Former Weirton police officer sues city for firing (claims he was fired because he did not shoot a black man with a gun)

[mountaineer]

Now for something completely different ... a white police officer disciplined for NOT shooting a black man.

Former Weirton police officer sues city for firing
By Shauna Johnson
May 10, 2017 at 12:40AM
WV Metro News

WEIRTON, W.Va. — The former Weirton police officer who claims he was fired because he did not shoot a black man with a gun is now suing the Hancock County city, his former employer, for alleged wrongful termination, due process violations and reputation damage.

The case from the American Civil Liberties Union of West Virginia, filed in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of West Virginia, stems from the night of May 6, 2016 when Officer Stephen Mader, who was still a probationary officer at the time, responded to a domestic dispute call.

READ THE FULL COMPLAINT HERE.

Mader said he arrived to find an “emotionally upset, but not aggressive or violent” Ronald “R.J. Williams, 23, of Pittsburgh, attempting to commit “suicide by cop” and pleading with Mader to shoot him, according to the lawsuit filing.

Mader, a U.S. Marine who served in Afghanistan, said he used his training to determine that, though Williams had a silver handgun which was later confirmed to be unloaded, he was only a threat to himself, no one else — including Mader.

Mader did not shoot.

Williams was shot and killed when two other Weirton police officers arrived at the scene.  ...

Rest of story.

[Suppressed]

http://www.yourohiovalley.com/story/33086418/weirton-officials-speak-out-against-factually-inaccurate-newspaper-article

[mountaineer]

There are always at least two sides to every story, aren't there?

They add the termination was not about Mader not shooting R.J. Williams.

"He escalated that situation rather than deescalating it based on his own statements with that individual on that night," said Blosser.

Interesting. I wonder whether tasing was an option.

[mountaineer]

... There were multiple issues that led to the former officer’s termination,” Blosser said.

Those were:

-Searching a vehicle without probable cause or search warrant, which led to a man being arrested for disorderly conduct for cursing.

-Ruling a death to be natural causes when, in fact, the scene showed it to be a homicide investigation. The medical examiner had ruled the death to be blunt force trauma. Because of Mader’s actions, the city says, evidence was moved from its original location, thereby contaminating the potential crime scene.

-And, of course, the Williams’ shooting, in which officials concluded Mader was not de-escalating the situation, but rather escalating it though his use of profanity before any weapon was drawn. They also concluded Mader “froze” on the scene and did not communicate with other officers involved.

The city manager said the shooting incident was simply the latest in a series of missteps by Mader.

“I think that we would look at the fact that his termination revolved around three major incidents to us,” Blosser said. “Two of those major incidents qualified him for termination. The third just seemed to happen right after those two. We had done different avenues in terms of retraining, placing him with a different training officer. None of those seemed to work.” ...

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