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“A woman was traveling on the 610 South Loop near Stella Link during the evening rush hour commute on Nov. 11.,” click2houston.com reports. “She said she was driving her car when she was cut off, then honked her horn and tried to get around the other driver. That action nearly cost the woman her life. ‘I honestly got a taste of death. My heart was slowing down and I couldn’t really breathe,’ she said. “The other driver, now identified as Reserve Deputy Constable  Kenneth Caplan, drove alongside her, rolled his window down, pointed his weapon and opened fire, investigators said . . .

“I just started crying because I knew I was going to die,” said the victim. “I wanted to call my mom to tell her I love you.”

Caplan and his female passenger then fled the scene.

Investigators said the female passenger leaned back in her seat while Caplan shot out the window.

A move for which she wasn’t charged (who wouldn’t move out of the way). The victim survived with a graze wound to her head. The cops collared Caplan, and released this statement:

“Kenneth Caplan was not on duty at the time of the incident in which he was involved nor was he displaying any article connecting him to the Harris County Constable’s Office – Precinct 6.  The Harris County Constable’s Office – Precinct 6 neither condones nor tolerates the actions taken by Kenneth Caplan that connected him to this incident, and the necessary measures were taken to collect his credentials and remove him from our status.”

So Caplan wasn’t on duty. Well that’s good. I wonder if there were any signs of trouble before the incident, if anyone within the force failed to act on them and whether or not that person or persons will be disciplined should that turn out to be the case. You know, provided anyone’s actually looking into it. Ahead of, I dunno, a lawsuit?

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84 COMMENTS

    • I guess you have to get to these threads realllly fast to be able to make that comment first (which is a long way of saying, “you beat me to it”. ) My first thought anymore when I read this kind of thing, for better or worse.

  2. WV did away with the constables positions years ago. They made Mexican cops on the cartel payroll look honest and professional by comparison.

    • Yeah “reserve constable” isn’t the LEO position people might think it is. More of a Dwight Shrute kind of gig.

        • “Reservist? What were they saving him for, the rise of the 4th reich?”

          Some departments use reservists, volunteers, to supplement personnel requirements on the street for ‘busy times’ like New Years or Halloween … that sort of thing.

          Add a Reserve Officer to a one man car and you now have fewer calls you have to send two cars to. It helps a lot; more personnel when it’s really needed rather than paying taxpayer $$ on either additional full time folks or overtime.

          Reservist does not always equal Constable, though.

      • From the Harris County Constable Precinct 6 website:

        “Volunteer/ Reserve Police Officers must complete the State approved Basic Peace Officer Certification course which is now over 600 hours. Most do this training at their own expense through The University of Houston, The Houston Community College System or at other area colleges. Several volunteer Deputies are retired police officers. Deputies at Precinct 6 are required to be bonded and put in 24 hours of service per month in addition to State required in-service classes. Deputies must pay for their own uniforms, weapon and leather gear. A benefit for these volunteers is the experience, free or low cost training and a chance to build a good resume while contributing to the community. Many volunteers move on to full time paid positions at area departments. Each team of Deputies are supervised by a Sergeant.”

        In other words, these are real cops for all practical purposes from the citizen’s perspective.

    • I dunno, Constable Bob on “Justified” certainly acquitted himself with honor at the end of Season Four.

      “People underestimate Bob at their peril.”

      Just kidding, of course. TV joke. Not to mention my inherent bias, being Constable Bob’s namesake and all.

  3. The deputy’s girlfriend was unable to respond to investigators’ questions. “Every time we asked her anything, all she said was ‘What? What?’ ” one officer reported.
    snarc/

      • My department has new hires go through a psych eval, but it’s just a bunch of questions on a form. Then there’s an interview with a doc, but sometimes the really crazy guys have learned how to answer the questions the way normal people would.

        I mean, sometimes you know a guy is crazy because he’s running down the middle of the street naked and waving a machete, and sometimes he’s just that weird guy at work who seems like he might snap but only seems slightly creepy in conversation.

        • Mayor: I don’t want any more trouble like you had last year in the Fillmore District. Understand? That’s my policy.
          Insp. Harry Callahan: Yeah, well, when an adult male is chasing a female with intent to commit rape, I shoot the bastard; that’s my policy.
          Mayor: Intent? How did you establish that?
          Insp. Harry Callahan: When a naked man is chasing a woman through an alley with a butcher knife and a hard-on, I figure he isn’t out collecting for the Red Cross.

