shooting a shoplifter seems a bit harsh to me

What? Holy smokes! Please tell me that with this just happening this morning there is a BUNCH missing in this story so far. Jeez.

fishin': it was last night and there is not a lot of info yet, they think she may have been in a stolen car but the officer had no way to know that at the time of the shooting; btw this shooting occured in a busy parking lot with many others in the area. that Mall is just a mile or so from my house.

See here:

Rocky Mountain News

Not shoplifters, then, Walter. SUSPECTS! Aha!

i am probably wrong here but its my understanding that NO ONE including police can shoot anyone without the threat of "iminate danger" i hardly can see an unarmed shoplifter running/driving across a parking lot as said danger.

Hard to say with so little info but the article Walter linked to says that the claim is that the officer fired mistakenly and another line says the car swerved toward him (which could be considered life threatening aka "Vechicular Assult"..).

I'm sure there will be more to come out on this but it sure does make you wonder just what really happened.

There always seems a rush to condemn the officer whenever something of this nature occurs. Shouldn't people withhold judgment until a investigation into the incident is completed?

witnesses at the scene reported not seeing any attempt by the driver aiming at the officer with the car. but thats what i am getting on the t.v. news this morning.

i do agree about withholding judgement but why would an officer have drawn his weapon in pursuit of a shoplifter? whether the shooting as accidental or not? this is a very open crowded public area and i see NO reason for guns being drawn without serious threat of danger.

I agree we need to wait for the shooter's story. Was he a city policeman or a mall security guard? He may have been caught up in "Stop-or-I'll-Shoot" Dirty Harry imaginings.

If the shooter had insufficient reason to fire, what should his punishment be? Prison time? Loss of job?

dyslexia
Until all the particulars are aired for me there is no "but why".

assult with a deadly weapon, and he was a regular Sheriff deputy

I read the Rockey Mountain News article linked above. As I imagined would be the case, there is some confusion surrounding interpretation and disection of the event. I'm certain as well that as the incident was in progress chaos and confusion were present.
It would seem to me the discharge of the firearm may well have been unintentional, though enabled through carelessness or other oversight on the part of the officer.

As to "Use of Deadly Force", it is commonly understood to be called for if the officer is in reasonable fear for his own safety and/or that of the public at large. A shoplifter is not perforce a felon, granted. A suspect, defiantly dismissing orders to halt and submit to lawful authority, attempting to flee in a stolen vehicle, should be considered to have high potential of being otherwise a felon with further felonious intent regardless of the alleged shoplifting. TV news shows love the photegenic opportunities afforded by helicopter views of highspeed chases involving stolen vehicles. By this incident, the Greater Denver Area may have been deprived of such thrilling "Home Town" footage, and the rest of the Nation relieved of being offered endless repetitions of the more dramatic filmclips.

That said, the officer appears, if the accidental nature of the shooting bears out, to merit censure appropriate to having failed to follow well established and generally reliable procedures common to Armed Law Enforcement which would have rendered unintentional discharge of his weapon a non-issue.



timber

Especially when we compare that to those crooks that stole millions from their own companies, their investors, and their employees. "Legal" in this country is an oxymoron. c.i.

Occasional discharge of weapon is not a murder attempt, it is an accident. We may call this negligence; by all means, prior to results of the investigation are made public we should not make generalizations and compare shoplifters to unscrupulous businessmen. It may be quite possible that deputy did not mean to shoot anyone, but some technical mistake made his weapon to discharge.

steissd, The problem with those accidents is the fact that many children end up killing their own brother or sister while playing with daddies gun. c.i.

OK, such a problem can be easily solved: gun owners should be legally obliged to keep their guns out of reach of children and other non-authorized people. There are many people that have weapons license in Israel, but very few accidents involving occasional discharge of weapons.