Off-Duty Officer Fatally Shoots Unarmed Marine *Update Post #109*

[CloudStrife]

That's just it though.... And let's make this extremely clear, I'm discussing a public scenario here....

Operating under the assumption that most of your situations will occur in close contact, and considering the amount of alcohol in this scenario (well over the amount that will give you a .10) then you need to decide if you're comfortable with the knowledge that you cannot accurately fire a handgun and your motor skills have been compromised.

If you are wiling to duck and hide, allowing someone else to defend the situation. Fine.

IIRC Tunatuk had a bachelor party and he requested Nolacop to run "security" while the rest were partying.

If you are not willing to relinquish responsibility, then you either need to not partake, or you need to preplan how to best keep you and yours safe until you are sober once more.

In this particular case, fuel up before you drink. Go from party to home, no stops. No food, no pee breaks.


And now I really am out of the conversation.

I agree. But not being prepared is not a crime. Just stupid. Even if you do take all precautions possible, things may still not go as planned.

 

[my-rifle]

I agree. But not being prepared is not a crime. Just stupid. Even if you do take all precautions possible, things may still not go as planned.

Actually that's not entirely true. Being deliberately impaired while endangering others (like driving) is a crime.

 

[Duck Jenkins]

And now I really am out of the conversation.

I disagree.

------------------------
""Sure it “worked out” for the cop, but he missed several times. He’s lucky that stray bullet didn’t hit an onlooker.""

Anytime there is a stray bullet that does not hit an onlooker, people are lucky, drinking or not. I like luck, I use it as often as I can. Bottom line, they did not. If it turns out to be a good shoot, the drinking should not be an issue (as per law). It might be with his job and their rules. If it was not a good shoot, the drinking will used against him, but the fact is a bad shooting is a bad shooting.

""Even if you do take all precautions possible, things may still not go as planned.""



I do not think you have a realistic view of world and how things happen. Just my thoughts, and I get to have those.

P.S. fight the temptation to respond

 

[CloudStrife]

Actually that's not entirely true. Being deliberately impaired while endangering others (like driving) is a crime.

That's not being poorly prepared, that's intentionally endangering others, similar to intentionally carrying while drunk.

Here's another example: You and a group of friends on your way home. All but the designated driver have been drinking. Along the way, the designated driver has a seizure/stroke/etc while at a stop light. For the sake of the story, there's no other cars on the road and no one has a cell phone. Should some one try to drive to the nearest hospital or just wait around?

 

[Hitman]

*update*

Former Marine Had Hands Raised When Shot

Military.com Link

June 11, 2010
Baltimore Sun

The unarmed former Marine fatally shot by an off-duty Baltimore police officer outside a Mount Vernon bar early Saturday had his hands in the air when the officer fired 13 rounds, striking him nine times in the chest and groin, according to department sources.

Two top police commanders said Thursday that four witnesses -- two friends of victim Tyrone Brown and two bystanders -- corroborated that version of events in taped interviews with homicide detectives and prosecutors.




The commanders acknowledge that three other witnesses who were with Gahiji A. Tshamba said that he identified himself as a police officer and that Brown shoved Tshamba, events that would be more favorable to the officer's case. But police say the version of events described by those witnesses is inconsistent with evidence recovered at the scene and other findings of the investigation.

Police sources with knowledge of preliminary autopsy findings said the medical examiner found a heat imprint from a muzzle blast on Brown's shirt, a condition known as stippling. Such an imprint is created when a weapon is fired from as close as five inches away. The finding could be used to show that Brown was executed at close range, but it could also indicate that he was shot while advancing on the officer.

Police officials, who requested not to be identified in part to distance themselves for now from a highly sensitive case, have taken the unusual step of releasing details of an investigation as part of an effort to defuse public anger that Tshamba has not been charged with a crime.

They say they are frustrated that prosecutors might extend the investigation into next week, delaying the arrest of the 15-year veteran officer.

Officials with the Baltimore state's attorney's office declined to comment on the investigation. State's Attorney Patricia C. Jessamy said during a radio appearance Thursday that her department was "moving forward expeditiously."

Police worry that further delays will add to mounting public suspicion that authorities are protecting one of their own. The unusually harsh criticism, shrouded behind anonymous sources, appears designed to shift public anger over Tshamba's not having been arrested to the prosecutorial arena.

"We handed prosecutors our case Monday morning," said one top police official, who spoke on the condition he not be named. The lead investigator on the case "has slowly interviewed everyone and went to the crime scene. That's fine, but our position is we would like to proceed as soon as possible."

Said another commander: "In this case, the best we can see, there is no reason for this man to have been shot as many times as he was. Homicide is convinced that the evidence is very clear. This is not a complex case. ... There was no physical confrontation. He had his hands up when he was shot."

Speaking with Clarence M. Mitchell IV on WBAL radio, Jessamy said she planned to meet with prosecutors Friday to discuss the case. But she cautioned that doesn't mean charges are imminent.

