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Michael Brown shooting in Missouri, robbery footage and the total loss of credibility for Dorian Johnson’s witness report — 1 Comment

  1. Not sure what happened. But I think one possible scenario is that Brown attacked the officer because he was scared he was going down for the robbery. People do reckless things when confronted by law enforcement. If Brown attempted to grab the officer’s gun that would justify deadly force during the act of the gun grab. It doesn’t justify shooting the man as he ran away. But it’s possible the gun grab in question had been the officer’s backup gun and maybe the officer thought Brown actually took it. Then the law gets fuzzier. An officer could be justified in shooting and killing an armed suspect who has just attacked that officer and is running away into the community if the officer reasonably believes that suspect presents a deadly threat to other people. Now the reasonable officer standard encoded under Graham v. Connor can justify shooting an unarmed suspect, if the officer has a reasonable belief the person presents a deadly threat. Not sure that’s what happened, but it’s possible. As for multiple shots, officers are trained to keep firing until the threat is eliminated. And yes you can legally shoot someone in the back, if you have a reasonable belief they present a deadly threat to you or the community. Just food for thought.

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