Deputies watched (and did little) while gunman killed two on bridge

[Liberal_in_LA]

Deputies watched while gunman killed two on bridge

By Karl Fischer

[e-mail]
Posted: 08/18/2009 05:47:21 PM PDT

Two Marin County sheriff's deputies watched from 50 feet away while a man killed two people with a shotgun on the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge last week.

The deputies, detectives returning from an unrelated investigation in San Pablo, stopped traffic and radioed for help, Richmond police said Tuesday.

But they made no move to stop the killer's rampage or to follow him or take his license plate number.

Their reactions that night left local law enforcement circles buzzing in the days following the Aug. 11 deaths of Deborah Ross, 51, and Ersie Everette, 58.

"I'm not in a position to know whether their actions might or might not have influenced the outcome. It's fair to say we're still putting the pieces together," said Richmond Police Chief Chris Magnus. He acknowledged that he has heard from many residents and police officers, retired and active, on the subject.

The Marin County sheriff's deputies, whom police would not identify, saw the shooter as they approached the toll plaza, one in front of the other in unmarked cars. They wore street clothes but were armed and on the clock, returning from a follow-up investigation in San Pablo.

One saw the muzzle flash in the south parking lot, where police say Nathan Burris, 46, shot Everette. Moments later, Burris jogged out into traffic toward the toll booth.

The attack lasted less than half a minute. One of the deputies alerted her dispatch center in Marin County during the shooting, and the other used her car to block traffic so other drivers would not blunder into the gunman's sights, Richmond police said. They then checked on workers in the toll booths and the adjoining Caltrans building.

Meanwhile, the suspect, later identified as Burris, drove away.

http://www.mercurynews.com/ci_13153419?source=most_viewed

[Poll_Blind]

1. I thought police were supposed to shout something like...uh..."Stop!"

Shit, maybe even "Stop or I'll shoot!". Or "Drop the gun!". Fifty feet is pretty close, especially when you're talking firearms. Both police should be able to be reasonably accurate at 20 feet. Maybe farther, but at least at 7 meters.

Not engaging an armed criminal, as a policeman, when you have a firearm and you're on the clock and you're at a distance at which you are able to engage...well, it doesn't sound like you're a policeman at that point but a bystander.

I guarantee if the killer had pointed his gun at the cops, they would have remembered they had guns on them.

PB

[Mythsaje]

2. Particularly against a shotgun...

I wonder if they were ordered not to engage for some reason. Sounds like they secured the scene to keep people from wandering into it.

I'm usually pretty quick to question the actions of the police, but there's a lot to wonder about here.

[Poll_Blind]

4. Couple of points on that. I took the time to read the whole article before posting and...

...there were a few things that stuck as maybe important. I agree with you that there are more questions but the article (unless its inaccurate, factually) seems to damn the cops' behavior quite a bit.

First, anyone firing a gun 50 feet away is still scary, scary close. A shotgun is deadly at 50 feet, especially one with a choke- which tightens the spread and is sometimes used for hunting. From the article, it says the shooter was menacing any cars that came near with his shotgun. I dunno where the placement of the officers where but if he's turning around and pointing the damned gun at cars that're going by, I'd consider that your call to duty at the expense of your own safety as a cop, to protect the unsuspecting citizens who could get shot.

The article, on re-reading uses wording which is either neutral to the Marin cops or not favorable to the expected law enforcement response (i.e. "Two Marin County sheriff's deputies watched from 50 feet away while a man killed two people with a shotgun on the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge last week.". Marin's a really wealthy county and there may be some friction between the police in Richmond and/or the perception that Marin cops are "soft". They also did call Marin dispatch instead of Richmond- but I don't know what protocol is.

And finally, back to the use of words, check out how it describes the "buzz" in the police community and that Richmond PD had heard from "active and retired" officers on the matter- sounds like lots of opinions on the shooting. But I didn't see the words "support" or something that indicated that these various individuals were voicing their opinion because they agreed with the actions of the Marin police.

And then these last 3 sentences from near the end of the article:

Some question the decisions of those out-of-town officers who did not directly intervene when lives were at stake.

Others bear no grudge — anyone would think twice about accosting an agitated man with a shotgun — but do wonder why the deputies did not follow when the gunman fled or do more to ensure the suspect's capture.

Anyway, FWIW.

PB

[geckosfeet]

5. It is impossible to know what the situation is when blundering onto a scene like that.

You don't know who is the good guy or bad guy (if any), who has guns or what happened to precipitate the event. Keeping others from wandering onto the scene seems sensible. Fifty feet can be challenging for a handgun in that kind of situation although you would expect police to be trained for it.

Sounds like they eventually got the guy based on their observations at the scene.

[FarCenter]

6. Sherrifs deputies in plainclothes? Probably armed with short barreled automatics.

If they didn't have shotguns or rifles in their cars, the only result would have been dead deputies. Plus, since the killer was after the ex-girlfriend and her boyfriend, there wasn't further danger to the public if they let him freely exit the scene.

They did the right thing to keep others away.

Your not talking Dirty Harry level LEOs here.

[Mythsaje]

13. They could have probably taken him

but I'll bet their orders were to stand back and not attempt to intercede unless other civilians were endangered. For pretty much the reasons you mention.

[EFerrari]

3. This story leaves a lot of stuff out. When was Ross shot?

And when the author says the cops saw the shooter, what does that mean? Did they see him, him with a gun, him shooting, what?

Those poor people.

[Xithras]

7. The first duty of an officer is to protect the public, not to apprehend.

The entire attack took under 30 seconds. According to the timelines, the two officers were in their cars and moving when the first person was shot. At that point, they stopped and one immediately began trying to keep other innocent drivers from getting in this guys line of fire. That only left ONE female officer, armed only with a sidearm, to confront a homicidal psychopath with a shotgun. She did what ANY officer would have done in that situation, and she called for backup

[HardWorkingDem]

8. Just what I love when it comes to Cops at DU....

Criticize first, ask questions second and take the time to learn all the facts last.....oh, and then ignore all the facts, answers to the questions and fall back to criticize again.....

[ProudToBeBlueInRhody]

9. You know if they shot the guy....the first post would be....

"Cops gun down man in cold blood on bridge."

Followed by....

"Pigs!"

"The fascist police state continues!"

"Cue the police apologists in 3....2....1...."

"Why didn't they use a tazer???!!!"

[Mythsaje]

11. Yeah, because there's always an outcry when cops shoot an armed suspect

in the middle of committing a double homicide.

Oh, wait.

[Cid_B]

16. Congratulations - Thats the second time I ever really LOLed

at something on DU in a literal way.

God help you for even mentioning tazers here by the way.

[EFerrari]

10. Not only DU, according to the article.

I don't see how they had time to do even what they did. And the write up isn't very clear, in the first place.

[Mythsaje]

12. I'm usually the first to criticize when they're clearly over-the-top...

Here, it's a little more difficult to determine what happened.

[EFerrari]

14. Yep. I've been on that bridge and I still can't "see" how it happened

from this article. When and where did Ross get shot? First? Second?

[EFerrari]

15. According to a local news report, these officers were about 100 yards

away and had less than a minute to react. So, one of them diverted traffic and the other one called in a description of the car and gave first aid to one of the victims.

The media got this one wrong, imho.