ES. deputies shoot man in his front yard

...the next thing ya' know ole Jed's a millionaire, Kin folks said Jed move away from there....

Morgan is holding a press conference at 3PM to talk about it.

Bob wrote:Morgan is holding a press conference at 3PM to talk about it.

I

WEAR covering it?

If this county has to pay out a million or so dollars from our taxes, it's our fault for tolerating this kind of activity by our sheriff's dept. Last time I saw Sheriff Morgan I told him I thought he was doing a good job. After the fiasco with the jail and now this, I won't be telling him that again.

Joanimaroni wrote:

Bob wrote:Morgan is holding a press conference at 3PM to talk about it.

I

WEAR  covering it?

I would imagine so but I got it from this new newspaper article...

http://www.pnj.com/comments/article/20130729/NEWS11/130729006/Mother-of-man-shot-in-his-front-yard-speaks-out

With what information is available it looks like Roy Middleton should be a wealthy man and own a good part of whichever county these deputies represent.

As for your sheriff... Incidents like this are why he gets paid the big bucks and he should be readily available to answer questions of the public. Looks like ya' all need a new sheriff and deputies.

However that's based only on the information that's available at this time.

*****SMILE*****

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wQzUCO7rG0M

 

Damaged Eagle wrote:

With what information is available it looks like Roy Middleton should be a wealthy man and own a good part of whichever county these deputies represent.

 

Unfortunately that's not quite how it works.

If you or I mistakenly shoot someone and he sues us, it's the shooter  (one of us) who has to cough up the money.  Neither the sheriff's department nor the county government pays for our liability insurance.  We pay for all of it.

BUT,  if a sheriff's deputy mistakenly shoots someone and is sued,  he does not pay for his mistake.  WE DO.

Bob wrote:

Damaged Eagle wrote:

With what information is available it looks like Roy Middleton should be a wealthy man and own a good part of whichever county these deputies represent.

 

Unfortunately that's not quite how it works.

If you or I mistakenly shoot someone and he sues us,  it's the shooter  (one of us) who has to cough up the money.  Neither the sheriff's department nor the county government pays for our liability insurance.  We pay for all of it.

BUT,  if a sheriff's deputy mistakenly shoots someone and is sued,  he does not pay for his mistake.  WE DO.

I take it that when you say WE DO at the end of your post that you mean that in the end it comes out of the taxpayers pocket.

Which is sad but that's what you get for putting people like this in office if it's proven they were in the wrong. After all their job is to protect the public which happens to be you and others who live in that county.

I might suggest a severance of services for the sheriff and deputies if this goes down that way and a more careful screening of prospective candidates if they are replaced.

*****SMILE*****

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wQzUCO7rG0M

 

Damaged Eagle wrote:

I take it that when you say WE DO at the end of your post that you mean that in the end it comes out of the taxpayers pocket.


 

That's correct.  When it comes to this,  governments are just like corporations.  They pass all of the cost of liability claims to others.
Governments pass it to the taxpayers and corporations pass it to the customers.
The only difference is we can choose which corporations we want to give our money to.  We don't have that choice with governments.

The fear level is ramping up......the need for everybody to be armed and afraid makes a job as a LEO a nightmare. I simply do not understand the fear necessary to carry a weapon out in public, and if I was a LEO, I would be considering another line of work, because we will shortly become the wild west......this illusion of safety with a gun is making no citizen safe. There needs to be a legitimate discussion of the need for everybody to be running around armed.....I have no problem with conceal and carry in a very limited application, and I certainly do not want any guns in a person's home disturbed, but this is simply stupid. Scared police and scared citizens just does not work. We need to find courage again..........

Bob wrote:

Damaged Eagle wrote:

I take it that when you say WE DO at the end of your post that you mean that in the end it comes out of the taxpayers pocket.


 

That's correct.  When it comes to this,  governments are just like corporations.  They pass all of the cost of liability claims to others.
Governments pass it to the taxpayers and corporations pass it to the customers.
The only difference is we can choose which corporations we want to give our money to.  We don't have that choice with governments.

You do have the right to choose who represents you in government though.

So make the best choice you can.

*****SMILE*****

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iXRmJyIyJbM

 

2seaoat wrote:The fear level is ramping up......the need for everybody to be armed and afraid makes a job as a LEO a nightmare.  I simply do not understand the fear necessary to carry a weapon out in public, and if I was a LEO, I would be considering another line of work, because we will shortly become the wild west......this illusion of safety with a gun is making no citizen safe.  There needs to be a legitimate discussion of the need for everybody to be running around armed.....I have no problem with conceal and carry in a very limited application, and I certainly do not want any guns in a person's home disturbed, but this is simply stupid.  Scared police and scared citizens just does not work.   We need to find courage again..........

Yeah that's really worked well in Chicago.

*****CHUCKLE*****

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jZk9tycQ9q0

 

bluemoon wrote:If this county has to pay out a million or so dollars from our taxes, it's our fault for tolerating this kind of activity by our sheriff's dept.  Last time I saw Sheriff Morgan I told him I thought he was doing a good job. After the fiasco with the jail and now this, I won't be telling  him that again.

