an AR15 in hand --I don't think that gives the police the right to shoot me. Also, the accounts say he was standing in his garage, not wandering around. Here's what we know for sure, as most of the comments following the article reflect: if the situation was reversed, and this man, on his OWN PROPERTY, had mistakenly shot a police officer wandering around in the dark with a gun in his hand because he felt "threatened," he'd be in jail right now, he'd be charged with murder, and he'd go to prison. It wouldn't matter that he felt threatened, that it was dark, that he didn't realize they were police, that it wasn't intentional, or that he was on his OWN PROPERTY.

I look at this like vehicles taking the right of way. It may be your right, but a lot of people get killed by forcing that right of way.

At this point we don't know all of the detials. A case of mistaken address, etc can all lead up to you being dead. The shooter may be in the wrong, but you are in the ground.

[texanjoker]

Wandering around on your property with a visible weapon in the dead of night is certainly not advisable.

Seriously? On MY PROPERTY? Then we may as well all be disarmed if the police can come on our property and kill us just because we have a gun ---which btw, is not illegal. On occasion I wander around my property in the dead of night with an AR15 in hand --I don't think that gives the police the right to shoot me. Also, the accounts say he was standing in his garage, not wandering around. Here's what we know for sure, as most of the comments following the article reflect: if the situation was reversed, and this man, on his OWN PROPERTY, had mistakenly shot a police officer wandering around in the dark with a gun in his hand because he felt "threatened," he'd be in jail right now, he'd be charged with murder, and he'd go to prison. It wouldn't matter that he felt threatened, that it was dark, that he didn't realize they were police, that it wasn't intentional, or that he was on his OWN PROPERTY.

I look at this like vehicles taking the right of way. It may be your right, but a lot of people get killed by forcing that right of way.

At this point we don't know all of the detials. A case of mistaken address, etc can all lead up to you being dead. The shooter may be in the wrong, but you are in the ground.

This is tragic. To add when the police arrive the gun needs to be out of site or put away. All off duty / plain clothed LEO's know that they too can be mistaken for the bad guy.