LOCAL CHP OFFICER INVOLVED IN SHOOTING

by Jack

Here’s a good one, a couple of prison parolees steal a car in Colorado and drive to Paradise, California. A CHP officer attempts a routine traffic stop and the pair take off in the stolen vehicle in an attempt to evade capture. The driver of the stolen car is taking others cars head on at speeds up to 120 mph and this is either an effort to escape by causing an accident or he has a death wish. Either way he’s using his car as a deadly weapon…let me make this clear, his vehicle IS a deadly weapon… and lives are at risk every moment this maniac remains mobile. I will make it clear in a moment why I am referring to the car as a weapon.

The article in the ER says, “Amanda Hankins was walking out of the gas station at the corner of Clark and Pearson roads when she saw a man in a tan car come flying into the lot. “Their tires were gone,” she said in a phone interview. “He just hit a taxi and tried to reverse. (If I had walked out) 30 seconds later, I would have been hit.” She said six or seven police cars quickly swung into the lot behind the car and officers shouted at her to get behind the building. After that, she only heard shots.

The pursuing CHP officer began shooting when the driver tried to make a getaway and the fleeing driver was struck several times and stopped.

Officer Maxey said he did not know if the driver had a “weapon” when the officer began shooting.” I think he means, he did not know if he had a gun, we all know he had a weapon! He used that weapon repeatedly to force cars off the highway. Does it really matter if he had a gun? Whether you are killed by a car or a gun, it makes no difference which weapon kills you…dead is dead.

So the CHP officer matched deadly force with deadly force, that’s reasonable and prudent. He shot at the driver to stop him… that’s perfectly correct. I would have been livid if he didn’t! I know the law too, I am a retired police officer and I have been involved in these kind of situations. The CHP Officer acted within the law and very appropriately in order to save lives.

“Officer Maxey stated that what caused the officer to begin shooting is under investigation.” What caused the officer to begin shooting??? Didn’t we just say he was chasing two parolees using a stolen car as a battering ram, taking cars head on at high speed… endangering the lives of anyone in his way? That’s all the reason police need to use deadly force.

Further, these ex-cons just committed any number of felonies in full view of this Officer and they were determined to escape at all costs. There’s just no question that lives of innocent people were in imminent and extreme danger, ask Amanda Hankins. She could have been killed, if she had walked out of the store just seconds earlier. Clearly the Officer took the only possible action he could to stop this maniac driver and thank God he did!

Last year the cops tried to box in a wanted felon and it ended quite differently, because they didn’t shoot the driver when they had the chance. The police had their guns drawn and were ordering the driver to exit his vehicle, but he drove right around them and escaped at high speed – nobody fired! 2 minutes later a young lady on her way home from work was killed in a high speed head on collision with this fleeing felon. The cops were not even in pursuit – he acted all on his own and a decent young woman lost her life because of him. This is the perfect example of what can happen when a determined felon is not stopped, even if it means using deadly force.

Officer Maxey said, “This will be a dual investigation, a criminal investigation of the incident and an administrational investigation, which occurs any time an officer is involved in a shooting.”

Let me be clear, I have no issue with Officer Maxey or the CHP Officers that will be investigating, they have to do it for all officer involved shootings, I’m just very sorry this CHP Officer will now be put through a lot of stress and he will be forced to defend his every action, despite the obvious fact that he took decisive action that terminated this extremely violent pursuit. In my professional opinion the Officer is a hero because he saved lives. The next car that fleeing felon took aim at might have been a fatal head on collision. It could have been loaded with your friends or family or mine.

It took courage to use that weapon because every cop knows, as soon as they do, they are put under a microscope. If they did the slightest thing wrong, their career is over or worse…they could be the one going to jail. I’m sure this went through the minds of the officers during last years felony stop. Regrettably, they didn’t fire upon that felon who went on to kill an innocent young woman. I’m sure if they had it to do over…they would have opened fire.

I don’t know who the CHP Officer is that was involved in this shooting, but I think he deserves our moral support until the investigation clears him.