While the debate rages on regarding police shootings, and misconduct, towards the citizens they are sworn to protect, one police officer is suing his own department after being shot nine times by his own supervisor.
On Jan. 9 of this year, Army veteran and 11-year veteran of the Albuquerque, N.M Police Department, Jacob Grant, was working undercover on a drug sting in a McDonald’s parking lot that morning. All seemed to be well as his fellow detectives converged on the car and, apprehended the suspects of the sting without incident.
From here, as they say, the devil is in the details. According to the Albuquerque Journal, Grant’s supervisor, Lt. Greg Brachle had just arrived on the scene. They also report that the lawsuit Grant has filed states:
“He yanked open the car door and instead of issuing any commands or warnings he instead began to fire his personal .45 caliber handgun.”
After being hit two times, Grant tried to crawl away. As he was crawling away, the suit reportedly states that Grant was saying, “please stop shooting,” as Lt. Brachle shot Grant seven more times. All of this from approximately five feet away. One would think that after working with someone every day for two years, it would be hard to mistake them for a dangerous suspect from five feet away.
This is not the first time Lt. Brachle has been the center of controversy. The Albuquerque Journal also reports that:
“Grant’s suit states that Brachle had previously displayed “erratic, problematic and otherwise unpredictable behavior.” It says at one point that Brachle was removed from field work and placed on desk duty. It also claims that in a previous case Brachle had allegedly fired all of the ammunition in his own gun without assessing if lethal force was needed.”
To make matters worse, Lt. Brachle apparently missed the undercover briefing before the sting.
While Grant did live, his life will never be the same. Thus, he is seeking compensation for this apparent needless tragedy. With police shooting police, and shooting unarmed civilians, can we at least stop pretending that there are no procedural issues when it comes to many police departments?
What is it going to take to start coming up with solutions, rather than pointing fingers? Because on this story, blaming the media will not work. Actually, is it just coincidence that Fox and other major media outlets have not touched this story? You tell me.
