It turns out that police shot the wrong man on Thanksgiving in regards to the Riverchase Galleria Mall in Hoover, Alabama.
Arrest made a week after cops killed man they misidentified as Alabama mall shooter
Police were responding to reports of a shooting Thanksgiving night at the Riverchase Galleria in Hoover, a suburb of 95,000 people south of Birmingham, when an officer fatally shot 21-year-old Emantic “EJ” Bradford Jr. Police initially blamed Bradford, who they said had a gun in his hand and was responsible for shooting two people at the mall. They later retracted that statement.
In a statement issued Monday, police said Bradford had a gun in his hand “during the seconds following the gunshots, which instantly heightened the sense of threat to approaching police officers.”
Ben Crump, a lawyer representing the Bradford family, said there was a presumption that Bradford was the criminal because he was a black man. The officer who opened fire hasn’t yet been identified.
Bradford’s family has said he had a permit to carry a weapon legally, and their attorney has said witnesses reported that Bradford was trying to help after the shooting.
So the police shot and killed a law abiding concealed carry permit holder who was trying to help out after the shooting.
It’s hard right now to tell just how much of a bad shoot this is.
Everything we know about active shooter scenarios is you engage the shooter right away. The police may have done just that and killed the first man that they saw with a gun out. The shoot may also have motivated by something more nefarious.
I will not pass judgement until more details are released.
But now that the news is out that the police did shoot a CCW, expect the anti-gun activists to spike the ball with a giant “I told you so.”
The fact is, this shooting is not going to stop me from carrying concealed. There aren’t enough details released for me to know if I would have done anything differently from Bradford.
What I do know is that I fully expect MDA to do a full on fine-worthy touchdown dance in Bradford’s blood.
Benjamin Crump is involved now so we’ll never know what really happened.
I saw that. Why is this moron keep getting hired? He almost single handily secured the not guilty verdict of Zimmerman.
Last time I made a comment (on Facebook) on the general competence of the police and their target discrimination skills I was told to choke myself.
It was a tight place to be when Blue Lives Matter was being all self-righteous about a couple of good shoots that were being touted as bad ones.
To be the one small voice in the back of the room saying, “communities don’t get this pissed at their cops over ONE incident” got me shouted down. To the point I deleted bunch of stuff just to stop the flying monkey fanbois.
I wish the gun owning community would get it into its DNA that nobody working for the government at any level is our friend. Especially the cops, because look at who’s constantly fighting us when we want more of our rights restored: Their professional organizations. Since they do nothing to change that their representatives lobby for more gun control, you cannot say it isn’t the will of the membership.
I’m not sure that this article portrays the only take on this incident. this is just as strong of an argument against those who say that only the police should have guns.
I do totally agree with J. Kb that we need more information.
Just shrug and agree with them that all black men should be disarmed, because the racist police say so.
Then watch the sputtering. Bonus points if you time it so they do a spit-take.