Andy Thibault

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Cool Justice
Shoot To Kill A Car: Legal For Some
By ANDY THIBAULT, Columnist
Law Tribune Newspapers
May 30, 2005

   When was the last time anyone shot and killed a car?

   I really want to know. It will help me understand certain law enforcement techniques in Hartford.

   I've put a lot of thought into this, because, what the heck, I like to hang out in Hartford and I want to know what to do if somebody tries to run me over. I would not use a handgun to kill a car. I would not use an elephant gun to kill a car. Neither one of those would work. Even if they did work, I don't think I would waste time shooting the passenger.

  If I really wanted to kill a car, I would aim a 50-caliber machine gun at the engine block.

  Or, if I wanted to avoid getting run over, I might step out of the way first, then do a celebratory dance while shooting my gun in the air.

   These scenarios are perhaps less bizarre than the reality of why 18-year-old Jashon Bryant was killed by a Hartford police officer on May 7. Bryant was the passenger in a car driven by 20-year-old Brandon Henry.

   Bryant and Henry, two young black men, were out on the town in a Nissan Maxima that Saturday night. Hartford police officer Robert Lawlor and federal agent Dan Prather were on the street looking for criminals with guns.

   They approached the young men.

   Did they have probable cause to stop or detain them? Were they looking for probable cause?  

   We might not ever know precisely what happened when Bryant and Henry encountered the two plainclothes officers. Lawlor and his lawyer are saying Bryant appeared to reach down for a gun as Henry put the car in gear and drove toward Prather. Friends of the young men said they feared being robbed and drove away only after the shooting started. Bryant was shot in the back of the head and died. Henry was shot in the chest. Lawlor fired four or five shots. Prather somehow got out of the way and did not fire his weapon.

   Miraculously, a gun appeared after the incident. It was a BB gun - easy to get, hard to trace.

   Turns out the person who produced the gun was a snitch for Lawlor. Snitches are not often Good Samaritans doing the Lord's bidding. Generally, they are motivated by fear or money.

  The snitch, Jaime Diaz, was arrested and accused of making a false statement after telling police the BB gun was thrown from the Maxima into a vacant lot. The Hartford Courant reported that Diaz escaped arrest in 1995 because of his work for Lawlor as an informant.

  It will be interesting to learn where Lawlor was standing when one man was shot in the back of the head and the other in the chest. What will Prather say? 

   Maybe there should be a rule about shooting cars and passengers. The passenger in this car certainly didn't try to run anyone over.

   "I think I saw a gun, a shiny object … he was reaching for it … I feared for my safety and my partner's because I was facing deadly force, a motor vehicle … "

   Cops make these kinds of statements in these kinds of situations.

   Are they just excuses to get away with killing someone?

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