An anonymous reader shared the content below, which was originally reported by about yet another police shooting of an unarmed person, via the Cop Block Submissions page.
Date of Incident: February 17, 2015
Individuals Involved: Officer Andrew Bath
Outfit: Springfield (MO) Police Department
Internal Affairs Phone: (417) 864-1791
Fax: (417) 864-2052
Complaint Form: File a Complaint
Area Cop Block Affiliate: There are numerous Cop Block groups within Missouri (see below for a list of all known Cop Block Groups within Missouri), to find the appropriate affiliate in your area consult the Cop Block Groups page. In addition, if you live outside Missouri, you can Start a Cop Block Group
SPRINGFIELD, Mo. -Springfield police say a man shot dead by a police officer did not appear to be armed.
Michael S. Ireland, 31, was shot to death after a chase involving Officer Andrew Bath. Bath, 27, has been placed on paid administrative leave.
Police said Ireland was a persistent offender and convicted felon who, at the time of the shooting, was wanted on municipal warrants and was on probation and parole through District 10 (Springfield) of the Missouri Department of Corrections.
KSPR reporters spent the morning knocking on doors, trying to piece everything together. Reporters did talk with a woman who was very distraught. She said the man who was shot was her fiancé. She said he was in the parking lot Tuesday night trying to jump his car battery when police arrived. She said her fiancé took off running down an alley way there. She says he ran because there was a warrant out for his arrest, for not appearing in court.
Read More here.
Missouri Cop Block Affiliates
- Central Missouri Copblock – Facebook / Twitter / [email protected]
- Kansas City Metro Cop Block – Facebook
- Lake of the Ozarks Cop Block – Facebook
- MO/KS Cop Block – Bambuser / Facebook / YouTube / [email protected]
- North Missouri Cop Block – Facebook
- Southeast Missouri Copblock – Facebook / [email protected]
- Southwest Missouri Cop Block – Facebook / Twitter / [email protected]
Gmail.com - Southwest Missouri Copwatchers – Facebook
- St. Louis Cop Block – Facebook
- The Canfield Watchmen – Facebook
No permission is needed to share this post, or any content housed at CopBlock.org.
Ideas have consequences – the more good ideas are shared the better we all are.
Help fuel our efforts – donate Bitcoin: 1D6hdGKcFfzciJaMSLU6X1Tq69fcCsEh65
Kelly is a lifelong resident of Las Vegas, who’s been very active in local grassroots activism, as well as on a national level during his extensive travels. He’s also the founder/main contributor of Nevada Cop Block, served as editor/contributor at CopBlock.org and designed the Official Cop Block Press Passes.
____________________________________________________________________________
Connect with Kelly at these social networks; Facebook, YouTube and Twitter.
There have been 2 people killed by police in Gastonia, North Carolina in the last 2 weeks. Click below for the stories:
http://www.wbtv.com/story/28053955/deadly-officer-involved-shooting-investigation-in-gastonia
http://www.myfoxcarolinas.com/story/28129409/officer-involved-shooting-in-gastonia
Valid, solid incidents.
The 74 year old man, yeah, I’d be nervous on that one. You are there to check his welfare and then you dust him? Apparently he was given commands to drop his gun, the fire department was with the officer to shot him. I’d be calling an attorney.
The woman was reported armed (and intoxicated it seems). Interesting enough, the cop was black, the woman was white – the KKK plan to march.
http://www.gastongazette.com/spotlight/sbi-woman-fatally-shot-by-gastonia-police-was-armed-1.439709
“The 74 year old man, yeah, I’d be nervous on that one. You are there to
check his welfare and then you dust him? Apparently he was given
commands to drop his gun, the fire department was with the officer to
shot him. I’d be calling an attorney.”
Most likely the cop had a bright flashlight in his face so he couldn’t even identify who was in his own home. The whole welfare check was idiotic. What was wrong with waiting a few hours till morning? Seriously, after a couple days of no contact, either he is just not calling for some reason or he’s dead already. A couple hours isn’t going to make a difference.
It is like cops do know the confusion they create going into someone’s home at Oh dark 30. You’re begging for a violent event at that time of day.
I would agree. Even with the (I think) Texas cop enter the home after some would-be school shooter and was in fact shot, no charges were issued. The cop is lucky to be alive. There was no lawful reason to enter that house. Even in this welfare check, there must be some very compelling information and even then, family is entering first.
Could it rise to a criminal charge? I very well may.
There was an article in “Law and Order” that spoke to the problem of officer safety as an over-riding decision to make violence when it wasn’t necessary. On the 74 year old man, the cops were making a welfare check, the paradigm, the first move should have been a quick retreat after he failed to follow orders. Then call the family and wait. He was no threat to anyone other than the cops, remove themselves and the threat ends. Combining “officer safety” with “I have no time for this shit” (obviously they didn’t) ends in irony.
Shawn’s also right in the Oh dark 30. It has the paradox of they do it because that’s when people will be most disoriented, but can’t understand when people fail to recognize them as police at Oh dark 30. What they didn’t hear us when we announced because they were asleep? Heller or Kafka.
