When You Train Cops As Soldiers, What They Do Is Kill

WECT in North Carolina:

A detective from the Southport Police Department is on paid administrative leave after an officer involved shooting that happened at a home in Boiling Spring Lakes Sunday afternoon.

SNIP

According to the report, the first unit on scene was a Boiling Spring Lakes officer who arrived at 12:34 p.m. He was joined shortly after by two additional BSL officers and a Brunswick County Sheriff's Deputy.

The first unit on scene reported a confrontation in the hallway, but told Brunswick County Dispatchers several times that everything was OK.

Unit 104 from Southport arrived on the scene at 12:48:41, fourteen minutes after the first officer had already been on scene.

Seventy seconds later, Unit 104 radioed out that he had to fire shots at the subject in order to defend himself.

The event report mirrors what family members told the media.

Wilsey said his family called the police to help with his son Keith Vidal who has schizophrenia and had a small screwdriver in his hand. Officers used a Taser on Vidal and then shot him, according to Wilsey.

Wilsey said officers came into their home after they called for backup help when Vidal was having a schizophrenic incident.

Wilsey said officers had his son down on the ground after the teen was tased a few times and an officer said, "we don't have time for this." That's when Wilsey says the officer shot in between the officers holding the teen down, killing his son.

"There was no reason to shoot this kid," Wilsey said. "They killed my son in cold blood. We called for help and they killed my son."

The only hope is that the multi-million-dollar settlement the city has to give to the family is large enough to persuade the city to start training cops on non-violent methods of control. And by that I do not mean tasering.