You may have seen this… but do you know what happened?

The “this” I speak of is the shooting of the subway passenger by a BART cop.

First, what is BART?  I’m guess Bay Area Railway Transit, ie, they are police officers specifically assigned to the transit authority.

Second, why shoot a man?  

THAT remains the crux of the issue.

Johnson has said Mehserle is devastated and is presumed innocent. He also says that the videos making the media rounds are inconclusive and that there is more to the story than what can be seen on the grainy images.

This is true.  Video rarely shows the entire incident.  In this case, it is immaterial.

Johnson told KTVU that authorities are trying to determine whether the officer who shot Grant accidentally drew his gun instead of his Taser.

This is political and legal BS.  First of all, a cop doesn’t carry a taser on his/her belt.  Second, with regular firearms qualification, a cop knows, instinctively, where his/her duty firearm is on their belt.  So, there is absolutely NO WAY that a cop “mistakenly” pulls his/her firearm and caps a round.  It. Does. Not. Happen.

Orloff said Wednesday that his investigation will focus primarily on what led to the shooting.

Yes.  By all means focus on what led up to the officer pulling his duty weapon and shooting a suspect in the back who was clearly in a position to offer no resistance whatsoever instead of investigating the officer.

As an ex-cop, I’ll be the first one to defend an officer whose actions may be offensive to the public, or, even whose actions cannot be understood by the public when they are right.  But, you just don’t shoot a suspect in the back who is in a position of surrender by “accident” with your firearm.

EVERY officer.  And I mean EVERY. ONE. OF. THEM. Is, and has been, trained to know exactly where their firearm is located.  To draw and fire it.  If they are in a high stress situation where thinking cannot be done.  

EVERY officer.  And I men EVERY. ONE. OF. THEM. Is, and has been, trained to take that split second to answer three questions; ability, opportunity, and jeopardy before pulling the trigger.  This means does the person have the ability to cause death or serious harm, do they have the opportunity to do so, and, is there jeopardy of it?  If they can, in that split second, answer all three questions as “yes”, THEN they pull the trigger.

This was cold-blooded murder.  Period.