We have yet another incident of an individual being cuffed, frisked, and placed into the back of a squad car only to materializing a gun. Unlike the previous stories of this scenario the suspect didn’t “shoot himself” but aimed his gun at an officer, which forced that officer to shoot the suspect dead:
The Georgia Bureau of Investigation is investigating the officer-involved shooting that took place Thursday morning in West Savannah on Augusta Avenue, between Eagle Street and Cumming Street. The victim, Charles Smith, 29, was handcuffed behind his back and in the process of being arrested during the incident. The encounter was caught on video, according to GBI. An autopsy on Smith’s body will be done at the GBI Crime Lab in Savannah Friday.
“After being placed in the patrol car, Smith was able to move his hands to the front of his body and kick out the window of the patrol car. The officers said as Smith attempted to exit the patrol car they saw that he had a firearm. This encounter resulted in officer David Jannot, shooting and killing Smith at the scene,” according to GBI.
I’m sorry if I sound a little skeptical. How, exactly, are these suspects ending up in the back of cop cars with guns? With how often this situation seems to be happening you would think police officers would be extra diligent to make sure they do a thorough pat down of anybody they’re cuffing and detaining. That is, of course, assuming these situations aren’t just executions being performed by officers and written off as suicides or covered up by having a spare gun to drop at the scene. While I’m not normally one to buy into such theories easily the fact that these people have been detained and thrown into the back of cop cars makes the official stories sound pretty fishy.
The officers should be fired for incompetence at a minimum tried for murder at the maximum because those are literally the only two explanations for what happened.