Costco shooting: Man killed by off-duty officer was nonverbal, had an intellectual disability

[Zorro]

Source: LA Times

The 32-year-old man shot and killed by an off-duty police officer in a Costco store on Friday night in Corona was nonverbal and had an intellectual disability, according to a family member.

Kenneth French of Riverside lived with his parents and had the mental capacity of a teenager, said his cousin, Rick Shureih, in a phone interview with the Los Angeles Times on Sunday night.

“He was a gentle giant,” Shureih said. “He’s never been violent in the past. He’s always been very cooperative and kept to himself.”

According to Corona police, an off-duty officer with the Los Angeles Police Department was shopping at Costco with his family when he was attacked while holding his young child. Police said the assault was unprovoked and led the officer to fire his weapon, striking French and two of his family members.

Read more: https://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-costco-shooting-off-duty-officer-intellectual-disability-20190616-story.html

[OrwellwasRight]

1. Cop who could not control his temper.

Who went to his gun first rather than trying a non-lethal means of resolving the situation.

I'm shocked, shocked.

[SHRED]

2. And just try and imagine

How many people are beaten by cops per week in this fucked up country.

[Tactical Peek]

3. "hundreds of police officers around the country belong to racist Facebook groups"

The Root Verified account @TheRoot

An investigation reveals that hundreds of police officers around the country belong to racist Facebook groups.

Link to tweet

https://www.theroot.com/report-hundreds-of-police-officers-belong-to-racist-fa-1835542308?rev=1560611475532&utm_source=theroot_twitter&utm_medium=socialflow

[OrwellwasRight]

6. Yeah heard about this on NPR this weekend.

That is some offed up shit right there. And seems to explain why cops can't seem to learn . . . they don't want to.

[iluvtennis]

4. This sh*t needs to stop. Police departments needs to train their officers how to interact with ppl

with mental health conditions.

[RockRaven]

5. Is this Dirty Harry wanna-be claiming he hit the two family members on accident, or that they

were also attacking him?

Most of the time when a cop fires their weapon they do not hit the person they are attempting to kill (and let's not use euphemisms or BS each other -- any time a cop fires their weapon, it is an attempt to kill). Even in the "self-defense" galaxy of excuses for shooting someone, firing a weapon *in a retail store* requires extremely airtight justification because hitting bystanders is basically THE EXPECTED OUTCOME in that setting.

[samnsara]

38. bet we could find a MAGA hat in his closet

[Jake Stern]

7. The cop need not worry

The Corona Police and Riverside DA have already got it in the bag for him.

Wouldn't surprise me in the least if they try to lay some kind of charges on his parents after they get out of ICU.

[Pachamama]

8. Offduty Police Officer shoots and kills a disabled man shopping with his mother and father at Costco

Son dead, Mother in Coma, Father in ICU...

Offduty officer and his family - just fine.

Seriously?

Guess the Police Officer had to try to get rid of the witnesses. Too bad he didn't succeed.

I pray that the Mother recovers and the Father and his wife are able to tell what happened.

Of course, it won't matter if it was unprovoked and he shot them in cold blood. Nothing will happen.

[RandiFan1290]

9. Time to put a muzzle on these violent thug pigs. nt

[FarPoint]

10. Store video should be helpful....

I want the whole story to come out....and it probably will...

[Sneederbunk]

11. Are there witness accounts?

[hunter]

12. Maybe we should make armed off-duty cops wear red jumpsuits...

... so we can avoid them.

These suits could have alarms that go off whenever built-in sensors detect the officer is about to go homicidal so everyone has a chance to run or take cover.

Or we could purge police departments of rotten apples.

I always thought a prerequisite for armed police duty ought to be ten years of exemplary work in a stressful job like teaching or customer service, jobs where you are not allowed to shoot people, even when they question your authority or act in ways you find extremely unreasonable.

[kimbutgar]

13. This is my biggest fear with my adult son with autism

Sometimes he gets overstimulated and will melt down in public. I fear he will get shot by some unhinged gun humper someday. We’re with him in arizona and I have stayed close to him in public. He likes to take pictures of supermarkets and weird angles. We were in the tucson mall with him and he took a picture of a food stand and the owner went off on him and demanded he delete the picture, I got him away quickly. He is slowly beginning to realize he has to ask permission. But now with all these short fuse people in our society I am very nervous. This story scares the shit out of me. I’m going to read this to him today.

[maxsolomon]

15. did the owner of the food stand think your son was stealing intellectual property?

"its my concept! I trademarked this shit!"

crimony, this fucking country.

an armed madhouse.

[kimbutgar]

20. It was a food stand

I tried to explain my son is autistic and he kept saying to delete the picture. He was so crazy and paranoid. I try to explain to people and almost 99% of the time they are ok. All his pictures go on his computer which he has in files that he looks at to calm himself.

[FM123]

35. I too have a family member with autism and I worry for them too.

What is done innocently (even gently) like touching a display or asking a personal question can be misconstrued and these short fuse people don't seem to understand or care about folks with disabilities. Here in FL a police officer shot a caregiver who was trying to help his client who had a TOY TRUCK in his hand and the cops thought it was a gun!
https://www.npr.org/2019/06/18/733621616/miami-officer-acquitted-of-attempted-manslaughter-in-shooting-of-caregiver

[cannabis_flower]

41. Legally he does not need permission

The food stand guy is out in public. He has no right to privacy in public and he has not right to not have his picture taken. The only thing that he would need permission for is if he was going to sell the picture.

