Brickbat: Ask Questions Later

The family of a man shot and killed by Las Vegas police officer Alexander Bookman want him fired and charged in the shooting. Brandon Durham called 911 saying a former romantic partner had broken into his house. Bookman, the responding officer, arrived to find Durham struggling with the intruder over a knife. Body camera footage showed Bookman shout at them to drop the knife, then fire one round. Durham and the woman both fell to the floor. Bookman then walked over and fired five more shots as he stood over them. He is on paid leave while the department investigates the shooting.*

CORRECTION: This article originally misstated the nature of the break-in and the officer's actions. It has been updated to clarify Durham's relationship with the intruder and that only Durham was shot.

Comments

[Fist of Etiquette]

Why charge the shooter when the intruder is still alive and can take the blame?

[Vernon Depner]

The important thing is that the officer went home safe.

[R Mac]

Why didn’t he just let them finish their cultural knife dance?

[mad.casual]

Don't bring your home invader's knife to a gunfight.

[Vernon Depner]

Never call the police.

[Ajsloss]

Body camera footage showed Bookman… fired five more shots as he stood over them.

Anyone stupid enough to not turn off the camera isn’t qualified to protect and serve.

[jimc5499]

Odds are that the penalties for him turning off the camera are more severe than the ones for the shooting.

[n00bdragon]

Two times zero is still zero.

[Quo Usque Tandem]

"Bookman then walked over and fired five more shots as he stood over them."

As a person who has worked in emergency and trauma services, I know there are some crazy mofo's out there; even more unfortunately, some of them are cops.

If any of us did that, regardless of the circumstances [defending our home from a forced entry, even in a state with "castle doctrine"], we'd be facing murder via execution.

[Think It Through]

At the risk of being a cop defender....

how is he supposed to know which is which? Especially after they both fall to the floor and the knife clatters away.

I suppose it wouldn't be necessary to shoot either of them at that point. But if he has to pick one, isn't it a 50/50 chance?

[Vernon Depner]

it wouldn't be necessary to shoot either of them at that point.

You answered your own question.

[mad.casual]

A decade ago, it would've only been 50/50 if you were firing blindly.

Otherwise, unless they're both really terrible at stabbing people and/or defending themselves from getting stabbed, even just a couple seconds should make clear which one is "Stabby", and gets a bullet, which one is "Don't get stabbed."

But, this is Trump's, post-truth America where you have a 50/50 chance that the first person on the scene will identify the person with the defensive stab wounds as a pouncing predator.

[mad.casual]

how is he supposed to know which is which?

Ah, right! I know this one! You shoot one of them to death and ask the other one if the guy you just shot is dead. If he says "No." he's lying.

[mad.casual]

isn't it a 50/50 chance?

This story says that there were two home invaders, so really, after the first home invader gets ruled out, switching it up and shooting the homeowner is the textbook solution to the Monte Hall Problem!

[Minadin]

He shot the "guy".

When the Brickbat says "Both men fell to the floor." what it means is, the intruder was actually a woman.

"Officers showed up at the home and found a man struggling with a woman over a knife. An officer opened fire and struck the man, killing him at the scene. Only later did they discover the man who was killed lived at the home and was struggling to fend off the woman who had broken into his home."

"Boudreaux was not hit by gunfire. She was booked for home invasion with a deadly weapon, assault with a deadly weapon child abuse and domestic violence."

https://abc7.com/post/las-vegas-police-kill-victim-of-home-invasion-who-called-911-for-help/15549861/

[B G]

I don't know about LVPD, but for a long time (maybe currently) the official policy of LAPD in any male-vs-female domestic violence call was that regardless of the circumstances on site, the man was to be cuffed, arrested and booked into holding at the precinct.

[Daddyhill]

This would seem to be the application of an updated version of "Kill them all, let God sort them out." Or "...God will recognize his own." It's a relatively trivial case, of course, when compared with the medieval massacres of Christians by Christians from which the dictum derives. Steven Pinker does make some good points about this sort of thing.

[Bipedal Humanoid]

Comply or die.

[Vernon Depner]

Comply hesitantly and die. Arguably appear not to comply and die.