Virginia Officer Stephen Rankin indicted in teen's death at Walmart parking lot

[Recursion]

Source: CNN

A grand jury has indicted Portsmouth, Virginia, police Officer Stephen Rankin on a first-degree murder charge related to the shooting of an unarmed teen in a Walmart parking lot, according to public Virginia court records.

William Chapman, 18, was fatally shot on April 22.

Police responded to a shoplifting call at a Walmart, after which the officer approached Chapman, according to Jon Babineau, an attorney for the teen's family.

There was a struggle between the officer, who has been fired, and Chapman before the shooting, according to a witness.

Read more: http://www.cnn.com/2015/09/03/us/virginia-police-shooting-murder-charge/

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NB: this is not the toy gun Wal-Mart shooting case.

[Eko]

1. I will reserve my judgement on this one

until further evidence is presented. If you come at a police officer, who has a gun, it is his duty to protect himself and his gun. The assailant can take the gun, kill the officer and then kill other people with that gun. I am not saying the officer is innocent nor guilty, just that there needs to be more evidence presented to come to a conclusion.

[salib]

2. All the more reason for first responders NOT to have guns.

Other countries' police forces do quite well without guns for nearly all situations.

It is the least risky way to go overall for all concerned.

We need to BACK DOWN from the militaristic stance taken on everything in this country. Let's start with the police.

[Eko]

3. When you have yahoos

who can walk around carrying ar15's I think the police should have guns. I hear ya though, we could do without guns and this would be a better place.