Man shot by deputy at SoDo light rail station was killed, but not murdered

Warning: This video is graphic in nature

Taken from Wednesday’s edition of The Jason Rantz Show.

Friends and family of Oscar Perez Giron, the 23-year-old shot and killed by a King County Sheriff’s Deputy at a SoDo light rail station last week, protested Sunday at the site where he was killed.

Both activists and The Stranger newspaper are trying really hard to draw parallels between Giron and Oscar Grant who was killed on an Oakland BART train in 2009. Of course, that was a very big story that sort of captured this entire country.

Giron’s cousin spoke at this rally on Sunday. Her name is Michelle Aguilar and she said that Giron was profiled.

“Hispanic, black, white, Asian, it doesn’t matter, just because how you dress, you shouldn’t be judged. The other thing I want is justice and I want to know how many shots, how many? If somebody can give me the answer, do it.”

Aguilar said we don’t know the full story of what transpired a week ago:

“I will not rest until justice is served. I will not rest if I have to stay up, give up my own place, sleep in my car, I will. But his name needs to be cleared out and the truth needs to come out,” she said. “Just because you work for the law, does not mean you put the law in your own hands. It does not give you no right.”

There are a lot of assumptions in her speech. Saying we don’t know the whole story, that is mostly true, but we know a considerable chunk of the story. Here is what we know according to The Seattle Times:

“Authorities say Sound Transit fare-enforcement inspectors encountered a 23-year-old man who didn’t show proof he paid and refused to show ID. The inspectors asked for police backup; then the man and two companions got off the train. A struggle followed, and authorities say a deputy shot the 23-year-old, Oscar Perez-Giron, after he pulled a gun.”

According to The Seattle Times, they’ve been told that video evidence shows that the three men get off the train and Giron pulled a gun on the deputy. The deputy apparently wrestled Giron down and he pulled out his own gun. At the exact same time, one of Giron’s friends allegedly got involved, grabbing the deputy’s arm.

It seems like a dangerous situation, especially if you’re the cop and you’ve got a guy in front of you pulling a gun and you’ve got another one fighting you. It seems reasonable to say that that officer felt his life was danger. So what did he do? He fired the gun. He shot Giron.

Giron’s friend reportedly also had a gun, a 9 mm handgun in his backpack, along with two loaded magazines and 19 additional rounds of ammunition.

Giron and his friend are not heroes. It doesn’t mean that they shouldn’t be mourned. It doesn’t mean I don’t understand why his family, friends and his community are distraught. But he’s no hero. That is enough of the story for me to say that what happened was necessary for the safety of the deputy.

Now a reasonable question could be why this kid pulled out the gun to begin with. The cousin says the only reason she can think of for why her cousin would pull out a gun is that he was afraid he would get deported. He’s in this country illegally. So maybe he felt some sort of panic. But that’s not good enough reason to justify pulling out a gun.

The second you pull a gun on a cop, you’re the bad guy, 100 percent of the time. As sympathetic as I am to someone who is a part of the community but happens to be here illegally, there is never justification for pulling a gun on a cop who is simply doing his job. The claim was he was profiled for what he was wearing. You can’t pull that excuse when you’re actually guilty. He didn’t have a ticket. The deputy was clearly right to be suspicious.
The Stranger quotes Reverend Harriet Walden, of Mothers Against Police Brutality, saying:

“A life is worth more than two dollars and fifty cents,” she said. “We want a humane way of dealing with people without the fare.”

She is right that a life is absolutely worth more than $2.50, but that is not why he was shot. He was shot because he pulled a gun. That is why. Do you think he would have been shot if a gun wasn’t pulled?

This kid decided to pull a gun. He was the first person to pull the gun, not the cop. The cop escorted him off at the next station to deal with this lack of a ticket. That seems very humane to me. It more sounds like the point of what Reverent Harriet Walden is saying is you shouldn’t have to pay for a ticket to the transit if you’re not white, and you shouldn’t be profiled when you’ve actually committed a crime.

So when someone pulls a gun on a cop and when that person’s friend is jumping you, you’re not supposed to use your gun to protect yourself?

This isn’t a case of overuse of force, at least not how it is being described by the Times. Now the Times could be wrong, maybe something did happen. But the good news is we have video of what happened.

The Stranger highlighted one poster at the gathering that said: “Justice!!! from SoDo station to the U.S. border.”
Justice for who? Giron pulled a gun. When you pull a gun on a cop without any cause, the justice served frankly is the consequence of that action, and in this case the consequence was he was shot. He wasn’t murdered. He was killed. But he wasn’t murdered.

Taken from Wednesday’s edition of The Jason Rantz Show.

JS