Stress and Weapons Confusion

[Glenn]

The January 1 shooting of an unarmed man by a police officer in Oakland California is raising the usual concerns and creating the usual responses. One item in the news report caught my attention though, due to its relevance to previous discussions here. Here are the relevant exerpts (emphasis added):

Grant, 22, was killed on a Bay Area Rapid Transit station platform after officers went there amid reports about groups of men fighting on a train. He was one of a small group of men taken off the train, and officers had made him lie face down at the time he was killed.

The shooting and events leading up to it were captured on amateur videos that have been broadcast on television.

Some experts who viewed the video clips speculated that Mehserle fired his gun because he believed Grant had a deadly weapon, while others think the officer had mistakenly his handgun for a stun gun.

"If he was under stress he would not be able to distinguish between a Taser and his firearm," said Bruce Siddle, founder of PPCT Management Systems, an Illinois company that trains law-enforcement officers in use-of-force.

CAUTION: The video linked below shows the shooting, view at your discretion
The video is on youtube of course. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IKy-WSZMklc is a news station's coverage that includes amateur footage starting at 1:46 minutes that is at a fairly good angle and clarity to see what is happening. At 2:00 a struggle begins between the officers and the suspect as they force him to lay face down and then attempt to hold him there. At 2:22 one of the officers reaches to his side holster and appears to have a little difficulty pulling the weapon out, then the shooting occurs at 2:26. The officer then immediately stands up and re-holsters his weapon. The officers seem to then check the condition of the suspect, but I don't get the sense that they are checking him for a weapon.

So what about the speculation about confusion of weapons under stress? Handguns and tasers have a different shape, feel, etc. and are usually located at different locations on an officer's belt. Could he truly have thought he had his taser instead of his handgun? Siddle seems pretty certain of it.

[MikeK]

I think it's horse poop. Are they sure he even had a Taser?

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.c ... 154P0R.DTL

Siddle is just one of many voices, one of which is familiar to many here, Roy Bedard.

Siddle said changes in how the brain processes information in a stressful situation might have led the officer to mistake the butt of his service weapon for the Taser. But other experts found the idea that the shooting resulted from such a mix-up hard to believe.

"That's as reflexive as you getting in on the driver's side of the car (instead of) the passenger side if you want to drive it," Kirkham said. "There's no remote similarity to a conventional firearm. ... The Taser is just like apples and oranges."

It is more likely, Kirkham said, that the officer and his attorney will argue that the officer saw or felt something on Grant - a cell phone, a belt buckle - that he believed was a weapon and that Grant was about to use it.

"That is the only possible explanation I can come up with," he said. "Beyond that, you've got me."

BART officials have said Grant was unarmed.

Another expert, Roy Bedard, who has trained police officers around the world, advanced a different theory after his first viewing of the video: that the shooting was a pure accident, a trigger pulled because of a loss of balance or a loud noise.

But in an indication of how the videos might move the investigation, Bedard reached a different conclusion after viewing the shooting from a different angle.

"Looking at it, I hate to say this, it looks like an execution to me," he said. "It really looks bad for the officer. ... We have to get inside his head and figure out what he was thinking when he fired the shot."

[Bill Glasheen]

For what it's worth, Mike... A number of us are familiar with both Roy Bedard and Bruce Siddle.

I met Bruce circa 1986 when he came to our Uechi camp. I was his uke when he was teaching his Pressure Point Control Tactics seminar. I also had him over for dinner back in my Charlottesville days when he came with me to discuss "sudden death" with members of the faculty in UVa cardiology. Bruce is well published in the law enforcement literature. He is extremely well respected by Van and others.

Roy Bedard is also a professional, coming in half a generation later.

I agree that it isn't safe to assume anything. We weren't in his shoes, and we don't know what he was thinking. But Bruce knows of events just like what he described. I think all he's saying is that there was a POSSIBILITY of a mistake under pressure.

By the way, anyone ever heard of Plaxico Burress? Stuff happens...

