Murder charges dropped against deputy who shot suspected PS3 thief

@AZ I BORICUA

From your article:
"Formalizing charges originally filed against him on Oct. 6, a Morris County grand jury indicted Patrick M. O'Connor, 40, on charges of animal cruelty, possession of a knife and a baseball bat for an unlawful purpose, and unlawful possession of those weapons."

I don't see any charge for murder there.

The guy was a thieving little scrotum who steals what other people have worked hard for under threat of serious injury/death.
That doesn't mean he deserved to die but it's not quit comparable to the cop smashing the door down and double tapping the average joe while he sits on the bog having a crap.
He was a scumbag. If he wasn't the cops wouldn't be knocking his door. Why is everyone in his corner? Do you think is one of "us" because he robbed a PS3? I'm sure he'd jack your car too if he could.

Quite frankly the cop appears to be a jittery, triggerhappy prick. If the cop had gone down it would have been two scumbags for the price of one.

S:

Why would his lawyer be contacted? He hadn't been arrested yet. He hadn't asked for a lawyer. He hadn't been mirandized. Do you think cops routinely call every lawyer in town and say "hey, listen, we're going to arrest this guy, is he your client? If so, let him know we're coming."

And special forces were sent because they had reason to believe this guy was heavily armed. As mentioned, he had pictures of himself and automatic weaponry posted online.



It's a shitty situation, but for public policy reasons we're better off giving leniency to the cops, so long as they were being reasonable. The purpose of our laws is to prevent crime. Allowing cops to reasonably shoot before being shot goes a long way to this.
It's worth reminding everyone that the Supreme Court has upheld this, several times.
And worth pointing out that the grand jury is a jury of the peers, they had more facts than we did, and they found this cop's actions reasonable.

It's also worth pointing out that the bullet that landed in the head was not intended. The bullet ricochetted off another object. More than likely the officer was trying to disarm than execute.

http://www.charlotte.com/mld/charlotte/news/16213993.htm

Granted, the original article from CNN is clumsily written, but it seems like a lot of Joystiq readers don't know how to, you know, READ.

"A copy of the indictment filed as evidence Tuesday shows a check next to 'true bill' indictment, with a heavy mark made through 'not a true bill' followed by what appears to be the foreman's initials and Tuesday's date.

When a grand jury wants a murder indictment, it returns a 'true bill.' When it decides it does not want to issue an indictment, it returns 'not a true bill.'"

Now, I've got a degree in English, and I've taken some journalism classes and worked for a newspaper, and based on the above text I would assume that the author is trying to say that the grand jury foreman accidentally checked "not a true bill" and then crossed it out and put his initials next to it, and then checked "true bill."

-----------------------------------------------
SUMMARY: The grand jury meant to indict the officer. The foreman accidentally checked the wrong box, crossed that out, and then checked the box indicting the officer. A mistake was made during processing the paperwork that dropped the indictment.
-----------------------------------------------


Additionally, this quote is a perfect example of why I hate American Law Enforcement and the attourneys that defend them:

"He based his decision on his law enforcement training," McGuinness said Tuesday. "The fact that he shot was not a mistake. It was based on his belief that he was being fired upon."

GUESS WHAT? His belief that he was being fired upon WAS A MISTAKE, which makes all actions he took based upon that belief MISTAKES, which makes him shooting A MISTAKE. FAIL, FAIL, FAIL!

Everyone the grand juror admitted he made an error and that he had ment for the cop to be tried. He had been charged with 2nd degree murder and because of an error by a juror he is now free minus his job. The story id all over the net. I wish the joystiq article had better grammer but no one is perfect not even cops... This is crazy that police can bust in a shoot first and ask questions later. Knock on the door and say its the cops. Don't bust the door down and shoot. Does armed robbery with a "blunt object", aka not even a knife, justify SWAT team comando raid??? He was accused of a crime. Did they even find a PS3? Did the cop yell headshot?

I'm apalled to see how many people defend this police officer no matter what. This 18-year old college kid was only _suspected_ of being involved in the PS3 robbery. There was no reason at all to bring in an assault team since Peyton Strickland had no criminal past and the robbery consisted of one guy wrestling another guy down and other guys walking off with the PS3. This hadn't been an armed robbery so there was no real reason to send in a heavily armed arrest team or use a battering ram or go to the house at night. The shots that killed the boy went through a door first according to a report ( http://www.wilmingtonstar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061206/NEWS/612060416 ) which means police officer Long might not even have seen the kid. He thought he heard gun shots (the other officers didn't) so he started shooting. An unarmed kid was killed, even the dog was killed, no weapons were found in the home, no PS3s were recovered.

