Lawful gun owner Ryan Whitaker killed by cops

[renotime]

Something tells me his name will never ring out like George Floyd's.

I could only stand to watch it once but it seems pretty clear he put one hand up to surrender while trying to put gun down; Then the idiot cop shot him a whole second after he was calmly putting his gun down. Oh and this happened back in May, but for some reason it is only now coming to light.

If I had been in Whitaker's shoes no way I would have answered the door for an unexpected guest at night. Poor guy.

It started as a noise complaint. It ended in another fatal Phoenix police shooting

The episode is one in a string of Phoenix police shootings and has reignited criticism from advocates.

www.azcentral.com

 

[MusicForThePiano]

A consequence of the police state and the "us vs them" mentality they've ingrained in law enforcement. Despite knowing many good communities, this theme is still prevalent across the nation and the badges. In the end, whoever holds the paychecks makes the laws. Sad thing though.

 

[estraudi]

this happened back in May, but for some reason it is only now coming to light.

This happened in my metro in the city(phoenix) next to my suburb before the george floyd incident.
All news channels here were reporting it nonstop and nobody really gave a shit. It happened in a southern "suburb" neighborhood of phoenix called ahwatukee which is separated from one of the worst parts of phoenix by a small mountain range. Very secluded and well to do neighborhood nonetheless do you want to take a guess as to why this poor soul lost his life?
He was a big white guy with a gun. Nowadays that's worse than being a big black guy with a weapon. It is grounds for instant termination, sadly.

 

[The Black Knight]

The police are way too trigger happy in the US but the guy coming out the door with a gun was an idiot.

He darts out his door at night with a gun in hand. What do you expect to happen?

If he had taken one second with the door closed and ask who it was, he'd be alive.

In the video, it looks like he is surrendering and while in the process of that, another cop panic fires. Without the other cop video, it's hard to say what he was doing with his other hand (ex: maybe he tilted the barrel of the gun towards the other cop who fired the shots) and it's possible the shooting was somewhat justified. Although, it likely was a panic fire and that cop should be charged with murder.

Still though: If someone ever knocks on your door in the middle of the night and you can't ID who it is, don't open the damn door. And if you do, don't go out with a gun in your hand without understanding your surroundings.

 

[Johnny Rico]

This will go absolutely NOWHERE. The cop may be required to get some additional training and maybe the city will quietly settle with his family and sign a non-disclosure agreement as to the amount. I am very pro-police but I still don't trust armed strangers.

Hes a white man. No one gives a shit.

 

[Stonewall Jackson]

Yeah. Who the fuck runs out the door in the middle of the night with a gun because of a knock? Especially if it was in a nice area of town? Yeah, a certain percentage of cops view the public as the enemy. But a lot of gun owners are fucking dumbasses who have Rambo fantasies.

The cop should be fired. He didn't keep his cool in a stressful situation. That's part of the job. But I would never convict him if I was on a jury.

 

[renotime]

Yeah. Who the fuck runs out the door in the middle of the night with a gun because of a knock? Especially if it was in a nice area of town? Yeah, a certain percentage of cops view the public as the enemy. But a lot of gun owners are fucking dumbasses who have Rambo fantasies.

The cop should be fired. He didn't keep his cool in a stressful situation. That's part of the job. But I would never convict him if I was on a jury.

Apartments aren't always known to be in nice neighborhoods. And apparently someone had knocked before late at night.

To me it looks pretty obvious that the guy was surrendering. And the guy didn't run out. I don't know where you see that. He opened the door, saw cops and put his hand up to submit. If he was a threat why didn't the other cop shoot?

I think the fact of the matter is that a lot of cops are undertrained and incompetent.

 

[Repo]

An unexpected knock at night is the exact time to answer the door with a gun. You think if it were a bad guy they would let him go back to his safe to get it out?

 

[Stonewall Jackson]

Apartments aren't always known to be in nice neighborhoods. And apparently someone had knocked before late at night.

To me it looks pretty obvious that the guy was surrendering. And the guy didn't run out. I don't know where you see that. He opened the door, saw cops and put his hand up to submit. If he was a threat why didn't the other cop shoot?

I think the fact of the matter is that a lot of cops are undertrained and incompetent.

He opened the door and without pause started walking outside with a gun in his hand. That's a very strange response to a knock on the door.
I was assuming it was a decent area because of the Phoenix area poster above.

An unexpected knock at night is the exact time to answer the door with a gun. You think if it were a bad guy they would let him go back to his safe to get it out?

Where do you guys live? There's a million things that enter my mind when I hear a knock at the door in the middle of the night. None of them involves getting a gun.

 

[Repo]

Thankfully I live in a good area now, but in the past I’ve lived in areas where home robberies happened. Growing up our house was broken into when we were away. Junkies are a real problem in certain areas.

That said, this guy probably had little training, but we have the second amendment and holding a gun on your own property at night when you think you might be in danger shouldn’t be a reason to die.

