11/1/12
In the article, “Murky Details Mean Tough Call in MARTA
Shooting,” the family of a 19 year old was shot to death by a MARTA police over
a year ago, and are about to learn whether or not the police will be held
criminally responsible for his death. So basically here’s the short version of
the story instead of regurgitating the entire article word for word. The 19
year old whose name was Joetavius Stafford was thought to be holding a gun and
the police went running after him because well Stafford was running. A witness
said that Stafford had held his hands to surrender but the police officer
apparently didn’t notice and shot him 3 times as if 1 time wasn’t enough.
Stafford was with his brother, and the officer shot the brother once too. Records
showed that the officer was known to be a little aggressive but nothing was
ever done to fire him. But the officer doesn’t have to wait until he has a
certain identification of a gun in the hand in an event like this before he
shoots. It’s also hard to press charges against the police because it has to be
established that he was criminally reckless and proving that the officer had a
criminal intent is a pretty high bar.
So, this MARTA shooting happens to be in our very own
Georgia, and I’m sure we’ve all been used this certain public transportation to
take us places like the Phillips Arena or Georgia Dome. But did we know that
there was a shooting? While no one else was killed, it still put everyone else
in the area in danger. The officer could have been crazy and gone on a mass
killing spree or Stafford could have actually been holding a gun and shot and
random pedestrians trying to get somewhere. The shooting affects Georgia and
everyone else’s safety and MARTA’s business, I’m sure after this many people
won’t want to take the train anymore and drive instead. Cases like these should
be avoided, and it’s always better to be safe than sorry.
-Rachel Leong
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