South Carolina Cop Shoots 70-Year-Old Man Pulling Out His Cane From Truck Bed
A public service annoucement from the North South Carolina DMV: Don't let your tags expire, as if you do and get pulled over and behave like a normal human instead of a properly trained servant, you can and will get shot. And the officer will be right to have done it.

WCNC reported that Deputy Terrence Knox pulled over 70-year-old Bobby Dean Canipe Tuesday evening on Highway 321 after noticing his white Ford pickup truck had expired tags. Knox said that he told Canipe to stay in the vehicle, but the man disobeyed the order.
"The driver of the vehicle, 70-year-old Bobby Dean Canipe of Lincolnton, exited the vehicle and reached into the truck bed, and rose what Deputy Knox perceived to be a long barreled weapon," York County Sheriff's Office spokesperson Trent Faris said at a press conference on Wednesday.
Knox fired several shots at Canipe, who was hit once in the lung. He was transported to Carolinas Medical Center in Charlotte, and was expected to recover.
Several shots! Kind of a shame he might live to frighten another officer down the line, I suppose.
The York County Sheriff's Office followed standard procedure and placed Knox on paid administrative leave following the shooting. However, the department has already come to the conclusion that the deputy acted appropriately by shooting Canipe.
"The situation is very unfortunate. It does appear at this time that Deputy Knox's actions were an appropriate response to what he believed to be an imminent threat to his life," Faris remarked.
CORRECTION: Original headline mistakenly said this incident occured in North Carolina. It was actually South Carolina.
Editor's Note: As of February 29, 2024, commenting privileges on reason.com posts are limited to Reason Plus subscribers. Past commenters are grandfathered in for a temporary period. Subscribe here to preserve your ability to comment. Your Reason Plus subscription also gives you an ad-free version of reason.com, along with full access to the digital edition and archives of Reason magazine. We request that comments be civil and on-topic. We do not moderate or assume any responsibility for comments, which are owned by the readers who post them. Comments do not represent the views of reason.com or Reason Foundation. We reserve the right to delete any comment and ban commenters for any reason at any time. Comments may only be edited within 5 minutes of posting. Report abuses.
Please
to post comments
Typical Reason spin. Doherty doesn't bother to mention that the geriatric did, in fact, use a long-gun as a cane.
Brave, brave, brave Sir Robin...Sir Robin.......
You mean to mock him, but actually we would all be better off if this were part of the official protocol.
Right now the protocol is: I think I see a gun! Shoot him!
Think how much better off everyone would be if the official policy were: I think I see a gun! Retreat to cover and reassess while giving verbal commands.
If brave sir Robin had bravely taken cover and ordered his expired-tag suspect to place the "weapon" on the ground then nobody would have been shot. And the nice thing is that the same would be true had it been a shotgun and not a cane.
Yes. And frankly, I think we need to take their sidearms away from them. They clearly are not responsible enough to be trusted with them.
I don't mean to mock him.....I mock him without reservation or hesitation. I fuckin mock him long time!
I acknowledge that your suggested course of action for Sir Robin is the preferable one!
Shoot first in a panic. That's what heroes do.
"To Go Home at the End of Shift" trumps all!
I still say that after one shoot, you should be retired.
See RC's iron law.
A happy ending. The officer got to go home that night. Yay!
I can't wait until we, as a nation, march down to precincts all across the country and hang these pieces of shit from the nearest lamppost or tree branch.
Never going to happen. The vast majority of people, regardless of evidence, will always think that this only happens to "those" people, people who are bad and deserve to be shot by the police without trial. They think it will never happen to them. And they're happy to have it happen to others.
It's too early to drink. Dammit.
THAT'S the problem.
Good example is the cops in Seabrook NH who slammed some punks head into the wall while he was in cuffs. Now I would say that is wrong, even if it was Charles Manson you were taking down the hall. But alot of folks' reaction was, fuck yeah, punk probably deserved it else the cops wouldn't have done it.
How can you SAY that about our Boys In Blue?
