good afternoon this is Daniel here with
Copwatch TV thank you so much for
joining our live show and we're going to
break down some of the most important
and interesting police cases from the
last week or so and this week really had
a bunch but what we're going to do is
we're really going to Target the top
three cases this week so just in case
you haven't already please go ahead and
subscribe to the channel and make sure
that you share with friends and family
so they can get in on this live show and
you know this is something that we do
every we every week usually around 12:00
mountain time and not only do we go over
and discuss some of the most important
interesting and controversial police
cases from across across the country
from the last week is we also like to
take comments and questions because
often the our our viewers will have a
different opinion about a case or maybe
they have you guys have more information
about a case so going back and forth
through the comments and having that
honest discussion and dialogue is one of
the things that we think is important
here so make sure that you participate
in that uh let's see where's everybody
coming from today we got someone from
Vietnam Sweden looks like we have
someone from Dallas Fort Worth and
Indiana we're going to talk about a case
from Indianapolis uh today as well as
you guys are probably already know
Anthony Dicky from Virginia uh all right
really Vietnam I'm xdl all right so it's
good to see everybody in today and if
you want to go ahead and follow me again
I'm Daniel you can follow me at police
law news pretty much everywhere all
right so let's just get into it so this
first case that we're going to talk
about you know this case happened a
couple years ago but it's an awful
tragic case and there was an update this
week and you know this is the kind of
thing that the mainstream media unless
you're local probably aren't going to
cover it a whole lot so I think it's
important that we get this information
out to everyone because this is
something that really everybody should
be talking about and know law Soul are
you a police officer uh yeah I've got 18
years experience over 18 years
experience as a police officer and a
laot degree all right so the the case
that we're going to talk about so this
happened in uh on August 7th 2021 in
Chicago so there was a police officer
her name was Ella French she was a
29-year-old police officer she had only
been on the force for about 3 years and
she was tragically killed in the line of
duty and there's actually an update to
that case so if you remember on that
date back in August of 21 Ella French
and two of her Partners were on patrol
and they pulled over a vehicle which is
one of the reasons why traffic stops
that and domestic violence calls are
like the two most dangerous things
statistically that police officers can
do and in this case it wasn't just the
one police officer Ella French she had
two of her partners with her they
initiated traffic stop on a vehicle and
it was for a low-level offense it was
for expired license plates and again
this is one of the things that you can
say that on a traffic stop that you just
never really know and if you have a
chance to listen to the dispatch from
this case it is absolutely tragic it is
heart-wrenching but the dispatcher was
calm and cool and did an unbelievable
job um he's been on multiple different
podcasts but the L French dispatch
listen to that that is uh that is a case
study in in in dispatching and a
critical situation that is hard for
every first responder including
dispatchers so they initiated traffic
stop because the vehicle had expired
license plates inside the car were two
individuals there were brothers um uh
OTE emote and Eric Morgan were the two
individuals in the car um during the
traffic stop mote pulled out a gun from
his waistband and he started firing
rounds at the three police officers he
actually hit two of the police officers
um tragically Ella French was shot and
she did sustain fatal injuries and her
partner Carlos yenes he was also shot
and he sustained critical injuries as
well um the the two individuals who were
responsible for this were um caught
quickly caught they were arrested um and
let's talk about some of the charges so
emote is the one who pulled the trigger
so his trial is upcoming and you know
he's facing life in prison for the for
the for the homicide charges the brother
Eric he didn't pull the trigger but
investigators found out that this was a
conspiracy essentially that both
brothers you know conspired to shoot
these police officers and he was facing
multiple felonies and he was looking at
a maximum of 23 years in prison well
within this last week the prosecutors
offered a plea deal and the defense
attorney for for Eric he went on the
news and he could barely hide his
excitement over this um and he said that
his uh his client Eric is likely going
to take it I mean you goddamn right he's
going to take it because the plea de
calls for a maximum of 7 years in prison
and to me that's just completely insane
if you have any role in The Killing of a
police officer in my opinion there
should be no plea deal and listen the
only thing we should be negotiating is
whether Eric Gets the electric chair or
the firing squad I'm curious to see what
your thoughts are about this uh LW Soul
says uh must be so hard for uh police
officer United States with handguns I'm
from sweding and nobody uh but the
police officers would ever draw their
gun uh in a in a traffic stop yeah it's
dangerous for police officers absolutely
let's see what else we have I want to
talk about the Arkansas state doing pit
Maneuvers at 80 miles an hour uh yeah so
that that's that's interesting so we
have talked about cases like that before
and just really quick on pit maneuver so