Jackson -

And I suppose that you're capable of doing a better job yourself?

No - seriously, moron - what kind of police training have you gone through? How many squad cars have you ridden in at 100 plus MPH chasing someone? How many times have you been first on the scene of a D&D - domestic disturbance and had BOTH parties turn on you when you have to arrest one of them for violence to the other? How many times have you had to pick up someone's head from off the highway because they were driving drunk, wrecked, and killed innocent people?

And yes, I've done ALL of that myself when I was younger. I've also shot people, too, in a him or me situation. It ain't a pretty world out there. It'd be nice if it was, but its not. Police can and do make mistakes - they're only human, after all. But guess what? You post a picture of yourself holding an M-14 on your website - where we can all see it, you commit armed robbery - even with a blunt object - and then when I bust down your door to serve my warrant and arrest you, and your dog is jumping at me and you've got something in your hand that in the split second that is all I have to identify it and it looks like a gun - and in the room I hear (or think I hear) gunshots - as they say in Saint's Row, you're taking two in the chest and one in the head, because I'M going home to my family tonight.

Apparently you've never had your adenaline actually pumping in a real life or death situation - one that really mattered, anyway.

what an asshole.

I think it is important to remember how much information we do not have about what really went down.

Regarding the dog, it is a pretty simple conclusion to draw (albeit an assumption at best) that the dog went to attack the man who was attacking his master ie. the cop.

Cop sees a dog with snarling teeth coming at him. cop defends himself. Cop does not know the extent to which this dog can do damage. ie. Trained to attack, kill, maime, etc.

The gun shots the cop heard very well could have been coming from a video game the kid was playing at the time or something similar. No one will know this.

People are angered that is was a head shot. How far away was the cop at the time? 3-7 feet is a close distance for this. 15-20 feet and you can argue the cop was really trying for bonus points.

I agree with the people who say if you don't commit armed robbery you have no fear of a cop barging into your house. I work for the state of NY courts as a IT guy but I hear what goes on. It is a lot harder then you may think to show cause for a search warrant.

It is so easy to crucify this cop after the fact.

Facts:
-Search warrant obtained for a suspect of armed robbery.
-Weapon used for armed robbery was...???? Did the cop even know?
-Cop killed suspect and dog (Most seem to think it was deliberate)

What are the chances this perp could have had a gun in his house? Do we expect the police to know this in advance? They have to take a worst case scenario every time to protect themselves.

Sorry all but in a case like I believe the suspect could have done a lot more to keep himself safe. Don't rob someone with a weapon for starters.

Jackson, no, you are incorrect. You are making the same mistake the courts did.
The grand jury did NOT mean to indict him. That's why charges were dropped today. Your reading comprehension is really way off.


As is your logic. Yes, the cop made a MISTAKE. But you'd rather cops make REASONABLE MISTAKES than DIE. See that word there, "REASONABLE?" If the cop had a REASONABLE BELIEF THAT PEOPLE WERE GOING TO DIE THEN HE WAS OK TO FIRE, EVEN IF IT TURNED OUT TO BE A MISTAKE.

You'd rather cops make the mistake of firing than the mistake of hesitating. Over the long run more lives are saved. And if the grand jury finds that the mistake wasn't reasonable you hold the cops accountable and try them for murder. But you cannot expect law enforcement to happen, or laws to be followed, if you do not give the cops the room for error. Yes, it sucks when the error results in the loss of life. But you'd rather the error be them too quick to shoot a suspect and the suspect dying than not being quick enough and a bystander dying.

When you read the article, it's clear none of the other two experienced officers who were with the dude that opened fire thought they were in any danger whatsoever. The guy just opened fire as soon as he got in there after hearing a gunshot that never happened.

As for all of you people carping about how this guy's life was on the line, blah blah, etc. etc.... That's part of being in law enforcement. You're supposed to be trained to deal with this shit. It's your job.

And the guy was a suspect. That doesn't make him guilty of any crime, and it certainly doesn't make him worth killing.

I mean, they broke down this guy's fucking door and shot him in the head! How is this not an outrage. What if they'd had the wrong house (something not unheard of in law enforcement)?

ymmv: Your assessment is so heavily flawe.