"I'm not the general public," Jessamy said. "I can't offer opinions. I have to make decisions based on the law, the facts and the evidence. ... We will be moving forward expeditiously."

Despite a swift police investigation, prosecutors say they are awaiting the autopsy report and want to talk with officers who responded to the scene. They have already reinterviewed the seven witnesses.

Privately, officials in the prosecutor's office note that because this is Tshamba's second off-duty shooting of a civilian in five years, they want to make sure the case is handled properly.

In 2005, Tshamba was driving under the influence of alcohol when he got into a confrontation with a group of young men in a sport utility vehicle who he said shouted racial epithets at him. Tshamba followed the car into a residential neighborhood, where the other driver turned his vehicle and rammed the officer. Tshamba chased the men into a wooded area, firing his weapon. A juvenile was hit in the foot.

Tshamba received an eight-day suspension for the incident but avoided criminal charges and dismissal. Prosecutors now privately question whether top police administrators were too lenient in allowing him to remain on the force. As one official said: "They expect us to clean up their mess."

Officials in both the department and state's attorney's office say the pressure from the public, the news media and within their own offices has made the investigation complex and politically charged. One official in the prosecutor's office cautioned that many cases "are not as easy and cut-and-dried and slam-dunks as people want us to believe."

Andrew C. White, a former federal prosecutor who is now a defense attorney, said the state's attorney's office should proceed slowly to build a solid case.

"I think the prosecutors are trying to strike a balance between speed and accuracy," White said. "In the immediate aftermath of a shooting, oftentimes it is not clear if a person acted in self-defense. ... Public opinion has no bearing. You put yourself in a box if you arrest too soon."

White said that when a shooting involves a police officer "who is trained to recognize situations that are rapidly unfolding, you have to give some credit to what the officer says in defense of why he discharged his firearm. ...He gets the benefit of the doubt. Whether it's appropriate or not is a question, but he gets it."

Tshamba remains on desk duty without his gun and badge. Meanwhile, Brown's family has hired an attorney, Andrew D. Freeman, and have announced the funeral for 10 a.m. Wednesday at the Morgan State University auditorium.

The shooting involving Tshamba occurred early Saturday after he and Brown found themselves in an alley off Eager Street and near the back door to Club Hippo.

Brown, a former Marine, touched the officer's female companion, who took exception to what Brown apparently thought was a joke. Brown sister, who witnessed the exchange, said her brother apologized and tried to walk away but Tshamba challenged him.

Police said the officer took out his department-issued Glock and fired 13 rounds from feet away, hitting Brown nine times. Detectives are trying to determine whether Tshamba was impaired by alcohol. The officer has declined to talk to homicide detectives, and he refused to take a breath test.

Once detectives heard from some witnesses that Tshamba might have identified himself as a police officer, investigators treated the probe as a police-involved shooting, meaning any charges would be left for prosecutors, who take all such cases before a grand jury, which adds time before an arrest is made.

One police commander said arresting Tshamba on the spot would have been irresponsible. They didn't know whether he had consumed alcohol, needed to review recordings from a surveillance camera near the shooting scene (later found to be inoperable) and listen to 911 calls, he said.

Tshamba, like any citizen being investigated in a possible crime, does not have to speak to detectives. Unlike a civilian in the same predicament, he cannot be detained and is free to leave to consult an attorney, a right afforded him under his labor contract.

And not every civilian involved in a homicide is arrested immediately. The Johns Hopkins University student who killed an intruder with a samurai sword in the fall of 2009 was questioned by detectives but never arrested or charged. Prosecutors later ruled the killing self-defense. Similarly last year, a dry cleaner and a gas station attendant were never arrested after they shot robbers, and both were later cleared.

Jessamy's office has feuded with city police for years on a variety of issues, including arrest policies, the creation of a list of officers deemed too untrustworthy to testify in court and the thoroughness of police investigations.

Prosecutors have lost or dropped several criminal cases against police officers because of botched probes or missing evidence, including two rape cases in 2007 and a misconduct case in 2001 involving an officer accused of planting drugs on an innocent man.

"There is a reason we are going carefully," one official in the state's attorney's office said of the case being built against Tshamba, "and it's because if we get to trial a year from now, we want to make sure this is right."

 

[Speedlace]

Charged w/ 1st degree murder.

No Bail For Officer Charged In Marine Shooting

Officer Gahiji Tshamba sits in a jail cell after a judge denied bail in his murder case.

Andrea Fujii reports for the first time, his attorney is describing the officer's account of what happened.

For 15 years, city police officer Gahiji Tshamba brought criminals to Baltimore's Central Booking, but now he's the one locked up in protective custody. A judge ordered him held without bail, calling him a flight risk.

"He's not a flight risk. If he was going to fly, he'd be at cruising altitude by now," said attorney Adam Cohen.

Cohen represents the officer who stands charged with the murder of former Marine Tyrone Brown outside of a Mt. Vernon nightclub on June 5.

