Man’s Family Says They Called 911 For Paramedics, But Police Showed Up And Shot Him Instead

[Mosby]

A 911 call for medical assistance ended in the fatal shooting of Georgia resident Jack Lamar Roberson Friday. Roberson was acting erratically after possibly overdosing on his diabetes medication, leading his fiancé to call for paramedics and an ambulance. Instead, Roberson’s family charges that police showed up and killed the 43-year-old in front of his mother, fiancé, and 8-year-old daughter.

Waycross Police said they were responding to reports of a man trying to commit suicide and that he had become combative. Police Chief Tony Tanner said Roberson lunged at officers with weapons and refused to drop them.

Roberson’s fiancé, Alcia Herron, disputes the police story, comparing the scene to a “silent movie.”

“He didn’t have nothing in his hands at any time or period at all before they came, any time while they were here, anything. They just came in and shot him,” Herron told First Coast News. “He didn’t say nothing, the police didn’t say nothing, anything, it was like a silent movie. You couldn’t hear anything, all you could hear were the gun shots go off and I seen them going into his body and he just fell down.”

http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2013/10/08/2748561/police-kill-man-after-ambulance-call/

[gopiscrap]

1. OMG-Fucking cops.

[KG]

2. yay cops!

this message brought to you by: the daily isolated incident.

[gollygee]

3. Horrifying

[aroach]

4. Who you gonna call?

I learned a long time ago not to ever call the police but now it seems that you shouldn't call an ambulance either. This isn't the first story I've read like this. I guess there's no one left to call in an emergency.

[Mosby]

7. I noticed this years ago myself but never thought anything about it

I work in retail and have called 911 numerous times for customers having health related problems.

Every time the cops got there first.

[RandiFan1290]

8. If you live in certain areas

Every 911 call comes with a complimentary visit by the police to look around your house.

[sammytko]

9. not really

every time we had to call 911 for my mother the police showed up. They are there in case they have to direct traffic etc. And they can usually get there faster and can provide some assistance before the emts arrive.

Sadly this incident went the other way.

[AnotherMcIntosh]

12. Yes, really. He said "If you live in certain areas ..." He didn't say if anyone lives in your area

[sammytko]

16. How do you know where my mother lives?

[sammytko]

17. Sorry, I take that back. I should not have been so snarky with any of y'all

Have a great day.

[nadinbrzezinski]

10. Depends where, and it is protocol based

We listen, due to work, to scanners regularly.

This is what triggers a police presence.

A combative patient. Which was the case here. In some cases EMS is ordered to stand back until police can ensure crew safety. It is something that comes from experience.

When my dad fell and broke his hip, there were zero cops present.

I forgot to add, as a Paramedic in Tijuana, I wished there were cops a few times. Nothing more fun than have a relative come at you with a gun or a long kitchen knife.

[AnotherMcIntosh]

11. I agree. We had an emergency with a family member needing to go to a hospital.

Two paramedics showed up with three cops.

While the two paramedics and one cop were in one room, the other two cops were wandering around the house.

[cui bono]

32. Wow. What would happen if one asked the cops to not walk around the house?

I'm sure they would take that as a sign that you had something to hide from cops, but they shouldn't be in there in the first place.

[Marrah_G]

5. this is why they need little video cameras mounted into the badges.

That would eliminate the he said/she said stuff.

[krispos42]

47. Bingo

There was a show on TV for a while called "Police POV", or something like that. It was a cop reality show, like Fox's "Cops", but instead of having a camera guy and a sound guy follow around an officer in a cruiser, the cops wore a camera with sound on a headband, and you could actually see things from the p.o.v. of the cop, rather than the crew chasing him or her.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Police_POV


Considering the memory capacity nowadays, I fail to see why small cop-mounted camera can't be standard issue, with a microSD card in it, to record the entire shift an officer is on.

After his or her shift, the card is removed and the video moved to a data-archive system.

If there's any questions that need to be resolved by either the prosecution or the defense, the relevant segment of the video can be provided.

It can't be HDTV (a Blu-Ray disk holds about 2 hours of HDTV on 25 gig capacity, with basic compression), but I don't see why some kind of standard-definition camera can't be used to get maybe 10 hours of total capacity. MicroSD cards, and regular SD cards, have very high capacities nowadays.

[pa28]

56. Yes please.

[nadinbrzezinski]

6. Yes officers, somebody who is hypoglyciemic, low sugar for you dolts,

will be combative. Either wait it out, they will go unconscious (and is dangerous as hell), or manage to get some sugar into them. You will be amazed how fast they become rational and normal, rarely with recollection of the event.

[uponit7771]

13. This is lynching by cops PERIOD!!! For ONCE can the person be non black when crap like this happens!

The freakin family was right in front of him !!! There were no weapons around the guy!!!

