George Cooper was found not guilty today on accusations of assault on law enforcement with a deadly weapon in Brunswick County, North Carolina. He was charged after a shooting at his trailer where he was shot by police six times. Cooper claimed that he answered a knock at the door with a unloaded shotgun in his hand. When he opened the door police started firing at him.
Brunswick County deputies testified that Cooper pointed the shotgun at them when he answered the door. One officer, Deputy James Sheehan testified that he saw the shotgun fire, that he saw flames and smoke coming out of the end of the barrel. He also testified that he believed he felt some of the shot go past his ear.
Deputies surveilling the home thought they saw Cooper on the porch and that he went into the trailer and retrieved the shotgun, but revealed on cross examination that he was guessing the person was Cooper because of the relative height of the suspect.
The Deputies were responding to a noise complaint regarding an argument.
State Bureau of Investigation agents testified that a shot gun shell was found at the crime scene, but it was 70 feet from the location of the shooting. It could not have been ejected that far. There was no shell casing in the shotgun.
Cooper's attorney argued in closing that it did not make sense that Cooper would come out of the door and start shooting the shotgun.
Cooper faced 98 months in jail. After he heard the jury verdict he clapped his hands. Cooper was lucky that he survived the shooting in the first place.
Cooper probably won't answer the door with a shotgun in his hand again. And those deputies who shot Cooper need to slow down and relax a little. Police can't assume the worst case scenario in every situation. Everyone knows that their job is hard, but that does not excuse them from failing to use common sense and caution.
This case also illustrates the unreliability of eyewitnesses. Two deputies testified that the shotgun was fired, when the only gun firing was their own. One can give them benefit of the doubt and not assume that they were motivated by anything other than the fact that a person in the residence held a shotgun. Their anxiety about that fact is not justification for shooting a citizen six times.