In St. Louis, Missouri, before Ferguson, the police arrested an 18-year-old on gun and drug charges. An officer turned off the dashcam video of the event, and because of that, the prosecutor dropped all charges.
From kfor.com: Police drop gun charge because of video.
Police say they found marijuana and a loaded handgun in Bufford’s pocket. The police report says an officer noticed it before the tazing and announced, “He has a gun.” The report continues, “In an attempt to prevent (Bufford) from reaching the weapon, (an officer) administered one foot strike.”In this article from stltoday.com, the police are reported as finding two cartridges in the passenger's pocket, and a Kel-Tec 9mm with four rounds in the magazine and one in the chamber, in Bufford's pocket. Buford was 18 at the time.
Schwartz said, “You didn’t hear anything, you didn’t see anything about a gun and that`s because it didn’t happen.”
The prosecutor dropped the charges against Bufford, after seeing the police dash cam tape. The original charges included “unlawful use of a weapon.”
He was then handcuffed, and Binz recovered a Kel-Tec 9mm semi-automatic pistol with four rounds in the magazine and one in the chamber. It has a capacity of 11.It appears the gun was real, and was being carried illegally.
The police report says the passenger told officers the gun and marijuana both belonged to Bufford. An investigation of whether the men had fired shots earlier was “inconclusive.”Cameras are making police follow procedures more closely. In this case, I suspect the charges would have stood up, if the officer had not turned off the dashcam.
©2015 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice is included.
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