By Benjamin Brown; FoxNews:
Three people were in custody Friday night, including a “strong suspect,” after one police officer was fatally shot and another suffered grave injuries in Kissimmee, Fla., south of Orlando.
At a press briefing, Police Chief Jeff O’Dell said police Officer Matthew Baxter succumbed to his wounds, and Officer Sam Howard was in critical condition, but the “prognosis does not look good,” O’Dell said.
Initial reports said both officers had died.
The two officers were in the area of Palmway and Cypress, checking out a report of a suspicious person at approximately 9:27 p.m. Soon afterward, a 9-1-1 call came in, saying the officers had been shot, O’Dell said.
The area is known for high drug activity, the chief said.
O’Dell said the officers did not return fire, and it appears they were “surprised.”
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Statistics Dispel Why Minneapolis Mayoral Candidate Dehn’s Push To Disarm Cops Will Fail
By T.B. Lefever; OpsLens:
This week, a Minneapolis mayoral candidate is running on major police reform that involves disarming the city’s police force. Raymond Dehn revealed the radical approach to public safety he’ll be taking should he be elected mayor in an interview with Fox 9 Minneapolis less than two weeks following the death of an Australian national by the name of Justine Damond. Damond, of course, was the woman shot and killed by Officer Mohamed Noor on July 15 while attempting to report the sound of a woman screaming behind her house.
No one will ever know for sure whether it was the fireworks taking place in the area that night or if it was the alleged “slapping” of the patrol car by the victim just before the shooting that caused it. The only absolute in this tragic situation is that Justine Damond—a woman who called the police for help—is dead from a bullet shot from an officer’s gun.
As is the case with every high-profile (Officer Involved Shooting) OIS, the equation cannot be balanced by departmental explanations that offer no objective truth in the minds of the masses. People are angry. They don’t want explanations. They want action. Dehn, of course, knows this and is attempting to capitalize on it at the polls by painting police with a broad brush as incompetent and unnecessarily armed.
Don’t miss the fact that the District 59B representative only wants MPD officers to be restricted from carrying firearms on their hips. If he had it his way, he’d still allow them to keep guns in their vehicles. Therefore, his “solution” doesn’t even attempt to prevent the Justine Damond death from occurring. It’s an empty proposal made at an opportune time.
There’s a reason the Justine Damond story has become an international story. It is a statistical anomaly. According to the Washington Post OIS Database, of the 574 civilians killed in officer-involved shootings so far this year, Damond is one of five unarmed women. The other four casualties on this list are Sariah Marie Lane, Ambroshia Fagre, Elena Mondragon, and Alteria Woods.
Lane, Fagre, and Mondragon were all killed while riding as passengers of fleeing vehicles that had been suspected by police to be stolen, involved in burglaries, and/or armed robberies. All four vehicles were used as deadly weapons by their drivers as they rammed police in attempts to get away. Woods, on the other hand, was used as a human shield by her boyfriend during a SWAT raid targeting him and his father for multiple shootings. While these four women were killed during deadly force encounters in which they were accessories to crimes committed by boyfriends, Damond’s case is entirely unique.
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