If procedures were followed, then procedures obviously need to change as they are wrong.
Not that it justifies a shooting, but I don't honestly get people who respond to a traffic stop by getting out of the car and trying to yak it up with the cop like they just ran into their best friend.
Some among the older generation have wildly speculative ideas about how friendly and/or sociable police are. Episodes like these put them in their place.
It used to be, and this goes back probably 20 years, that you were supposed to get out of the car when stopped by the cops. Old people were trained that way, and so you shouldn't be surprised if some of them fall back on their old training.
The current lack of training actually baffles me... Why isn't there some kind of accepted protocol for citizens when interacting with police that is, I don't know, approved by the cop unions and then taught in high school? It seems like we should be explicit about those expectations, even if the expectations are bullshit. At least they'd be written down and we could debate them. Instead we're left with 'lick the boot or you're dead'.
What good does that do if your training was 2 years ago?
If the police are really this chickenshit, the training should be at driver's license renewal time.
Fuck, meant 52 not 2.
I wasn't really thinking of it from a training standpoint. More that when confronted by a potentially dangerous animal, why would you want to voluntarily leave the safety of your vehicle to go confront it. If a bear comes out of the woods and starts snuffling my car, I wouldn't get out and try to pet it.
You are right SD. It was incredibly dangerous of him to get out of the car. We now live in a country where any interaction with a cop can turn deadly at any moment.
Isn't that great?
And if you or I shot somebody, let alone killed them, the system would let us slide too.
I'm waiting for a clever defense attorney to use some of these as precedent arguments. Especially ones where there was a home invasion with no warrant. If there's no warrant, then it shouldn't be treated any differently than any other burglary.
There's no double standard. A non-officer would obviously get the same treatment. H2H. Morgan Fairchild! Surfing! Weightlifting!
Surfing and weightlifting. Combine the two and you have, "Surflifting: the sport of the future!"
Now I remember why I took a 2 month break from Reason. The testicular soreness. Fuck.
FInding better dance partners might help too.
"The situation is very unfortunate."
I would use a different adjective.
Doherty you should use some stills from this
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X2UXm19Un_Y
At least no dogs were killed.
At least no dogs were killed.
...yet.
Goes back to the point I have made over and over again. Cops don't see themselves as protecting the public. If they did, they would be willing to risk getting shot to avoid the risk of shooting an innocent person. They are not willing to do this. Their attitude is that their safety is more important than that of the public. So if ensuring a cop is safe means a few innocent people get shot, then that is the price the public will have to pay.
When put into practice, this means cops walk around willing to shoot anyone at anytime that they think might be a threat to them. Needless to say this ends up harming a lot of people. But since our police forces are staffed by sociopaths, that is a feature not a bug.
They are there to serve and protect each other.
Why is Raw Story reporting this? Someone might read this and think they agree with Balko and the crazy libertarians. Don't they know the harm they're causing the progressive cause?
Speaking of Balko, he's back to his old Agitator-style blogging over at the Washington Post. Unfortunately, the old Agitator community is pretty much dead and gone. Most of his nut-punch postings struggle to attract 3 posts.
How much nut-punching can a man take?
There's still some decent Agitator-style posting on his Facebook page when he links to the nutpunch stories (such as this one)
People really should go there and bookmark Radley's page since Reason never seems to bother to link to his stuff like they did when he was at HuffPo.
Then again, there's still enough Orange Country Reagan fellators at Reason to skip over posts like this:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/.....r-history/
The old geezer disobeyed a direct order. He disobeyed! It's a shame Deputy Knox didn't empty the magazine into this terrorist!
Who says he didn't empty the magazine? Several shots were fired, although Officer Magoo only hit him once. I'm pretty sure that he probably did fire every round and then cowered in his squad car waiting for backup while the old geezer remained barely breathing on the ground.
I continue to be stunned by the vast double standard. It is absolutely inconceivable that a real human being who shot a 70 year old man who was picking up a cane would walk without any consequences at all.
