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Is this the next big police shooting controversy?

Is this the next big police shooting controversy?

Black woman brandishing replica firearm shot by Virginia police

http://wtkr.com/2016/03/19/woman-killed-in-officer-involved-shooting-in-norfolk/

A 25-year-old black woman who appeared to be brandishing a handgun was shot and killed by police in Virginia; it was later discovered that, like Tamir Rice, she held a non-firing replica (see below).

CBS reports:

A 25-year-old black woman was shot and killed by police officers in Virginia on Saturday after threatening them with what turned out to be a fake handgun, police said.

Investigators with the Norfolk Police Department’s Vice and Narcotics Division were conducting a surveillance operation when they came across a fight in a parking lot, police said.

The officers saw a woman involved in the altercation brandish what they believed was a handgun and threaten an unarmed man. The officers approached India M. Beaty, who refused to comply with their demands and made a threatening motion with the handgun before the officers fatally shot her, the department said.

An investigation determined that the handgun was a non-firing replica.

va-shooting-gun

According to local reports, the woman was involved in an altercation with a man and was pointing the replica weapon at him.  When the police approached, they gave verbal commands with which she chose not to comply, and she then pointed the gun in the direction of the police.

ABC13NewsNow reports:

Corporal Melinda Wray with the Norfolk Police Department said the officers opened fire on the woman, later identified as India M. Beaty of Norfolk, after she pointed a gun at them. Police later found that the gun was fake.

The incident happened shortly before 1:20 a.m. in the 9500 block of Shore Drive. Members of the Norfolk Police Department’s Vice and Narcotics Division were conducting a surveillance operation nearby when they observed a man and a woman arguing.

Police said a woman who was involved in the fight produced a handgun and threatened the man, who was unarmed. The officers got out of their vehicles and “provided verbal commands.”

They said Beaty refused to comply with their orders and made a threatening motion with the handgun. The officers then fired their weapons, striking Beaty.

Wray said the officers immediately began to provide first-aid and.

Medics were called, but Beaty died there.

Watch the report, including Beaty’s father’s insistence on an investigation to ensure this was a lawful shooting:

The police chief responded to the scene and later issued a statement.

Wray said Norfolk Police Chief Michael Goldsmith and his command staff immediately responded to the scene of the shooting.

Goldsmith said in a statement: “Any loss of life is tragic. This morning’s events affect not only my officers and Ms. Beaty’s family members, but our entire community. My thoughts and prayers go out to Ms. Beaty’s loved ones, and we appreciate the public’s patience as we continue this investigation.”

Wray said the officers were in plain clothes, and not uniforms, but they were wearing bullet-proof vests clearly labeled “POLICE.”

The officers involved were not wearing body cameras.

Beaty was the mother of four children. Her brother, McKinley Beaty, Jr. was shot and killed by two men outside a KFC restaurant in Duplin County, N.C. in 2014.

This is the third fatal officer-involved shooting in Norfolk this year, and the second within two weeks. There were none in 2015.

Beaty’s mother tells reporters that she does not believe the police reports.

WSAV3 reports:

Beaty’s mother, Sharon Overton, spoke to 10 On Your Side, and to her, it doesn’t sound like something her daughter would do.

“She would not do this, she was afraid of police. She was afraid. She would not take that chance,” Overton said.

Beaty’s mother has questions that she is trying to wrap her mind around about the investigation and the daughter she knew.

“What we were told is that she was out brandishing a gun and that the police confronted her and asked her where did you get this weapon from? What happened, what transpired from then to her being shot,” Overton questions.

“My daughter was not a bad person. We have so many people that knew her. So many people knew she was a good person,” Overton said.

Watch the following interview with Beaty’s sister:

Will this be the next in a long line of police shooting controversies?

