good afternoon this is Daniel here with
Copwatch TV we're going to talk about
and get into our last show of 2023 so
we're just going to go ahead and get
right into it the first case that we're
going to cover today is a case that
happened back in April of this past year
however the body camera footage just
came out it involves an individual
78-year-old named Caesar Robinson now
one of the reasons why I've been
tracking this case and we're talking
about this case is because after the
officer involved shooting there were
marches and there were protests and
there were people screaming in the
streets basically saying that this was
an unlawful officer involved shooting
and that they wanted the police officers
to be fired and held accountable well
now we have the body camera footage and
those same people who were screaming and
yelling in the streets and protesting
and demanding that the police be held
accountable well now that we have the
body camera footage those very same
people they're silent they aren't saying
a whole lot and I guess that's their
apology so here's what happened in this
case again it was back in April of this
past year police officers responded to
reports of a burglary over at the
apartment of Caesar Robinson who again
is a 78-year-old man now there is some
dispute about in some of the media
reports some of the media reports that
I've read about say that Mr Robinson's
nephew called for police officers other
Reports say that Mr Robinson himself is
the one who called for police officers
either way police officers weren't just
bored and had nothing better to do and
just showed up randomly at Mr Robinson's
house either way police officers were
called to Mr Robinson's apartment in
reference to a burglary in PR or a
burglary that had occurred so police
officers arrive on scene when they get
there they knock on the door and they
ring the doorbell and as the door starts
to open one of the police officers
starts a sentence with the word sir it
seems like the police officer was
expecting to you know talk to someone
who had just been the victim of a
burglary and was you know going to
contact him and talk to him in a normal
cordial
manager Way Again by calling him sir
however as soon as the door fully swings
open Mr Robinson is holding a gun in his
left hand the gun is pointed directly at
police officers the police officers go
from addressing him calmly is saying sir
to yelling oh because they realize
that a gun is pointed directly at one of
the officers Mr Robinson then takes a
couple steps out of the door towards the
police officers and it's at that point
that police officers utilize deadly
force um again that's what happened in
the body camera video and there were
still some people who were you know
complaining about this officer involved
shooting and here are some of the things
that they've talked about they said well
did Mr Robinson even know that it was
the police officers who were at the door
you know he had just been the victim of
a of of a burglary so it's reasonable
that Mr Robinson might answer the door
holding a gun well let's address that in
in a couple different ways first of all
Mr Robinson has eyes so he can see that
it's uniformed police officers also he
has a peephole so he could have looked
out the door to see who EXA was there if
Mr Robinson wasn't sure he could have
when the doorbell rang and you know the
officers knocked at the door he could
have yelled and asked who it was um
there's a lot of different things that
Mr Robinson could have done besides not
only answer the door with a gun in his
hand but have the gun pointed at police
officers and then take two steps towards
the police officers with the gun and
it's just one of those things that when
you have a gun pointed at you the time
for negotiation and deescalation that
time has passed because your life may
have only moments left to it and the
time to deescalate has passed so this is
undoubtedly a Justified officer involved
shooting and again there were weeks and
months of protests about this shooting
so I hope that the individuals not
counting on it but I kind of hope that
the individuals who were saying that not
only were they saying that NYPD was
lying not only were they saying that Mr
Robinson did not point a gun at police
officers but also saying that this is a
case where the police officers could
have done anything else and you can't
when a gun is pointed at you whether
you're a regular whether you're citizen
or you are a police officer that's an
immediate deadly threat and the way that
police officers should respond is with
immediate deadly force next case that
we're going to talk about and this is a
case where this is a controversial case
and you know I I we've had cases like
this before and i' I've got an issue
with them and it's difficult for me to
say that this is a Justified officer
involved shooting now if we break it
down maybe we can get there but I to me
this shooting is absolutely problematic
and again we don't just cover officer
involved shootings and cases where the
police officers did the right thing
we're going to talk about cases just
like we do every week where you know
there's some question as to whether what
the police officers did those are the
most interesting cases and that's why I
like to cover cases like this so this
happened um last week in mosquit Texas
uh police officers there was an officer
involved shooting where police officer
shot and killed a 19-year-old named
Payton Lawrence so basically here's what
happened with this case police officer
was on random patrol in this town of msk
Texas um for for whatever reason as the
police officer was driving around at
night he noticed two vehicles that were
kind of following each other there was a
Hyundai that appeared like it was being