Yet, for our Little Boys in Blue, its not even a close call.
No consequences? He got a fucking PAID vacation!
Yes, we're actually REWARDING this kind of shit.
The "fake" cop car from Transformers that said "to punish and enslave" on the side gets more accurate every day.
Knox fired several shots at Canipe, who was hit once
And if someone had asked the deputy what was beyond his target, would he have been able to say, with any specificity?
How many shots did he fire exactly? Several means more than 2, but he only scored 1 hit. And not even a lethal one.
Given that he was shooting at a senior who needed a cane and not some Kurt Thomas Gymkata trained assassin how does that happen?
How do you panic when a guy who needs a cane totters around?
I'm sure his feebleness was simply a clever ruse and that it's a testament to the fine training that these officers received that he was able to see through it!
In a similar light...
[In a shooting range, confronted with numerous menacing-looking targets, Edwards shoots a cardboard little girl]
Zed: May I ask why you felt little Tiffany deserved to die?
James Edwards: Well, she was the only one that actually seemed dangerous at the time, sir.
Zed: How'd you come to that conclusion?
James Edwards: Well, first I was gonna pop this guy hanging from the street light, and I realized, y'know, he's just working out. I mean, how would I feel if somebody come runnin' in the gym and bust me in my ass while I'm on the treadmill? Then I saw this snarling beast guy, and I noticed he had a tissue in his hand, and I'm realizing, y'know, he's not snarling, he's sneezing. Y'know, ain't no real threat there. Then I saw little Tiffany. I'm thinking, y'know, eight-year-old white girl, middle of the ghetto, bunch of monsters, this time of night with quantum physics books? She about to start some shit, Zed. She's about eight years old, those books are WAY too advanced for her. If you ask me, I'd say she's up to something. And to be honest, I'd appreciate it if you eased up off my back about it.
[pause]
James Edwards: Or do I owe her an apology?
[pause]
James Edwards: That's a good shot though...
How do you panic when a guy who needs a cane totters around?
When you know you're going to get a paid vacation, why wouldn't you shoot at the least-threatening targets?
Several shots (so at least three or four?), hit once, at a distance of maybe twenty feet? I am not an expert but that doesn't seem like very good shooting to me.
Late last year the local news was showing some footage from the police range. The frequency of bullet holes in the white, non-target areas was not reassuring.
The frequency of bullet holes in the white, non-target areas was not reassuring.
I suppose it depends on whose perspective you are looking at this from.
Being anywhere behind the guy they are trying to hit?
Sounds reassuring to me, since I'm 100% more likely to get shot at by police than become a police officer.
And if someone had asked the deputy what was beyond his target, would he have been able to say, with any specificity?
As long is it wasn't other officers, it doesn't matter.
Remember those two officers who shot up the newspaper carrier's truck that didn't look like anything Dorner was driving?
The only thing they did wrong was fire towards each other.
It does appear at this time that Deputy Knox's actions were an appropriate response to what he believed to be an imminent threat to his life
Justified panic fire, then.
That is the worst part. The worst part is not that this idiot fucked up and shot the poor guy. That sucks but idiots will always be with us. The worst part is that the department thinks that an officer who panicked and shot an old man reaching for a caine did the right thing.
God fucking forbid, the officer tell the guy to stop before shooting him. God fucking forbid he wait a half of a second to see what the hell he is getting. God fucking forbid he have an ounce of common sense and realize the chances of this old man wanting to commit capital murder are near zero. Nope. Just fucking shoot him son. He is probably guilty of something.
I hate these people so much.
It used to be, and this goes back probably 20 years, that you were supposed to get out of the car when stopped by the cops.
I got pulled over a long time ago, at night, and I got out of my truck, being careful to have my hands in view and not doing anything I deemed to be dumb. I assumed he would want to be able to see me clearly. The cop immediately started yelling at me to get back in the truck; I could hear the panic in his voice.
If that happened now, he would probably just start blasting.
The cop immediately started yelling at me to get back in the truck; I could hear the panic in his voice.
