Another OI shooting

[Cidp24]

This is another neighboring city. This is happening all too often lately here.

http://www.clarionledger.com/apps/pb...NTPAGECAROUSEL
February 27, 2008



Friends: JPD shooting victim 'a teddy bear'
By Kathleen Baydala
kbaydala@clarionledger.com Friends of 23-year-old George Harris say they don’t believe he was the type of man who would pose a threat to a police officer.
Yet police officials say he led an officer on a high-speed chase and threatened the officer twice with a gun before the officer shot him down.

“He was really sweet. He was like a teddy bear,” said Harris’ friend Ciara Daniels, 20, who lives in the apartment across from Harris and his mother. “He didn’t meet no strangers. I would go eat at his house or he’d come here. He would always ask my mama to make him some banana pudding.”

Daniels and her mother were awakened by gunfire this morning. They watched from their window as police and onlookers surrounded Harris’ building.

Police Chief Malcolm McMillin, who is also sheriff of Hinds County, said the fatal shooting appears to be justifiable.

“A preliminary investigation indicates this was a righteous shooting and a good shooting,” McMillin told his command staff during a morning meeting at headquarters.

Harris is the eighth person to die in the metro area in the last 11 months during or after an encounter with law enforcement.

During the meeting, McMillin outlined the officer’s account of what led up to the shooting.

A veteran officer in Precinct 4 attempted to pull over Harris, 23, around 1 a.m. today near I-55 north and Briarwood Drive.

Harris, behind the wheel of a blue Oldsmobile Cutlass, was driving recklessly and speeding, McMillin said.

“The officer attempted to stop the vehicle which proceeded to the area of North State Street and Beasley Road,” he said.

The driver, still refusing to yield to the officer’s signals, drove into Willow Point Apartments off Beasley Road.

“The driver jumped out of the moving vehicle, causing it to crash into a parked black Toyota Camry near Building 28,” McMillin said.

That’s when police say Harris pulled a gun and aimed it at the officer.

“The officer ordered him to drop his weapon,” McMillin said. The officer fired shots at Harris but missed.

Harris then fled to Building 22 and again pointed his gun at the officer, the chief said.

“The officer fired and struck the suspect who died at the scene as a result of the gunshot,” McMillin said.

Harris died in the yard near the apartment he shared with his mother. A large-caliber gun was found near his body.

A single bouquet of flowers and tattered yellow crime scene tape now marked the scene this afternoon.

Harris’ neighbor, Shannon Sims, said the young man was not known as a troublemaker. However, he was not surprised that Harris tried to out run police.

“I think he didn’t have a license,” Sims, 26, said. “He knew he’d get in trouble.”

Daniels said she thinks Harris didn’t stop for police because he was scared.

“Black men are just scared of police. They aren’t going to stop. They don’t know what (police) are going to do to them,” she said. “He was just trying to make it home to his mom.”

Police officials are not releasing the name of the officer involved in the shooting. However, they say as a matter of protocol the officer has been placed on paid administrative leave pending the outcome of an internal affairs investigation.

Before McMillin left his command staff meeting this morning, he issued a warning to his force.

“I want to caution everybody in this room. This is one of those events that we deal with on a regular basis. We don’t have a milk route, a paper route. Ours is one that is fraught with danger,” he said. “We must make sure we have the equipment with us to do the job we need to do. I have never had to attend the funeral of an officer that worked under my direction and control. I want to retire with the same record.”

[countybear]

“He was really sweet. He was like a teddy bear,”

Sounds familiar to me...

``A peacemaker,`` they called him: ``Fair . . . good . . . a help.``

- said of James Hitchcock:

Eleven and a half years ago, Hitchcock raped, beat and strangled his stepniece, 13-year-old Cindy Driggers of nearby Winter Haven. For that, he was sent to Florida's death row.

You couldn't help but be friendly with him ...

- said of Krishna Maharaj:

Maharaj is serving a life sentence for murdering a rival businessman, and his son, who witnessed the father's murder.

Ray’s basic nature is sweet, kind, and loving-- his essence. ...was the nicest guy. He was really sweet. He was shy, but when you talked to him he would talk very calmly.

- Said of Raymond Wood:

Raymond Wood of rural Warrensburg, Mo., an hour east of here, shot and killed his pregnant wife Tina and four of their six children on Valentine's Day of 2000.

It was a gruesome, heartbreaking crime. Tina Wood was 31. Their children who died, Jared, Joshua, Emily and Hannah, were 10, 8, 7 and 5. Their two wounded children who survived, Moriah and Katlin, were 3 and 18 months.

Shall I continue?

[Ducky]

Don't forget what people said about Ted Bundy, Dennis Rader, John Wayne Gacy... etc, etc.

