White Cop Shoots Black Off-Duty Officer at Crime Scene

The white officer was 'fearing for his safety'
By Michael Harthorne,  Newser Staff
Posted Jun 23, 2017 6:24 PM CDT
White Cop Shoots Black Off-Duty Officer at Crime Scene
Stock image.   (Getty Images/TheaDesign)

A black off-duty officer with the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department was shot by a white officer Wednesday night while trying to assist with some suspected car thieves, CBS News reports. According to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, a stolen car crashed near the off-duty officer's home, and he came outside with his service weapon to help. Two officers ordered him to the ground, and he complied. Once they recognized him as an 11-year veteran of the department, they told him to get up and walk toward them. As he was doing that, a fourth officer arrived on the scene and shot the off-duty officer in the arm. The police department says the late-arriving officer was "fearing for his safety" and didn't recognize the off-duty officer.

The unnamed officer who was shot in the arm was released from the hospital Thursday. His attorney, Rufus Tate Jr., says the shooting is a "real problem," Fox 2 reports. Tate says a "black professional in law enforcement" was "treated as an ordinary black guy on the street." He notes there's no evidence in the police report that the off-duty officer posed any sort of threat, and yet the officer who shot him is said to have feared for his safety. "There is this perception that a black man is automatically feared," Tate says. The chief of police had originally blamed the shooting on the off-duty officer getting caught in the crossfire between officers and suspects. The St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department is investigating. (More police shooting stories.)

Get the news faster.
Tap to install our app.
X
Install the Newser News app
in two easy steps:
1. Tap in your navigation bar.
2. Tap to Add to Home Screen.

X