In all honesty, Moon, he inherited the problems at the jail.

Yeah that's really worked well in Chicago.

Chicago is the front line of the drug war. It is time for peace. End the drug war, and end fear in America.

2seaoat wrote:Yeah that's really worked well in Chicago.

Chicago is the front line of the drug war.  It is time for peace.  End the drug war, and end fear in America.

I have no problem with legalizing drugs and taxing the crap out of them with huge fines for those that attempt to produce and/or sell outside of the governments domain.

Of course if they're using drugs they'd best be able to hold a job because I'm all for reducing entitlements. Especially for those who damage themselves abusing drugs. Their choice their responsibility.

*****SMILE*****

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fi2XCsPKlY8

2seaoat wrote:The fear level is ramping up......the need for everybody to be armed and afraid makes a job as a LEO a nightmare.  I simply do not understand the fear necessary to carry a weapon out in public, and if I was a LEO, I would be considering another line of work, because we will shortly become the wild west......this illusion of safety with a gun is making no citizen safe.  There needs to be a legitimate discussion of the need for everybody to be running around armed.....I have no problem with conceal and carry in a very limited application, and I certainly do not want any guns in a person's home disturbed, but this is simply stupid.  Scared police and scared citizens just does not work.   We need to find courage again..........

maybe if the cops are afraid of armed citizens they should be looking for a new line of work. i have a couple of friends that are alabama leos, one for clarke county sd and the other for linden pd. i can assure you that are not afraid of the citizens being armed. all armed citizens are not thugs as you assume they are.

Oh!!!!! While we're at it since the papers like to publish who has concealed carry permits... I'm a thinkin' that drug user permits should be required and published in the local news also.

*****CHUCKLE*****

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=46bBWBG9r2o



There that gets us back on subject.

Ole roy had a cocaine bust three years ago. I wonder what he's going to spend all his newly hard earned money on? And just yesterday, couldn't even afford a pack of newports.

gulfbeachbandit wrote:Ole roy had a cocaine bust three years ago.  I wonder what he's going to spend all his newly hard earned money on?  And just yesterday, couldn't even afford a pack of newports.

I didn't know that. That changes everything. If he snorted cocaine at some point then he needed to be shot. I snorted it at one time too and I hope the cops also shoot me when the neighbors see me get a cigarette from my car.

Dammit.....Bob you want me to fire some practice shots at you? You can get use to zig-zagging.

The latest news journal story is saying this is getting national attention.
And that's confirmed by blog comments below the story from Alberta,  Canada and Brooklyn.

I love the comment from the dude in Brooklyn...

Minister Rutherford · Top Commenter · Brooklyn, New York
You're wrong Sister, this is NOT Florida, this is the Panhandle! BIG difference! This is the old tyme South in all its infamy.

Try KKK rallies not a mile from where the man was shot. http://www.pensapedia.com/wiki/Ku_Klux_Klan

Of course if you click on the pensapedia page the Klan stuff on there is in 1921.  And who knows where he got that crap about Klan rallies being a mile from where this happened.  What claptrap.  lol

Bob wrote:The latest news journal story is saying this is getting national attention.
And that's confirmed by blog comments below the story from Alberta,  Canada and Brooklyn.

I love the comment from the dude in Brooklyn...

Minister Rutherford · Top Commenter · Brooklyn, New York
You're wrong Sister, this is NOT Florida, this is the Panhandle! BIG difference! This is the old tyme South in all its infamy.

Try KKK rallies not a mile from where the man was shot. http://www.pensapedia.com/wiki/Ku_Klux_Klan

Of course if you click on the pensapedia page the Klan stuff on there is in 1921.  And who knows where he got that crap about Klan rallies being a mile from where this happened.  What claptrap.  lol

bob i have had some dialoguw with minister rutherford in the past and he has always left me with the notion that his elevator does not go all the way to the penthouse.

Bob wrote:The latest news journal story is saying this is getting national attention.
And that's confirmed by blog comments below the story from Alberta,  Canada and Brooklyn.

I love the comment from the dude in Brooklyn...

Minister Rutherford · Top Commenter · Brooklyn, New York
You're wrong Sister, this is NOT Florida, this is the Panhandle! BIG difference! This is the old tyme South in all its infamy.

Try KKK rallies not a mile from where the man was shot. http://www.pensapedia.com/wiki/Ku_Klux_Klan

Of course if you click on the pensapedia page the Klan stuff on there is in 1921.  And who knows where he got that crap about Klan rallies being a mile from where this happened.  What claptrap.  lol

The Klan rallies were in Century.

A ricks blog article provides more information about Morgan's comments at the press conference...
___________________________

Ceola Walker has been searching for answers since Saturday. That’s when Roy Middleton, her 60-year-old son, was shot by sheriff deputies as he tried to retrieve cigarettes from the Lincoln Town Car parked in the driveway.

“I don’t have an answer for how that could have gone down like that,” Walker said this afternoon. “How a man can get shot at his own house, police shooting so many times, trying to kill him. I don’t understand.”