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Comments

One. More. Time…

“Stupidity cannot be cured with money, or through education, or by legislation. Stupidity is not a sin, the victim can’t help being stupid. But stupidity is the only universal capital crime: the sentence is death, there is no appeal, and execution is carried out automatically and without pity.”
– Robert A. Heinlein, “Time Enough For Love”

Richard Aubrey | March 20, 2016 at 4:55 pm

I was in the Infantry going on forty-five years ago. I qualified with every weapon in the rifle battalion except the heavy mortar. I cannot tell a replica from a real weapon, new or old, without a very close-up view which is rarely available in news pictures. Ten feet and more makes it 50-50 you’d be right, or less.
If this report is right, the question is WTF. Tamir Rice, being a kid, might be excused being an idiot. We know some people are idiots and so this report may be correct. Still, it is so hard to understand the mindset of a person holding an implement they know won’t shoot and ignoring police orders to put it down that we are tempted to wonder about the validity of the report. Then we recall that this isn’t the first report. What would body cams have shown? That the person had a gun and refused to put it down. So that’s not much help. About the only thing a cam could show that would be useful is if the person actually put the replica down. Anything else, an agitated person waving what to all intents is a real gun, is a legitimate threat. So the Tamir Rice crowd should be glad there is no footage. Now they can make up what they want.

My compassion reservoir is empty.

Rule one of gun safety: Treat every weapon like it’s loaded and might go off and do irreversible harm.

She violated the rule. The police didn’t. Everybody lost. What a real shame.

    iconotastic in reply to irv. | March 20, 2016 at 10:51 pm

    No, society and our law enforcement did not lose. This woman chose to be an idiot. The punishment for that is, as always, death.

Excuse me, but you’re holding what could be confused as a real handgun and the police approach and order you to do certain things. Do you do what they ask, and at worst, maybe get a little roughed up as they wrestle the item away from you and put you in cuffs, or do you fail to do what they ask, do what you want, and HOPE that they don’t become afraid for their lives and use deadly force because they can’t read your mind?

The choice is clear, and even if I don’t do what the police want, raising my hands above my head with the pistol dangling harmlessly from my raised index finger will certainly help defuse the situation enough where I’m still breathing and in one piece.

While it is sad the woman is dead the family has to accept that no policeman is going to assume someone pointing a weapon and refusing to put it down is holding a fake.

Wray said the officers were in plain clothes, and not uniforms, but they were wearing bullet-proof vests clearly labeled “POLICE.”

Marked in the front, where Ms. Beaty could reasonably be expected to see it, or in back—as usual?

What police armor I have myself seen is marked clearly enough, but invariably across the upper back.

    gmac124 in reply to tom swift. | March 20, 2016 at 5:50 pm

    Doesn’t matter in my opinion. If someone comes up and gives verbal commands of police, drop the gun, are you going to tell them to f off until you can verify their badge numbers or comply with their orders? Makes no difference whether their clothing made it obvious or not. Besides if I know my gun is a fake and someone else shows up with a gun I will not be trying to find out if theirs are fakes also, unless I am high or want to die.

    BrokeGopher in reply to tom swift. | March 20, 2016 at 6:08 pm

    As if pointing a gun at regular people would be perfectly acceptable? You should expect to get shot every time you point a gun at someone.

    conservative tarheel in reply to tom swift. | March 20, 2016 at 8:33 pm

    the armor we wear is clearly marked front and back …

“…after threatening them with what turned out to be a fake handgun…”

I have no sympathy. The men and women in blue who do a thankless, brutal job are citizens, too, and have every right to defend themselves – and not wait until they’re dead to discover if a weapon is real or not.

“The officers approached India M. Beaty, who refused to comply with their demands and made a threatening motion with the handgun before the officers fatally shot her, the department said.”

The police made the correct decision.

There was a shooting recently in Miami.
A Black seventeen year old named Trevon (freaky similarity) was caught burglarizing a house. He was shot dead by the homeowner.

The part I want to point out is how the relatives, when interviewed by media, try to defend the actions of the real victims, to justify the crimes committed by “their own”:

You have to look at it from every child’s point of view that was raised in the hood. You have to understand… how he gonna get his money to have clothes to go to school? You have to look at it from his point-of-view.

The homeowner should have understood that this “kid” was raised “in tha hood”.
Being raised “in tha hood” justifies robbery, justifies looting, justifies pointing a gun, fake or real, at “tha poh-lease”.

What we have is an entitlement problem.

