Chandler police lied about shooting
by Eric Lee Green Wednesday, Oct. 16, 2002 at 5:47 AM
eric@badtux.org

Friday, Chandler police announced that a housewife trying to pass a fraudulent prescription had been killed as she tried to run over a motorcycle officer. However, facts now show that *THEY LIED*.

The initial reports say that she ran into his motorcycle and he shot her in self defense. However, all evidence points to the officer shooting her through the driver's side window (there's no bullet hole in the windshield, the motorcycle's kickstand WAS DOWN, etc.).

The East Valley Tribune has a bit more information. They don't have a stable URL for the story, but here's the gist of what apparently happened, according to the husband and according to third parties:

Cop blocks car with motorcycle, leaves the motorcycle, and goes to the driver's window and tells the woman to turn off the car and put the keys on the dash.

*BEFORE SHE DOES THIS*, he starts walking to the back of the car to get the license plate number.

She starts pulling car forward.

He runs back to the driver's window and, perhaps after a short struggle where she grabs him as he tries to reach around and turn off the ignition, shoots her in the side of the chest.

The car did not bump the motorcycle until *AFTER* he shot her. The initial story put out by the Chandler police -- that he shot her because she ran into his motorcycle and was about to run over him --was bullshit. As became obvious when news pundits noticed that there was no bullet hole in the windshield, and the only window open was the driver's window (meaning that he had to have shot her through the driver's window, meaning he was NOT in front of the car and thus NOT in danger of being run over by the car).

This should be the "third strike" for this police officer. A couple of years ago he engaged in a high speed chase that killed an innocent bystander, showing outrageously bad judgement. Here he made *TWO* errors in judgement -- leaving the woman before she had disabled her deadly weapon (a car IS a deadly weapon), and then struggling to stop the woman from driving off, placing himself into a position where his life was endangered and HER life (and her infant child's life -- yes, he was in the car) was definitely endangered. This officer, Officer Dan Lovelace, should at least be fired as unsuited for police work.

news.badtux.net/article.php?story=20021016081344922

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