Police shot and killed a man Saturday afternoon during an armed standoff at a Wisconsin motorcycle shop — but friends say the victim was a hostage.
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The gunman held Funk and two customers hostage while Erato stayed in contact with police from his hideout in the basement.
Police tried to enter the building at one point but were met with gunfire, and one officer was struck by a bullet in his ballistic helmet and was not injured.
A short time later, police opened fire when they saw an armed man leave the building.
Police have not said who that man was — but Erato and others say it was the 60-year-old Funk, not the hostage-taker.
“This subject did not comply with officers’ instructions to drop the firearm and was subsequently shot at by one or more officers on scene,” police said in a statement. “We do not know if he was also shot at by the subject inside the business.”
Hostage negotiators talked the suspect into freeing the other hostages, and the gunman eventually surrendered about 1 p.m.
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“I can’t imagine that he had a gun on him and wouldn’t use it on the shooter and would run out and threaten the cops,” Erato said. “It just doesn’t make any sense.”
“He was a hostage coming out (of the building),” Erato said. “They shot him in the alley. They shot the wrong guy.”
In addition to this I also question one thing about the Chicago shooting of Ronald Johnson, the original 9-1-1 call that went out was in response to shots that had been fired at Ronald Johnson and his friends not by him.
McCarthy explained that Johnson had been in a car with three other people that was shot at, had left the scene and then returned. While officers were interviewing one of the men in that car, Johnson tried to run
The main dispute is whether or not Johnson was or wasn’t armed and whether Chicago police planted the guy. Doing so would have required them doing it within 60 seconds, getting some of his blood on the weapon also planting a single bullet behind in his car. Considering that Chicago PD may have spent hours deleted the Burger King surveillance tape of Laquan McDonald’s murder, that level of cover-up isn’t beyond the pale. But what bothers me even more than that is the fact that no one has any evidence that Johnson was the aggressor in the shooting.
They seem to openly admit that he wasn’t, which means his having a weapon after being shot at was self-defense. Although it is continually assume that he’s a threat to police all he does is run away, and even in the section of the video where he does come into direct contact with officers all he does — presuming he does have a gun in his hand at the time — is shove that officer and run the other direction.
The prosecutor showed a short video of another suspect running away who fired blindly behind him and hit a pursuing officer in the leg which anyone has to admit was an amazing thing to do while running the other. That was like some kind of wild no-look Green Arrow behind the back trick shot, that I doubt that same person could repeat 2 times out of 10.
Yet that exact shooting was used by Officer Hernandez to justify his shooting Johnson in the back, while he simultaneously arguing that Johnson could have fired forward at another set of officers approaching him from the side. So which is it, was he a danger to officer in front of him or behind because it really couldn’t be both at the same time.
All of this just further illustrates that whether you’re a good guy coming to the rescue of others, a victim who has just escaped from being held hostage or have just been shoot at by other assailants the biggest danger to you, if they simply think you might be armed, is the police.
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