West Point Grad Erik Scott shot in what appears to be police snafu ( Vegas )

[cassandra and sara's daddy]

i think it was for the independence and they have a very good forensic it lab. i think they took it to a commercial lab  at least that was who testified about the drive some outfit outa california

[cassandra and sara's daddy]

Lastly, I strongly urge Sheriff Gillespie to carefully reconsider the Metro Tower’s entire game plan to trash Erik Scott’s character and good name. Yes, under the current sorry excuse for a Clark County coroner’s inquest process, he might succeed in getting a “justifiable” or “excusable” ruling from the inquest jury and prevent the district attorney from filing charges against his shooters.
But, in doing so, he also will unleash a personal hell. I’m sure he’ll recall that incident on May 14, 2009, around 8:00 p.m. Girlfriend at his house. Wife comes home. Shots fired. A 911 call made. Cops arrive. Everybody briefed. Metro Code of Silence imposed. The 911 call and all associated records disappear, leaving an interesting gap in the log’s numbering sequence. An excellent Las Vegas Review-Journal (RJ) reporter gets the details and writes a damning story...which never appears in the newspaper.
This time, though, the Las Vegas big-money power brokers, who threatened to pull all Strip advertising from the RJ in May 1999, have no leverage over Erik Scott’s family and hundreds of friends and supporters across the nation. There’s no RJ reporter to have fired and run out of town. This time, it’s not just a local story, either.
I have no interest in destroying the sheriff’s career or reputation. Gillespie simply needs to show Ross Goodman and Erik’s family the Costco surveillance video data (unaltered original version, please), release the 911-call audio, and forget about building a coroner’s inquest case on falsehoods and half-truths about Erik Scott. My son’s past marriages, his medical records, and hear-say tales about him have absolutely nothing to do with Erik being shot to death by Metro police officers on July 10th. Stick to the facts, Sheriff Gillespie, and this nightmare will go away.
William B. Scott


wow  the stuff hes worried about must be a horror show for dad to be that worried

[doczinn]

Yeah, he must be hiding a lot to be asking for all the evidence to be released.

[doczinn]

nm

[cassandra and sara's daddy]

Yeah, he must be hiding a lot to be asking for all the evidence to be released.

hes actually trying to keep some apparently ugly stuff from being being brought out about his son. apparently what i posted was dads idea of a good way to make that happen. not my idea of smart  tactically or strategically.  makes a guy wonder if the apple did not fall far from the tree

[doczinn]

hes actually trying to keep some apparently ugly stuff from being being brought out about his son.

Yes, because the only rational interpretation of someone calling for all the evidence to be released is that he's trying to distract people from something else.   

[cassandra and sara's daddy]

did you read what he wrote? hes trying to keep things from coming out about his son. and in his world this is the way to do it

[BReilley]

did you read what he wrote? hes trying to keep things from coming out about his son. and in his world this is the way to do it

I read that he sees police trying to justify their (potentially) bad/negligent/homicidal actions by smearing his deceased son.
If several people with badges shot my son in full view of onlookers and security cameras, then declined to offer any evidence(and presented the appearance of suppressing evidence) - only offering what I'd call smears - I would probably respond as this dad did.  If I had ANYTHING to hold over them, I would.

We're still WAY within a shadow of a doubt, both ways.  There is potentially recorded evidence to be had, and all you want to talk about is this guy's past?  How about LVPD's past?  They're known for being not-particularly-nice.
C&SD, even if you think the dude deserved what he got, will you agree that having all the evidence would be nice?

