Savannah Graziano
Bean bag death
Stephen Perkins Update
1. Savannah Graziano
This incident occurred on September 27, 2022 in San Bernadino, CA, but previously unseen police video has just been released.
Savannah Graziano was a fifteen-year-old that had been abducted by her father (Anthony Graziano) - a fugitive that had killed his wife.
Upon her abduction an Amber alert had been issued.
Deputies located vehicle that the pair were driving and initiated a traffic stop. When the vehicle did not stop - a pursuit was initiated.
Anthony was in the driver’s seat of the fleeing car and Savannah was in the front passenger seat - no one else was in the vehicle.
During the pursuit - shots were fired at police fired from the passenger window. This was witnessed by deputies and civilians
Eventually the car crashed and became disabled. Deputies swarmed the vehicle and Anthony engaged in a shootout with law enforcement. During this Savannah did not participate and was in a terribly unsafe position.
A deputy gave Savannah given orders to exit the vehicle and lay down on the ground (on the passenger side of the vehicle). Savannah complied with this order.
The deputy - recognizing that this was still an unsafe position told her to come towards his location.
Savannah then stood up and ran towards that deputy.
Another deputy on scene, who did not realize that Savannah had been given this instruction from the deputy - thought she was still a threat and fired his weapon at her. Savannah sustained a fatal injury.
The deputy who gave the order to Savannah was yelling to stop shooting her but it was too late.
The question is - was it reasonable for the deputy to think that Savannah was still a deadly threat.
Yes. Savannah had previously been shooting at law enforcement and the deputy did not know that she had been instructed to run towards police to a safer position.
This was an awful mistake caused by miscommunication.
The deputy was certainly not trying to kill an unarmed teenager.
I do not expect any deputy to face criminal charges.
Police officers are the good guys.
Criminals are the bad guys.
Because. Intent matters.
There is a moral difference between: 1) a cop who makes a mistake in a stressful situation, and 2) a criminal who was trying to commit a crime & escape responsibility.
2. Death by Bean Bag
This incident occurred in Fullerton, CA on March 6, 2024.
Alejandro Rios was causing a disturbance at McDonald’s and he was scaring employees and customers.
Officers arrived on scene and observed that Mr. Rios was standing outside of the restaurant and that he had removed his shirt. Never a good sign.
No police officer has ever said, “Oh good. The crazy guy screaming and yelling causing a disturbance just took off his shirt - that’s a sign that things are about to calm down.”
Mr. Rios then started swinging his belt like a demented Ninja Turtle.
At this point the officers did not have the option to go “hands on” and made the reasonable decision utilize “less lethal” options - once it was clear that de-escalation attempts were pointless.
An officer deployed a Taser and it did not have the desired effect.
Another officer then deployed multiple bean bag rounds at Mr. Rios. This application of force was successful - as Mr. Rios went to the ground and dropped the belt.
Unfortunately, Mr. Rios sustained a chest injury and died.
Tasers, bean bags, and 40mm are “Less lethal” weapon systems - NOT “non lethal”.
These less lethal weapon systems save thousands of lives a year.
I fear that the overreaction to this outlier case could be the implementation of more restrictive less lethal policies imposed on police. This would only make the use of deadly force more likely.
3. Stephen Perkins update
Body cam video has been released from the Stephen Perkins case. Background information can be found in the first article that I wrote on this case.
(Original article on this case)
The police body camera footage confirms a few things:
Stephen Perkins was pointing a gun at Officer Marquette - when the OIS occurred.
The light mounted on Mr. Perkins handgun was covering the officer. This is objective evidence of a deadly threat.
Officer Marquette yelled, “Police! Get on the ground!” just prior to the OIS.
The shooting occurred an instant after the command and Mr. Perkins had no realistic way to comply with the order.
Earlier this week I was invited on a local Huntsville, Alabama radio station (WVNN) and discussed this case with host Dale Jackson.
Dale asked a couple interesting questions:
Do police have to give a warning before deadly force is utilized?
No. Generally police should give a warning “if feasible”. But, when a gun is pointed at you - there is zero time for de-escalation, warnings, or polite conversation.
Should the on scene officers face termination?
Maybe. If the officers violated policy or training - I am fine with administrative sanctions if policy was violated (as determined through a fair investigation). However, if there was a supervisor on scene - I would place the blame there and not with the less experiences patrol officers who were following orders.
The police officers should have contacted, detained, or arrested Mr. Perkins - before allowing the second repo attempt. This is the fault of the police supervisors on scene. Mr. Perkins exiting the home with a gun was predictable and the cops had zero plan for this.
The police shooting was objectively reasonable and absolutely legal. Mr. Perkins was pointing a gun at Officer Marquette and charges against the officer are an injustice.
Wait, is the officer actually facing charges in the Perkins case? That would be unfathomably absurd.
Of course I’m preaching to the choir again, but if the police weren’t there and Perkins came out with the gun pointed at the repo guy, he could’ve totally shot Perkins legally as well. Unless I’m missing something here…