[countybear]

Ted Bundy was handsome and cultured and charming... He also received thousands of letters from female fans.

...many viewers couldn't believe a poised, normal-looking guy could be guilty of such brutal crimes.

- Bundy, the confessed rapist and brutal murderer of 28 young women.

She said he was the nicest guy you ever met, and she can't believe it's him. She's, like, just in awe. She doesn't understand why he would do it. And she's telling me that he was the nicest guy she ever met...

And it's like he had a Jekyll-Hyde personality. In church, he was somebody else. When he put the badge on and went to work in Park City as a compliance officer, he was someone else And then he had this third personality, this incredibly evil personality, if, in fact, he is the man. He is still a suspect and we have to remember that. So people saw him in many different ways, and it kind of depends on who you talk to.

- said about Dennis Rader

.. but in Rader's own words:

You have to have the control, which is the bonding. That's been a big thing with me. My sexual fantasy is ... if I'm going to kill a victim or do something to the victim, is having them bound and tied. In my dreams, I had what they called torture chambers. And to relieve your sexual fantasies you have to go to the kill.

Creeped out yet?

To everyone who met him, (he) seemed a likable and affable man. He was widely respected in the community, charming and easy to get along with. He was a good Catholic and sharp businessman who, when not running his construction company was active in the Jaycees and was also a Democratic Party precinct captain, when he had his photo taken with then First Lady, Rosalynn Carter (wearing a top level security pass issued to him by the U.S. Secret Service). He also spent much of his free time hosting elaborate street parties for his friends and neighbors, serving in community groups and entertaining children ... He was a generous, hardworking, friendly, devoted family man, everyone knew that...

- written about John Wayne Gacy, perhaps the most brutal serial criminal in history, who raped and murdered at least 33 young boys.

“Black men are just scared of police. They aren’t going to stop. They don’t know what (police) are going to do to them,” she said. “He was just trying to make it home to his mom.”

At 23, the age for running home to mommy has long passed, no matter how much of a "teddy bear" you are supposed to be.

Harris died in the yard near the apartment he shared with his mother. A large-caliber gun was found near his body.

Ah, a large caliber "gun", standard issue for teddy bears?

[lewisipso]

Nice guy. Firm but fair. Not afraid to go home at the end of his shift by what ever means necessary.

Said of lewisipso.

I have been commission by a public service agency to protect and serve. I shall.

[countybear]

As an addendum to this thread, especially to the family member of Cindy Driggers who recently contacted me regarding her case, whom I was unable to privately respond to:

Firstly, my condolences for you family's loss although so many years ago. My knowlege of the case arises not somuch in the fame of the case itself, moreso from the infamy of the perpetrator, Mr. Hitchcock. Hitchcock fought hard to cling to life and against the State's execution order of him arising from his detestable crime. No less than three appeals were filed in effort to recind a capital verdict against him. Perhaps the most convoluted one requested that the State Supreme Court redirect the capital verdict. Here's a .pdf brief of that last appeal, and this encompasses most of what I know of the case. (A warning to you, that some of the facts of the case contained herein might be a bit graphic and painful, especially for a family member to read):

http://www.law.fsu.edu/library/flsup...92717ans-b.pdf

You'll note that Mr. Hitchcock used a great deal of "character" testimony as premise for his being saved from execution, and my point in this particular post that you reference was to demonstrate the frequent use of such when a crime is committed as a means of defense or in the vain attempt to demonstrate that those capable of perhaps the most heinous of crimes are often spoken of well by those who know them. Along with quotes from the case that you reference, I also used quotes from even more 'infamous' cases, (certainly from more prolific, but nevertheless none more brutal in my opinion than Hitchcock was). Words spoken of murderers such as Bundy, Gacy, Maharaj, Rader, and Wood, also helped in demonstrating my point.

I hope that this explains my reference sufficiently. As a law enforcement officer, I often hear how 'good' natured an offender 'truly' is, especially from those who wish to see leniency meted to them in penalty for a crime committed. I find that all too often, the victim's voices aren't heard quite as loudly as they should be. I am heartened by cases such as State v. Hitchcock, in that Cindy Drigger's voice was heard, all the way to the State Supreme Court.

Thank you for your interest, and the opportunity to respond to your questions.

CB

And on a personal note:

Families of victims are most certainly welcome here at O/R.

If you are so inclined, register for membership and we will expedite the approval of your account. Your previous registration was inadvertently disapproved.

[gozling]

I like how the friggin race card is thrown in the mix...
oh he didnt stop cuz he was black and scared...

ummm how about he knew he did some shit wrong and was going to have to pay the price for it and flat out just DIDNT want to??????