so typically when pit Maneuvers that's
when a police officer uses uses their
vehicle um to to stop another to to stop
another car typically um if it's at
least in a lot of different states
especially the state that I worked in if
you use a pit maneuver over 30 m an hour
police officers per policy actually
weren't able to do that unless deadly
force is authorized meaning if someone
is shooting at people they committed a
violent felony or the police officers
can articulate this person is a an
ongoing deadly threat police officers
would be able to pit someone at 80 M
hour if deadly force is authorized but
let's say it's just a traffic stop for
speeding or expired plates or some or
even like minor uh misdemeanor
shoplifting a police officer would not
be able to per policy pit someone um at
those speeds because that would be
considered deadly force to me that's a
good policy officers and police
departments they have a lot of
Technology right now in order to try to
find people they can run license plates
there's uh there's all kinds of
different things that police officers
can do they can have uh they can have a
helicopter track a car there's a lot of
different ways to get people into
custody besides doing a pit maneuver at
80 miles an hour um yeah but I mean if
you look at what goes on in the south in
Arkansas I've never worked in Arkansas
that's like the Dukes of Hazard you know
so they are they are a different thing
uh let's see Andromeda Ember says best
pit speeds about 35 miles an hour yeah
that that's probably that's probably
about right and I'm glad that Cynthia
Johnson wants the wants the uh wants the
firing squad for the for the the
individual who um uh killed Ella French
um Ghost Rider says I lost my partner 10
years ago at the sheriff's office that
went down that way hit me hard and the
department hard I'm so sorry for your
loss um I've been on a I've been on a
police department where we um lost some
officers on duty um that I personally
knew to that is absolutely tragic um I
can't imagine what those officers in
Chicago are are are going through now I
haven't heard a response from the
Chicago Police Union um I haven't heard
a response from the Chicago Police Union
on this but hopefully they do say
something or I'm made aware of it all
right the next case that we're going to
talk about is Anthony Macklin so this is
a case um that happened in uh in
Indianapolis where police officers are
facing criminal charges for their
actions and I'm really curious to see
what you all think about this I know
that we had someone from Indiana Indiana
in here earlier but you know so here's
what happened with this cas so this was
in December of 22 when there was an
elderly woman named Vicky driver so she
called police officers at 4:00 in the
morning and here's what she reported she
reported there was an unknown and
suspicious vehicle in her driveway that
was running that she didn't recognize at
4:00 in the morning and Miss driver this
elderly female she called for police
officers to come and check it out now as
police officers got on scene um you know
she said she didn't recognize who who
the car belonged to she couldn't see the
individual inside only that the car was
still running one of the things that she
did tell police officers is she says you
know I'm not sure if it's one of my kids
or grandkids um but again she didn't
recognize the car so police officers do
what they're supposed to do police
officers arrive on scene they go up to
the to the residence and they see the
car that she described was running in
the driveway so they walk up and they an
individual who is later identified as
Anthony Macklin he's in the driver's
seat of the car the car is running he's
asleep the other thing that police
officers notice is that he has a firearm
on his La so now again so anyone who's
going to criticize the police on this
case and I might criticize them here too
in a minute the the kind of criticism
that I like but I guess it's not
important what I like the criticism that
I think is most interesting that really
breeds discussion and then maybe change
when it comes to tactics and policy in
policing is what could the police
officers have done different so here you
are you're a police officer there's an
elderly woman who called who reported
this you get there and there's a guy in
a car he's sleeping and um he has a
handgun in his lap like what do you do
as a police officer so at that point
let's let's just let's just take it two
different options you could either say
well he's just sleeping in someone's
private driveway not really a crime I
mean trespassing maybe but we're just
going to leave and this old lady can
deal with it when she feels like dealing
with it on her own like that's not a
reasonable response from from police
officers so they have to make contact
with this guy that that seems like what
they would want to do so if I were on
that call for service here's some of the
things that I would do one you know
while I'm investigating I would want to
be as quiet as possible and not have him
wake up and that's pretty much what the
police officers did I would also want to
get more information from Miss driver
because she said hey you know I'm not
sure if it's one of my kids or grandkids
you know maybe I would want to maybe I
would want to you know get a little more
information to see because if this is
someone who's related to her that's the
end of the call some it's someone who's
related to her awesome she can she can
identify that person police officers are
on their way which is what the goal
should be to end these calls safely no
matter how you do it so what what they
do is they notice that again this
happened in Indiana they notice that the
vehicle had a Florida license plate so
the police officers go to miss driver
and they ask her a very reasonable
