If you have watched the news you have seen the Body Camera footage of a LA police officer using a “SWAT” rifle to shoot an asshole attacking a woman in a store with a padlock device. You will also se a police officer with a handgun approaching the assailant as well. Behind the assailant was a dressing room with a 14 year old girl and her mother in it. SURPRISE a high powered rifle bullet went through the assailant and into the dressing room killing the 14 year old who died in her mother’s arms. The handgun bullet would likely have remained in the assailant, but the jacked up SWAT type guy wanted to take the shot. I am surprised the bullet didn’t go through the child and end up in my patio 3,000 miles away.
Contrast that with what happened around midnight in July at the Cockeysville Target. Officer Thompson hears gun shots being fired at the Target. He then sees 6 black males running and a handgun in the hand of one of them. My educated guess would be the parking lot is being used for a drug deal and a rip off occurred, and the dealer gets killed and robbed. 99 times out of 100 that is why people whether white or black are shooting guns in the back of a closed department store parking lot at midnight.
Officer Knight, Lt. Rill, Officer Folderauer arrive and apprehend the other suspects. Lt. Rill stopped 2 of them that were in a vehicle. Remember we lost Officer Amy Caprio who was run over by a fleeing Burglary suspect.
NO SHOTS FIRED BY THE POLICE! I told my client who was just there to watch target practice at the Target (an expression one of the officers said to me), that he was lucky his dumb ass didn’t get shot. He agreed.
By the way all but one of police officers were white even though that shouldn’t matter and it didn’t. As I read the Statement of Charges I was waiting to read where the police fired some shots to disarm or stop the defendants. NOPE, not in this case. They treated the target practicers and spectators with respect and took them to the station and interviewed and processed them. My client who was a mere spectator had his case dropped without a single negative comment from any of the officers. Once sorted out, they wanted the owner of the guns and the possessors prosecuted, not the morons who came to watch.
I have written about police officers before who are fine people and a credit to their department. I am still amazed at how decent and in my mind insanely courageous these officers were in dealing with this incident. Maybe the police in LA and Minnesota need to come to Baltimore County for training.
Let these men be safe and as I usually say to them when they leave court: ( I forgot while talking to them today),:’ Go out and get me more business.”