Plain Old Justice

 

Cop Shouted "Point Your Fucking Gun at Him"

By K. W. Locke

     After a Huntsville, Alabama police officer shot and killed a suicidal man, city officials reacted in a now–familiar way:  An internal police review cleared the cop.   

    Two other officers witnessed the shooting.  They later left the department after being reassigned to "remedial training."

    But city government squarely backed the officer who pulled the trigger.  After the district attorney charged him with murder, the city council voted to pay for the cop's lawyer, up to $125,000.

    The mayor said he disagreed with the decision to prosecute the officer and maintained that the cop's actions were consistent with official policy.  The city council passed a resolution stating that the shooting was "within the line and scope of his duty."

    It sounds like the district attorney took on a tough challenge when he decided to prosecute the officer, William Ben Darby.  But when the murder trial concluded last week, it took the jury only a few hours to return a guilty verdict.

    The shooting occurred on April 3, 2018, after a man called 911 and said he had a gun and was going to use it on himself.  When the first two officers went inside the house, they found the man sitting on a couch, holding the gun to his head.

    One of the officers, Genisha Pegues, started talking to the man, trying to calm hi m down.  But then Darby arrived, grabbed his shotgun and ran into the house.

    Although Pegues had been on the police force longer, Darby tried to take charge.  A bodycam recorded Darby shouting at Pegues, "Point your fucking gun at him."

    Eleven seconds after entering the house, Darby fired.

    When the mayor and city council decided to take Darby's side, they had not watched the bodycam video.  The jury did.

    A previous post on this blog discussed how television dramas like "Dragnet" had fostered the image of police as tireless heroes, always in the right.  But in this instance, I wish the mayor and city council had watched the reruns.

    Dragnet's fictional Sergeant Joe Friday could have taught the mayor and city council an important lesson.  When making a decision, such as whether to back an officer charged with murder, they should put aside their feelings and consider, as Sgt. Friday would say, "Just the facts, ma'am."