That’s what’s causing all these deaths. The irresponsible “leaders” and the media that promote such entitlement mentality, and that advance the idea that police is the problem, they are the ones to blame.

    Lanceman in reply to Exiliado. | March 20, 2016 at 7:11 pm

    You think it’s a joke or something? Let’s try to remember ‘Reverend’ Wright’s angry diatribe on how “We pass a three strikes you’re out law and expect us to sing God Bless America?”
    Hogwash. That’s black ‘code’ for “we (the ‘oppressive’ white society) cannot expect blacks, especially black youth, to have the intelligence to follow white man’s law”.

blacksburger | March 20, 2016 at 6:02 pm

A similar episode happened in Roanoke, VA a few weeks ago. A teenaged boy had been given a broken BB pistol by a friend. It bore a very strong resemblance to a real handgun. He was walking down the street with a bandana over his face and a hoodie pulled down over his forehead. He was wearing earphones, and holding the gun as if he planned to fire it. Some people called the police. The police came and ordered him to drop the gun. He didn’t. (It’s possible that he could not hear them because of the earphones.) The police tasered him twice, which did not appear to have any serious effect. He turned around, still holding the gun as if he planned to shoot someone. The police shot and killed him.
Apparently no one ever told him that the way he appeared to other people could have serious consequences.

Carol Herman | March 20, 2016 at 6:05 pm

25 years old. And, she already had 4 kids!

    forksdad in reply to Carol Herman. | March 20, 2016 at 9:38 pm

    So did my wife and I. Your point is?

      Anonamom in reply to forksdad. | March 21, 2016 at 9:40 am

      The primary difference is implied when you write, “My WIFE and I…” Nowhere in the articles I’ve read is there mention of a grieving husband. Nowhere is here employer quoted, having been sadly deprived of his best work.

      The point? Before leaving this world somewhat early by virtue of her own idiocy, Ms. Beaty managed to ensure yet another generation of (likely) failure, no doubt doing so at taxpayer expense. I spent 17 years as a prosecutor before becoming an anonymous homeschool mom, the final years prosecuting juveniles. The number one point of similarity among burgeoning adult criminals? No father in the home. I think Ms. Herman makes a valid, if implied, point.

        forksdad in reply to Anonamom. | March 21, 2016 at 12:00 pm

        You’re right. She could have meant that. Some people also think four children are too many for anyone. I just wanted to know which way she was thinking.

        I was a cop, corrections officer and probation officer. I am retired now. You are right having a father, especially one married to your mother makes a huge difference.

Except the race hustlers (Al & Jesse) do not care about logic and facts. They care about power and money. Lies and absurd accusations are only a means to an end. To them, this is an opportunity to be exploited. The “journalists” will help them.

Last year in Kokomo, IN, a 16 yo girl was reported to be trying to rob a convenience store with a handgun. This was only a couple blocks from the po-po dept, so the response was quick.

When an officer came through the door and ordered her to drop it, she turned the gun toward him. He dropped her on the spot.

Turned out to be an Air-soft gun.

The very next day, the girls mother, a well known physician in the area, issued a statement apologizing to the officer and admitting the teens mentally troubled past. Suicide by Cop.

But the young cop still has to live with the decision he made that afternoon.

………………

Side note…Kokomo just had a 27 yo officer die in a shootout early this morning while serving an arrest warrant. 2 cops shot, one of them dead and the perp later offs himself over possession of syringe and paraphernalia.

Unfortunately young people are allowed to act out and no one reprimands them, therefore she was entitled to continue her tirade against the guy. She Award never even heard the police. Another Darwin Winner

you can really thank the Democrat Party for the entitlement class that has developed over the years.

Were it not for them and their really bad idea’s
there were be far fewer situations that end up like this.

thankfully from the looks of it… liberalism will be in steep decline especially if Trump wins the presidency.

….the liberals and the democrats will most likely go insane and probably commit mass suicide. Bwahaha… if 95% do that America will have an untold amount of prosperity.

starting to think though… that the communists have infiltrated most of the SJW (Social Justice Warrior) movements …like the feminists groups who are now tring to regulate hate speech on things like twitter.

