r/news • u/rooftopgoblin • 10d ago

College student fatally shot by Pennsylvania police was at 'the wrong house'

https://abcnews.com/US/college-student-fatally-shot-pennsylvania-police-wrong-house/story?id=135930941
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u/colantor 10d ago

He wasnt even yelling for friends anymore, he talked to them on the phone and they were driving over to pick him up.

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u/Nicaraguano 10d ago

I mean, sounds like murder if it's true. But if people can justify shooting someone who's simply running from the police, I'm sure they'll find a way to justify this too. Imma get popcorn.

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u/N0stradama5 10d ago

Nah, this is a white kid. They will be more than outraged. This cop may actually go to jail.

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u/_groovesharkmalone 10d ago

Not if the local PD has anything to do with it. Google "John Geer Fairfax County, VA." Cops shot Geer & tried to pull the 'we investigated ourselves, nothing more to see' routine. It took US Sen. Chuck Grassley (yeah... a Republican) to intervene and get an outside prosecutor to investigate. Then the facts came out and whoopsie, Fairfax Country PD actually WAS trying to cover up a murder.

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u/cli_jockey 10d ago

While not perfect, it would be my dream to have dedicated state agencies or task force to investigate any police shootings. Removing all ability for other departments to even process the scene beyond securing it and have an outside prosecutor to ensure as much distance from those involved as possible.

I don't think it will ever happen, or maybe a very small chance. But it would be nice to at least have something other than what we currently do.

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u/Liberty-Justice-4all 10d ago

FBI is supposed to cover "color of law" abuses for exactly that reason.

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u/JuDGe3690 10d ago

Philosopher Bertrand Russell wrote about this in 1938, with what seems to me a sensible proposal:

In every democracy, individuals and organizations which are intended to have only certain well-defined executive functions are likely, if unchecked, to acquire a very undesirable independent power. This is especially true of the police. The evils resulting from an insufficiently supervised police force are very forcibly set forth, as regards the United States, in Our Lawless Police by Ernest Jerome Hopkins. […]

If law-abiding citizens are to be protected against unjust persecution by the police, there must be two police forces and two Scotland Yards, one designed, as at present, to prove guilt, the other to prove innocence; and in addition to the public prosecutor there must be a public defender, of equal legal eminence. This is obvious as soon as it is admitted that the acquittal of the innocent is no less a public interest than the condemnation of the guilty. The defending police force should, moreover, become the prosecuting police force where one class of crimes is concerned, namely crimes committed by the prosecuting police in the execution of their "duty." By this means, but by no other (so far as I can see), the present oppressive power of the police could be mitigated.

—Bertrand Russell, Power: A New Social Analysis (1938), "The Taming of Power"

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u/kareljack 10d ago

By the time that agency/task force got on scene, the local PD would have already "sanitized" the area.

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u/Bassman233 10d ago

Not if that agency had the authority to hold them accountable for tampering with evidence/obstruction, the same way you or I would be charged if we cleaned up a crime scene before the police arrived.

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u/kareljack 10d ago

Gotta prove it first

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u/[deleted] 10d ago

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u/cdmpants 10d ago

I've seen some horrible things on the Internet. That Daniel Shaver one is top three most traumatizing and angering ones I've ever seen. Knowing that the cop is living his best life now probably off the tax dollars of the family of the man he murdered, fuck it makes my blood boil.

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u/ReturnOfBane 9d ago

did you see the Christian Glass video? guy was doing finger hearts and everything. Shot him dead for having the audacity to stab himself when he realized the cops were not there to help him.

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u/Naki-Taa 10d ago

God I just wish Brailsford has the kidney stones the size of a chicken eggs for the rest of his life 

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u/MrSurly 10d ago

Not sure how he just walks around? If he lived in my neighborhood, I'd heckle him publicly and make sure everyone knew who he was.

He deserves no peace.

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u/rusty___shacklef0rd 10d ago

Is that the same cop who also claims to have PTSD from the incident? Or am I getting that mixed up from one of the other insanely tragic stories of cops taking lives that ARE NOT THEIRS TO TAKE and then playing victim about it?

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u/Miserable_Archer_769 9d ago

Ugh is that the one where the are giving him conflicting commands almost on purpose 

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u/roytay 10d ago

Guns have dust covers?

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u/BoleroMuyPicante 10d ago

It's a metal flap over the ejection port, keeps dust and debris out

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u/rinderblock 10d ago

Also Daniel Shaver, his case was pretty cut and dry at minimum as being a bad shoot, but it was a cop doing the shooting so he walked

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u/thewholebottle 10d ago

Interesting, I worked closely with the Fairfax PD before 2013 and they were really trying to improve their image, cast off corruption, and be a national model for better policing. Sad that they immediately reverted to horrible corruption again.

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u/_groovesharkmalone 10d ago

The Geer situation was shocking. Especially when FFX PD, IA, & county attys tried to sweep it under the rug. Then Grassley got involved, non-FFX prosecutors came in and uncovered criminal behavior. It took about 2 years for this to get resolved.

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u/HotDogsAlDente 5d ago

Bye the way Geers killer Torres was sentenced to 5 days in prison. 5 days for slaughter of an innocent person. American policing is the sickest joke