Ohio officer acquitted of killing unarmed woman

[951-Riverside]

Source: The Associated Press

An Ohio jury has acquitted a white police officer in the drug-raid shooting death of an unarmed black woman who was holding a child.

The shooting in January shook the city of Lima in northwest Ohio and touched off protests.

The all-white jury on Monday found Sgt. Joseph Chavalia (SHUH'-val-ay) not guilty on misdemeanor charges of negligent homicide and negligent assault.

He had faced up to eight months in jail if convicted of both counts.

Read more: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=93045122

[notadmblnd]

1. She must have just been standing there to catch bullets for him

:sarcasm:

[Truth4Justice]

40. Its the budget cuts. Paper targets are worth more then unarmed citizens these days....

:sarcasm:

[Taverner]

2. She must have done something wrong - or would do something wrong

:sarcasm:

[panzerfaust]

29. Being black at home is reason enough

... to be killed in Ohio

[Truth4Justice]

39. No one told you about the pre-cognative training they teach at the acadamy these days?

[L0oniX]

3. Police murder ...the fun part of law enforcement.

[Evergreen Emerald]

77. bullshit

What a load of crap.

[ohio2007]

4. The defense attorney did a piss poor job picking and agreeing to the jury unless......

black woman....all white jury ...

it's no longer about drugs
It ain't over til it'$ over in Lima....
even though

....Chavalia heard gunfire and thought his life was in danger.



a cops life is never in danger
/sarc

[zbdent]

8. prosecution ...

Defense attorney loved the all white jury ... his client got off, free ...

[Truth4Justice]

38. How did he manage to get an all-White jury in this day and age? Why was it allowed?

[High Plains]

20. The gunfire was from downstairs, where the cop's buddies...

...were executing the dogs.

[The Croquist]

51. Executing pit bulls / good one

The death of this woman was tragic but so are the mistakes that put her in this situation.

First of all she was 26 and had 6 kids. Not the best life choice there.

Then she is either dating a drug dealer or living with a guy who had previously tried to take a gun from a cop. Generally a guy that resists arrest and tries to grab a cop's gun makes them nervous.

Let's not forget that she has six small children in a house with 2 pit bulls.

Sooner or later something bad was going to happen. I don't think the cop shot her for jollies. I think he was scared.

[alcibiades_mystery]

21. A cop's life is always in danger

Hence, they can shoot whomever they goddamn please whenever they goddamn please.

I'm getting a little tired of these people explaining that they're PROFESSIONALS all day long, then when they make a PROFESSIONAL mistake, it's suddenly like "Oh, wll, anybody would have behaved the same way, blah blah blah." Note to cops: the reason we pay you and pay to TRAIN you is so that YOU DON'T ACT THE SAME FUCKING WAY as "everybody else." That's the sole reason for your fucking job, kiddos. And all those goodies you get, draining the public treasuries? That's so that you don't simply "react" as anybody else would, but that you react as a trained professional would. Period. You have no fucking margin on that. You are either a professional, or an armed bozo. You fucking choose which you are, and be goddamn consistent when you make claims.

If you're so scared that you go firing haphazardly at suspects pulling out their wallets and women holding children, then you are unfit for your profession, and you should be discharged immediately.

[BreweryYardRat]

30. A-fucking-men.

They're supposed to be a step above everyone else.

Good cops are a credit to their community.

BAD cops, like this trigger-happy motherfucker, are not only a danger in their own right to honest citizens like this poor woman, they put good cops and honest citizens in indirect danger by making people less trusting of all police.

It's why I support execution for any cop who fucks up and murders an innocent.

[Truth4Justice]

36. Well said!!!! These cops are gutless wonders, IMHO.

[librechik]

53. You can't say that. That baby looked exactly like a nine millimeter weapon.

She also could have thrown the baby and killed the cop.

He obviously is innocent.