1) It was an armed robbery. Not with guns, but it was still armed.
2) There was reason to bring an assault team. They had pictures of the suspects holding automatic rifles. HOW MANY TIMES DO I HAVE TO REPEAT THAT!? The cops saw pictures of the suspects with the rifles on myspace or some similar site and realized that these kids might be pretty heavily armed.
3) So what if the cop didn't see the kid? According to the grand jury he was reasonable in thinking he heard shots. So now you want cops to have to be able to see a gun before they can fire? That will result in lots and lots and lots of dead people. Hey, someone is robbing a bank and holding a hostage, pointing something to her back. Is it a gun? We can't see it! Let's just assume it isn't, that'll be smart...

according to that report the shots went through the door now police might not have to see a gun but at least be sure the person with the "maybe" gun is where your bullets are going

"What if they'd had the wrong house"

They'd be brought up on murder charges and spending the next 10 to 20 years in jail. As ex-cops.


Now, what if they guy had the guns they thought he did and was firing?



Yes, putting your life on the line is the job of the cop. Being fired at without firing back is not. It is a cop's job to protect life. This cop thought he was doing just that. The grand jury feels his thinking was reasonable.
This is why it is not an outrage. The cop wasn't just firing randomly, he was firing at what he thought was an armed suspect firing at him, his partners, or the roommate.

Proving once again that cops, not criminals, are the biggest threat to this country.

No cop should be allowed to carry a gun (with the exception of SWAT or special forces). Cops should be equipped with non-lethal weapons to subdue or knock out suspects.

Killing is killing. Regardless of whether it was a cop or not and this scum needs to be in jail for life.

"Proving once again that cops, not criminals, are the biggest threat to this country."

Kneejerk...

How many people do cops kill each year?
How many people do criminals kill?


There you go. Stop being an idiot. "Look at me, I'm anti-authority! Propaghandi roolz!"

@MosquitoControl

I've read a lot of your posts from different news topics and just about all of them I can totally agree on. But this situation I beg to differ.

The cops communication within each other were extremely flawed. In the news it states that Long had heard what he believed to be gun firing. It also states that his fellow officer rammed the door. He should have been able to distinguish a gun shot from someone ramming a door, especially if his fellow officer told him before. Now of course this is all speculations, maybe he wasn't aware of his fellow officer attempting to enter, but as a law enforcement I would believe communication would be the most important factor when dealing with anyone.

I'm not saying your wrong, but it often seems that a police officer can get away with a lot more than the average Joe. I guess that's why I'm not a cop because I don't want to mistakenly shoot someone, because I made a mistake.

I feel the officer should be punished and that would make both parties happy. It will also help prevent other would be robbers for taking a PS3 and officers think twice before shooting.

Lets unarm all the cops. That way when a person's life is in danger and the unarmed cop sees it he can call the "SWAT" of the "Special forces and let them handle the call.

And while your at it could you tell me what the "special forces" are anyway and what makes them so special.

And what exactly do you think the "SWAT" team is anyway. (hint it is a force made up of cops. pretty hard to fathom I know)

"You people make me sick. I'm glad -you're- not police, or the bad guys would laugh at you while pumping you full of holes as you attempt to achieve the objective of diplomacy for the stage completion."

LMAO, you make it sound like this kid was holed up in the David Koresh compound. You're exaggerating to get your weak point across. It doesn't help, so you probably should just cut it out. If you enjoy sounding like a goddamn idiot, keep it up.

This guy was a shitty poilce officer and quite possibly a murderer. Due to the ineptitude of law enforcement there, there is now no chance he will be punished for it. Sounds like more of the hand-washing that sleazy prick cops do for each other. As much as you defend this dickhead, you sure don't seem to know much about how cops are trained and the guidelines/rules they are required to follow. He absolutely did the wrong thing in this situation.

"Glad you guys aren't cops?" Yeah, no kidding. I probably wouldn't burst in on some guy and start shooting like a maniac, so I'd make a shitty cop.

LOTS of armchair quarterbacks here.

I'm sure this cop didn't want to kill this kid (who is innocent, even if only technically; after he was murdered the case was dropped). He is merely indicative of the problem our country has with law enforcement at present.

Police are here to protect and serve. They're not here to crash into innocent people's homes in the middle of the night and kill them. This is absurd.

This could have been handled much better. It wasn't handled better because our police force has been turning our country into a police state. Slowly but surely. Almost imperceptibly.

This should never happen. This could have been handled much more appropriately before the idiot-wannabe-Wilmington-SWAT team showed up. Arrest the kid while he was in one of his classes. Stake out his house and wait for him to come home. Anything, really. Don't send SWAT teams to houses in the middle of the night just to flex your muscles.

America?

@ MosquitoControl

"They had pictures of the suspects holding automatic rifles. HOW MANY TIMES DO I HAVE TO REPEAT THAT!?"

