One of the first blogs written by us [Fawkes-Lee & Ryan] (two years ago) was entitled “Suicide by Cop”. It garnered more comments than anything we have written since.
The blog is about three incidents in which law enforcement came close to emptying their ammo cartridges on a particular suspect. One of those suspects was Randall D. Kimsey, 50, Ogden, IA. This past week his family filed a lawsuit against the police who killed him.
In 2010 we wrote:
This past May police were called to a residence in Ogden, IA after a neighbor accused the man in the residence of making harassing phone calls. When police arrived at the residence in question, the accused answered the door with a handgun. The reactive police force went into panic mode and cordoned off the house, evacuated neighbors, and after a ceremonial waiting period, entered the house.
“Randall D. Kimsey 50, had been suicidal in the past and authorities were worried that he had taken prescription drugs,” The standard operating procedure for a suicidal citizen appears to be what occurred next. A SWAT team entered his home in full gear and shot Kimsey to death. Police took the moral road of shooting Kimsey to protect him from committing suicide.
In a recent Des Moines Register article, more facts come to the surface. When a sheriff’s deputy went to the door to make the contact about harassing phone calls, Randall Kimsey was asleep. The deputy “demanded” that Kimsey’s wife wake him up. When Kimsey came to the door one of the officers yelled, “gun!” Kimsey went back to bed.
This entire episode was ridiculous if it hadn’t been for the death of Randall Kimsey. Kimsey’s wife, who obviously didn’t feel in danger, was persuaded to leave the house and “was taken into custody”. The neighborhood was evacuated. Law enforcement attempted to negotiate with Kimsey. Why? The man has every right to own a gun. All he did was come to the door with a gun in his hand. Maybe I’m missing all the facts, but there was no need for law enforcement to enter the house (without a warrant – there was certainly enough time to acquire one) and set off percussion flash bombs – several, and expect a man to not be afraid for his life. I really believe anyone in that predicament might shift into a survival mode.
The SWAT team went upstairs and deployed another flash bomb and Kimsey came out of the bedroom while “allegedly carrying a gun.” He suffered 14 bullet wounds. “Six officers left at least 33 shell casings at the scene.” Maybe this is not a good choice of words, but it was definitely “overkill”!
I hope Lori Kimsey wins this lawsuit. Probably, it will be settled out of court. But law enforcement training and decision-making needs improvement. The CATO Institute has published a booklet [white paper] entitled “Overkill: The Rise of Paramilitary Police Raids in America.” I don’t expect everyone to run out and purchase a copy, but the opening paragraph in the Executive Summary says most of what you may already know:
Americans have long maintained that a man’s home is his castle and that he has the right to defend it from unlawful intruders. Unfortunately, that aright may be disappearing. Over the last 25 years, America has seen a disturbing militarization of its civilian law enforcement, along with a dramatic and unsettling rise in the use of paramilitary police units (most commonly called Special Weapons and Tactics, or SWAT) for routine police work.
There is so much wrong with this story. And the sheriff doesn’t help himself by stating that he shouldn’t comment at this point, but that he has “a lot of things that come right to my head based on what you’re telling me.” It almost sounds premeditated.
I said it in 2010, and I’ll say it again: “Today’s modern police officer has a Glock in the holster, mace, flashlight, handcuffs, radio, tactical gloves, ammo, combat knives, and batons. SWAT teams are not afraid to use those “tools’ when communication breaks down. It’s too bad that patience is not strapped to that utility belt as well.”
The 2010 blog is posted online yet at: https://iowappa.com/?p=103 Suicide by Cop
You All Would Have to “Live Here” to see What a corrupt Good Ole Boy Police mentalities Go On Here, I can “only” Figure that the Previous Post Had to have come from another “CRIMINAL With a BADGE” , Another “Child” That was “picked on” as a “Child”, and Figured one day, He (Or) She Would Have “Some Power”, and Get Back At The World That “Teased” Them! Let Us Then “Talk” about Some Facts Then Shall WE? Ogden, Iowa Police dept., Along With The Boone County Sheriffs Office, Have Been “Corrupt as Long as I Have Been Here, Currently, When They said That “flash bangs” Went off, Prior Boone County Sheriff Mr.Fare, Was Already “Being” interviewed on YouTube a “good Minute or more”, On Live T.V., By KCCI News Channel 8, and “Unlike” “other” Police Stand-offs, all You “Heard” was An Array of “Shots”, NO BOMBS NO EXPLOSIONS, ONLY Gun Shots, So How Do You “Explain that? When He was Being “Interviewed”, Only Give or Take Within no More Then 100Feet or so From Where The “murder Took Place, Because IF you Live in This Town, It’s “Uncanny” The Way Sound Travels, You can “Fart” and You’re Neighbor 4 Houses away Say’s “good one”!, Also