Clayton County Demotes Officer Who Put Gun To Recruit’s Head And Pulled The Trigger
BY Herschel Smith
9 years ago
The Clayton County police officer who put an unloaded gun to a recruit’s head and pulled the trigger will be demoted.
Channel 2 Action News learned Office Michael Lowe turned in his sergeant’s badge.
“I think that was a very bad decision,” the department’s interim police chief told Channel 2’s Mark Winne in an exclusive interview.
Chief Mike Register said Lowe will get his department-issued gun back, but soon he will holster it not as a sergeant, but at the rank of officer.
“I can’t tolerate that. I can’t have an instructor that creates an unsafe environment,” Chief Mike Register said. “I personally apologized to each recruit that they were exposed to that.”
The incident in a police academy classroom also led to a loss of Lowe’s instructor status at the department and major rule changes.
In a transcript the sergeant involved says, “At the time I felt that I was doing it for the right reasons, however my execution was very poor.” He added, “I knew that three days later, when I was sitting home. I was going, ‘That was dumb. I should not have done that.’'”
Gosh, I hate it when that happens to me. I remember the last time I put a gun to someone’s head and pulled the trigger. It was with one of my own kids. The family didn’t like it much. But at least the chief is better off with what happened than “the fam” was with me. He said he cannot tolerate that, but apparently he can, just not with the guy being paid as much as he was.
On December 2, 2015 at 10:13 am, ft said:
Another reason why there are so many screwed up cops. Its their instructors that need to be looked at closely and regularly.
This was an A&B with a dangerous weapon. If the recruit had gotten up and kicked the shit out of the instructor, I wouldn’t blame him. At the very least, the former Sgt should be demoted to FORMER police officer, and fired. There is zero excuses for this behavior. I know cause I taught for 2 decades Use of Force and firearms. This is a total lack of common sense and that makes me wonder about the common sense of the Cops Police Chief for promoting such an idiot to Sgt and not know the guy was an idiot.
On December 2, 2015 at 11:44 am, Archer said:
So. Much. Fail.
The incident in a police academy classroom also led to a loss of Lowe’s
instructor status at the department and major rule changes.
By “major rule changes,” do they mean Clayton County officers will now have to follow The Four Rules?
In a transcript the sergeant involved says, “At the time I felt that I
was doing it for the right reasons, however my execution was very poor.”
I’d say so. The “execution” works better with a loaded gun. That was what you were trying to do, right? I can’t think of any other reason to point a gun at someone’s head and pull the trigger.
He added, “I knew that three days later, when I was sitting home. I was going, ‘That was dumb. I should not have done that.’”
Three days later? You must be some kind of Einstein if it only took you three days to figure that out.
If I didn’t know better, I’d say he should be charged with at least aggravated assault, and possibly attempted murder (first degree, if this was part of his scheduled training, and thus premeditated/planned). Also — and again, if I didn’t know better — I’d say it’s a cultural problem; for the first two days, he’d have been thinking he did nothing wrong, and there’s something fundamentally flawed with that mindset.
On December 2, 2015 at 2:40 pm, Fred said:
I agree and would add that it is the training that causes the cultural problem. It’s training like this and arming up with mil spec that leads PD in some counties to contuct themselves as though they are in Fallujah or something. It’s a tough job they do but man oh man WE ARE NOT THE ENEMY!
On December 2, 2015 at 2:24 pm, Jack Crabb said:
That pig is either 1) really, really, really really stupid, or is 2) a psychopath. And they are not mutually exclusive.
WHO POINTS A GUN AT SOMEONE’S HEAD?
On December 2, 2015 at 6:07 pm, LibertyFirst said:
Cops. Routinely. And sometimes they shoot.
On December 2, 2015 at 3:23 pm, Fred said:
I asked a former sheriff if there was a systematic effort to get at least the name of everybody “into the system”. His answer was yes.
I then asked him if there was a systematic effort to hire less qualified (I meant dumber. he knew that) people who would be more likely to “follow orders blindly”. His answer was yes.
This was a couple of years ago.