The Washington Post offers more details on this week’s police shooting death of a Fairfax County, Virginia man:

Fairfax County’s police chief said yesterday that one of his officers accidentally shot and killed an optometrist outside the unarmed man’s townhouse Tuesday night as an undercover detective was about to arrest him on suspicion of gambling on sports.

Police had been secretly making bets with Salvatore J. Culosi Jr., 37, since October as part of a gambling investigation, according to court records. They planned to search his home in the Fair Oaks area, just off Lee Highway, shortly after 9:30 p.m.

Culosi came out of his townhouse on Cavalier Landing Court about 9:35 p.m. and was standing next to the detective’s sport-utility vehicle, police said, when the detective gave a signal to tactical officers assembled nearby to move in and arrest Culosi.

“As they approached him . . . one officer’s weapon, a handgun, was unintentionally discharged,” said Fairfax Police Chief David M. Rohrer.

[...]

Perez said Culosi had not displayed a weapon or shown any violent tendencies while he was being investigated by Baucom. But Perez said police had to be prepared for any possibility, because “the unexpected can occur.”

“Tactical officers” is a eumpemism for SWAT team. So yes, the Fairfax County police department dispatched the SWAT team to arrest an optometrist suspected of gambling. They had their guns drawn. The descended upon him. And one of them killed him.

Fairfax police can talk all they want about a “thorough investigation.” But whether the officer has his finger on or near the trigger, whether he tripped or was bumped, or whether or not his gun was faulty — frankly, none of that means a damn thing. A 37-year-old man is dead because the Fairfax County police department, like police departments all over the country, is sending SWAT teams to serve gambling warrants. And nonviolent drug warrants. And a host of other warrants.

Lt. Perez is wrong. SWAT teams don’t diminish the risk of violence. They escalate it. In rare situations — hostage crises, barricades, or violent crimes-in-process, for example — escalation is necessary to stave off immediate harm. In inherently nonviolent, routine police work — like serving warrants on optometrists — they’re needlessly provocative and dangerous. A growing pile of bodies testifies to that.

And until spineless lawmakers put an end to this idiocy (and yes, risk being called “soft on crime” as a result), the pile is only going to get larger.

This entry was posted on Thursday, January 26th, 2006 at 2:45 pm by Radley Balko and is filed under Gambling and Poker, Police Militarization. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.