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Loading ...No charges in San Diego gay pride shooting death
03.02.2009 9:25am EST
(San Diego, California) A seven month investigation by San Diego Police and the District Attorney’s office into the police shooting of a man during a gay pride boat cruise has concluded that officers acted legally.
Steven Paul Hirschfield, 37, of West Hollywood, went overboard during a July 19 pride- related cruise in San Diego Harbor.Harbor Police were notified by the operators of the charter boat and Hirschfield was rescued, but reportedly began fighting with officers who pulled him onto their boat.
He allegedly grabbed a Taser from one officer and struck him in the face. Police said he then attempted to take the officer’s handgun.
As the two struggled, a second officer shot Hirshfield. He was pronounced dead by paramedics when the police boat docked.
In its finding the District Attorney’s Office report said that the officer’s use of deadly force was “..reasonable under the circumstances,” since the other officer “..had told him Mr. Hirschfield had gotten possession of one of his guns.” In reality, however, Hirschfield did not have the gun.
Last August, the county coroner said that Hirschfield’s death was a homicide.
The coroner’s report says that the fatal shot was fired by a “departmentally-issued Glock 40 loaded with issued 0.40 caliber jacketed hollow points.”
“The gunshot wound entrance was on the right midback,” and exited through the right part of his chest the report said.
The report also noted that Hirschfield’s blood showed “the presence of methamphetamine, doxylamine, and trace ketamine in his blood.” There was no sign of alcohol in the blood, the report noted.
Hirschfield’s family has accused the investigation into the shooting of being biased in favor of the officers. The family has filed a $20 million wrongful death lawsuit against the police. A hearing is scheduled for next month.
The shooting was one of two incidents involving county workers at last year’s gay pride.
Four firefighters assigned to ride atop a fire truck in the parade sued the city alleging they were sexually harassed by crowds on the parade route. Last month, a jury awarded them combined damages of $34,300.
link to the actual report for all you ppl that believe a page long article on a website is a full explaination to an extremely complicated situation:
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/metro/images/090227da-report-on-hirschfield-shooting.pdf
I think you have to factor everything through the lens of him being on drugs, having grabbed a taser, struck an officer, and grabbed at a gun.
It’s a pretty good recipe for getting shot and killed. It doesn’t take a leap of imagination to think that the officer felt that the officers were in imminent danger of being shot and possibly killed.
No drugs, not grabbing a taser, not hitting the cop, not grabbing for a gun? Then we can have a conversation about “why in the back?” and “why not tased first?” It sounds as if a frantic self defense situation occurred, and it got messy.
Give me a break. He was shot in the right middle of the back. That wasn’t a stopping shot — it was a kill shot. What kind of threat is someone if they aren’t even facing you? And if these guys were armed with tasers, why wasn’t that used? They were on a boat — not exactly a place you’d need a distance weapon like a gun to subdue someone. The officers are on record as lying about the case. This result is unacceptable.
ousslander, the police in California are seldom found unjustified in actions they take. A 50 year old 5′ 2″ grandmother was shot by two officers for holding a screw driver.
Further, Hirschfield’s family say that he was a health nut and NEVER took drugs.
So, who do we believe? The police, who have a history of cover-ups, or the man’s friends and family?
An independant review is needed here.
Ousslander, read the report again: The report also noted that Hirschfield’s blood showed “the presence of methamphetamine, doxylamine, and trace ketamine in his blood.” There was no sign of alcohol in the blood, the report noted.
No sign of alcohol.
Does anyone else find it peculiar that there are no witnesses to this crime and that the man was shot in the back? If he was going for an officers gun, why in the world would he be shot in the back? On the one hand, another officer behind him could have shot him out of worry, but what retarded self respecting policeman would shoot someone between themselves and their fellow officer? Dangerous.
And then there’s the possibility that they wrestled him away and he somehow ended up turned around. But then, why would the officers shout him if they could handle him physically? None of this makes any sense and the District attorney wants to sit on his hands? This is nothing less than a bald faced hate crime. Drugs or not, these officers obviously handled the situation wrongfully.
Another reason to stay out of places like Florida and California, where gay folks love to flock and spend $$ but the locals do everything to ensure our rights are trampled.
Actually, this is not surprising, police are rarely accountable for anything.
He was out of his mind on drugs and drink. He was the cause of his own death and now his family wants to profit from it. Maybe if they had intervened before this happened, he would still be alive.
They should be sued for raising a drug addict and negligence.
That’s a sticky situation. It’s hard to know who to believe here. Hopefully justice was done, because all I can do is hope that it was.
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