While we’ve come to expect the unexpected at North Miami Beach City Council meetings, come Friday night in the Land of Now More Beautiful, we can always expect a shooting or two.
According to an actual Press Release emailed to me at 5:46 this morning by North Miami Beach Major Kathy Katerman, there was a police involved shooting “in the 1400 block of NE 159 Street.”
The good news is that the police officers involved did not get shot.
The bad news is that the police officer who had to defend himself – and the rest of us – by shooting an armed dirt bag, will probably have to go through all kinds of hell to defend his actions.
As much as that’s gonna suck, it’s infinitely better than being a dead hero.
I did not get a press release about another random shooting in Highland Village last night. I’m guessing that’s not worth reporting because no one was hit and because no police officers were involved.
Obviously shootings are not news when the criminals are the ones pulling the trigger.
Stephanie Kienzle
“Spreading the Wealth”
NOTE: CBS Miami posted this story at 7:51 this morning.
Honestly, I think it is just as dangerous here as it is in Miami Gardens.
“shooting an armed dirt bag”
So many questions left unanswered. He was armed with what? At what point did they know he was armed? Where was the unmarked police vehicle at the time the man approached. The block in question is residential, with a municipal plant storage facility fenced off at the intersection with the 1500 block.
If the police determined the man was armed it is important to the circumstance of the shooting whether they discovered this before OR after they shot the person.
Claims in a press release, which is not sworn testimony, or useful in trial as evidence of guilt, are to be taken with a grain of salt.
If there is other evidence of which people are aware and perhaps you have knowledge that is still not useful unless we know it too.
Hope the best for everyone involved, and those with problems get the help they need to repair their lives.
Certainly someone coming out of a house, or from around a corner, or down the block, and surprisingly pulling out a gun and pointing it at a car, regardless of the inhabitants, is a serious, dangerous, and criminal situation but that’s not at all what is stated in the press release.
The press release states that “the gunman refused to comply.” Since it didn’t say, “the archer refused to comply,” I’ll go out on a limb and surmise he was armed with a gun and not a bow and arrow. Just saying, of course.
The press release does not specify whether the weapon with which they were armed when they first approached the car. The person in question becomes a gunman only after or during the command to show their hands. The release does not explain WHY the persons hands were not visible. Were they too black to be seen in the dark? Was it because they were in a pocket or in a jacket? (maybe it was really cold that night!)
Did the police see the gun at any point before the person was shot?
These are not things that it is reasonable to make assumptions about without specific, legally enforceable information.
Hey, at least she sent you the press release. She must have finally figured out that you should be receiving these instead of having to pry it out of them.
doing a search on the NMB website is not difficult, but as I’ve made clear elsewhere, while conventional wisdom may confer some manner of authority to so called journalists, the responsibility of government is to its public, and not the media it expects to middle out the information for them.
Prem Barbosa go back to watching reruns of Law and Order.
Prem is our college campus contrarian. He thinks being a contrarian makes him more enlightened than the rest, but that is just what he’s been taught by his professors.
For all we know (which is very little) the police officer involved may have been at the scene to buy drugs from the purchase who ended up shot.
Whatever the reasons, or whatever happened, I simply choose not to make an assumption, especially not the one the authorities ask me to make, which is a logical fallacy.