followed pretty closely by a Chrysler um
as the vehicle passed the officer and
again there wasn't a whole lot of there
wasn't a whole lot of uh traffic in the
area and the officer took note of that
and saw which direction after the
officer passed the Hyundai and the
Chrysler the officer took note of uh we
know where those Vehicles went well just
then over the radio it came out that
there was a silver Hyundai vehicle which
was the exact description of the vehicle
that the officer had just saw that there
was a a silver Hyundai vehicle driving
in that area that had just been stolen a
reports of a stolen vehicle so the
officer thought I just saw a vehicle
matching that description in that same
area I saw where they went I'm going to
try to go and find them so a police
officer D went went down the road and
there happens to be a gas station right
there police officer notices in the gas
station that there's that same silver
Hyundai vehicle that's parked at a gas
pump and there's actually no one in that
car and then the officer right directly
next to it the officer sees the Chrysler
that was following that vehicle so the
officer thinks okay this is you know
this is quite possibly the the the
stolen vehicle and I saw this vehicle
following it so the people who now the
vehicle has like five people in it so
you know the five people who are in this
Chrysler probably had something to do
with that stolen Hyundai now this does
give the police officer Reasonable
Suspicion to detain the individuals from
the Chrysler now of course that doesn't
give him the officer probable cause to
arrest it doesn't mean they're guilty
Beyond A Reasonable Doubt but in order
to detain all police officers need is
reasonable suspicion and yes there was
Reasonable Suspicion to detain the
individuals in the vehicle at this point
now what the police officer does is the
police officer exit exits his vehicle
and he goes and he stands directly in
front of the Chrysler directly in front
of the vehicle he draws out his weapon
points at the driver and starts giving
the driver commands um he starts telling
the the driver to to to stop um to to
put his hands on the steer steering
wheel all of those types of things the
driver of the vehicle was a 19-year-old
named pton Lawrence instead of following
those directions what pton Lawrence does
is he moves forward now we had cases
where it looks like an individual is um
you know there's a police officer
standing in front of the car and that
the end the driver tries to go around
the police officer or tries to go
quickly around the police officer and
there's there's some question as to
whether or not the police officer's life
is in immediate danger however this case
is a little bit different and we have
surveillance camera video where we can
see exactly what happened so the
officer's in front of the vehicle Payton
Lawrence the driver he does move forward
slowly a couple feet and then Payton
Lawrence backs up um and when he backs
up it seems like he's trying to angle
the vehicle and position the vehicle so
he could basically flee the scene with
which isn't good but flee the scene and
not hit the police officer otherwise he
just would have gone forward one time
quickly at a high rate of speed that
isn't what Mr Lawrence did um so he went
forward a couple feet really slow then
he backed up and then and as the vehicle
is going back and forth the officer
standing in front of the vehicle he's
basically taking a few steps forward and
backwards with the vehicle um the
officer does give commands for for Mr
Lawrence to stop so it's not ambiguous
or uh Mr Lawrence wasn't confused about
what the police officer pointing a gun
at him wanted him to do however Mr
Lawrence then decided to to creep
forward a couple more feet as Mr
Lawrence did that the police officer did
fire um three rounds killing the
19-year-old driver um and you know I I
just have to say i' I've got a pretty
big issue with this and I think a a lot
of people do as well now again this is a
tactical error from the police officer
because there is is no situation where a
police officer almost no situation where
a police officer should purposely stand
in front of a vehicle it's stupid it's
idiotic and it's a property crime so one
it's incredibly dangerous for a police
officer to do this because because if a
car is moving forward at a high rate of
speed or a medium rate of speed that is
obviously a deadly threat so the police
officer is basically putting himself in
a situation so it's kind of Officer
induced he's putting himself in a
situation where he could be hurt or
killed over a property crime a property
crime this is this is completely insane
U most police departments have policies
that directly prohibit police officers
from doing this and this is a good
reason um so so yes I I I do not think
the officer should have done that all of
this overarching of course Mr Lawrence
not only should he not have stolen car
but also he shouldn't have tried to flee
from police officers that's a bad idea
that doesn't make any sense but we're
looking at right now what the actions of
the police officer were and again the
officer should not have put himself in
that position um the car was moving
slowly now of course if I were the
defense attorney for the officer or
represent the officer in some type of
administrative action what I would say
is yes yes the officer was detaining
someone who was you know uh the suspect
there was Reasonable Suspicion of a
felony and the officer was standing in
front of the car to make sure that the
felony suspect didn't get away and the
reason that the officer utilized deadly
force is because well yes of course that
like at the time that the that the the
shooting happened yes the officer the
the vehicle wasn't driving fast it
