The cop who shot Sal Culosi won’t face charges:

The Fairfax County police officer who shot an unarmed man to death in January will not be charged with a crime, the county’s chief prosecutor announced this afternoon.

From the start, Fairfax police declared that the killing of Salvatore J. Culosi Jr., 37, was an accident and that the SWAT officer who fired had done so unintentionally. Fairfax Commonwealth’s Attorney Robert F. Horan Jr. said that when a person fires a gun without malice and unintentionally kills someone, “they do not commit a crime.”

I’m calling bullshit, here. In 30+ years as a prosecutor, Mr. Horan has never pursued charges against a police officer. Not once.

Horan said the officer was aware that he should not have had a finger on the trigger and that he should not have had his .45-caliber H&K handgun pointed at anyone. “As he [the officer] says, you keep your finger straight,” Horan said. “He felt his finger was straight. . . . But obviously his finger is not straight up. His finger has to be on the trigger.”

Tests showed no defect in the gun.

So a cop draws his gun and points it at a suspect (a no-no), has his finger on the trigger (a no-no), the gun goes off and kills a man, and Horan can’t find enough to make the case for criminal negligence?

And why don’t we get to know the name of Culosi’s killer?

Let’s apply these standards to a civilian. Let’s say I’m showing my new, legally-purchased MP5 to a buddy. Just for kicks, and wholly without malice, I pretend like I’m a cowboy cop, and my friend assumes the role of the hapless optometrist I suspect of gambling. I pretend I’m raiding his home, point the gun at him, and, having put my finger on the trigger and having forgotten there’s a bullet inside, the gun goes off, killing my friend.

Anyone think the police would hold off on releasing my name to the press?

Anyone think I’d escape criminal negligence charges?

This entry was posted on Thursday, March 23rd, 2006 at 5:48 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.