Police Shoot And Kill Grandfather While Responding To Burglary Call
BY Herschel Smith11 years, 5 months ago
DFW CBS:
A grandfather checking on his neighbor is shot and killed by Fort Worth police. The shots rang out early Tuesday morning near Woodhaven Country Club, in east Fort Worth. Those close to the family say the victim lived nearby and heard his neighbor’s burglar alarm. Neighbor Jerry Wayne Waller then apparently went outside to see what was going on.
The 72-year-old man didn’t even make it to the house across the street before he was shot. He died on his own property.
The neighbors in the Woodhaven Country Club area and generally know each other pretty well. Becky Haskin, a former Fort Worth City Councilmember, lives in the area and said she believes Waller, “…was doing what neighbors do probably checking on the neighbor that the alarm went off.”
The elderly man, who was armed at the time, was shot and killed in his own driveway by police responding to a burglary call. “We heard five shots,” Haskin recalled. They were just rapid fire one after the other.”
Speaking on the incident Fort Worth police Cpl. Tracey Knight said, “Officers felt threatened by the man with the handgun and he was shot.”
After the shooting Haskin said, “The police officers were sobbing uncontrollably and very distraught.”
Sobbing and distraught or not, the police will never be held accountable for this crime. If I or any of my readers do something like this, it would be considered assault with a deadly weapon, brandishing a firearm, and probably second degree murder. It wouldn’t matter that we “felt threatened.” But a man has a right to be armed on his own property, and it’s highly doubtful that the elderly man pointed his weapon at the police. If he had the initial report would have said so.
I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again. Law enforcement officers have no moral or legal right to trespass on my property and threaten me, or especially unholster their weapons and point them at me. And LEOs have no moral or legal right to shoot at me, my family members or my beasts. I consider every home invader to be a criminal, since impersonating the police is a common tactic among crime gangs now. Any such invasion of my home or property will be deadly, for the invaders, me, or both.
In lieu of being held accountable, which will never happen in the U.S. court system, I hope that these officers see the poor elderly man’s face every night of their lives as they try to sleep. I know men who are LEOs who do things differently. This kind of thing can be done safely, and bevavior which reflexively shoots innocent people is hazardous to everyone (bystanders and homeowners alike), especially the innocent victims.
On May 30, 2013 at 6:23 pm, Roger J said:
That’s all it takes these days: “The officer felt threatened.” A man in a diabetic coma was shot to death behind the wheel of his car in Maryland a few months ago. A severely depressed man stood up in his own living room (Stanislaus County, CA) and was shot to death by the responding officer. When are we, the citizens of this country, going to put a stop to these abuses by stripping away some of that legal immunity that LE officers possess, and making them truly accountable for acts of monumentally poor judgement?