United States News
See other United States News Articles
Title: “We don’t have time for this” Bang! — Cop Testifies Against Cop for Murdering Teen for No Reason
Source:
Free Thought Project
URL Source: http://thefreethoughtproject.com/we ... op-murdered-mentally-ill-teen/
Published: Apr 24, 2016
Author: William Norman Grigg
Post Date: 2016-04-25 10:03:23 by Deckard
Keywords: None
Views: 490
Comments: 5
Boiling Springs Lake, NC — “There was no reason to shoot this kid,” Mark Wilsey said a few days after then-Sergeant Byron Vassey killed his emotionally troubled teenaged son in the family’s home in Boiling Springs Lake, North Carolina. “They killed my son in cold blood. We called for help and they killed my son.” More than two years after that killing, one of Vassey’s colleagues has validated Wilsey’s conclusion during his testimony in the trial of Vassey for voluntary manslaughter. “My recollection … is that he never came close to hurting me,” testified Southport Police Officer John Thomas, who had been grappling with 18-year-old Keith Vidal at the time Vassey fired the fatal shot. Vidal, who was being treated for paranoid schizophrenia, was “armed” with a tool described by the family and the police as a screwdriver. On January 5, 2014, Vidal’s parents called for assistance in getting him to the hospital, and Thomas was the first to respond to a report that an “armed person” was “in crisis” at a familiar address. Thomas had responded to a previous call for help in hospitalizing Vidal, but on this occasion, the small, slender young man was in a more hostile mood. “He kind of looked down with his head but up with his eyes,” Thomas said during his testimony. “His face just didn’t have the facial features of what I remember seeing…. He looked mad that day – hateful.” In reply to Thomas’s questions, Vidal – in the grip of an illness – muttered “fight me,” the officer recalled. Determined to de-escalate a potentially tragic confrontation with a young man who was not a criminal suspect, Thomas tried to persuade Vidal to speak with Samantha Lewis, a deputy with the Brunswick County Sheriff’s Office. This approach approved unavailing. Sergeant Vassey of the Southport PD arrived shortly after Lewis and immediately demanded that the officers use their tasers to subdue Vidal. Lewis fired her taser, which knocked Vidal to the floor. Thomas quickly jumped on the small teenager, using his 80-100 pound weight advantage to pin him to the floor. As the effects of the taser wore off, Vidal began to struggle, and Thomas called for another application. He heard Lewis reply that there was something wrong with the device – followed by a loud blast that he thought was a second taser charge. The officer managed to get Vidal into handcuffs, and when he stood he noticed that his ears were ringing – and the teenager’s blood had covered his uniform. As Thomas and Vidal were struggling, Sergeant Vassey approached them from Vidal’s right side and fired a single shot from behind at a distance of about a foot and a half. From the perspective of “officer safety” – which in too many episodes of this kind is the only one that matters – Vassey’s actions were counterproductive, as he could easily have injured or killed Officer Thomas. In this case, Vassey’s actions weren’t dictated by concern for officer safety, but a frustrated reaction to being inconvenienced. Vidal’s horrified parents have testified that before pulling the trigger, Vassey exclaimed, “We don’t have time for this!” The officers were not constrained by a time limit or dealing with exigent circumstances. The primary objective was to help a sick person, rather than to subdue a criminal suspect. This would involve disarming the young man of the tool he had brandished as a weapon (which Vassey’s defense attorney characterizes as a “pick,” rather than a screwdriver). This would involve an element of risk, but not a prohibitive one, given that three officers were on the scene and one of them had already gone hands-on with the teenager. Vassey’s decision to shoot Vidal was dictated by simple impatience: He killed a mentally ill teenager as a time-saving measure – and then, according to witnesses on the scene, he pointed his gun at the horrified father of his victim, who had been trying to assist the officers. “We called for help and they killed my son,” Wilsey told WECT, the local NBC affiliate, following a January 6 press conference by the local chapter of the Police Benevolent Association to address the shooting. “They had Tasers on them, and they didn’t have to even tase him, they could have just talked to him.” The family, who hadn’t been invited to the PBA press conference, showed up with protest signs and watched silently as union officials performed the familiar liturgy of institutional self-justification. The parents were briefly interviewed by reporters for WECT following the event. Vidal’s mother used the opportunity to warn other parents of mentally ill teenagers not to allow the police to intervene when crises occur. “Mentally ill people should not be treated like this,” she advised, her voice freighted with sorrow. “We called the police department for help – we did not call the police department to have our son murdered…. Do not call the police department for help – because your son will probably be killed, like mine was.”
Post Comment Private Reply Ignore Thread
Top • Page Up • Full Thread • Page Down • Bottom/Latest
#1. To: Deckard (#0)
You're welcome.
In misterwhite's cop-sucking world view, killing someone who needs help, not a bullet is what cops are paid to do. But wait, another cop testified against the murderer. Yet you still can't help sucking that LE cock, can you? “We called the police department for help – we did not call the police department to have our son murdered…. Do not call the police department for help – because your son will probably be killed, like mine was.” I hope that someday you call the cops for help and get murdered like this innocent kid was. You're a real tool, paulsen - you deserve this. In a Cop Culture, the Bill of Rights Doesn’t Amount to Much Good for him! He is the hero cop in this sad story. I do NOT want to minimize the danger of a screwdriver as a weapon,though. A screwdriver is as effective as a stabbing weapon as a knife. Which is moot in regard to this case because the boy was on the floor being restrained,and his ability to stab,even IF he still held the screwdriver (doubtful). The cop that fired the shot should be charged with murder and abuse of office. BOYCOTT PAYPAL AND CLOSE YOUR PP ACCOUNTS NOW! ENCOURAGE OTHERS TO DO SO,TOO! ISLAM MEANS SUBMISSION! Why is democracy held in such high esteem when it’s the enemy of the minority and makes all rights relative to the dictates of the majority? (Ron Paul,2012) American Indians had open borders. Look at how well that worked out for them.
So he came at the cops with an icepick, not a screwdriver. I'm surprised the cops used the taser. They were justified in emptying their guns.
In the article above, it says that Lewis (Samantha Lewis Chavis), fired her taser, which knocked Vidal to the floor. But according to WECT in Wilmington, she testified in court that Vidal was rushing her but "when she went to deploy her Taser, she realized it was not working properly." She then heard a bang, and saw the perp hit the floor before she discharged her taser. Sounds like the other officer saved her incompetent butt. http://www.foxwilmington.com/story/31793010/testimony-continues-in-trial-of- former-southport-officer-accused-of-manslaughter
“We called for help and they killed my son,”
#2. To: misterwhite (#1)
(Edited)
“Truth is treason in the empire of lies.” - Ron Paul
Americans who have no experience with, or knowledge of, tyranny believe that only terrorists will experience the unchecked power of the state. They will believe this until it happens to them, or their children, or their friends.
Paul Craig Roberts
#3. To: Deckard (#0)
“My recollection … is that he never came close to hurting me,” testified Southport Police Officer John Thomas, who had been grappling with 18-year-old Keith Vidal at the time Vassey fired the fatal shot.
#4. To: Deckard (#0)
(which Vassey’s defense attorney characterizes as a “pick,” rather than a screwdriver).
#5. To: misterwhite (#4)
I'm surprised the cops used the taser.
Top • Page Up • Full Thread • Page Down • Bottom/Latest
[Home] [Headlines] [Latest Articles] [Latest Comments] [Post] [Mail] [Sign-in] [Setup] [Help] [Register]