Sorry, I've been stopped before and it never occured to me that looking on one direction would be perceived as aggressive. I don't know what they may have been doing before they took off, but they stopped fairly quickly after they were lit up. My hearing is bad enough, that I may know you are talking, or even yelling, but I sometimes cannot understand what is being said when there is a lot of background noise. IMHO, the cop over reacted. If the rider thought that there was a chance he would get shot he may have reacted differently. I didn't see his moves as particularly provocative.
I can see coming out with gun drawn until you are sure the suspect poses no immediate threat. But just lighting him up because he sorta, kinda, maybe, slightly looks like he could be possibly be reaching for a weapon is another story.
Just because they were being chased doesn't mean they were running. The guy who was shot was guilty of nothing more than speeding, the idiot that ran off the road was trying to race with him, but he isn't responsible for said idiot's actions. From the time they took off till he was stopped was like 12 seconds then 12 seconds later he was shot for looking over his shoulder. Exactly who was the cop protecting or serving by harrasing these guy's?
I remember being told after the accident that the rate of suicide was higher among paraplegics. Obviously, there are some practical issues that may help skew the numbers, I didn't get to see a detailed study.
Not trying to pick on you, but which is it? Were they speeding and racing, or was the cop simply harassing them?
Now this in interesting: "The 14-minute video begins several minutes before Officer White activates his lights and sirens and continues until paramedics arrive to care for the wounded motorcyclist." I'd like to see the unedited video.
Honestly, I think the cop was just following them because they were the only people on the road, eventually they will do something wrong and and yeah they did something wrong but nothing worth being shot over.
Wonder what biker gang activity they have in that area? Still wondering myself why they were being tailed in the first place.
There could be all kinds of background information to which we'll never be privy. Going on video alone; ftp.
The cop should be hung by his balls stretched around his throat........no justification for this at all. Adrenaline pumped cop - ridiculous - destroyed this kids life forever.
No one has mentioned yet the fact that there was already another police car at the other end of the street to aid in stopping the other bike. I would think that meant that a call had gone in previously for help. Still hard to say without being there. That being said, if anything, they should have been pulled over early at a couple of times in that video. Still, the article said that there was fourteen minutes of tape, this was six. Would like to know about the other eight minutes.