wasn't revving the engine but from going
from a slow speed to the driver putting
just a little more pressure onto that
gas pedal that easily could have run
over the officer and that could have
been um an immediate deadly threat and
the officer was trying to avoid that
because it only takes you know a quarter
of a second to press your foot down
further on the gas pedal um you know the
reason I'm covering this case is because
if we're going to talk about we have to
talk about the bad officer involved
shootings if we're going to and be
honest about them if people are going to
listen to us talk about the good officer
involved shooting so I'm not saying that
this shooting was illegal I'm not saying
that the officer should be charged I
think we need more investigation to see
exactly what the officer was thinking I
haven't seen the body camera footage on
this yet but again we just have
surveillance camera video um what we do
know though is that it was a bad idea um
whether it's against the department
policy I don't know um there should be a
department policy against police
officers doing this now let's talk about
what the officer probably should have
done so here's a situation where you
have a suspected stolen vehicle um and
you have people inside the vehicle okay
that's a felony we do want police
officers to go after felonies well the
officer was by himself so what probably
would have made sense is you know maybe
the officer hang out at at the either
down down the street or the other side
of of the parking lot if that vehicle
tries to tries to to to go try to get
back up there as quickly as possible you
know once backup is there then conduct a
felony stop which is essentially a
traffic stop with usually two or three
police cars where the officers you know
that they get the if they get the car
stopped then they um uh you know
basically use the PA system to get
everybody out of the car at gunpoint and
that's typically what you do for a
stolen car well what some people are
going to say is well what happens if the
car flees well that good thing we
actually have laws and policies around
that so there are some uh uh police
departments and in some states where
they're going to chase until the wheels
fall off so if you're in Arkansas and
you're in a stolen vehicle yeah you're
probably not going anywhere because the
officers are going to chase you until
there's nothing left of your car but a
lot of police departments have policies
to deal with that and they basically say
that hey if if a vehicle is is if it's a
stolen vehicle that's a property crime
we're not going to let you get into a
Pursuit over a property crime some
police departments it will kind of
depends if it's the middle of the night
and there's no traffic and they're only
doing five miles over the speed limit
and it's not really dangerous we'll let
you chase for that um you know as
opposed to it being you know uh the
middle of the day in a big city doing 30
miles over the speed limit so um you
know but that that that's policy
depending I I guess my point is that if
there are police department policies
that's saying you cannot chase a car for
this particular crime then it's also
probably a good idea to not stand in
front of a car with your body um put
yourself in that position um so again
this this kind of seems like um officer
induced Jeopardy police officers need to
stop standing in front of cars um it's
just stupid and it's absolutely
ridiculous and we shouldn't be doing
those kinds of things okay before we get
into some of the top stories of 2023 and
uh some of the stories I'm looking at
going into 2024 the last officer
involved shooting them a talk about um
that I do think is objectively
reasonable happened um uh on December
8th I believe in Louisville Louisville
Kentucky um involving an individual
named Marvin Smith so this is a case
where officers with the criminal
interdiction division um so they are in
uniform or they are marked up as as as
police officers but these aren't Patrol
officers these are essentially
detectives with a Criminal interdiction
Division and they did a traffic stop on
a vehicle listen if you're being stopped
by detectives with the criminal
interdiction division it's not for
speeding it's because they think that
you did some felony and they're
probably right so what happened in this
case is that police officers with the
criminal interdiction division in
Louisville Kentucky they conducted a
traffic stop and as they conducted a
traffic stop a passenger a front seat
passenger and man named a 250lb guy
named Marvin Smith he fled the traffic
stop on foot I'm not sure what he was
thinking or how far he thought he was
going to get but that's what he did as
Mr uh Smith ran from the vehicle and you
might be wondering well why did Mr Smith
run and we're going to go ahead and get
to that here here in a minute but as M
Mr Smith ran from police officers he was
holding a handgun in his hand that had
an extended magazine um uh as he was
running from police officers and just
watch the body camera video of this
incident this morning as he was running
from police officers one police officer
yelled over 20 times I counted to drop
the gun um Mr Smith did not listen and
he kept running from police officers
what the police officer's claim is that
as he was running away from that that he
was actually pointing the gun back at
the officers as he was running that he
did this multiple times eventually
police officers um did shoot him he was
struck multiple times however Mr Smith
did did did survive um now let's get to
the claim of the police officers that
while Mr Smith was running away that he
was you know still pointing the gun at
police officers well there actually is
some evidence there is some evidence of
