West Virginia Police Officer Fired After Choosing Not to Shoot Distraught Suspect Gets $175000 Settl
Source: KTLA
Full title: West Virginia Police Officer Fired After Choosing Not to Shoot Distraught Suspect Gets $175,000 Settlement
A West Virginia city has agreed to pay a former police officer $175,000 to settle a wrongful-termination lawsuit after he was fired following his decision not to shoot a distraught suspect who was holding a gun. “At the end of the day, I’m happy to put this chapter of my life to bed,” Mader said in a news release by the American Civil Liberties Union of West Virginia.
The incident occurred May 6, 2016, when Mader responded to a domestic-disturbance call and found Ronald “R.J.” Williams Jr. with an unloaded handgun. Mader told CNN last year that Williams was “visibly choked up” and told Mader to shoot him. As a Marine veteran who served in Afghanistan, Mader told CNN that he concluded Williams wasn’t a threat and so he tried to de-escalate the situation.
As Mader was trying to get Williams to drop his gun, two other Weirton police officers arrived. Mader told CNN that Williams raised his gun and was immediately shot and killed by one of the other officers. A state investigation found the officer’s actions were justified.
“No police officer should ever lose their job — or have their name dragged through the mud — for choosing to talk to, rather than shoot, a fellow citizen,” he said. “His decision to attempt to de-escalate the situation should have been praised, not punished. Simply put, no police officer should ever feel forced to take a life unnecessarily to save his career.”
Read more: http://ktla.com/2018/02/12/west-virginia-police-officer-fired-after-choosing-not-to-shoot-distraught-suspect-gets-175000-settlement/
There's also a more verbose story on WaPo behind a paywall here:
https://t.co/8hHxTwzxEI
And I think my favourite tweet on the subject here:
Link to tweet
So they aren’t just passively selecting for that tendency now, they’re leaning into it and making it explicit; kill by preference over any other way of resolving the situation.
Utterly disgusting.
And an important one from the ACLU:
Link to tweet
Officer Mader used de-escalation techniques instead of deadly force in an encounter with RJ Williams, a Black man with a gun. Mader was fired for NOT shooting. We sued on his behalf and won, but police to embrace de-escalation techniques to save lives.
= new reply since forum marked as read
today there is so LITTLE VALUE put on human life!!!! GOOD FOR THE ACLU!!!! 
