As TFTP previously reported, the Burlington police department released a 12-second clip from a Burlington Police officer's body cam showing him shooting and killing Autumn Steele.
The alleged dog bite is a key component in the case which allowed police officer Jesse Hill to be justified in firing the shots that killed Steele in January of 2015. According to the official story, the German shepherd jumped on Hill's back and bit his thigh, causing him injuries which required treatment.
The shooting was justified and Hill not disciplined, according to investigators, because Hill was in fear of his life during the dog attack and therefore did nothing wrong when he fired his weapon multiple times - and hitting Steele in her chest, killing her.
There is only one problem though, according to the family's attorney, the video does not show any of this. Police have refused to release the entire video which they say does show it. However, those who have seen the whole video, say it never shows any such bite. As the Des Moines Register reports:
In a separate legal battle, the Iowa Department of Public Safety and the Burlington Police Department have been charged with violating the state's open records law for refusing to release the full video, saying it is part of an investigative record and is confidential."This is a tragic case. This officer acted in a way that was entirely unreasonable," O'Brien said in Thursday's hearing.
The video was not played in open court Thursday. But Chief Judge James Gritzner of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Iowa allowed attorneys in the case to describe pieces of the unreleased footage.
Not only does the unreleased video show no bite, but Hill never says that he had been bitten - a direct contrast to what he wrote later in his report, Dave O'Brien, a Cedar Rapids attorney who represents the Steele family, said during the hearing.
The Steele family and the city of Burlington asked Judge Gritzner to consider these facts and issue a summary judgement in their favor which would decide the case without the need for a trial. However, the judge said he would issue his ruling at a later date.
The tragic incident unfolded that fateful January day as Gabriel Steele, Autumn's husband, was loading up their 4-year-old son, when Autumn began yelling at Gabriel and the police were called.
"He's got my kid!" yells Autumn.
Officer Hill was at the Steele residence acting as an escort in their domestic dispute incident. During this commotion, the couple's dog came running out of the house.
"Hey, hey, quit fighting, stop it," says Hill.
In the video, we can hear the dog growl, at which point Hill says, "Get your dog." Only moments later, Hill fired off two rounds.
However, one of the shots struck and killed Autumn Steele.
I'd further point out that controlling 'panic' is something that sufficient training will help minimize, but that all the training in the world will not make everyone able to never panic. Moreover, that predisposition is naturally greater in women than men.*
I'd guess the source is of that generalized tendency (towards panic specifically in women compared to men) is 60% genetics/nature, with the remainder being individual differences of individuals 25% and societal conformity/expectations 15%. (Of course the top 15% of women would easily better the bottom 40% of men.)
Here we have the idiocy of a cop - who happens to be male - whipping out a gun at the first instant and spraying rounds around. What the f*ck do they have those tasers for?
In simple contrast, I once stopped a pit bull intent on hopping up (as it had already done onto my back as it was turned towards locking my front door on my front porch area), trying to grab and kill my very large cat - an early 'Chausie' who was 3'2" long, and weighed, then, 24 lbs - at his prime, he was 22lbs). This >85 lb. female pit bull was trying to hop up and grab him from my left arm.
Unfortunately, my concealed 9mm Sig Sauer - "riding like a tumor below my left armpit"** - was firmly pinched by the weight of the large cat riding on my left forearm with his claws at once embedded deeply into my left shoulder.
I turned back towards the house and front door, and then also unfortunately , realized that the two keys for two locks needed would prevent access before SHTF.
Fortunately, I remembered I had a 'backup' 38 special snubnose revolver on my right hip under my blazer. I grabbed it and spun around and began staring at and yelling the dog. (I also cocked the pistol to single action instantly which meant from the thought 'sorry, but time for you to die' to 'bullet hits dog' would have about half of a 10th of a second (0.05 sec) rather than a fourth of a second (0.25 sec), Not like on TV where they point an empty semi auto at someone and then pull the slide to 'show they mean action', when all it shows' is that the gun was theretofore empty!)
And as that dog was 'thinking of 'hopping up' again, I knew that the very instant that both her front paws left the ground*** she'd have three bullets in her: two in the chest and one up towards the head and neck. I was staring at her, and thinking and saying and yelling."I don't want to kill you! I don't want to kill you!" and I walked right at her and backed her down the concrete driveway from my covered 'porch area'. JUST by looks and thoughts and facial and body expressions and words - I still don't know if she knew what that pistol could and would do to her, but I believe that she believed what I knew it would do.
She got my drift, and backed up down my driveway (me screaming and thinking "I don't want to kill you!" until I got to where the neighbor owners of this neighborhood disaster could see where/what she was doing, and called her away - and off she went. (They actually bitched at me when I could have shot the dog from the very instant this began.) Instead, I asked them, who were sitting on their 'real' porch', 'What would you do if MY 120 lb Mountain Lion was trying to kill YOUR dog on YOUR front porch?" They had no valid answers and I left.****
WHY didn't this cop start with his taser? His pepper spray? He's been reprogrammed to kill at the first opportunity.
How long would it have taken for that dog to KILL someone? A minute? In that time, he could have used pepper spray, seen it didn't work, used a taser, watched IT not work, and then shot the dog 45 times! (At least someone not disposed to panic could have.)
CONCLUSION: Typical result of 'our' modern day cops being 'soldiers' in 'our' society where we are not there to be either protected or served; but are seen, from the git go, as the 'enemy.'
SBT
R.C.
*I am reminded of how some early/first female fighter pilot commented that women should not be placed into such roles due to their natural hormonal fluctuations. A quick search found nada on that point. (No surprise as it's not - and was not then - "P.C.") Help? Links?
**Paraphrasing "All The King's Men" by RP Warren.
*** She'd been on one front paw as I spun around and started speaking to her/yelling at her.
**** That cat - all cats I've had - loved driving, as I intended. He'd sit upright, typically catlike, on the passenger seat of my 1996 Ford Mustang Cobra, and look out of the window! (Hilarious looks from the cars in the right lanes!)
RC