Witnesses say Brown, 32, was unarmed when the officer shot him 12 times, but Cohen says the then-off duty officer put himself on duty that night because the victim sexually assaulted a woman.

"Mr. Brown decided for whatever reason that he was going to walk over and touch her buttocks and genitals in the presence of Officer Tshamba, who, of course, was not uniformed as an officer," Cohen said.

Despite what police say, Officer Tshamba's defense attorney says that woman was not the officer's girlfriend. Cohen says the officer fired the shots in the alley because he was fearing for his own life.

"A police officer in fear of his life has to do what he has to do to preserve his life and if one shot doesn't work and two shots don't work and three, four, five, six don't work, you fire until the threat is gone," Cohen said.

"This is just ridiculous for you to fire that many shots against an unarmed man," said Allison Streaker, Brown's friend.

The victim's family believes the officer was drinking that night. Tshamba refused a breathalyzer test and had been disciplined by the police department in 2005 for shooting another man while intoxicated.

"He's not afraid of the allegations. He looks forward to addressing them in court," Cohen said.

Officer Tshamba's next court date is set for July 13.

Funeral services for Brown are scheduled for Wednesday.

http://wjz.com/local/marine.off.duty.2.1750104.html

 

[Hitman]

He's going to go free, b/c they made sure he refused the breath test.

Count on it!

 

[oleheat]

Is he yet another naturalized citizen, or did his parent/parents give him a silly name?

 

[CloudStrife]

He's going to go free, b/c they made sure he refused the breath test.

Count on it!

What about the "Did you fire 13 rounds at an unarmed guy and kill him?" test?

 

[jimdana1942]

Poor Marine. Shot in his own country. This Nation is has really gone to sh-t. And it's getting alot worse.

 

[FishingBack]

In 2005, Tshamba was driving under the influence of alcohol when he got into a confrontation with a group of young men in a sport utility vehicle who he said shouted racial epithets at him. Tshamba followed the car into a residential neighborhood, where the other driver turned his vehicle and rammed the officer. Tshamba chased the men into a wooded area, firing his weapon. A juvenile was hit in the foot.

Tshamba received an eight-day suspension for the incident but avoided criminal charges and dismissal. Prosecutors now privately question whether top police administrators were too lenient in allowing him to remain on the force. As one official said: "They expect us to clean up their mess."

First incident is a little more severe than just shooting somebody in the foot while drunk.

8 days suspension for that? The police admin responsible should be fired.

 

[trevor8]

First incident is a little more severe than just shooting somebody in the foot while drunk.

8 days suspension for that? The police admin responsible should be fired.

Yeah thats ridiculous.....


Shooting at fleeing suspects in the back on foot?

 

[Speedlace]

Yeah thats ridiculous.....


Shooting at fleeing suspects in the back on foot?

While drunk driving.
He had a BAC of .12

 

[Hitman]

While drunk driving.
He had a BAC of .12

Which could easily be what he had this time, hence the refusal of the Breathalyzer Test.

 

[VeedUp]

He's going to go free, b/c they made sure he refused the breath test.

Count on it!

your right, what a joke though. This piece of **** is a disgrace to the uniform, Baltimore PD must be a f- Ed up dept. He should have let go after the first incident, due to lability risk.

 

[blanepara9]

Im REALLY glad there was an update on this story, ive actually thought about it everyday since it was first posted, im really interested to see how this pans out. How far will the department go to protect this guy or is it just him and his lawyer???

 

[Puddle Pirate]

Is the term "in fear of his life" afforded to every individual or just police officers? I know that when doing bording team training in the CG we were trained that if we ever had to shoot someone we had better be able to articulate the deadly force triangle. I was never told that it was ok if i was in fear for my life though.

Appologize for the first sentence, I cut and paste my comments out of MS Word as im a horrible speller and the first sentence was from a different post i was commenting on.

 

[Nolacopusmc]

Well you know what they say. Criminals just get a bit smarter everytime they go through the system. Is the term "in fear of his life" afforded to every individual or just police officers? I know that when doing bording team training in the CG we were trained that if we ever had to shoot someone we had better be able to articulate the deadly force triangle. I was never told that it was ok if i was in fear for my life though.

WTF?

 

[trevor8]

Well you know what they say. Criminals just get a bit smarter everytime they go through the system. Is the term "in fear of his life" afforded to every individual or just police officers? I know that when doing bording team training in the CG we were trained that if we ever had to shoot someone we had better be able to articulate the deadly force triangle. I was never told that it was ok if i was in fear for my life though.

 

[Hitman]

*UPDATE* but late just found out....

Arrest Warrant Issued For Gahiji Tshamba

Tshamba held without bond; attorney begins defense

BALTIMORE POLICE OFFICER GAHIJI A. TSHAMBA,
CHARGED WITH FIRST-DEGREE MURDER

Baltimore City State's Attorney's Office
Gahiji Ajamu Tshamba appeared today before Judge John Prevas and pled not guilty. A trial date is set for November 12, 2010. Background on the story and video can be viewed HERE