Another quick draw in Clark County

The police in the 'Couve shot and killed a guy on Saturday afternoon during the Pride event up that way. The dude had an aggressive German shepherd dog that reportedly bit someone. A witness said the man, who looked homeless, gave the cops who showed up the finger. The witness said the policeman who pulled the trigger did so hastily. 

The cops say the dead guy "appeared to" point a gun at an officer. But that line often changes, and so far, only the sketchiest of information has been released. The police were wearing body cams, apparently. That video has probably been viewed more than once by now, but certainly not by the public.

KOIN had the most thorough reporting I could find, here.

"There was a cop car at the corner, where the light was. And the man walking his dog was giving him the finger and yelling at him but still walking up this way. And then another man was coming down this way and the man’s German shepherd kind of leaped at him. So that made the cop car come up and stop to the man who had passed and asked him a question. I saw the man shake his head no, and went on his way. So he was obviously not hurt by the German shepherd at all and kept walking.”

Then the gunfire happened very quickly.

“At that moment the cop kept following the man with the German shepherd and stopped his car. And the other cop car came and pulled in and then the cop came out of the car immediately and pulled their gun and within seconds I heard pop pop pop, three shots. And the guy was on the ground, completely down. And then a bunch of other cop cars came in, I mean a lot of them. Gosh, I don’t know — like 20 cop cars....

"The man was down immediately, within seconds and they didn’t try to de-escalate at all. I mean, when the cop came, they got out of their car and they shot him. I mean, it was within seconds.” 

Sounds familiar, doesn't it? The constabulary in that part of the world is not much for foreplay.

Two police officers, so far unnamed, are on leave. The deceased has not been publicly identified, either.

It happened on Saturday. It's now Tuesday.

The police agency in this incident is the Vancouver city police. The investigation, if that's what you call it, is being led by the Clark County sheriff's deputies. Not exactly a confidencce builder given their own track record. 

So we'll keep an eye on the story. But while it's important that the police be accountable, we also ought to be asking ourselves why there are so many crazy guys with vicious dogs living on our streets. It's even worse here on the Portland side of the river. That's on all of us as a group.