Torrance D.A.: Shooting at Truck Because You Think Driver Might Be Out to Kill You Makes Perfect Sense, Even if It's a Different Model Truck and Driver Hasn't Tried to Kill You

An annoying punctuation this week on last year’s Southern
California police reign of terror as they shot at random trucks,
thinking that just maybe they contained someone (Christopher
Dorner) accused of having killed people (and out to kill cops, the
important part).

From the Daily Breeze:

A Torrance police officer made a “reasonable mistake” when he
shot at a Redondo Beach surfer during the chaotic manhunt for rogue
Los Angeles police officer Christopher Dorner last year and will
not face criminal charges, the District Attorney’s Office said in a
report released Tuesday.

Officer Brian McGee acted in “an atmosphere of fear and extreme
anticipation” when he purposely rammed David Perdue’s pickup truck
and fired at least three shots at him on Feb. 7, 2013, mistakenly
believing Dorner was at the wheel. The bullets missed Perdue, who
has filed a lawsuit against the city of Torrance.

“McGee’s belief that Dorner was driving the truck was
reasonable,” prosecutors said in ruling the shooting was
justified.

The reason McGee was so het up was because he had heard gunshots
a bit before he and his partner came upon Purdue and rammed his
vehicle and shot at him multiple times.

Those gunshots were more cops shooting at innocent
people–Hispanic female paper deliverers, decidedly smaller than
Dorner–in the belief they just might be Dorner.

Perdue, the report said, had just attempted to turn onto Towers
Street from Flagler, but was stopped by two Torrance officers and
told to turn around. As he headed toward Beryl Street, McGee and
[his partner Erin] Sooper headed toward him just as the LAPD’s
shots rang out.

Thus, the idiot and potentially fatal mistake by the first set
of cops created the reasonableness for the next idiot and
potentially fatal mistake. That’s government for you.

Amusingly, this very long article doesn’t even mention that
Purdue was driving a different model (Honda vs. Nissan Titan) and,
if I am seeing the accompanying picture correctly, different color
truck than what Dorner was supposed to be driving (alternately
described as grey or blue in early reports).

Purdue is also white, Dorner black. But it was early
and dark, so every truck should be shot at, just to be safe. That’s
“cop reasonable.”

Reason on
Dorner.