I did not see this posted.

There is body cam footage in the link. The celebratory gun fire was from an AR15. I lost count of the rounds fired but believe it was well over 30+

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https://fox8.com/news/bodycam-...-shooting-in-canton/

CANTON, Ohio (WJW) – A vigil is being held Wednesday evening for a Canton father of six who was shot and killed by police while firing his gun into the air to ring in the new year.

Canton police released bodycam video of the incident, which happened around 12:06 a.m., New Year’s Day.

According to the video, when the officer walks up to the house in the 2300 block of 10th Street SW, he hears someone shooting multiple rounds from behind a wooden fence.

The officer opens fire, killing 46-year old James Williams. According to the bodycam video, after firing the shots, the officer yells “shots fired, shots fired! Police, get down!”

The victim’s’ wife says her husband was shooting his AR-15 into the air to celebrate the new year, an annual ritual. He had already been firing into the air at the stroke of midnight, but went back out five minutes later.

“He went back out about 12:05 a.m. to go shoot some more and when he went out there, he started shooting and next thing I know, he said he got shot and he stumbled back into the house and made it up the stairs into the living room and before he collapsed. He said ‘they shot me’ and collapsed,” said the victim’s wife, Marquetta Williams.

She says, Williams, who leaves behind six daughters, stumbled back into the house where he collapsed and later died.

“They shot through a wooden fence. You couldn’t see out the fence, it was a privacy fence that was six feet tall. You can’t see out this fence and you can’t see in, so that right there in itself was reckless. Anybody could have been back there, kids could have been back there, other adults, anybody,” Marquetta Williams told FOX 8.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: gpbst3,

While firing an AR in a residential area to “celebrate” is an extremely poor idea, shooting through a fence without knowing the situation or who might also be in the yard isn’t the best one either. All kinds of fail here.

Play stupid games - win stupid prizes.

This is not the Middle East. Stupid. Would guess a moderate BAL.

quote:

Originally posted by Graniteguy:
Play stupid games - win stupid prizes.

Are you suggesting the cop was justified in blindly shooting through a six-foot-high privacy fence?

As one of the women interviewed noted "There could have been kids, anybody, back there."

Yes, the man shot was behaving stupidly. Exceedingly stupidly. But ISTM the cop behaved equally irresponsibly.

If the officer shot blindly though a fence, it was criminal irresponsibility on the part of both.

Oh, Hell. Listen to that barrage. He was begging to get shot.

Of course, as we all know, bullets fired into the air never come down. They just keep going up and up and go into outer space. His actions were completely harmless in a populated area, weren't they? He didn't just walk outside and cap one or two rounds into the air. He rattled off a full magazine, went back in, got another magazine and did it again. That's beyond stupid, especially if you have the mindset that the police are just looking for a reason to shoot you.

Look at the video again. There are gaps in that fence, and you can see the shadow of one person.

Imagine being that police office, who has the obligation to respond to this disturbance. We forget when watching videos just how very loud that barrage would be if we were standing there.
And what's the officer going to do? What until the shooting stops and then announce his presence? With the result being that the gunfire might come his way. There are never any drunk or high people on the street at midnight on New Year's Eve, right?

They can hold all the candlelight vigils they want for this guy, but unless they're completely out of their minds, they know who is responsible for this man's death.

And, by the way, who in the Hell has so little respect for their neighborhood and their neighbors that they pull this kind of trashy stunt?

quote:

Originally posted by ensigmatic:
Are you suggesting the cop was justified in blindly shooting through a six-foot-high privacy fence?

Not saying right or wrong but one can argue he knew exactly where he was shooting. He had the mindset to know you can shoot through a wood fence.



https://www.farsnews.ir/en/new...eprs-f-Peple-Killed-

The AP quoted an official at a Kabul hospital as saying that two people were killed and 12 wounded after militants fired their guns into the air in celebration on Friday night.

TOLO News earlier quoted the same hospital as saying that 17 bodies and 41 wounded people were transported there after the gunfire. Asvaka News reported children were among the victims.

Several Afghan media outlets shared images of ambulances carrying people to the hospital in the middle of the night.

In a tweet, Taliban Spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid asked militants not to fire guns in the air because it was a waste of ammunition and could hurt civilians.

Ariana News added a senior Taliban member recorded a voice message saying that law will be applied to fighters if they shoot in the air again in Kabul. He was said to have warned that a large number of people had been taken to a hospital after the gunfire.

A serious contender for the first Darwin Award of 2022.

And that's why we carry ammo that can defeat light cover, let alone concealment.

I started to post a response to this early this morning but figured I would get a ration of shit so I did not hit the enter key. My first thought was glad the idiot was removed from the gene pool.

Not to forget: shooting his AR-15 into the air to celebrate the new year, an annual ritual.

Not the 1st time opps what was I thinking but an annual ritual.

Copper was 100% justified. Dude was creating dozens of stray bullets. He needed immediate neutering.

My thoughts on this is good riddance to the SOB.
I live in an area where these SOB's shoot even it there is no holiday.

I would really have hated to be put in the position the officer was. Yes, he failed to positively identify his target and I can’t disagree at all with what sigfreund wrote.

I’m not an LEO and I don’t have the training those fine men and women have. Not on the laws, not on the tactics. I wasn’t there, wasn’t dealing with the unfolding situation. I don’t know what the right thing for that officer to have done in that situation was.

Sitting here comfortably in my armchair thinking about it I wonder about the possible outcomes.

What if the guy behind the fence was hosing innocents and the officer took the time to make entry and positively identify his target?

What if the guy behind the fence was showing his daughters how to shoot an AR up into the air and the officer’s shots killed one or more of Bubba’s kids?

What if the officer attempted to make entry and ran into a wall of 5.56 rounds?

What if the officer rang the doorbell and asked the wife to go tell Bubba to stop that nonsense and in the meantime Bubba cooked off another couple of magazines and one or more of the rounds in those additional magazines fell to earth and killed someone, maybe a kid or two?

I would not have fired without positively identifying my target because that is some training that has been drilled into me. However, I have a whole lot of sympathy for that officer and a whole lot of frustration with Bubba. At a time when politicians, big tech, and the media want to take away our right to keep and bear arms Bubba did nothing to help us and recklessly endangered his neighbors for no good reason.

If one wants to break the law celebrating New Years or the Fourth, I’d rather they used illegal fireworks (carefully, with much attention to the risk of starting fires) than guns. We don’t need that kind of “help”.

From the body cam the cop was in a really bad position. But it does seem like a bad decision to shoot through a fence. Looked to me like he shot through it while running toward the fence. Even with the gaps in the fence I don’t see how he could know his target. All I can say is luckily the person responsible for this disaster is the only one that was killed.

Watched on my phone so maybe I missed something but that’s how it appeared.

anyone shooting in the air in an urban / suburban environment is using lethal force, and needs to be stopped right now.

That said, I am a bit surprised the cop didn't do a bunch of yelling before shooting. Then again, that interaction would have taken an extra few seconds which means that many more (possibly lethal) rounds being launched into the air.

Ssad just plain sad.

There's no way they shot blindly through a fence and just got lucky and hit him.

The world is probably better off without someone that stupid.

Just watched the video, what a dumbass! He was still shooting when the copper popped him. Good shoot IMHO.