Ryan Mills was the one posing with guns according to the news releases and he didn't even live at that address. The shooting occurred at 533 Long Leaf Acres Drive. Mills lived at 4500 Crawdad Court. They had clean records with no history of gun violence.

http://www.charlotte.com/mld/charlotte/news/16213993.htm
http://www.wilmingtonstar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061206/NEWS/612060416

"The grand jury feels his thinking was reasonable."

Quite the contrary…
"Four or five members of the grand jury agreed that Long's actions amounted to second-degree murder, Hankins said Tuesday. That was at least seven votes shy of the tally needed to indict Long."
The majority of the grand jury did not believe the charge of murder 2 was appropriate mostly because they didn't think Long had acted with malice. One juror even said, "I think people would have been much more willing to consider involuntary manslaughter." That is a far cry from saying they thought he acted reasonably.

http://www.charlotte.com/mld/charlotte/news/16226835.htm

Ahhh, justice. It truly is blind, isn't it?

...and apparently trigger happy, too.

When the lights finally go out in this country thanks to the reactionary right, I hope dearly that this kid's family and friends find this trigger happy ape first.

I just have to say this again.

Only in America.

Also recently there was a case where some undercover cops shot over 100 (!!!) bullets at some guys car because he bumped on their van. Way to go...
You know I wish yellowstone would erupt or every goddamn nuke in USA would go off so would could get rid off you...

As a kid, I always looked up to police officers as heroes & role models, what kid didn't have a toy police car of some sort! As an adult, I'm disgusted with all the news stories such as this one. Yes, there are police officers out there who put in a good hard days work to protect & serve their communities, and yet there are the trigger-happy kinds who are just as much of a threat to society as any criminal out there! I'd say officers should be given more training in using non-lethal weapons, using their gun should only be used as a last resort option, not as a first resort option.

Another thing, officers need to be trained in dealing with pets when entering a suspects residence. I recently read an article that more and more pets are being shot & killed by police in situations like this, mainly dogs, but even cats have been shot & killed. How can a cat be a threat to an officers life? Are they worried the cat would throw up a toxic hairball or something???? There are non-lethal ways of subduing an animal. I wonder why the dog in this case was killed?

"So, HotShotX, Iscariote, Derbeste, let's put the question on you. You bust into the house of a suspected criminal. It's dark, you don't know you're way around, and due to the adrenaline coursing through your veins, all ambient noise is amplified 10-fold. Are you going to look for a gun that you'll probably never see until the bullet is already lodged in your brain?"-Posted at 11:22AM on Dec 13th 2006 by Cry Havoc"

nice, let's make up a situation so the cop will look like he has no othr option but to shoot an unarmed suspect in the head or else he will get shot in the head himself.

Remember he has 10 years experience on him, and im sure theft is not the scariest situation hes been in. He is not some lost puppy new to the f'in situation. The only situation a cop is allow to fire at is if his life is indanger or the life of others. Being an experienced cop, he should naturally see if there a gun on the kids hand. And if i read correctly, he has past experience shooting unarmed people...

and the dog? of course it's going to bite you after you shoot his master, but if i was in that situation i wouldn't even shoot the dog if it bit me-it's not going to kill me, even though i have every right to kill it.


"Yes? That's probably why you aren't a cop. I don't like cops, but to think you can extrapolate enough information about this circumstance to deem this man a murderer from reading these tiny news snippits is just ridiculous. It must be really nice in the land of videogames where you have a bright HUD light up whenever you see an enemy, but sadly real life is a lot less forgiving. This kid should have known that before he decided to become a thief.
Posted at 11:22AM on Dec 13th 2006 by Cry Havoc"

"xtrapolate enough information about this circumstance"

buddy, you just concocted a whole senario on your own. don't be pointing fingers just because you're a hippocrite.

"This kid should have known that before he decided to become a thief."

yea the kid is scum, but i tottally agreed that he should have KNOWN that someone will break into his house and shoot him in the face and his DOG, for stealing.
yes, stealing is a crime, but f**K stealing a game console= your life? that's absurd.

06.12.13

... the dog had the other controller, while they were playing tiger woods golf game.

Wow.

I love the contempt people have for the very people who keep you idiots safe.

Good job!

ProphetMoe:

Stealing. Armed robbery. Please note the inherent differences in gravity and threat to life between the two.

Robocop:

Yep. He's a horrific murderer. That's why he's up on charges, right? Right? If he gets off and you think he should be convicted, that's not HIS fault, that's a flaw in the system. And again, I ask you: when have YOU been in a life or death situation? I know, I know, every day when you play WoW it gets really intense. Unless you're in that situation, you have little room to talk about how well you would have handled it. There are so many variables that have already been stated as rationale for why he did this. Am I saying he's a great cop? No, he clearly made an error in judgment. I know that there are tons and tons of people on the internet (especially on this thread) who have never made a mistake, but it actually does happen.