….it would make a lot of sense that the communists would work their means through SJW groups to get more state intervention.

    rabidfox in reply to YourMaster. | March 22, 2016 at 12:01 am

    More than just the democrats. As a society we’ve tolerated the PC nonsense where black behavior cannot be questioned or criticized for far too long. Yes they have tools to suppress criticism, but we still didn’t stand up against this nonsense until recently. Not just the conservative blogs but the entire media.

Didn’t have the orange tip on it to let anyone know gun was not real.
Otherwise suppose it w/b a real 1911 pistol….

Bad outcome expected from threatening anyone w a fake gun.

Char Char Binks | March 20, 2016 at 8:17 pm

Something good happened at 1:20 a.m.

Char Char Binks | March 20, 2016 at 8:22 pm

“I thought the officers was trained to fire when fired upon.” You thought wrong, Mr. Beaty.

No. There was a generic guy (i.e. politically unfavored) murdered by a police officer a couple of years ago in Salt Lake City when he brandished his trigger finger near his empty pockets, followed by the district attorney laboring through a microscopic inspection of the video footage in order to demonstrate probable cause… nay, a suspicion pulled from a penumbra that would have justified the officer’s planned action.

Maybe she was shot by a replica bullet.

In any event, we have more civil strife fostered at the behest of our replica president.

And it’s Darwin for the win.

It would be a wonderful thing if every one of these low-lifes actually lived up to their mothers’ perceptions:

“She was such a good girl, she wouldn’t do such a thing.”

Richard Aubrey | March 21, 2016 at 10:43 am

It is, of course, impossible to know, but the question is what was she thinking.
I talked to a building contractor recently about lead abatement. I had thought issue had been put to bed long ago. Apparently not.
Ingestion of lead before age five leads, irreversibly, to deficient impulse control.
The progressive writer Kevin Drum had a piece on it a couple of years ago in which he discussed the political issues in acknowledging that there is a population with an incurable propensity to commit violence.
Can’t do it, was his view.
I sort of doubt she was making a gesture like a Buddhist monk lighting himself up in front of an American embassy half a century ago, or that she wanted to be her very own Reichstag fire.
She was being really, really stupid in a situation where all the right things to do were obvious.
Not getting this.

Play stupid games, get stupid prizes.

JackRussellTerrierist | March 21, 2016 at 3:48 pm

1:20am? Tox report on the deceased yet?

JackRussellTerrierist | March 21, 2016 at 4:02 pm

There are hundreds of thousands, perhaps more, black kids that were born into modern suburban developments who have the same impulse control problems this woman demonstrated. Trayvon didn’t eat lead paint and neither did Michael Brown.

Quit making excuses for these people and their stupid savagery.

Richard Aubrey | March 21, 2016 at 6:11 pm

Jack Russell
Missed the point. It’s not the criminality I’m talking about. It’s the stupidty.
Example. Friend of mine ran a small insurance office. Two black guys came in, one to apply for auto insurance. He filled out the app, gave the desk person his drivers license. Another guy came in and plunked down some cash for a commercial account–$500 iirc. The two black guys grabbed the cash and headed for the door. But the office was a remodeled house whose door opened inwards. Before they could get untangled from the door, the diminutive receptionist Maced them to immobility.
The criminal intent is a given. It’s the deficient impulse control which is the issue. It would be one thing if they were so slick as to retrieve the drivers license and insurance app and take the money when nobody was looking. But they left an ocean of ID for the cops to find and couldn’t get out the door while at least one employee was watching.
Brown and Martin were criminals. Martin’s behavior was that of a wannabe thug. Brown, otoh, went nuts in an instant. Martin could reasonably have thought he had a chance to do what he wanted to do. Brown should have known that he was never going to get away with messing with a cop, considering the cop had already made a call.
So in the instant case, it wasn’t criminality which was the issue. In fact, until she failed to drop the gun, she’d committed no crime. It was, afaict, the instantaneous stupidity that may be a result of lead ingestion. Now, whether that amounts to an excuse or a reason is another question. And, if it exists, as Drum said, nobody can afford to talk about it as a matter of public concern, much less figure out what to do about it.