Female Cop Fired After Shooting an Unarmed Carjacking Suspect

**kellyhound** · #1 01-23-2014, 05:12 PM

Quote:

Dashcam video shows the moment a Dallas police officer shot an unarmed carjacking suspect, an incident that cost the female cop her badge and prompted a lawsuit from the victim.

Police officials said the 45-second clip was evidence that Senior Cpl. Amy Wilburn violated the department's deadly force policy when she opened fire on Kelvion Walker during a suspected carjacking on Dec. 9.

Wilburn, 48, was fired on Dec. 30. Walker, 19, has filed a lawsuit against her.

A grand jury was reviewing the case, which was standard procedure in cop shootings.

deanmine · #2 01-23-2014, 09:54 PM

A witness said he watched an officer shoot carjacking suspect Kelvion Walker, 19, Monday afternoon even though Walker had both hands in the air and showed no signs of having a weapon. Walker has not been charged with a crime and is in critical condition at a Dallas hospital.
“I don’t condone these two young men stealing this car,” said the witness, Scottie Smith II, a real estate agent and property manager. “I surely don’t condone these two young men driving into my complex and giving my complex this negative publicity.
“But I do not condone an officer shooting a man with his hands up in the air.”
After inquiries from The Dallas Morning News, the department issued a news release late Tuesday about the shooting.
The statement said that no weapon was found in the car. It also said police were reviewing dash cam video from the squad cars and were attempting to enhance the video “to assist in the investigation.”
The statement did not name Smith, but did say that police had spoken to an independent witness who told them that Walker had both his hands in the air.
The statement identified the officer who shot Walker as Senior Cpl. Amy Wilburn, who was hired in 2001. She has been placed on administrative leave, a routine procedure in such cases. Her attorney, Robert Rogers, said there is more to the story.
“The focus should be on what the officer involved knew and saw at the exact moment,” said Rogers. “Without getting into the specifics of an ongoing investigation, I can promise you that the officer involved was in fear for her life at that exact moment.”
Monday’s shooting comes in the wake of a mid-October case in which a residential surveillance video showed a Dallas police officer shooting a mentally ill man who was standing with his arms at his side while holding a knife. That officer has been fired and his partner was reprimanded. It also led to a change in the way the Dallas Police Department deals with officers who have been involved in shootings.
Previously, those officers would typically give investigators detailed statements about the incidents within hours of the incident.
But the new policy requires officers to take 72 hours before giving detectives an official statement. Officers can still provide an immediate bare-bones walk-through with their attorney present so investigators can start their work.
Carjacking report
According to police records, the events that led up to Walker’s shooting began with a carjacking about 2:15 p.m. at a gas station in the 9500 block of Bruton Road. Wilburn and other officers responded to the robbery.
A 24-year-old man told police that he was parked at the gas station when he was approached by a man in an “aggressive manner.”
He fled to a nearby carwash and watched as two people drove off in his 2005 Chevrolet Malibu. He told police that the passenger fired two shots at him as they fled.
Authorities contacted the car’s lien holder and police tracked it through a vehicle GPS.
Authorities say Wilburn and Officer Jason Correa saw the stolen car heading south on St. Augustine Road near Military Parkway in Pleasant Grove.
Wilburn turned on her red lights to stop the car, but the driver sped up and turned into the St. Augustine Townhomes.
Police said the car slowed, and the driver jumped out and ran away. That driver remained at large late Tuesday.
As the car continued to roll, Wilburn approached to stop it. The statement said she didn’t realize Walker was in the front passenger seat.
“Officer Wilburn perceived Walker to be an imminent threat, drew her weapon and discharged it once striking him,” the statement said.
Walker was charged with misdemeanor theft in 2011 and received deferred adjudication, according to Dallas County records. The charge was dismissed in 2012 after he completed probation.
Walker is a fifth-year senior at Spruce High School in Pleasant Grove, according to his former head football coach, Carl Richardson, who described Walker as “a good kid.”
“I don’t know what the story was, but he was always respectful toward me,” Richardson said Tuesday.
Witness’s account
Smith, the witness, said he was on the phone and sitting in his car waiting for a prospective tenant to arrive when the shooting occurred about 20 feet away.
“I was so close to the scene that if that bullet had missed that young man and would have went out that window, it would have hit my car and probably would have hit me,” he said.
He said he watched as two uniformed officers rushed up toward the driver’s side of the car.
“The lady cop opens the door, pulls out her gun and shoots,” said Smith, 26. “The whole time, the passenger has his hands in the air. He didn’t have time to go for anything. I … haven’t been able to sleep at all.”
He said he is still trying to cope with what he saw.
“I’m scheduled to go on a police ride-along here in the next two weeks, so I don’t have this anti-police feel within me,” Smith said. “But that right there was a traumatic scene