Wednesday, November 14, 2012

Bad Scene at a Michigan Police Station

Freep reports
Harold J. Collins, 64, had been battling health problems for years, including a tumor on his face, when he walked into the Southfield Police Department on Sunday and without a word, tried to fire his gun at an officer.

Neither neighbors nor police could say whether the veteran purposely chose Veterans Day to walk into the station and brandish a gun nor can they say what motivated him to shoot at an officer after repeated requests to drop his weapon.

Collins was shot and killed by police officers, but not before a sergeant was shot in the left shoulder. Police are awaiting ballistics reports to officially attribute the shot to Collins.

Did you get that? They want to attribute the shot which wounded a cop to Collins.
According to police, he parked his white Dodge Caliber in the south-facing parking lot of the Police Department and walked into the lobby.

There, an officer behind protective glass spoke to Collins, who did not attempt to answer or make any gestures to communicate. Collins simply stared blankly before pointing a .38-caliber handgun at the officer and pulling the trigger.

But the gun didn't fire.

Five officers responded to the desk officer's call for help, emerging into the lobby and demanding that Collins drop the gun. He didn't comply, and the gunfire began, although it isn't clear from police statements who shot first.
So, he either had no bullets in the gun or it was malfunctioning. Too bad there wasn't one cop on the scene heroic enough to handle the situation without blowing the guy away.  Not only that, they shot one of their own in the process and now want ballistics to prove it was Collins.

What's your opinion?  Shouldn't trained police officers show more restraint than that?

The story gives us a good illustration of  several things.  The fact that gun violence can happen anywhere, it's not limited to gun free zones, the fact that too many unfit people have easy access to guns, and the idea that no one is checking if people like this have concealed carry permits. 

What's your opinion?  Please leave a comment.




10 comments:

  1. So we have one single trigger pull that didn't result in a round being fired and from that we know for a fact that the gun never fire through the entire situation? I'm not saying I know exactly what happened but I have had rounds that have not fired on the first trigger pull. This sounds like a standard anti argument of finding one fact that supports your cause, no matter how weakly and having it be gospel regardless of evidence to the contrary. As far as the heroics you mention I get the impression that you are the type who believes it is an officers job to endure the threat and not respond and that you would rather have a dead or shot officer or civilian rather than one who can and do defend themselves. Mike Z

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    1. Actually, I read a later report which says he did fire at the officers and it was he who wounded the one cop.

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    2. Mikeb, you now should do the honorable thing. Remove the histrionics from your article and post an apology. I'd also ask you to stop jumping to conclusions, but that's too much for you.

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    3. Here is what I take from this story. A man entered a building with the intent to shoot multiple people. The intended victims were all armed as well. In the end, only the criminal was killed and a single innocent victim was wounded (non critically). The moral of the story seems to imply that armed resistance to a potential mass shooter is the best and quickest way to stop said shooter.

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  2. LEOs:

    The NRA is your enemy. Immediately arrest any NRA member, because the NRA exists to kill LEOs.

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    1. Well that's funny. I'm not making my quota, apparently. Care to guess how many cops I've shot?

      ZERO.

      That, by the way, is the same number of human beings that I've shot. I'm a gun-owning and carry-license holding member of the NRA.

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  3. to adress two things, anonymous, many LEOs are NRA members so it appears you are saying many LEOs are suicidal? But on to the bigger point, mikeb, now that you have personally admitted you were wrong, can we expect at minimum an apology and an admission, on this blog admitting the error? Something more substantial than a simple comment on a posting? or is your comment on having read the report little more than acknowledging that another person said something else? And for the the record, I am a member of the NRA and am in the process of becoming and LEO. I won't hold my breath expecting the post but I do hope that at minimum this incident has opened your mind and encouraged some degree of restraint in your postings and a willingness to get more information before giving in to the agenda perpetuating knee jerk reaction. Mike Z

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    1. Maybe you haven't been following the story. A later report flipped it back to friendly fire as the explanation.

      No, Mike Z., I think I'll continue with the knee-jerk reactions. And correcting mistakes in comments works fine for me.

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  4. Any chance of getting a link to the report that re attributed the wounding shot? I have been searching and been unable to find it, because believe it or now, though I am what many Control advocates would call a gun-loon I try to get as much information on both sides prior to forming an opinion. Mike Z

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    1. Robert Farago said it on his last radio interview. I made a post about some of the other stuff he said.

      http://mikeb302000.blogspot.it/2012/11/concealed-carry-safety.html

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