Note: that headline is not my opinion of this piece; it was sent with the link Mother calls police shooting of son in wheelchair ‘unjust’ [via Memphis’ commercialappeal.com]. Did the cops know the wheelchair-bound guy was suicidal? Did they know Jeremy McDole had a rap sheet? Did he point his gun at the cop? Did they know he’d already shot himself? Did McDole pose a lethal threat to innocent life? Should the cops have backed-off? Is this suicide by cop? There are a lot of questions and conflicting reports . . .
The shooting happened on a narrow street in Wilmington on Wednesday around 3 p.m. Officers responded to a 911 call of a man who had shot himself, and when they arrived, 28-year-old Jeremy McDole was “still armed with a handgun,” Police Chief Bobby Cummings said during a news conference.
McDole’s mother, Phyllis McDole, interrupted the briefing.
“He was in a wheelchair, paralyzed from the waist down. There’s video showing that he didn’t pull a weapon … I need answers,” she said.
Cummings said officers approached McDole and told him to put the weapon down. As McDole was removing the gun from his waist, officers “engaged him.”
“I assure you that not one of those officers intended to take anyone’s life that day,” Cummings said.
And what made that day so special? I kid (tastelessly). I know there’s not a lot to go on here, but what’s your take on this? [h/t JM]
I read that headline yesterday. Do cops just shoot anyone they see with a pistol? “THE RIGHT TO KEEP AND BEARS ARMS AND TO GET SHOT BY COPS IF THEY SEE A FIREARM”
If you have tried to commit suicide and failed, call the police. Just hide your dog first.
Unclear from this video-what IS clear is wheelchair dude needed to comply with po-leece. Maybe SBC.
Can’t put your hands up after cops have shot you once? They reserve the right to shoot you dead!
THIS is what passes for “professionalism” these days? WTF is wrong with these pussies?
If you’re afraid of the smallest danger, find another job.
There is no take on this. No one posting here has any idea about what happened. Next story please.
Nothing to see here? Move along?
Pretty much Merc. No video of the police shooting, no care. I will say as an interesting point if all the guns are removed from society, it is likely that people will use the police for assisted Suicide Kevorkian style.
Put that holstered gun down! *starts to put down gun*.. Blam blam!
He had a gun in his hand!
The man in the wheelchair was homicidal. The dog in the backyard was suicidal. The baby in the crib made a furtive movement. And the guy in the police station backed into that plunger handle. Hey, any of those things could have happened that way — but some of them didn’t.
Why bother releasing a video when it cuts out at the moment that anything happens that would exculpate or inculpate the people involved?
There’s no way anyone can reasonably determine whether this was a ‘good shoot’ or ‘bad shoot’ based on the information provided.
Though plenty will make a determination anyway…
As a rule of thumb, when video conveniently cuts out before a critical moment, I presume that what follows would not have served the agenda of the one releasing the video.
Ralph……….the dog WAS suicidal………….Heard it from a third cousin of the lady who lives down the block from where the cop’s ex-mother in law used to get her hair done. Certifiable fact.
Suicide is a crime right? Cop was just having a judge Dredd moment and executing the sentence.
I tried to count the shots several times and counted anywhere from 13 to 17 shots … which makes me think the police fired 15 times.
It would appear that once police start shooting, they don’t stop shooting until they are certain the suspect is dead — or will die for certain. Is this a bad policy?
When one begins to fire, all begin firing. Its a stimulus/response under pressure thing.
Their is a technical term for this but it escapes me right now.
Sympathetic fire.
I believe the term you’re not remembering is “sympathetic gunfire”.
Pack behavior. One predator attacks, and the others join in by reflex.
Maybe the cops should of thought of how what they were about to do sound on the 5 o’clock news.
So they told him to put the weapon down, as he attempted to remove said weapon from his waist they shot him? Which is it, put it down or leave it where it was?
That’s certainly a WTF moment for me.
No ad hominem here ok, but that is one fat, out of shape cop at the beginning. Dont they have standards? How does that happen?
Memphis also one extremely violent city.
Weight standards? Not really.
Except for weight of conscience, They keep that severely restricted.
