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December 5, 2010 in City
Officer involved in Hillyard shooting
Spokane police closed a section of North Market Street and set up a command center Saturday night after an officer-involved shooting.
Police spokeswoman Jennifer DeRuwe confirmed at least one officer had been involved in a shooting but that no other details were available late Saturday.
Kenny Burke, a 20-year-old Spokane resident, said his sister called him Saturday night and was so hysterical he could not understand what she was trying to tell him. Burke said his sister handed the phone to a friend, who told him that his sister’s boyfriend had pulled a gun on police and was shot. Burke said he drove to the scene to comfort his sister and take her home.
As is protocol for police shootings, the Spokane County Sheriff’s Office was called in to investigate.
Staff reports
2 home invasion robberies in Spokane 
lewis8457 on December 05 at 7:19 a.m.
Police shooting
Isn’t it odd how the police have no other info but they do know the story on the victims side already. How convenient.
I was reading a news bit the other day that said in Chicago people are shooting police right and left. In fact they call a single officer patrol a rolling coffin.
sounds like the people in Chicago have had enough.
misjustice on December 05 at 7:52 a.m.
Cop shooters; With all of the departments investigating each other over citizens’ homicides-by-cop, are there even any cops left to do the “policing” work????
Ed Byrnes on December 05 at 9:23 a.m.
I normally don’t double post so in the interest of transparency this posting is identical to the one I made in response to the article: http://www.spokesman.com/stories/2010/dec/05/police-involved-in-fatal-shooting/
It is very premature to offer any judgments about this specific case. I cannot discourage such speculative judgments strongly enough. I similarly discourage discussing how individuals in other places have begun targeting local law enforcement (LLE) officers because it is contrary to restoring peace and trust in our community.
Nonetheless there is abundant evidence in the postings so far that us citizens have some really serious and persistent questions about how officer involved shootings (OIS’s) are investigated. It is important to recognize that these questions are not exclusively about LLE and include the County Prosecutor’s Office and the Spokane Mayor.
These questions arising so consistently indicates that a more credible and transparent review system for OIS’s needs to be implemented. With the encouragement of Brad, misjustice, Ron and cpd805 (who is an LLE officer who posed thoughtful questions and comments about this suggestion, so before assuming that all LLE officers are identical read his postings: http://www.spokesman.com/stories/2010/nov/07/life-or-death-in-an-instant/). I have been researching citizen review of OIS’s and am finding some approaches which would have credibility with both citizens and LLE. I intend to submit an op-ed article about this topic in January.
Since LLE officers are drawn from the citizenry perhaps it would behoove everyone to consider that none of us, including our LLE officers, are pleased with all of these recent OIS’s. LLE officers are not roaming around looking for conflicts to escalate, they are called in by our fellow citizens, so in addition to seriously discussing policy approaches addressing how OIS’s are investigated it is worth asking ourselves: Why are so many armed people in our community resorting to violent conflict as a means of addressing their problems?
Ed
ZagChuck on December 05 at 10:52 p.m.
My thoughts and prayers go out to the families of ewach of the officers involved, and to the Grooms family as well.
The police can’t know what is in the mind of the guy with the gun; they can’t know how prepared he is to shoot them or others, or the working capability of a firearm in the hands of a suspect when they arrive on scene. They have to act on the facts presented to them at the time. Their job is to protect the public.
According to the witness, when the police arrived Groom had a pistol pointed at him, after they had been arguing in the parking lot. Police instructed him to drop the gun and he did not. They stopped the threat, before he was able to take the life of the person he was pointing a gun at.
There job is to protect the public, and that is exactly what they did, no more, no less.
When a suspect poses an immediate threat with lethal force, there is no sense in using less-than-lethal force.
Police officers are not paid to lay down their life, even though they risk it on a regular basis.