An officer should only shoot when he or she “reasonably believes there are no other reasonable means available to avert the imminent threat of the vehicle, or if deadly force other than the vehicle is directed at the officer or others.” The Blendon Township police department’s use of force policy states that officers should try to move away from an approaching vehicle instead of firing their weapons. “There was no urgent need for him to position himself the way he did.” … Based on your training, why are you going to put yourself in front of a vehicle, in front of an individual that does not want to cooperate?” Obayashi said. “The best practice in these matters nationwide is that you do not put yourself in a position of danger,” said Obayashi, especially given that it was a minor crime Young was being accused of. “The fact is, (the officer) had to make a split-second decision while in front of a moving vehicle, a 2,000-pound weapon,” he said.īut Edward Obayashi, a national use-of-force expert and attorney who specializes in vehicle-related police shootings, said that while the officer who shot Young may have reasonably feared for his safety, it went against all his law enforcement training to be in front of her car in the first place. He said an investigation will determine whether the shooting was justified. She did not commit any theft, and so these officers were not even within their right to place her under arrest, let alone take her life.”īrian Steel, executive vice president of the union representing Blendon Township police, criticized Walton’s characterization of the shooting as murder before all the facts are in. “So when she’s in her car denying that, that’s accurate. “The bottles were left in the store,” he said. He said his firm found a witness who saw Young put down bottles of alcohol as she left the store. In his interview with the AP on Friday, Walton denied that Young had stolen anything from the grocery store. Officers then break the driver’s side window, which Belford said was to get Young out of the car and render medical aid, though footage of medical assistance was not provided. The officer fires his gun through the windshield and Young’s sedan drifts into the grocery store’s brick wall. At that point, Young can be heard asking them, “Are you going to shoot me?” seconds before she turns the steering wheel to the right and the car moves toward the officer standing in front of it. Then both officers yell at her to get out. Young protests, and the first officer repeats his demand. “While none of us can fully understand the depths of their pain, all of us can remember them in our prayers and give them the time and space to deal with this heartbreaking turn of events.” Young’s family is understandably very upset and grieving,” he said in a written statement released Friday morning. Their names, races and ranks have not been released.īlendon Township Police Chief John Belford called the shooting a tragedy. A second officer who was on the scene has returned to active duty. A police union official said calls to charge the officer before an investigation is complete are premature. The officer who shot Young is on paid administrative leave while the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation examines the shooting, which is standard practice. Young’s death follows a troubling series of fatal shootings of Black adults and children by Ohio police and numerous occurrences of police brutality against Black people across the nation in recent years, events that have prompted widespread protests and demands for police reform.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |