F#$% COPA.....Again

To Larritorious' credit, he argued this was a mere two-day suspension for failing to turn on a body camera. 

COPA thinks otherwise:

• Over the objection of Chicago’s top cop, a police officer now faces dismissal for fatally shooting a man who was holding a handgun after a foot pursuit in Garfield Park last year.

  On April 15, 2023, Officer Fernando Ruiz fatally shot Reginald Clay Jr., 24, following a brief foot chase in the 3800 block of West Flournoy Street. Clay ran from officers who approached him and a group of people about 10 a.m. that morning, according to statements released by the police department and the Civilian Office of Police Accountability.

  Body-worn camera footage released by COPA shows Clay walking away as two officers pulled up. Clay flees through a gangway into a backyard and then into another gangway that’s blocked off. Clay is seen turning toward the officers while gripping a gun in his right hand before he shifts the weapon to his left hand and apparently tries to put it down on a back porch. Ruiz opens fire as Clay appears to scream and grab his chest.

  After completing its investigation in May, COPA recommended that Ruiz be dismissed from the department over the encounter. The agency alleged that the officer violated CPD’s foot pursuit policy, failed to notify the Office of Emergency Management and Communications of the pursuit per that policy, failed to activate his body camera in a timely manner, and failed to use de-escalation techniques before using force.

Foot pursuits are dynamic situations that don't lend themselves to regimented protocols. It's not, "If A, then B, followed by C, but if A1, then B1, followed by D."

It's usually, "A-C-WTF-B-D" in the span of seconds, even tenths-of-seconds. Look at "lil homicide" in 010 the other year. That one went down in something like hundredths-of-seconds.

The dead asshole is running with a gun. He's moving the gun from one hand to the other - is he left handed? Is that his shooting hand? Is he ducking for cover to shoot the pursuing Officer? How much of the action recorded by the camera is obscured by the Officer's arm coming up to shoot?

And most of the prevailing law handed down by the US Supreme Court uses the phrase, "...a reasonable police officer..." when making judgements about split second decisions.

Snelling is correct in this case. COPA is wrong. 

And the family can take a flying f#$% at a rolling donut. The only one to blame for Clay's death is Clay and his useless family who "raised" him to be a lottery ticket.