To be fair, I've read several articles saying Mills was one of the roommates and several saying he lived at 4500 Crawdad Court.

Also, article with a picture of the gun pose...
http://rdu.news14.com/content/your_news/triangle/?SecID=512&ArID=95740

Gotta love it. Only in America would people defend this idiot as a victim, after he poses with fully automatic weapons online and then commits armed robbery. He made bad choices and died because of them. Is it a tragedy? Sure. Is it something I'm going to worry about happening to me? I'm not losing any sleep over it.

That's how civil rights are stripped away from you. One layer at a time.

I was actually hesitant to post that article just because of stupid comments like Cry Havoc's. How about the idiot cop who's emergency task force training that he's relying on can't tell the difference between the sound of a busted in door and a gunshot?

That's how morons die, polly. One person at a time.

By the way, congrats on bringing some class to the discussion by throwing insults around. It really adds a lot of weight your statements when you punctuate it with a nice slight.

I'll bet it's lonely up there on your pedestal.

9. No Derbeste, everyone knows dogs only use lasers.
Funny!

Everybody complaining about the cop needs to calm down. At least the guy did something wrong. Where I live, the police do much worse, e.g. pull somebody over for failing to signal, taser him until he's incapacitated, then shoot him in the chest 3 times. Or that time the woman tried to drive away from the officer standing behind her car, therefore his life was being threatened, so he shot her in the head.
Some cops are crazy! Get used to it or complain somewhere more meaningful.

They had pictures of the "Alleged" offenders (that's right, ALLEGED. Word of the day people) with automatic weapons which, for some absolutely moronic reason, is ALLOWED UNDER YOUR VERY OWN CONSTITUTION!

So, there is no proof that an unlawful, or violent act has EVER been committed by this individual. There is enough evidence to gain a search warrant (search warrants REALLY not that hard to get) so you act like this shows he's most definitely guilty?

Gotta love australia. Properly trained cops (at the very least they have six months full time at the academy, and a year as first year constable), and NO FUCKING RIDICULOUS CONSTITUTION THAT SAYS EVERYONE CAN HAVE A GUN!

To those americans who advocate peace, gun control, democracy, and freedom (true freedom, where you're free to accept that there are consequences for your actions, however well intended), you guys are great.

To the pro-war, pro-gun, pro-its ok for the cops to kill every now and then if they're getting the job done crowd out there, you are several generations behind and need to catch up with the rest of civilised society.

"This man should not be allowed to continue to be a police officer. He is unsafe with a gun and has poor judgement. "

From what I gather, he's not a police officer anymore. While this mistake may be good enough to keep him out of jail, it likely won't let him back on the street.

I've also heard reports that Strickland was arrested on assault in September. Is this true? I've only seen it from people, not news sources.


Lastly, to the kid saying only certain cops should have guns... taking guns away is probably not a solution. Do you really want most criminals to have guns knowing most cops don't? Maybe giving guns to everyone would work, eh? Probably would have prevented all this PS3 violence, no one would mug someone they knew was packing. Or maybe it would just create more violence.
Ah, the nice part of status quo is these questions aren't as important.

...I do not aim with my hand; he who aims with his hand has forgotten the face of his father. I aim with my eye. I do not shoot with my hand; he who shoots with his hand has forgotten the face of his father. I shoot with my mind. I do not kill with my gun; he who kills with his gun has forgotten the face of his father. I kill with my heart...

Christopher Long has killed with his gun and has forgotten the face of his father.

The problem most people don't understand is, an officer is usually a normal to below average person.

This kindergarten mentality of unicorns and fairies, that the media so readily uses to sway to the minds of retards everywhere (see most posts above) makes people think there's some golden standard for cops that is so easy for normal people to follow.

There isn't. Shit like this happens, and no amount of whining and bitching will fix it.

#85

"A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed."
-The United States Constitution

What this document is saying is that we, as a people, have the right to bear arms because it is 'necessary to the security of a free state'. In other words, we're given the right to bear arms as a means to defend against anyone that would infringe on our freedoms, that is any form of government officials or others that would willfully go against our civil rights.

It's a beautiful statement that gives us the right to defend ourselves against a government coup or a true policestate. Yes, the people of this country sometimes take that and other rights to a far extreme but it does not change the reason it was included. Being able to defend your freedom, even by force if necessary, is one of the great things about the constitution.

So please, just because you're on the outside looking in, don't judge a beautifully crafted document that while often perverted in today's society, was written to ensure personal freedom for all citizen's of our country.

fuck the right to bear arms
fuck america