Were the Police wrong for shooting the teen, even though he pointed no firearm at them? Yes the made their choice to use deadly force because the felt threatened. It is hard thing to stomach sometimes when you of Police having to use deadly force, where possibly non lethal weapons would work. But any use of non lethal weapons was impractical and impossible. This subject and the car he was driving was believed to be a Car Jacking, taken with a gun. There is some debate already in the Community, well everyone who thinks they could have done a better job--by all means go sign for the academy, for the rest you shut up and give the investigation time to work. If you sill have doubt I have placed the video clip of the pursuit and subsequent shooting. Press the play button or use the text in the box and place it on your site.
A Stockton Teen was killed today after a pursuit with the Stockton Police Department. The teenager was spotted in a 215 (PC)(carjacking); the vehicle was taken by subjects who were armed with a shot gun. Stockton Police were looking for the vehicle when a "Valley Unit"(Co Op between SPD, SJSO, CHP), whose sole purpose is to find and recover stolen vehicles, and reduce the grand theft auto, and captured those who steal cars.
After being spotted by the undercover Valley Unit a marked unit was nearby and spotted the vehicle as well. A pursuit ensued when the teenager would not yield, and speed off. The pursuit snaked through the narrow streets of North Stockton neighborhoods. At the peak of the pursuit the teenager was going almost 60MPH, through these populated neighborhoods, where the roads are narrow.
An SPD Sergeant gave permission for the units to use Legal Intervention or PIT maneuver. The teen was able to stay ahead of the Officers until they arrived at Bancroft and Salters Drive-Officers rammed the vehicle, causing the boy to loose control and slam into a house where the drivers, front portion was inside the house, and not outside. During this time, after ramming into the house Officers there was a minute of silence, then Officers started call out "Shots Fired","Start a 945", "We have shots fired....all Officers are 907 at this time."
According to the Story posted on the Record's website, 16 to 17 shots were fired by several Officers at the teen, who was trapped inside the house and car. Officers waited for a minute for more units to arrive on the scene so that they could take the boy out of the car safely, without any further use of deadly force.
Apparently for the boy it was to late, the Record reported at around 1645hrs, that teenager involved in the pursuit had died. The uncle of the boy did identified his nephew as being a high school student attending Bear Creek High. The boy was removed from the vehicle and the collapsing house, and his lifeless body was given to the Paramedics. It is important to note that SPD tried use all the non lethal methods, such as spike stripes and the PIT, but in the end the Officers felt that they needed to use deadly force, either to protect themselves, or to protect the public.
This was a choice forced upon the Officer's, and it is also very important to note that the teenager was driving a car that was taken at gun point with a shot gun; Officer's new two things, the car was a car jacked car, and a shot gun was used in the car jacking; The decisions they made based upon this information alone, justifies to me the Officer's had every right, to stop escalating the use of force, and using deadly force to stop the teenager.
********According The Records website that the Police fired their weapons when the boy pushed the accelerator while being trapped partially under the garage part of the home. When the Officers hit him, he lost control and slammed into the garage. The Officers said yesterday they would need a search warrant to check the van, to see if any weapons are in the car. that sat in it same position since the shooting happened, through yesterday.**********
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