Sam Dubose

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I just saw the video on the news. No idea why the cop lied when he had a body cam. Just goes to show people will say anything when under duress and cannot be relied upon to relay factual information. Good thing those cams are here.

My two hangups:

1. This is a University of Cincinnati police officer. Campus police. You know,... the people who ticket illegally parked student vehicles. This is not someone who needs a firearm.

2. Without the body camera, we would've been stuck with only the police account and this guy could keep abusing his power. How long has it been this way, but we're only alert now because of video everywhere? Sickening.

I watched this tape with a retired NYC police officer who has made many stops.

He said the officer had no reason to shoot and should have stepped away from the vehicle if concerned about being dragged.

The idea that he was dragged or that there may be some policy that would make this a good shoot is a fabrication.

I agree with Ana, people in extreme stress situations will say anything. I think there is evidence from cognitive studies to suggest that people in extreme stress situations may also have sufficiently distorted perceptions that they will remember events in a very different way than they actually occurred.

First of all Sam DuBose is the victim in this case, not the suspect. That would be ex-officer Tensing. There was absolutely no justification for the shooting whatsoever and the campus cops lied about what happened. DuBose wasn't an armed criminal wanted for murder, he got pulled over for no front license plate. Also the "alcohol container" was an unopened bottle of gin, btw.

In the video he did not attempt to run over Tensing, nor did he drag his body down the road before he was shot. As soon as Tensing realized DuBose was about to drive off, he put a bullet in the back of his head. It's absolutely sickening. Why did he even have his gun drawn?

We're not talking about someone like Richard Matt or David Sweat. This was a man on his way home to watch a movie with his kids, murdered in cold blood by a trigger happy campus cop on a power trip.

I think DuBose revved his engine with the intention of leaving out of fear of knowing that that blacks have been wrongly shot and killed by the police. And unfortunately, he was right.

Wrong.

Being dragged due to direct action of a perpetrator will make someone fear for their life (because it's potentially lethal), and lethal force to stop it is justified.

Except that he wasn't dragged. The car door closes and the officer is in no way caught by it.

The excuse doesn't work due to the officer's lack of malice up until the end. See: I pulled a pistol and failed to yield it after refusing to comply to other just commands, because I fear this officer will kill me even though he's not showing overt intentions.

That's the contention.

He does end up several yards down the road after the "struggle" and recovery. So, the possibility of being dragged is real.

Why he ends up that far away can determine specific culpability. Hand reflexively held on and he ran with the car? Perhaps manslaughter. His hand was caught up with the perpetrator and he couldn't free it? Good shoot.

Still, as I see no real evidence that the officer's life was in danger, I think the whole situation can be chalked up to the notion: black skin = threat to life.
The thing is, I believe both men were essentially frightened that the other; the difference was, the cop was a professional who was supposed to handle the situation with care, and not just haul off shooting.

But he moves down the road after the shots are fired. Maybe he got his gun stuck in the window, but it doesn't matter because his action of shooting the driver in the face caused the car's movement.

I don't understand what you are talking about.

Video shows he was shot for attempting to flee, not because he tried to run over Tensing while dragging his body down the road. They straight up lied about what happened, even going so far as to lie about Tensing having injuries to his back from being dragged down the road before he shot the driver and needing medical attention. It's pure B.S. and police brutality is a very real issue here in the U.S.

One shot. It happens immediately after the car is revved. You can argue that the car would have continued on at greater velocity without the shot that made the perpetrator lose muscle control. The car moves on by itself after the shot due to being in drive and the initial rev. The entire couple of seconds of "struggle" ended up being over several yards of ground.

If you have a look at where the officer ends up immediately after the shot, he's several yards down the road; you can use the car in front as a landmark, plus IIRC, the police cruiser behind.

If the officer held on instinctively when the car revved, so he moved himself with the car. Or, he had no control over moving with the car.

Then he should have returned to his car instead of shooting the victim in the back of the head.

Yes. He shouldn't have put his hand in the car in the first place when the perpetrator closed the door, as it can end up with these split second decisions that can go "good" or "bad".

But, if he had no choice due to being caught up, then there's not much you can do.

The perpetrator shouldn't have tried to flee too (for the sake of objectivity).

I don't see anything in the video that corroborates the ex-officers claim that he got stuck on the vehicle, dragged down the road and attempted to be run over. When I watched the video, Tensing shot him so fast I had to watch it over again. Sam DuBose was not speeding down the road with an officer being dragged along. The car doesn't really get moving until after he was shot.

I can see how people might try to rationalize because it seems so unbelievable, but honestly I see zero justification for this shooting.