Apparently, if you point a loaded gun at someone, it goes off and kills them, and you didn't mean to shoot them, you "have not committed a crime" in Fairfax County. Even if later testing reveals that there was nothing wrong with the gun that could conceivably explain it suddenly going off.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...032301820.html

Good

When you gotta go, guess you gotta go

I thought that is the case in all courts. You have to prove intention. Neglect, accident etc need to be proven also if you want to go the other way.

I'll ask my lawyer friends...

Usually when you accidentally kill someone through incompetence it's called manslaughter, but most people aren't cops.

It generally gets called manslaughter here, depending on the circumstances, there is prison time involved. If you feel as if your life is endangered, and the actions you take lead to the death of your assailent, you generally will not be charged, but there could be an acception to the rule, however if you get attacked, and there is no threat to your life, and you kill the person, odds are you are gonna be charged with manslaughter. That is the way I've been taught anyways

That's a frightening precedent. What about all the drunk drivers who don't mean to run people over? You could get away with just about anything as long as you add 'but I didn't mean to' to your statement. Or the paedophiles..."I'm sorry your Honour, I really didn't mean to abuse that little girl, I was naked and pointing my penis at her and it went off accidentally."

That falls under the category of vehicular manslaughter, and it still involves jail time both for the dwi, and for killing the person. They would be charged for at least two crimes

That's the point. The shooting should have been (at least) manslaughter, too. I bet it would have been different if the civilian and police officer were on opposite sides of the gun. There are times to be lenient and times not to be. If the police officer had accidentallywithoutmeaningto shot a hole through the guy's tyre, fine, give him a slap on the wrist and let the guy sue him. But he shot a hole through a person. Oops.

My deal with is this: if the gun went off, and his finger was on the trigger, he obviously pulled the trigger. This accidental shit is just that, shit

That doesn't rule out an accident. The cop has no reason to intentionally shoot the man. But if an average citizen 'accidentally' shot someone they'd still be convicted of manslaughter. It's unfortunate- I'm not saying I want to see the police officer nailed to the cross- but dismissing it entirely and letting the cop remain on the force is incompetent. If nothing else, the man has already proven that he's incapable of handling the pressures of being a cop. It's not a job for someone that has to get their 8 hours regularly.

Remember the newspaper and the news in general give you snippets of what really happened. Most of the time, the news is one-sided and brief. I'm not really surprised by the outcome.

I still don't understand how a gun could go off suddenly...there could of been something wrong with the trigger....quite puzzling, if you ask me.

They said there is nothing wrong with that gun, which is why I say he pulled the trigger, part of the reason, anyways

So true. It's not a case of wanting to lynch someone, just not wanting to be forced to face double standards. If the fact that he had his finger on the trigger when he should not have caused the incident then yes, you could still say that the discharge of the weapon was an accident but that doesn't mean that it should go unpunished. If you're doing something you shouldn't, eg. using your mobile while driving, drink driving, pointing a gun straight at someone and that leads to injury then you should be punished accordingly.

If the situations were reversed, one would have to wonder why a civilian would have a gun drawn at all. The officer is a SWAT officer, he has a reason to have his gun out, even if it wasn't proper protocol at the time. Accidents happen, and you can bet your ass that the family is going to bring up a wrongful death lawsuit and probably win shit tons from the department. It doesnt necessarily mean a crime was committed though.