Last week, a guy in a car hit several residential buildings including a garage. A Republic police officer apparently tried to talk to him, but the fellow put the car in gear and hit the officer. The officer shot the driver of the car, who died at the hospital. The fellow had a history of seizures and might have been out-of-it when he hit the officer.
It’s a tragedy all around: The guy might have been in the throes of epilepsy or something, but the officer had no way of knowing that.
Enter the sharp from the Big City:
A lawyer representing Meikle’s family told the News-Leader he wants Sgt. John Tinsley fired and charged with murder.
“We’re not talking involuntary manslaughter,” said Jermaine Wooten, a lawyer from St. Louis. “He went beyond negligence.”
Blah blah blah. He’s covering himself with glory when he says:
“This is a tragic loss, not only for the family but for the city of Springfield,” Wooten said. “They lost maybe one of their best citizens.”
Springfield, Republic. All the same to someone from the big city.
I have to wonder who reached out to whom here: Whether the attorney, who gained some media coverage for representing the families after a police shooting in St. Louis, reached out to the family or whether they called him.
Meanwhile, in unrelated news, here’s a story from this week where an actual Springfield police officer was dragged by a car 150 feet this week.
So the sharp won’t be angling for a local jury trial, then.
