Jesus (video plays automatically at the link).
The Thurston County Prosecutor announced that the Olympia police officer who shot two men earlier this year will not face criminal charges.
Thurston County Prosecutor Jon Tunheim said that assault charges have been filed against Bryson Chaplin, 21, and Andre Thompson, 24. They are scheduled to be in court on September 22.
Tunheim said Officer Ryan Donald was “acting without malice” and had a “good faith fear” when he shot two men in May.
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In documents released by the sheriff’s office last week, Donald reported that one of the men had been threatening him with a skateboard before the shooting.
Coming at a person with a skateboard is obviously not OK, if that’s what those people did (and let’s be honest, at this point we can’t take a cop’s word for these sorts of things). But even if you accept that’s what they did, it’s not something to get shot over.
Cops should be calming these situations down, not pulling out and using deadly weapons. They have Tasers and other non-lethal methods (not that those are without problems, but they aren’t bullets). So once again, I’ll say if police can’t do their job while armed, we should take away their guns.