By Aaron Miller-
A police officer from West Virginia has been sacked for his decision not to shoot a black man. Stephen Mader was called to a scene where a man, Ronald D. Williams, had a gun to his side who had asked cops to shoot him in s suspected suicide by cops.
Stephen Mader was sacked for apparently endangering other officers,.and “failing to eliminate a threat” by not shooting.However, Mader said he implemented his marine training and evaluated the situation before concluding it wasn’t appropriate to shoot the man.
When other officer’s were called to the scene, they eventually opened fire and killed the man.
It turned out the gun was unloaded, making the decision of Mader to be retrospectively correct. Williams Jnr was stupid to ask to.be shot, though appears to have wanted to be killed.
Williams Jnr, a good looking mixed race man, clearly had complex issues and wanted to be killed. Officers who eventually killed him took no chances and cannot be prosecuted on any logical or legal grounds.
However, the decision to sack stephen Maden was wrong. He obviously assessed the situation and concluded killing the man was not justified. Had Maden Killed Williams Jnr, he would equally have been blameless.
Though in light of the fact that the gun was unloaded, and in the wake of the spate of unlawful killings of black men in America, it was wrong to dismiss him.
Other officers present could equally have shot him and taken responsibility for the killing, why he was sacked because of his senior role remains unanswered.
No information has been presented to explain why the dead man who had a young child would risk his life in the reckless.way he did. He may have had enough of life, for reasons best known to him.