Update On Mr. Eurie Stamps
BY Herschel Smith
11 years, 1 month ago
FRAMINGHAM — Two weeks before he officially left the Framingham Police Department, outgoing Chief Steven Carl disbanded the department’s SWAT team, about two and a half years after an accidental fatal shooting during a raid.
In a memo sent to the department on Sept. 26, Carl, whose last day was Friday, announced that the SWAT team was no more. Carl left to take a job as the new Assumption College director of public safety and campus police chief.
The head of the SWAT team, Deputy Police Chief Craig Davis also had his last day with the department on Friday. He starts as the new Ashland Police chief on Monday.
“Chief Carl disbanded the SWAT team and one of the main reasons articulated was that myself and Deputy (Steven) Trask did not have the training needed to lead the team,” acting Chief Kenneth Ferguson said on Friday.
The team came under scrutiny in 2011 when a Framingham man was accidentally shot and killed by SWAT team member Officer Paul Duncan in a drug raid on Fountain Street.
On Jan. 5, 2011, Duncan shot Eurie Stamps Sr., 68, who was laying on the ground, when Duncan lost his balance and tripped, firing the M4 submachine gun once. The shot killed Stamps.
Police arrested Stamps’ stepson, Joseph Bushfan, who was the target of the raid that night.
The Middlesex district attorney’s office ruled the shooting was accidental. The Stamps family has filed a federal wrongful death lawsuit against Duncan and the town, partially blaming the town’s “policy or custom of grossly inadequate training and supervision of its police officers.”
After the shooting, Carl assembled a community panel to look at the shooting, and the chief instituted several policy changes after an independent probe of the team by SWAT expert Steve Ijames.
Some of the changes included reducing the team from 18 members to 12, increasing training and a mandate for officers to keep a firearm’s safety on until the weapon is needed.
Yes, you read that right. After defending their SWAT team and its tactics, they disbanded the team because they didn’t have the necessary training to lead the team.
Briefly recall what happened. Completely innocent Mr. Eurie Stamps was prone as he was instructed to be by the invading police, and Paul Duncan tripped over his prone body causing a sympathetic muscle reflex and firing his rifle into Mr. Stamps, killing him.
And yes, you read that right. Rather than call the SWAT team murderous thugs, or Keystone Cops with rifles, “SWAT expert” Ijames recommended that weapons’ safety be put on.
Let that wash over you again. In order to keep from shooting people, SWAT teams were then instructed to put their weapons on safe. He found no fault with anyone involved with the event. Think … about … that. If this wasn’t true it would be so laughable as to be bad fiction. IJames isn’t stupid – just a dishonest and awful man. As for the leaders responsible for this awful invasion and murder – eh, off to new jobs. Good as gold. Got to tie up loose ends before riding off into the sunset.
In other news, Mr. Eurie Stamps couldn’t be reached for comment.
Prior:
The Moral Case Against SWAT Raids
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On October 9, 2013 at 1:16 am, Will said:
“officers to keep a firearm’s safety on until the weapon is needed”
A basic weapons safety rule.
On October 9, 2013 at 11:56 am, Paul B said:
Now that is a good case to disband swat teams.
They did not practice how they fight. If they fight with the safety off they need to practice with the safety off.
The cover up should not have been allowed to proceed. I wonder what Ijames qualifications really where.
On October 9, 2013 at 3:36 pm, Mark Matis said:
His qualifications, Paul B, are that he prefers his coffee and donuts filtered.
On October 9, 2013 at 3:48 pm, Herschel Smith said:
Paul,
Right. Train like you fight, fight like you train. Safety off. If you cannot handle that without NDs and sympathetic muscle reflexes causing it to be dangerous for people around you, then turn in your weapon and go eat donuts.
The reality is that they aren’t trained like my son was trained (to overcome this sympathetic muscle reflex when you fall), and so they shouldn’t be doing this. Good. They are disbanding the team.
And bad. They lied, they covered up, they exonerated their brothers in blue, and they killed an innocent man. They should have sent a uniformed officer to knock on the door and ask to speak to the owner of the home. That’s the respectful and manly thing to do.
And IJames is a dishonest and awful man for helping to cover it up.
On October 10, 2013 at 2:25 pm, Paul B said:
You can always tell current military graduates at the range as they observe safety religiously. The finger does not even bend until they are ready to discharge the firearm.
We have some guards at a local prison come to the range from time to time. They remind me of criminals. They are bossy, arrogant and not in the lest bit safety conscious.
Clowns.
On March 23, 2014 at 9:57 am, Kara Mehmet said:
idiotic wanna-be soldiers who can’t control their weapons. Great for Framingham, great for America! Did you know the Rules of Engagement in Afghanistan are tougher than in America? Amazing!!