Agreed… Fat people are disgusting and should not be trusted with firearms, law books, and/or public safety….. And if the government is forcing me to pay for these people, then our stupid cops should at least look pretty. (sarcasm thinly veiled)
Okay, I LIVE in Wilmington where this happened. I work in armed security at a night club. I happen to know many of Wilmington’s finest. This department deals with the scum of the earth. When I first moved to Wilmington, a officer was shot two days after I moved in, a week later one was stabbed in the neck. This department deals with an extremely violent city. I understand 100% where these guys take extreme caution. It’s hard not to especially when they know the guy has a handgun. The guy you see in the beginning that appears overweight is not. He’s a sergeant. He is much taller than he looks in the video. He’s a big dude. But fat he is not. This video doesn’t show what happened. The first shot came from the guy who chilling in the coroners office. When the first shot didn’t kill himself, he raises the gun towards the officers. This was suicide by cop. Clearly.
As a Delawarian myself, I agree!
Delaware peeps. Where do you guys go shooting? Ommelanden range has crappy hours and no long range shooting and Shooters Choice in Dover is indoor and won’t allow rifles over .223 as well as being short ranged.
I hear good things about Bridgeville, but I’ve never been. http://bville-rifle-pistol.org
Wait, who fired the first shot? If the guy wanted to live, all the guy had to do was raise his hands or hold them out. He obviously wasn’t a quadriplegic if he was holding a shotgun.
Cops aren’t going to risk their lives to disarm a suicidal person. Would you?
Yep–dark sense of humor. That’s me. I didn’t have the chance to see a video yet. Not a situation in which I’d like to be involved. On either side.
Suicide by cop falls under the serve part of “protect and serve.”
This happened 3 blocks from where I work. They told us at the safety huddle that they are worried about repercussions. That being said, why, then, am I forced to be disarmed while at work? The security has weapons. This is also after another fatal shooting by police the day before 2 blocks in the other direction.
Also, why didn’t the officer just come around behind the guy and grab him? Being in a wheelchair and all.
Then they wouldn’t have gotten to use all their cool toys!
I had to go to LiveLeak to watch the uncensored video. The truth is that he failed to obey, but maybe because he’d already shot himself. Doesn’t matter about the “why”, just that he he did. Cops want to get home alive too.
As someone who has lived many years with a paraplegic I feel the need to point out one thing that appears to be overlooked. That is, what happens to a wheelchair when you raise your hands. This appears to be taking place on a public street. That street is most likely angled to direct water to the edge of the road. The slight grade of most public roads is more than enough to make a wheelchair turn and move. Combine the elevated center of gravity with greatly diminished balance and no ability to control your core and even a slow impact with a curb would eject a paraplegic from their chair. Unless they are on truly flat, soft or textured ground putting their hands above their heads will cause a chain of very dangerous events.
First, the chair will start to move the direction that gravity is pulling it, either away from the cops (is he fleeing?) or at the cops (closing distance) no matter how many times they yell stop. They can yell stop all they want but the chair will move because apples fall and wheels roll. Once the chair gets close to any obstacle the occupant is going to reach for the wheels with the same instinctive urgency of a pedestrian trying to dodge a car. Both of your hands reaching rapidly for the area of your waistband which is a very bad idea when cops are pointing guns at you. If by this point they have not already been shot now they will not be able to put their hands up. Their only recourse is to yell back at the cops that they will/can not comply loud enough that the cops can hear over their own yelling. Again, yelling at the cops is generally a very bad idea, especially when their guns are drawn.
Don’t get me wrong. Armed person in confrontation is exactly that. It doesn’t matter if they are an OFWG, black woman, 14 year old asian twins, disabled, or nuttier than the outhouse at a peanut festival. When somebody is pointing a gun at you, do whatever it takes to not get shot. But unless the terrain is adequately flat, soft or textured demanding a wheelchair bound person to put their hands in the air is exactly the same thing as demanding them to stand up. It just isn’t going to fucking happen no matter how loud you yell. Another example of when solid training can betray you in a situation that doesn’t fit the training narrative.
A woman inNorth Berwick Maine wanted to commit Suicide and when the police showed up she changed her mind and fled in her car. The cops used tire spikes to stop her and then murdered her. No charges were filed.. The only gun control law there should be is that criminals can’t have any firearms. Thanks for your vote, pass the word. mrpresident2016.com
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