Philly Police Officer Shot Himself - then lied and blamed a Black Man

[RamboLiberal]

It was the phone call police in Philadelphia most dread: an officer shot while on patrol.

In a city that has seen more than its share of police killings in recent years, the department's leaders were grimly prepared. Sometime after 4 a.m. on April 5, after Sgt. Robert Ralston was taken to the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania with a shoulder wound, the department's top brass rushed to his side, including Police Commissioner Charles H. Ramsey, who was sick with a stomach virus.

Ralston's injury turned out to be minor. But when he started telling the tale of his brush with disaster, the story raised red flags almost immediately.

Ralston, 46, said he had been shot in West Philadelphia by a black man who pointed a revolver at his head, then grazed him in the shoulder when Ralston knocked the gun away. He said he had returned fire and hit the man in the chest, but no gunshot victim turned up in a hospital.

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Over the next few weeks, as police searched the scene and the neighborhood for clues, Ralston's tale continued to unravel. Gunpowder residue found on Ralston's shirt matched the ammunition in his own service weapon, and suggested he'd been shot at point-blank range. Ralston made mistakes when describing the layout of the area where the shooting took place. And though Ralston was adamant he'd shot the assailant, no blood was found at the scene.

Around 4 a.m. Tuesday, after four hours of questioning by detectives at Police Headquarters, Ralston admitted he had shot himself, fabricated the story, and made the false report.

http://www.philly.com/philly/news/breaking/20100511_Phila__officer_admits_lie_in_saying_he_was_shot.html

What a scumbag! And the idiots in Philly gave him immunity to get his testimony so he will still get his taxpayer funded pension!

[PM Martin]

1. As I have said before,

'qualified immunity' must be eliminated.

[TorchTheWitch]

5. I don't think so

Without it he wouldn't have confessed, and his confession was the only way they could get rid of him. They had no way to prove he was lying and wouldn't have been able to even fire him much less prosecute him. At least this way they could take his badge, gun and job away from him and he'll never be a cop anywhere ever again.

[dbmk]

12. The same evidence would probably have been enough to convict

..any other person.

[ericinne]

2. Must be a relative

Must be a relative of Ashley Todd.

[xultar]

3. It isn't all bad. A black man will prolly shoot him now.

[Frances]

4. Blaming black people has been going on for a long time

My mother, who was born in 1917, knew a teenaged girl who wanted to get her long hair "bobbed"; her father didn't hold with such non-traditional things, so the girl cut her own hair and then said a black man did it!! At that time and in that place, racism caused people to be irrational so don't know if her father believed the girl's story or not.

[lonestarnot]

10. Eeek. Don't give Arizona any more ideas. Mexicans have been the cause of excessive wind here today

[Historic NY]

6. jackass and not our kind.

[gratuitous]

7. Well, let's make sure we don't think he's racist

After all, would we have thought he was some kind of class war hata if he said he'd been capped by a rich dude? So, just because Officer Ralston blamed a non-existent black man for his own fuckheadedness, we shouldn't just conclude that he's racist. That would be just soooo unfair.

[Name removed]

8. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Wilms]

9. .

[NYC Liberal]

11. Hm. For some reason, the first thing I thought of was Ashley Todd.

Fucker.

[WinkyDink]

13. I REALLY would like to see Lennie Briscoe on this one.