[snort]

14. Why was the pig armed while shopping at Costco?

Is he terrified of sacks of avocados or just the public in general?

[maxsolomon]

16. It's likely he is always armed.

Because his work has made him paranoid, and he has the RKBA. He was probably armed just for this scenario - someone attacking his child.

Cops have no duty to retreat. Any assault is to be considered deadly, and you respond with deadly force.

Every assailant is a potential Ninja.

[discntnt_irny_srcsm]

17. IIRC, in California it was defensible...

...to shoot someone who had robbed you IN THE BACK as they ran away. I'm not sure if this has changed.

[maxsolomon]

18. We base our laws on hypotheticals.

Did the off-duty cop have a "reasonable" fear for his life because he was "attacked" by this disabled man? That's a subjective standard, and with police, the answer's always yes.

Was it "reasonable" to shoot 8 times in a crowded store, hitting 2 others? Watch and see the wheels of justice say "sure, whatever."

It always does in police shootings of unarmed people, except for that one Australian lady in Minneapolis. Of course, that cop wasn't white, and she was, so that makes it different.

[discntnt_irny_srcsm]

24. Regarding:

Did the off-duty cop have a "reasonable" fear for his life because he was "attacked" by this disabled man?

I'd say, frequently yes and more often than it should be.

Was it "reasonable"...

All I can say is that the video will be of great interest.

[Igel]

23. In some states cops are on call at all times.

If they're in their car on the way from picking up the dry cleaning on a day off they can get a call saying that they're needed for some emergency, and they're expected to report.

Similarly, if they see a crime being committed they're on call and can respond immediately.

In both cases, having their firearms and badge (which have to go together in this case) is a good thing. We've seen other news stories in which "off duty police" responded to approbation.

[AtheistCrusader]

25. Police are allowed to carry firearms at all times, on/off duty, in every state.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Law_Enforcement_Officers_Safety_Act

[ROB-ROX]

19. COP MURDERS MAN

A cop who shoot a man who has no weapon is MURDER. This cop should be hanged for murder. Shooting 8 times and wounding other people is CRAZY. I think the cops are trying to explain this killing AGAIN. Damn crazy cops are drunk with power. This cop should be blood tested to see what was wrong with this killer cop.....then hang the scum.....

[NickB79]

22. Fists can kill, you know.

I'm intimately aware of how dangerous a strong man can be with his bare hands.

I'm going to wait for the security video before calling for the death penalty (which I oppose anyway).

[Sneederbunk]

26. It's the Ferguson Fear Defense.

[flying_wahini]

31. I think a LOT of cops are doing Steroids for building muscle

And having ‘roid rages.

[NickB79]

21. The security footage will be interesting to see

The officer is said to have been holding his young child in his arms when attacked, unprovoked.

IF that's what actually happened, and being a father of a young child myself, I'd have a really hard time not excusing him for using any means necessary to defend his child from harm.

[mrfitlit]

27. Trigger happy cop

He is a highly trained off duty cop. One Who is trained to diffuse any situation. When is it warranted to pull out your gun in a public place...putting hundreds of civilians at harm because you were hit, threatened??? If in fact, that’s even true. Wouldn’t you place your child down and use your training to pin him down? Yea, of course, not...let me take my gun out and shoot you and your parents. Who was more than likely running to there sons aid? Here is the cousin facebook post and picture of the victims.

[link:https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10216756282472901&set=a.1398146827181&type=3&theater|

[NickB79]

28. I must have missed where they train cops how to respond to an attack while holding a toddler

If it happened as fast as the reports said, there wasn't time to gently set down your kid.

As a parent, my first instinct would be to hold my child closer to protect them.

[mrfitlit]

29. Not good enough

Still, a poor excuse to kill someone because you felt "attacked" by someone that was unarmed.

[samnsara]

36. my grandfather was a motorcycle cop in Oklahoma and went on to become

..chief of police in a small Pacific Northwest town...he would have NEVER EVER EVER never pulled a gun on an unarmed person and never in a public place!! He was raised right and trained right..think Joe Friday, Major Adams and Matt Dillon all rolled into one. The officers of today are either raised wrong or trained wrong or maybe both.

[samir.g]

30. gun-toting coward murders disabled man

[jb5150]

32. I've said it before, and I'll say it again ...

There are two kinds of cops; the bad one and the ones that look the other way …. there are NO good cops.

[samnsara]

37. my grandpa was one very good cop...

[manicdem]

33. Officer was knocked out

Interesting development. If true, it would seem reasonable force was used. Still not sure why the parents were injured tho.

Costco shooting: LAPD officer was knocked out by attacker before opening fire, attorney says

https://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-costco-shooting-off-duty-lapd-officer-20190617-story.html

[yardwork]

34. If he was knocked out how did he fire his weapon?

[X_Digger]

39. From the article you obviously didn't read..

“He was shopping with his wife and 1½-year-old at Costco. His son was was in his arms and he was feeding his son some samples when within seconds he was on the ground and woke up from being unconscious and he was fighting for his life,” Winslow said in an interview with The Times.

[yardwork]

40. Oh, I read it. I find it hard to believe. It's his lawyer's statement, you know.

His lawyer is doing the best he can for his client.

[obamanut2012]

42. Exactly -- his attorney said this

Not witnesses, not store tape, zip.

I too find it unrealistic. What happened to the baby he said he was holding when he was knocked out? Was the man killed ground and pounding the cop? Why was he attacked? Why did he also shoot the parents? Are the parents able to give their story?

No facts at all on this, except that one person is dead and two are in the hospital.