Is this proper police procedure?

[texanjoker]

He has now been fired. He also said he was firing at the left rear tire which confirms some suspicions in our thread. Not many go to work where a split section decision, whether right or wrong can cause one to be unemployed, dead, seriously injured or even incarcerated. In this case he is unemployed and there could be more to follow. Then the civil suit. This is not making any excuses for or against Montoya, but stating the reality of working in law enforcement. Sure it's "part of the job" but a part most will never understand unless they are put into the position of doing it and assuming the liability/risks for doing it.

According to a police report, Montoya later bought the entire family food from McDonald's during the booking process.

http://www.officer.com/news/11268631/ne ... g-is-fired" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

IMHO if he otherwise had a good record, firing him was a little over the top. Thirty days unpaid suspension and two years probation would have been sufficient. He probably realized he messed up right after firing the shots and I doubt he would ever do something like this again.

If he messed up bad within the two years, fire him. If not, remove it from his record. This just appeared to be a bad split second decision. I don’t believe he did it out of malice with the intention of hurting anyone in the van. There were no bullet holes in the van and if he had tried to hit it, it would have been hard to miss it.

Edited to add:
After thinking about it a little more, the whole thing stinks. By shooting the tire out the officer could have prevented the mother from risking the lives of the children and the lives of other innocent people.

It will be interesting to see if he wins his appeal. A lot will ride on whether or not he was a good officer the past 12 years or one with a history of bad judgement and the dept policy. Most departments "generally prohibit" this, but do not entirely ban the action because there are times it could be justified. Many times political leaders will fire an officer to look tough knowing they will be reinstated after the appeal. I can also say and have personally seen that given the correct set of circumstances, shooting out a tire does work .

[talltex]

[This just appeared to be a bad split second decision. I don’t believe he did it out of malice with the intention of hurting anyone in the van. There were no bullet holes in the van and if he had tried to hit it, it would have been hard to miss it.

Edited to add:
After thinking about it a little more, the whole thing stinks. By shooting the tire out the officer could have prevented the mother from risking the lives of the children and the lives of other innocent people.

I agree it was a bad split second decision, but it also appeared to be fueled by tempers and adrenaline that were running too high...on everyone's part. Her trying to drive off and not obeying the command to stop...the officer screaming at them and smashing the window trying to get to the son...lots of fuel being thrown onto the fire on both sides. While shooting out the tire might have prevented her from injuring someone, another very possible outcome is that she would have lost control of the vehicle and run off the road...possibly rolling the vehicle and injuring the children...given the mother's previous behaviour, I doubt that she would have immediately stopped unless she did lose control. I also don't think it was done out of malice, but given all the examples of officers missing their intended targets at "point blank" range, hitting the van unintentionally would have also been a possibility.