Officer Charged with Off Duty Shooting

Off Topic
1

I was hoping this would happen. When I saw the news of the off duty cop shooting into the car with the woman and her son I was shocked and disappointed.

They took a lot of time to investigate so the trial is the best way to open up all the facts to the public. Or at least those facts they can admit.

I hope they do a gag order though.

http://www.sandiego6.com/news/local/story.aspx?content_id=ab06a171-33f8-4efc-8fe1-c9661397f3c6

The District Attorney is charging off-duty officer Frank White for shooting into a vehicle in a road rage incident.

Officer Frank white who was off duty at the time of shooting and is being charged with one felony count of gross negligent discharge of a fire arm with two enhancements for great bodily injury and one misdemeanor count of exhibiting a fire arm.

The charges carry a max penalty of 9 years in prison.

2

Here is a link to more of the original story

3

Sadly the only thing that will happen will be the cop maybe getting suspended or being fired. He will not serve a day in jail, not a fine, and will cost taxpayers over a million dollars in legal fees. It has been shown time and time again that law enforcement covers and protects their own people. I am not trying to be pessimistic, its just plain fact.

4

What a piece of shit.

5

I agree with MaximusB. Maybe he’ll have a few fines or spend 30 days at county but I’d be amazed if it was anything more than suspension/firing. Unless they were able to get some good footage from security cams there really aren’t any witnesses. Courts almost always believe cops and they know just how to word everything to take blame off of themselves.

Reminds me of that incident were a bunch of cops fired into that van full of people for no good reason. I think it was over 30 rounds and one of the cops reloaded another magazine and emptied that one too.

6

Another article says witnesses said she tailgated him, rammed the back of his car, clipped his side mirror, and then attempted to block him in, at which point he fired through his driver side window.

The cop isn’t always automatically wrong…

7

[quote]nephorm wrote:
Another article says witnesses said she tailgated him, rammed the back of his car, clipped his side mirror, and then attempted to block him in, at which point he fired through his driver side window.

The cop isn’t always automatically wrong…[/quote]

But he admitted that his badge wasn’t visible.

This was a woman alone and drunk.

She didn’t know who this guy was.

He escalated the exchanged by following her into the parking lot.

and pulling a gun? Drunk or not I would have been terrified and tried to hit him with my car.

I agree cops aren’t automatically wrong. I think this was a bad decision

I wish the officer’s wife would make a statement. She was with him in the car.

8

The cops wife wont say a word, as not to incriminate him. The only way the officer would be held accountable is if he had absolutely no probably cause for him to act in such a way. If he had any legitimate reason to, he will be cleared for any wrong doing.

9

So this drunk woman (with her kid in the car) rammed and chased the cop, intentionally side swiped him endangering his life and when he shot at her car he is the bad guy?

What am I missing?

0.15 may be over the legal limit and mess up reflexes but it does not cause you to go insane.

This is crazy dangerous woman that was trying to seriously injure or kill him.

10

If I read this right this is a total media hatchet job on the cop. They call it a road rage incident but SHE was the one road ranging.

They try to imply he followed her when it seems she followed him.

Again, what am I missing?

11

[quote]OctoberGirl wrote:
But he admitted that his badge wasn’t visible.

This was a woman alone and drunk.

She didn’t know who this guy was.

He escalated the exchanged by following her into the parking lot.

and pulling a gun? Drunk or not I would have been terrified and tried to hit him with my car.

I agree cops aren’t automatically wrong. I think this was a bad decision

I wish the officer’s wife would make a statement. She was with him in the car.[/quote]

Are we reading the same article? This post makes it seem as though you believe he was the aggressor in this incident.

[quote]Silva, whose son Johnny was in the front passenger seat of her car, pulled out of a gas station driveway into the path of White’s vehicle shortly after 9 p.m., prompting the officer to swerve to avoid a crash, according to police.

She then allegedly followed White down the street, tailgating him, revving her engine and shouting.

The pulled over in a nearby parking area outside a Lowe’s store, and Silva pulled up alongside, continuing to shout at him, according to police. She then allegedly backed up and sideswiped White’s car, at which point he fired five rounds. [/quote]

a) it’s a coin toss as to whether or not a badge would have deterred a woman crazy enough to not only lash out like that, but also drive at a level of intoxication almost twice the legal limit with her child in the car. He DID, however, identify himself as a policeman.
b)she was not alone. Her 8-year old child was in the car with her.
c) this didn’t stop her from following him down the road, revving her engine, tailgating, and shouting.
d) she followed him into the parking lot.
e) he fired off rounds AFTER she rammed him with her car. The article didn’t mention that he had his gun drawn before this point, so, given the information available, it’s more appropriate to assume HE reacted to the threat by drawing/firing as opposed to HER reacting to a pulled gun by trying play battering ram with her son in the car.

