Las Vegas Police and Cosco RentaCop Kill legal CCW Gun Owner Cops gun down man for legally carrying firearm . Erik Scott was a West Point graduate who went on to serve honorably in the Army, get his MBA from Duke and establish a lucrative career in real estate and as a sales rep for a medical device company. He was 38 years old when he was gunned down in portico of a Las Vegas area Costco store by officers from the Las Vegas Metro Police Department. While it was 7 bullets from the only people we’re supposed to trust with guns that snuffed out Erik Scott’s life, what really killed him was an irrational fear of firearms – hoplophobia. . Scott and his girlfriend had been shopping in the Costco, but had been asked to leave when an employee spotted Scott’s lawfully carried handgun. Scott had inadvertently exposed the gun when he squatted down to inspect some merchandise. He informed the employee that he was legally carrying the gun and was in possession of a valid Nevada concealed weapons permit, but was informed that Costco has a policy against carrying firearms in their stores. . A brief argument ensued, some raised voices and obvious frustration on Scott’s part, but witnesses said it didn’t seem like a big deal. They saw nothing particularly threatening about the incident or the clean-cut, good looking young man. The store manager who had spoken with Scott seemed satisfied by Scott’s reassurance that he was a legal firearm carrier and would be finished with his shopping in a few minutes. But a store Loss Prevention Officer called the police and reported that an armed man was behaving erratically in the store. . That report, based on irrational fear, and perhaps some personal envy, triggered events which quickly spiraled out of control. It seems that the fear factor was taken up a notch with each description of the story to the point that responding officers believed they were going into a violent hostage situation with a heavily armed and dangerous Green Beret. . Las Vegas MPD responded with a city-wide alert, street closures, helicopter support and deployment of a Mobile Command Center. The first officers on the scene arrived as Costco employees were following telephone instructions from the police to calmly evacuate the store. . As Scott and his girlfriend fell in with other patrons flowing out of the exit door, the Loss Prevention Officer who started the whole mess pointed toward Scott and a police officer at the door suddenly began yelling “Stop! I said Stop! Drop the gun! Get on the ground! Get on the ground!” . He fired these conflicting commands in quick succession giving Scott no opportunity to comply with any of them and then fired two rounds at Scott’s chest. As the officer began yelling and Scott realized he was the subject of the commands, he turned, lifting his hands, and apparently tried to follow the legal requirement to immediately inform an officer that he was an armed weapons permit holder, but he didn’t have time. . The officer’s frantic orders lasted for a slow count of 3 and were immediately followed by the two gunshots, a momentary pause, and a volley of several more shots. There was no pause or hesitation between the commands and the shots. The first round struck Erik Scott in the heart, the second hit his right thigh. As he collapsed to the ground, two other officers fired 5 more shots into his back. . Numerous witnesses reported that they saw Scott turn and declare that he was a permit holder. Many said they could see both of his hands and that he made no threatening move. All agreed that the only gun they saw was the one in Scott’s waistband on his right hip. . Other witnesses reported that they saw Scott’s body removed by EMTs and saw nothing on the ground except blood and a cell phone, or sun glasses. EMTs reported that they removed Scott’s gun and holster from the waistband of his jeans in the ambulance and that they saw no other gun, yet, after police broke into Scott’s apartment and confiscated the firearms there, the story came out that Scott was carrying two guns that day. . A picture of the second gun, on the ground near a cell phone, after the blood on the pavement had been cleaned up, is the “proof” that Scott had two guns and pulled one on MPD officers. The store’s video surveillance system inexplicably malfunctioned for the several seconds of the shooting. . A coroner’s inquest concluded that the shooting was justified, just as a similar inquest had concluded that the gunning down of an unarmed, small-time pot dealer in his apartment a short time before the Scott shooting was ruled to be justified. Just as such coroner’s inquests have concluded that officer involved shootings were justified in 199 out of 200 incidents since 1976. . Erik Scott’s family has strongly contested the conclusions of the coroner’s inquest and the entire inquest process. They succeeded in getting some changes made to that process, but those changes have been held up by suits from the police union. . The Scott’s filed a wrongful death suit in federal court, but recently dropped that effort, convinced that they had no hope of winning with the system stacked against them. . Erik Scott’s father, a former Air Force flight test engineer and writer for the prestigious aerospace magazine Aviation Week & Space Technology, has painted a sympathetic, fictionalized portrait of Erik and the events of that day as part of a new novel he is offering in serialized form at ThePermit.blogspot.com in hopes of maintaining awareness of Erik’s tragic death and bringing attention to corruption within the justice system and government of Las Vegas. . The police have a difficult job. They are put in positions and asked to do things that most of us would run away from, but authority and power must be tempered with responsibility and accountability. For decades lawmakers and courts have built up walls of protection around police and other government workers. It is critical that these public servants be protected from frivolous suits and baseless harassment, but they must be held accountable for their actions and investigations into their activities must be beyond reproach. That is not the case currently. . When one person’s irrational fear of a peacefully armed man can result in that man being gunned down by police with no consequences for anyone except the victim and his friends and family, something is terribly, terribly wrong. . Hoplophobia killed Erik Scott and a corrupt system allowed his accusers and executioners get away with it.
