a Lal Colorado police officer has been charged with second-degree murder after he shot a man
in a dollar store parking lot during an investigation about a car's suspicious
paint job that's fresh paint too that's R I can smell it it used to be red a roll P J on that's
suspicious it was the officer's third day of training with that Police Department can a
police officer shoot a man attempting to flee a suspicious paint job investigation let's take a
look at the footage so that we understand the facts that will give us the answer pull the
car up right in front of it and let's go see if they're inside I could do that sure get out get
out Eric Hernandez was on his third day with the department and was training with veteran
Lal police officer Sam Johnson the pair saw what they determined to be a suspicious vehicle
parked at the town Dollar Store the car a Dodge Magnum had been backed into a parking
spot was double parked and had recently been painted quote unprofessionally according to the
officers head
on Cherokee Nation
Oklahoma I'll go to
clearance thisp 865
cents can you clear a Oklahoma plate that's fresh PT too that's real one I can smell
it
see anything in there there's some blankets I saw
blankets
that's copy get your
vent that's going to be a negative I'm to
get it used to be red
huh where dides he come back on nothing doesn't come back anyway that's what he
said so what are you going to do Hernandez initially suggested either Towing the car or
placing a warning sticker in the window Johnson suggested boxing the Magnum in with their Cruiser
and going into the store what could go wrong a roller paint job on that car with that headlight
that's suspicious Johnson can be heard on the body cam video saying you have every reason
to start questioning somebody about that uh two things I can do um we can right now it's
parked double parked so we've got a complaint so we could tell it or if we want it to be
nice leave a 72-hour tag on it and go that round but in this case how about this pull
the car up right in front of it and let's go see if they're inside I could do that for
sure
a roller pinkt job on the farm light that's suspicious yeah reason to start
questioning some about because that's against
D the officers spoke with the store's employees who said no one who worked there drove that car
hello got a quick question for you yes uh did you see that red I mean that red that white Dodge
Magnum parked out there I did not okay anybody know if your employees a like Dodge I don't
believe so okay thank you you know I don't just right now we just noticed it right now so oh okay
it hasn't been that long I oh cool you don't own any kind of car like that so guess we start asking
people go see these guys Hernandez and Johnson began walking down an AIS looking for the magnum's
driver the car's driver Justin reffle was in the back of the store when he saw the officers
approaching he walked to the emergency exit and pressed on the door which then set off the store's
alarm he then ran towards the front of the store Hernandez and Johnson went to the emergency exit
and looked outside when they didn't see anyone they ran back through the store and out into the
parking lot this guy walk in the way did you see that yeah keep an eye on there he go there he goes
65 he's still in here where'd he
go get on the ground Hernandez yelled at reffle to get out of the car as reffle put
it in reverse and backed up several feet reffle then put the car into drive and
began to pull out of the parking spots get out of the get out now get out get
out out Hernandez then fired four
rounds this shots fir the actual shooting footage has been censored in order to comply
with YouTube's guidelines as usual I'll post a raw uncensored clip of this portion at the blog post
linked below ruffled drove away and crashed into the rear of a third party's vehicle he was taken
to the hospital where he was declared dead Lal police chief Dave Arnold said he believed that
his officers followed department policies and protocols at least up until the shooting itself
the officers on scene did what they did and they have their reasons for it he said that since the
shooting the department has added additional escalation and Crisis Intervention trainings
the department fired Hernandez when the indictment came out Johnson is back on the job according to
the chief what is the Constitutional law here considering when an officer May reasonably use
dly Force against felony suspects the Supreme Court has set a simple rule where the suspect
poses no immediate threat to the officer and no threat to others the harm resulting from failing
to apprehend him does not justify the use of force in doing so further a police officer may not seize
an unarmed non-dangerous suspect by just shooting him dead but where the officer has probable cause
to believe that the suspect poses a threat of serious physical harm either to the officer or
to others it's not unconstitutionally unreasonable to prevent his Escape by using deadly force I.E
shooting him the ability of law enforcement to ever shoot someone who is fleeing away from them
just to prevent the Escape is Gen is generally known as the fleeing felon Rule and that comes
from the Supreme Court case of Tennessee versus Garner the first important fact to acknowledge
here is was this a fleing felon situation or in other words was this individual known to
the officer to be so dangerous and so likely to seriously harm or kill someone that it would be
reasonable to shoot him to prevent his escape this was a suspicious car investigation of course a bad
paint job to my knowledge is not a crime it could be suspicious I suppose if combined with other
facts the only potential crime that I see here is the car being double parked though is that even a
crime under Colorado state law this was private property did the business here complain to the
police if so maybe there could be a potential trespassing crime in the works but even then
many states require that an individual be asked to leave prior to being detained or charged for
trespassing by the police the point is even if the officers come up with something under state law
it's going to be very minor it's certainly not going to to be a felony rising to the level of
making it reasonable to shoot someone in the back who is attempting to flee something like armed
robbery or murder therefore the only way this use of force uh this use of deadly force is legal is
if there was an immediate threat to the officer or a bystander at the time that the trigger was
pulled the vehicle here appears on the video to be fleeing away from the officer when the shots
are fired there doesn't appear to be anyone in the immediate path of the vehicle so this
is clearly an illegal use of force an illegal use of deadly force and therefore an unreasonable and
unconstitutional Fourth Amendment violation that being said however the criminal case
against former officer Hernandez is a state law allegation of second deegree murder and that's a
different analysis and carries a higher burden of proof the central issue however will still be the
reasonableness of this officer's decision to pull the trigger based on the proceed threat here he
had a choice just to not pull the trigger it may have then turned into a Pursuit situation which
could have theoretically endangered the public but also that is speculation that may not have
happened and deadly force requires immediacy of a threat not speculation of a threat in the end
we'll have to see what the criminal jury does with it and perhaps a civil jury if a law suit
is filed as always thanks for watching please subscribe both here and at the blog at the
civils lawyer.com let me know in the comments if you think that this shooting was justified
if so tell me why if you want to help fight to increase accountability by government officials
and police officers please consider donating to The Institute for justice the link for
which is below my freedom does not end where your fear begins freedom is scary deal with
it