http://apnews.myway.com/article/20121026/DA24VK402.htmlNo word in regards to the actual law broken, but:
Katherine Cesinger (SEHS'-ihn-jur) of the Texas Department of Public Safety says a DPS aircraft was helping a state game warden in a high-speed pursuit when the DPS officer on the aircraft opened fire.
DPS helping game and fish, including shooting fleeing vehicles?
Sorry. Doesn't pass my sniff test.
Allow me to wax anecdotal for a moment.
About 5 years ago, I was a foolish young man (as opposed to now
). I was out in the desert alone, shooting at a target about 200 yards away with my Springfield M1A. I grounded the rifle and cleared it (leaving it on my shooting mat), and walked downrange to check my target. As I get downrange and examine my target, I turn around to look back up-range. Some white truck pulled up next to my truck, a man got out and was walking around my equipment and inspecting it. I had my XD9 on my hip, but 200 yards is a bad place to be when someone else can pick up your own M1A and start sending rounds at you. I walked back to my firing point calmly but I was amped up and ready to pre-empt any attempt to touch my rifle with a drawn pistol, loud commands and shots if necessary. Nothing overt in my behavior... but "an armed society is a polite society" and "be polite, be professional, but have a plan to kill everyone you meet." All that jazz.
Turns out it was a forest service employee, and he was checking to see if everything was okay. I think he was looking to write a littering ticket since this particular shooting spot tends to get trashed, but he saw I was shooting at a cardboard backer target and was policing my own brass, so the attempt was pointless. Damned smart of him not to touch my rifle though. At 200 yards, and the angle he parked, and the lack of lights on his truck, there was no way to tell he was a FS employee, until I was within about 50 yards.
To this day I think about how to handle that if it had gone another way, and the only thing I can think of is that police don't much care for folks that shoot other police. However, when in the wild places in the world it is extremely dangerous to yield your control over yourself without having 100% confidence that the person in front of you is legitimate. It's very easy to impersonate a forest service employee in the back country with minimal likelihood of being caught. Safest way to resolve that kind of misunderstanding that results in an armed conflict with poorly identified LEO in the wild country is to get your butt to civilization very quickly, IMO. Somewhere public, and loud, with cameras and kids and all sorts of things that discourage indiscriminate shooting. News studio, shopping mall, something like that.
I'm wondering if the game and fish officer in this case did something that puckered the sphincter of someone out in the woods, then called in the helicopter gunner.