:sarcasm:

[ReadTomPaine]

61. Well said.

:thumbsup:

[geckosfeet]

24. The woman heard gunfire and thought her life was in danger too.

Only she was right.

[Truth4Justice]

43. Its real simple. Dont want to take a risk getting shot on the job? Dont wear a gun and a badge.

[Demeter]

5. K&R For the Travesty Records

[catgirl]

6. He also injured the baby

He must have mistaken the baby for a gun. I guess there'll be no
justice for the two victims, or their family.

[Hugabear]

25. Maybe he thought the baby was holding a gun

Sometimes it's easy to mistake a bottle or pacifier for a gun.

[Truth4Justice]

37. Cop-think: "Ooougha, baby have gun? Me no care. Me told shoot then go see. Me good, cop, no bad "

[bemildred]

7. Thank goodness he is safe.

:puke::puke:

[Truth4Justice]

42. Yes but its too bad for all the cops who would have come to his funeral on paid leave? How sad......

:sarcasm:

[valerief]

9. Welcome to TortureWorld. This is how TortureWorld does local torture.

Just like the other third world countries.

[Joe Chi Minh]

10. Mugabe must be envious. Anyway, it's a shame she can't apologise for being in

the path of the bullet, like Dead-Eye Dick Cheney's pal.

[valerief]

11. Yeah, being dead and all at the hand of a psycho cop, it's kind of hard

to apologize.

Insanity rules the world. I'm thinking of giving up rationality and joining some crazy-ass group, some group that doesn't hate, because I find constant hating to be such a drain on me. Maybe I'll worship toenail clippings. There's gotta be some group that worships toenail clippings.

:silly: :crazy: :rofl:
Ibbidy bibbidy bibbidy

[Imagevision]

12. Statisics aren't kept on how many people are tasered to death yearly

[valerief]

14. Well, those video games are finally paying off for the TortureWarLords of Merka. nt

[MsLeopard]

13. Oh this makes me sick!!!

A travesty of the highest order - how can this happen? The almighty badge makes one's actions legit, no matter what those actions may be. They only brought him up misdemeanor charges for God's sake! There is no justice.

[depakid]

15. At least he was indicted

In Oregon, you can't even get that far....

[Truth4Justice]

41. Not as a Felon. This creep will still be able to carry a gun when he should be in prison.

[High Plains]

16. Cops get away with murder...again.

It's enough to make one just a bit cynical.

This occurred during a SWAT-style drug raid aimed at the woman's boyfriend. The woman was unarmed, holding her infant child. The cop's bullets blew the baby's finger off and killed his mother.

This is your war on drugs.

[Truth4Justice]

26. The Gestapo are back again.

[Tejas]

34. hey, it worked in Waco

oh wait

[High Plains]

17. There's gonna be another ghetto uprising one of these days.

And it'll be shit like this that sets it off.

[debbierlus]

18. In a drug raid....I wonder if the police ever showed up and shot at Bush when he was doing Blow

This system is hypocritical sick & it goes beyond racism into class warfare (with the poor as targets).

Fuck these people & the draconian drug laws that they perpetuate to keep their prison contractors employed.

[Greyhound]

19. Just another day in Amerika.

So, we have no chance of justice within the system. That leaves us on our own and at their mercy, of which they none.

[maxsolomon]

22. how about indicting the commanding officer

who ordered the raid &/or conducted the raid, and did so in a manner that endangered the life of an innocent child? the nervous shooter doesn't need to be the only one taking the heat.

you could grab the guy when he takes his trash out - he LIVES THERE with his wife & kid.

assholes.

[Lint Head]

23. Eight months?! Judges always side with the police.

Ever get a speeding ticket and try to fight it? The jury knows that the police know who they are and finding an officer guilty would open them up to retaliation. There is no justice in a country that resorts to fascism to uphold the law. :dem:

[sasquatch]

27. The prosecuting attorney needs to be disbarred

That SOB acted like the Chicago White Sox in the 1919 World Series so his cop buddies can get off for their murders and I'm absolutely sick of it.

