I was wondering this, thanks. I wasn’t sure if he had left the door open and she walked in or how it went down. I don’t know how i would react in the heat of the moment if i had a mixup like this, but at the same time i have never confused my apartment for someone else’s. And i am not a gun owner so my go-to reaction definitely would never be to kill someone.
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There are lots of layers of this that are incomprehensible. I am under the impression that she lived alone, so yelling like that makes no logical sense.
I am a gun owner, but that is not my default reaction, either.
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I lived in a 4-plex in college next to an identical 4-plex. Frequently other people would pound on our door looking for someone in the next building over.
Once, it was a cop, who barged in the minute I opened the door and began interrogating all the males in the house. He was looking for someone who’d used a stolen credit card at the liquor store on the corner. It wasn’t until he nearly broke a door down on one of my roommates having sex that we managed to convince him that he might have wanted the next building.
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Unless you are a complete moron, if your key does not work in your apartment door you might take a step back and take a look at the surroundings. Anybody else pick up on the bright-red welcome mat in front of his door that might tip off a non-complete moron that it might not be her apartment? Like someone else said - yelling “Open up” into your own apartment???
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The only reason I can think of to yell “Police, open up!” at your own locked apartment door is if you heard someone inside who presumably shouldn’t be there–if you live alone, for example. That seems like a circumstance where it would be more prudent to withdraw and call for backup rather than charging into an unknown hostile situation, however?
An article I read suggested that this police force has cultivated an internal culture of mortal fear due to real or imagined threats made against “white officers,” so with a little squinting I can kind of see how she could be immediately afraid for her life upon discovering an “intruder” in “her” home. But there was definitely a series of really bad decisions made by her as an individual and the force as a whole, and they deserve whatever scraps of justice are able to be meted out (and probably more).
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I read about this and I really want to know the details of how this happened. I’ve known people who walked into wrong apartments/houses but they were usually drunk and/or not familiar with the house/apt (i.e. a visitor).
Assuming the door was unlocked, wouldn’t that have been a red flag? Or maybe it was, she assumed someone had picked it. But once the door was open, wouldn’t your brain be screaming, “Shit, this is all wrong. Where is my ‘Hang in there, baby, Friday’s coming’ poster?”
The details have been woefully lacking, but I have three theories on how this crazy shit could happen:
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Just completely distracted, ignored everything because one was primed to expect the usual, and then focused on the “intruder”.
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On something. Took some drugs or maybe even booze to loosen up after work and was impaired. They did a drug and alcohol test so I guess we will find out.
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Murder. Had some sort of interaction or beef with the victim and concocted this plan.
I would think that a properly-trained cop would maybe move several feet away from the door and order the person to come out. Then, with her gun drawn, order the person to put his hands up, etc etc. Not in this country.
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Where did you hear that she yelled “Police, open up!”? That’s the first I heard of this. Most witness reports I’ve read said they heard a shot then a commotion.
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How much you want to bet that the jury will never see anything about that welcome mat?
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According to an unnamed “law enforcement official” who “has direct knowledge of the case but is not authorized to discuss it publicly”:
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She parked on the wrong floor of the attached garage: it seems that each floor of the complex is directly accessible from the corresponding floor of the garage.
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The corridors on each floor of the complex look extremely similar.
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She failed to notice both the red mat outside and the apartment number to one side.
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The door was unlocked, and opened when she put the key in the lock.
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The lights were off. She saw a figure in the darkness, thought she was being burgled, and opened fire.
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She only realised she was in the wrong apartment when she turned on the lights after the shooting.
Two things:
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This would seem to contradict earlier witness reports of someone banging the door and shouting “police” and “open up”.
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Is it generally considered legal/normal/acceptable in the US for armed householders to shoot suspected burglars on sight?
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On the next block of my street across a main thorofare there is a multi building apartment complex. When we moved into our house at that time there was a building in that complex that was #26 of 28 buildings and displayed the #26 on the front of the building and faced out on our street. The address of our house happened to be 26 so we went through a period of time where somebody living in that apartment decide their address was 26 Our Street, and we started getting some of their mail, and some of our mail and parcels ended up going to the apartment building. It was a royal PIA. But one saturday there was a knock at our front door and I opened to find myself facing two police officers who asked me if they could speak to my wife. I told them she was out - grocery shopping or something - what’s going on? You know how you can tell from somebody’s face that they don’t believe you? Then I realized - I said, Are you sure you’re not looking for building #26 from the apartments on the next block? The two cops looked at each other dumbfounded - then bolted down the walk into their cruiser and peeled out… I went to the rental office the next week and told them we had a problem. The building number was changed shortly after that.
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I just read this story and it differs from another story I read where it says she tried her key and he opened the door to see what was going on.
I can just imagine how this trial will go. The prosecutor’s opening statement will be along the lines of “she was a good officer, had just come off a long shift, went to the wrong floor and was confused/frightened when she saw a man in her apartment and opened fire”. And the defense attorney will say “Yeah, what he said” and that will be it. I bet the prosecutor will even provide character witnesses for the cop.
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Poor wording on my part, i meant that since i don’t have a gun the option to defend myself by shooting someone is completely off the table for me so its something i don’t have to worry about (for better or worse).
But reading further into how this went down it almost seemed like she was rather over-eager to shoot the guy.
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Here’s the article I found earlier today that mentions conflicting stories:
My guess is she gave a statement to the officers who came to the scene, and after having time to come up with a formal statement she changed it a fair bit. Very suspicious.
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Interesting details. In the way in to work I was listening to a nationally syndicated radio program and one of the DJs said they walked into the wrong apartment using almost the same method. They were drunk, got off on the wrong floor, all the Apts look the same, door was unlocked, walked into someone else’s apt while they were eating. They were like, “Can I help you?” And he said, “I think I am in the wrong place and left.”
I also had a dude just walk into to a friends house while we were watching some softcore VHS (we were 18, cut us some slack). Evidently he was looking for the drug dealer that was a house down.
Depends on the laws. Castle doctrine means you don’t have a duty to retreat. But we also have a cop, who is a special animal, and even if that state lacks castle doctrine, it probably wouldn’t pertain to her.
Though it CAN cut both ways. I can dig it up if needed, but a home owner shot a cop who had busted into the wrong house on a warrant and the courts ruled in his favor.
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Which brings me back to her being given three days of freedom during which to consider her story before an official interview. Frankly, her testimony is deeply suspect.
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What makes you think they haven’t been doing this all along?
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Maybe different for cops, but for normal people who own guns, shooting someone under any circumstances is very likely to pretty much ruin your life. Even when you are clearly in the right.
Admittedly, not everyone considers the consequences of their actions before they act.
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Baseball. That’s about it.
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