I Shot the Sheriff (or did I?)

Gary Tennant was at home when the police arrived as a result of a neighbor calling regarding noise. The police did not turn on their blue lights. They did not announce they were police. It was dark and they do not believe that Gary could see that they were police officers. They banged on a window and then walked around to the back deck. As they stepped up onto the deck, Gary threw open the door and raised his shotgun. He then fired. He missed the officers, and then the officers responded by shooting about eleven times at him. Five of them were hits, and Gary was severely hurt. Eight weeks later, Gary was charged with shooting at the police. It was a serious charge. Gary's bond was 50,000 dollars. He spent seventeen days in jail before he was able to make bond.

That was the sworn statement of the two officers. Sounds pretty serious, huh?

Well, I have just been given a tape recording of the two deputies talking to their boss a few hours after the shooting. They talk about how Tennant never fired. They talk about how the gun was not loaded. They talk about how the gun had never been fired.

This is the kind of crap that goes on with way more regularity than anyone really believes. The only reason why I was able to hear this tape was because there was an outside investigation of the parties involved being done. Had there not been, I would have never even known about this recording. The DA has yet to dismiss the charges against Tennant, but I am hopeful they will in the coming days.

Meanwhile, let me adjust the facts above.

Someone bangs on Gary Tennant's window, so Tennant goes to his door to see what it is about. He has an unloaded gun in his hand. He opens the door and cannot see who it is. No one announces it is the police. The first officer sees the shotgun and panics. He shoots at Tennant. The second officer hears a shot and starts shooting to assist the first officer. He probably doesn't even know who shot. They secure the shotgun and realize that it was never fired. (Now, at this point, the worst thing the police have done is overreact. They should probably be fired, but they certainly haven't broken any laws.) To make themselves not look incompetent and to save their jobs, they claim that Tennant shot at them first. They have just shot a man five times and hospitalized him, so what do they do? They have him charged with a felony and placed in jail. He spends seventeen days in jail. Pretty heroic, huh? Put the man you shot in jail. What a brilliant plan.

George Tennant was lucky that he had money to bond out. If he didn't bond out, he would have done what most people in jail do regardless of whether they are guilty or not. He would have pleaded guilty to get out of jail. The DA would have given him some sort of split sentence. He could have served four months in jail and come out on probation. He likely would have done it, just to get out of jail.

But that is not where we are now, thanks to that recording. Instead, we are looking at dismissal, followed by a hopefully very productive lawsuit. George Tennant got shot five times because of carelessness. He was jailed for seventeen days and had to spend 22,000 dollars on a bondsman and an attorney because of malice.