The Portland Police Bureau has released surveillance video from the St. Johns 7-Eleven parking lot where Officer Justin Clary shot Billy Wayne Simms with his AR-15 rifle last month. Simms, who was a suspect in an East Portland shooting, crashed into an apartment building across the street after Clary fired several bullets at him, killing him.
The video shows snippets of the confrontation that unfolded as officers tried to keep Simms from getting into his car and then driving away—culminating in Clary’s decision to fire. What stands out most is how quickly the whole encounter turned deadly, a matter of seconds.
In 313 pages of grand jury transcripts (pdf) released Friday, Clary testified that he thought Simms—in that very short span—was reaching down for a weapon and was going to maybe raise his arm and point one at the officers. Simms did have a gun, but it was tucked into his waistband, still behind him, when his body was recovered. Clary was cleared of any criminal wrongdoing in the shooting.
QUICK BILLY! SHOOT THE CAR, HE’S DRIVING AWAY!
This video pretty much confirmed what I expected when I read the initial reports. For about fifteen years the police nationwide have adopted a training protocol to fire on moving vehicles if there’s a chance that the vehicle could plausibly hit another cop (it doesn’t matter if it hits a pedestrian though). This is because the courts designated a vehicle as “deadly weapon”, and therefore it’s a “suspect attempting to use a deadly weapon against a police officer.” Don’t get me wrong, none of these cops went into this situation looking to kill this suspect, but it’s poor training that allows these situations to happen. It’s pointless to criticize after the fact, but this suspect never should have been able to get in his driver’s seat. Moreover, it appears that the cop who fired was within about 6 feet of the vehicle, he should have moved.
If you want to see a situation turn violent quickly, look up the video of the Iraq Veteran, Jose Guerna being killed. There’s a helmet cam video by a SWAT cop. Within 10 seconds of the SWAT team arriving at the house the vet was dead in a hail of bullets.
We should all take a moment and remember the real heroes: Commercial Truck Drivers. Every day commercial truck drivers put their lives on the line to get people like me and you bread and honey delivered to our grocery stories. AND YOU KNOW WHAT?! NO ONE EVER THANKS THEM. Commercial Truck Driving is one of the Most Dangerous Jobs In America – everyday dozens of Commercial Truck Drivers die, and I don’t see any memorials, I don’t see any parades or comments by the Mayor’s office. I’m sick of it, America, I’m sick of it. You should go out there and thank a Commercial Truck Driver for putting their life on the line, just so you can have a snack.
Murderers, thats all they are! What’s wrong with, to negotiate with a person, talk to people instead of murdering them, even if it is a criminal… They are still a human beeing, having mather and father or family on their own. Where is the professionalism of trained police officers??? Watching this video it looks they should have done a better job arresting him at the door or exit from the store, and not letting him get behind the wheel. Of course its easier to kill a person, instead of talking or dealing with them.
All one has to do is look back 10 years in Oregonian stories and there are dozens of examples of cops shooting people, sometimes in the back, when they could easily have apprehended them without shooting to kill. Why couldn’t the officers shot the tires off of Simms’ vehicle? How about using a tazer gun or stun gun, or how about simply surrounding him? This is just another example of the Portland cops getting an opportunity to use their toys (aka guns) and taking aim at a local citizen. Isn’t it ironic that the city of Portland loves to brag about how liberal it is and then has the most lethal police force in the nation? I hope the family members of Billy Simms sues the pants off of the city of Portland and its murderous police force.