Maryland man fatally shot by police while asleep in his bedroom

[muriel_volestrangler]

Source: The Guardian/AP

A Maryland man who was shot and killed by a police officer was asleep in his bedroom when police opened fire from outside his house, an attorney for the 21-year-old man's family said on Friday. The man's girlfriend was also wounded.

The Montgomery county police department said in a news release Duncan Socrates Lemp "confronted" police and was shot by one of the officers early on Thursday.
...
The department's news release said tactical unit members were serving a "high-risk" search warrant around 4.30am when one officer fatally shot Lemp. Police detectives recovered three rifles and two handguns from the home. Lemp was prohibited from possessing firearms, police said.
...
Sandler said the family believes police fired gunshots, not a flashbang or other projectile, from outside the home, including through Lemp's bedroom window, while he and his girlfriend were sleeping. Nobody in the home heard any warnings or commands before police opened fire, she said.



Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/mar/14/duncan-socrates-lemp-maryland-shot-police-officer

---

The scenarios from the family's lawyer and police just don't add up. Lemp (who is white, and libertarian - software developer, cryptocurrency enthusiast, "III-percenter" ) was, according to them, shot while asleep, from outside the house. No criminal record, they say, and no indication in the search warrant that this was a high risk raid. The police say he had guns he was prohibited from owning (why? They don't say) and that he 'confronted' them in some fashion.

On edit: It may be that they're saying the police first shot into the room from outside, and then later shot the man himself in a confrontation.

[IronLionZion]

1. Duncan Socrates Lemp

"stop resisting!" maybe now sleep is a way of resisting arrest?

[cstanleytech]

2. Will be interesting to hear what the body cams and patrol car cameras reveal assuming

they were not "accidentally" erased or "malfunctioning".

[elleng]

3. Montgomery county police department has some explaining to do;

we residents don't like this sort of thing.

[OneCrazyDiamond]

4. I will wait before judging

Sounds like a gun humper with red flags was killed when they came for his toys. It could be the other way too, but he should not have been armed.

[atreides1]

12. Excuse me

I thought you said you were going to wait before judging?

[OneCrazyDiamond]

13. I did.

Either way could be true. Another murder, or self defense.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

5. The house wall made a menacing motion and reached for its waistband. . . . nt

[reACTIONary]

6. You can be sure that the police...

...are overstating and exaggerating what happened. You can be sure the family's lawyer is also.

[SpankMe]

7. A lot of missing info from this story

If the guy was posting on 4Chan, III and "boogaloo" forums and was a cryptocurrency hobbyist, these are all signs of that crazed anti-government movement. There might have been some imminent threat the police aren't talking about yet. They might have gotten an anonymous tip.

I don't think this guy is a clean as it seems.

[NotHardly]

8. Being Anti-govt although questionable is not grounds for killing someone... ever...

might want to let the facts come forward first before passing judgement.

[LiberalArkie]

10. May have been swatted

[OnlinePoker]

9. If there was no criminal record, why a prohibition from owning weapons? n/t

[Sapient Donkey]

14. Maybe some mental illness? Is that's what the red flag laws are all about?

[Kaleva]

16. Here is the applicable Maryland law

"Md. Pub. Safety Code § 5-133.

A person may not possess a regulated firearm if the person:

Suffers from a mental disorder and has a history of violent behavior against the person or another;

Has been found incompetent to stand trial because of mental retardation or mental disorder;

Has been found not criminally responsible by reason of insanity;

Has been voluntarily admitted for more than 30 consecutive days to a mental health treatment facility; or

Has been involuntarily committed to a mental health treatment facility."

https://www.ncsl.org/research/civil-and-criminal-justice/possession-of-a-firearm-by-the-mentally-ill.aspx

[NutmegYankee]

18. Use of cannabis. Nt

[MrsCoffee]

19. What!?!

Why on earth would use of cannabis prohibit someone from owning a gun?

[NutmegYankee]

20. The Gun Control Act (GCA), 18 U.S.C. 922(g)

"who is an unlawful user of or addicted to any controlled substance (as defined in section 102 of the Controlled Substances Act, codified at 21 U.S.C. § 802);"

https://www.atf.gov/firearms/identify-prohibited-persons

[MrsCoffee]

21. Wow, I can't believe that.

I mean I can, but wtf. I know Utah passed a law that makes it almost impossible to deny someone a firearm if they are a medical marijuana user.

Are there similar laws for people who use alcohol or prescription drugs?

[NutmegYankee]

22. No. Those substances are not made illegal by the Drug Control Act

There has been discussion about whether intoxication inside a home by alcohol should be factored in, but that discussion normally only focus on handling a firearm and not the storage on premises.

[Doc_Technical]

11. We have seen this scenario before.

https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/police-kill-two-members-of-the-black-panther-party

[Sapient Donkey]

15. I would like to think that sounds like a crazy unlikely story, but sadly it seems very plausible

Obviously will withhold making judgement until some body cam footage is released (or not released), but I won't be surprised if they really did shoot some guy who was sleeping in bed. Wasn't that long ago in which some Fort Worth cops shot a woman in her house as they were sneaking around in her backyard in the middle of the night.

[Kaleva]

17. I would like to find out why he wasn't allowed possession of firearms

[EX500rider]

23. I somehow doubt the police started randomly firing into the house for no good reason. nt