10-29-2013, 08:34 PM
Sheriff's deputy identified - was he prepared and appropriate, or a fatal accident waiting to happen?
The officer who shot 13 year old Andy Lopez has been identified.
Officials confirmed on Monday Erick Gelhaus, 48, was the Sonoma County sheriff's deputy who mistook Andy Lopez's fake AK-47 for a real rifle before he fatally shot the teen last Tuesday just outside Santa Rosa.
![[Image: 3185-The-Killing-Of-Andy-Lopez-Deputy-Erick-Gelhaus.jpg]](http://323379c182ff0c46855f-06f6249732b3957c205bc79bded490fa.r26.cf3.rackcdn.com/3185-The-Killing-Of-Andy-Lopez-Deputy-Erick-Gelhaus.jpg)
He's an Iraq vet, gun enthusiast, avid hunter and also also taught officers to shoot. According to an LE-spokesperson, he'd never before shot at anyone in his 24 year LE career (though he reportedly accidentally shot himself several years back when frisking a juvenile).
Gelhaus offered this advice to SWAT members in a piece he wrote for a gun rights mag back in 2008; it's being featured in a lot of media reports today:
'Today is the day you may need to kill someone in order to go home,' he wrote. 'If you cannot turn on the 'mean gene' for yourself, who will? If you find yourself in an ambush, in the kill zone, you need to turn on that mean gene.'
'Taking some kind of action - any kind of action - is critical. If you shut down (physically, psychologically, or both) and stay in the kill zone, bad things will happen to you. You must take some kind of action.'
Unsurprisingly, gun enthusiasts are commenting in support of Gelhaus's actions and statements, while many others disagree and believe that those same actions and statements indicate that Gelhaus was predisposed to make a fatal mistake.
New reports of witness statements claiming that the officers continued to shoot Lopez several times after he'd hit the ground were also released today; all need to be looked into as part of the ongoing investigation.
The officer who shot 13 year old Andy Lopez has been identified.
Officials confirmed on Monday Erick Gelhaus, 48, was the Sonoma County sheriff's deputy who mistook Andy Lopez's fake AK-47 for a real rifle before he fatally shot the teen last Tuesday just outside Santa Rosa.
He's an Iraq vet, gun enthusiast, avid hunter and also also taught officers to shoot. According to an LE-spokesperson, he'd never before shot at anyone in his 24 year LE career (though he reportedly accidentally shot himself several years back when frisking a juvenile).
Gelhaus offered this advice to SWAT members in a piece he wrote for a gun rights mag back in 2008; it's being featured in a lot of media reports today:
'Today is the day you may need to kill someone in order to go home,' he wrote. 'If you cannot turn on the 'mean gene' for yourself, who will? If you find yourself in an ambush, in the kill zone, you need to turn on that mean gene.'
'Taking some kind of action - any kind of action - is critical. If you shut down (physically, psychologically, or both) and stay in the kill zone, bad things will happen to you. You must take some kind of action.'
Unsurprisingly, gun enthusiasts are commenting in support of Gelhaus's actions and statements, while many others disagree and believe that those same actions and statements indicate that Gelhaus was predisposed to make a fatal mistake.
New reports of witness statements claiming that the officers continued to shoot Lopez several times after he'd hit the ground were also released today; all need to be looked into as part of the ongoing investigation.