South Carolina’s State Law Enforcement Division (SLED) has released video of an officer-involved shooting that occurred on May 19th of this year. The video shows a Forest Acres police officer, who the agency has refused to identify, shooting seven times at 17-year old Antwan Galman who is in a reportedly stolen car. Fortunately, Galman survived the shooting but the officer remains on leave as the investigation into the shooting continues.
The unidentified officer was investigating a complaint of loud music in a parking lot near the Richland Mall. The video shows what appears to be a residential neighborhood and a car leaving a driveway, near a residential trash can. The officer appears on screen running alongside the car yelling “Stop!” The car comes out and backs up so as to be able to leave. The officer then stands in front of the vehicle, but slightly to the side, yelling “Stop! Stop! Do not make me shoot you!”. The driver briefly stops, appears to raise his hands, then continues to drive away from the officer, away from the officer, very slowly, making sure to turn the vehicle so that it will not hit him. That’s when the officer opens fire and shoots at the vehicle seven times, directly at the windshield and the driver’s side window as the car moves away. The driver was apprehended approximately two miles away by other officers from the jurisdiction, and two guns were reportedly found in the car.
The unidentified officer, after discharging his weapon, tells a dispatcher, “Shots fired! Shots fired! He tried to hit me with the vehicle.” After getting into his vehicle to give chase, the unidentified officer then tells the dispatcher, “He almost hit me! I was barely able to get out of the way.”
As per usual, that ain’t exactly true. The incident, which took place in a suburb of Columbia, was captured on the officer’s dash cam and the video is available below the fold.
The unidentified police officer’s report is not available, so we are unable to ascertain what led up to the events on the video.
High-speed chases by police officers across the country have come under fire and some agencies have changed there rules about how officers should conduct fleeing suspects. But what of encounters such as this? When a person suspected of something attempts to leave via vehicle and an officer pulls his gun–and discharges it–in an effort to make the person stay? Exactly what are the rules for this type of engagement? And when will they face scrutiny?