Officer charged with killing unarmed driver lying facedown
 

sneeze pow :2 cents:

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) ? A Pennsylvania police officer was charged Tuesday with criminal homicide after investigators concluded she shot an unarmed motorist in the back as he lay facedown after a traffic stop over an expired inspection sticker.

Authorities accused Hummelstown police Officer Lisa J. Mearkle of shooting 59-year-old David Kassick twice on Feb. 2 without legal justification. She was released on $250,000 bail. Her attorney, Brian Perry, said Mearkle acted in self-defense, and he warned the case could cause police officers to hesitate in high-pressure situations.

"She felt like she had to do what she did," Perry said. "This person was being commanded, begged, 'show me your hands,' and he kept going to his waist." Authorities said Mearkle had attempted to pull over Kassick for expired inspection and emissions stickers before he sped away. She caught up to Kassick near his sister's home where he had been living for a short time.

He got out and ran before Mearkle incapacitated him with a stun gun, held in her left hand. He was on the ground when she shot him twice in the back with the gun in her right hand, police said. Mearkle, 36, told investigators she fired because he would not show her his hands and she thought he was reaching into his jacket for a gun. Perry said she did not know Kassick before the shooting.

The offense of criminal homicide encompasses a range of charges, from misdemeanor involuntary manslaughter to felony first-degree murder. Prosecutors often narrow the charge later in the process, about the time when defendants are formally arraigned.

The stun gun contained a camera that recorded audio and video from portions of the encounter, and District Attorney Ed Marsico called it the strongest evidence in the case. He said it appeared Kassick had been trying to remove the stun-gun probe from his back.

"At the time Officer Mearkle fires both rounds from her pistol, the video clearly depicts Kassick lying on the snow covered lawn with his face toward the ground," according to the arrest affidavit. "Furthermore, at the time the rounds are fired nothing can be seen in either of Kassick's hands, nor does he point or direct anything toward Officer Mearkle."

Marsico said Mearkle waited 4 seconds between the first and second shots, and afterward performed CPR. He called the shooting "a tragedy for all involved." The district attorney said a syringe was found near Kassick's body, and alcohol and unspecified drugs were found in his system.

Lawyers for Kassick's family and estate issued a statement calling the charges "a substantial step toward closure" after what they described as a horrifying tragedy. They said he had worked as a Teamsters union laborer and struggled with addiction.

"Mr. Kassick is now dead as a result of a traffic stop, a routine traffic stop," said one of the family's attorneys, Christopher Slusser. "He should not be dead. He should not have died as a result of that traffic stop. And the manner in which he was shot ? you can infer from that what you will."

Hummelstown Police Chief Charles M. Dowell did not respond to a message seeking comment, but his department issued a news release that said it had cooperated fully, calling the matter "an extremely difficult case for all involved."

"We are servants of justice and must now allow the judicial process to conduct a fair and impartial review of the allegations that have been presented," the news release stated. Perry said Mearkle has been on the force for 15 years. She is married to a state trooper and has young children at home, he said. She was expected to be under electronic monitoring.

Officer charged with killing unarmed driver lying facedown

So again we have someone fleeing the police, resisting arrest then getting shot .....

For God's sake behave like a normal person, passively be arrested then take up your complaints in the court system.

Brassmonkey, if your point is to point out idiots resisting arrest you're doing a good job.

its an article asshole. you cant kill un armed suspects asshole!

It's common sense asshole. If you put yourself in a bad situation bad things can happen.

Thousands of arrests happen everyday without incident. You have a sick fetish for pointing out idiots that resist arrest and have shit go wrong as a direct result of their own behavior.

Best way not to get shot by a cop? Don't be an idiot. I'm NOT defending the cop I'm critizing the assholes getting shot for their own behavior choice.

Too hard for you to understand?

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I hope HARRISBURG, Pa. has been saving up because they're about to get the living shit sued out of them by the Kassick's. i bet it will be a $50m judgement.

cops are shit! Fuck your old southern bullshit

A proud black gangbanger from Compton hates the police. shocking attitude from the din do nuffins capital of the USA

nothing to do with the case :2 cents::2 cents:

I have NEVER defended a cop in a shooting. But I do bring up the same question each time. Why put yourself in a position to be shot? This guy flees the police in his car, then on foot, etc.

Why put your fate in the armed hands of someone you have purposely provoked?

That's not southern bullshit that's common sense. Give up peacefully, live another day.


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Has to do with your attitude about police which you've made very clear for years. Or are you an upstanding citizen and law abiding Crip?

We have to put up with a self admitted life-long member of a criminal gang posting anti law enforcement posts all day long.

you win not going to fight over this.

When does a "routine traffic stop" include evading police?

The guy kept going to his waistband while being ordered by police to "show me your hands".

Hardly routine.

Finally. Its time for white morons to riot! Burn them all motherfuckers!

I hear you, all resisters must be murdered.

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She had her Taser gun in one hand (which recorded the entire shooting), and her gun in the other. Considering he was face down, I wonder if she only meant to tase his ass again, and fired with the wrong hand. Of course, no one would ever admit that, but...

You can reason with a black man. You can't reason with a hahahahahaha.

There's a huge difference and you all know which category the two in this thread belong in.

Ignorant. And just don't care how bad they look. They're gonna do what they want.

Every cop is bad except those who just got out of the academy as a possible exception.

What makes them bad?

Did they arrest someone for drugs?
Did they arrest someone for prostitution?
Did they force you to stop and talk to them because you were moving faster than an arbitrarily set speed limit?
etc. etc

They don't have to shoot someone or beat them to be a bad cop.

This cop though was definitely a very bad cop, killing someone over arbitrary paperwork. Doesn't get much worse.

I s thinking the same but She paused 4 seconds between her first and second shots.

probably because he's a doped up drug addict. lack of common sense shouldn't be a death sentence.

You can make a design but you can't steal one from Fletch.

:1orglaugh

https://gfy.com/fucking-around-and-pr...esign+fletc h

She can, and she did. He's dead.

*BANG*

"Oh, fuck, wrong hand."

" ... "

"Well, I can't let him live to tell his side of the story."

*BANG*


I would assume that she would have known that the taser had a video recorder built in, but I guess there's a chance she didn't, or in the heat of the moment she didn't think about it.