In most every occupation out there, not killing someone during your shift is considered to be a positive thing. For example, if you work at Walmart, and some punk kid hits you in the bum with a shopping cart, you’re going to get extra points if you refrain from snapping his neck.
But that changes when you’re a police officer in America. When a police shooting happens, the first thing the department thinks about is how they’re going to protect the officers involved. We see it happen almost every week now it seems.
This story coming out of West Virginia is a little different though. Back in May of this year, police officer Stephen Mader was dispatched to a domestic dispute. When he arrived at the scene, he found 21-year-old Ronald Williams armed with a handgun. Thanks to his training, Mader could tell immediately that Williams was suicidal:
“I told him, ‘Put down the gun,’ and he’s like, ‘Just shoot me.’ And I told him, ‘I’m not going to shoot you brother.’ Then he starts flicking his wrist to get me to react to it. I thought I was going to be able to talk to him and de-escalate it. I knew it was a ‘suicide-by-cop’ situation.”
As Mader tried to talk to Williams, two other officers showed up, and they were not ready to join the therapy session. When Williams walked towards them, they fired their guns and killed him.
After a brief investigation into the shooting, it was determined that it was justified despite the fact that Williams’ gun was not loaded, which makes it even more clear that Mader’s “suicide-by-cop” assumption was correct. This guy clearly needed help, Mader recognized it and tried to help the right way. You would think his department would commend him for keeping his cool in such a stressful situation.
But no. That would make too much sense.
Mader was summoned to the office of Weirton Police Chief Rob Alexander. The police chief told Mader that he was being put on administrative leave:
“we’re going to do an investigation to see if you are going to be an officer here. You put two other officers in danger.”
He was then informed that his contract had been terminated because he failed to eliminate a threat. Lawyers were not able to help Mader, telling him his best option would be to resign to protect his reputation.
To make this situation even more ridiculous, the day after Mader’s contract ended, Alexander told reporters that all three officers were back at work and doing just fine:
“How can you say all the officers are doing well when you just terminated one yesterday? I think he did that just to give the public a good view of the officers.”
Mader doesn’t blame the other officers for shooting Williams, mainly because they didn’t have all the information he had. But still, he believes it could have all been avoided.
City officials refuse to comment on the situation.
Featured image from: City of Weirton Facebook