    • Pretty sure that they can amend the charges later if they think they’ll have enough evidence to convict him. But I agree with you, that’s attempted murder in my eyes.

    • In Texas, Aggravated Assault with a Deadly Weapon is a first degree felony, punishable by 5-99 years in prison, plus a fine. Murder is also a first degree felony. However, attempted murder, like any inchoate offense, is one punishment level below the full offense. So attempted murder would be only a second degree felony, which is punishable by 2-20 years in prison.

      What his actual punishment will be depends on a lot of factors, of course, and could end up less as a first degree felony than it might have been as a second degree felony. Still, first degree at least starts off with a higher minimum and maximum defining its punishment range.

  6. Look at that! Exactly how the anti’s said it would go down! Road rage shootings! Blood in the streets! We should ba….

    Oh wait, this was a cop? Never mind then, nothing to see here.

  7. Not to worry; no one’s looking into anything beyond what they already have done and they will successfully sweep this into the Dustbin of History. The woman passenger should have been arrested as an accomplice and both perps charged with attempted homicide, A&B/Dangerous Weapon, reckless operation of motor vehicle, etc., etc. The vic should sue their pants off and post all the stuff up weekly to a dedicated Tube channel. And monetize it, too.

    We’ve had two recent incidents up here of Road-Rage-With-Firearms, one resulting in the death of the victim and the perp now locked up, probably forever. No one hurt in the other one except for an elderly couple being frightened to death but having their wits about them long enough to get the plate and a good description. Someone points a gun at me out there on the road and I will back way the hell off and get the plate and description and then see what the local “law enforcement” authorities do about it and the fallout. If unsatisfactory I will take other steps. If the person is firing at me, ditto, but I’ll be returning fire as I back off.

    On the cop front we now have at least one Vermont county acquiring two HumVees and three M-16s. The local PD recently stated a “Rapid Response Team” training exercise at the local high skool. And the sheriff’s department just a mile up the road from us now has a six-man “SWAT” team also running exercises around the landscape, complete with Wehrmacht helmets and the rest of the Army getup that’s now standard. Between all that and the local State Police barracks, Customs and Immigration, and the Border Patrol, we feel wicked safe here, LOL, except for the nagging worry that stray rounds may be flying around the cornfields and marshes and back roads in the area.

    Another reason for me to keep a very low profile, eschewing the gun stickers on the vehicles, cammies, and phony mil-spec attire. I look like a local farmer/worker with bifocals who leaves the fields at night to study my dairy prices database.

    • This reserve deputy fled the scene and kept quite about the entire thing, obviously showing no remorse and no intention of taking responsibility for his actions. It wasn’t until the police investigation tracked him down days later than they showed up to arrest him at his home, at which time he reportedly confessed.

      We don’t have all of the facts just yet. If the woman passenger likewise kept quit, then she’s an accomplice; but if she’s the source of the police tip that lead them to this suspect, then the law would likely treat her differently.

    • What I’d like to know is, where are the protests demanding “Justice” for the poor woman who got shot? Clearly this was a bigoted cop who hated her for honking her horn…probably has a prejudice against clowns or Harpo Marx, and her car horn triggered him. He probably thought that was Harpo Marx driving the car and shot because in his mind, Harpo Marxes should die. The bigot. (/sarc)

      • I know, right? Talk about a “War on Women.” Sheesh.

        Can you imagine his passenger, though, leaning back while he takes a shot in front of her face, out her window? I don’t know what firearm was used, but assuming SA, the hot brass would have ejected more or less into her face or bounced off the roof of the car and into her hair. What a lunatic.

  8. Maybe Caplan was trying to shoot a bad guy and the lady drove into the line of fire… I’m sure that’s what it was.

    /Sarchasm

  9. 100% agree with Tom above, I imagine there are a long list of unreported incidents regarding this dude and his lack of judgement/moral character. Glad this lady wasnt murdered in her car and I hope she sues him for everything hes got and then some.

    • That’s the thing about incidents like this – everybody that ever worked with this guy knows pretty much what he was capable of. Every time I hear about some copper going bat-feces, I hear from the guys who were around him that it was only a matter of time.

  10. I’d like to see a follow up to see if there is any actual jail time. Not time served and some anger mgt. classes.

    Sure he’ll probably be ‘dismissed’ from the Constable es ness, but malls in the area need a good ninja.

    • He was not on duty or in uniform, didn’t flash a badge and made no reference to being a cop. The cops have clearly disassociated and distanced themselves from him. He fired a firearm at someone and hit them. I’d say that he’s probably going to get slam dunked on this one. Avoiding jail time would be a real neat trick on his part.

