Costco shooter was a cop... and all 3 victims were unarmed

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Lot of these cops are insecure for whatever reason, thus the inevitable escalation. As if he could not have walked away, etc. Instead they always over-react and results are irreversible.
What if the parents had guns and were also trigger happy numb-nuts, that would have really put his own kid in a danger. Just so stupid, boggles my mind.

There was absolutely no reason to shoot the elderly parents. The policeman should have called the police to come in, not solve everything frontier justice style.

If everyone if the DC metro shot somebody after having an altercation of some sort it would be non stop gun fire.

[Anonymous]

The man who supposedly assaulted the police officer was a big guy. I can see how the police officer would have felt threatened being attacked by that guy especially since he was carrying his young child.

If the elderly parents tried to physically intervene in some way, hitting the officer or otherwise getting physical with him, that may have prompted the shooting. We don't know what happened.

I hope they got this on surveillance video.

[Anonymous]

The police officer is a public official, armed by virtue of office. His identity should be public.

Thus far, there has been no explanation why the officer allegedly felt that he, his child, or anyone else were in mortal danger so as to authorize deadly force.

There also has been no explanation why or how the parents were shot.

The dead man's own family referred to him as a giant. The officer was treated at the hospital, which might support his claim of being assaulted.

The allegation that there was an argument is puzzling given that the dead man was nonverbal.

Gotta say, it's looking like a bad shooting at this point.

[Anonymous]

The man's cousin said that he could cook and drive but could not live alone and hadn't talked in recent years which indicates that he could talk at some point but had stopped talking in recent years for some reason.

None of this makes a lot of sense, tbh.

[Anonymous]

LOCK HIM UP.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why was he carrying his gun into Costco if he’s off duty and just shopping with his child?

Same reason firefighters keep fire extinguishers in their cars and EMTs carry first aid kids and CPR masks. To do that they need to do in an emergency.
I am not condoning this shooting as I dont know the situation, just answering your question.

Uh, no. His job isn't shooting unarmed people. That's not what you do in emergencies.

The question was why was he carrying his gun into Costco. Not why did he shoot someone, only he can answer that.

[Anonymous]

It is routine for off duty police to be armed, everywhere, all the time. Whether that is a good idea is open to discussion.

[Anonymous]

I was in the College Park Ikea a few months ago and a pretty large man aggressively rushed towards me. I stopped walking immediately and turned to face him. He stopped maybe 3 feet away from me and just stared at me, with his fists clenched. You know what I did? I assessed the situation, realized he was with a group of people, and a woman was coming over to get him. He clearly had some sort of intellectual disability, so I just stepped away from him and let the woman guide him away.

These cops surely have much more training in assessing situations than I do. If I can diffuse a situation in Ikea, surely these cops can diffuse situations as well before they turn deadly. Police are way too eager to arbitrarily impose the death penalty on people who are just out in public going about their lives, and it must stop.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I was in the College Park Ikea a few months ago and a pretty large man aggressively rushed towards me. I stopped walking immediately and turned to face him. He stopped maybe 3 feet away from me and just stared at me, with his fists clenched. You know what I did? I assessed the situation, realized he was with a group of people, and a woman was coming over to get him. He clearly had some sort of intellectual disability, so I just stepped away from him and let the woman guide him away.

These cops surely have much more training in assessing situations than I do. If I can diffuse a situation in Ikea, surely these cops can diffuse situations as well before they turn deadly. Police are way too eager to arbitrarily impose the death penalty on people who are just out in public going about their lives, and it must stop.

Well obviously you made the wrong choice. He could’ve, I don’t know, bumped into you or something. Next time, don’t forget your gun. Then you can take down the woman who took him to ikea too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It is routine for off duty police to be armed, everywhere, all the time. Whether that is a good idea is open to discussion.

This is evidence that maybe it's not a good idea.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I was in the College Park Ikea a few months ago and a pretty large man aggressively rushed towards me. I stopped walking immediately and turned to face him. He stopped maybe 3 feet away from me and just stared at me, with his fists clenched. You know what I did? I assessed the situation, realized he was with a group of people, and a woman was coming over to get him. He clearly had some sort of intellectual disability, so I just stepped away from him and let the woman guide him away.

These cops surely have much more training in assessing situations than I do. If I can diffuse a situation in Ikea, surely these cops can diffuse situations as well before they turn deadly. Police are way too eager to arbitrarily impose the death penalty on people who are just out in public going about their lives, and it must stop.

If he had run up and aggressively attacked you...you would have not fought back, right?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I was in the College Park Ikea a few months ago and a pretty large man aggressively rushed towards me. I stopped walking immediately and turned to face him. He stopped maybe 3 feet away from me and just stared at me, with his fists clenched. You know what I did? I assessed the situation, realized he was with a group of people, and a woman was coming over to get him. He clearly had some sort of intellectual disability, so I just stepped away from him and let the woman guide him away.

These cops surely have much more training in assessing situations than I do. If I can diffuse a situation in Ikea, surely these cops can diffuse situations as well before they turn deadly. Police are way too eager to arbitrarily impose the death penalty on people who are just out in public going about their lives, and it must stop.

Well, that's great, but him being with a group of people was actually no guarantee that he wasn't going to attack you. You didn't come through this unscathed due to your good judgment. You got lucky.

[Anonymous]

Those of you defending this “peace” officer are really doing a disservice to the profession. Good cops can handle unarmed civilians. They don’t shoot every potential threat. To say otherwise is to suggest that policing requires no special skills or talent except that of pulling a trigger.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Those of you defending this “peace” officer are really doing a disservice to the profession. Good cops can handle unarmed civilians. They don’t shoot every potential threat. To say otherwise is to suggest that policing requires no special skills or talent except that of pulling a trigger.

I agree. It is condescending to assume that trained cops MUST resort to shootings while the rest of us civilians have (mostly) learned to manage conflict without killing our fellow citizens.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I was in the College Park Ikea a few months ago and a pretty large man aggressively rushed towards me. I stopped walking immediately and turned to face him. He stopped maybe 3 feet away from me and just stared at me, with his fists clenched. You know what I did? I assessed the situation, realized he was with a group of people, and a woman was coming over to get him. He clearly had some sort of intellectual disability, so I just stepped away from him and let the woman guide him away.

These cops surely have much more training in assessing situations than I do. If I can diffuse a situation in Ikea, surely these cops can diffuse situations as well before they turn deadly. Police are way too eager to arbitrarily impose the death penalty on people who are just out in public going about their lives, and it must stop.

Well, that's great, but him being with a group of people was actually no guarantee that he wasn't going to attack you. You didn't come through this unscathed due to your good judgment. You got lucky.

The cop in Costco and his child were seemingly unscathed, so the "attacker" couldn't have been too violent.