[cassandra and sara's daddy]

i   won't go so far as to say he deserved what he got  i woulda rather he got some help getting the monkey off his back. and be alive. its kinda spooky for it coulda been me.

nd heck yes i'd love to see the vid.  i just found dads approach most unique and to me it tells me hes knows "the colorado incident" and whatever wife 2 has told the cops is a real big deal.  the behavior i see is quire familiar to me  we call it "dope fiend moves" in the circles i run in. i've seen various iterations of them around a number of family tragedy's. the deceased spoke from beyond the grave through his doc when he described "history of mental health and substance abuse issues in the family" .

to me its real simple  guy has a gun, guy acts in a variety of ways that attracts negative attention from shoppers and guests. he is confronted by employee who see gun.   employee contacts management and tells the guy no guns asks him to leave. guy goes off and refuses to go and is witnessed by another customer talking about "he could do it in texas"  get asked to leave you go. is there a place in the us where thats not the law?  did this guy get through the af academy and not know that? 

store evacuated hes confronted outside we have a couple witnesses to him brushing away the cop and squaring off.
at this point we have some folks who get excited "he was given conflicting commands!"  he was looking at 3 cops with guns drawn and he put his hand on his weapon. according to some/most witnesses he pulled it and raised it to point it at the cop in front of him.  in my world that gets you shot.heck if it was the store employee holding him at gunpoint for a legitimate reason and he made that move it would be a good shoot. the folk all excited over one cop hollering get down and another saying drop the gun seem to think the drop the gun was what prompted him to grab it  i think they have the order reversed his "decision" to put his hand on and pull out his gun is what prompted the drop it command. my sad experience with opiates and opiate users makes me suspect suicide by cop.
i feel for dad i know what a family suicide does to you under the best of circumstances and this is far from the best

[Lee]

Sounds like a familiar story...usually told by a ghetto mom.  "My son was a good boy, he was just messed up on drugs, and pulled one of his two guns on the police". It sounds like he was not able to fill out the application for the membership...so maybe he was just so out of it that he reacted oddly to the commands of the officers.  I can't say that I wouldn't have done the same thing they did, given the circumstances.
They aren't mind readers, nor do they know the life story of everyone they run up against.   

[Scout26]

Yep, but having three cops yelling three different things at you, makes it hard to comply.

[cassandra and sara's daddy]

i think the yelling really got going after they saw his hand on his gun.
note to self  do not reach for gun with cops pointing gun at you

[cassandra and sara's daddy]

 verdicts in
justified shooting


anyone ever find out what happened in colorado? or what wife 2 said/knew that was so bad?

[seeker_two]

verdicts in
justified shooting

What a surprise.... 

[BReilley]

They aren't mind readers, nor do they know the life story of everyone they run up against.

...so why should it be permissible to use said background to justify a killing?
How about we look at the cop who's "been there before" and consider his previous "justifiable" killings when evaluating the incident?  Can we look at LVPD's record, which(if I've read correctly) includes but ONE unjustified killing, and tens of killings that were A-okay?

What do you do, if cops shout different things to you?  "Hands in the air" "drop the gun" "down on your knees" "stay where you are"... I know others have said it, but I can't imagine keeping a level head with several guns pointed at me.  I might listen to one of them and think that in order to lessen the threat they perceive, I should remove my *holstered* weapon and set it down.

I do not defend the deceased - except to insist that he be given the dignity of a fair investigation - he seemed not to "have it all together", and he probably made a bad move.  However, the cops acted poorly throughout the whole episode and for them to be let off entirely is insulting to the public they serve.  Crap like this makes ALL cops look bad, and not just to the baby-mommas whose Tec-9-toting brat got wasted for good reason.  What's going to happen next?

I'll tell you what, if I ever go to Vegas I'm driving straight through, and I'll damn well avoid any interaction with the po-lice.  After all, I have a CCW permit, which means I *might* have a weapon, which means I *might* be a threat, which just might justify making me top-heavy if I were to make "a furtive movement" toward my license and registration.

I hope Dad sues the piss out of the department.  Bad behavior, unpunished, will continue.

[RoadKingLarry]

LVPD has never had a bad shoot, likely never will.
Hell when they murdered my cousin he wasn't armed, didn't have any drugs on him.
Hell, it wasn't even the first time the cop had killed somebody in the line of duty, and it wasn't the last.

[seeker_two]

http://www.8newsnow.com/story/13231782/metro

http://www.8newsnow.com/story/13234105/former-undersheriff-rejects-calls-for-inquest-changes

Just based on the inquest procedure, this one looks destined for Federal court....

[cassandra and sara's daddy]

how so?

