This is the stuff of nightmares: James Lee Whitehead, a drag queen who performed under the name Niki Hunter in San Antonio, was killed by a police officer’s stray bullet when the cop, responding to a witness alerting him, shot at the assailant who was pistol whipping Whitehead.
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j
That’s fucking awful. I’m sure the officer feels terrible about it and it’s just a sad reminder than all too often peoples’ lives are tragically cut short.
Rick
As I am from Texas, the officer was, at first, probably felt very awful.
After it was found out that the deceased was a homosexual, the officer in all reality probably thought something along the lines of “just a dead fag.”
Sadly.
anonymous
An officer is trained when to fire his weapon, regardless of the situation at hand. He can not fire into a crowd of people or at a fleeing suspect who is running along a crowded street, passing in front of store fronts and such.
This sounds very suspect. But then there are those who would not question why an officer would empty a 16 shot .40 caliber Glock, reload, and empty another clip into a car that was not only wasn’t firing back but no evidence of a gun existed in the first place.
There is something very wrong with this shooting and anyone with common sense can see it. I would check to see of the suspect and officer are related or were on the same football team in HS.
texan fag
@anonymous: Maybe if you actually read more about the incident rather than simply going by what this post says, your argument might sound a little more justified. Just google it once. I am the first to call out cops when they are in the wrong, but looks like this one actually was doing his job. Here is an excerpt taken from an article on a local queer site, QSanAntonio.com (full link at the bottom) :
“Officer William Karman, a one-and-half-year veteran of the San Antonio Police Department, responded to the 911 call from witnesses who saw Whitehead being beaten. As the policeman approached the scene, Martinez and Rodriguez jumped into a white SUV and fled.
Officer Karman saw Ramon on top of Whitehead, pistol whipping him with a handgun. The officer ordered Ramon to drop the weapon. However, Ramon got up and approached the officer with his gun raised.
The officer fired two shots towards Ramon. When those did not stop him, Karman fired three more shots. The second round of shots stopped Ramon but one of Karmen’s five bullets had struck Whitehead in the chest and he died at the Brooke Army Medical Center a few hours later.”
So it seems like he actually was trying to protect and serve. Do a little research next time before jumping to conclusions.
http://www.qsanantonio.com/whitehead.html
mb00
wait let me get this correct, a drag queen, a gay basher AND a cop, but the drag queen is the one that gets killed?! rrrright, a-ha a stray bullet. yeah. i’m just not buying it.
Phoenix (Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star)
1.5 years on the job is not a veteran. 1.5 years on the job is a rookie.
SA Local
I live in SA (a transplanted yankee) and not everyone here is a biggot because it is Texas. Making those generalizations allows the actual biggots to think its OK to be like that “cuz it’s Texas.” When some one does something to help, they should be lauded, not lumped into a category which they don’t belong. A 1.5 year “veteran” is from a new generation that is possibly and probably more enlightened than the good old boys club that exists here. Let’s try to find those people and hold them up to the dismay of the old guard.
SA Local
Not to mention, the outcome of this tragedy is optimal because … “Ramon and other two suspects, Michael Martinez and Fernando Rodriguez are all in the Bexar County jail charged with capital murder.”
Bella Piel
Very sad. I think the anti-police comments are inappropriate.