The woman, Talisa Coombs, told Delaney she’d just gotten into what she alleged was a physical altercation with her granddaughter’s mother, Maria Pike, and called 911. Independence police’s response to that 911 call ended with the shooting death of Pike, 34, and her two month old daughter, Destinii Hope — who were identified Tuesday by authorities from the Police Involved Investigative Team, or PIIT, a team of eastern Jackson County detectives called in to investigate police shootings and use-of-force incidents.

The officer who fired his weapon was “a long-tenured veteran of law enforcement,” Dustman said. That officer and another two who were at the scene are on administrative leave.

https://www.kansascity.com/news/local/article295483354.html

  • NocturnalMorning@lemmy.worldEnglish
    1811·
    1 day ago

    “On administrative leave”, Jesus fucking christ, fire and prosecute those fuck heads. This is well beyond gross negligence.

    • I_Has_A_Hat@lemmy.worldEnglish
      4·
      5 hours ago

      Ok, I think this needs to be explained because people don’t understand the whole “on administrative leave” thing. It’s not a slap on the wrist, it’s the first step they have to take to fire him.

      Cops have unions. One of the things those unions have put in place is that most cops can not immediately just be fired except in extremely narrow and specific circumstances. Beyond those circumstances, there has to be an investigation. During the investigation, the cop is placed on administrative leave. Even if it’s super cut and dry, statements still need to be taken, a report still has to be written, and it’s gotta go through the whole process.

      Now, do these investigations often get intentionally delayed? Yes. Do they often come out weeks or months later saying “cop did nothing wrong, everyone move along.” Also yes. But the point is administrative leave is not the punishment and does not mean that consequences aren’t going to be coming. Saying “Why put them on administrative leave? Just fire them!” is kind of like saying “Why fill out the forms HR needs to fire them? Just fire them!” It’s a process, and administrative leave is the first step.

    • Semi-Hemi-Lemmygod@lemmy.worldEnglish
      127·
      1 day ago

      Sentencing guidelines should automatically double sentences for law enforcement and government officials, regardless of the crime.