Can't say out loud what I think should now be done about this. That would make me seem a vigilante. From rentacop up to the courts this was a blatant disregard for a citizens rights and the rule of law.
Sounds like a case of "Murder by cop". They try to cover up their egregious error by planting a throw-away on him, and tamper with video evidence - these guys need to be fired then tried in court.
This happened in July 2010 from what I see online, but still an important topic. I also found this post on another site I found interesting: More info: Coroner's inquest into Costco shooting indefinitely postponed - Tuesday, July 27, 2010 | 4:16 p.m. - Las Vegas Sun erik scott shooting at costco - YouTube I lived in Henderson as a kid. Rough neighborhood. The cops are tweaked out and pumped up, ready to kill anybody. It's a bad place. I kept in touch with some of my friends for years after I moved away, and many have died from various causes, mostly drugs and accidents. No matter what, the police are placed in a tough situation and they still had no right or justification to murder Erik Scott. The people are subjects --slaves to be ordered and shot at will. A recipe for disaster.
I don't know where these guys were trained but I was always trained that if a man don't have a firearm or weapon in their hands and is in the process of raising his hands hes not a threat. I thought that raising your hands is like grabbing your throat when choking it's kind of a international sign hey I need help Im choking. Raising your hands hey don't shoot me I give up Im not threat take me into custody. Now given in this situation I probally would have challenged him with my weapon out and held him on the ground in a cover position until a back up unit secured the weapon and him. Which another thing I would have probally attempted to challenge him from a close hands on position due to the fact he was in a group of citizens. If he had been a bad guy he could have had human shields/hostages needless say what could happen in that situation me cranking off two rapid round with the adrin pumping and O-$h!t factor kicking in. Poor policy on Cosco, poor training in loss prevention and poor training for L.E.O. They need some dealing with the public training and the L.E.O.'s need training in proper planning/exicution along with a safety breifing on friendly fire. shoot/don't shoot. Here that L.E.O. would be charged with murder and even if not convicted his days of wearing a uniform and badge would be over.
A little sidenote to this story In April of 1995 i was arrested for Armed Robbery in Smith Food And drugs on 44th street and Thomas in Phx Az .I was interview by the lead Detective who case it was at the store and was told by the store mgn at the time i was the one who robbed the place that friday night. As it was i was answering a call of a street fight in Tempe that came out on the radio and every officer or sheriff in the area get to the area as fast as we could that night .I'm was at the time a Maricopa County Reserve Deputy and was working the weekend shift to fill in for a few people who out on vaction The funny thing was i had about 10 to 15 officers that night as my witness to where i was along with dispatch also .This did come into play in the courtroom when the judge asked me for witness and where i was that night.Along with me beening full uniform that night i does make it hard to rob a place with Deputy uniform on along with a name tag on the uniform shirt Before the Local Partol office had come on Scene my youngest girl and i was shopping in store bakery area when the socalled Security officer that the store had working that day tried to tackle me and hold me for the police with me doing the socalled basic judo flip after him trying to jump on my back .After i fliped him i kicked him in the head and was in the act of drawing my pistol from my holster when a officer told me not to move and put the my hands up . The officer had me move backwards intill i was told to stop and he searched me and removed my pistol and id from my belt and had me go sit in the food court area to wait for the Detective to come and check my story out . One of the officers was involved in the street brawl that night and answered the call that day was there and was asking me how do i rob the place with us beening in the middle of brawl .i told him i did not know It was later found out the person who robbed the place was 5.4.and male latino with twin tattoo's down his arm"s and me i stand about 6.3.inchs and white and wiegh in at the time about 250.pds with no tattoo's at that time in my life . The whole time the socalled security guard and the store mgn wanted me arrested and charge with assult also on the guard .The detective kept trying to tell the store mgn to let it go and say your sorry to me and to the socalled security guard your lucky to be alive because i would have shot you for jumping on my back like that . They tried to sue me for damages to the guard and the store and we went into civil court with me counter suing them for unlaw Arrest and detainment by them In the end it cost Smith Food and Drugs about $85,000 plus my lawyers fees that the judge give me as a lesson to teach them not to jump on people and the judge asked the store mgn how could a 6.3.white guy be mistake for a 5.4.latino and then asked the store mgn how could you be so dumb then to have it arrested for the crime of armed robbery when you could see in the socalled pictures that i was not the guy that you wanted
Erik was a friend of a friend and I've been trying to spread the word about Costco's anti-gun stance and policies ever since I cancelled my membership there about ten minutes after the security video somehow couldn't be retrieved. Unfortunately, there are quite a few people who *say* they are strong 2A rights advocates who still shop at Costco.
