Fired rookie cop wanted to protect others, while police chief wants to protect his job, lawyer says
A lawyer for a rookie police officer who shot and killed an unarmed man last Friday says his client’s firing is an insult to police officers who put their lives on the line every day.
Lawyer John Snider commented in a statement issued on behalf of his client, Arlington, Texas, police officer Brad Miller, report the Dallas Morning News Crime Blog and the Associated Press. “Officer Miller made decisions in the heat of a violent confrontation to save his and other officers’ lives,” Snider said.
Arlington Police Chief Will Johnson said Miller was fired for alleged “inappropriate judgment” shown in the events leading up to the fatal shooting of 19-year-old Christian Taylor, who had rammed his car through an auto showroom.
Miller entered the showroom without an arrest plan, creating “an environment of cascading consequences,” Johnson has said. Johnson said Miller should not have entered the dealership alone and should have waited until his partners established the arrest plan.
Miller is accused of firing his gun at Taylor after the suspect refused an order to get on the ground and advanced toward Miller.
Snider said the four-day investigation of the shooting is “not even close to due process” and Johnson’s decision “used 20/20 hindsight to protect his job and appease anti-police activists.”
“While Chief Johnson sits behind his desk and Monday morning quarterbacks an officer’s actions when coming face to face with a violent felon, his biggest fears are getting a paper cut or losing his six-figure salary,” Snider said.