this on the body camera footage because
there was a light that was mounted to
the gun and you could see multiple times
during the foot chase that while he was
running away from police that the even
though it it's it's quick and it's body
camera footage so it's it's kind of
shaky but you can clearly see multiple
times during during the foot Chas that
the light from this the light that was
mounted on this gun was pointed at
police officers so he was pointing the
gun at police officers at multiple
different times during this foot chase
um again Mr Smith was shot multiple
times by police officers uh however he
did survive um now the reason why he ran
so here's why this is just just an
opinion this is a theory of mine of why
Mr Smith ran from this uh particular
traffic stop um it's because he at the
time of this incident he was serving a
home and car ation sentence essentially
house arrest he was he had some felony
charges and the last portion of his
sentence was going to be on house arrest
so Mr Smith is supposed to be at home
not in a car that was being stopped by a
criminal uh drug interdiction officers
um it found it turns out that the gun
that he had was stolen and both in the
vehicle and on him he did have some
fentanyl so he was charged um with the
stolen gun and for trafficking fentanyl
um my guess is because he was on the
home incarceration he was trying to
avoid that um didn't make a whole lot of
sense but he did survive and he is
actually back in jail for those charges
all right so those were the three
officer involved shootings that I wanted
to I wanted to talk about um now now
some of the top stories from 2023 and
listen we had a really great year a
couple of the really good things that
happened is that we did get our YouTube
award um a YouTube Creator award that we
have behind us um for for the content
that we have here over on Copwatch TV so
um definitely want to thank all of our
all of our viewers um because we
wouldn't be here without you guys not
only watching and participating in this
live show but also um watching and
sharing the incredible raw body camera
footage that we put out every single
week and we'll continue to put out every
single week on this channel U now let's
go ahead and talk about some of the top
stories this is just my opinion of what
some of the top stories from 2023 are so
you know one of the top stories from
2023 happened uh with the lever Police
Department in Megan Hall because it's
Megan Hall um and you know one of the
interesting developments in that in that
case is that she's actually recently
filed a lawsuit um she's claiming that
she was groomed and taken advantage of
by supervisors in the police department
she has actually has a court date for
that case in April of uh April of 2024
um so we will definitely keep up on the
Megan Hall lawsuit and it kind of what I
said about the time is that if you think
that the Megan Hall case in lever with
the for the lever Police Department as
soon as that case came out and it
basically got national attention there
were all kinds of amazing memes about
this case just so you know and I I know
this to and I'm 100% sure of this is
that there were hundreds of cops from
dozens of police departments who were
literally in the same situation who were
hoping that their case wasn't going to
be highlighted next that is still the
case because it is nature at play and I
promise you that will be the case going
forward um the other case that I want to
talk about is probably the top story of
the year um it it's if if the top story
of 2022 if that's top story was Uvalde
which is basically in a perfect example
of a failure of a police response to uh
uh an active shooter at a school then
the top story of 2023 has to be the
Nashville police officers who responded
um to an active shooter um at at a
school their response was was incredible
and that was absolutely 100% the top law
enforcement story of the year was the
heroic Nashville police officers um at
the officer involved shooting and how
they handled it it was incredible it was
100% an example of how police officers
should respond to and deal with monsters
at an active shooter um some good news
so we did have some good news this year
you know I I know most of the cases that
we cover are officer involved shootings
um which you know again no matter what
someone did or what crime someone
committed we obviously don't want anyone
to to lose life um or be injured you
know one of the reasons why we do this
show and we have these discussions is to
try to see what what can we do what what
policies you know what laws what tactics
what can be put in place so there's less
violence between police officers and
citizens that's really the goal of all
this um so a lot of what we cover you
know aren't great stories um because of
uh you know there is some loss of life
or some injury to someone however there
was some good news that did come out of
this year um some of the good news was
was the Ben dery case so Ben dery um was
the officer who was charged in um in I
believe it was Alabama and um uh you
know he was he was basically in jail for
um uh the the murder of someone who had
pointed a gun at him um he he actually
won his appeal earlier this year um
after serving a couple years in prison
Ben Derby won his appeal um and and and
and basically um after his appeal he he
worked at an agreement with prosecutors
to where he pled guilty to man
manslaughter credit time serve and uh
probation um their their social media
tag everywhere is stand with Darby him
and his wife kelen they always put up
updates um but the fact that Ben Derby
is out of prison and free I'm going to
say that uh was one of the good things
that happened in 2023 also we had Kim
Potter was was released from prison as
