Cops Still on the Hook for Shooting Teen to Death

[The Straight Story]

Cops Still on the Hook for Shooting Teen to Death


(CN) - The 9th Circuit on Friday revived excessive-force claims against police officers who shot and killed an intoxicated Oregon teenager after he had threatened to kill himself with a pocketknife.

Washington County Sheriff's Deputies Tim Mateski and Mikhail Gerba killed 18-year-old Lukus Glenn just four minutes into the late night altercation near Portland in 2006. Glenn had arrived home drunk, violent and suicidal, breaking windows and threatening to slice his own throat with a pocketknife.

Hoping to calm her son, a recent high school graduate with no police record or history of trouble, Hope Glenn called the police. Lukus' parents allegedly told responding officers that their son was a threat only to himself and then went inside the house with the teen's grandmother who lived next door. They heard the boy say, "Tell them to stop screaming at me" and "Why are you yelling?" Seconds later, after a third officer fired two beanbags at Glenn and he appeared to be moving toward the front door, Mateski and Gerba fired eight bullets.

"Lukus bled out and died on his grandmother's porch shortly after he was shot," the ruling states.

http://www.courthousenews.com/2011/11/04/41221.htm

[Name removed]

1. Deleted message

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[SoCalMusicLover]

2. Don't Forget The Policeman's Motto

An unused bullet is a waste.

[RaleighNCDUer]

3. So they shot him to keep him from killing himself.

Makes sense to me.

[Th1onein]

4. I absolutely agree.

If you think someone is going to kill themselves, go ahead and kill 'em, is what I always say. (I don't know how to make the sarcasm thingy.)

Isn't this a little bit like the guy who was going to jump from some high place, and was tasered and fell to his death?

I know that there are SOME good cops, but I think that the overall macho man type that we have on the streets today cause more harm than good, quite frankly. They prey on the poor and fleece them for minor traffic infractions, and when you really need them, so that you can at least get a report to file an insurance claim, they often refuse to do their jobs. I had to actually tape record one of these jerks, refusing to give a friend of mine a police report on his stolen vehicle, and then threaten him and his department with a lawsuit, alleging fourteen amendment breach of my friend's rights, to get him to issue a report on the stolen vehicle. Now, if you're a business with any clout, they dash to fill out these reports. Not if you're just a common citizen, though.

I had one, in Galveston County, Texas INSIST that I show him my driver's license when I called him out to report someone had shot out the passenger's side window in my PARKED vehicle. I tried to explain to him that you don't have to show a driver's license except when you are driving, and he showed me his form that requested it. I told him, I don't care what his form says. What they are doing is running your driver's license when you report a crime, to see if you have any warrants against you. Now, how many poor people are there, who might have warrants out for minor traffic infractions? Do you think these people are going to call the cops when someone commits a crime against them, when they know they could go to jail for unpaid tickets? It's just really bad policy.

The cop ended up refusing to take the report and just leaving, in his patrol car. I called his supervisor and told him that I would sue them for fourth amendment violations if that cop didn't take the report and give me the case number. Within five minutes, the original officer was on the phone with a case number. He was PISSED off that a lowly citizen was telling him how to do his job.

Too bad. You're here to protect and to serve. Deal with it. He's lucky I didn't take the time to write a certified letter to his supervisor and on up the chain of command. It would have ended up in his personnel file.