A campus police offer in San Antonio has been placed on paid leave following the shooting of an unarmed student who directed a sarcastic remark toward the officer.
The incident took place Friday morning during a traffic stop close to the University of the Incarnate Word. KSAT News reports that 23-year-old honor student Robert Cameron Redus was shot to death by Cpl. Christopher Carter at around around 2 a.m.
After pulling Redus over for speeding, according to the police report, witnesses said that the officer emptied his gun into the student, without warning and despite the fact he was unarmed.
“I didn’t hear him say anything like, ‘Get down on your hands and knees,’ you know? I didn’t hear him say anything. He just started shooting,” one witness said. “He emptied the gun on him… Boom, boom, boom.Six shots — five or six.”
Another witness, Mohammad Haidarasl, says that Redus’ last words were “Oh, you’re gonna shoot me?” said to Carter in a sarcastic off-handed tone. Haidarasl added that he heard the officer saying “Stop resisting, stop resisting.”
Haidarasl lived below Redus and described him as “the nicest guy.” Other residents described Redus as “kind, intelligent, compassionate and well-loved within the community.”
“He was not an aggressive person at all, so the story doesn’t make sense,” one resident said.
Carter has claimed that shortly after he stopped Redus, “a struggle ensued” between himself and the student.
An official statement from the university noted that Carter has “an extensive law-enforcement background,” and has worked on the campus for “several years”. However, the San Antonio Express-News notes that Carter has only been in the job two-and-a-half years, after working for eight different law enforcement agencies in the same number of years.
The case provides yet another example of a police officer using lethal force in a situation where it was almost certainly not warranted. Similar stories are being reported on a weekly basis.
The latest case also brings to mind the incident in California earlier this year, in which a police officer was caught on tape shooting and killing an unarmed homeless man, Hans Kevin Arellano, because he called her a “bitch.”
Cops are now routinely shooting and killing people when they perceive any kind of threat, even kids with toy guns and small dogs.
But then again, this is America, a police state where law enforcement officers called in to defuse minor domestic disputes end up shooting people, including kids, dead. And even if you get lucky and the cops miss when they shoot at you, you’ll most likely end up facing an assault lawsuit.
Source: By Steve Watson, InfoWars