Escambia County Sheriff David Morgan gave a press conference later in the afternoon. He talked about the training sheriff officers receive, and detailed the circumstances surrounding the weekend shooting. But he also had a question.

“… how did it go so horribly wrong?” Morgan asked at the press conference.

That’s the question the Florida Department of Law Enforcement will try to answer. As with all officer-involved shootings, the FDLE is conducting an investigation.

Morgan began the press conference by playing an audio recording of a 911 call from a neighbor. The caller—who’s identity is not being released—reports an attempted car jacking at 218 Shadow Lawn Lane.

“He keeps ducking down underneath the dashboard, trying to reach for something,” the caller tells the dispatch operator.

Several deputies are dispatched to the residence. The caller walks out into his front yard and waits for their arrival as he watches the man in the car in his neighbor’s driveway.

“This is crazy,” he tells the operator. “I’m standing out here in the middle of the yard talking on the phone, and he’s not even noticed me.”

According to the incident report, three officers arrived on the scene. They parked down the street and approached the residence.

As the officers parked away from the house, there is no dashboard video of this incident. The only known non-officer witness, the 911 caller, retreated indoors when the gunfire began.

“Obviously, when the shots began, he ran for his house,” Morgan said, later adding, “Until the first shot was fired, he observed the entire incident. That’s the point he ran for his house.”

Deputy Jeremiah Meeks, on the job two years, was the first to reach the driveway. Sergeant Matt White, a 14-year veteran, was next.

The third officer, Wayne Wright, was still making his way to the driveway when the shooting began.
“Sergeant White was slightly ahead of me, and as I got closer to the residence I observed Deputy Meeks near the end of the driveway,” Wright wrote in the report. “I then heard verbal commands being shouted to have the subject get out of the vehicle and show his hands. Deputy Meeks and Sergeant White then both fired their weapons.”

Middleton’s mother pegs the bullet-count at 17. She’s got holes in her car and house.

“They were putting down little numbers for the bullets and I saw’em put 17, I think,” Walker said. “There was a lot of them.”

Sheriff Morgan today reported 15 shots fired.

“Within seconds,” the sheriff said, adding that the officers carry .40 caliber Glocks, with a 17-round capacity.

Morgan attributed the number of shots fired to “officer anxiety.” But he also said the officers were reacting to Middleton, who he described as not responding to commands and making a “lunging motion” towards the car’s middle console. He also noted that the officers saw a “metallic object” in the man’s hand and that they fired “fearing for their safety.”

“There’s numerous commands going throughout this incident,” Morgan said. “You’ve got to remember, everybody’s ramped at this point.”

The sheriff declined to elaborate on the “metallic object,” citing FDLE’s ongoing investigation, other than to say that two objects were recovered on scene.  The incident report cites neither a “metallic object” or a lunge toward the mid console of the car; Wright does state in the report that he “observed a cell phone on the ground between [Middleton] and the vehicle.”

The gunshots are what woke up Walker. For a few sleepy seconds she recalls thinking it might be her son locked out of the house and rapping his fingers on her window. Then she knew it wasn’t that.

“I could hear them giving him orders, and my son saying he’d been shot,” Walker recalled.

According to the incident report, the officers could not see Middleton’s right hand as he lay on the ground. At the press conference, Morgan explained that the victim was laying on his hand.

The officers continued giving Middleton commands to show both hands, which he eventually did. As his injuries are being assessed, the man tells officers it’s his house—a fact verified by the Florida driver’s license in his back pocket—and makes a “spontaneous statement to the effect that he thought it was his neighbor playing with a flashlight.”

“He thought it was a neighbor playing a joke,” Morgan explained at the press conference.

When the mother approached the front door, officers told her to stay inside the house. She said today they had yet to contact her with any explanation or apology.

“They haven’t contacted me at all,” Walker said, adding that she was interested in what would be revealed at the press conference.

Sheriff Morgan did apologize to the shooting victim and his family during the press conference, but also stressed that the officers’ actions were “dictated” by the actions of Middleton. He called reports that Middleton had been shot while backing out of the vehicle with his hands raised—an assertion the victim has made—“erroneous,” and said the press conference was intended to “clear up, as always, some rumors that are coming in.”

The sheriff also provided the media with a tally of the total calls-for-service in the area of the incident—1,808 calls for the year to date—and said that his office attempts to get officers “connected to the community as much as possible, with an understanding of who we deal with in the community.”

Morgan also noted that this incident had attracted outside attention.

“We get concerned when Facebook lights up across the nation,” he said.

As the sheriff weathers national attention and fields queries on the weekend shooting, the FDLE begins its investigation. And Middleton, on the mend from the weekend shooting, looks to return home soon.

For that, his mother is thankful.

“I know one thing,” Walker said. “The lord took care of him. The way they fired those bullets, they could’ve hit him in the head, the chest.”

GIVE ALL THE DEPUTIES ONE BULLET AND MAKE THEM CARRY IT IN THEIR SHIRT POCKET.