Prosecutor declines to charge officer in deaf man's killing

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Associated Press


Sean Murphy, Associated Press
 Updated 3:05 pm, Friday, December 8, 2017

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — An Oklahoma prosecutor announced Friday he will not file criminal charges against a police officer in the September shooting death of a deaf man who was not following officer commands.

Oklahoma County District Attorney David Prater said his investigation determined the Sept. 19 shooting death of Magdiel Sanchez outside his south Oklahoma City home was justified.

Police have said officers who responded to a hit-and-run crash encountered Sanchez holding a metal pipe. An autopsy report shows Sanchez was hit with a stun gun and shot five times in the chest, pelvis and upper arm.

According to police, witnesses yelled "he can't hear you" before the officers fired, but they didn't hear them.

Read more: http://www.chron.com/news/crime/article/Prosecutor-declines-to-charge-officer-in-deaf-12416778.php

[Angry Dragon]

1. 'I was afraid' is not a good reason to kill someone

[SWBTATTReg]

2. This is very sad...I'm profoundly hard of hearing and

am 95% and 90% deaf. Even though I wear hearing aids, I rely far more on lip-reading (that's what they had avail. back in the '60s). When it's dark, lip-reading is rather hard to do, and while hearing aids still help, I rely on the lip-reading to ensure what I'm hearing is in fact, what I'm supposed to hear. Best solution, is to rely on others around me to make sure I understand what's going on.

I also have big signs posted on our exterior doors that a hard of hearing person lives there, knock real loud and ring the doorbell too (more than likely I won't hear the doorbell, but I'll hear the loud knocking.

This is one of my fears too, totally innocently going about my business, and then all of a sudden, someone is yelling at me...more than likely I won't fully understand the conversation, or just catch a tiny part of it.

Scary, and sad, very sad...for all parties.

I don't want or desire that the police officers associated w/ the shooting be charged unless they were totally incompetent, and knew beforehand that hard of hearing (HOH) person is involved, but is still shot, etc. I feel that this is just a sad sad sad accident for all involved...