Phoenix Police Shoots Man In His Own Apartment

[Leonhard]

This is beyond horrific.

Source: Pinac News

Ryan Whitaker was sitting at home with his girlfriend playing video games when he was killed by police.

A noise complaint from an annoyed neighbor resulted in cops shooting and killing a man within five seconds of him opening his front door.

Ryan Whitaker opened the door holding a gun in his right hand which is legal in Arizona but it made the cops fear for their lives.

However, the cops never gave him a chance to put the gun down which he appeared to be trying to do when one cop shot him in the back three times.

"Why did you guys shoot him?" Whitaker's girlfriend, Brandee Nees, yelled as she stepped into the doorway.

"He just pulled a gun on us, ma'am," Phoenix police officer Jeff Cooke said.

"Because it's dark and someone just knocked on the door," Nees responded.

When Phoenix police officer John Ferragamo asked Nees if she and Whitaker had been fighting, she told him they were only playing video games.

"Literally we were making salsa and playing Crash Bandicoot so there may have been some screaming from PlayStation but it wasn’t domestic violence or anything," she said.

...

The cops arrived eight minutes later and knocked on the door with one of them yelling "Phoenix police" before both of them stepped off to the side, making it impossible for anybody to see them through the peephole. When Whitaker opened the door with the gun to his side, the cops shined their flashlights in his face, blinding him before noticing the gun.

"Whoa! Hands! Hands! Hands!" Ferragamo yelled as Whitaker lowered his body with his left hand in the air and his right hand appearing to be putting the gun down.

Cooke then fired three times, shooting him in the back.

Earlier that day, Whitaker had attended his daughter's high school graduation.

© Copyright Original Source

[Leonhard]

I'm glad that the police are displaying transparency and didn't hesitate to release the body cams recordings.

[Cow Poke]

It always helps to include a linky.

I found what I think is this incident, and while I don't condone what happened, the text in the OP has a WHOLE LOT of speculation and.. um... creative reporting.

[mossrose]

Was the guy black or Hispanic or some other minority?

Because if not, who cares?

I say that sarcastically, because the news report is almost a month old. Where is the outrage from the same people who support BLM? For a whole month nobody here has mentioned this.

[Cow Poke]

I think it's because the body cam footage was released, so it's "ok, let's look at this again".

But, no, I don't think this was a "racial" killing, so it's not as important to the media.

[mossrose]

I think it's because the body cam footage was released, so it's "ok, let's look at this again".

But, no, I don't think this was a "racial" killing, so it's not as important to the media.

Exactly my point, nor, obviously, to the rabid crowd here who like to paint every police officer with the same racist brush.

[KingsGambit]

Exactly my point, nor, obviously, to the rabid crowd here who like to paint every police officer with the same racist brush.

With all due respect, nobody mentioned race until you brought it up...

[Cow Poke]

Exactly my point, nor, obviously, to the rabid crowd here who like to paint every police officer with the same racist brush.

I haven't really studied this yet, but it appears that the one officer was not experienced, or maybe not well trained, (or both) and did, indeed, shoot prematurely.

[Cow Poke]

With all due respect, nobody mentioned race until you brought it up...

But it's in light of this big focus on systemic racism in police departments being the reason for such shootings.

[KingsGambit]

But it's in light of this big focus on systemic racism in police departments being the reason for such shootings.

I think too much focus is placed on race. There have been other controversial shootings of white people (there was a big debate thread on the shooting of Daniel Shaver a few years ago, and the shooting of Duncan Lemp has been discussed in the news as well). The idea that something is not worth discussing just because race isn't involved is something I won't accept from either side. My main point is: there's a certain irony in bringing race into an unrelated thread to complain that people talk too much about race.

[Cow Poke]

I think too much focus is placed on race.

I totally agree with that across the board, but just trying saying "All lives matter" and see what happens.

There have been other controversial shootings of white people (there was a big debate thread on the shooting of Daniel Shaver a few years ago, and the shooting of Duncan Lemp has been discussed in the news as well).

And I think that's the point -- blacks and Hispanics are NOT being systematically killed by police in numbers proportionally greater - there's a problem, but it's not race.

The idea that something is not worth discussing just because race isn't involved is something I won't accept from either side. My main point is: there's a certain irony in bringing race into an unrelated thread to complain that people talk too much about race.

I think it's just that we have been SO inundated with this "systematic racism" thing which, quite honestly, takes the focus off of the real problem.

[Leonhard]

It always helps to include a linky.

I found what I think is this incident, and while I don't condone what happened, the text in the OP has a WHOLE LOT of speculation and.. um... creative reporting.

I forgot the link. I am sorry for that. Posted this in my lunch break.

[Cow Poke]

I forgot the link. I am sorry for that. Posted this in my lunch break.

No prob - I think I found the story. And it's "back in the news" because the body cam footage was released, yes?

[Leonhard]

No prob - I think I found the story. And it's "back in the news" because the body cam footage was released, yes?

I wasn't aware of it until then, I didn't know it was an old story. I thought it was recent. I do see that he stepped out of his apartment, gun at his back, and fell back into it. The exchange was over in around 5 seconds.

[mossrose]

With all due respect, nobody mentioned race until you brought it up...

And that's the problem, isn't it? Nobody mentioned race because the poor man who was shot was white.
If he had been some other ethnicity, it would habpve been all over the place, adding fuel to the fire the media and BLM has made.