Fort Worth officers are claiming in affidavits that they killed an innocent man, Jerry Waller, 72, after going to the wrong house on a burglary charge and mistook Jerry Waller, 72, in the poor lighting at 12:51 am. The incident is drawing criticism and calls for an independent investigation of the two rookie officers.
The home did not have outside lighting and the officers used flashlights to investigate. The encountered Waller near the corner of his garage. The officers insist that they declared themselves to be police and ordered Waller to drop his handgun. They say that he disobeyed their commands and pointed the gun at them. There is no record of Waller actually discharging the weapon.
Both officers have been with the Fort Worth Police Department for less than one year.
One discrepancy is that the officers said that they encountered Waller “at the back of his house near the garage and driveway.” Yet, the autopsy report says that Waller was shot in his garage. That is a significant difference since the chances that they are encountering a homeowner is higher inside the home.
Of course, the officers can argue that even a homeowner can be a threat to their lives if he is pointing a gun at them and not responding to police commands. The problem is that there are only three witnesses and Waller is dead. The only basis to challenge the account will be forensics if the trajectory of the bullet and location of the victim conflict with the sworn statement of the officers.
Source: Daily Mail
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unfortunate mistake ? Poor training ? tyranny? Above the law ? You must be the judge, the people must stand up and speak up for what is right. Too many mistakes lately. Buddy systems and unions do not belong in Public Employment paid by the people.
As long as the Blue Curtain exists, police departments are corrupt because everyone colludes in covering up mistakes and unethical behavior, even if they believe it’s wrong. Individuals who don’t go along to get along, lose their jobs. It’s a totally corrupt system; it automatically and immediately corrupts those who choose to participate in it, no matter how admirable there reasons were for signing up.
I remember when I was growing up, that beginning of a sentence always gives away age) we were taught to respect the police. Maybe we just didn’t hear about this and it happned then too.
I feel bad though for what I assume if the majority of policepeople who do do a good job and deserve respect for doing a job most people do not want.
It has to be hard to run towards when most people are running away.
leejcaroll, this is obscene. 137 bullets? What country did this hap—oh, wait, it wasn’t Fascist Italy, It was the good ol US of A. As was this one, for which there was a protest rally in Austin today. http://www.austinchronicle.com/blogs/news/2013-07-29/apd-searching-for-witness-to-fatal-officer-involved-shooting/
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2013/08/03/1228675/-Unarmed-Couple-Shot-At-137-Times-By-Police
But evidently none of the 75 cops involved will lose their job.
Search: ABCD… COPS… COMPASS… Fusion Centers
Then realize all these are communitarian programs spawned from ‘Weed ‘n’ Seed’ and Neighborhood CrimeWatch groups. Some of you may want to look into the behind-the-scene roles JINSA, ADL, and JDL have played… in altering mission statements… the restructuring of policies and procedures manuals… and then the all-new guidelines per the ‘use of force continuum’.
Texas Moms United has it right with her use of this word ‘community’ – it’s unethical AND completely un-American. So long as these ultra-militarized, [communitarian-] brainwashed ‘peace officers’ keep at it, we’ll all be shot dead… without a thought or a care… the same as if we were Palestinians.
After, of course, these animals have shot your dog, rifled your home, and scared the hell out of your neighbors.
Unfortunately Ann, your experience and experiences even worse than yours, are far too common. My question is always: What are we going to do besides talk about it?
I called the sheriff’s office once upon hearing what I thought sounded like gun shots a few houses over from mine. I identified myself, and gave my address, noting that I heard the shots coming from north of my house.
I then took a shower, since it was early morning and I had to go to work. Upon exiting the shower, I heard something, and wrapping a towel around myself, discovered two officers IN MY LIVING ROOM, both with GUNS DRAWN, stalking through my home.
Luckily the lighting was good and it was plainly clear that I was unarmed. I was able to tell them that a.) I was the one who called them, and b.) they were in the wrong house. They made their apologies and left.