- Bill

[Bill Glasheen]

"as if he was reaching for his handcuff, he reached for his gun. *** It makes no sense..."

- John Burris, Grant Family Attorney

[Glenn]

In addition to stress, the other condition likely at work is focus. He does not appear to look at his gun as he draws it, he appears focused on helping to subdue the suspect and while in that focus reaches for something. I know there have been times when I have been so focused on something and go to reach for an object without looking, and only when I go to use it do I realize I have the wrong object. To me it's not a big leap for the officer to be very focused on subduing the suspect while in the back of his mind he is reaching for handcuffs or taser, his hand comes in contact first with the handgun and pulls it out to use it as a handcuff or taser as the front of his mind thinks he should, and the gun goes off before he realizes he has the wrong tool. Speculation like all the others, but I think equally possible.

[Glenn]

Looks like the prosecution is agreeing with Bedard's statement that the shooting appears to be intentional.
Ex-cop charged with murder in Calif. shooting

OAKLAND (AP) — A former transit officer has been charged with murder in the shooting death of an unarmed black man that set off violent protests, officials said Wednesday.

Johannes Mehserle, 27, was arrested Tuesday in Nevada and on Wednesday appeared briefly in court, where he waived extradition to California. He was expected to be returned to California later Wednesday.

Witnesses said Mehserle, who is white, fired a shot into the back of 22-year-old Oscar Grant while the man was lying face down on a train platform at a station in Oakland. Grant and others had been pulled off a train after reports of fighting, as New Year's Eve revelers were shuttling home after midnight.

Alameda Country District Attorney Tom Orloff said he would not speculate on whether the charge would end up being first-degree murder or second-degree murder.

"At this point, what I feel the evidence indicates, is an unlawful killing done by an intentional act and from the evidence we have there's nothing that would mitigate that to something lower than a murder," Orloff said at a news conference announcing the charge.

Mehserle's attorney, Christopher Miller, planned a news conference later Wednesday at his office in Sacramento.

The shooting, captured on cellphone cameras and widely viewed on the Internet, has inflamed long-running tensions between law enforcement authorities and many African-American residents.

Hundreds of people have taken to the streets calling for the prosecution of Mehserle, with one rally last week spiraling into violence that resulted in more than 100 arrests and damage to dozens of businesses.

Another demonstration was planned Wednesday afternoon.

Mehserle surrendered without incident Tuesday at a family friend's house in an upscale neighborhood on the east shore of Lake Tahoe in Douglas County, Nev., law enforcement officials said.

Douglas County Undersheriff Paul Howell said he believes Mehserle went to Nevada for his own safety.

"He just wanted to get out of the Bay Area due to the magnitude of the incident," Howell said. "He wasn't trying to run."

John Burris, the attorney for Grant's family, said the news of the charge was "terrific."

"It is consistent with the evidence I have seen. I think the family will be pleased," Burris said.

Mehserle had refused to talk to Bay Area Regional Transit investigators before resigning last week.

"I want to know why he did it," said BART board member Carole Ward Allen. "We've heard from everybody else but him. While I can't speak for the entire BART board, we want to make this process as transparent as possible."

State Attorney General Jerry Brown assigned a prosecutor to monitor the case, and the U.S. Department of Justice sent mediators to help avert additional violent demonstrations.

[mhosea]

But in an indication of how the videos might move the investigation, Bedard reached a different conclusion after viewing the shooting from a different angle.

This was a dumb thing for the reporter to write. Roy's statement was not a "conclusion".

[Bill Glasheen]

This was a dumb thing for the reporter to write. Roy's statement was not a "conclusion".

I hate it when I have to say "I told you so." But... I told you so. Use inflammatory words and the true meaning of what you wrote is lost in the public debate.

As for being charged, well it's the obligation of the DA to do so. There is an unexplained use of lethal force by Mehserle, and he has (perhaps wisely) chosen not to comment on his actions. The legal process needs to take its course.

- Bill