Gainesville.com reports that University of Florida (UF) students held a protest over the March 2 shooting of Kofi Adu-Brempong by university police. Campus cops shot the [allegedly] delusional doctoral student in the face with a rifle bullet after failing to subdue him with a Taser and beanbags fired from a shotgun. Three of the five officers responding to the incident belong to UF’s 11-member “critical response team,” who are authorized to use semiautomatic rifles. “University police Lt. Alton McDilda said the rifles were acquired in response to the Columbine High School shooting. ‘It’s not a far stretch to say police officers can have rifles if the general public can have the same rifles,’ he said. ‘It just evens the playing field.'” Or tips it in their favor when the person in question is armed with a “metal rod” (purported to be Adu-Brempong’s cane). And what, pray tell, do the University cops carry. . . ?
A Bushmaster rifle, a civilian version of the M-4 assault rifle used by the military, was used in the shooting. Regulations require the use of Hornaday .223 REM 60 grade TAP ammo in the rifle, which is designed to break up upon impact and not pass through the intended target.
“You don’t want to end up shooting an innocent bystander,” [University police Lt. Alton] McDilda said.
True dat. Nor, apparently, do you want to get shot with this combination of weapon and ordinance.
[Officer Keith] Smith fired two shots at Adu-Brempong, at least one of which hit him, according to police reports. The shooting destroyed part of Adu-Brempong’s jaw and lodged a bullet near his spine.
He’s recovering at Shands at UF with injuries to his face as well as his hand, which family members have said had a shattered bone. It’s unclear whether the bone was broken by a bullet or bean bag.
