Via Bob Owens at Bearing Arms.
Surveillance footage and audio recordings released after a grand jury declined to indict the officer who shot Crawford showed that Crawford was holding the rifle at his side and pointing it to the floor at the time when Ritchie alleged that “he just pointed it at, like, two children”.
Crawford’s father and the family’s attorney said that Ritchie, 24, should be questioned by police over the discrepancy between the footage and his allegation, which he made about 80 seconds before Crawford was shot, and confirmed when asked soon after. Knowingly “making false alarms” is a crime under Ohio law punishable by a fine or jail sentence.
“He was the catalyst, if you will, in the whole sequence of events leading up to my son’s death,” John Crawford Jr told the Guardian. “It was a crank call. He excited the call, and exaggerated the call, and frankly it was just a bunch of lies.”
Ritchie declined to comment in an online message on Friday. He has previously maintained that Crawford posed a threat to shoppers and that the 911 call was justified.
Both local PD and DOJ should seriously investigate Mr. Ritchie. As for myself, I have no problem saying that it is my opinion he is the one who caused the death of John Crawford III.
Is Ritchie a member of a Gun Control group or favors them? I have no idea and nobody has come forward with the information. The reason why he chose to call 911 and give the take he gave resides in his head and since he already lawyer-ed up, I doubt we will ever know.
I hope there is an investigation, I doubt there will be one by either law enforcement or the Media. The deafening silence from Civil Rights groups is a bad omen, conflict of interest if it happens to be a politically influenced SWATting incident.
I hope that they fry his ass is in civil court for every last nickel he has.
Even if he never sees a Courtroom, Karma will visit him at some point.
I am with those who wonder why, considering how many 911 calls are misunderstood/mistranslated/exaggerate/pure BS, considering that you’re in a store that sells guns and replicas, weren’t the cops trying harder to take the guy without shooting? Yes, though, that caller needs to get more than just internet shame.
Mr. Crawford was not the only one that died because of this. Angela Williams died of a heart attack in the parking lot with her children watching.
If you watch the video of Mr. Crawford being shot, she and her children were shopping in the same aisle a few minutes before and saw nothing that scared them. But the shooting and ensuing mass panic scared her to death.
I still don’t understand why the officer is in the clear? I hope both families rake Ritchie over the coals, and I have much higher expectations regarding the officer’s actions as well.