Cops need to realize that ordinary citizens startled by demanding cops won't immediately respond like street-wise criminals, who cops expect to comply or fail to comply (resist). Freezing like a deer in the headlights is probably most people's reaction to that situation.Body camera footage shows the responding officers walking around the outside of the house with a flashlight. At one point, an officer sees someone in the window, points his flashlight, and tells the person inside, "Put your hands up! Show me your hands!" A gunshot can be heard immediately after. At no point in the video are the responding officers heard announcing themselves as law enforcement.
And without IDing themselves as police, how was she to know someone in dark clothes sneaking quietly around her house at 2:30 AM wasn't a bad guy. The officer is lucky he didn't get shot under those circumstances.
Why didn't they just knock on the front door?
She probably would not be ab;e to know.And without IDing themselves as police, how was she to know someone in dark clothes sneaking quietly around her house at 2:30 AM wasn't a bad guy.
I guess there may have been some risk of a resident stupidly and unlawfully firing at persons outside.The officer is lucky he didn't get shot under those circumstances.
I guess there may have been some risk of a resident stupidly and unlawfully firing at persons outside.
The comment"was about someone in dark clothes walking quietly".If you look outside your window at 2am and some unknown person is in your yard aiming a gun at you through your glass window, I'm not sure shooting them would consistently be unlawful. A gun pointed at you in a purposeful way certainly bespeaks an intent to do you lethal harm. And most states do not require a retreat inside your own home.