CS, it’s really about who should be called first and who should have authority. In the case of the 74 year old man, the police were not a good choice. Police are trained to have absolute authority and to break things, even when that authority doesn’t really apply and breaking things is a very bad choice.
There’s nothing more funny than a cop arguing with a Fire Chief over authority at the scene of a fire. The Fire Chief knows better on placement of machines, how far away onlookers should be, and pretty much every thing else about a fire scene. The cops don’t know shit about a fire scene while thinking they do because they are the authority in their minds.
The cop was black, the woman white, so maybe he wanted to fuck up a white woman, but you forgot the third of blue. If cops have an us versus them mentality, then race only enters in when one race is more “them” than another. That doesn’t mean only one race would suffer blue, it means one race would suffer blue more often but all races would suffer blue.
Now if cops don’t have a blue mentality, then maybe there’s a racist component. Arpaio claimed no racial profiling…
I would agree, this wasn’t a “police” matter. I would expect that the FD cannot “force entry” without the police being on scene. I doubt race played a factor in the other shooting, from what I read, she was pissed, drunk and then presented a long gun.
I dare say the racial make up of the community dictates what happens. If police patrol a predominately black neighborhood, guess what race will be stopped a majority of the time. The immigration issue is a mess, there will be no agreement (ever) to the satisfaction of all.
Sure, if the minority is the majority, then unbiased policing of communities would definitely turn up more arrests of the people there are fewer of. But since in reality there are fewer of the people you think there are the most of, the only logical explanation is that the policing is uneven across a community.
Imposter t:
Awesome try guy.
The force of mimic is with that one strong. Is that the right word order for Yoda?
This issue of minorities in arrests and incarceration will always be problematic. Just too many locales and too many factors. If you take it across the nation, the stats analysis point to problems (blacks being on death row more often, the easier rape conviction on blacks, add to my list before attempting to argue against my two points, and please add Hispanics and the occasional Samoan, hey, I lived in Hawaii when it was always Samoans until it wasn’t).
CS:
FD…kinda like EMS….won’t do much without us. They’d never go on somewhere until,after we did. It’s not a slam on them….it’s just the way they do business.
Ray:
“They are training to have absolute authority and break things”
Damn.
I’m gonna have to throw you into the liar pile in that one. Maybe you should call the FD…because your pants are on fire.
“Police are trained to have absolute authority and to break things, even when that authority doesn’t really apply and breaking things is a very bad choice.” That’s the real quote.
And it leads to funny things like officers arguing with a Fire Chief at a fire scene, arguing with ER personnel at the entrance to a hospital, or in the hospital over treatment, and the irony of a welfare check that leads to the death by
their hands of the person they’re checking on.
Now I could have added all sorts of qualifiers, but then it would have taken two to three good paragraphs. The phrase has brevity. I do understand that when you believe cops are in charge of a scene, that you don’t believe cops have absolute authority on scene. I also understand that being trained to use violence, and that everyday citizens and some police including police chiefs think it’s used too often as a first resort, isn’t about breaking things.
Finally, I’m heartened to see you and Sikko in the “Bush lied, people died” camp of thinking. It was much easier for them, as it is for you and Sikko.
Ray:
Huh…that’s accutally kinda funny.
I witnessed a “Fire Chief” well….asst. Chief…doing a bit of….I’ll call it exotic driving just a couple of weeks ago. It was enough that if I had been on duty and within my jurisdiction he would have likely gone to jail (because I know how the discussion would have gone). But as is…I had a discussion with some of the decision makers at his municipality about it. It’s in their court.
The relationship between fire and police is interresting. One of the reasons is we don’t necessarily have the same missions.
Next time there is a fire of really any size in a neighborhood….go and watch. What you’ll see (if you can get there early enough) is HUGE numbers of fireman and fire equipment that are generally moving slowly and concentrating on keeping the fire from spreading. I joke with them all the time about “saving the foundation” at fires. Pisses them off. :).
And you’ll see probably 2 cops trying to handle all of the chaos created.
Many…MANY…years ago I was working a traffic crash on a busy “3 lane” road….2 lanes with a center turn lane. Well….there were some injuries so I had summoned both fire and EMS to the scene. Well…..I’m dealing with heavy traffic, a couple of wrecked cars an ambulance and a huge fire truck that is taking up a lane and a half of my 3. Well…..I worked the traffic around it and gathered the information as I could…..after a bit….EMS transported. And I’m left with just wrecked cars and a huge fries ruck blocking the road. Well….I asked to Asst. chief who happened to be on that truck if he was done and he said yes. I asked him if he could move on and clear up the center turn lane for traffic. He instantly crowed that it was he scene and he was in charge. I looked at him and reminded him that he had just told me that he was clear…and then told him to move the tuck as it was creating dangers for every other person and motorist there. When he didn’t move I told him to move it again and if he didn’t…I’d arrest him and tow that big truck and he could explain it to the city about it as I had lots of witnesses that heard him say that he was done with patient care. His guys snatch him up and they loaded up and left.
