Suspect Taken In Alive After Pointing Gun At Ohio Cop, Allegedly Pulling Trigger. And Yes — Yes, He Is

Look, I’m no conspiracy theorist or anything, but I am strongly beginning to suspect that cops’ “I was in fear for my life” defense is just a default justification for killing Black people.

Black people are out here getting shot by cops when they’re armed, unarmed, pointing a weapon, not pointing a weapon, running away, resisting arrest, not resisting arrest, or even when we’re completely complying with a cop’s every demand. Meanwhile, mass shooters with the complexion for protection are being taken alive so long as they’re not actively shooting it out with cops, and white people are physically fighting police officers with nary a worry about not living to tell about it.

In fact, right now, a 21-year-old white man in Canton, Ohio, stands accused of pulling a gun on a police officer after being caught shoplifting, and — wouldn’t you know it — he’s alive to take the charges.

According to ABC News, on Thursday, Shane C.L. Newman and a female companion were being held in the back office of a Canton Walmart by an off-duty Canton police officer who was working security for the store at the time. Apparently, the two were suspected of stealing from the store, as police body-camera video showed Walmart employees stopping them at the front door before escorting them to the store’s loss prevention office. But a little shoplifting charge quickly became the least of Newman’s worries, because what body-cam footage captured next was him pulling a handgun on the officer detaining him

From ABC:

Inside the office, a police officer, according to the security video, conducted a partial pat-down search of Newman, asking, “Nothing on you that’s going to poke me or stab me?”

After conducting a search, the officers told Newman and his female companion to sit on a metal bench inside the office, the video showed.

As the officer radioed in the names of Newman and the woman to confirm their identities, Newman is seen on security video turning to his side and reaching into a pouch he had on him that the officer apparently missed in his search.

Newman is seen in the video pulling out a handgun and pointing it at the officer, but the gun didn’t fire.

The footage showed a Walmart loss prevention employee lunging for the gun and tackling Newman before he could open fire. After a brief struggle, Newman was handcuffed by the police officer, who immediately called for backup.

First of all, killing a cop — or even pulling a gun on one — just to avoid a petty shoplifting charge is, well, an interesting choice. In fact, video footage showed the officer who was detaining the suspects said, “I was going to release them, that was the thing, like it was just going to be a summons.”

Still, a dummy auditioning for World’s Dumbest Criminals (is that still a thing?) isn’t nearly as interesting as Newman still breathing free air on this Earth after what the officer on the other end of his gun made sound like a clear case of attempted murder.

According to ABC, the officer described his version of events to a sergeant, saying the suspect “pulls out a gun and points it at my head and pulls the trigger.”

“It doesn’t go off,” the officer reportedly recalled. “I draw. He ends up giving up.”

Bruh — what?

Black men are out here getting shot up while holding cellphones, and Newman lived to see handcuffs after drawing his gun, pointing it at a cop, and pulling the trigger?

And again, the officer said he was planning to let Newman and his friend go. It’s like Newman took his white privilege and squandered it in the most dramatic way possible — trying to kill a cop, or at least threatening to do so — and he still made out better than countless Black people who were killed for not doing half as much.

Newman is currently in custody on charges of attempt to commit murder, felonious assault of a peace officer, and possession of drugs. The unidentified woman he was with was also arrested and charged with complicity to commit robbery.

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