question hey do you have any
grandchildren or kids or friends or
family who live in Florida or who drive
a car with a Florida license plate if
she would have said yeah you know what I
actually have a cousin who drives a
Florida car oh that's probably him great
police officers can be on their way
however she said no she said none of my
kids grandkids no one I know drives a
car with Florida license plate so now at
this point you get police officers have
a duty to try to figure out what's going
on they can't just leave this guy who's
suspicious because Miss driver doesn't
know this person he's in her driveway
like the police officers have to deal
with it so the first thing that police
officers do is what their plan is and we
can talk about what their plan or
tactics are because I think that's
important because listen how police
officers are trained to handle
situations that's how they're going to
respond so if we don't like the response
from police officers and maybe some
people in this chat don't but if we
don't like their response from police
officers the fix to that is to train
police officers better is to give them
more information hey do some reality
Based training and say hey in a
situation like this this is best
practices this is how you handle it
unfortunately when you're a police
officer you're dealing with a thousand
different types of calls and there just
isn't any possible way for the training
section of any Police Department of any
every state to go over every single type
of call and every single type of
scenario but this is one that I think
that police officers really should get
some training on is how do you wake up
someone who's asleep especially when
they have their firearm again uh 18
years of policing experience 15 of those
was in uniform I've had to wake up a lot
of people a lot of people in cars most
of the use of forces that I was involved
in is from that that you wake up someone
who's drunk in a car but I've never
taken a call where someone was asleep in
a car that was running and they had a
handgun on their lap I've never taken
that call so I would really have to
think about how I would handle something
like that well here's how these officers
in Indianapolis handled it what they did
is the first thing they did is they went
over to the passenger side and they
tried tried to open the door so the plan
that they had is okay we're going to try
to be really quiet open the door we're
going to try to remove the firearm and
then once we remove the firearm then we
could wake him up the situation safe we
could see what's going on with him well
they tried to open the passenger side
door and it was locked that plan didn't
work hey Shakil O Meal so the next thing
that the police officers tried to do is
they decided they were going to knock on
the window they're going to knock on the
window and announce themselves as police
officers and again if you disagree with
this tactic just tell me what you think
that the officer should have done
because I'm really curious it it does
doesn't seem that unreasonable so the
next thing that police officers do is
they go ahead and they knock on the
window now they knock on the window they
wake up Mr Macklin who's in the driver's
seat um and here's what the police
officer say now all of this is on body
camera camera video but as you know the
body camera doesn't capture what the
police officers see the body camera
captures whatever Direction it was
pointed if a police officer's eyes are
looking this way the body camera could
be here on their chest pointing a
different direction or pointing straight
but especially if you're trying to look
down into a car a police officers or
anyone's eyes can look down into a car
well body cameras don't look down they
just look straight ahead so none of this
is captured on body camera video what
the police officers say happened what
the officers say happened is that when
they woke up Mr Macklin that he grabbed
the handgun he started to move the
handgun in the direction of a police
officer um once that happened police
officers um uh police officers yell um
uh they yell police police they yell
drop it um about about for five seconds
um I should also mention that the wide
angle um of body cameras um things that
they can look morphed at close range so
watching the body camera video um you
know isn't the same as what police
officers actually saw in real time but
police officers even though he grabbed
the gun according to officers police
officers yell for about 5 Seconds you
know police police drop it drop it um he
doesn't is at that point police officers
um fire their guns um they fire a bunch
of different rounds Mr Macklin was hit
three different times after he was hit
he dropped the gun they gave him
commands he exited the vehicle once he
exited the vehicle Miss driver who
unfortunately had to witness all this
said that's my grandson it was at that
point that police officers knew that was
her grandson she said it was her
grandson that was the first time anybody
realized that um Mr Macklin did survive
so thankfully Mr Macklin did survive he
was taken into custody um but he did
survive um his medical bills are
extensive I me as you can imagine I
think his medical bills are over
$900,000 at this point um so police
officers um they they went ahead and
Char charged two of the police officers
officers Chandler and Gregory were
indicted they face multiple charges of
aggravated battery battery with a deadly
weapon and Battery resulting in serious
bodily injury um so I'm curious what you
all think about about um uh about that
particular case um let's take a comment
from Ghost riter so I'm a big
Constitution fan uh where I worked as a
deputy and abided by that if I don't
have probable cause then I would have
let them go without asking for
