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Alabama police officer convicted of murder in shooting death of suicidal man | Blaze Media
An Alabama jury convicted Huntsville police Officer William Ben Darby of murder on Friday, for fatally shooting a suicidal man who was holding a gun to his own head three years ago.What are the details?On April 3, 2018, Huntsville resident Jeff Parker called 911 for help, telling dispatchers...
www.theblaze.com
First, I assume the victim was not black or this would have been a world wide exploited case.
Anyway, basically he storms in to a residence where a man is holding a gun on himself threatening suicide. He orders the man to drop his gun, when he doesn't the officer shoots him dead.
IMO most people are going to extremes on these kinds of cases, either calling it murder (like the jury did) or saying it's justified and defending the cops like the local police did.
I think society should often take a middle road on these kinds of cases. No matter how well trained or normally cool and logical a cop ((or soldier) is, the survival instincts can cause them to act prematurely when deadly force is present possibly against them.
If we expect perfection and robotic precision from cops and understandable misjudgements result in prison, smart people will not become cops.
This suicidal person obviously was emotionally unstable, and could have at any moment turned the gun and shot both cops. The cop then would have been second guessed why he didn't stop the threat.
It was bad policing, and he should have been banned from that kind of work, but murder is too much.
The locals expect this to be overturned, not sure why.