[High Plains]

28. We need effective controls over police in the United States

We don't have them.

[Truth4Justice]

35. Very true. We also need less police and federal law-enforcement agents as well...

you can't have a police state until you have lots of police and snitches to enforce it.

[WriteDown]

31. A couple of things here....

She and her young child were living with a known drug dealer and I seriously doubt it was pot. Her death is a tragedy, but it sounds as if she was the poster child for poor decision making. The fact that they were living with 2 pit bulls with a small child also raises red flags for me. Also, from the article:

"Chavalia had testified that he thought his life was in danger when he fired the shots. He said he saw a shadow coming from behind a partially open bedroom door and heard gunshots that he thought were aimed at him. It turned out the gunfire he heard was coming from downstairs, where officers shot two charging pit bulls."

Sounds like poor police procedure, but I seriously doubt he was trying to hit an unarmed woman.

*Also, is this guy white? Chavalia doesn't sound Italian to me.

[High Plains]

46. Ah, blaming the victim.

I expected that from the vicious retards who populate the comments sections of the Ohio newspapers, and I wasn't disappointed. A bit depressing to see it here.

...The color of the cop doesn't matter. They're all blue.

Was this verdict correct?

[redqueen]

78. Careful... the subthread will be deleted and the entire thread moved

to some forum hardly anyone reads.

[atreides1]

74. Blame the victim again

"Sounds like poor police procedure, but I seriously doubt he was trying to hit an unarmed woman."

He was trying to hit his target, regardless of who the target was. I seriously doubt that he really cared one way or the other!

"Chavalia had testified that he thought his life was in danger when he fired the shots."

That's seems to be a standard police response, just happened in a town in Maryland, only the victims were two black labs, one of which was running away and was shot in the back by a police officer who felt threatened by the dogs.

"*Also, is this guy white? Chavalia doesn't sound Italian to me."

A white police officer was acquitted Monday in the drug-raid shooting death of an unarmed black woman that set off protests about how police treat minorities in a city where one in four residents is black.

[benEzra]

32. If a non-LEO were in someone else's house, saw a shadow, and emptied a magazine

through a door at an unarmed woman holding a baby, killing her and injuring the child, then they would be charged and convicted of at least negligent homicide, reckless endangerment, aggravated assault of a child, etc.

Who the victim was living with, and the fact that her dogs were bull terriers instead of German shepherds, doesn't excuse the officer's actions, IMO, unless there is a lot more to this than we are being told.

[Tejas]

33. .... into a room containing 6 children - n/t

[Truth4Justice]

44. Police motto" To protect and serve....our vested interests and butts".

[WriteDown]

45. Trying to arrest a drug dealer who is most likely armed...

makes things just a tad different. I was just saying that the woman seems grossly irresponsible in this situation.

[High Plains]

47. This woman was killed because the cops insisted on doing another...

...rah-rah super-macho SWAT raid, not because of her poor life choices. Why do they do those fucking raids? Why don't they just wait for the guy to leave the house and arrest him? Tarika Wilson was killed by stupid police procedures and an adrenaline-pumped killer cop.

[WriteDown]

49. Perhaps..just perhaps.....

it was instead due to his history of violent crimes. Read and learn. Sounds like a thorough investigation.

http://www.wlio.com/localNews.aspx?NewsID=7003

[High Plains]

54. That's weak.

The police chief merely alleges Terry has a violent history, doesn't say what it was.

Also, undercover police made repeated buys off this guy. They didn't need a SWAT team to do that, did they? Why didn't they just arrest him during one of those buys? Why didn't they just pull him over in his car? Why didn't they just arrest him when he walked out his door?

This SWAT raid bullshit has got to stop.

[WriteDown]

55. Do some research and find out....

what his history was. Normally, you want to accrue as much evidence as possible on a suspect to create an airtight case. Also, you generally do not want to blow the cover(which may take months/years to create) of an operative who is working undercover in an area.

