CLEVELAND (AP) — A white patrolman who fired down through the windshield of a suspect's car at the end of a 137-shot barrage that left the two unarmed black occupants dead was acquitted Saturday of criminal charges by a judge who said he could not determine the Cleveland officer alone fired the fatal shots.High-speed chase, a cop ends it by shooting driver and passenger through the windshield while he was standing on the hood of their car. And the dead speeders were unarmed.
No problem, says judge. Can't determine if those shots were the cause of death. Case dismissed.
Russell, 43, and Malissa Williams, 30, were each shot more than 20 times at the end of the Nov. 29, 2012, pursuit. Prosecutors argued they were alive until Brelo's final salvo but medical examiners for both sides testified they could not determine the order in which the deadly shots were fired.
The case hinged largely on the less than 8 seconds — 7.392, to be exact — during which Brelo fired his final 15 rounds.
(0.5 second splits - by a cop. On an Adrenaline high. Wonder if he actually hit anybody?)
2 comments:
Seems like a speeding ticket was more in order, rather than an execution.
There's a lot more to this event than even the Yahoo! news account lists. The detailed rundown of the judge's rationale can be read or viewed here: http://legalinsurrection.com/2015/05/brelo-not-guilty-verdict-judge-presents-detailed-rationale/
TL;DR version: The suspect Russell was attempting to use his car as a battering ram against the officers and their patrol cars, which is a threat of lethal force (this after the gunshot-sounding noise emanating from his car and the 100-mph, 22-mile car chase he led the officers on). Brelo was the only officer charged, but for the first 122 shots he had made the exact same decision and took the exact same actions as 12 other officers, so it cannot seriously be considered "unreasonable". It came down to his final 15 rounds, and the judge determined that although the sum of the injuries from the first 122 rounds would have proven fatal eventually, Brelo's determination that the threat of lethal force (by car) had not yet ended was not unreasonable, so his final shots were justified.
I find it more newsworthy that the crowds protesting have (again) promised that this isn't over. Sorry, folks; from a legal, lawful standpoint, it is. Anything after this is vigilantism, not justice.
Just my $0.02, worth every penny you're paying for it.
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