How in the hell could you go through life that fucking scared and panicky? We were not that fucking panicked in Iraq for Christ's sake and that was a war and we were only there for a year. This guy probably makes 30 traffic stops a day. If he panics like that every time someone makes a unexpected move and is that on edge, if he wasn't nuts when he took the job, he will be after about a week.
You would think they would learn to calm the fuck down for their own well being if nothing else.
It's as if they're trained to believe anyone who doesn't immediately obey their every command is a cop killer.
Considering how often they kill people simply for not obeying them, that's probably the case.
And given that, is it any surprise so many of them end up divorced, depressed and or offing themselves?
Since my stepson's dad became a cop, he's been getting more and more heavy-handed with discipline. To the point where the kid finds any place to be except at his dad's. It's kinda sad, because once that kid moves out, there's a good chance it will be the last time his dad ever sees him.
And the Dad will end up putting a bullet in his own head some day.
The only people who would miss him would be the guys at the station.
And probably fewer of them than you think.
So... why all the media fervor over the Dunn shooting then?
SIlly. There's no double standard. A police officer who did the same thing Dunn did would clearly have been arrested and tried for murder.
why all the media fervor over the Dunn shooting then?
It's funny* how the media whores fell all over themselves to ridicule the "I feared for my life" defense when used by a civilian.
* in a completely not at all funny, disgusting and despicable sense of the word
Funny how even though it is pretty much guaranteed death or life without parole for killing a cop in the line of duty, cops are allowed to assume anyone who assaults them means to kill them. If cops don't think these sorts of laws protect them, maybe we should stop considering killing them to be a sentence enhancer.
Can Reason, Cato, or some other org do a systematic study of these cop shootings? Or is there one already? Maybe for effect they can compare the likelihood of getting shot randomly by a cop to being in some mass shooting?
It seems so long as they are reported as single events, and barely reported at that, they can continue to be dismissed as one-off incidents.
Not exactly what you are asking for but interesting to compare:
The Bureau of Justice Statistics reports on Arrest Related Deaths states that in 2005 47 people were accidentally killed by police.
It looks like that year 7 people died in mass in a mass shooting in Brookfield, WI.
In 2004 41 people were accidentally killed by police, 6 in a mass shooting.
For 2003 it's 52 by police, and couldn't find any mass shooting that year.
Interestingly the BJS report tracks deaths by justified homicide by police, but says that unjustified killings by police are lumped in with overall national homicide stats, and I haven't been able to find an easy way to filter them out.
SOURCES:
http://www.bjs.gov/index.cfm?ty=pbdetail&iid=379
http://www.fbi.gov/about-us/cjis/ucr/ucr-publications
Wikipedia's List of Rampage Killers: Americas
It does me too. The worst part is that the departments see nothing wrong. It wouldn't bother quite so much if our problem was just that we had too many incompetent or criminal cops. You could maybe fix that. But this is much worse. The departments themselves view cops' committing criminal negligence and shooting people as perfectly acceptable behavior.
It is the kind of thing that would never stand in any other context, not even from a government. Imagine if a city employed bus drivers who routinely engaged in gross negligence running down passengers and the city's response was "we expect our drivers to get there on time and while it is unfortunate this person was killed, the driver did nothing wrong taking that illegal right and running this person down." Courts would murder that city. They would get punitive damages and the officials would probably lose their qualified immunity. But this is exactly what pretty much every police department does with regard to police shootings.
The worst part is that the departments see nothing wrong.
and there it is, in a nutpunch so to speak. Until that changes, nothing else will.
Watch out?at the rate we're going, that's next! Just last night at the Dolan Club, Bronx DA Robert Johnson mentioned how good it was that a law had gotten passed increasing the penalty for assaulting bus drivers, and that before that'd been the law, he tried to emphasize prosecutions for assaults on them. He brought this up in the context of the special rx police seem to get.
The elevation of all gov't employees to superhuman, or the lowering of the rest of us to subhuman, is under way. The cops just got there 1st.