ANOTHER SHOOTING IN WHICH A COP THOUGHT HE WAS USING HIS TASER

Cop accidentally shot an unruly suspect instead of using a TASER, but it is revealed he will NOT face any criminal charges

By Keith Griffith

Daily Mail
April 13, 2019

A police officer who shot and injured a suspect inside a police station after saying he meant to use his taser will not face charges.

Bucks County District Attorney Matthew Weintraub said on Friday that the unnamed officer will not face charges in the March 3 shooting of Brian Riling in New Hope, Pennsylvania.

Weintraub wrote in a letter to New Hope Police Chief Michael Cummings that he had determined the shooting 'was neither justified, nor criminal, but was excused.'

The officer said he believed he was deploying his Taser when he shot Riling inside a detention cell while the arrestee struggled with multiple officers.

Riling, 38, had been picked up earlier in the day and charged with charged with intimidation and retaliation against a victim, simple assault and related offenses.

He was also charged with burglarizing the same victim's home in mid-February.

The six-foot-four, 240-pound construction worker was removing his belt in a detention cell when a small white baggie fell out of his waistband to the floor, surveillance video shows.

Riling quickly stepped on the baggie to conceal it, but an officer saw it and grabbed him as he tried to keep his foot over the item.

A second officer shouted 'Taser!' as he unholstered his gun and shot Riling in the abdomen.

Riling then slumps to the floor moaning as the two officers back out of the cell.

'Oh my god. Please, please help. Dude, my kids, my kids, My daughters. Please, please, my daughters, please,' Riling begs. 'Get me f**king out of here. I don't want to die. It hurts everywhere, guys.'

'Dude, I don't want to die,' Riling says.

Riling became agitated when one officer told him to relax and that he wasn't going to die.

'How do you know that? I'm dying now. Why would you f**king shoot me? Are you kidding me?' he says.

Riling was treated in critical condition for his wound then released without charges, but faces prosecution in two separate criminal cases.

Weintraub wrote in his letter that the officer who shot Riling did not realize he was using his gun, and this did not 'possess the criminal mental state required to be guilty of a crime under state law.'

The officer who fired the shot retired on April 3.

EDITOR’S NOTE: There have been a number of police shootings in which the cop thought he was using a Taser and not his gun. The question is, how can such mistakes be prevented?

I think one of the problems is that cops are trained to instinctively draw their gu ns, which is a good thing, but if it’s a taser they really wanted to use, it’s a tragedy about to happen.