Thursday, March 9, 2006

The State Attorney’s Office is investigating whether the fatal shooting of a man by Collier County Deputy Sheriff Brian Cohen in Immokalee on Wednesday was justified, officials said.



The deputy, whose name the Sheriff’s Office released late Wednesday night, shot and killed the man, who was driving a truck.

Cohen reported he opened fired when the suspect, who was identified by family members as Charles Torres, 35, of Immokalee, began driving his truck in the direction of the deputy, who was outside of his vehicle at the time.

Cohen is on administrative leave, which is standard procedure when the Sheriff’s Office investigates a shooting.

“It’s very common,” State Attorney’s Office spokeswoman Chere Avery said of the investigation.

“Any time we have a situation like this, an investigation must be conducted.”

Avery said she is unsure how long the investigation will take.

The shooting occurred at about 2:40 a.m. near North 15th Street and Indian Camp Road.

Cohen was taking a report of a stolen truck near Farm Workers Village in Immokalee when the deputy observed the stolen truck driving by, said Brigid O’Malley, spokeswoman for the Sheriff’s Office.

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Cohen pursued the truck, authorities said, and was soon joined by a second deputy, who took over the chase. The second deputy followed the truck into a field near Indian Camp Road, where the driver of the truck drove through a fence, authorities said.

Cohen called the crash in to emergency dispatchers as he left his marked patrol car. The driver then turned the truck around and traveled in Cohen’s direction, O’Malley said.

Cohen fired at the driver, who was pronounced dead at the scene by Emergency Medical Services.

A woman who was inside the truck wasn’t injured, authorities said.

The names of the suspect and his passenger have not been released by investigators.

Sounds like a righteous shooting to me. If the desription of events is accurate (and if I read it right) I'd have shot hime too.

If the facts are right, then it sounds justified. However there is a big debate within the LE comunity if you should fire at a moving vehicle or not. For example, following a case in LA where police shot a juvenile that was trying to run over an officer, the LAPD changed its policy to having the officer get out of the vehicle's path instead of standing ground and firing. Many large departments seem to be going to this type of policy following public out cry. Personally i don't entirely agree with this kinda of policy, after all it's the officer that has to make the decision on the fly.

Interesting comment ziggytkd.

I've read ballistics data that shows it's real hard to hit a guy in a car hard enough to stop him. The jacketed bullets all had a tendecy to shed the jackets and break up, even just going through the window glass. There wasn't enough integrity left to do more than cut the guy up some.

But, I can also see how the LA situation would have caused huge embarrassment to the department. That was pretty bad.

I agree with you that it's up to the guy on the ground. Train him well and back him up well. If he acts stupid, deal with him. Telling a department that they are NOT to shoot at anyone in a car takes away too much disgression in my opinion. You have a lot going through your mind when someone attacks you with a car. And, it not just your own safety that's on the line. Say you get out of the way but he kills three little kids 2 blocks down the road. These policies often seem only to protect the politicians... not the public or the cops.