Now it was a bad incident for a while and caused some bad blood. But I worked to support his mission of patient care while they were doing their job. But once that was completed….he needed to support what I had to do and get out of the way. Overall….it lead to a much better working relationship.
Now I hadn’t thought about that for 15-16 years. But it’s a great illustration of how our missions aren’t the same.
Anyway….as always….yours is the voice of ignorance. Not intentional ignorance in this case….just simple ignorance of why things happen the way they do. Different missions that don’t always mesh.
You’re first paragraph was just dirtying and had nothing to do with anything. Why do you guys, or anyone, resort to that?
Yes the relationship is interesting because the FD have primary authority, you have secondary. They can tell you what to do, they can tell you the boundaries, they make the decisions. And yes the purpose of an FD isn’t to save the building on fire but to save the other buildings that aren’t. As well any lives, the primary purpose (goes hand in hand). If the FD decide to go into a burning building, you can’t stop them. You can stop others, but can you stop them if the FD say okay?
And I agree with you on your example, once the Asst. FC said he was done it was your scene. If he had immediately said he misspoke because he misunderstood what you meant by done, it would still be his scene. It’s his until he relinquishes it to you. He had by your story so it was your scene to do what you are charged to do.
Authority is situational. EMT’s can tell cops to go away, ER personnel can tell cops to go away, the FD can certainly order you around. It’s set out by statute, sometimes well sometimes poorly.
Interesting story and I would have supported your position if you had to arrest. I comment because my sisters fiancé is a fire inspector with the power to charge and arrest and he talks about some of his arson cases. He told me that the relationship is usually solid and if there is an issue, it is always one knucklehead somewhere that creates the issue.
Coming from the biggest liar on this site, that’s hilarious.
Well….he’ll be in your company.
In fact, on most of this there will never be agreement to the satisfaction of all.
Black and hispanics are charged with more drug crimes by percentage of population, even though white anglo Americans use drugs at the roughly the same percentage (meaning plus or minus). That has all sorts of need for examination as to why.
And the immigration mess will never be properly dealt with because we fail to look at the juxtaposition of one of the wealthier nations with a barely 2nd world nation (and 3rd world just one nation farther); we fail to look at our own need for labor and we act like it’s those nasty brown people ignoring our immigration laws that’s the problem. BTW, I think Canadians make up a large portion of illegal immigrants but who cares.
all firearms need to be removed from police. They have proven time and time again that they are not mature enough nor smart enough to be given a weapon that requires such responsibility. If many officers are killed because of the fact that they don’t have a weapon on them, then so be it. More dead pigs is never a bad thing.
Your logic is flawed, and has no meaning. “Grammar check that”
logic?? You don’t fucking know me very well do you?
I think you don’t know yourself very well eirther, your such a sad, confused man trying to find some where you belong. I feel sorry for you
Lol, I think you’re confused again. Remember to use small dabs of hash. It won’t be such a sledgehammer to the brain.
When JC gets done molesting his latest chimpanzee, I’m sure he’ll say something like “there’s more to this story” or “he ran from the police and deserved to be shot” (paraphrasing that last one)
I’m with southwest Missouri cop watchers thank you so much for sharing this story.
Brooms can hurt, even kill in the hands of some women.
This guy died as he lived. He has a long history of violence. Not surprised that was left out of the article.
http://www.ky3.com/news/local/springfield-police-say-little-about-fatal-shooting-by-officer/21048998_31337530
The actual act of running is not a threat to the police, obviously unless it is towards them.
Trying to get more from this story than this site gives (which I’m becoming a quick fan of Common Sense, JC, t, etc. since heir comments were the ones to direct me to look for more on a posting than what is published here), it seems as if an officer, pursuing a known violent convicted offender (again, knowledge gained through research) who is running, might actually been acting to protect the public on this one.
Please scream and yell and call me names and part of the problem, but this guy made his own choices.
you should shoot yourself now if your a fan of JC. go ahead and do the world a favor.
Jawohl Mein Concentration Camp Guard. American Auschwitz will keep a job for you filling the ovens.
Sounds like murder by stupid trigger happy pig.
Sounds like retard hitting keys on a keyboard
Running FROM the police is not a threat to police. Why do they feel the need to shoot someone? What have we let our politicians do to us since the 1980’s? Things sure have changed since then. It’s time we change things again! The police should be charged with murder every time they kill someone, UNLESS it was self defense, and it would have to be proven in court with video! Nothing less should be acceptable!
Mel:
Wow. Incredibly dumb.
So…..if someone is running towards your kids school with a gun….I should just let him go? After all….by your idiocy…that not self defense.
I did not read anything about the dead guy having a gun.
Stop trying to cloud the issue with BS.
There’s not enough info to know if the cop was wrong, but stop making stuff up.
Of course he was ready for a vacation so he shot and killed a man. Anytime a cop kills someone they get a paid vacation. Maybe we should start a vacation fund for these trigger junkies everyone donate a few bucks and save lives of the innocent