Wednesday, November 14, 2007

Khiel Coppin Violates First Rule of Dueling: Never Take a Hair Brush To A Gun Fight!


Enough already! Here is Legal Pub's story on "gunslinger" Khiel Coppin, age 18. Coppin met the "Marshall" and his "deputies" at the O.K. Corral (Brooklyn) according to script. The kid was fast. Fact is, Coppin drew first and got the drop on law men. But the law men shot him dead because the kid forgot the first cardinal rule of engagement: Don't bring a hairbrush to a gunfight!
Police are investigating what exactly happened. One theory favored by law enforcement is that perhaps the man held the brush under his shirt to prompt officers to shoot at him ("suicide by cop. " A Harvard Medical School study in 1998 looked officer shootings in Los Angeles County over a 10-year-period. It found that “suicide-by-cop” incidents accounted for 11 percent of the shootings and 13 percent of the fatal shootings.) Some witness say they heard the man tell officers he had a gun. Others say the man was shot as he dropped the brush and attempted to raise his hands in surrender.

Police were responding to a 911 call from Mr. Coppin’s mother reporting "domestic abuse" On the call, a man was apparently overheard threatening to kill her saying “I have a gun.”

Andre Sanchez, 17, said he saw from the hallway that the officers inside were talking to Mr. Coppin, who was in a bedroom possibly with a knife in his hand. Coppin then apparently climbed out a window and confronted more officers outside the building. Shots were fired and Mr. Coppin fell to the ground. Coppin was handcuffed and taken to Woodhull Medical and Mental Health Center, where he was pronounced dead. Two other bystanders say that they saw that Coppin was armed only with a hair brush.

Psychiatric workers had been at the apartment earlier that day but Mr. Coppin was gone. Coppin returned after the workers left.

As many as 150 people protested the shooting as police brutality. Thesurrounding blocks were roped off as dozens of police officers, detectives and community affairs officers arrived to investigate the shooting. City Councilman Albert Vann was present after the shooting.


One witness claims that an officer told Mr. Coppin to put up his hands. Coppin complied and at the same time dropped the hairbrush. Contemporaneously with the dropping of the brush, police opened fire. Another witness, Precious Blood, 16, said she heard 10 shots. She thought most of the shots came from one officer. Another officer yelled: “Stop, stop, stop shooting — he’s down,” she said. At least one law enforcement official said that Mr. Coppin charged toward the officers and refused orders to stop. The investigation continues.

18 comments:

Anonymous said...

He looks so sweet and innocent in the photo! Not sure what happened, but it is pretty clear that Khiel Coppin was a sick young man. Still a shame anyone so young dies...


Shell

Anonymous said...

Damn shame...such is life.

L.S.

Anonymous said...

It is not abuse. The kid was suicidal. His way of escaping from it all, in myh opinion.


Jess

Ms Calabaza said...

It is very sad. In one second so many people's lives are affected. This troubled kid is dead, and his family grieves. A police officer and his family will go through hell and in no time this will become a media circus. Something tells me we're going to hear this kid had a history of emotional/mental problems . . . and something tells me the vultures will be coming soon to turn this into a "racial" issue.
Same old story. Sad.

Anonymous said...

In the end, there can only be one fasted hair brush in the East.

Stick to combs... Grease is the word...

Anonymous said...

I fear Mrs. Calabaza may be right regarding the racial issue. It’s amazing how quick large masses of people, ignorant of the particular involved circumstances, will condemn on such a basis.

I am also ignorant of the real facts.

All we know is a suicidal person with a gun (or in this case a suicidal person who wanted all around him to believe he had a gun…and accomplished his objective…all those around him reasonably believed he had a gun) who was threatening to kill himself and others, appears to have made a quick, furtive movement.

Under those circumstances….Bang, bang, bang, bang, and bang!

Again, sad….but that’s life.

Q: Officer why’d you shoot him five times?
A: He was reasonably perceived to be an imminent deadly threat, that’s what it took to immediately incapacitate him by “stopping him and dropping him”, and that’s all the aimed, deliberate fire I could put into him in the .73 seconds it took him to hit the ground. You’re not contending I should have continued to shoot him after he was “stopped and dropped” are you counselor?

L.S.

Anonymous said...

L.S. spoken like da man. It is all about race. It plays a part in most deaths.

Rommie

Anonymous said...

I’m sorry…I don’t see it that way. I see it as a ________ (fill in with purple, red, white, black….doesn’t matter) person with a gun trying to kill people….including you (if you just so happen to be the one tasked with dealing with the matter!).

I fail to see how “it’s all about race”. I see it as a “suicidal idiot with a gun”.

Would you be so kind as to elaborate on your reasoning in this particular happenstance that supports “it’s all about race”? I’d like to better understand your position.

Thanks.

L.S

Anonymous said...

White people seldom agree it is all about race. White police officers almost never admit it is all about race.

But sort out the data. Do you really think it is coincidence that more minorities than whites are killed by cops?

Rommie

Anonymous said...

That…I think…is true. But still, correlation is not causality. To say “its all about race” is doing a disservice to many people.

Should we factor in what crimes they were committing when dealt with by law enforcement? How about how they acted? Offering violence or otherwise putting themselves into an unreasonable zone of risk?

Doing drugs, carrying weapons on the streets, offering deadly violence to others…and then when you get shot it about race? Not!

It’s about actions. Period.

And until more people get that…and teach their children that…we’re all going to suffer from this “latent racism”.

Yeah…you’re right…racism does exist in many forms. And it’s all bad.

One form is to call “racist” that which is really not.

I don’t know what happened. But I’d say it’s more about acting stupid and offering violence than skin color.

Just my take.

L.S.

Anonymous said...

Too many men of color are killed each year. Yes, some of the fault is theirs. But some of the fault is cops too quick to pull the trigger on a minority.

I hope others join in condemning such needless waste of lives.


Beatrice

Anonymous said...

I too condemn any needless waste of life…but this is not such a case. He’s shot for a damn good reason:

He’s a reasonably perceived imminent deadly theat.

One good way not to be perceived as such is not to go out of your way to create the image…you might just get what you want.

L.S.

Anonymous said...

Wyatt Erp was a bad ass lawman, but he never gunned down a young brother with a hair brush!

Rommie

Anonymous said...

Yes Rommie, but just think how much of a bad @ss hew Wyatt Erp would have been had he gunned down a brush toting kid.

Slap em down, knockem down, but don't shoot em down unless you have to!

John

Anonymous said...

Doesn't take much of a man to gun down an unarmed kid.

Anonymous said...

He was just a boy! Very sad!

Anonymous said...

Modern day Billie the Kid?

Anonymous said...

No, more like a modern day hair dresser.