[Tejas]

64. some homework by the team

wouldn't have hurt either.


If they can do "months/years" worth of investigation to build cases, sure seems they would have a clue that a mother and 6 children were possibly in the house and should have acted accordingly. That is if SWAT had a clue as to who was in the house at the time of the raid, sure seems they should have.

[High Plains]

72. I've followed this case from the begining.

Your dance of apology for the cops notwithstanding, this was a serious fuck-up. They shot and killed an innocent, unarmed woman in her home holding a baby in her arms. Instead of apologizing for the police, maybe you might want to think about what could be done to prevent incidents like this. It is hardly unique.

I think we need to rein in those macho SWAT cowboys and stop using SWAT for routine drug raids. For starters. Then we need to radically rethink our drug policies and laws.

And your repeated blaming the victim in this incident is downright scummy.

[WriteDown]

56. I did some research for you....

but I'm sure you can find more.

http://www.limaohio.com/news/prison_23636___article.html/sentenced_seven.html

[benEzra]

59. Again, irrelevant to the shooting of Ms. Wilson by the officer.

The raid was legal; the shooting was not.

[WriteDown]

60. Shooting was legal

They even made an effort to make sure that that wasn't her residence. The shooting was "legal" but a tragedy none the less.

[benEzra]

70. No, it wasn't legal. The circumstances under which police can lawfully shoot someone

are clearly delineated by the law, and NOWHERE in the law is there justification for shooting blindly into a room because you were startled by a loud noise. If you think there is, I'd love for you to show me where, as I have studied use-of-force law for quite a bit.

Suppressive fire at unknown, non-hostile targets may be justifiable in military combat, but it is illegal in civilian law enforcement.

[benEzra]

48. The fact that someone in the house may be armed...

does not justify emptying a magazine indiscriminately through a door into a room with six kids and an unarmed woman. That is felony aggravated assault and reckless endangerment by any standard, unless there is more to this than we're being told.

FWIW, ~40% of U.S. households contain guns. Meaning, that if the police show up at your house, from their perspective there is a ~40% chance that you have a gun. Would that make it OK for them to blindly shoot up your kids's room(s) and kill your spouse, just because they think you might have a gun and an officer panics?

[WriteDown]

50. Read and learn more about the case.

http://www.wlio.com/localNews.aspx?NewsID=7003

[The Croquist]

52. Thanks for the link.

But allot of people think it's best to start yelling Nazi and murderer without knowing the actual facts.

[benEzra]

58. That link justified the search warrant, not the shooting.

The problem here is the negligent actions of ONE officer on that team that resulted in the death of an unarmed woman holding a child. I don't believe that anyone is claiming the initial raid was illegal, only the negligent actions of the one officer, and the warrant has nothing to do with that. The warrant authorizes search and seizure, not shooting.

FWIW, I am not yelling "Nazi" or "murderer". The crime here was manslaughter or negligent homicide, not murder, unless we are not being given all the details of the shooting itself.

[The Croquist]

63. I did not say that everyone used the terms Nazi or murderer

But they certainly occurred:
Post number 3 (L0oniX) had a nice image of an American flag with a swastika superimposed on it. 4 posts contained the word "murder" or "murderer". Then there were the always popular comments containing "racism", "trigger-happy", "gutless" and "gestapo". I almost forgot. Someone wants to execute cops who make mistakes. I wonder how they feel about other people who make mistakes that result in people dieing like doctors, nurses, drivers, social workers, 911 operators, firemen or EMT's?

Maybe, just maybe the guy they were trying to arrest was dangerous and the woman who got shot was stupid. I don't know. Maybe it's a smart idea to have 6 children by the time you are 26, shack up with a dangerous criminal who is selling drugs and let your 6 kids live in the same house with him and 2 pit bulls. Did I mention that she was pulled over by the cops a week or 2 before for driving without her kids in safety seats?

