Justifiable deadly force

TUESDAY, FEB. 3 — On Dec. 8 a Lansing Township police officer shot and killed Randall Minier, 27, of Lansing, during a traffic stop. Officer Eric Lapham fired one shot striking Minier, in the face.

Ingham County Prosecutor Stuart Dunnings today found Lapham had legal authority to use lethal means in self-defense.

Here is the statement released by Dunnings this afternoon:

"On December 8 of last year, Lansing Township police had an officer-involved shooting during an incident that arose at a traffic stop. That shooting was a fatality and the deceased was the late Mr. Randall Minier.

Following this incident, the Michigan State Police began a thorough and independent investigation of this matter. The investigation was led by Detective First Lieutenant Sean Furlong. Their report and accompanying evidentiary materials were submitted to this office, and I have now reviewed these documents and materials.

Their investigation involved extensive interviews with eyewitnesses as well as the review and analysis of multiple audio-visual recordings, produced by police and private citizen sources.

Here is a synopsis of what we know about this incident:

An officer of the Lansing Township Police Department made a traffic stop on a vehicle, based on a possible speeding violation. The traffic stop occurred on West Kalamazoo Street. Shortly thereafter, a second Officer responded as back-up. There were three occupants of the stopped vehicle: Tyrell Washington, driver his brother Tommy Washington front seat passenger, and Randall Minier, Junior, back seat passenger.

When the vehicle was stopped according to the driver Mr. Minier became antsy and said for them to make room so he could run. This surprised both driver and passenger as they were unaware of any reason to run from the police.

As the second officer approached the vehicle , that Officer witnessed the backseat passenger in possession of a gun.. This passenger was Mr. Minier. The officer yelled “gun” and both officers gave repeated commands for that person to drop the gun. Instead, Mr. Minier continued to display the gun in the air. Following this, the Officer gave repeated verbal commands to drop the gun, all of which were ignored by Mr. Minier.

The driver and the passenger immediately complied with the officers command and displayed empty hands. The front seat passenger exited the vehicle hands up and moved from the car. Mr. MInier did not drop the gun and the Officer fired his gun. We know from the autopsy report that Mr. Minier was facing the Officer at the time of the shooting.

One of the other two men in the car, Mr. Tyrell Washington, stated that the deceased Mr. Minier

“had the gun in a raised position, toward the passenger (right) side of the vehicle. He later demonstrated the gun being raised and displayed in a back and forth motion, to the right and the left. Tyrell described Randall’s actions as more of a “scare” pointing and a means to let the officers know that he had a gun and for them to get back.” – Michigan State Police, incident report

It is clear from the audio recording that the officers are giving clear vocal commands to the three men in the car. The other two men complied with these commands. Mr. Minier did not and never relinquished the weapon. Given this scenario, the officers had the legal authority to use their weapons in self-defense.

Here are the facts that were established in this investigation:

1. That Randall Minier possessed a loaded gun at the time of the traffic stop.

2. That Mr. Minier waved his gun in the air in an attempt to “scare” the responding officers and perhaps try to get them to back away.

3. That Mr. Minier was planning to flee the scene of this traffic stop.

4. That Mr. Minier disregarded verbal instructions by the officers, consistent with their own use of force training, that he needed to drop the gun.

5. That Mr. Minier was holding the gun, and facing the Officer, at the time of the shooting.

Once Mr. MInier displayed the gun he was subject to arrest. Furthermore once the officers had established his identity Mr. Minier would have been subject to arrest for an outstanding warrant. It is axiomatic that

“The police have the right to use the force reasonable under the circumstances to effect an arrest. The police may also take what action is reasonable to protect themselves in the course of an arrest or attempted arrest. Delude v Raasakka 391 MIch 296, 303 215 N.W.@nd 685, 689 (1974).”

Given these facts, I believe that in the face of an armed threat, the Officer in question acted reasonably. I believe the Officer used proper restraint in giving Mr. Minier time to drop the weapon, and also in giving time for the front seat passenger to exit the vehicle and to position himself so that the driver was not in the line of fire."