Looks like he was in the right. Unfortunately, he ended up "dead right". My condolences to his family. Kajun
Why is any one surprised by the criminal behavior of the armed thugs? Typical cop actions, happens all the time. Local examples: Locally a man (Erik Shaw) was in his own business in Iowa City, IA, sitting in his office talking on the phone when a cop walked in a gunned him down. The ONLY person to go to jail was his father for getting into a pushing match with the po-LICE cheap. Half a dozen other shooting like that off the top of my head in Iowa. Man attacked by gang bangers and calls 911, has Carry Permit and is forced to shoot to defend his life, is arrested and thrown in jail for 101 days until trial. All heard on 911 tape. Cleared of all charges by jury. Coralville, IA. Man attacked by crackhead which was arrested over 600 times in Johnson Co., Iowa alone, spent 10 days in jail (more time then the crackhead served TOTAL) while crackhead walked. Told to pay fine as crackhead was po-LICE informer and cops would lie to keep crackhead on street and man was never arrested before so the po-LICE would lie to "make an example of him". Small town po-LICE cheap climbs over SIX FOOT HIGH chain linked fence and shoots dog in front of family. Claimed he "didn't know" SIX FOOT HIGH chain link fence was a fence!! Woman taking court fines steals $540,000 in fines and gets 10 years, serves 7 weeks and is freed. Sheriff sends demands for ANOTHER $100 "because fines were not paid". Too many people with PAID IN FULL marked receipts keep coming in demanding to know what is going on. Investigated and found Sheriff had been doing that for YEARS! THIS IS TYPICAL!!!! ALWAYS KEEP ANY FINE RECEIPTS WHERE YOU CAN FIND THEM!! TYPICAL!!! Next county over, Sheriff pulls over drunk driver. WELL over the legal limit, turns out to be Sheriff from next county over from him. ALL charges dropped by local Co. Attorney and record cleared. Burlington, IA. Local thug (er...cop) shakes people down for drugs/guns which he keeps. One guy demands his gun back, "What gun?" Raid thugs house, find hundreds of stolen guns! Promoted to Det!! Goes to his private island in Mississippi River to duck hunt, "drives off" ferry and drowns in river. Iowa City, Iowa. Sheriff from another Co. comes and rapes college girl. Iowa City, IA. Girl getting raped calls po-LICE. Po-LICE TWO BLOCKS AWAY harassing people in bars (for fine money) REFUSE to do anything, even after repeated calls from others in apartment building, until girl calls back that she was raped and the rapist has left. THEN the thugs go to check. Catching rapists does not make money for thugs, catching a 20 year old having a beer while on leave from military does. Des Moines, IA. Legally owned full auto Thompson is stolen in break in. Investigated by PI and PI finds po-LICE did it. BATF raids po-LICE station and find stolen guns in thug's locker. Same thing in Barstow, CA as above. Po-LICE shoot man's dogs, break in and steal guns. PI proves po-LICE did it, stolen guns found in thug's locker. I could list another dozen easily, but why bother? po-LICE are the criminals in 99% of crimes!