Ala. officer who shot naked man had baton, spray

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Associated Press

Ala. officer who shot naked man had baton, spray
By JAY REEVES | Associated Press • Published October 12, 2012

A University of South Alabama campus police officer who fatally shot a naked student was carrying pepper spray and a baton at the time, the school said Friday.

University spokesman Keith Ayers said Officer Trevis Austin, a four-year employee in his first police job, was armed with all three weapons when he walked outside the police station with his gun drawn to confront Gil Collar. The 18-year-old college freshman was naked when he banged on police department windows in the pre-dawn hours last Saturday.

It's unclear why Austin went for his gun first, but the sheriff has said the decision was proper.

Authorities said Collar, a 5-foot-7, 140-pound high school wrestler in his first semester of college, was on LSD when he moved aggressively toward the officer in an athletic stance, prompting the shooting. But surveillance video shows the student never tried to grab the officer's weapon or got within 4 or 5 feet of Austin.

Read more: http://www.theolympian.com/2012/10/12/2283568/ala-officer-who-shot-naked-man.html#storylink=cpy

[PSPS]

1. Another murdering cop who will get a paid vacation while they "investigate."

[Ash_F]

2. Has the surveillance video been released yet?

""Had the officer had a Taser or some other less lethal instrument, I do not know if that officer would have had an opportunity to ... holster his pistol and to use something else because the events were evolving so rapidly and he was so close that had he put the pistol in the holster, I don't know that he could have drawn something else," Cochran told reporters earlier this week."

[lunasun]

3. naked when he banged on police department windows in the pre-dawn hours last Saturday.

wonder if he was half crazed from drugs but at the same time trying to get help or turn himself in for help
we will never know

5'7 140lbs.... I would think a few of the police at the station could bring him down to ground and cuff

A 4 yr campus police officer ...you would think he was used to messed up rowdy kids but maybe not

[schmice]

4. Nothing will happen to that cop.

[Th1onein]

5. Pssssst! DO something!

Call them, and at least leave a message about how you feel about this murder of this young man. Geezus, this kid was five foot seven inches tall and weighed only 140 lbs, and was NAKED, and obviously unarmed. Why did they have to kill him?

Goddamn these murdering brutes. CALL THEM: Police Administration: 251-460-6611

[Scootaloo]

6. Why did he go for his gun first?

because he knew he could get away with it. See, this is the thing. if you keep saying over and over again, "It's okay to kill people, you're a cop; we'll let you do that," then don't act surprised when more cops kill people. It's just like anyone else, ivf you say "Oh, okay, we won't prosecute you," then you just end up with other people seeing that and figuring, well what the hell.

[firenewt]

7. 'Because he knew he could get away with it' That says it all. Cops are nothing more than the

para-military arm of the Right Wing. Didn't use to be that way - don't know what happened. I no longer have much respect for law enforcement. I fear in the near future we will have to defend ourselves from the police.

[Scootaloo]

8. What happened?

COPS. Followed by other police-centered dramas like NYPD Blue, Law and order, The Shield, 24, etc. This was in effect a media mainstreaming of authoritarian police state mentality. Portray hte cops as unquestionable heroes, and the people they deal with as unconscionable monsters, dangerous maniacs, and this is where it gets us. These television shows perpetuate the idea that there no only is but that there absolutely needs to be a "war" on crime. And of course, in war, you kill people.

And if the cops are the "good guys" in the war, and everyone they go after is the "bad guy" as these media pieces tell us every single day, then how does that affect public perception of the situation?

I don't subscribe to the idea that forms of media "make" people do stuff; I'm no Tipper Gore. But I do believe that constant exposure to a concept eventually results in that concept being "normalized" in the viewers' minds.

[Quantess]

9. Sad.