My cousin is going through this now in Atlanta.
My cousin, a former Atlanta police officer was indicted for murder. His name is Ray Bunn. In July 2002, Ray and his
partner were patrolling the Buckhead bar district area of Atlanta. It was about 3:00am when they heard the sound of breaking glass and a car alarm go
off -- and saw a man jump out of the shattered passenger window of nearby car.
Ray and his partner began shouting over and over: Police! Stop! Police!
Stop! But the man ignored them and jumped into the back seat of a nearby
Chevy Tahoe SUV. Both Ray and his partner drew their weapons and slowly advanced towards the SUV. Suddenly the driver of the SUV, a man named
Corey Ward, punched the gas pedal and started driving straight at Ray. Ray was trapped between the right front of his cruiser and the oncoming car.
With the SUV just a few feet away from him, Ray had no choice. He fired off two shots from his service revolver and tried to jump out of the way. But
he didn't make it. The SUV struck his knee. Corey Ward, the driver of the SUV, died at the scene from the gunshot wound to his head. Ray was
devastated -- it was the first time in his police career that he had ever been forced to kill a man. But he knows that he did the right thing.
Police are trained to use force if they feel their lives are in danger.
Which Ray's life clearly was. But anti-police acti
vists in Atlanta didn't agree.You see, Corey Ward was a young black man.
Radicals in the black community accused Ray of being a rogue, racist cop.
Then without warning, the Fulton County District Attorney announced that he was indicting Ray for the murder of Corey Ward.
> > >
That's right -- three and a half years after Ray was nearly killed by Corey Ward's SUV, and after a year long tour in Iraq, the DA finally bowed to
pressure from local activists and indicted Ray. Ray didn't serve his country once or twice, but five times he was in Iraq protecting all who live in the United States.
> > >
If Ray was an African American cop would this still happen? If Corey was a caucasion man, would this still happen? My bet is NO. Why is this all
about race? What the DA did not put out was that cocaine was found in Corey's vehicle as well as bags of marijuana and a big knife not to
mention stealing a car. What's wrong is wrong. Corey made that choice to be involved with drugs, carrying a weapon, stealing a car, and tryinng to
run down Ray. Ray made the choice to protect himself. Ray is a wonderful husband and father to his five children. When his fifth child was born,
the DA wouldn't let him go to the hospital to be with his wife. Seven years Ray protected the streets of Atlanta, served and continues to serve
his country and this is how Atlanta thanks him? How is this murder?
He is man who protects the streets. Who's to say if Ray and his partner wasn't there? Would more be dead? Car accident, drugs involved, someone
being stabbed... Ray prevented that from happening. I am proud to have him in my family. It took three years for the Fulton County D.A. to decide to indict Ray. It shows you just how powerful the local radicals really
are that the D.A. caved in to their political pressure.
If what Ray did was murder then sooner or later every decent police officer in this country will be put behind bars.
Details said:
OK. First - I will go for it - it's disgusting to accuse them of killing him, as if they did it deliberately. And a tazer is as much 'potentially leathal force' as a peanut butter sandwich is. Sure, either can kill a suceptible someone, but that doesn't make them a lethal weapon.
From what the ME said, the tazer might have been the best shot at saving him, by forcibly calming him down - but too late. In any case, LE didn't have any reason to believe the tazer would kill the kid. Oh - BTW - mace has a similar record of some suspicious deaths that may or have been caused by mace, and pepper spray is apparently a bit worse. Heck, a blanket used while trying to control a struggling suspect might smother him, and I'm sure you know about the people killed by the standard bare hands police chokehold. If you take remedial statistics, you'll find out that the odds of the police running into criminals with pretty well any disease or hereditary or undiagnosed weakness is a virtual 100%. And if this poor sap is unlucky enough to have a weak heart or other ticking time bomb, and that coincides with him going a little nuts with the police - the poor officer has to deal with stupid headlines about police killing a teen for shouting for Jesus, and a stupid investigation because of bad luck.
Yeah - poor judgement - they should just let him go, give up on law enforcement, let the public take their chances. The police should be as scared (for a different reason) as the rest of us of talking with the local shouting nutjob. After all, he might have a weak heart, or a brain anyurism about to burst if they so much as touch him, or an allergy to mace, or an allergy to the cat fur on their blankie. It's all the police's fault, not the poor, poor idiot who chooses to start the fight.
LE are generally thoughtful and concerned - and I'm sure these police were no execption. But it's hard for any of them to get a fair shake when any outcome people can second-guess makes people call them bad cops. I bet your LE officers you know have the same types of claims against them, that they 'should have left our Johnny alone, he wasn't hurting anyone!'