In another incident with the same sheriff’s department, I was arrested for DUI even though my blood alcohol level was BELOW that considered “Presumed not impaired.” Two out of the three officers on the scene made reports, and BOTH officers lied (made material misstatements of fact) in their reports. Of course, when my toxicology report came back clean for all eleven substances tested, all charges were dropped, but that did NOT make up for the six months of bullshit I had to go through in the meantime.
I grew up trusting the police and believing that they had peoples’ best interests at heart. Now I consider them liars, thieves and power happy. Congrats, guys.
Darren,
You’re probably right…. But it’s not common field practice to send two rookies on patrol alone…. And another thing with this one case…. The man was shot in his garage close to the house door….. If I recall the outside lights were broken… But the garage light was on….
rafflaw
Blouise,
Why should I have to buy an expensive monitoring system when I can buy a gun and get shot by police while allegedly holding that gun?! I think Forth Worth should be digging deep in their pockets for this wrongful death.
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Buy a cheap monitoring system … they work just as well as the expensive ones.
RLC made an excellent point in his post on one of these recent threads … suggesting that with all these concealed carry laws increasing the numbers of armed citizens, cops are understandable more jumpy when dealing with everyday situations. That’s not an excuse … it’s a factor.
What was this 72 year old man going to do if he did encounter burglars? What was he thinking? There was no outside lighting, none of the reports I read said he was carrying a flashlight. Was he hoping to scare them away, catch them, shoot them? Most burglars are young people, right? He’s 72 with the reaction time of an elderly man … did he think his gun was going to even the odds? Did he consider that the burglars might also be armed? Was he counting on the element of surprise working in his favor? I think we can safely assume he wasn’t expecting to encounter police which is understandable since he hadn’t bothered to report anything to the police.
In short, raf, I don’t know that the city is just going to just roll over and pay.
So, if I were you, I’d deep six the purchase of a gun and take the wife out for a nice dinner complete with an expensive bottle of wine. Celebrate Life!
Gina,
Our state makes pre-hire screening mandatory. It’s the law. I do the psych screenings for many departments, both large and small in our end of the state. Interestingly, in our area we have a very low incidence of violent or incompetent officers, although the turnover is quite high in most departments. For one thing, I do not charge what the screenings are worth for my time and trouble, barely breaking even. That makes it easier for the departments I work with to get all officers screened.
@Otteray Scribe: Apparently sufficient funding is unavailable for basic screening and training of police officers. Sadly, I am also aware that even small municipalities often invest heavily in riot gear and other expensive, paramilitary, “counter-terrorist” equipment and training, which do nothing to make those officers better able to perform their actual jobs, and may arguably make them less fit to do so. For many departments, a reordering of budget priorities would seem to be in order.
@rafflaw: “Why should I have to buy an expensive monitoring system when I can buy a gun and get shot by police while allegedly holding that gun?!”
Heck, why not get both? If you buy both a camera system and a firearm, your family would then have an entertaining video of you being shot while holding that firearm. On second thought, there’s really no need for you to own an actual firearm; an itchy-fingered cop who would hunt a man down in his own garage is probably just as likely to shoot you for failing to put down a cordless drill.
Where are the pro-death penalty types now, the ones who want “an eye for an eye”? Why aren’t they calling for the same when pi…uh, cops are the murderers?
This is a case of we’ll have to wait for the investigation to find out more answers, and it is likely not to be complete in this no matter how good or well intentioned it might be.
There is also the possibility the homeowner mistook the officers for suspects, rightly or wrongly and drew down upon the officers, who then believed the homeowner was actually a burglar bent on shooting them. I don’t know if it is this way or not. But it is possible.
There are times where boths sides might be acting rationally but come to the wrong conclusions and a tradgedy unfolds. I’ve seen this happen myself, but in the few cases I was on it was a lot of luck that someone didn’t get hurt.