This woman was a disaster waiting to happen and it happened.

I wonder how many people read the link provided by "WriteDown"? I know you did. It provided valuable information that no doubt will be disregarded by people who have already made up their minds to blame the cops.

The cop screwed up but he was in a dangerous situation. To call him these things is wrong.

[benEzra]

71. I agree, he was in a stressful situation. That does not excuse his negligence. (n/t)

[benEzra]

57. There is nothing whatsoever there about the officer's actions, merely justifying the raid itself

which was never the problem here.

The problem was, an officer panicked (reportedly when other officers shot the dogs) and blindly fired under circumstances that were patently illegal, killing an unarmed woman and injuring the child she was holding. It is not the victim's fault that the officer fired recklessly. As I mentioned, the shots fired constituted felony aggravated assault and reckless endangerment by any standard, unless there is more to this than we're being told.

A warrant is a license to search and arrest; it is not a license to shoot wildly at shadows, and it does not protect you from consequences if you screw up and shoot someone you are not legally allowed to shoot.

[WriteDown]

62. Lets break it down....

You are under the impression that the house is frequented by armed drug traffickers and you've already confirmed that his girlfriend lives elsewhere. You enter the home and begin your search. You split up and you take the upstairs. As you slowly wander around the house looking for the suspect or evidence, you see a sudden shadow behind you and at the same time hear gun shots. You turn quickly and fire the weapon three times in the direction of the shadow.

Sounds like a tragedy to me. I have to also wonder why this woman didn't announce her presence immediately, especially when the police first entered the house.

It is the woman's fault for having a young child and herself around loads of crack and other paraphernalia. Kind of like swimming with Great Whites. I feel bad for the person, but they put themselves in that situation. I think anybody in the world would've reacted the same way that police officer did.

[The Croquist]

65. A few "corrections"

One; The women put her 6 children at risk not just 1.
Two; They had not confirmed that she lived elsewhere. Until they shot her they had no idea that she was associated with the suspect. The fact that she had been written a ticket a week or two before driving the suspects car would not (my opinion) have been significant to the cops.

[Tejas]

66. Your very first sentence shows the fault

"You are under the impression that the house is frequented by armed drug traffickers and you've already confirmed that his girlfriend lives elsewhere."


Well put but sounds like a lame excuse for SWAT not knowing she and her children were physically in the house. That said, there could've been 50 badguys armed to the teeth in there and SWAT wouldn't have been the wiser.

The logistics planning that set this whole tragedy in motion stink beyond belief.

[The Croquist]

67. Sometimes it's a little tough to find out who is in a house

What do you suggest? Maybe they should have waited until the 2010 census and waited for the form to be sent in.

Maybe they should have set up a tent in front of the house with a sign on it that said
"Honk once if there are drug dealers in this house. Honk twice if there are women and children inside".

I do have another suggestion. Legalize drugs.

[Tejas]

75. That's a cop-out

I suggest they try real-world logistics, not reruns of CSI or SVU.

[jpete]

68. Here in NY, the police is out of control as well

The other day ,a cop hit a biker for no reason, knocking him off his bike and injuring him. Now he's been suspended.

[The Croquist]

69. It sounds like the police are under control

If they had ignored the situation I would agree that they were out of control.

I doubt it was for no reason. It may not have been a justified reason but I doubt it was for no reason.

[High Plains]

73. NYPD under control? Not hardly.

Exhibit one: Sean Bell

Exhibit two: Massive searches of young people of color

http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/05/06/police-stop-and-frisk-encounters-soar/

There is a serious issue about who polices the police in New York City. Apparently, nobody.

As for the cop who attacked the bicyclist, well, that was on video. Hard to dispute.

[Tejas]

76. Yep, when you have a mayor that commits felonies

his subordinates aren't likely very far behind.




reference: out-of-state FFL stings ordered by Bloomberg which violated Federal Law.