I mean, she IS the crazy one here. If some heavily intoxicated person tailgated me down the road, into a parking lot, shouting and swearing the entire time, then attempted to hit my car with hers…man, if I had a gun, I might pop one off, too - especially if my wife was in the car with me.

At that time of night, under those circumstances, it’s reasonable to think he didn’t spot the little 8-year old in the car.

12

There are conflicting reports of who cut who off on the freeway

“The boy and his mother were in their car when the off duty police officer cut her off in traffic - Words were exchanged and I imagine hand signals and finger gestures. The unarmed woman was shot twice, her son shot once… They had to be life flighted to hospitals…”

13

"Oceanside police have said White fired five shots at a Honda driven by Rachel Silva, 27, of Oceanside. Silva, who was unarmed, was hit twice in the right arm, and her 8-year-old son once in the left leg. Silva’s attorney says the incident began after White cut off Silva in traffic and they �??exchanged angry words�?? in the parking lot. "

14

so you can see there is a lot of speculation and conflicting reports

a trial will help to shed more light on this

I still think the gun was the wrong decision.

15

“The pulled over in a nearby parking area outside a Lowe’s store, and Silva pulled up alongside, continuing to shout at him, according to police. She then allegedly backed up and sideswiped White’s car, at which point he fired five rounds.”

Quoted from the article

I dunno about you but I think she was not in the right state of mind. Specially if she pulled up to him.

I think what needs to come out is when did he pull his gun. Before or after she side swiped him.

If before then he was threating the women. And she was not responding well to a threat. And decided to swipe his car. Personally I think most normal sober people would have thought to protect your kid and speed away and call the police.

If it was after then the Cop had every right cause a car can be used as a lethal weapon. The crazy angry women could have killed his spouse or him by repeat ramming the car in the door. That is self defense.

16

in other articles it states that White hit her.

"incident began after White cut off Silva in traffic and they exchanged angry words in the parking lot. "

She’s already drunk and now scared because the guy who just hit her car is chasing her. Then he pulls a gun.

Media spin is all over the articles. They slant for the Officer and they slant for the Woman.

Too bad there weren’t any cameras in the parking lot.

17

[quote]OctoberGirl wrote:

in other articles it states that White hit her.

"incident began after White cut off Silva in traffic and they exchanged angry words in the parking lot. " [/quote]

This quote is reporting what the drunken, child endangering woman’s lawyer says, NOT what police have stated, which is reported as:

18

[quote]anonym wrote:
OctoberGirl wrote:

in other articles it states that White hit her.

"incident began after White cut off Silva in traffic and they exchanged angry words in the parking lot. "

This quote is reporting what the drunken, child endangering woman’s lawyer says, NOT what police have stated, which is reported as:

Silva, whose son Johnny was in the front passenger seat of her car, pulled out of a gas station driveway into the path of White’s vehicle shortly after 9 p.m., prompting the officer to swerve to avoid a crash, according to police.[/quote]

yeah…

imagine that… the cop that shot an unarmed woman and child has a different version…

guess his wife didn’t think her testimony would help him

you did read my post about the media spin didn’t you?

19

[quote]anonym wrote:
OctoberGirl wrote:

in other articles it states that White hit her.

"incident began after White cut off Silva in traffic and they exchanged angry words in the parking lot. "

This quote is reporting what the drunken, child endangering woman’s lawyer says, NOT what police have stated, which is reported as:

Silva, whose son Johnny was in the front passenger seat of her car, pulled out of a gas station driveway into the path of White’s vehicle shortly after 9 p.m., prompting the officer to swerve to avoid a crash, according to police.[/quote]

Plus, she has said that she doesn’t remember what led up to the shooting…

20

[quote]OctoberGirl wrote:

There are conflicting reports of who cut who off on the freeway

“The boy and his mother were in their car when the off duty police officer cut her off in traffic - Words were exchanged and I imagine hand signals and finger gestures. The unarmed woman was shot twice, her son shot once… They had to be life flighted to hospitals…”[/quote]

Found here:

This quote here is actually a message board users interpretation of an article from way back in March, which does not mention the relevant data of the more recent ones (BAC was reported to have not yet been released, the police didn’t know what prompted the shooting, etc…).

If you notice, the article mentions NOTHING to shed light on who cut whom off.

Repeat: this is some dude’s - “Gilligan’s” - opinion of an article - NOT something reported as fact.

Are you even trying to present a case, here?