From the PD --
The rape suspect who got into a gun battle with Aurora police Chief Seth Riewaldt died at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday at MetroHealth Medical Center with a bullet lodged in his brain.
The Cuyahoga County Coroner's office will perform an autopsy today.
Portage County court records show that Jian Wei Chen, 51, was accused of rape on Nov. 28.
He was accused of domestic violence in December, 2006. The charge was dismissed in March. His wife filed for divorce in February and received a restraining order that barred him from being near her. The divorce was not yet finalized; his wife requested a postponement a month ago.
The moral of this story is.... Don't be a degenerate pervert and rape women and you sure as hell don't shoot at the police!
Hard to even come up with any sympathy here.
ReplyDeleteWell maybe some for the policeman who had to shoot someone.
Exactly Ben. The only sympathy should be for the Chief who was FORCED to shoot the rape suspect.
ReplyDeleteThe Chief, while doing his job and justified in shooting, still has to live with taking a human life.
I can only wish him, his family and the officers of his department the best in dealing with this justified shooting.
Typical idiot who believes everything the cops say.
ReplyDeleteWe are deeply disturbed by the tragic event reported in Bob Sandrick’s article: Man shot by Aurora officer is still in critical condition (Solon Herald Sun, December 6, 2007). It struck us as a partial and biased account of this fatal shooting incident by an Aurora police officer. We seriously doubt whether the Aurora Police Department has followed the proper procedure and if they could conduct a fair investigation for the following reasons.
First, the author failed to mention that the account of what happened was solely from the Aurora Police Chief Seth Riewaldt, because the victim, Mr. Chen, was in critical condition and later died of the wound inflicted by Chief Riewaldt. There is no eye witness to this tragedy. The truth may never be known.
Second, it seems that the authority has already made the judgment even before the investigation was finished. The article quoted Aurora mayor Lynn McGill: “He (Chief Riewaldt) did what he was supposed to do… It was obvious that suspect was trying to cause harm to the chief”. In contrast, Mr. Chen was depicted as a rapist with every intention to harm Chief Riewaldt. In fact, Mr. Chen was also a hard-working, law-abiding citizen who had no criminal record.
Third, the article did not present all the facts that were available. Mr. Chen was alleged to have raped “a woman he knew”. The woman is in fact his wife with whom Mr. Chen was involved in a bitter divorce proceeding.
Now we have several questions for Chief Riewaldt, Aurora Police Department and Mayor McGill.
First, why did Chief Riewaldt wear plain clothes and drive an unmarked car while on duty executing a search warrant? According to the article, “Riewaldt identified himself. He stepped out of his car and walked toward the driver's side door of Chen's vehicle.” But how did he identify himself to Mr. Chen before he stepped out of his car? Did he just shout “Police” while sitting in an unmarked car? Mr. Chen told friends about the life threats he received. It is therefore not unreasonable to think he may have over-reacted when approached by a stranger who was not in police uniform and was not driving a police vehicle.
Second, did Chief use excessive fatal force? According to the article, “Riewaldt ordered Chen to show his hands. Chen reached into his jacket and pulled out a revolver. Riewaldt grabbed the revolver and tried to point it away from him…at least one shot was fired from Chen's weapon. During a struggle, Riewaldt shot Chen with his service revolver.” We have to wonder if Mr. Chen indeed had an intention to harm Chief Riewaldt, he probably could have done so before the police chief could pull out his service gun.
Third, did Mayor McGill try to mislead us and influence the outcome of the investigation by publicizing her own judgment before the investigation was completed? How could Chief Riewaldt be returned to work even before the whole investigation was over? We have recently witnessed several police shooting incidents and the aftermath in Cleveland. A fatal shooting by police officers should be thoroughly investigated before any elected officials rushed to her own conclusion.
Let us be clear, the Chinese community in greater Cleveland does not condone any crime. However, any fatal shooting incidence by police should also be vigorously and fairly investigated to protect the lives and rights of not only the Chinese, but all the law-abiding citizens in our communities. We therefore urge an independent investigation into this fatal incident. This independent panel should include at least one representative from the Chinese community. Finally we demand that Chief Riewaldt be placed on administrative leave until the investigation is over.
We wrote this letter to the editor of the Solon Herald Sun to ask for a fair investigation of this tragedy.
"McGill said he believed there was a brief struggle before shots were fired, and Riewaldt then drew his weapon and fired. He was unclear if Chen was inside or outside of his vehicle when he was shot, and said he believed Chen suffered a gunshot wound to the face."
ReplyDeleteIf Chen were inside the vehicle how could the struggle possibly take place? Something's fishy.