Calling incident domestic terrorism is ‘nonsensical,’ expert says
John Gross, associate professor of law at the University of Wisconsin, has experience analyzing photographic evidence and has written extensively about police use-of-force policies, including shooting on vehicles.
Having watched various videos of the fatal shooting, Gross said it does seem the victim didn’t comply with officers’ demands to step out of her vehicle and may have been deliberately blocking the road.
But if there is an indication the victim was trying to use her vehicle as a weapon — as federal officials have alleged — Gross said it “certainly doesn’t appear on the video.”
“My sense is that the claim that this is some act of domestic terrorism is nonsensical,” Gross said on CBC’s Power and Politics.
He said video shows the officer at the side of the vehicle when he fires the first shot, not at the front, and he fires two more shots as the vehicle is turning away from him.
“The idea that the vehicle was being used as a weapon or was targeting the officers, I mean, it’s clearly not supported by the video evidence that we have from the scene.”
