Trial began today in a tragic case of police shooting. For those who weren’t around, 20-year old Eric Torell was shot to death by three police responding to a middle-of-the-night call about an armed gunman. Eric Torell was autistic and had Downs syndrome. He was holding a plastic shotgun, and was shot at 25 times, of which three bullets hit him.
According to the prosecution, the first shots could be considered self-defense because the plastic weapon could easily be mistaken for an actual gun. However, Eric Torell was clearly turning in or after those first seconds, and two bullets hit him in the back. Those bullets, say the prosecutor, were not self-defense. The court will have to decide if, in that brief interval, the police ought to have stopped and are therefore guilty as charged.
The officer who hit Torell in the back is charged with misconduct, and the police whose bullet was the killing shot is charged with involuntary manslaughter. The officer in charge of the response is charged with misconduct as well, in that the police response was poorly led. All three officers are pleading innocent. That shots were fired at all, or that the victim had an intellectual disability is not relevant to the case at hand. Instead, the case centers on how the police understood the situation and if their actions were motivated (bit.ly/SvDTorell1).
Whatever the outcome, there is no happy ending to this story, nothing that will change the events of that August night. Perhaps the best that can be decided is a clearer understanding of responsibilities – on the part of the police, and, on the part of the general public.