This is lynching by cops PERIOD

[AnotherMcIntosh]

22. Sure. How about this guy?

Illinois Police Kill 95-Year-Old With Taser Shocks and Bean Bag Roundshttp://www.abovetopsecret.com/forum/thread961943/pg1

He must have "lunged" at them or something.

[uponit7771]

23. ..this guy called for medical help? He was non threatening?! regards

[AnotherMcIntosh]

27. Sure. But how do you keep the old geezers from "lunging" at people? Especially cops?

[uponit7771]

30. If it were me he'd be non threatening but not from the po pos perspective.

[Rex]

26. Holy crap!

Ugh. What the fuck is wrong with some cops!? Are the having a 'roids rage episode? I don't get it. It is like their brain drains into their gun.

[uponit7771]

31. +1 I've coached kids with size, they use it first.... then...if they haven't been coached to use...

...skills they're dead in the water.

Human nature to go to the simplest thing first...

Cops should be trained WITHOUT a gun first then trained with one

[Rex]

36. I thought they all had to go through a boot camp

style training like the Army! Do they not train cops in unarmed combat anymore? I agree completely, the 'shoot first ask questions later' doesn't work in our modern society.

Cops need to be brought up to speed, even if that means psychology classes and how to deal with emergency treatment (maybe some EMS courses).

For ONCE I would love to read about a cop giving someone CPR and bringing them back to life...instead of 'shoot to kill' articles.

[Jackpine Radical]

51. "What's the spirit of the

bayonet Friendly Cop?

[font size =6]Kill! Kill! Kill![/font]

[Comrade Grumpy]

55. Sorry, Officer Friendly retired. He's been replaced by an imperial storm trooper.

[TorchTheWitch]

14. whatever was his problem he lunged at the officers with weapons

What, are they supposed to just stand there and let him kill them?

[uponit7771]

18. You REALLY believe the man had weapons in his own house after a diabetic episode!?!?!?! REALLY!?!??!

The cops story doesn't even sound HALF WAY plausible!!

....and they said NOTHING... NOTHING to him just came in the door!!!

[markpkessinger]

48. I am a diabetic . . .

. . . And I have several family members who are as well. Some of them do indeed own guns. I'm not defending the police in any way here, but it is NOT implausible that the man had weapons.

[AnotherMcIntosh]

19. So the story is that he "lunged at the officers"? Better than "resisting arrest".

[Rex]

20. How about tazer him?

Not a single cop there had a tazer gun?

[uponit7771]

21. +1, amen during a medical emergency that would make much much more sense

[Rex]

25. I mean, it still might kill him I would be very worried.

But at least it is not a lead dead bullet! I agree with you upthread, just ONCE can this not be a black man? Cops are so out of control in some areas of the country!

[AnotherMcIntosh]

45. Check out #22, above.

[Rex]

46. He lunged at cops!

Clearly he needed to be dead. Yeah it was kinda rhetorical, since I know cops are crazy and out of control in certain areas.

[RandiFan1290]

28. This guy got a taser

Of course he is white and lives in PGA National....

http://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/news/crime-law/palm-beach-gardens-man-high-on-cocaine-shot-guns-o/nbHjf/

Phillip Hans William Sievers, of Palm Beach Gardens, faces charges of improper exhibit of a firearm, using a firearm while under the influence and resisting arrest without violence. He was booked into the Palm Beach County Jail on Sunday and was released the same day on his own recognizance.

Gardens police were called to his home on Admirals Court in reference to shots fired around 2 p.m. Saturday. Police saw household items, clothing and golf clubs on the pavement in front of Sievers’ home, according to a probable-cause affidavit.

Police also heard multiple gunshots coming from the upstairs of the home. They could see Sievers in the upstairs bedroom holding a handgun. Police also saw Sievers throw items out of a window.

The SWAT team entered the home an,d after deploying a Taser at Sievers, took the man into custody.

[Rex]

29. There ya go! Man brought down by non-lethal means.

I don't see why they don't try that FIRST in every instance like this.

[uponit7771]

33. multiple gun shots at scene while drunk, resisting arrest, pulling gun out on cops and the guys not

... dead?!?!?

He must be....


Republican...

[TorchTheWitch]

39. I don't know if they did or not

My local police department doesn't carry them. I also don't know what the circumstances were, so I have no idea if shooting him was necessary or not. And guess what? Neither do you or any other of the armchair cop haters here. What I AM seeing right in the article is that the guy lunged at the police with weapons. There was a reason the police were called to this incident, and who knows how that happened. They hardly showed up because they felt like it. Obviously, there was something going on that was dangerous and someone thought that police were needed. And they were seeing as how he reacted by lunging at them with weapons. Regardless of what the reason was for his going off his nut and behaving in a threatening way the REALITY is that that's what he did. It's not my place to second guess if how the police responded was necessary or not without knowing all the facts of the circumstances. Sorry, but I don't expect police to be mind readers or have all the time in the world to make split second decisions, but I do expect them to do whatever they feel they have to do with no other option in order to preserve their own life or the life of others.

