Rick Hardy: Don’t blame officers for a young man’s fatal choice
Re “Mother grieves over life, death of troubled son shot by police” (Front page, May 22): Like any parent who has children, you always want what is best for your child. You also want them to have opportunities as they age, but most of all you want them to be safe and live in a safe community.
In Jeff Jardine’s article regarding Donna Fletcher and her son Christopher, the safety of this young man was compromised because of his choices, and not the decision by police to use deadly force. It appears the two officers who shot at Christopher had a split second to make a decision to open fire on an armed man who was told twice to drop his gun but failed to do so!
I am thankful for our police officers who risk their lives each day so that we might have a safe community. I want to believe the most important thing that each officer wants is to go home each day and be with their families.
In this incident, body cameras were used to see if each officer followed proper protocol. But once again, we are questioning law enforcement?
Thank you, Modesto PD, for your continued service.
Rick Hardy, Modesto
This story was originally published May 26, 2016 at 12:11 PM with the headline "Rick Hardy: Don’t blame officers for a young man’s fatal choice."