Body camera footage of SC shooting contradicts police claims

[Eugene]

Source: Associated Press

Body camera footage of SC shooting contradicts police claims

By JEFFREY COLLINS
July 29, 2019

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — A South Carolina homeowner who was shot by a deputy checking a medical alarm did not jerk open his front door with a gun and was instead standing in the home’s foyer when the officer shot through a window, according to body camera footage released Monday.

Homeowner Dick Tench has a concealed weapons permit and did have his gun in his hand, but was devastated when the Greenville County Sheriff’s Office’s initial account of the incident had him pointing his weapon at a police officer, his lawyer said.

“We were waiting to see the body camera footage to confirm what Dick knew all along — That he was shot through the window,” attorney Beattie Ashmore said. “The deputy’s version doesn’t hold up.”

The deputy was by himself just after midnight June 14 when he came to Tench’s Simpsonville home after a cellphone connected to the address sent out a medical distress alarm.

-snip-

Read more: https://apnews.com/3bc31051880a433c8713e7b6812a70a0

[MustLoveBeagles]

1. What was the point in lying?

The officer's own body cam footage proved the homeowner was telling the truth. So stupid.

[uponit7771]

10. IKR !?!?!

[Mariana]

12. Maybe he thought his department would disappear the footage.

It's also possible that this cop is one of those who just lies as a matter of course, and has always gotten away with it. Maybe it never even occurred to him that he should tell the truth this time.

[Dawson Leery]

2. Most times it does.

[safeinOhio]

3. Filling a false police report.

That be a felony and if convicted he will never touch a firearm for the rest of his life...and that'd be a good thing.

[PSPS]

4. Sounds like a cop is getting a paid vacation

[3Hotdogs]

5. Why would you have your gun out while responding to a medical problem?

[SCantiGOP]

6. He didn't know the alarm had gone out

Someone knocked on his door at midnight and was shining a light in, so he picked up his gun (he had a concealed weapon permit) and was standing in the foyer when the cop fired through the window.

If you meant why did the cop have his gun out, he didn’t know what the alarm was for.

[stopdiggin]

7. modest correction

"concealed carry" has nothing to do with a weapon within your own home. The only possible relevance here would be if people are trying to say that the man was a legal gun owner.

[3Hotdogs]

8. I meant the cop.... was it also a dispatcher error for not identifying the type of alarm?

[SCantiGOP]

9. Not sure

And impossible to say since the body cam shows the cop was obviously lying about the encounter. Cop could have simply retreated out of line of fire and waited for backup or more info; instead he fired at a guy standing inside his locked house.

[bermudat]

11. Was the homeowner Anglo?