Seems to me that all the people here that get off on shitting on the police need to shut their holier than thou yaps and become a police officer so they can finally understand what the police have to deal with on a day to day basis. Fat chance that's going to happen though. Haven't the guts to put your life on the line every day for shit pay. So much easier and so much more fun to just hate on them for every single thing they do or don't do from the safety of their armchairs. It's sickening bigoted behavior that has been allowed to run amok on DU since I've been here. There's nothing liberal nor progressive about broad brush bigoted blind hatred. I'm sick to death of this constant bashing of the police for no reason than the job they have. They're bashed here even more than bankers and pretty damn close to as often as Repubs.

[Rex]

41. Sorry, but you lost me at 'cop-haters'. Have a great day!

nt.

[TorchTheWitch]

50. next you'll be telling me you've never seen them here

DU has always been an epidemic of unreasoned universal cop hatred, and it's VERY in-your-face. But you knew that.

[Comrade Grumpy]

57. Have you ever wondered why there are so many "cop haters"?

It could have something to do with the unending litany of police brutality, police thuggery, and questionable police killings with which we are confronted. I agree that saying stuff like "all cops are pigs" is stupid and unfair, but it seems undeniable that we have a serious problem with the way police go about their job in this country.

Will you join me in calling for a national commission on law enforcement standards and practices?

[cui bono]

43. How about holding him down with their damn hands?

There was more than one cop against one unarmed man.

[Rex]

44. I've said that before and was told the cops might get hurt

so obviously blowing away a man seeking medical attention is a much better idea.

[Mosby]

24. Even if the cops version of events is true

why couldn't they have tried non-lethal means?

[TorchTheWitch]

42. were you there?

Were non-lethal means possible?

So easy to make these big decisions from the safety of your armchair and when you have no idea what the immediate circumstances were, isn't it?

[Comrade Grumpy]

58. Well, here's a couple of eye-witness accounts:

“He didn’t have nothing in his hands at any time or period at all before they came, any time while they were here, anything. They just came in and shot him,” Herron told First Coast News. “He didn’t say nothing, the police didn’t say nothing, anything, it was like a silent movie. You couldn’t hear anything, all you could hear were the gun shots go off and I seen them going into his body and he just fell down.”

Roberson’s mother, Diane, lamented, “I saw my son go down with his hands up in the air, Lord Jesus, he had nothing in his in hands, we don’t even own a decent kitchen knife and they shot my baby down.”

Granted, they are not disinterested observers, but then neither are the killer cops.

[Iggo]

35. You don't believe that.

[TorchTheWitch]

52. Of course I do

Why wouldn't I? That's what the article said. I wasn't there, so I have no idea if it was necessary to shoot the guy or not, and neither were you. If it turns out that shooting him was unnecessary, than yep, I'll be pissed about that. What, I'm supposed to get the cop hate on just because so many other people here do? Sorry, not gonna happen. I don't stupidly hate all cops just because they're cops, nor am I stupidly going to assume the guy was shot for no reason without any evidence of that.

You can disagree with what I believe or not, but you don't have any right to tell me it's not what I believe. Yep, I have this notion that cops are just as individualistic as the rest of the human race and behave just as individualistically in every circumstance depending on what that circumstance is. Such a rarity for DU, I know.

[Iggo]

53. Actually, I do have that right.

[AnotherMcIntosh]

15. Did they bring a drop gun with them?

[Iggo]

34. Yay, Cops!

They're the best!

[Jesus Malverde]

37. Thats horrible..nt

[JonLP24]

38. Police always show up before paramedics

even for stuff that doesn't require them.

[Th1onein]

40. Our tax dollars at work. I HATE cops. And don't say that there are good ones.

The bad ones outnumber the good ones these days, and until the "good" ones start stepping forward and cut the "blue shield" crap, there are no good cops.

[ecstatic]

49. I hate to say it

But I feel the same way a lot of times. My 4 y.o. nephew called 911 the other day and when a cop showed up, we were all confused, but we figured out it was my nephew. If at the moment the cop arrived, one of us had made a sudden dash to our cars or something, it could have resulted in a "tragedy." The cop came in and chatted with my family members, watched the game, then left with a plate of food. The cop was a newbie, not fully corrupted yet... although he's quickly getting there. I could be wrong, but I don't think chatting and watching the game at strangers' homes while on duty is proper protocol.

[Comrade Grumpy]

54. This is a depressingly familiar sort of story. Call cops for help, someone ends up dead.

We need a national commission on law enforcement standards and practices.