    • No, sorry that is incorrect. You used too much logic there by using the “if-then” argument. Progressives never claim that their policies will have a specific effect. That way you can’t pin them down on failure. Try it this way:

      “This incident, and many others that take place in our communities every day, deserves the attention that only open dialogue and bi-partisan efforts to achieve common sense legislation at the Federal level can provide. We should take every proposal seriously and work diligently to pass as many laws as we can to show the American people that put us here, that we hear them and we are working to fulfill those duties so entrusted in us by our constituents. One such plan, and there are many others coming from our friends across the isle, is some form of universal background checks to close the “gun-show loophole”.

      See? Never admit that the policy will work, just that you need to make one.

      • As I always say, Modern Progressives are the worst solution looking for problems they originally created.

    • That’s what just came to mind. The dog was attacking the woman passenger, so the the cop shot at the dog and missed.

    • Yep. The report makes clear that the dog leaned back just in time.

      All dogs should be taught to sit, stay, fetch, and duck.

  14. This reminds me of another similar incident that happened near where I live. A out of state police officer “allegedly” flashed a gun in another incident of road rage, but didn’t have any gun-related charges.

    “Atlanta officer charged in Route 8 incident
    Woman says he flashed a gun

    BY BRIGITTE RUTHMAN REPUBLICAN-AMERICAN
    Saturday, April 19, 2014

    TORRINGTON — A Georgia police officer was charged Thursday after a road rage incident along Route 8. He allegedly flashed a gun, although no gun-related charges were filed.

    State police said Friday that Jason Gilden, 39, of 42 50 NW River Green Drive in Atlanta, was charged after a dispute along Route 8 in the Thomaston area, according to a department press release. ”

    http://www.rep-am.com/articles/2014/04/24/news/local/798614.txt

  15. “Investigators said the female passenger leaned back in her seat while Caplan shot out the window.”

    Well duh, it called getting the f*ck up out the way. Best to not try and stop bullets with your face.

  16. In most areas of the country, a reserve police officer is not considered a police officer while off duty, so this guy is certainly on his own. Most good people can qualify and pass the back ground checks to be a reserve police officer. There is simply no perfect background check that can weed out every character flaw. Unfortunately, there is a high number of adrenaline junky, macho men with unresolved anger issues jumping at these positions of authority. They are like pyromaniacs who are the first in line to sign up at a volunteer fire department. I suspect the real cure to this issue is for more good people to volunteer their time as reserve officers to help push out these time bombs.

    • I’m not fully cognizant of every state’s rules,but in most states I can think of, they’re POST-certified, and licensed. Sometimes a reduced class of license which limits some of the areas they can serve.

      • The original source article says;

        “The deputy, Kenneth Caplan, was charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon.”

        Not everyone reads the source.

  20. Had he been on duty,
    It would have been a textbook “self defense” shooting. you know how those car horns can kill.

  22. So based on the comments he either is or isn’t a “real” policeman. Of course the first thing I thought of was how it would go down if regular Joe CCW like you or I did this. I’m pretty certain we’d be locked up with no bail and the MSM all over it because of course gunz make people evil, especially “law-abiding” people. I’m waiting for the MSM to jump all over this one… …
    …
    …
    ???
    …
    crickets

  24. This fool should spend 20 years in prison. Whether reserve, on duty,off duty or volunteer he stillrepresents the PO-leece. I hope the lady makes some $…

    • Whether reserve, on duty,off duty or volunteer he still committed a crime.

      FIFY.

      Being a cop, reserve or otherwise, has nothing to do with it. Or shouldn’t.

  25. Investigators said the female passenger leaned back in her seat while Caplan shot out the window. A little muzzle blast for lovers? Sounds like more responsible and highly trained LEOs and company that should only have “May Issue” Licenses to me.

  26. Since getting my CHL I’m a very polite driver. In fact that is one reason for getting the CHL for car travel. Yes, I know you don’t have have a license to conceal carry in auto in Texas but some smaller town LEOs did not get the memo. They will “tell it to the judge” you, I travel though a lot of small Texas towns. It’s just easier to have that laminated card than not

    • I agree, TexGal. Someone cuts me off, no honking unless it appears that an accident is imminent. Whether honking or not, the last thing I’m going to do is try to get back around the other car. Obviously that driver has a major problem – either with common sense, depth perception or road rage. I don’t want to tangle with ’em even if I do have the ability within my car to protect myself.

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