[vaskidmark]

how so?

And they say timing is everything.  Just out from AELE (which by the way you ought to be bookmarking if not subscribing to)  http://www.aele.org/law/2010-10MLJ101.html  (wait for the redirect - it's safe.)

The article is only Part 1 of two parts, but it redirected my position on this case and many others -- at least insofar as seeing how the courts view the matter.

I think that before I say "I want my lawyer" I'm going to say "Please tell me step by step what you want me to do."  That may be followed by "I'm confused - which instruction do you want me to follow?"

stay safe.

[Battle Monkey of Zardoz]

justified big surprise there. It's sad. LE will bring up the past history and then some on this guy.  But when you bring up or want to bring up past history of a LEO involved, they always want to stick to the specific in incident. All animals are not equal.

[Ned Hamford]

And they say timing is everything.  Just out from AELE (which by the way you ought to be bookmarking if not subscribing to)  http://www.aele.org/law/2010-10MLJ101.html  (wait for the redirect - it's safe.)

Oooh, nice site with a pleasant and understandable reading.  I once had a gun pointed at me when I was stopped for speeding.  The officer realized the snafu and let me off, but that encounter has really stuck with me.  Was the local police too.  I really think society is sliding and the LEO treatment of 'dirt bags,' rarely encountered by 'taxpayers' has been sliding over to the us and them mentality.  I think its an issue routed in organizational culture that would require more efforts to stem and correct than the general populous has attention span. 

:Ned is not optimistic for the future:

[vaskidmark]

:Ned is not optimistic for the future:

If ned is merely not optimistic Ned needs to get his head out of that dark hole.

As you say, organizational culture that needs to be addressed and revised.  It can be done.  It just takes hard work and dedication over time, along with knowing the difference between cop-bashing and expressing genuine concerns.

stay safe.

[cassandra and sara's daddy]

Oooh, nice site with a pleasant and understandable reading.  I once had a gun pointed at me when I was stopped for speeding.  The officer realized the snafu and let me off, but that encounter has really stuck with me.  Was the local police too.  I really think society is sliding and the LEO treatment of 'dirt bags,' rarely encountered by 'taxpayers' has been sliding over to the us and them mentality.  I think its an issue routed in organizational culture that would require more efforts to stem and correct than the general populous has attention span. 

:Ned is not optimistic for the future:

maybe they should be allowed to self police themselves    like lawyers do  thats gone swimmingly

[Ned Hamford]

If ned is merely not optimistic Ned needs to get his head out of that dark hole.

I enjoy the British humor style of understatement.  And I do take offense at your implication.

As you say, organizational culture that needs to be addressed and revised.  It can be done.  It just takes hard work and dedication over time, along with knowing the difference between cop-bashing and expressing genuine concerns.

It certainly can be done, but its hard.  Being active in local politics, I have little faith in hard issues being addressed.  Very few people bother to vote and the vast majority of them only vote by party line.  I could go on for much longer in the difficulties of running social/political crusades and maintaining a healthy life balance, but I'm just going to rest on the understatement of lacking optimism and my deep held belief in always fighting the good fight.  Just because you don't expect success isn't a good enough reason not to try. 

[vaskidmark]

I enjoy the British humor style of understatement.  And I do take offense at your implication.


It certainly can be done, but its hard.  Being active in local politics, I have little faith in hard issues being addressed.  Very few people bother to vote and the vast majority of them only vote by party line.  I could go on for much longer in the difficulties of running social/political crusades and maintaining a healthy life balance, but I'm just going to rest on the understatement of lacking optimism and my deep held belief in always fighting the good fight.  Just because you don't expect success isn't a good enough reason not to try. 

Sorry, Ned, if you thought I was implying you were not doing anything about the situation.  My comment was, as you noted, an attempt at humorous understatement.  Probably better than if I ascribed "the situation is hopeless but not desparate" to your position.

For the record, I too see the value of tilting at windmills.  If nothing else, it puts others on notice that someone is willing to make the effort no matter the probable outcome.  And I have the bruises to show for it, not that anybody cares.  Including me.

stay safe.