credentials okay yeah I'm not sure which
case you're talking officer should be
big on the Constitution I'm I am huge
I'm ghost riter I am huge when it comes
to lawful objective that if police
officers don't have a lawful objective
and if that turns into a use of force I
have very little tolerance for that now
if police officers do have a lawful
objective and that turns into a use of
force because someone isn't cooperating
or fighting with police I give police
officers a more of a wide birth there
but I'm really really keen on the
Constitution Fourth Amendment stuff um
so I I should just say that you know
what what this is this is a compli at
case because again if we're going to
criticize the police officers with which
I'm I'm I'm good with criticizing the
police officers or their tactics or
their training but my question is what
else would you want the police officers
to do and over the last couple days that
I thought about this case you know I
really only thought of one other thing
that maybe I would have done as a police
officer there on scene now again I
should say that I I'm not the police
officer on the scene you know actually
dealing with it in the moment from the
comfort of my own house of my own office
I'm thinking okay what can I do and
obvious viously thinking like that is
you're going to have you're going to
have more you're going to have more um
you're going to have more options you
might think of more things than in the
moment which is why Education and
Training for cops is so important but
the only other thing that I could think
of that police officers could have done
is because they did ask if they knew
anyone they they did ask if anyone if if
she knew anyone from Florida that was a
good question well since they were
walking up near the vehicle they were
close to the vehicle they got close
enough to the car and Mr mlin they could
see he had a gun all police officers
have cell phones most of the time those
cell phones or a lot of the time those
cell phones are actually provided from
the police department so the only other
thing I could see police officers doing
is maybe you know while they're up there
near Mr mcklin anyways because there was
at least one police officer with eyes on
Mr Macklin in case he woke up and
grabbed the gun so it's not like they
saw the gun and all of them backed off
we know that isn't what happened right
so um there was an officer up there with
Mr mcky only thing I could have think of
doing is trying to snap a picture of Mr
Macklin taking it over to miss driver
and say hey I know you didn't say you
know anyone from Florida hey bista this
is the individual who's in the driver's
seat do you recognize them at that point
you know hopefully she would have said
yeah that's Anthony that's my grandson
108 officers are are are going home
they're they're they're not messing
around with any of this which again
which is the goal um so that again
that's the only thing I could see the
police officers doing differently um
because again they have to make contact
so okay so since the police officers
have to make contact could they have
done kind of like a felony stop thing
like Park their vehicles um or or some
other cover cover and concealment behind
Mr M 's vehicle get on the PA system
call out Pas because he was armed and
pull him out like a like a felony stop
because he's armed well I guess they
could have done that but you know there
were no charges against him so so trying
to do a felony stop when there's not
felony charges you know I'm I'm I'm I'm
a little we know that police officers
are going to be criticized for that so
if they do a felony stop and now again
like hindsight is 2020 and yes I would
rather have Mr Macklin do a felony stop
being handcuffs for 30 seconds and and
be uncomfortable until they realize it's
the grandson he's alive and uninjured
yes of course I would prefer that but
again the asking police officers to do a
felony stop when there aren't felony
charges you you know they're going to be
criticized for that right I mean I mean
so we know that um that there's going to
be dishonest criticism there but now
that there was an officer involved
shooting the same people who would have
criticized that as the same people who
are saying they should have done a
felony stop why didn't they do that so
again it's dishonest criticism but you
know we should talk about how police
officers should be trained let me read
something from Ben Crump so obviously
when Ben Crump gets involved in a case
what he does is he says what happened at
the beginning sometimes and what
happened at the end and all of the
relevant stuff in the middle he's going
to leave out so listen to the tweets so
I just told you what happened in this
case and again I'm not being dishonest
about anything because the body camera
video is available and I encourage you
to go watch it and fact check me but I
told you everything that happened from
my view of watching the body camera
video here's what Ben Crump tweeted
about this case last December
Indianapolis police officers fired at
least 30 shots into the car of Anthony
Macklin who is asleep
who was asleep in his parked car outside
his grandmother's house shooting him
three times that was the Tweet now do
you think that is Garner to raise
awareness about this case to promote
some kind of an agenda is it honest at
all so the fact that Miss driver so all
of the investigative steps that the
police officer took the fact that Mr
Macklin had a handgun and police
officers say he pointed at them that
isn't in the tweet at all so again this
is how dishonest this is but it's some a
tweet like this is literally going to be
viewed and shared hundreds of thousands
maybe millions of times and that is the
impression that people are going to have
not the actual truth which is one of the
