Simpsonville, SC — In case after corrupt case, police officers who shoot and often kill entirely innocent people — on video — and face no consequences. Even when they are caught lying about what actually happened, the officers involved in the shooting and the subsequent cover up, are almost never held accountable. Case in point, the following story out of South Carolina in which a cop walked up to an innocent man’s home, shot him through the window, lied about it, and the department ruled that he “broke no laws.” On the night of June 14, 2019, Dick Tench and his wife were sound asleep when Greenville County deputy Kevin Azzara walked up to the couple’s home, rang the doorbell and then shot Tench four times before he could even open the door. The entire scene was captured on the officer’s body camera, and department’s original version of events did not match the video at all. Despite the blatant discrepancies between what the department claimed happened and what actually happened, Azzara was ruled justified in his actions. In a lawsuit filed this week in federal court, we’ve learned that this cop has been involved in an unjustified shooting and allowed to remain a cop — despite being terminated from his previous job as a cop. Azzara was terminated from a New Jersey police department for an unjustified shooting when he became a gypsy cop before moving to South Carolina, who gladly hired the dangerous officer. Despite his history of violence, the police union has no problem supporting his actions. “That was our position from the beginning, that he broke no laws, he broke no policies, he didn’t do anything wrong,” Michael Laubshire, an attorney with the South Carolina Fraternal Order of Police who is representing Azzara. According to the union, walking up to an innocent man’s home and attempting to murder him as he looks out the window is completely within policy. Sure thing. Naturally, this is a statement with which Tench and his legal team strongly disagree. “(Azzara) was hiding behind a wall and shot me at a 45 degree angle,” Tench said. “That’s what happened. I’m laying on the ground with three bullet holes in me, dying.” The complaint alleges that this deputy was terminated his rookie year in New Jersey and unsuccessfully sued to get his job back. We further allege that he was then hired by GCSO and prior to shooting Dick he shot and killed three dogs and a person. The GCSO then lied about what happened by saying Dick opened the door and pointed a gun at the deputy. Thankfully the body camera video proves that Dick was shot in his own home through his front door window. Dick and Cindy want accountability and better training for local law enforcement.” For several weeks after the shooting, the department protected the deputy’s identity by refusing to name him. Only after they cleared him, did they release his name. According to the lawsuit, Azzara never identified himself as law enforcement prior and never activated the blue lights or siren on his vehicle while he was at the Tench’s house. As the video shows, the sound on the body camera is silent for the first 30 seconds, including when the deputy fired his gun. It never shows the door open, completely blowing the department’s claims out of the water. However, the audio does pick up the conversation after the shooting, clearly showing the irresponsible nature of the deputy and the department. After he was shot, Tench yells to his wife to “call the cops!” The deputy then responds, “I am the cops!” “Who are you? Why are you here?” asks Tench as he sits on the ground with multiple bullet holes in him. “I saw lights and I heard the door bell ring, so I got my gun. I’m a concealed weapons guy.” Several seconds later, Tench asks, “Why did you do that?” and the deputy responds, “You pointed a gun at me, man.” The man replies, “Dude, you came to my house at 12 o’clock at night, I’m sleeping. [Expletive], I’ve got to protect my house.” The deputy then tells him that someone hit a panic button on an alarm. But the Tench’s don’t have an alarm. “We don’t have an alarm,” Tench says. “He carries a concealed weapons permit,” Ashmore said. “That’s a four-hour class where they teach you to first know what you’re shooting at when you first pull the trigger. Apparently, the officer didn’t attend that class.” According to police, the deputy was responding to a medical emergency alarm that was triggered. Police claim that when they called the number associated with the alarm, no one answered. So, instead of sending an ambulance to the medical emergency, they sent a known trigger happy cop — who actually created his own medical emergency. Tench was struck once in the pelvis and once in the aortic artery. Luckily, he survived, but he was hospitalized for 30 days before they could even remove one of the bullets. The bullet in his pelvis will have to remain in the 63-year-old man’s body for the rest of his life.