04-17-2015, 07:36 AM
The shit continues to get deeper in the case of the Oklahoma sheriff's deputy reservist. Would anyone be surprised to learn there is some lying going on? I'll enclose a cut & paste to what I'm referring to.
This morning I watched Matt interview him. Matt asked him to stand up and show us where his taser is located and where his weapon is located. He pointed to the center of his chest in regards to the taser's location and to his hip to show where his gun was. I see that as a significant difference in their location.
Some supervisors at the Tulsa County Sheriff's Office were told to forge Reserve Deputy Robert Bates' training records, and three who refused were reassigned to less desirable duties, the Tulsa World newspaper reported.
Claims that the volunteer deputy's records had been falsified emerged "almost immediately" from multiple sources after Bates killed Eric Harris on April 2, reporter Dylan Goforth said. Bates claims he meant to use his Taser but accidentally fired his handgun at Harris instead.
Bates was classified as an advanced reserve deputy for the Sheriff's Office. That means he would have had to complete 480 hours of the field training officer program to maintain that classification, the paper said.
Bates would also have needed firearms certification training.
But the sheriff himself has acknowledged there is a problem with Bates' gun certification records -- his office can't find them.
Even before the Tulsa World story, inconsistencies were apparent in Bates' history with the Sheriff's Office.
In his statement to investigators, Bates said he "became an advanced TCSO Reserve Deputy in 2007."
But the Tulsa County Sheriff's Office has said Bates had been a reserve deputy since 2008.
It also said Bates had undergone 300 hours of training. That would be less than the 480 hours of field training that the Tulsa World said is required to be an "advanced" reserve deputy, which Bates claimed to be.
In a statement he made to investigators after the shooting, Bates said the gun he used was his personal weapon, adding that he last qualified at the range in autumn.
He also said he'd attended "numerous schools and seminars related to drug investigations and the tactical operations associated with the apprehension of suspects involved in drug trafficking," a five-day homicide investigation school in Dallas and training from Arizona's Maricopa County Sheriff's Office on responding to active shooters.
But an Arizona official told CNN Bates never trained with the agency.
"He didn't come to Arizona," the official from the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office said, "and he certainly didn't train with us."
Story