Reply #164: Assuming the leaked documents are true [View All]

It is hard to see what the police "mistake" could possibly be (in the sense of a legitimate, understandable mistake). The suspect's arms were pinned, and he was wearing only a denim jacket. The claim that he seemed ready to detonate a suicide bomb seems hard to credit now. That leaves a "trigger happy cop" theory - but since the suspect wasn't armed, and had his arms pinned, it is difficult to credit that either. Why would the officer be trigger happy in those circumstances?

At this point I think the officer would have to claim something along the lines "I thought I saw the suspect make a dangerous movement", when nobody around him thought the same thing (he was pinned and helpless, and the clothing was not the sort that would hide a suicide bomb). At the very least this would imply a tremendous level of negligence - police are not supposed to use deadly force without being reasonably sure that it is a last resort.

The fact that they had been tailing him, and therefore were not coming to the situation unexpectedly is also a point against the police version (e.g. they knew what he was really wearing all along). Also, the fact that the police seem to have lied about a lot of significant details is not a point in their favor. When parties lie about an event it is often taken to imply a consciousness of guilt, in law.