reasons why we do this show that's one
of the reasons is to try to put the
truth out there and again not just my
opinion I'll tell you when something's
my opinion but when I'm saying this is
what the body camera video shows and I'm
saying go and watch it so again so the
the one of the attorneys for the police
officers after that tweet he did say um
which I think is important for attorneys
to get out there and to combat some of
this misinformation one of the attorneys
said uh he was not shot while sleeping
he was wide awake he was awake he
reached for a gun he turned that gun in
the directions of police officer so
again there's a reason why when when
talking about this case Ben Crump says
he was asleep in the car and he was shot
and hit three times and Leah leaves out
everything in the middle that could be
relevant um I should also say that when
police officers wake someone up um that
I'm not saying Mr Macklin's a bad guy
here's the thing I didn't even look at
Mr Macklin's criminal history I had no
interest of looking at his criminal
history so I'm not even saying that Mr
melin's a bad guy here's what I'm going
to say about this I know that when you
are in a situation whether you're drunk
or sober when you're woken up by someone
knocking on the window saying police any
person whether you're a good person
whether you're a bad person whether
you're a criminal whether you've never
committed a crime in your life a
situation like that the first second or
two that you're awake you can imagine a
reasonable person might be confused
scared not knowing what's going on is
that a reasonable thing that could
happen so what I'm saying about this is
the fact that Mr Macklin had a handgun
in his lap the fact that he grabbed the
handgun immediately he may not even have
known it was police officers at the time
that he grabbed it because he was woken
up from asleep so what I'm saying is
that a a situation like this is so
dangerous because someone who may not
have any ill will towards police
officers may find themselves in a
situation where they just by reflex just
grab the gun and start moving it a
little bit we can see like from Mr
Macklin's perspective maybe that's a
reasonable thing that someone might do
but if we say that we also have to say
that from the perspective of the police
officer you don't know who Mr Macklin is
if Mr Macklin or anybody else in a
situation like that grabs a gun and
starts moving it in your direction the
reasonable response is to defend
yourself as a police officer so this is
one of those cases where I can make an
argument that Mr Macklin maybe he wasn't
unreasonable and that the police
officers as well also weren't
unreasonable though I do just want to
say um I don't know too many people who
fall asleep in their grandmother's
driveway with without telling
grandmother um with a gun on their lap
um I i' I've never seen that before so
to me that strikes me as strange um but
yeah I'm not sure all right we're going
to cover one more case here um and then
I'm going to let you know what we're
going to talk about next week so uh Lake
and woods uh was a video that was out um
Lake and woods was a video that was out
was captured on on on on cell phone
video Jacksonville Florida the cell
phone video of Lakey and woods came out
and essentially it was it was it was
nonsense what people said the police
officers did to lakeon Woods is that
they essentially brutalized him while he
was in handcuffs there's pictures of
lakeon woods where he has his eyes all
all all puffed up and they say that the
police officers did that when he's when
he was um um already in custody I can
tell you that isn't true it's not true
at all um we're going to cover it more
next week I'll I'll I'll I'll get into
it more next week but Lake and woods in
Jacksonville Florida the the sheriff TK
Waters he actually did a press
conference there's still about a two to
three day Gap from when the video cell
phone video came out to when TK Waters
got on the news but TK Waters this is
the true police leader the sheriff in
Jacksonville Florida he came out he did
a media briefing not only did he explain
what the police officers did he gave his
opinion on it that it that everything
they did was legal that there was no
excessive force and then he showed the
entire unredacted body camera video to
prove what he said Lakey and woods if
you see the picture of him he's going to
have his eyes all puffed up injuries on
his face the reason that happened is
because he was running from police
officers as he was was running from
police officers he was warned that he
would be tased if he didn't stop he
didn't stop he after he didn't stop he
was tased by a police officer he fell on
the ground and his face smashed into the
pavement that is how he sustained those
injuries it was not from police officers
um this has been all over the news
there's been protest in Jacksonville
Florida I think that is important all
right that's going to be our show for
today um I want to thank everybody for
coming in today was a little bit short
however we are going to have a longer
show next week where we have a lot of
stuff going on the case that I want
everyone to look at or get questions
about is there was a police officer in
Los cruus New Mexico that was just
indicted on charges from an officer
involved shooting in a case where an
individual tried to grab his taser did
grab a taser and the police officer shot
him in the back of the head think of the
New Mexico version of the Patrick lyola
case this is going to be big um I'm
really really this is a case that I'm
I'm pretty upset about that the police
officers were charged that's the first
thing we're going to talk about next
week please go ahead and subscribe to
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a great and safe weekend thank
you