A judge dismissed all charges Tuesday against a Philadelphia police officer who fatally shot a driver last month.
Mark Dial shot 27-year-old Eddie Irizarry through the rolled-up driver’s side window of Irizarry’s sedan during a traffic stop on Aug. 14.
Dial and his partner, Officer Michael Morris, say they had been pursuing Irizarry for driving erratically and turning the wrong way down a one-way street. Morris testified that Irizarry had a knife in his hand and had started to raise it as the officers approached.
During a hearing, Dial’s lawyers argued he acted in self-defense because he believed the knife Irizarry had was a gun. Brian McMonagle, one of his lawyers, said his client was justified in shooting as he was trying to take cover and had feared for his life during the incident.
“Every tragedy is not a crime,” McMonagle said.
Initial statements from the police department said Dial shot the driver outside the vehicle after he “lunged at” police with a knife, but the department later walked back these statements.
Still, McMonagle said the charges, which included manslaughter, official oppression and four other counts, never should have been filed given the evidence.
“I agree with you 100 percent,” Judge Wendy Pew responded before tossing all charges Tuesday, per the Associated Press.
Id like to specifically draw attention to "don't pull a knife on a cop"
6 hour standoff, with swat in Atlanta - captured alive
4 hour standoff with a copkiller - captured alive
police break off car chase in SF, suspect gets arrested anyway
Houston PD leave a traffic stop, because a crowd was unruly and it was unsafe
These are MUCH worse than the current incident started as, and ended with the suspects apprehended alive, unlike the current incident. Use of force continuum dictate that if the other party uses a Deadly Force Assault you are permitted to use Lethal Force. However they ALSO carry that if you can use a lower level to successfully walk away without Violence (the adjective proper) being needed, you have had a successful UoF.
Shooting a man IN the car with a knife is not proper use of force. He was not capable of escalating to Deadly Force Assault on the continuum. Officers preparing to draw their service weapon and giving clear verbal commands can diffuse that. "Do not get out of the car" "drop the knife". They could hold the door closed, or beging backing away to make distance so that they can draw and/or fire if he exited the vehicle against instructions. At this stage Brandishing, threatening behavior, or even terroristic threats are appropriate charges. If someone gets out of the vehicle without a clear verbal command, and lunges at persons with a knife, 2then him being dead now would be a fair use of force.
In the first 2 pages cited, several violent people got the opportunity to surrender, and various law enforcement entities gave them time to do so. Not cited is one that was ELEVEN hours long. This traffic stop started and ended in like what, 30 minutes?
In the last two, the police decided the situation was unsafe and rather than escalating Use of Force, they decided a lower level was appropriate. In sanfran, they followed him with a heli and apprehended him. In Houston they just…left. they decided the stop wasn't safe. Those people SURELY threatened them and walked away just fine. But the stop for the man can be a mailed ticket, and did not need to escalate to shooting people.
Your replies make heavy, fast assumptions about how "nothing of value was lost". However it broadly displays your lack of involvement in fields where use of force is used and the policies that surround it