1 Oct 2013
It took almost five months, but a disciplinary hearing was finally held this past Friday for an officer who shot at (and missed) a man during the course of a routine traffic stop. At a press conference later in the day, Chief Art Acevedo said that the officer, Justin Boehm, acted unreasonably in the discharge of his weapon and in his actions afterward. He went on to say that Boehm had been “suspended indefinitely.” We take that to be a euphemism for being fired.
If you view the video of the incident, what comes through is that this was truly a routine stop. The victim, James Barton, had allegedly run a red light. He was stopped by Boehm, and proceeded to exit his vehicle. Boehm told him (in a voice Barton might not have heard) not to exit, but within three seconds of Baron getting out of his car, Boehm fired his weapon. This wasn’t a warning shot. According to the report we read, Boehm says that he intended to strike Boehm when he fired. Boehm said that he was being “cautious” because Barton reached for something in his car, but everyone appears to agree that what he reached for was his wallet, and it looked nothing like a weapon. They also agree that Baron made no aggressive movements during the stop.
We suppose these things will happen, whether they are the result of mistakes, poor training, or officers who don’t have what it takes to control their impulses, but some people have voiced the opinion that Austin has had more than its share of police shootings of late. Several other shootings have already taken place this year, leading to two deaths, and the wounding of a police officer. There were only 13 officer involved shootings in Austin during the previous five years (2008 through 2012), and some see the recent shootings as signaling a worsening problem, especially with two such incidents in less than a month.
On the other hand, if you compare Austin to similarly sized cities, Austin does not appear to fare too badly in this category. San Francisco, for example, which has roughly the same population as Austin, has already had seven officer involved shootings this year. Time will tell if the recent events in Austin are an aberration, or whether they do in fact represent an unfortunate trend in the city.
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