Unfortunately, to be the voice of "legal" dissent.......
Investigators estimated Brown was driving 10 to 12 mph when he scraped the passenger side of Garcia's cruiser, and 2 mph or less when Garcia -- standing to the side of the car, not directly behind it -- opened fire.
Disagreeing with police Chief William Bratton, the Los Angeles Police Commission ruled in February that Officer Steven Garcia violated departmental rules and should face possible discipline for the shooting.
Now if this car was going fast, aimed right towards the Officer and the car was intending to hit the Officer and kill him.....then the force may be deemed "justifable", but that is not the case.
The Officer was standing beside the cruiser and the other car was going less then 2 mph when the Officer opened fire upon a child in a "enclosed" space going very slowly.
Just a legal perspective.........taking all of the facts into play..............
This was not a "good" shoot..........hence the settlement........
BTW the "jury would have most likely" voted the same way......but it is more cost effective to avoid an "expensive lawsuit" and then leave the settlement up to the "emotion" of the jury which may have awarded the family much more then the city did in terms of a settlement. This is akin to shooting fish in a barrel.
The Officer could have "easily" shot the tires out of the "extremely" slow moving car to stop the suspect, not fire 7-10 rounds to stop the driver of the slow moving vehicle.
After all the Officer was beside the cruiser, not in it...........