well Kim Potter was the 26-year police
vet in Brooklyn Center Minnesota who was
involved in an officer involved shooting
with an individual named Dante Wright
who was resisting a lawful arrest and
fighting with police officers Kim Potter
was the officer who had the case of
taser confusion where she basically
picked up her handgun instead of her
taser um around the country since since
2000 this happens about once a year um
it was not intentional and none of it
would have happened if Dante Wright did
not resist arrest and try to fight with
police officers um had he just been a
normal decent human and gone to jail for
his warrant um none of this would have
happened um Kim Potter served just under
three years in prison she was released
earlier this year um I hope Kim has a
good good a good uh retirement after uh
having to serve a couple years in prison
and and the last bit of good news um
that I I that I want to highlight is is
is is basically um some some some
content that had been created by uh Liz
Colin and uh uh Dr J C Chase um uh
basically Liz Colin was a former news
reporter in the Minneapolis area um her
husband um is Bob croll um during the
George Floyd incident Bob croll was a
Not only was he a sergeant with the
Minneapolis Police Department he was
also the head of the police Union um uh
you know basically not only did he have
to retire but she was actually fired
from her she left her job as a news
anchor after doing it for over over over
a decade um she wrote a book called
they're lying which basically details a
lot of the ancillary issues around the
George Floyd case and um they actually
just created a documentary that's free
almost everywhere called the fall of
Minneapolis um there there's a different
side to to all this um when it comes to
you like what really happened and some
of the narratives around it um I think
that the fact that there are people out
there in the in this space or in the
police space that are are putting out um
information that is you know outside of
just what Ben Crump and Keith Ellison
say um so the book is called they're
lying it's fantastic and the movie
documentary is called the fall of
Minneapolis I watched it a couple weeks
ago it is absolutely incredible I hope
everybody goes to watch it and that was
Liz Colin and Dr JC Chase um now some of
the cases that I'm following going into
2024 um so some of the cases that I'm
following are the most important cases
that I think we're going to have some
resolution to going into 2024 and the
number one has to be the Daniel Penney
case so the Daniel Penny case that
happened in New York City this past year
he was the marine who was on the subway
and um um homeless crazy guy named
Jordan Neely was threatening passengers
um and Daniel peny put him in some type
of a hold um and uh in order to restrain
him and um uh Jordan Neely ended up
dying and Daniel peny was charged with
manslaughter um so uh Daniel peny has
gotten a lot of support um I know there
are millions of dollars um that are in
there for his uh defense fund but he is
currently being charged with
manslaughter I think it's absolutely we
covered that case a lot on this channel
um I think it's absolutely ridiculous
that he is facing any charges at all and
um yeah be really curious to see what
happens in the Daniel peny case um other
police officer involved shootings um
that officers that have been charged I'm
following is the one case happened in
Las cruus New Mexico um hasn't gotten a
whole lot of national attention um but
it's got not even so much local
attention um this happened in Las cruus
New Mexico um the officer officer Brad
Lunsford and the individual who um he
ended up shooting killing his name was
Presley easy um e e so this is a case
where you know um uh uh officer Lansford
had made contact with Mr EAS um after
shoplifting some beer I believe uh there
was a lawful arrest not only did Presley
easy not only did he resist arrest from
the police officer but during the fight
with with police officers he actually
grabbed control and had control of the
officers taser it was at that point that
officer luner utilized deadly force um
I've covered this this this thing this
when people take control of a police
officer's taser the idea that that is a
deadly force situation and deadly for is
warranted and that is what police
officers should do in a situation like
that um that this is this is a
controversial issue that seems like it
isn't going away um you know last year
we had the case with Garrett rol um
where his charges were dismissed for
something very similar um when he shot
and killed I believe an individual named
Daryl Brooks um after Daryl Brooks took
possession of his taser and tried to
shoot the fire the taser at him those
charges were dismissed the same thing
should happen in this case um the other
case is uh also um officer Christopher
Sher um that happened in Michigan um
Grand Rapids Michigan officer
Christopher Sher um he shot and killed
Patrick Lola and he is currently uh
facing second deegree murder charges um
I've also covered the Patrick lyola case
a lot on this channel as well um that
actually happened before the Patrick
easy case in Los cruus New Mexico with
the same kind of thing during a lawful
arrest um uh Patrick lyola fought with
officer Sher and um gained control the
taser I was at that point that off sure
utilize deadly force um so the the
Daniel Penney Presley easy and then
officer Christopher Sher those are the
three cases that I'm going to be
tracking um most from 2023 into 2024 um
I want to thank everyone for being a
part of our live shows and I hope that
everyone has a great and safe New Year's
um we will see you back here next Friday
um for the show uh first one of the new
year and again have a nice and safe and
happy New Year thank
you