Squirrel Killer
Member
Here's how a Wikipedia article frames the situation:The car back-fired, least that's what the investigation says, and the cops thought they were being shot at and fired into the car when it stopped. However cops were on both sides of the car so the cops on one side thought they were being shot at by the people in the car when actually the cops on the other side were shooting through the car. So at one point the cops were shooting at each other through the car.
They people in the car weren't armed.
From that description, a completely innocent car problem caused the police to completely overreact, but it wasn't the backfiring that led them to open fire.An officer witnessed a vehicle drive by at a high rate of speed and reported that a gun was shot in his direction. That officer began pursuit and called for backup. Multiple officers in at least 30 patrol cars pursued a vehicle driven by Russell, and in which Williams was a passenger. After 22 miles of fleeing, their vehicle was blocked in the rear of a school. Russell then rammed a patrol car and drove towards an officer on foot. At that point 13 officers fired 137 rounds striking Russell 23 times and Williams 24 times.
According Wiki, there a "Victims rammed a police car and drove toward police office on foot." between "Due to 'gunshot...'" and "Police open fire."My understanding of the case:
- Victims' car backfired near police headquarters, is mistaken for gunshot
- On hearing 'gunshot', 20-minute pursuit begins
- At the end of pursuit, victims are boxed into a parking lot
- Due to 'gunshot', it is presumed victims were armed and dangerous
- Police open fire. Zero chance to surrender given.
- After initial volley, officer goes above and beyond, jumping onto the hood of the two victim's car and fire an extra 15 shots to confirm kills
- Only one officer is charged with manslaughter i.e. the court has to determine if this one, single officer in particular was responsible for the deaths of the victims