Cop only gets two years for killing unarmed man

[Zebo]

Now let's compare the taser to a Glock 22 that police officers choose to
carry.

http://www.policensw.com/info/gen/e5.html

Who's the Einstein who came up with this idea? Embedded deniability.

 

[Zebo]

Here's how I see it classy. First of all just another "N*****" cops get to thinking fostering a sub-human interaction from a to z. Second I'm going to teach this boy a lesson, don't fuck with popo and zap his ass...little attitude adjustment. Three whoops.

 

[Londo_Jowo]

So you're basing your response on a Wiki. Now was this Wiki created from actual court evidence or is it someones opinion?

BTW the Glock 22 is .40 Cal

 

[Craig234]

JD I honestly believe he lost control for that split second and he murdered that young boy in cold blood. And he used the taser thing as a cover up lie. I base my opinion soley on the video. There was no violent struggle happening, he had plenty of support there in another cop, the victim was face down, he had ahold of one hand behind the guys back, but then he just jumps up pulls out his gun and shot the dude. I didn't believe it was an accident when it first happened and still don't. He got away with murder.

Not one word of your reasons you think it wasn't an accident suggests it wasn't an accident. All the evidence suggests it was. You are ignoring it, and not sounding rational.

It reminds me a little of the unfortunate huge divide between black and white opinion on OJ Simpson's guilt.

 

[sandra627]

Thats a HUGE difference from ACCIDENTALLY shooting the guy. What part of accident do you not understand?

How the hell do you "accidentally" shoot someone? I've only made one shot from a shotgun and that took effort on my end when pulling the trigger. Not to mention, I believe a tazer and a gun are quite different, and supposedly standard practice for cops is to put their tazer on their left side to avoid pulling it on accident. I've heard this isn't a law but standard practice.

Since I believe there can be no accident when firing a gun vs a tazer, the "cop" had full intent of shooting this person and deserves the death penalty. It's a shame the so-called "cop" got off easy with a 2 year jail sentence. I'm getting sick of hearing about all these "cops" who constantly stick up for each other when they break the laws that they're supposed to be obeying like the rest of us. It's sickening. I'm well aware that there's good cops out there too, but it seems like they're few and far between.

 

[IcePickFreak]

I just seen a few of the cell phone vids of this on youtube. Looks like he got shot while they were attempting to cuff him (and him resisting arrest) and you can see in at least one vid he is not cuffed when they check him moments after the shot was fired. It did look like he finally stopped resisting as soon as the officer went to reach for his "taser" and put his hands on his back. You can also see the reaction of the cop that shot him and it definitely looked like an "oh shit" immediately after.

Not saying he shouldn't be held responsible, but I don't think the guy deserves the death penalty as some people suggest for being a bit of an idiot and grabbing the wrong weapon. While I'd say he rightfully gets the majority of the blame, all the "witnesses" helped elevate the situation quite a bit and the victim resisting arrest/being cuffed on top of it definitely bears quite a bit of it as well. I don't think there's anyway the guy plotted this when there's people running right up to the cops with cell phones taking vids and shooting pics with flashes going off, I mean seriously.

Thing that gets me is you see all sorts of riots over this, because it's allegedly a race/hate crime. This is Oakland, what about the couple hundred black-on-black murders annually? If the blacks put half as much energy into ending that, which they actually can, stuff like this probably wouldn't have happened in the first place. Again, not saying the cop doesn't carry the majority of responsibility here, accident or not, but their energy would probably be put to better use in something that they can actually change to keep a whole lot more than one person from getting killed. Doing that would even give the bonus of shedding the gang-banger image that I'm sure makes police and these BART officers nervous in situations like this. Surely they see the bad outcome of it, probably daily in Oakland, and that has to weigh on your mind when your in situation like these cops were in with people running up taunting officers etc.

 

[dank69]

So you're basing your response on a Wiki. Now was this Wiki created from actual court evidence or is it someones opinion?

BTW the Glock 22 is .40 Cal

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/01/30/BABI15KCD5.DTL&type=adfree

The wiki article has multiple references to newspaper articles, like this one that clearly states at the end that BARTs uses the X-26 and the officer had just received 6 hours of training with it 3 weeks prior to the incident.

After reading this article and a few others with similar information, I no longer believe that there is any chance that he accidentally grabbed his gun when he meant to grab his taser.

A) The taser was on the opposite side of his belt from the gun.
B) He originally was going to tase him but his partner said the victim's was reaching for his waistband. The officer then stood up, pulled his gun and shot the victim in the back. After the fact, he said to his partner 'I thought he was going for a gun.' If he thought the victim was reaching for a gun, he should not have reached for his taser, he should have reached for his gun. However, he should not have pulled the trigger until he actually saw a gun.

The 'oh shit' moment caught on camera after the shooting was not one of 'whoops, I meant to use my taser,' but one of 'I pulled the trigger too soon in front of many witnesses.'

 

[JD50]

How the hell do you "accidentally" shoot someone? I've only made one shot from a shotgun and that took effort on my end when pulling the trigger. Not to mention, I believe a tazer and a gun are quite different, and supposedly standard practice for cops is to put their tazer on their left side to avoid pulling it on accident. I've heard this isn't a law but standard practice.

Since I believe there can be no accident when firing a gun vs a tazer, the "cop" had full intent of shooting this person and deserves the death penalty. It's a shame the so-called "cop" got off easy with a 2 year jail sentence. I'm getting sick of hearing about all these "cops" who constantly stick up for each other when they break the laws that they're supposed to be obeying like the rest of us. It's sickening. I'm well aware that there's good cops out there too, but it seems like they're few and far between.

No one is talking about accidentally pulling the trigger, we're talking about accidentally shooting him as opposed to tasering him.

 

[Londo_Jowo]

Actually Mehserle was using a borrowed taser and the holster was set up to be drawn with his right hand......which is also his gun hand. The fact the taser was borrowed it could have been a different model than the X26.

 

[dank69]

It was still on his left side while his gun was on his right side. Also, just for clarification, the article I linked claims this is the weapon he used:

 

[IcePickFreak]

The 'oh shit' moment caught on camera after the shooting was not one of 'whoops, I meant to use my taser,' but one of 'I pulled the trigger too soon in front of many witnesses.'

I think you watch too many movies.

 

[dank69]

I think you watch too many movies.

Perhaps, but the judge seems to have reached the same conclusion. ()

 

[Brovane]

Perhaps, but the judge seems to have reached the same conclusion. ()

if you mean the judge reaching the conclusion that the shooting was accidental then you are correct.

 

[dank69]

if you mean the judge reaching the conclusion that the shooting was accidental then you are correct.

From the wiki:

After the seven days of testimony, Judge C. Don Clay concluded that Mehserle had not mistakenly used his service pistol instead of his stun gun. The judge based this on Mehserle's statements to other officers that he thought Grant had a gun. He also noted that Mehserle had held his weapon with both hands when he was trained to use just his left if he was firing a Taser.