when You Go Down To Des Moines, and say That You Live Here, People say, ” Oh you Live in That Town Where, They Shot That Guy To “Death”, In His BED! Currently “Another” man in Ogden, Iowa Who Has Similar “Mental” Problems was “”assaulted By One Of Those “responding Officers”, After “Being Told, By One Of “Them” { You Know I Don’t even Have to See a Weapon in You’re Hand, All I have to Do is Say I saw it, and You’ll Be The “Second Randall Kimsey”, I Know Because I am That “Man”, and “one” of Those “Ogden, Iowa” Officers Just “assaulted” me on July 20th,2013, While being Video Taped, Not Doing His Job! Ask Your Self this, Why Weren’t THE IOWA STATE POLICE THERE?, In Almost EVERY STATE they are in “Control” of The Scene! The Have a “Negotiator” , There, So That There is” NOTHING Left to Question, When it Comes to Were policies Followed to a “T”, if There is a “total” of more Then 4-5 Houses on that “pretty Much” Dead End Road, Who Truly Was REALLY In DANGER, “RANDALL” WAS! Two “Officers” go Up To “Talk to Him”, and They See a “Gun”, No Where Did I Hear ANY Police Officer “say”, That They felt “Threatened”, Or That it Was Pointed at THEM! So You MEAN To Tell Me That The “Training at The Police Academy, They “Stopped”, Teaching the One Handed Take “Down’!, Where You Almost Can Break the entire Fingers ,Hand ,and Wrist of the One With “THE GUN”, and “Other” Tactics, THE STATE OF IOWA DEPT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES , AND LAWMAKERS, Passed “a Law”, That ALL IOWA STATE and CITY, TOWNS ,etc.. Police depts. HAVE TO Take A Course on How to “DEAL WITH” People with disabilities, and Mental impairments”, For all “Intended Purposes” You Might as well call it The Randy Kimsey Law! Mr. Orrell Has Been Under “Constant”, Discrimination “Since” he Moved There, By Some of the good ole Boy’s, But By Both Law Enforcement Agencies, since he moved There. He Has a YouTube Channel, He is a Reverend , and a Minister, And Because of His “stance” on The “truth” He Sees on a “daily Basis”, He can not even Get MEDICAL CARE, in the Entire State of IOWA, Because of This , Along With His Church Program He Has On You Tube, In Fact Ogden, IOWA Police Chief Mick Bailey was “Called” out to Mr. Orrell’s House just “Today”, as in His “Words” (Mr. Bailey) said “SOME INSURANCE COMPANY” HUMANA Called and Told Him, That Mr. Orrell Was “DRINKING BLEACH”!! When Mr. Bailey Arrived, and Had Mr.Orrell’s Wife “Totally”, Falsely “Upset, as She Too, Just Got Home From Work, {She Opened} the Garage Door, and There Was Mr. Orrell (REVEREND) (Minister), STANDING IN THE GARAGE HAVING A “Smoke” as He Often Does, With The Phone on Speaker, having a Conversation, Mr. Orrell Then “Took” Mr. Bailey into The “Garage”, and had Him “Talk To”, The Person on The Phone, That was Already at 150 Minutes, and “nobody”, But Ogden, IOWA POLICE CHIEF Mick Bailey Knew What The Heck was Going on! That was “The Third” “Time”, The 911 CALL CENTER That is in (BOONE, County), Like in Boone County Sheriffs DEPT. NEW SHERIFF, SAME OLE TRICKS! it Will Be Interesting To See If Ogden, IOWA Police “Officer”, Nate Spencer, Makes Good His “Threat of Mr. Orrell ” Being The “Second” Mr. Kimsey, For His Sake And Mine I Sure Hope Not, there’s Already Been One too Many Deaths So Far, Oh and By The Way, A “Source”, in Des Moines, Iowa Stated That The Wife of Mr. Kimsey Settled out of Court for around $130,000 . https://iowappa.com/?p=103
Mr. Ryan conveniently faelid to mention an important theme that played out in each of the suicide by cop tales he mentioned. That is the safety of the police officers who were involved in the subject slayings. Each of those officers has a goal of going home to their families at the end of each shift.The episode he labels the worst, is easily the most understandable and proper shootings of the group. Ryan faelid to mention that twice during the chase Garcia attempted to kill an officer. And, he was already firing as the officers got out of their cruisers. Each of the officers very appropriately returned fire. The 29 hits, depending upon the total number of rounds fired, sounds like much better shooting than frequently occurs in such situations. Ideally, there should be one wound per round fired.For many years, police officers have been trained to stop the threat not to shoot to kill. Forget Roy Rogers and his Western types, who could shoot guns from hands at 50 paces. That training focuses on the body areas that will shut down the subject’s bodily ability to continue threatening officers. Only an idiot would fire a pre-set number of rounds, and stop, expecting them to have done the job. When the officers can clearly see that the subject has stopped firing, or collapsed, or something along those lines, then it is appropriate for them to stop firing and not until then, unless orders are given by supervisors.Oh well. I guess Mr. Ryan’s viewpoint is skewed towards sympathy for criminals, and not towards officer safety. His labelling an execution as murder by the state sort of waves a tear-dampened hanky, in my opinion.
What was the saying in Viet Nam? We had to destroy the village to save it? Is capital punishment the penalty for harassing phone calls?
HOPE SHE WINS BIG