Police officer charged with homicide in shooting death in Dauphin County

[John1956PA]

Source: AP

HARRISBURG, Pa. — The video from the camera attached to the officer’s stun gun shows how David Kassick died, authorities say: two bullets, four seconds apart, fired into his back as he lay face down.

Two months before a police officer was captured on video shooting a South Carolina motorist eight times in the back, Mr. Kassick was killed by a Pennsylvania officer from a small town in Dauphin County who is now charged with criminal homicide.

“I think it would be impossible not to see some similarities between the two, inasmuch as the manner in which both individuals are shot,” said Christopher Slusser, a lawyer working for Mr. Kassick’s family who has viewed the video.

Unlike the video in the South Carolina case, which has itself resulted in a murder charge, the footage recorded by Hummelstown police Officer Lisa Mearkle’s stun gun has not been released. Attorneys for the officer want to keep it that way: they asked a judge on Friday to bar the prosecution from releasing it.

Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/local/2015/04/19/Police-officer-charged-with-homicide-in-shooting-death-in-Dauphin-County/stories/201504190192

[rpannier]

1. Yep. Can't let the public see

It might convince more people not to trust or believe the police

[cstanleytech]

8. Its the officers attorneys who requested it though not the police department

nor the prosecutor so unless her attorney has a good reason I cant see the judge granting her attorneys request to block its release to be honest.

[Adrahil]

11. It could be argued that it taints the jury pool....

... But I can't see how it can be suppressed long term.

[cstanleytech]

12. True and I agree with you that in the long term they

will release it though they will move heaven and earth to prevent it and I suspect even the police and the city/county will properly try to suppress it's release to because of potential litigation they are surely facing unless of course they settle out of court with the family of the guy who was killed.

[avebury]

2. If he is going to be presecuted, the

video will be released - sooner or later.

[Lochloosa]

13. She...not he

[bravenak]

3. Release the evidence. We the peopke deserve to know who is policing us and how.

Film the po po, y'all. It might save your life or someone else's if they see that they are being filmed.

[sheshe2]

7. I agree, bravenak.

I want each and everyone of them in jail for murder. Time for this to stop.

[uponit7771]

14. +1

[FailureToCommunicate]

4. Another traffic stop resulting in the death sentence administered by a cop with a history of

abuse of power.
But no, it's SO different than the South Carolina case:

“She’s giving the guy repeated commands to stop, she’s giving him repeated commands to show his hands. She Tased him four times. They’re completely different facts than shooting a guy running away in the back,” Perry said.

RIGHT...how is it different exactly?

[valerief]

5. God forbid a dirty cop s/b sentenced to prison. nt

[rury]

6. I cheer every time video evidence

surfaces that shows the heinous deeds of these murderous thugs who wear badges and have the power of the state behind them.

[damnedifIknow]

9. Smart woman

"We are fast approaching the stage of the ultimate inversion: the stage where the government is free to do anything it pleases, while the citizens may act only by permission; which is the stage of the darkest periods of human history, the stage of rule by brute force."
Ayn Rand

[Historic NY]

10. Interesting since she had both the taser & her gun in hand......

According to DA Marsico, the video shows her shooting the man in the back, as he lies on his stomach, struggling to remove Taser barbs stuck in his back.

In doing so, one of his hands disappeared from sight briefly, despite Mearkle's warning to show them. Fearing he'd draw a weapon, she shot and then shot again.

Marsico concluded that her response was not a justified use of deadly force and amounted to a crime. There was no sign of any weapon, and the suspect, David Kassick, had not been physically aggressive toward her up to that point. Unlike Michael Brown in Ferguson, Kassick had not wrestled for her gun or turned to charge her


http://www.pennlive.com/opinion/2015/03/hummelstown_police_shooting_of.html#incart_story_package