Hey, there! Log in / Register
Transcript from the night Marquis Barker died
By adamg on Tue, 11/27/2007 - 1:50pm
Barker is the jail guard shot by police when they thought he was about to shoot them after he'd stolen a cruiser and led them on a wild chase. Boston Police released their 911 transcript to the media; Channel 4 posts it.
Neighborhoods:
Topics:
Ad:
Support Universal Hub
Help keep Universal Hub going. If you like what we're up to and want to help out, please consider a (completely non-deductible) contribution.
Comments
thoughts on the transcript......
While it is difficult to get a full picture of what happened from the transcript alone, I still feel that the police did not have to shoot this man in the head to bring the situation under control. Something less lethal could have been attempted first. The dead man deserved to be treated better. We all deserve to be treated better.
The confusion about the address by the 911 operators make them look like the Keystone Kops. First the confusion about the exact number - 236, 238, 239 - what does it matter? Get a unit rolling to that block! Then the confusion about the two streets, Woolsen and Berrill. How many times did the caller need to spell it out before the 911 operator got it? If there was this much confusion in the 911 call center, no wonder the police on the street were so poorly informed that the dead man might be waving around a pellet gun.
While some of the names and addresses were blacked out to protect the witnesses and callers, one first name was left in the transcript. Now how many people with that first name live on that block of that street? If someone wanted to track down that person, how difficult do you think it would be since they have the first name? Come on people, let's try thinking a little bit.
so police should just assume
so police should just assume "this may be a fake gun that looks identical to a real one" and use...pepper spray? Like you say, let's try thinking a little bit.
We need a better policy.......
The head is not the only place that the police can aim. How about the leg, the arm, the hand holding the gun. Using a gun to kill is not the only way to deal with the situation. What happened here is a result of police training that urges officers to aim to kill whenever they use their gun. Is that the best policy? Is it necessary to try to kill someone every time a police officer shoots their weapon?
Also, isn't this the situation that Tasers are intended for?
really.. so u think that
really.. so u think that having to get within 15 or so feet of a suspect with a gun in his hand and releasing a taser that will shoot 2 stinging barbs into his skin and then applying a shock which may or may not bring said suspect down and may or may not cause the man to squeeze the trigger on the gun he's holding is safe for a cop? really? do you watch alot of movies?
you watch too many movies.
you watch too many movies. shoot the gun out of his hand?
Police shoot for the center
Police shoot for the center of the available target. AVAILABLE target. If the only available target is the head then thats what you have to aim for. Center mass of the available target and you shoot to stop the imminent threat. Thats what the policy is and that is how police officers are trained. There were several 911 call about a man with a gun, who knew if it was a real gun or a pellet gun, not even the wife who was the caller. So do you expect the police to know or try to determine roadside whether or not the gun is real or fake. Although this is a tragic incident the media, the family , and lawyers have all the time in the world to try and figure out what happened on the street that day. The officers that responded had a split second to decide.
We need a better policy.......
Moreover, were the police on the street informed by the 911 operators that the person of concern was possibly waving a pellet gun as his wife told them? Or that he was in the sheriff's department? Would the police response have been more measured if they had known this information? Before we all jump to the conclusion, as the mayor and the police have done, that this was a justified homicide by the police, let's try to think if this could have been handled in a better way.
read the transcripts.. watch
read the transcripts.. watch the news stories.. please inform yourself before you comment. that way you'll sound like you actually care.
I agree that it's hard to
I agree that it's hard to get a real sense of what happened from the transcript, especially without any indication of times. I do think that you make some assumptions about poor police response that aren't warranted.
It appears from the first page's radio transmission that at least two police units were en route to the scene fairly early on (given that at the time the incident was sent as an "unknown" request for police). The call takers are not the same as dispatchers, so it's likely that several calls were happening simultaneously, while other personnel were communicating with field police units.
Working out the issue of Fuller vs. Forrest seems important to ensure they know whether it's all the same incident. Again, the call-taker is not the radio dispatcher, or alone at the phones, so taking time to get the street right should not have delayed response. Also, the call taker might not know of the other calls coming in - it's their job to collect the information, as accurately as possible.
When one call-taker was working out Woolsen and Berrill, shots had already been fired. We know, then, that police were already on-scene. At this point, it's the call-taker's job to find out as much info as possible, and it can legitimately be extremely difficult to tell "Verrill" from "Berrill" over the phone when the speaker is anxious.
The issue of lethal vs. non-lethal force is a much bigger issue to debate. It's crucial to note that not even the caller's wife was sure that the gun was a pellet gun. The man was holding a device specifically designed to look like a lethal weapon, and had already assaulted several people with it. That's a tough situation to start debating lethal vs. non-lethal force, especially given that a tased or bullet-injured person can fire several shots after being tased/hit (whether deliberately or not).
911 calls re Fuller St incident
My heart breaks for this family's tragedy.
One thing that should be learned from this incident is that people need to be aware that dialing 911 on your cellphone gets the State Police, who then have to connect the info about an incident to the local police department, in this case to Boston Police.
Dialing 617-343-4911 on your cellphone connects to Boston Police directly.
And another point - there are many street signs missing, and no street numbers on buildings all over Boston, so folks in distress can't convey accurate info about where they are located.
617-343-4911?
Why not simplify it to 0118 999 881 999 119 725-3 or something similarly easy to remember?
so program it into your cell
so program it into your cell phone since it's so incredibly hard to remember the 4 extra numbers. or better yet call on a payphone or a landline. that way you won't have to try to figure out where u are. they'll know.. or better yet don't call at all....
Had you read the transcripts
Had you read the transcripts carefully you'll see in the 911 call from the persons wife that she said she THOUGHT he had a pellet gun. in other words she was not SURE he had a pellet gun. She did however know he was a officer in the Sheriff's Dept. That knowledge translates to; he in fact does have not only access, but also training to use a gun. The officers, if you had read the transcript carefully, WERE advised that the gun MAY be a pellet gun but that could not be confirmed. So, while responding they knew there was a man in the street acting erratically with what MAY be a pellet gun, or MAY be a real gun. They obviously did not want to shoot the man. I say this as fact because it was demonstrated by the fact that he was able to jump in a cruiser and travel five blocks before spinning out of control and being penned in by officers. One man determined ALL of the aspects of what happened that day. It is truly sad but, had Mr. Barker decided to put his weapon on the deck and comply to the officers he would have been placed in handcuffs and secured in the back of a cruiser until an AMBULANCE arrived to take him to the hospital to get him the help he needed. I say that even keeping in mind that his current state of mind was completely opposite of any behavior displayed by accounts of friends, co-workers, family and neighbors. My heart goes out to his family and his kids, and this is truely a tragedy for all involved.
Boston Police shooting crazed, foaming, gun toting car thief
The Boston Police acted as they should...by the book.
The guy would not drop his weapon, had stolen a cruiser, and the BPD have no way to know the gun was not real.
This guy wanted to die via suicide by cop.
His wife wants to know why they did not tazer him.
He was heard to be screaming : "Don't taze me bro!!!!"
Question
Does anyone know the race of the police officers who shot Marquis?
Why does that matter? Why
Why does that matter? Why turn this into a race issue.