 

[renotime]

He opened the door and without pause started walking outside with a gun in his hand. That's a very strange response to a knock on the door.
I was assuming it was a decent area because of the Phoenix area poster above.


Where do you guys live? There's a million things that enter my mind when I hear a knock at the door in the middle of the night. None of them involves getting a gun.

I live in an area with little crime, but if someone knocks on my door at a late hour I'm not answering. If they keep knocking cops are getting called.

I once hit up a buddy to tell him I was gonna head over at some point. I showed up a few hours later. Backdoor was locked and no one heard me knocking, so I went and knocked on the front. As soon as I heard him open the door I said "Don't shoot me, bro" because 1) it was late at night 2) no one ever knocked on his front door 3) Someone tried to break in before and 4) he owned a lot of guns.

 

[ABeast]

If the cops are knocking on your door you can usually just ignore them and they will leave.

 

[Repo]

If the cops are knocking on your door you can usually just ignore them and they will leave.

And if it turns out they aren't cops, the next step will be them kicking your door in or breaking in a window.

 

[Dr. Howard]

I live in an area with little crime, but if someone knocks on my door at a late hour I'm not answering. If they keep knocking cops are getting called.

I once hit up a buddy to tell him I was gonna head over at some point. I showed up a few hours later. Backdoor was locked and no one heard me knocking, so I went and knocked on the front. As soon as I heard him open the door I said "Don't shoot me, bro" because 1) it was late at night 2) no one ever knocked on his front door 3) Someone tried to break in before and 4) he owned a lot of guns.

I watched the video and I also thought it was strange that he opened the door. I also noticed that he has no windows on the door or from the apartment facing the door...or not even a peephole on the door.

We put up a security camera above our door, with a two way speaker on it, sort of like a ring doorbell but you can't just put your hand over it like a doorbell camera. I can record and converse with whoever is at my door without ever coming to the door.

The first time I noticed a camera setup such as this was at a hell's angel's clubhouse in Canada. Those guys had some very interesting protocols that are useful for everyone.

They had a drug dealer that lived in an apartment above a store across the street from where I lived. Whenever someone came by they had to yell or whistle to the guy upstairs from the street, he would look out the window to see who it was and then send one of the other people at the house down to street level to unlock the door.

 

[Pendleton]

It shows that BLM is nothing but a shakedown and attempt to rile up the black vote before an election. There have been stories like this on a regular basis for years. And there are plenty of recent examples of cops getting out of line enforcing COVID restrictions. It would have been very easy to get mass support for reining in the police but instead they want to race bait and ignore the majority of cases of police misconduct because the victim is white. Support for the police has probably increased recently because many don't want to be associated with the BLM and their posterboy George Floyd.

 

[godfather dust]

If the cops are knocking on your door you can usually just ignore them and they will leave.

Yeah if I get a random knock (only once at current place, it was cops) I take my shoes off and silently walk over to look through the peephole.

The last time this happened it was cops. I put headphones on to ignore their knocking and nagging. If they have a warrant they can break the door down.

 

[renotime]

Someone rang my doorbell today. They hit it twice in quick succession so no way in hell was I gonna open it for a doorbell abuser.

 

[Kona]

Should one of the cops on the scene be talking to and touching the girl? Shouldn't he wait for more cops and let them handle it? It sure sounds to me like he is telling her what happened.

Aloha!

 

[LeoniusD]

double

 

[LeoniusD]

As much as the cops have been militarized - it was certainly a bit trigger-happy. However he did 2 massive errors.

He opened the door with the gun in his hand, then even walked out. He reacted a bit late by trying to de-escalate the situation, but even that he did the wrong way. Instead of openly putting down the gun slowly, so that they can see it he stupidly tried to hide the weapon behind him.

If you watch the footage at lower speed you can easily see that he walks out like Brad Pitt in the movie California where he plays a low-class serial killer. He has the same walk, going out in some kind of combat stance in his underwear while holding his gun on the side. Seriously - his very stance and behavior is by default menacing even if the cops over-reacted. He went into a completely different pose and stupidly tried to put the gun down to the back of him.

Self-defense is all good and well, but who did he expect would knock that way at night loudly and call themselves loudly 'Phoenix Police'? Chances are that he was a bit drunk or on drugs and did not hear who they were. He should have shouted out who they are first, before walking out with a drawn gun. Who else would it be who would knock at night? Antifa, BLM rioters? They would attack everyone. If he expected some criminal, then he absolutely should first check to not confuse that criminal with 2 cops who are already standing there and expecting the worst.

But the point of the thread remains - if that guy was black, then this would be center news and riots would erupt in Phoenix by now. And this again is no clear-cut case of police brutality given his initial unfortunate behavior. There are times when walking out in such a way will protect you from Antifa or BLM rioters, but doing it with cops is not advisable.